a division of Systems Marketing, Inc. January 2006

AutoSuccess Must-see Companies NADA 2006, page 4

NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

ADA 200UST-SEE COMPANI

O R L A N D O F L O R I D A

American Auto Exchange: Delivering innovative solutions that streamline and maximize dealers� sales operations to

include: inventory optimization, Þ nance menu, reporting, and dealer desking tools.

BZ Results is a digital marketing & consulting company currently working with 8 of the top 10 eCRM Dealers of the year. BZ offers CRM, Web marketing, Search Engine & Email marketing, Websites, New & Pre-Owned, F&I, Service, Parts and specializes in BDC�s. BZ set up the largest BDC in the world which sold 384 vehicles in one month. They also work with the #1 Pre-Owned eDealer, #1 Honda eDealer, #1 Chevy eDealer and the #1 eDealer Group in the world.

Impact Direct develops innovative sited sales and direct marketing campaigns that light up your phones, Þ ll up your showroom and

deliver vehicles. All with out taking a percentage of your gross proÞ t.

InterActive Financial Marketing Group offers new and used car dealers lead generation, direct mail marketing,

CRM, advertising and Þ nancing by leveraging it�s brands; Carloan.com, Autoloan.com, 1.800.CarLoan and

IFMG Direct.

Ultimate Warranty provides leading-edge service contracts and ancillary F&I products. More than 8,000 dealers

have recognized the advantages and have beneÞ ted from selling Ultimate Warranty products. Stop by the booth,

and Ultimate Warranty can show you how they are making a great thing even better in 2006.

Auto Dealer TrafÞ c, Inc. is the automotive search engine marketing experts. ADT�s focus on SEO, Paid Search, and

analytics has made it the premier company in the automotive arena. ADT�s proprietary technology analyzes your

search marketing efforts easily. Count on us to give your marketing dollars a ROI!

HomeNet, Inc. is a technology provider offering online vehicle inventory solutions to help automotive dealers manage their vehicle inventory and increase online sales. HomeNet�s Inventory Online (IOL) system allows control of the acquisition, editing and distribution of vehicle data. IOL interfaces with all major DMS and broadcasts accurate vehicle inventory information and photos across the Web.

Established in 1999 Auto Internet Marketing has been generating both New Vehicle and Finance Leads of superior quality and content since the beginning of the Internet Revolution. Our unique marketing platform promotes FREE exposure for our Dealers, resulting in FREE leads every month! We look forward to speaking with you soon!

TimeHighway.com is the premier, real-time, online service appointment scheduling solution. It will increase customer satisfaction and retention, service department efÞ ciency and revenue, load balance service bays and drive trafÞ c to the dealer�s website. Are your customers returning to your dealership for scheduled maintenance? If not, let us help!!!

J&L Marketing�s solid reputation as the industry leader for direct marketing campaigns is based on the strong relationships we form, focused marketing, and the increased proÞ ts we provide for our dealers. We take great pride in our expertise to build the best campaigns for your individual needs. This remarkable success that J&L provides for over a thousand dealers a year can be yours, too.

We provide a fully integrated web-based software solution for F&I, leasing, special Þ nance, BDC, inventory management and sales mangement reports. We also provide direct mail, Internet leads, credit hotlines and website hosting.

The Cobalt Group and Dealix Corporation specialize in helping dealers and auto manufacturers maximize every proÞ t center by helping them: meet, sell to, and retain customers for repeat business in the most efÞ cient manner possible by providing a comprehensive suite of services, including the highest quality Internet sales leads and marketing services, cutting edge technology, and the expertise of automotive industry veterans.

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AutoSuccess Magazine is published monthly at 3411 Pinnacle Gardens Drive, Louisville, Kentucky, 40245; 502.588.3155, fax 502.588.3170. Direct all subscription and customer service inquiries to 877.818.6620 orinfo@autosuccess.biz. Subscription rate is $75 per year. AutoSuccess welcomes unsolicited editorials and graphics (not responsible for their return). All submitted editorials and graphics are subject to editing for grammar, content, and page length. AutoSuccess provides its contributing writers latitude in expressing advice and solutions; views expressed are not necessarily those of AutoSuccess and by no means reflect any guarantees. Always confer with legal counsel before implementing changes in procedures.© All contents copyrighted by AutoSuccess Magazine, a Division of Systems Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without express written consent from AutoSuccess. AutoSuccess may occasionally make readers’ names available to other companies whose products and/or services may be of interest; readers may request that names be removed by calling 877.818.6620. Printed in the USA.Postmaster: Send address changes to AutoSuccess Magazine, 3411 Pinnacle Gardens Drive, Louisville, Kentucky 40245.

3411 Pinnacle Gardens Drive Louisville, Kentucky 40245 � Toll Free: 877.818.6620 � Facsimile: 502.588.3170

Patrick Luck, Editor & Publisher• pluck01@autosuccess.biz

Susan Givens, Vice President• sgivens02@autosuccess.biz

Courtney Paris, Sales-improvement Strategist• chill-paris04@autosuccess.biz

Brian Ankney, Sales-improvement Strategist• brian01@autosuccess.biz

Thomas Williams, Creative Director• twilliams03@autosuccess.bizGod Bless America

INSI

DE 8202122242630323436383940424445464850

PatrickLuck

Create an Enlightened Environment TomGegax

Do You Have a Daily Schedule ChrisHanson

JoshWeaverThe Greatest Business in the World

DavidKainTake Your Internet Sales to the Next Level

Congratulations eCRM Dealers of the Year

JimAdamsHow Much Does a �Token� Discount Affect Your Paycheck

AnthonyHallBack to Basics

DougHallThe Three Sources of Trust

MichaelRosenberg

Seven Keys to Warranty Administration Success

KarenDillonHow to Bring More Customersto Your Service Department

MarkTewartWords Are Cheap

Planning Your Questions BrianTracy

Achieving an Optimal Internet Marketing Mix

GreggTompkins

PatrickLuckThe Rick Case Automotive Group: More Than Just Car DealershipsDealers Recognized for Invaluable Community Contributions and Industry Innovations

TonyDupaquierEffective Credit Application

Improve Your Body Language Skills PattiWood

Turning a Phone Up Into an Appointment JeffMorrill

A New Commitment I Give to ... Me MichaelYork

NADA 2006

Stop by and seeus at the NADA

2006 Conventionat booth

#3816 Some Best Practices for 2006 ScottJoseph

2 Chronicles 14:11“Lord, there is no one like you to help.”

Isaiah 55:12“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the fi eld shall clap their hands.”

The benchmark for con-

sideration for winning

this year’s award is re-

sults as measured by

volume of Internet sales

and by how well the

dealers use the Internet

and CRM to promote all

of their profi t centers: new, used, F&I, service,

parts, etc.

Our goal was to seek out the dealers who are

the best at using this marketing medium to

generate huge increases in profi t for their deal-

erships while also improving CSI and loyalty.

We considered the number of rooftops, the size

of the dealerships or dealer groups, their mar-

kets, the brands they carry and their Internet

profi ts as a percentage of their total profi ts. In

researching the contenders, we learned a lot

about what determines a dealer’s success with

using the Web to generate increased sales and

service profi ts. In this article we outline some

of the commonalities and some effective best

practices that have propelled the winners to

the forefront of Web marketing and CRM, en-

abling them to sell 100 to 800 extra units every

month.

CRM Vision and Strategy: For the award

winners, the vision began with a desire to at-

tract more customers for less cost compared

with mass advertising. These dealers are lead-

ing the way in a marketing revolution initiated

by customers who are using the Web to shop

for vehicles rather than the paper, TV or radio.

Smart dealers are shifting some of their adver-

tising to market where customers are shopping,

and the returns are much higher and easier to

measure. Some common denominators of the

winning dealers’ strategy and vision are: tech-

nology, marketing, process, people, pricing

and measurement.

Great Web sites: Appearance is subjective,

and when it comes to design, what appeals to

one person can repel another, which is why we

selected our Top eCRM Dealers based on re-

sults. This is why we defi ne the Greatest Web

sites as those that generate measurable results.

Dealers tell us that a Web site will get results

if it is simple, easy to use, quick to load and

has highly engaging content that can work fast

even on a low-speed connection. Great Web

sites offer cool features like inventory, online

auctions, virtual test drives, online credit ap-

plications, online trade appraisals, online parts

and accessories and more. Great Web sites do

much more than post information online, they

compel the customers to pick up the phone,

submit a lead or drive straight to your show-

room.

Marketing: How can you drive traffi c to

your Web site and dealership? In today’s super

competitive market, it’s not as simple as build-

ing a great Web site and selling a ton of cars;

you need to let your customers know how to

fi nd you. The dealers profi led have some great

methods for increasing traffi c without having

to spend more money on advertising. These

ideas include e-mail marketing, search engine

marketing, banners and more.

Process: Converting leads into sales. Keys

to successful process include e-mail and phone

response, setting appointments and following

up before and after the sale.

People: Our top eCRM Dealers share how to

fi nd and keep the right people who are passion-

ate about what they do and ways to combat the

auto industry’s biggest challenge – turnover.

Pricing: To increase profi ts pricing is critical

to a dealership's success and profi tability. Some

dealers sell a lot of cars online but they don’t

make money because their pricing strategy is

focused on selling price rather than building

value and asking for a fair profi t.

Measurement: Tracking your performance

results. Top dealers agree: The best part about

Internet marketing and CRM is that everything

is measurable.

Case Studies: In this issue we profi le the

winners to show how they use the Web and

CRM to improve profi ts.

CONGRATULATIONSeCRM Dealers of the Year

CONGRATULATIONS eCRM Dealers of the Year

HerbChambers.com

RedMcCombs.com

DaveSmithMotors.com

HouseofCourtesy.com

ParagonCars.com

CDodge.com

Sheehy.com

DickHannah.com

Schomp.com

Tasca.com

written by: Patrick Luck

8

erb Chambers is New England’s

largest automotive dealer. It is

the eCRM Dealer of the Year

and it has been named Dealer

of the Year by Ward’s. With all

this success under its belt, it's

well on its way to accomplishing its mission

of changing the way the world buys cars.

Like many dealers, Herb Chambers noticed

that more and more customers were using

the Internet to start the shopping process

when it was time to get their next vehicle.

However, unlike many other dealers, Herb

Chambers not only noticed the trend, it set up

the most successful regional buying service

in the world. This new buying service,

www.herbchambers.com, is revolutionizing

the way people buy cars.

With 80 percent of today's customers shopping

online, Herb Chambers found that customers

were using the Internet because they were

looking for a faster, easier and friendlier way

to inquire about and even purchase a vehicle

online. So, that’s what Herb Chambers works

to deliver; a fast, easy, friendly way to give

the customers what they need to pick out and

buy a car.

Once they found the right technology and

training provider, www.HerbChambers.com

began to leverage its 25 dealerships and

virtually unlimited pre-owned inventory to

give customers everything they’re looking

for with just a couple clicks. Once they’ve

selected the make and model they’re interested

in, they can take a virtual test drive, run

product comparisons, get a price and payment,

check for specials, download coupons, learn

about the retailers’ three-day money back

guarantee and 30-day exchange policy, sign

up for eVIP membership and even book a

service appointment or schedule parts. Herb

Chambers' new system includes more than just

a custom Web site, it's a complete marketing

system with prospect management capabilities

and a suite of multi-media Buzzmails. As a

result, the system drives more foot, phone and

Internet traffi c and automates e-mail activity

so the team has more time to use the phone

and sell cars. Herb Chambers has a dedicated

team of specialists who are trained to make

their customers’ online shopping experience a

pure pleasure. The customer-friendly process

gives the customers all the information they

need to make an informed decision. As a

result, www.HerbChambers.com has sold

thousands of vehicles a year to make it one

of the top eCRM Dealers of the Year and the

largest retailer in New England.

Starting a Revolutionwww.HerbChambers.com Changes the Way New England Buys Cars

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Most customers use the Internet at some point in the buying process.

• Customers turn to the Web in search of a way to make the process easier.

• Herb Chambers created a new regional buying service for its customers.

• Herb Chambers sold thousands of vehicles online last year.

• Herb Chambers was named a 2005 eCRM Dealer of the Year.

• HerbChambers.com sells 600-700 extra cars a month.

Herb Chambers set up a regional buying service to make it easier for its customers to buy a car online. The new state-of-the-art Web

site won a Golden Web Award.

Customers can take a free virtual test drive on www.HerbChambers.com

www.HerbChambers.com is a new buying service that won a the Golden Web Award.

Herb Chambers is the largest automotive retailer in New England.

9

ot long ago Red McCombs was selling about 40 vehicles a month on the Internet, and today it is selling an additional 500 vehicles a month. In this article, it identifi es the top mis-

takes dealers make with the Web and CRM that cost time and money.

THE TOP MISTAKES DEALERS MAKE WITH THE WEB AND CRM:

1. Dealers don’t generate enough leads from their own Web sites so they have to buy most of their leads. 2. Dealers fail to attract prospects to their Web sites. Web sites without traffi c don’t sell cars.3. Most dealers don’t appear on top of all search engines and they don’t conduct ongo-ing e-mail campaigns. 4. Many dealers’ Web sites don’t generate leads because they convert a small percent of visitors into leads.5. Most dealers don’t have the automated tools to update their sites so they waste a lot of time playing with their tools rather than selling cars.6. Dealers assume they only need a Web site and CRM tool so they don’t have all the tools and training they need to succeed. 7. Some dealers hire the wrong people, and they usually get the wrong results. They don’t have the right number of people for the vol-ume of leads. 8. Many dealers don’t have a clearly defi ned process that is proven to work.9. Most dealers don’t get the training they need to succeed and avoid costly mistakes. 10. Some dealers fail to automate follow up, which hurts closing ratio and sales. 11. Some dealers don’t have a pricing phi-losophy so their Internet department sells price rather than value, and their gross profi t suffers.12. Many dealers and managers don’t mea-sure the department’s results and metrics so they don’t know how to improve the busi-ness.

Most dealers think they will get results with only a great Web site, and that’s not true. However, a great Web site is a critical compo-nent. Rad Weaver explains: “Initially we had Web sites built by our DMS provider and the manufacturer but they hardly produced any sales. So we hired another company, BZRe-sults, who provided us with Web sites, search engine marketing, custom multi-media e-mail

campaigns, a CRM tool that automates fol-low-up and the training to tie everything to-gether. The system helps us market the site, update the site, generate leads and even au-tomatically respond and follow up with the leads before and after the prospect buys a car. We've learned that it takes more than a Web site and a CRM tool to sell 500 extra cars a month online."

RED McCOMBS SELLS 500 ADDITIONAL CARS A MONTH!Dealership Increases sales by using the Web and CRM to improve its business

"We were selling approximately 40 vehicles a month on the Internet, and today we are selling an additional 500 vehi-

cles a month." Rad Weaver - Red McCombs

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Since implementing its new Web site and CRM tool, Red McCombs is selling an additional 500 cars a month.

• With 80 percent of today's buyers shopping online, they adjusted their advertising to reach them.

• Red McCombs has increased gross profi t from $60k a month to more than $750k per month while increasing CSI and customer loyalty.

• Red McCombs increased its closing ratio from 3 percent to 19 percent by automating much of its follow-up.

• Red McCombs uses e-mail marketing campaigns and search engine placement to increase sales and lower costs.

• The cost per sale at RedMcCombs.com is below $200 per vehicle sold.

10

ave Smith Motors sells 400 In-ternet-lead vehicles a month with technology created in-house – and sells about $600,000 a month in accessories – from a single-point, multi-line dealer-

ship in a county of just 14,000 people. But for Ken Smith, president of this Kellogg ID deal-ership, size doesn’t matter. His aggressiveness and creative mind has helped the dealership he took over from his father grow to a $250 mil-lion business.

Dave Smith Motors' system also has a CRM tool to help track leads. It requires site visitors to provide extensive information before they can submit the request, which helps get bet-ter-quality leads. Lead Rocket time and date stamps the leads, and then turns them over to the Internet team manager who distributes them among the 25 dedicated Internet sales as-sociates. Overfl ow leads go to the other sales associates in the main showroom.

In the showroom, there is a computer on every sales person’s desk and more than 200 comput-ers in the store.

The system is very simple: Customers e-mail leads, and the dedicated Internet sales associ-ates e-mail them back. In real-time, sales asso-ciates can check results right on their comput-ers – no more running to the sales manager’s offi ce to look at the big board. Monthly sales contests are also available for viewing through Lead Rocket, so associates and management can track on a per-hour basis where everyone is at any given time. Ken Smith gives an ex-ample, “This way we all know where we’re headed and what we have to do to meet contest objectives. The system also reminds associates of call-back times, and it can be set up so re-minders pop up on the computer screen or call the associate’s cell phone or pager. So if John Doe calls and says, ‘Call me tomorrow at 2:30 and I’ll buy that truck,’ Lead Rocket pages the associate and reminds him, ‘It’s 2:15 and you said you’d call John Doe back at 2:30, so make the call and get the sale.’”

The system also helps track CSI. All sales as-

sociates must maintain a minimum of 95 per-cent customer satisfaction score. Should they fall behind, they’re put on a 90-day proba-tion. Expecting high scores means taking care of the customer. As an intranet system, Lead Rocket lets anyone within the dealership send electronic messages throughout the store. The system features in-house classifi ed ads, lists all accessory prices and phone numbers for all employees.

When the company fi rst got started with the Internet and CRM, its approach was to sell at price lower than MSRP-plus, so it started its own pricing system. The companies had about 10 computer programmers at one time punching numbers to automate pricing to give customers an immediate, automated price. They decided that they wanted to be ahead of the competition – ahead of the market technologically as long as they could. Ken says, “When the Internet

came about around 1992 we decided we want-ed to be the dealer in the Internet fi eld. Shortly after we got started, we got into a dispute with the dealers in Montana and Washington that tried to boycott our dealership. We won that dispute. These dealers were afraid of the In-ternet and they thought we would dominate the market. At the time we started, we weren’t doing much Internet business, though, and we weren’t sure where it would take us. But we did know that if we could be fi rst into it and could keep updating our Internet sites and keep on progressing with it, we might succeed. That’s why we developed our own system, because at that time there weren’t any lead-generating/fol-low-up systems available on the market. I then put in a full-out press on developing a Web site and then started developing our Lead Rocket. Today it’s a completely different system than what we’d originally developed.”

“We designed our own fully customized

Internet and CRM interface system that

helps manage the whole Internet market-ing and sales process.”

Ken Smith

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Dave Smith Motors developed its own technology to help sell more than 100 extra cars a month.

• Their Web site helps them sell more than $600,000 a month in accessories

• Their system includes a CRM tool to capture information and stay in contact with the customer

• Their Web site and marketing strategy help draw customers from as far away as Alaska, California and Colorado

• Dave Smith Motors has used the Internet and CRM to help grow its operation to a $250 million business

• The dealership has a team of dedicated internet sales associates to handle all inbound leads

Dave Smith MotorsDave Smith Motors Increases Sales and Profi t

11

aragon Honda has generated

more than 214 additional sales

a month by changing its mar-

keting and sales strategy.

“We adjusted our marketing

strategy to target customers on the Internet

since nearly 90 period of our buyers begin their

shopping online. More of our customers look

to the Web than TV, radio or print when re-

searching their next car purchase, and we want

to be where the majority of our customers are,”

Brian Benstock from Paragon Honda said.

The ResultsWithin four months of launching its new mar-

keting system, Paragon not only established a

dominant presence on the Web, it also set up

a complete customer relationship center in

the dealership to handle all of the Internet and

phone leads the system was generating. As a

result, it sold an extra 106 vehicles the fi rst

month the system was up and running and it

increased the closing ratio from 7 percent up to

25 percent. Today, the system generates more

than 200 additional sales a month.

How did Paragon do it?Brian Benstock explains: "We were only sell-

ing 20 cars a month online so we upgraded our

Web site but our sales didn't increase. Then we

realized we needed more than just a Web site,

so we hired a digital marketing company, which

gave us a new site and the tools and training to

market it, manage the leads and implement a

successful strategy. As a result, we increased

our traffi c to our showroom, phone and Internet

department while reducing our cost per sale,

and today we're selling almost 200 extra cars

a month.”

"Now, we collect e-mail addresses from our

customers by offering them free things that

they want. For example, every prospect who

calls or visits our dealership is offered a ‘free

virtual test drive’ on the vehicle they’re inter-

ested in. As a result, we get the majority of our

customers' e-mail addresses whether they call,

click or come into our dealership.” Paragon has

thousands of e-mail addresses that it uses to

conduct marketing campaigns. “We have hun-

dreds of pre-packaged multi-media Buzzmail

campaigns that we can send to customers with

a few clicks” Benstock said. “E-mail marketing

is the future, and we’ve made it a big part of

our marketing strategy. Today, we have more

than 80,000 e-mail addresses which we can use

to send campaigns for every month of the year,

every season and any theme. We send inven-

tory reduction, clearance, holiday events, spe-

cial fi nancing, key for key exchange and more.

It’s a great way to generate more sales without

extra cost.”

"Every prospect who calls or visits our dealership is offered a ‘free virtual test drive’ on the vehicle they’re interested in. As a result, we get the ma-jority of our customers' e-mail addresses whether they call, click, or come

into our dealership.”- Brian Benstock, Paragon Honda and Acura

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Paragon Honda used its new digital marketing strategy to increase sales by 214 units in one month.

• Since launching the new system, Paragon’s closing ratio went from 7 percent to 25 percent and it became the most profi table dealer.

• Paragon sends all its prospects and customers multimedia virtual test drives via e-mail.

• Paragon uses bulk multi-media e-mail campaigns to drive more traffi c without additional advertising costs.

• Creative marketing online and offl ine has created more showroom, phone and Internet traffi c while lowering the overall marketing budget.

• Paragon’s BDC handles all Internet and phone leads. The BDC is staffed with phone specialists whose only job is to get appointments.

Paragon Honda/Acura Sells 214 Extra Cars OnlineParagonCars.com Helps Dealership Reach No. 1 in New Car Volume

12

heehy sold an additional 414 cars in one month online.“We shifted some of our market-ing budget to focus on targeting the Internet." said Roy Reutter from Sheehy. "Customers are changing where and how they

shop, so we are changing where we market. Initially we relied heavily on third party pro-viders for our leads, and after a short time, we realized that the leads with the highest closing ratio and lowest cost came from our own Web site. We’ve since set up our own regional buy-ing service, and we’re generating more traffi c and leads for our people to turn into appoint-ments and sales. We’ve increased our numbers by more than 600 percent and the Web has be-come our primary source of phone traffi c.”

The IdeaOnce the Sheehy team realized it needed more than a Web site and a few third party lead pro-viders, it worked to build a complete strategy to market its Web site, update the Web site, staff its team, implement a process, establish pricing and more. That was two years ago, and since then it has increased its numbers by more than 600 percent and dropped its cost per sale to about $130 per car.

The TechnologyRoy Reutter says: "We were using our DMS provider for our Internet and CRM strategy but they were not getting results because that is not their specialty. After hiring a specialist in digital marketing and CRM, our numbers skyrocketed because they not only built our Web site but they also did all the online marketing including our search engine placement and multimedia e-mail campaigns." Sheehy increased leads from 400 to 1,350 in the fi rst two months and have continued to improve results. Today they are generating more than 2,400 leads a month from their Web site alone they’re selling more than 400 cars a month online.

The Web siteRoy Reutter has found there are fi ve keys to a great automotive Web site. They are:1. Simple and easy to use2. Content that the customer wants3. High-impact, engaging multi-media that is fast to load even on a low-speed connection4. Automatic updating

5. Designed to create more Internet, phone and showroom traffi c

The MarketingRoy Reutter has said, “If you can’t generate traffi c there’s no point in having a Web site.” According to him, the Sheey Auto Stores have been able to generate more traffi c at a lower

cost per sale by using search engine optimiza-tion in conjunction with multi-media Buzzmail campaigns. As a result, customers are landing on www.Sheehy.com rather than at the com-petitors’ sites. "When customers go online to search for dealers in our area they fi nd us, and as a result we have increased our traffi c and sales dramatically."

“We appear in the fi rst two Google results for free when customers type in “Washington DC Ford." Our competitors have

to buy sponsored links where they pay to get a worse position than our two free positions.” – Roy Reuetter

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Sheehy sold 414 cars online by shifting some of its advertising.

• After launching the new Web site, Sheehy went from 400 to 1,350 leads in only 60 days, and today it generates more than 2,400 leads per month.

• The closing ratio for the leads from Sheehy.com is three to four times higher, and the cost per sale is about $130 per car.

• Sheehy.com is designed to drive phone and showroom traffi c, and the Web site is now it's No. 1 source of phone leads.

• Sheehy increased leads by 350 percent after switching from its DMS pro-vider to a digital marketing company to build and market its site.

• Sheehy's Web site vendor positions it on search engines and helps market the Web site online and through multimedia e-mail campaigns.

Sheehy Sells 414 Cars a Month OnlineSheehy.com Increases Leads over 300 percent in 60 Days

13

ick Hannah, in Portland, Or., became the biggest pre-owned Internet dealer in the U.S. by rethinking its marketing strat-egy and recognizing that there is a lot of money to be made in special fi nance online.

They’ve since learned to use the Internet to tap into the special fi nance and pre-owned profi t opportunities, and today, they’re selling hun-dreds of extra vehicles per month. Joe Orr from the Dick Hannah organization shares how they implemented a new marketing strategy and re-gional buying service to become the No. 1 pre-owned Internet dealer in the world.

The Right Marketing, People and StrategyWe re-evaluated our advertising budget and realized we were spending more money than ever before on mass marketing without a suf-fi cient return on investment. An increase in television and radio stations today makes it harder to reach a large audience. The cost of print advertising has gone up, and print ads are positioned alongside competitors’ ads which focus on price - driving down the average gross profi t. We were spending more to get less, and it was tough to measure our return. It became clear there had to be a better way, and Internet was the obvious choice for targeted marketing. The fi rst thing we did was get the right people in place to run our BDC and establish a strat-egy for building business. Next, we focused on fi nding the right Web site and CRM provider.

The Right TechnologyOrr is quick to point out that you need more than a great Web site and CRM tool; you need to build a complete strategy for marketing, get the right people in place, implement a process and establish a pricing philosophy. He also adds: “While the right Web site won’t solve all your problems, you won’t get far without it. We had a pretty good templated site that was recommended by our manufacturer site but we were not getting incremental business. After we switched to our current provider we increased sales by 180 cars because they not only built us a better site, they also provided all the marketing tools and training.”

One great feature of the new site is a virtual special fi nance department called www.Dick-SaysYes.com which provides three easy ways

for the customer to get further into the process and continually prompts them to fi ll out an ap-plication online.

Joe explains, “The key to building a Web site capable of generating sub prime leads is to provide information the customer is looking for and a way to contact the dealership. For example, DickSaysYes.com includes a ‘How it Works’ button that provides FAQs, Six Steps to

Reestablish Credit, Fast Bankruptcy Approvals and other areas that speak to what’s important to the sub prime audience.”

Joe’s team has learned that to set yourself apart, you need to make it interactive, clean and user-friendly. Visit www.DickSaysYes.com and you can even click on a link to view TV commer-cials that promote the Web site and target the sub prime market.

“Special fi nance is huge on the Internet. With DickSaysYes.com, we sold an additional 180 sub prime

units in one month alone.” Joe Orr, Dick Hannah

THE BOTTOM LINE

• DickHannah.com became the No. 1 Pre-Owned eCRM Dealer in the world and the USA's Approval Site of the Year.

• DickHannah.com generates Internet leads, phone traffi c and showroom traffi c resulting in 384 incremental sales.

• The leads from DickHannah.com have a higher closing ratio and lower cost per sale.

• Dick Hannah dominates the market with its own regional buying service and sub-prime approval center at DickSaysYes.com.

• Dick Hannah hired one vendor to set up its emarketing system, Web sites, CRM tools and training.

• Dick Hannah uses e-mail marketing because it's cheap advertising with a high rate of return.

Dick HannnahBecomes No. 1 Pre-Owned eCRM Dealer by Selling 384 Extra Cars in one Month

14

espect. That’s the key word at Schomp Automotive. Re-specting the customer starts with selling according to the needs of the customer and say-ing goodbye to outdated one-size-fi ts-all high-pressure sales

techniques.

“Our approach to sales is two-pronged,” Lisa Schomp says. “We pay equal attention to pro-viding a superb Web site where customers can research and fi nd exactly what they need and to our state-of-the-art BDC that ensures our telephone customers’ needs are met promptly and effi ciently.”

Benefi ts of the BDCImplementing the BDC has increased sales, for the most part, because it greatly enhances follow-up by Schomp’s sales staff. Custom-ers are no longer slipping through the cracks. Lisa Schomp explains, “We provide prompt responses with real answers and a genuine in-terest in the customer’s needs. The focus is to set an appointment, and this is a true team effort.”

The Web site, the Marketing Strategy and the Technology“Our Web site is integral to our success; we sold over 1,000 vehicles online in 2004, and we are selling a lot more this year. Our Web site provider built us a fantastic site, and they provide search engine placement, e-mail campaigns, our CRM tool and the training we need to implement everything. We use a suite of powerful multimedia Buzzmails to selec-tively target our clientele with highly interac-tive campaigns. We have had a 10 percent re-turn on e-mail promotions. The way we look at it is if we broadcast 400 e-mails for free and make two sales from fi ve minutes of typing, that medium cannot be beat. Our customers seldom opt out since we do not overwhelm them, and we provide them with the informa-tion."

Schomp has implemented other new and in-novative marketing techniques to bring in new customers. They have done very little advertising over the last dozen years, and to-day, they rely on a small presence in newspa-

per and radio with their Web site and e-mail providing the bulk of the coverage they have. Lisa Schomp says, “We believe in indepen-dence from third party lead generators and auto brokers. We post our inventories on a couple of services like Cars.com and Auto-Trader, but we rely mainly on our own Web site and treating our customers the way we would like to be treated. By using our own site to pull in leads and treating customers

fairly when they walk in the door, we’ve in-creased our site leads ten-fold.”

About the future of the industry, Lisa Schomp says, “Know that change is inevitable, and don’t be afraid of it! Five years ago we had no idea that digital marketing would account for so many new customers and sales. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.”

“Our Web site is integral to our success; we sold over 1,000 vehicles online in 2004, and over 100 a month this year.” Lisa Schomp

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Schomp Automotive consists of a Chevrolet, Honda, BMW and Mini fran-chises

• www.Schomp.com helped sell more than 1,000 vehicles online last year and sells more than 100 cars a month today

• Schomp’s Web site generates 700 new Internet leads per month

• Schomp’s digital marketing has accelerated sales from 730 vehicles sold to 1,001 and gaining

• Schomp has implemented e-mail promotions that sell more cars without any extra expense

• Schomp’s sales have increased because they have the right people using its digital marketing system

Schomp AutomotiveSells 100 Extra Cars in one Month

15

hristopher’s Dodge World has become one of the largest dealerships in the country by working to constantly improve how it sells and serves its cus-tomers. It is quickly becoming known for how it is revolu-

tionizing the way cars are bought and sold in America.

Like many dealers, Christopher’s Dodge World noticed that more and more customers were using the Internet to start their shopping experience. Not only did it notice the trend, Christopher's Dodge World rose to the chal-lenge the Internet represents and are now leading the way to success with their own on-line buying service.

“Our goal is to make it quicker, easier and less expensive for customers to get their next vehicle. We feel that by putting the custom-ers’ needs fi rst, saving them time and giving them what they want we will sell more cars, increase gross and boost customer satisfac-tion. And you know what, it’s working” said Cliff Hall, general manager.

In the year since building its online buying service, www.CDodge.com has enabled it to increase sales volume from 20-30 vehicles per month to 138 sales last month. Custom-ers who in the past may have used brokers (who would then sell the leads to the dealer-ship) now know that they can go directly to the CDodge.com buying service. Chad Ster-ling, Internet director at Christopher’s Dodge World says, “Customers love it because they can build any car they want or view virtu-ally unlimited new and pre-owned inventory with just a couple clicks. They can also take a virtual test drive with 360 degree tours, view product comparisons, get fi nancing, view performance vehicles, check for spe-cials, download coupons, learn about the pre-owned certifi cation process and the one-hour vehicle purchase and even book a service ap-pointment or schedule parts.”

As a result www.CDodge.com has become the most successful online Dodge dealer in the world. Chad attributes the success to the following: Dealer and management support, a great marketing strategy, the right Web site and CRM tools, tight processes and a great team. “We’ve signed with outside training to make sure that our team is skilled and able to execute the process 100 percent.”

The Right Technology: We began with

some pretty nice templated Web sites but our customers wanted more and after hitting a pla-teau, we realized we needed more. Although we had a great Web site we did not get great results, and we quickly learned we needed more than a Web site. We hired a company called BZresults.com to custom build our on-line buying service, and they gave us all the tools and training we needed to promote, man-age and measure all our customer activity. We

experienced massive growth instantly. After one year we increased our online sales from an average of 20 vehicles a month to 138 ve-hicles last month. The reason for the increase was partly due to a better Web site that gener-ated more leads but most of the increase was due to the digital marketing tools we now use. These include search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, online ads, CRM tools, au-tomated follow-up and reports.

Christopher’s Dodge World: 138 Extra Sales in one Month CDodge.com Increases sales and profi t by using the Web and CRM to change the way America buys cars

“After we switched to BZResults.com we increased our sales from 20 to 138 cars a month.”

Chad Sterling, Internet director

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Christopher’s Dodge World created a new online buying service and be-came the No. 1 Dodge eCRM Dealer in the nation.

• Christopher’s Dodge World sold 138 extra cars in one month from its online buying service.

• CDodge.com promotes all profi t centers at the dealership.

• At CDodge.com you can build and compare vehicles, take virtual test drives, get fi nanced, evaluate a trade in, schedule appointments, buy parts , etc.

• Christopher’s Dodge is delivering on its mission to better serve the cus-tomer.

• Their technology vendor provides search engine marketing, online ads, Web and CRM tools, automated follow-up, reports and in-store training.

16

ourtesy Chevrolet’s Business Development Center has learned to leverage the marketing power of the Internet and as a result, it sold an additional 384 vehicles out of its BDC in one month

alone. The cornerstone of Courtesy’s BDC is its digital marketing system that allows it to generate incremental sales out of its BDC and drives more than half of the phone traffi c to the dealership. The BDC staff has learned to use the Web as an incredible marketing medium, and as a result its using the system to increase sales, F&I and service and parts business for a lot less money than traditional advertising. As a result, “Our cost per sale ranges from $125 to $200, which is a lot less than traditional adver-tising” said Scott Gruwell of Courtesy.

The system includes a high-end custom Web site and a prospecting/CRM tool that auto-mates most of the BDC’s contact activity. Gru-well explains, “Our new Web site increased our leads by more than 400 percent but it was only one part of our new system. The system also in-cludes the marketing tools to create traffi c and the CRM tool to manage our Internet, phone and show room opportunities so we can turn leads into sales. After the fi rst month we sold 40 units, then 75, then 150, 200 and last month we sold 380.”

When asked to name the single most important factor in launching a successful BDC, Scott Gruwell, tells us, “You need to fi nd and train the right people and give them the tools they need to do their job.” Scott has found that the right people for the BDC are those with excel-lent phone skills and a passion for customer satisfaction. He tells us that the right tools will automate much of the follow-up process and provide the reports to manage and measure results. He says, for example, “automation enables our team to focus their energy on the phone and they’re setting more appointments as a result.” Scott will be the fi rst to admit that installing a successful BDC is not a simple task, but when the BDC helps take the gross profi t from $84k per month to $582k per month, it’s an effort that’s worth the investment.

Courtesy ChevroletBecomes No. 1 BDC in U.S. by Selling 384 Extra Cars in One Month

“We increased our BDC sales from 40 to 384 cars a month. The key to our strategy was our Web site, CRM system and our

Internet marketing.”- Scott Gruwell, Courtesy Chevrolet

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Courtesy Chevrolet’s BDC helped sell 384 extra cars and generate $582k in one month

• Courtesy Chevrolet fi nished the year as the No. 2 Chevy dealer in the country

• Courtesy Chevrolet was named one of the Top 10 eCRM Dealers of the Year

• Courtesy’s Web site and BDC took them from 40 sales to 384 sales after a two-year period.

• Courtesy Chevrolet's Web site provider setup their BDC and provides their training

• Their cost per sale ranges from $125-$200 since installing their new system

"We conduct monthly

multi-media e-mail

campaigns that result in

25-50 sales a month."

Scott Gruwell

17

n today’s market, dealers are ei-ther thriving in a growth mode, or struggling to stay afl oat. Whether you’re successfully adding franchises to your dealer group or tightening your belt in an effort to remain competitive,

nothing will make or break a dealership’s suc-cess quite like people.

Tasca Automotive has grown from a small, family owned single-point store to a multi-franchise auto group operating out of four lo-cations. It has grown substantially while main-taining CSI scores that are among the highest in the nation and customer loyalty above 83 per-cent. Throughout the growth process, Tasca has naturally needed to add people. What’s unique is that the Tasca leadership team believes that their most important asset is their people, and as Bob Tasca III likes to say, “We owe it to our customers and ourselves to invest in the devel-opment of our team.”

But how do you move beyond the typical new-hire training? Tasca hired an outside training company to improve its strategy for recruit-ing, hiring and training its people. Bob Tasca III says, “We’ve been able to manage growth, increase profi ts and reduce turnover. We use a recruiting, hiring and training system to ensure we hire the right people for the job, baptize them in the Tasca way of doing business and give them the tools and skills they need to get off to a strong start. We build on that founda-tion with weekly in-house sessions and monthly training meetings with our consultant.” Here’s an outline their 120 day New Hire Orientation:

Part 1 - Welcome to the Tasca Family: Over-view of the dealership’s history, vision, mission and principles.

Part 2 - Welcome to the Dealership: Introduce new hire to each department and clarify his or her role within the entire ownership experi-ence.

Part 3 - Dealership Tour: Working tour of ev-ery department.

Part 4 - Department Internship: Work briefl y in each department to better understand cus-tomer experience and interdepartmental com-

munication.

Part 5 - Job Training: Detailed training regard-ing job-specifi c activities, processes and pro-cedures.

Part 6 - Mentorship: Every new team member is assigned to a mentor who is responsible for guiding him or her through the fi rst 120 days.

Part 7 - Certifi cation: The new team member meets with manager to verify profi ciency with each job skill as defi ned in the certifi cation book.

According to Tasca, “Employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction and loyalty. There-fore, the goal of orientation is to see that ev-

ery one of our graduates is excited about their career, confi dent with the skills and process needed to get results and eager to continue with their personal and professional development. Now that everyone is on the same page and our processes are generating great results, I could not imagine not spending the time and money to train our people properly.” Below is a summary of some of Tasca Univer-sity’s training modules:

Sales processManagement and coachingPhones strategy and processInternet strategy and processCustomer relationship centerSold and unsold follow upService contact and follow upLease and retail renewals

“We signed up with BZResults.com to implement our new digital marketing and training strategy. As a result our turnover has de-creased and sales and profi t have increased.” Bob Tasca III

THE BOTTOM LINE

• Tasca increased sales, profi ts and CSI by using the Web, CRM and train-ing to improve the customer experience at its dealership.

• Tasca hired a company to create and implement a complete strategy to recruit, hire and train its people in all areas of their business.

• Tasca’s world class Customer Relationship Center generates an addi-tional 80 sales a month.

• Tasca won Automotive News “Best Web site” award and has been named among the top eCRM Dealers of the year two years in a row.

• Tasca’s customer loyalty rating is above 63 percent and their CSI is among the nation’s highest.

• Tasca Automotive invests in training its people because it's found that employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction.

Tasca Auto GroupTasca Increases Profi ts and Reduces Turnover

ProfitabilityEmployee

Satisfaction

Customer

SatisfactionTurnover

0

20

40

60

80

100

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

18

20

Planning Your Questions

BrianTracy

Selling consists of fi nding the gap between where the customer is and where he or she could be with what you sell. Gap

analysis is based on asking good questions — questions focused on discovering problems that might be troubling the prospect. There is a direct correlation between the use of good questioning techniques and sales success. The more and better questions you ask aimed at fi nding a problem or uncovering a dissatisfaction, the more interest the prospect will have and the more sales you will make. The person who asks questions has control.

Good sales people always plan the wording of their questions, rewriting them and practicing them before they get face-to-face with a prospect. Poor sales people, on the other hand, make up their questions as they go along.

Here are some great questions for gap analysis.

The fi rst question is an application of the “magic-wand technique.” Imagine that you have a magic wand that you can wave over the prospect’s situation and you ask this question: “Mr. or Ms. Prospect, if this situation were absolutely perfect in every respect, what would it look like?” Then remain silent. When the prospect begins to describe that perfect situation, you’ll uncover the gaps you can fi ll to create his or her ideal future. When you explain how your product or service can bridge those gaps, you will greatly enhance your chances of making a sale.

A great set of questions begins with the words what if? For example, “What if we could achieve this particular result for you? What effect would that have on your situation?”

Good questions that grab the prospect’s attention will start him or her visualizing and imagining an ideal future state, exactly the state that your product or service is meant to achieve.

A fi nal key to effective selling through gap analysis, is to share some of the experiences of people who have previously purchased your product or service. Use third-party references, testimonials and anecdotes. Say something like, “I have a very good customer who had a similar situation to yours not long ago.” Then go on to explain how your customer was able to rectify that situation in a cost-effective way by accepting your recommendation.

To be truly persuasive in the selling process, use gap analysis. Instead of trying to overwhelm your prospects with reasons and rationales for doing what you want them to do, ask questions aimed at uncovering their problems, needs and dissatisfactions. Listen carefully to the answers they give you, and ask additional questions to help them expand on their situation. Take a few moments to feed their answers back to them, to show that you were really listening and that you really appreciate their needs. Then position yourself to infl uence and persuade your prospects by showing them how your product or service just happens to be the ideal way to solve their problem, satisfy their need, or achieve their goal.

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take time to write out your questions word for word and practice them in advance before meeting with the customer. They are too important to be left to chance.

Second, continually ask “What if” questions to help open up your customer’s mind to the possibilities and benefi ts of what you sell. Listen carefully to every answer.

Brian Tracy is the chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International. He can be contacted at 866.300.9881, or by e-mail at btracy@autosuccess.biz.

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Seven Keys to WarrantyAdministration Success

GreggTompkins

The automaker is your biggest customer in the service department. They come in as different customers throughout the day

under the guise of warranty repairs, but when it comes to dollars, the automaker pays out more than any other customer to your service department every month.

To collect that money, it takes more effort than just swiping a credit card or taking cash. That’s where having your warranty processes on a good foundation will pay off.

A good warranty administratorDealerships need a strong, knowledgeable warranty administrator that can be the go-to person. This is the person that will have very detailed knowledge of warranty administration policies and can usually handle answering most warranty administration questions, as well as be the hands-on person to deal with warranty claims once the repair is completed.

A good service managerA good, strong, effective and honest service manager plays a key role in your warranty administration success. He or she can keep everyone focused on following the policies outlined by the manufacturer and keep warranty expense in line so the threat of an audit is minimized and you can keep your hard-earned money.

Proper documentationProper documentation will help avoid many problems. Those problems can include: not claiming all the warranty dollars you’re due, claims being improperly coded, claims being held up longer for payment and claims being debited in an audit.

Properly documenting warranty claims must be part of the job description for service advisors, technicians, management and parts personnel.

Use and maintenance of schedulesWarranty receivable schedules can be a good barometer of how effective your claims payment processes are. It takes constant overview and maintenance to make warranty receivable schedules useful in evaluating how things are fl owing. Payments need to be applied immediately, and any adjustments need to be identifi ed and corrected as soon as possible. Schedules

need to be looked at weekly and reviewed in-depth on a monthly basis.

Open RO reportsJust like warranty schedules, open RO reports can tell you what’s going on with your warranty claims. You wouldn’t leave cash lying around on a desk without depositing it, so why do it with warranty claim dollars? This report will isolate unpaid warranty claims that have not yet made it to the warranty schedule.

Manufacturer�s warranty expense reportsThis is an important document for you to review every month. The reports can give you valuable insight into how well you’re minding the manufacturer’s money, and that’s what matters if you want to avoid an audit.

Parts retention and scrapping system.The most overlooked component of many dealerships’ warranty administration systems is the warranty parts retention system. It can

often look like a mini-junkyard in your parts department. The more disorganized it is, the less likely you’ll be able to fi nd the parts you need when the manufacturer requests them back. The most common and simplest system is to use the tried and true 10-bin system.

Good warranty administration practices are an essential component of a well-run service department and profi tability. Take a look at how you measure up and make the appropriate changes if you need them. It can mean money in your pocket.

Gregg Tompkins is the president and a consultant at Dealer Insight. He can be contacted at 866.403.7973, or by e-mail at gtompkins@autosuccess.biz.

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22

Take Your InternetSales to the Next Level

DavidKain

Answer the following question and outline your next level:

1. What level are you on today?

In order to know where you want to go. you need to know where you are today. The Internet is very metrics based, which makes it the perfect dealership tool. Dealers are accustomed to measuring every aspect of their business from their hours per R.O. to their obsolete parts inventory to their reconditioning charges on used vehicles and their aged receivables. All of these variables mix into their goal of achieving a profi t, and they monitor these and many other metrics each and every month.

The following metrics need to be defi ned each month to determine your performance level.a. What is the number of Internet leads received by e-mail and by phone?b. What are your lead sources? Dealer Web site, third parties, online classifi ed?c. How many leads you are able to connect with and have a real dialogue?d. How many customers set appointments?e. How many customers kept appointments?f. How many vehicles did you sell? This determines your close rateg. What is your average gross per sale?h. What is your total gross?i. What did your leads cost you? Web site costs, third party costs, Online classifi ed costs, technology costs, etc.?j. What is your return on investment?

Once you have these metrics defi ned you can pretty well determine your operating level as long as you have some benchmarks to compare yourself to. Over the last several years, I have learned the difference between poor, average, good and great performance and want to offer the following achievable goals for your use in comparing your own Internet performance.

General Internet achievable goals These goals are based on the actual results of dealerships KainAutomotive.com has trained and consulted with over the past three years. The goals can and should vary by brand, so make sure you focus on what is attainable given your individual brand.

Lead source percentage achievable goals: • Dealer Web site generated leads = 40 percent of total leads• Third party generated leads = 50 percent of total leads (for Ford and GM dealers these include FordDirect and GMBuyPower leads)• Manufacturer generated leads = 10 percent of total leads

Number of leads you connect with achievable goal:• Connect rate = 55 percent of total leads.Meaning the number from whom you actually obtained a legitimate e-mail response or with whom had a telephone conversation.

Number of prospects who set an appointment achievable goal:• Appointment rate = 40 percent of total leads

Number of prospects who keep their appointment achievable goal:• Kept appointment rate = 30 percent of total leads

Percentage of Kept Appointment Prospect who Purchase Achievable Goal:• Kept appointments who purchase rate = 50 percent

Close rate percentage of total leads achievable goal:• Close Rate = 15 percent of total leads

Gross average on Internet generated sales achievable goal:• Average Internet gross = average showroom gross

Average cost per vehicle sold via the Internet achievable goal:• Average cost per Internet vehicle sold = $200

2. What do you consider the next level compared with your current performance?

The answer you provide for this question is perhaps the most important one for your dealership in attaining the next level. If your performance is below the achievable goals outlined above the next level for your dealership could be achieved by meeting those outlined above. If you are already at the levels described above then it is realistic

to think you can go beyond and become an industry leader. Whatever level you aim for, be sure to keep it in a state of fl ux so you can achieve and then aim even higher. Your dealership Internet team must feel the next level is attainable or they could give up before they even start the journey. By including your Internet team in the discussion to determine your next level goals you will have their buy-in and commitment to do what it takes to achieve them.

3. Do you have the foundation in place to take it to the next level?

There are several common elements in place when I see dealerships who truly have taken it to the next level. I’ve outlined them below for you to gauge your own foundation.

• Dealership commitment – Is the dealer principal willing to commit the time, energy and resources to grow to the next level?

Basic resources:• Budget for leads, technology and compensation• Training for dealership management and Internet/BDC personnel• People – behind every leading Internet operation there are key people who manage through adversity to stay focused and on target. Hire and train the right people and you are almost there.• Leads – right sizing your leads to your personnel and technology is essential to meeting your goals• Technology – an effective Web site is crucial in meeting your dealer Web site lead source goal. Managing growth requires a technologically advanced CRM or lead management tool

By answering these questions you can easily predict whether your dealership is in line to take it to the next level. With so many people using the Internet to start the buying process you don’t really have any choice, so outline the steps and start aiming for the next level today.

David Kain is the automotive Internet training specialist at Kain Automotive Inc. He can be contacted at 800.385.0095, or by e-mail at dkain@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.kainautomotive.com.

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marketing solution

24

Do You Havea Daily Schedule

ChrisHanson

It doesn’t matter if you sell 10 cars a month or 25 cars, we all have lots of time. If fact, when we are really

busy, our daily schedule really comes in handy. Just like we talked about in the last article, we need to set goals and then have a plan for how we are going to accomplish those goals. A daily schedule will help you accomplish them.

One of the fi rst things to consider is your continuing education. Become a student of the business. Start the day out by listening to a training CD on the way to work. Don’t have a long enough drive to work? No problem. Do it when you get to work. Go to the meeting room and listen or better yet watch a training tape. If you want to take things up a notch, how about listening to a CD on the way to work and then sit down and watch a training tape when you get to work? Then if you want to really take your career to the next level, fi nd a partner at work that will commit to role-play with you every day and watch your sales go through the roof! How many months do sports teams practice before they play their fi rst game? “I want to think about it.” What are you going to say? “Payments are too high.” What are you going to say?

Right after you get done with your training, it’s time to head out on the lot. I don’t care if you have 100 cars or 1,000 cars on your lot, you need to know what your inventory is. Walk the lot and take note where cars are located, colors and equipment and keep a look out for new trades and new program cars. You must know your inventory, trust me. Your career depends on it. Start walking the lot and see what happens. You will be more professional and you will know what alternatives to offer your customer and, in turn, you will sell more cars. Start today.

From here you need to go over yesterday and see what you need to follow through with and also plan your day. Now you need to really fi gure out the best times at your store

to do things to fully maximize your daily schedule. By this, I mean each store has different traffi c trends, so ask your manager or start paying attention. When does it seem most ups come into the dealership? When do most phone ups call in? When is the best time to get hold of your customers?

Start by creating and following a daily schedule. Here’s an example:

1. Listen to a Training CD on the way to work.

2. Get to work a little early and watch a training tape.

3. Plan your day.

4. 9 to 9:30 a.m. – Walk the inventory

5. 9:30 to noon, beat the phones to death! Watch for ups.

6. Five Appointments! Go for fi ve every day. You need to make enough contacts by phone each day to generate fi ve appointments.

7. 1 to 3 p.m. – Come back to your offi ce and hit the phones again. Watch for ups.

8. 4 to 5:30 p.m. – Watch for ups.

9. 5:30 to 6 p.m. – Set up the day for tomorrow

10. Do this everyday.

Sit down today, create your daily schedule and put your career on the fast track. Make use of your time while you’re there by having direction and a purpose for being there beyond your next sale. If you would like more details on developing your schedule please feel free to e-mail me.

Chris Hanson with Hibbing Chrysler can be contacted at 800.901.2862, or bye-mail at chanson@autosuccess.biz.

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sales and training solution

I don�t believe in Santa Claus, but I�m not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don�t agree with Darwin, but I didn�t go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his theory of evolution.

Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game.

So what�s the big deal? It�s not like somebody is up there reading the entire book of Acts. They�re just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the Þ eld and the fans going home from the game.

But it�s a Christian prayer, some will argue.

Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect-somebody chanting Hare Krishna?

If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer.

If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer.

If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha.

And I wouldn�t be offended. It wouldn�t bother me one bit. When in Rome.

But what about the atheists? is another argument.

What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We�re not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that�s asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer!

Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don�t think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world�s foundations.

Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating; to pray before we go to sleep.

Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying.

The silent majority has been silent too long. It�s time we let that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard that the vast majority don�t care what they want. It is time the majority rules! It�s time we tell them, you don�t have to pray; you don�t have to say the pledge of allegiance; you don�t have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right. But by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We are Þ ghting back ... and we WILL WIN!

God bless us one and all ... especially those who denounce Him. God bless America, despite all her faults. She is still the greatest nation of all.

God bless our service men who are Þ ghting to protect our right to pray and worship God.

May 2006 be the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions. Keep looking up.

Anonymous Author

26

The Rick Case Automotive Group:

PatrickLuck

Behind Rick Case Automotive Group is a successfully dynamic husband-and-wife team with

a fundamental understanding of their customers and a passion that is unmatched in the automotive sales industry.

Founded in 1962 and located in South Florida since 1986, Rick Case Automotive Group is owned and operated by Rick and Rita Case, whose line of cars include Acura, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda and Mitsubishi, with 13 dealerships in Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta and Cleveland.

Exemplifying their combined success is Rick Case Honda of Fort Lauderdale. Opened in 2002, this $33 million, more than half a million square-foot, six-story automotive complex houses more than 1,500 new Hondas on display inside under showroom lights. Not only is it the world’s largest dealership physically, it surpassed all other Honda dealerships in North America in volume in both its fi rst month and year in operation. In its fi rst August in business, Rick Case Honda broke Honda’s national one-month sales record for new cars with a total of 1,033. A year later, it broke its own record, which still stands today at 1,222.

A pneumatic tube system for customer convenience sends keys to six fl oors, the showroom, the used car department and service facility. Rick Case Honda also offers an eight-pump discount gas station, a self-service free car wash, defi brillators and during local and national elections, the showroom transforms into two voting precincts, accommodating 3,800 people. A county clerk of courts offi ce in the dealership offers marriage license applications, traffi c citation payments, reinstatement of driver’s licenses and driver history, and a chapel for wedding ceremonies. This year, Rick Case Honda opened South Florida’s most state-of-the-art collision center with nine paint booths and has more than doubled the size of its service department to 90 service bays. The express service department also increased in size, going from two to 12 express service bays.

Complimenting the group’s success in operating innovative and successful dealerships is the Cases’ dedication to personal customer service and philosophy of treating every customer as if he or she were their best friend.

Rick and Rita, as well as all of their managers and sales staff, provide both their home and cell phone numbers to all their customers.

Rick and Rita Case of Rick Case Automotive Group

Sales people call each customer once a month, offering free gifts, tickets to shows and sports events, providing them with sales or service information as well. Giving the customer an impression that the dealership cares more about post-sale relations than the sale itself, the Cases instituted an industry-fi rst rewards program, designed to solidify customer loyalty. All customers receive a rewards card, which earns them rewards

points that can be used to save on future purchases. The rewards card also allows customers to receive discounts on gasoline, free car washes and a 10 percent discount on service, parts and accessories.

Equally impressive is the Cases’ unparalleled commitment to the community. Whether distributing more than 50,000 complimentary life-saving emergency escape hammers to South Floridians or donating funds to a variety of charities, the Cases’ two-fold dedication to their customers and the community can be seen in their charitable involvements. In fact, in 2004 Rick Case received the National USA Today Dealer Innovation Award in recognition of outstanding leadership in the development and implementation of community-wide safety initiatives for the hammer distribution.

“We believe that a community is as strong as its members and gains strength through support,” Rick Case said. “By means of supporting a variety of wonderful charity organizations, we are committed to a range of causes that will contribute to enhancing the entire community.”

In addition to starting the Rick Case Bikes for Kids annual charity program, which has donated more than 150,000 bicycles to unfortunate and needy children in Ohio, Georgia and Florida since 1982, Rick serves on the board of trustees for Nova Southeastern University, while Rita is on the board of the Broward Community Foundation. Rick was also named “Child Advocate of the Year” by Child Care Connection for his work with Florida at-risk youth. He also received several awards from the Boys and Girls Club, including the Silver Medallion Award, the highest honor bestowed by this organization. Each year it is presented to an individual nationally who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment. In 2003, the Cases were named “Humanitarians of the Year” by both the Emergency Assistance Service Effort Foundation of Davie and Nova Southeastern University, and in 2003, they were recognized by the Sun-Sentinel as the

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special feature

27january 2006

More Than Just Car DealershipsDealers Recognized for Invaluable Community Contributions and Industry Innovations

Bill Epps and Kathryn Cousins receive a check in the amount of $315,948 from Rick and Rita Case of Rick Case Honda and Acura in support of the American Red Cross� Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Rick Case Honda in Davie, Florida

South Florida Business Leaders of the Year.

The Cases serve on many community and charity boards including the Broward County Boys and Girls Club corporate board and are co-presidents of South Florida’s newest Boys and Girls Club in Davie, which was named in their honor. They continue to contribute to a variety of community-oriented organizations, including the Broward Chapter of the American Red Cross, Broward County Sheriff’s Department, Nova Southeastern University, Humane Society of Broward County, Joe DiMaggio’s Children’s

Hospital Foundation and the Museum of Discovery and Science.

Rick and Rita have also directed their creative talents toward the fi nancial development and growth of the Boys and Girls Clubs, creating many successful fundraising events, which consistently raise more than $2 million per year, including the Fort Lauderdale International Auto Show.

For more information, please call 888.835.1689, or visit www.rickcase.com.

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30

How Much Does a �Token�Discount Affect Your Paycheck

JimAdams

“Boss, this guy just won’t pay sticker!” “They want a no-trade discount.”“They don’t want to mess around, they just

want our best price.”“He said he would give us a shot.”

Over the past 15 years, I have realized there are only about a dozen customers. They may all look different and come from different walks of life but their buying motivations are all the same. This is why we use selling scripts. Many customers tell us things like:

“I want to think it over.”“I only have fi ve minutes.”“Ball park my trade, I won’t hold you to it.”

Sales psychology in its purest form indicates that once the customer is on the lot, half the battle is over. He or she must be in the market or close to making a purchase. They must at least have some interest in your product and your dealership or they would not come to your place of business. Once the customer is in your store, it is up to you, the professional sales person. Professional sales people must have well-rehearsed scripts to handle these objections as they come up. The most expensive mistake professional sales people make is the lack of preparation in handling “token discount” questions on the lot or on the desk. How well we prepare for these objections can make a huge impact in our commissions.

Let’s take a hard look at the math. How much does a $500 token discount affect your

paycheck? You know, the customer says, “How much you goin’ to knock off?” and you say, “I could probably get them to discount it $500!” The average sales person selling 10 units a month will give away $5,000 a month in gross or $60,000 a year in just a few words. Nationally, the average commission is around 25 percent. This means that the average sales person is giving away $1,250 a month or $15,000 a year in commissions by improper handling of price questions on the lot. Just think of it as giving away your mortgage payment.

Joe Verde says sales are not missed by a few dollars but a few words. I will go a little further and say, “commissions are higher or lower based on the scripts we use in our selling presentation.”

1. Seed your conversation with the words, “value priced.” How much is it? It’s value priced at just over 18. What’s your best price? That’s a great question, it’s value priced just over 18. What’s your bottom dollar? That’s the best part, it’s value priced from the factory at just over 18. Remember the fi ve questions the customer must answer before making a buying decision: what to buy, when to buy, where to buy, from whom to buy and price to pay. If they are standing in your showroom you can assume that if you do your job all but the fi nal question is being answered. You and I both know that the price issue is one of the fi rst issues the customer brings up. Why? Because the customer comes to the dealership with a fear

of loss. We must control the sale by building rapport, investigating wants and needs, selecting a product and giving the customer our best product demonstration and presentation before we can reveal the mystery or the price and terms to the customer.

2. Answer their question, build a bridge and ask another control question. When price questions come up on the lot, do not fear them, address them. Here are a few ways to handle, “what’s your best price?”

1. That’s the best part!2. Our prices are great!3. I will get right to that!4. You’re going to be impressed!5. Getting you our best price is easy

Then build a bridge to change the direction of the conversation.

1. That reminds me2. I almost forgot3. Speaking of great value for the

money

Ask another control question and then get back to your value presentation.

1. Were you looking for something with a lot of extras or will the LX package suit you?

2. Will you prefer a light or dark color?

3. Did you need a fi ve speed or automatic?

4. Will you use your next vehicle for business or pleasure?

Remember to stay on track and handle objections as they come up. Customers buy when the value they receive is more than the price they pay. Every customer wants to talk price. It is your job to control the conversation long enough to fi nd out what he or she needs. Once you fi nd a vehicle that truly matches their needs, they will pay you for it.

Jim Adams is the general manager at Roper Kia in Joplin, Mo. He can be contacted at 800.905.0627, or by e-mail at jadams@autosuccess.biz.

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Create an Enlightened Environment

TomGegax

Employees are like plants. To bloom and thrive, they need to be rooted in the rich soil of a nurturing environment. They

need to be watered with care and attention

and warmed by the sunlight of appreciation.

In a healthy culture, people• Look forward to coming to work;• Feel pride in being part of the team;• Consider their co-workers friends;• Are excited by the organization’s

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leadership solution

32

vision;• Gladly go beyond the call of duty

when required; • Are personally satisfi ed when the

team does well;• Are in sync with the organization’s

operating values;• Believe their work contributes directly

to the team’s success.

Changing an existing culture is diffi cult, and doable. The pressure of running a company, store or department can easily siphon attention away from employee-related issues. That it’s diffi cult to stay focused on the satisfaction of employees, however, makes it no less necessary. The less attention paid to people’s basic desire to offer value and feel valued, the faster spins the revolving door of turnover. (Of course, enlightened executives realize that without a healthy bottom line, morale may become a mood point.)

Break these cultural leadership laws and your culture surveys will be graded D for dreadful. Renounce your seat-of-the-pants ways and be an A+ leader.

Honor employeesDuring a routine visit to a Tires Plus store in 1995, I asked a young sales man named Gabe Lopez how things were going. “To be honest with you,” he said, “not too well.” Gabe said he had recently clocked a 70-hour week only to be told after the fact that he had been promoted from an hourly to a salaried position. He felt chumped, like he was owed the overtime money. He methodically climbed his grievance up the corporate ladder, but felt his protest had fallen on deaf ears.

I called our human resources head and asked for an explanation. Gabe’s situation was a gray area, I was told, and we had a good case for not paying him the overtime cash. If there’s a gray area, I told her, the employee should be given the benefi t of the doubt; after all, that’s what we do for our customers when there’s a dispute. I hung up and apologized to Gabe. He got his check the next day.

“I was just a 19-year-old kid out of high school working in an entry-level position,” recalled Gabe, now a Tires Plus assistant district manager. “The fact that Tom took the time to listen to me and resolve the situation without hesitation really wowed me. It’s something that will always stay with me. If not for that, I would have left the company. Tom later pulled me aside a

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number of times to tell me I could really go far in the company. He made me feel valued as a person, and I wanted to show him his faith in me was well-deserved.”

Gabe’s story illustrates why you can’t leapfrog your employees — your internal customers — and focus solely on pleasing your external customers. It’s a simple matter of connecting the dots. Honor your people and genuinely care about their well-being and you’ll be rewarded with deeply loyal employees who set a new standard for customer service.

Snoop like ColumboAn enlightened executive roots out the truth like a gumshoe. If key details are missing, you can’t make the right choice, solve the big problem or launch the stinger strategy.

When employees told me things were fi ne, I dug deeper: “Anything I can help you with?” “If you ran things, what would you do differently?” Sooner or later, the answers spilled out.

“When Tom hit the fi eld, we’d do everything in our power to make sure the stores were fi ring on all cylinders,” said Jim Pascale, our fi rst Iowa regional manager. Before one of my visits, Jim asked all his store personnel — over and over — the questions I typically asked. “Sure enough,” Jim recalled, “Tom ended up asking the same questions I had. But he got 20 new answers!”

Be relentless. Employees instinctively withhold bad news from the boss. Some try to protect underperforming colleagues or hide embarrassing details. Other times, the truth remains elusive because no one’s connected the dots between problem and root cause. I methodically drill like a west Texas derrick to the core of problems. I sometimes hit nerves instead of veins.

“There were times,” said Wayne Shimer, head of retail operations, “when I wanted to reach out and say, ‘Stop!’ But, ultimately, Tom was right, because everything was out on the table all the time. And I don’t care what anybody says, that’s a healthy culture to work in.”

Look with fresh eyesThe status quo is a work in progress. One question always on the tip of my tongue was, “What did you learn?” “If you didn’t have a good answer,” regional manager Brad Burley

recalled, “you got a little tough love. Tom and I would visit stores together, and knowing he was going to ask me that question at the end of the day kept me very focused.”

Another question that yanks people out of their daily grind: Let’s assume there are fl aws in our customer service procedure. If we were starting from scratch, how could we make it more effective? The question often lit the fuse to innovation.

Be tough, not roughOne day, a shipment of high-performance tires arrived at one of our stores instead of its true destination — our chief competitor. Dave, the manager, quietly accepted delivery, only to be busted later during a routine audit. Pressed for details, Dave confessed that Jerry, his district manager, advised him to hang on to the $700 tires. I happened to be visiting my mother in Indiana and was patched into a hastily called teleconference.

Deliberations were rough. My heads of HR and loss prevention urged termination for both Dave and Jerry. It was as if they had broken into a rival’s shop and stolen the tires, they said. Two other execs argued for suspension because Dave and Jerry had clean records and years of exceptional customer service.

I broke in with a challenge: “I want the person who’s never accepted too much change at the bank or grocery store to speak up, please.” Silence. “Is what they did wrong?” I asked. “Absolutely. Should there be consequences? Of course. But it isn’t just like breaking into another company’s store. And don’t tell me this is worth trashing the careers of two decent men. That’s overreacting. Who among us has never needed a second chance?”

We returned the tires to UPS and slapped Dave and Jerry with two-week suspensions. Both men literally broke down when they learned we had spared their jobs. My management team also learned a lesson — big decisions that impact the lives of our people ought not be made in the heat of the moment.

Tom Gegax served as the chairman and CEO of Tires Plus and is the founder of Gegax Management Systems. He can be contacted at 800.723.2601, or by e-mail at tgegax@autosuccess.biz.

The Three Sources of Trust

DougHall

As a sales person, you have the power to tap into three wellsprings of customer trust: trust in the company,

trust in you as a sales person and trust in the product.

But did you know that trust in the company is actually most important?

A recent research study conducted with 568 purchasing managers to fi nd the core sources of consumer trust found that trust in the company was most important. Trust in the sales person was a close second and trust in the product came third. So what can you do to earn and keep your customer’s trust?

Build your company�s brand

We all know people who will only drive a certain make of car — an uncle who refuses to buy anything but Fords or a neighbor with two Toyotas. Even if a new offering from Toyota or Ford is recalled, your uncle and neighbor will still buy Fords and Toyotas. They will continue to like the products because they have a deep-rooted trust in the companies.

The best way to help customers trust your company is by clearly saying how your car builds on your company’s promise to make a meaningful difference for customers. I’m talking about things like safety, gas mileage,

navigation features, etc. It’s also important to talk about your company’s culture — why you’re proud to work for it, and why you believe in it’s cars. It’s one thing to wear a shirt with your company logo, but another to really talk as if you’re wearing your company on your sleeve.

Provide leadership to your industry

Participate in trade associations and shows or volunteer to lead key committees at work. By being more active in your industry, when you have the chance to connect with customers you’ll be able to answer any question they have. You’ll also be able to come up with more unique promotion ideas. I recently read about one carmaker who displayed its new car at a local coffeehouse for a morning and gave everyone free coffee. There was no advance publicity, just something that everyone would be talking about at the offi ce later that day. A brilliant guerilla marketing idea that was a big hit with customers in the target demographic.

Build personal trust by being a raving

company fan

Be open and enthusiastic about your absolute trust in your company. Customers will notice your attitude. The more you believe in your company, the more they will, too.

If you�re a new company, confront this

disadvantage head-on

If you’re selling for a new company — and

in the car world it takes years to get out of the “new” category — confront this up front by offering incentives that put your customers at ease. If your customer will be risking thousands of dollars on a new or newer make of car, you’ll have to do something to get them to take that leap of faith.

Let your product do the talking

Don’t feel like you have to talk to customers the entire time you’re with them. By tapping into your customer’s three main sources of trust you’ll easily develop strong relationships with your clients. Whether or not you make the sale, you’ll have earned their trust. And that’s a story you’ll want your customer’s friends and family to hear.

How easy is it to lose a customer’s trust? Here’s a scenario for you.

I’m sure you’ve heard a variation on this story, but it’s worth repeating because it’s a good example. One January, a friend of mine went to a dealership to buy a used car. It was a great deal — a sporty two-seater with reliability and low miles. She asked the sales person if the car had air conditioning, and he turned the fan up and said, “of course it does — feel the cold air?”

Well, of course the air coming out of the vents was cold — it was January! My friend later discovered there was no air-conditioning. Although she loves her car, she tells everyone to not trust the sales people at that dealership.

Features and new products come and go — sometimes faster than customers like. So instead of ranking trust in the sales person or the product as most important, buyers put trust in the company at the top. The best way to earn your customer’s trust is to trade on their trust in the company, which will in turn build their trust in you.

Doug Hall is the CEO and founder of Eureka! Ranch. He can be contacted at 866.872.8109, or by e-mail atdhall@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.EurekaRanch.com.

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sales and training solution

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36

Achieving an OptimalInternet Marketing Mix

MichaelRosenberg

The J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Dealer Satisfaction with Online Buying Services Study released in September

shows that information found on the Internet affects selection for 79 percent of automotive Internet users.

As the number of people researching their next vehicle purchase online continues to increase, dealers must carefully plan how to reach those shoppers. From search engine strategies to banner advertising, dealers have an extensive menu of marketing options from which to choose. The key is to fi nd the mix that works best for a dealership’s specifi c needs and produces the highest return on investment.

Most dealers are probably familiar with how easily traditional marketing programs can fail to pay out due to misconceptions, lack of tracking or poor planning. While Internet marketing presents a dealer’s most cost-effective and targeted marketing method, there are many different ways to tackle it, and fi nding the right mix can be challenging. The advice outlined here is intended to offer a good starting point to becoming a savvy Internet marketer.

Effective Internet marketing requires both an easy-to-use Web site optimized for natural search, commonly referred to as search engine optimization, a targeted paid search strategy and a source for high-quality, third party Internet leads. The extent to which each is used should be based on the specifi c needs of the dealer.

Web Sites and SEOFor online buyers, a dealer Web site may be the fi rst interaction he or she has with the brand. Therefore, it is critical to make this interaction a good experience. Dealer Web sites need to effectively represent the key benefi ts they want to communicate about both the dealership and the brand image. Web sites need to be simple to navigate and easy to use. Easy-to-fi nd contact information, including phone numbers, hours of operation, address and driving directions, is key.

Ideally, the Web site should be optimized so that when local consumers search the Internet

using terms such as “Houston Toyota” or “Atlanta dealers,” the dealership’s site will show up in the search results. To ensure that happens, the search engines must “spider” the site so the pages can be indexed according to how relevant they are to the search term.

When building a site, dealers should make it both consumer friendly and search-engine friendly. It should be easy for search engines to read and have plenty of relevant content to index. This sometimes involves a big fi nancial investment upfront, so double check the anticipated search traffi c before any money is spent to ensure the investment will pay for itself.

Paid searchOf the Internet marketing elements, paid search is the toughest component for dealers to manage alone. Paid search requires more resources – such as constant bidding, often on thousands of key words, knowledge of search engine behavior and ability to write effective advertising copy – that are usually not core competencies of most dealerships. Getting optimal ROI is the primary focus of paid search, and to do this requires connecting the dots. Understanding that a Web site visit from a potential customer who is randomly searching for cars has a different value than a consumer searching for more specifi c terms is critical in evaluating the ROI of each bid. A key challenge for dealers is that often the high volume terms such as cars are usually non-geographic specifi c. For example, a dealer in Miami could get traffi c from consumers who live in North Dakota and vice versa. Keep in mind that it’s not purely about click-through and traffi c — it’s about quality traffi c that creates a positive ROI.

To run a successful paid search campaign, dealers need experience, technology and resources. Most of all, national distribution plays a big role. Facing this challenge, some dealers are choosing to outsource the management of paid search to outside agencies.

Dealers must be careful to understand the true value of these arrangements. For example, if a dealer spends $5,000 with a vendor who just does paid search, to drive 250 leads, that dealer would have to drive 1,666 visits to the Web site every month, which is a highly unlikely scenario.

However, if that same dealer spends $5,000 a month with a third-party lead provider, the dealer should get about 250 leads, which are likely to result in about 50 sales. That’s a cost of only about $100 per sale. Lead providers have the marketing scale for sophisticated and cost-effi cient search that drives local consumers into dealerships — something that a single dealership would be hard pressed to duplicate.

Dealers should use caution with vendors who try to help implement paid search programs by trying to convince them that paid search efforts should replace third party leads. While search is certainly the hot topic in the media right now, it is getting more complicated and competitive all the time. It is recommended that dealers test paid search as part of their overall marketing mix, but don’t abandon their other Internet tools until they are sure a paid search campaign can generate the consistent volume and cost per sale that other techniques can provide. The key to effective paid search is in knowing if it is providing an acceptable ROI compared with other marketing options. Choose a vendor that has the resources and experience to manage bids and will provide the best value. It pays to outsource paid search campaigns to outside agencies as long as dealers clearly defi ne what deliverables they expect and they don’t confuse all traffi c with buying traffi c.

Bottom lineA dealer’s marketing mix depends on the outlined objectives. Build an easy-to-use, easily searchable Web site for local consumers. Make sure it is optimized so customers can fi nd it. Test out paid search. Partner with a third-party lead provider that will deliver a dependable volume of serious buyers each month. Best of all, use all the available tools and keep evaluating what best meets the dealer’s objectives. Staying focused on the ROI will allow the overall mix of offl ine and online marketing tools to take care of themselves.

Michael Rosenberg is senior vice president of marketing and media service at Autobytel Inc. He can be contacted at 866.662.7330, or by e-mail atmrosenberg@autosuccess.biz.

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Words Are Cheap

MarkTewart

Words are cheap. What matters is the true belief system behind your words and the actions you take because of those belief

systems. Economies don’t improve, people improve. Waiting for something to happen is

for losers. The most important economy is the one created between your ears.

During down markets you have to get creative to make things happen. Although you may not be able to push a new car market if it’s not there, you can niche market, create affi liations, utilize your customer base better

and push a used car market. In other words, there are options for success. Standing and waiting for the world to create your economy is not a good option.

There is an old quote that says, “When you go to work on yourself and get better it’s amazing how much better your customer’s get.” The one activity that can always pay off during a down economy is individual and organizational development.

Everything boils down to the four P’s of business - people, process, product and positioning. