We live in a world where new technology swirls around us at a relentless and often dizzying pace, yet as we look closer inside the automotive industry and one particular area – the CRM – the winds are very calm, and the marketplace solutions aren’t keeping pace with innovation outside of the industry. In a nutshell we are operating in an innovation rut for automotive CRM. We believe that we are about to enter a renaissance that will completely reimagine what is possible with an automotive dealership CRM solution, and we have analyzed seven areas to pay especially close attention over the next twelve months.
RefreshFriday – Sales from Social are a Myth
LIVE Today at 1:00 PM EST
Today (Friday March 29th) marks the last Friday in Women’s History month and we’re closing it down on Social Media.
The stigma that social media doesn’t sell cars is alive and well, but examples that break the stigma are everywhere.
We’re going to explore the history of social for car dealerships, taking advantage of advertising in it, how to engage shoppers, and maybe even some attribution. That’s right, we put social and attribution in the same sentence… and we’re doing it with women. Maybe we’ll toss in some A.I. and Blockchain to raise our trendy corporate consultant viewer count too.
In all seriousness we couldn’t have a women’s month on DealerRefresh without two ladies Jeff and Alex have spent so much time with. Our damn good friends: Christine Plunkett & Erica Sietsma.
Like DealerRefresh on Facebook to watch the show and get notified when we go LIVE.
Stories from the sales floor, with John Quinn : Story #2
Talking about intimidation and pressure in the forums the other day, I was reminded of a deal I wrote ‘back in the day.’
I think I was between my 2nd and 3rd year of selling cars, so this would have been 1998ish. I had “graduated” from the Honda showroom, and moved next door to our Acura showroom. I’ll never forget my first test drive with my first Acura customers:
“What’s the difference between an RL and RL Premium?”
Should I Ever Use a VDP as a Landing Page?
Should I Ever Use a VDP as a Landing Page?
Let’s be honest: This is not an uncommon question. We have discussed before here on DealerRefresh in the dealer forums.
It’s important to understand best practices for all digital marketing strategies. The answer, most times, is the same. Let the customer’s intent and expectations drive your decision.
Consider these two examples:
- Carousel Ads
- If a shopper sees a carousel ad through social media or a retargeting banner, they’re clicking on that specific vehicle for a reason.
- Specific Searches
- If a shopper searches for “2018 [Make] [Model]”, show them your inventory and analyze all shopping behaviors that matter to dealers: Macro-conversions like form submissions and phone calls; Micro-conversions like inventory photograph views.
- Google searches are specific. It’s important to have an idea of the type of car shoppers want — or even the color. You should drive them to pages that give those selections.
High Bounce Rates can be False Positives
The VDPs that shoppers land on will likely have a high bounce rate. That’s because you drove them directly to the last webpage of their journey; thus, you’ve satisfied their search. In these cases, the bounce rate is a false positive.
If you have great on-site SEO and deep linking, you’ll more likely see a high bounce rate. You are, however, reducing the number of people who exit at the wrong time. This bounce rate should also accompany more leads because you offered a streamlined user experience. People got to where they wanted to go.
This isn’t the only false positive.
VDPs Views can be False Positives, Too
Yes, VDPs visits are a goal to work towards. When you drive more VDP views from many channels, it can be a false positive that your site experience is creating the shopping behaviors you want. That’s why you must always consider the customer journey and how well you’re getting eyes on inventory from your homepage.
As with any metric, this can be skewed. Third-party sites spend money to get VDP views, but that’s not the same as consumers visiting your site and conducting searches. You can have a site with a poor user experience, poor design, and poor performance that has a lot of VDP views because of the many traffic sources. Remember to analyze user flow throughout the site and make it easy for car shoppers to find what they want.
Drop the Hammer on 3rd Party Listings
Imagine you walk into your neighborhood hardware store – let’s call it Joe’s Hardware and Lumber. Joe’s has been around for decades – family owned, involved in local charity, and a brand that has a strong local reputation. You’ve got a remodel project going on and you’re in need of a new hammer. In the hammer section, you see giant banners that say “these hammers brought to you by Home Depot”, on the hammers themselves, it says “powered by Home Depot”, on the end cap of the aisle there’s a sign that says “come see these same hammers and even more hammers at Home Depot”
In a haze of brand confusion, you end up at Home Depot shopping for hammers.
Here’s the thing: Home Depot (in this alternate reality) doesn’t actually sell hammers, they just host them for display. The upside though, is they have a LOT of options…so you pick out the best hammer you could find, and a lovely employee connects you right back to the hardware store you stumbled out of before. For a hefty price to Joe’s Hardware, of course.
