Let me preface this blog by saying that it has nothing to do with the Dodge brand. It could be called “Get Out of Chevy/Toyota/Ford/Subaru” for all I care. This has to do with the sign of the times and the inability of some people to read signs.

We are now a 2012 cooperative. All of your efforts are being spent to achieve profit and success in the year 2012 and beyond. That is your goal. Your focus. To achieve online sales dominance in the new year. Nothing can stand in your way… except decision makers.

Look at where we are technologically in 2012. Mobile is fully adopted by society. 800 million plus are on Facebook and engagement on social sites is growing. There are over a billion tweets a week.  Your television is connected to the Internet. So is your 7 year old.  So is your 70 year old grandmother.  Data from online resources drives the majority of advertising decisions. Except, for some reason, in dealerships.

I have a request of you.

If you are one of those nose-down, shovel-full winners that have been embracing Internet sales for years, selling cars from A-Z, delving into digital media, and begging for buy-in with little to no backing from management… Get Out of Dodge. Leave. Pack your bags and find another dealership home.

We are in the realm of a 2012 world. A digitally connected and socially linked online world. If your ownership/management/decision-makers don’t realize this today… now… you have no other choice than to jump ship and swim for shore. If they can’t recognize the world has 100% changed (not ‘changing’, but ‘changed’ – past tense), then there is no hope for them and no hope for your position there.

Yes, we know the sayings – “the grass isn’t always greener” or “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. Hogwash.  Things in life ALWAYS get better eventually if you work hard enough to ensure they do. You may also think, “there aren’t any jobs available around me.” Once again… Phooey.  Ask any consultant like myself (or attend any 20 group) and you will hear dealers clamoring for someone who knows what they are doing both in front of a customer as well as behind a computer.

Internet sales skills are worth their weight in gold right now. If lead management, online selling, and eCommerce are what you do best, yet you don’t have the support where you currently sit because of a lack of understanding from the powers that be…Get Out of Dodge.

You’ll find a better fit.

You’ll be happier.

And someone will appreciate the dedication and passion for the craft that you bring to their store.

Is your dealership in 2012 and up with technology or are you considering (or have already) Gotten out of Dodge?

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It’s not easy to watch a Dealer who is the true sense of an Entrepreneur, look and feel defeated. It was painstaking to see.

Why was he feeling this way?

Because he was faced with the reality that his sales team was incapable of responding to internet leads.

I know what you are thinking. Incapable?

Equally as painstaking is watching people who simply do not use a computer for their personal lives let alone work. Just locating an area to type a document or retrieving an email or even making changes to an existing email template, was hard to wait for and watch.

Believe me, I was wondering the same thing you probably are…what world are these guys living in?

Salespeople that work internet leads today must be capable and willing to send over 25 emails and place over 25 calls per day in order to get the minimum amount of sales from the lead pool. But what would you do if you were in this situation? Fire em’ all?

You see it’s situations like these are reminders that every dealership will not and should not have the same business model at converting internet leads to showroom sales.

Allow me add the icing to the cake in this real story.

Between the two stores, this dealer will make over $3 million dollars selling Kia’s this year. That does not include any internet sales. Most salespeople had never even sent an email to a customer in years of their employment here. With average grosses of $3300 a copy, your eyebrow may have just raised. On average, they see 30-50 people on a Saturday. Ups.

Does this bus still really exist?  Holy S@!*%, right? SO what is a dealer to do in this situation?  The stores aren’t broken.  The lowest paid salesperson makes $60K/year. I saw 40 obvious deals waiting there.  What would 40 more deals a month do to this bottom line?

Does this dealer need them?  ..or does he want them?

I recommended a dealership BDC Department. A BDC with an objective to set appointments. Their role is to respond to internet leads, follow up by phone and email until they buy or die. BDC departments serve a real purpose for many dealerships. Yet I still see plenty of dealerships that have dedicated salespeople handling the internet prospects and converting at a much higher ratio than a BDC department.

It will always be a challenge to find an entire sales team that have the abilities, capabilities, desire and motivation to handle the most challenging prospect around, the internet prospect.

This poses a thereat to 21st century dealerships. Interviewing skills and approaches must change drastically..  The skill sets of today’s salesman must include rockin’ phone and email skills.

If you know this aspect is not your best skill set, I suggest you get out and make it your best skill set!  No one is born with this, remember, it is a learned quality.  You, just like me, can achieve anything with determination and desire.

Do your sales people have the ROCKIN’ skill sets to be effective with today’s consumer – from Internet Lead to Sale?

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Credit cards are a necessary evil.

Yes, that’s right. I’m calling credit cards evil.

It’s trendy in this day and age to be angry at banks, Wall Street, and people that make money, but in this case, the anger is well-placed. Credit card companies are doing everything possible to take as much money as possible out of your business as they can, and they do a great job of it. With so many people paying with credit cards, not accepting them is not an option. So how can you help your dealership maximize profit and minimize card processing fees?

Simple. You need a guy on the inside who can point you in the right direction. As a former Five-Star Dodge Dealership service advisor, mechanic, and business-to-business dealership CRM sales rep turned credit-card processing salesman, I’m here to help. What follows are some insider tips on dealing with your credit card processing account.

Understanding the Vocabulary is Key

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I am a customer of the IT department.  I am not an IT expert.  I am just a customer.

Ed Shaffer asked a simple question in the comment string of the article titled “Does your Dealer block Social Media:”

[Why haven't we addressed] The bandwidth drain that YouTube and Fb would have on our already thinly stretched pipe…

This question got me thinking about where the perspectives of IT administrators come from.  As a customer of the IT department, who happens to be interested in history, I want to start to answer that question with:

The Evolution of the Dealership IT Department
It all began with the DMS.  The original DMS systems were based on tapes, but that’s not the important part.  The important part is that there was really only one user of the original DMS:  the accounting department.  In the case of my dealership, that was our CFO.  Back then she had to be the person who maintained and managed the DMS system.  Her responsibilities revolved around not only keeping the dealership financially sound, but also in safeguarding the data in our early DMS system.

In time, our DMS company added more functionality for other parts of the dealership and the CFO no longer could handle all the maintenance and needs this brought.  This signified the birth of the IT department at my dealership.

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Our manufacturers and vendors can answer this question easily about their own businesses, but can the dealers?  A product is a “thing produced by labor or effort.”  A “thing” isn’t always something physically tangible.

What is the product of a dealership?

This isn’t a question anyone ever answered for me directly.  It wasn’t something anyone directly trained me on, as I think it was just assumed I knew it.

The product of a dealership is the dealership.

I must admit, it is quite the duh statement.  There really isn’t anything special about it, but once it is stated so plainly it makes all the sense in the world.  Was this ever defined for you?

Now that we know our product is our dealership let’s talk about what a quality product is.  We also know what that is.  It is simply something you want to buy.  The level of the quality determines the price.  It is a brand; it is a reputation.  A quality product easily creates referrals, it doesn’t have to ask for reviews, and it generates fans.

Look at Apple.  They build operating systems, but there are plenty of choices in operating systems.  So why do Apple’s customers hang on its every new “thing” and talk about it like they’re part of a cult?  Why do they pay more for it over and over and over again?

We can talk about Apple and everything they do all day long, but I’d rather you think about how your dealership is a product.

How is your dealership a quality product?  Is it time you define that for your coworkers and staff?

For further reading on this subject, check out Bob Lutz’s new book:  Car Guys vs. Bean Counters:  The Battle for the Soul of American Business [Amazon].  Yes, this article was inspired by this book.  It is definitely worth the read.

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