Comments on: Internet Managers Know it All; Their Dealer Principals, Not So Much

By: D. Rawls

D. Rawls — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:13:02 +0000

Sounds Good Steve;

As recently as mid-December I had the fate of joining the ranks of your previous employer. The idea that the Internet is of humongous value for the future of this industry is a direct attack on the senior brass at the group, though.

Think about it. The automotive bureaucracy corporations all are tumbling fast because they are tenured on the basis of living between a glass ceiling and a steel roof. If they were to succumb to the new vision or zeitgeist shift of the industry, it would mean professional suicide in most instances. Who would do this when they have only to hold their spots for another couple or five years and retire with handsome pensions?

If the way is going to be made for the cream to rise to the top, then the milk in the container must all spoil, first.

NCM is fortunate to have pulled together a respectable format for educating on the topic of e-dealering (the future of all dealering in some aspects), but the reluctance of top brass to accept their fates is not soon to change.

By: Stan Sher

Stan Sher — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:18:49 +0000

I think that Dealer Principles just try to get a scope of what is going on without really digging too deep. They figure since they are paying the internet manager, let them be the expert. Well, if the dealer principle is a fool they are set up for foolish things. They are set up for having an internet manager that can steal and lie about stats. They are set up for failure because they have no control over the situation. In many ways, they don’t see the results that really are coming in because they choose not to. This is why there is such huge turnover with internet managers in the end. A lot of great internet managers out there, very few that I know that have lasted at one store for over 1 year.

By: Craig Belowski

Craig Belowski — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:33:10 +0000

As a GSM it was never my first choice to be an Internet Manager. However I do like to feed my family, so I figured it was make the commitment to myself and my family to learn or find a business that isn’t affected by the Web…..should be lots of those left, right?

I’m just glad most in my position choose to hope the WWWeb goes away, sure makes it easier to stand out in a crowd.

By: Jeff Reardon

Jeff Reardon — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:28:54 +0000

Skip – Send your dealer principal and GM a link to the NCM seminars Steve is writing about.

Of course, if they don’t get off their rear ends and learn this stuff soon, they’re going to be unemployed and then INTERNET MANAGERS WILL RULE THE WORLD.

Tough choice.

By: Skip Shakely

Skip Shakely — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:49:12 +0000

Funny reading this makes me think of what I go through daily with upper level and junior (deskmen) managers and the lack of motivation to learn, to try to understand, to even realize there has been a major shift in how customers come to us and what they have done when they do actually get to us. Most surveys tell us that the average consumer whether they send us a request or not have probably spent 6 hrs researching the car, the dealership and pricing, the question is when was the last time the average salesperson or manager spent 6 hrs doing any of those things? Most leaders in a dealership are like the dinosaurs looking up in the sky at that comet saying “oh look it must be another sun”, later wondering what the hell was that, that just hit the ground and changed the world as we knew it.I am sure 80 to 90 yrs ago there were a couple of managers standing out front of the dealership saying to one another ” I hate these phones, I wish they were never invented they have screwed up the car business so bad”.I know all of the people on here have and are experiencing the same frustrating things that I am so how do we get this message across to the people who have the power to do something about it? How do we get them to pull their head out of the sand and realize that we have seen the enemy and it is us?

By: Alex Snyder

Alex Snyder — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:19:50 +0000

Nice article Steve!

I would like to reiterate the point about not keeping information to one’s self. There are certain things I don’t want other employees messing with unless they have the proper training (like our SEM campaign, or backside of our website because they’ll mess it up), but that doesn’t mean they can’t tell me what they want the messages to be in those areas.

Educating DP’s, GM’s, and even sales agents will yield better results and create buy-in.

At the end of the day these guys typically don’t want to get their hands dirty in the actual ditch digging, but they sure want to have some input on what that ditch is going to look like and how it is going to make the water flow. If you dig the ditch and get the water flowing, they’ll hook the sink up to it so people can drink it. But no one gets the benefits you provide until you teach them how those benefits work.

By: Tallahassee Auto Mall

Tallahassee Auto Mall — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:47:20 +0000

It is not easy to manage a company. It is even more difficult to promote a business especially when there is stiff competition. That is why supervisors or marketing managers need to update their strategies every now and then. This is a very complicated process and the people behind it should be properly trained.

By: DealerGroup

DealerGroup — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:59:23 +0000

I wish the knowledge gap stopped at the GM or principal level, but it permeates the corporate offices of large dealer groups too.

By: Leaders Need Internet Training - So Why Don’t They Get Some? Ask The Manager

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:55:11 +0000

[...] Rather than recreate the wheel, there’s a great article on the subject and how it is affecting car dealers at the automotive industry blog DealerRefresh. [...]

By: M

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:03:42 +0000

The thread title made me chuckle a bit. I’m actually doing some work for another GM in our company and he’s pretty clueless. As are his sales managers.