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Automated Request For Quote Auto-Responder

Posted by Mat Koenig | Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | Posted in Best Practices

Guest Posting by Mat Koenig

I read an article on another automotive website regarding a tool for responding to RQF (Request for quote) consumers. It would be a type of auto-responder affording the consumer the opportunity to work their own payments, etc. to find out if the car is truly right for them.

I have to say at first glance I got excited about the possibilities of what could be done with this automated system like this and how great it could potentially be for me as a consumer. Then, after stepping back I realized that that this system could possibly perpetuate some of the perceived problems that dealers have with the internet. Allow me to explain what I mean.

As I travel the country talking to dealers I have heard, on many occasions, phrases like: “consumers aren’t loyal anymore”, “the internet has made my business harder”, “customers just shop everybody and use me to keep their local dealer honest”.

As someone who works for a large online classified company I’m going to say this: all of those statements are true. However, the reason they are true isn’t because consumers have the internet as a vehicle for communicating. It’s our fault as dealers.

Consumers aren’t loyal because many of us, as dealers (myself included after spending 12 years on that side of the desk) have forgotten about the importance of follow up and prospecting – how many years has Joe Verde said to ask “how many, how many, who’s next?” My sales team in a little Nissan Dealership went from last to 1st in our region by making sure our 3 simple salespeople did that prospecting script 5 times a day before 11 A.M.

We made phone calls to our customers every 90 days to say hello and catch up on a personal level. Our customer were loyal. As a dealer can you say that you do that type of follow up? Do you know how little Jimmy’s baseball season went or are you just relying on your CRM to fire of a form letter a few times a year?

If you aren’t following up to that level, why would your customers be loyal?

The internet has made business harder because we don’t use it for what it is: one more way to connect us with a consumer that will eventually buy from the dealer that treats them the best and gives them the options that are closest to what they want and need. Instead, many of us look at consumers who use the internet as a bunch of ’strokes’ and we don’t treat every one of them them like buyers.

Last I checked, if people aren’t too old to drive, they are a buyer. If people aren’t too young to drive, they’re a buyer. To quote Joe Verde again, doesn’t that mean everyone is a buyer eventually? If that is true wouldn’t it mean that the only questions are when will they buy and who will get the commission?

If you aren’t treating internet consumers as well as your walk in customer (who also went online but didn’t tell you), is it the internet that made your job harder or is your lack of professionalism making your job harder?

Finally, as far as consumers using the internet to keep their local dealer honest all I can say is “duh”.

Everyone wants to make sure the dealer is honest. Let’s face it gang, we aren’t ranked very high on the ethics surveys no matter how hard we try.

This isn’t new though is it? Before the internet was the primary vehicle for information people used to use the little gas station rags like AutoTrader Magazine and AutoMart Magazine or they would get the paper from the next town over to do the same thing; keep us ‘honest’.

If we as dealers would build relationships better couldn’t we have more repeat & referral business that pays higher profit anyway?

If we would just focus on learning how to use a phone better when that customer calls couldn’t we set more appointments when the shoppers from the town over do call?

If we’d just sharpen our sales skills by practicing every now and then instead of complaining about the economy and the internet, couldn’t we possibly convince a customer that we’re worth the drive to do business with?

What does this have to do with an automated RFQ program. I’d say everything.

I think the idea would be fantastic if as dealers we were prepared to pay attention to the consumer requests, if we cared enough to follow up and if our sales skills were sharp enough to give the consumer the experience that comes with a true sales professional; the experience that they deserve.

Unfortunately, as it sits with far too many of us I believe this tool could just add to a lazy entitlement mentality and further worsen the consumer experience lending to even less consumer loyalty and more excuses.

About the Author: Mat Koenig is a 12 year veteran in the Automotive industry and is currently serving as a Sales Training Manager for Cars.com.