In this ridiculous scenario (in which I say the word “hammers” a LOT), I have just described what 3rd party listing sites have been “helping” dealers with for 15 years. Stealing dealers traffic and selling them back to them at a profit. It’s a brilliant business model that you just don’t see anywhere else in the modern retail landscape.
ALL customers like to NEGOTIATE, Right?
There is a great response to a post in the forums from MitchFlorida that basically says, ‘not all customers are the same.’
I agree with the basic premise completely, but I’ll take it a little further…
The exact quote is…
“There are two kind of car buyers: those who like to negotiate and deal, and those who don’t. The former will rarely go to a one-price store unless he can’t find a similar vehicle elsewhere, which is rare.”
I believe that there are infinitely more than two kinds of car buyers… [Read more…]
Internet vs. Floor volume 57
This is a rant.
It pisses me off to still see the sales floor referring to Internet customers and forms from the website as “Internet Department” things. When you still hear sales agents say “oh, that’s the Internet department” you know we have a problem.
C’mon, people aren’t searching for your store in Alta Vista using a Netscape browser – things have evolved over the last two decades! Why do we still have this wall between the Internet department and the showroom floor? You do realize you’re much more on the same team than those jerks across the other wall in the service department. Those jackasses are literally raising labor rates on you and making sure every car has a fresh set of wipers. You’d think they’d check the batteries on the front line from time to time.
Inner-departmental things haven’t evolved much over the past 20 years. It isn’t your fault. It is your vendors’ fault.
Your Marketing ROI is Not a Zero-Sum Game
It’s a new year, and that means we’re all thinking about how to get the best marketing ROI in 2019. To start, we have to assess- what’s been working and what hasn’t? What stays for another year, and what needs to go?
It’s vital to assess the value of all your marketing efforts. But the assessment itself is difficult. Many people fall into a few different traps:
- Using the same metrics for every tool
- Measuring outcomes that aren’t aligned with your goals
- Getting stuck in an attribution war
Let’s dive into each of these problems and then map out some strategies for precise marketing assessment so you can maximize your marketing spend in 2019.
Using the same metrics for every tool
When you have tools that ostensibly do the same thing, it’s tempting to measure them the same way and think of the outcome as a zero-sum game: for example, all my lead capture tools should be measured by how many leads they capture, and the one that captures the most is the winner. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that even tools with similar goals have important differences. And that means using the same metrics to assess their value doesn’t always work. [Read more…]
Please Don’t Leave Me: The Upside To Sales Empowerment
Anyone love their phone company? If you are like me, there is nothing I abhor more than needing to call them. Every time I call, I have to do a bit of meditational breathing and mentally prepare myself for what will inevitably be hours of frustration. Not only will there be excessive hold times involved, but I will also be bounced from department to department, left dealing with several different people and having to repeat my issue over and over again. If I’m not disconnected along the way, it feels like victory. Sound familiar?
Now, compare this to the Apple store experience. I make an appointment online, walk into the store at my designated time and get assigned an Apple Genius who will help me every step of the way. Not only do they stay by my side, but they are empowered to answer questions and even ring me up right there on their iPhone when I am ready to transact.
And so there it is — the world we live in, shifting between these two contrasted experiences. And the more Apple-like the world gets, the more we are unwilling to deal with extended wait times and poor customer service.
What would happen if the phone company empowered their frontline employees to help with all of the situations they may be faced with? Think of the minutes a customer spends on hold before resharing the same story 2, 3, 4+ times; or the minutes employees waste transferring people around and listening to the same stories their colleagues have already heard. Would one person be more efficient? Would customers stop dreading the experience and — dare I say — even find it enjoyable?
This is happening within the automotive retail sector as we speak. Progressive dealers around the country are deploying technology and empowering their sales teams to streamline the entire process. And while many dealerships refuse to change, most sit somewhere in between — trying to enhance the experience, but without the tools or buy-in to make it stick. [Read more…]
4 Secrets to Leveraging Technology at your Dealership
For years we’ve been talking about new technology that will allow car buyers to purchase their vehicles online, essentially eliminating the need for sales people and for years this topic has been top of mind.
Sure, we have seen a little uptick in online vehicle purchases but whether this has addressed the main issue or has been an effective solution, is quite debatable. For the millennial, it may be the perfect solution, being that they are “so called” less social and more tech savvy, skipping the dealership is no biggie but Baby Boomers on the other hand, are less tech savvy and crave the face to face interaction.
What about Gen X? They too crave interaction but without the pressure of car sales tactics. [Read more…]
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