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10 Comments

Andrew Wright

February 19th, 2009

Well said.
Alex Snyder

February 19th, 2009

Copied/Pasted into an email to all management. Thanks Mat!
Ralph Paglia

February 19th, 2009

Matt,

Your article certainly got my attention! And, although you have clearly identified the nature of a HUGE problem we have as an industry in how mix customers, dealership sales professionals and web based information and communication systems… You made me have a flashback to 1999 when I was in the owner’s office at a small 5 rooftop dealer group in Western NY. Your words echo what the owner said when I showed him how customers could go into KBB.com, go through a Virtual Walk Around process on their trade-in and then get a Kelley Blue Book supplied Trade-In value… He was freaked out, but NOT because the customer had access to this information, he was upset because his perception was that many of the inbound sales calls his sales departments received each day were from people who wanted to find out the “book value” on their current vehicle. And, he probably had a valid point… Luckily, we were able to come up with a plan, and then implement it in a manner that leveraged the emerging information technology (at that time) into creating more sales opportunities. The details are still valid, but that is off-topic.

Here’s my point, for 2 years I managed a team where one of our biggest daily challenges was simply executing the tasks prescribed by our lead management response process. There were over 25 people on my team and we were handling over 5,000 leads from hundreds of sources, but all of them related to either a new Chevy or a used vehicle. The time that was required to respond to an RFQ was always a problem… Looking up the car they asked about in our DMS, calculating the price we wanted to quote, copy and pasting numbers, vehicle descriptions, etc. into the email templates. Then, doing that 3 more times to offer each customer additional vehicles in stock that were similar to the one they selected, so we were providing alternatives for the consumer to consider. Heck, we had NO PROBLEM SELLING CARS when we were able to execute 100% of the process steps! Our problem wasn’t defining the process, our challenges EVERY SINGLE DAY was executing those process steps. The solution you referenced in your post is pure and simple in its objective… MAKE IT EASIER TO EXECUTE LEAD RESPONSE PROCESS ACTIONS. I find it amazing that my query has triggered speculation that the product exists, because the discussion topic I posted was done so that I would have other people’s opinions to consider when drafting a Solution Requirements document. In other words, don’t complain about something that hasn’t yet happened! Your post makes me think of that science fiction movie starring Tom Cruise where people get arrested for crimes they are highly likely to commit in the future… The ultimate in crime prevention. I often wondered, after watching that movie, if we know something in advance, then why wouldn’t we solve the root source of that problem, so it never materializes.

If you use a PC and multiple software programs to execute a series of clicks, copies and pastes that retrieve, transfer and format information into an email… And you do this process repetitiously every day, then why wouldn’t it make sense to build a program to make you more efficient. I mean, let’s really think about this… If you need to follow-up, make phone calls and meet with people in-person, and doing something on your work station PC uses up your time, then freeing up your time by automating that something inevitably means you now have more time to do follow-up and phone calls!!!

There is a Toyota dealership in Sunnyvale, CA and the owner of that dealership is a personal friend of mine who saw the same thing I saw… He invested in a business that hired programmers and created software to automate the lead response processes for his Toyota dealership. His store gets anywhere from 1,200 to 2,000 leads each month. He implemented one additional piece of automation… Sending a response to a RFQ lead with a valid price quote. His closing ratios went up by 4 percentage points in the first month the software system was implemented. The small fortune he invested to create this custom software was fully recovered via incremental sales within 6 months.

If we do something over and over again, every day, repetitiously like a machine, and that simple, mind-numbing task doesn’t require the intricacies of face to face, or voice to voice human engagement, then why would we NOT build a machine to do it?

Matt, here is where I believe you have not yet seen the vision… In order to do all those follow-up and CRM processes that you describe, automotive sales professionals need time, training and motivation. If a software company provides a program that frees up additional time, then you are able to execute those processes more frequently, and sell more cars. You would also be able to have more time for training… In my opinion, the greatest challenges we face in dealership sales departments today is NOT discovering or defining what needs to be done, it is simply executing those things, and finding the time to do them!!!

Now, you are right about something you pointed out… If your team is playing Solitaire on their PC’s while they are waiting for their next lead to come in, then software that uses automation to streamline what they do after a lead arrives is only going to enable them to play more solitaire… Or, go have more smoke breaks outside and bitch about business, or pay plans, or butthead sales managers… I had some of those people on my team, with the key word being “had”. For those really great Internet Sales Professionals out there, providing them with a tool that streamlines the clickety-clack portions of that process, will make that process more accurate and allow them to execute it faster and more consistently. More time to speak with prospects on the phone, and more prospects that are thrilled and delighted with the response they received from their online inquiry will result in more sales to the same number of leads.
Mat Koenig

February 19th, 2009

Ralph,

Thanks for the detailed response my friend. Maybe I wasn’t as clear as I could have been so let me say this.

I love your idea and agree with the vision.

However, many dealers right now are focusing their attention and dollars ONLY on chasing new business.

Many of us forget that we have an enormous database from sales and service that the dealer has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build.

There is a GOLDMINE of opportunity in those areas and they are basically FREE to prospect and a few well timed phone calls in a simple 90 day rotation could drastically improve sales and profit.

If we can’t get those simple things right – it may be hard to commit to using a GREAT NEW TOOL properly so we may end up with another pile of consumers that don’t get the time or attention they deserve in the long run.

For the dealers who do “get it” I am excited to see your vision come to life.

Thanks again for the feedback Ralph, you’re the man!

Helping the best get better,
m@
Mat Koenig
James F

February 20th, 2009

Having a consumer work their own deals is a bit far off from reality. Every dealer seems to have a different fee they want to throw in, and the consumer might not know about incentives that may otherwise lead to a better deal. The responsible salesman is responsible for getting the customer a good price and/or a low payment. I can only imagine the shock of people wrote their own deals, submitting that to the dealership and getting their teeth kicked in.

A tool like sounds great for getting leads but not for finalizing the transaction. Check out leasecompare.com for a good example. They let customers customize their own leases against the residuals and money factors they offer. Even still when I run the same MSRP car in ADP i get a payment cheaper by $70-150$ a month.

So in my view the TOOL is just a lead generator. If it is good than you might get more/better leads but the sales force is key.
Craig Belowski

February 21st, 2009

Mat,
I love these discussions of technology that come back to the basic sales concepts of listening to, taking care of then following up with customers. As the GSM of a good size Toyota store known for both great customer service and a technology based process, I can say that taking care of customers is first on our list always. The salespeople that embrace the systems available to do just that will be the most successful. It always shocks me to see that people still think there is a difference between “internet customers” and “customers” they are all looking for the same experience. Where your customers start their information gathering process is only a small portion of who sells them a car. This game is now and has always been about a few basic items…..who do I trust, who has knowledge of what I’m buying, who has what I want, who listened to my needs and matched them correctly to a car and who did my friends tell me to buy from. There are so many advantages the web provides for each of these when you use them. As far as the topic of automated response…..it all comes back to “how well do we use what we have?” Those that use it as a tool and not a crutch will be far more successful than those that think a computer can sell a car by itself.
Todd Mathews

February 21st, 2009

I think many of the commentators have hit the nail on the head when talking about the personalized communication that is so critical to building rapport with the consumer. The fact is every deal is going to be slightly different based on the customers situation; Trade, Credit, Monthly budget etc. I think that you give up a great opportunity to engage the customer by providing exact information according to their situation. The issue is that once they received the quote (automated or not) 90% of customers are going to want to negotiate the terms and they are going to want to do it on-line. Getting sales still takes work and the sales professionals willing to do that work will be successful. Fortunately with CRM systems and On-line Negotiation Systems, this job can still be done efficiently.
Zach

February 23rd, 2009

Great article Mat. As a previous Joe Verde employee, your article hits very close to home with me and was and is my daily argument on the phones. I have the scripts, stats, and questions memorized and still use Joe’s tools daily.
Mat Koenig

February 24th, 2009

Zach,

Thanks for the feedback. I’m a firm believer that processes work. Joe Verde has done an amazing job of helping many of us in the car business understand how to truly track our Opportunities, Activities and Results. Congratulations in advance on your success in 2009!

Helping the best get better,
Mat Koenig
Cem Avsar

March 2nd, 2009

Not only “Automated Request”, BDC must follow up as soon as your prospects click on your campaign (exp. “Get A Quote” link).

Now, do you know who is online?

I have developed and implemented “Real-Time” email campaign click tracking program for BDC department (while I was selling cars) so that customers may receive immediate email or phone response. It eliminates needless repetition and enhances the functionality and effectiveness of the “email campaigns”

I strongly recommend ISM to analyze the “Avg. Time on Page” report if you are using an Analytic tool on daily basis. This tool will help you to differentiate your prospects.

Simple link with a name query will do the job:
http://www.victorytoyotascion.com/2009-Toyota-Camry-SE-2546.aspx?cfn=Elvis&cln=Presley

Every day you must try to find new ways to improve your skills.

Happy Selling
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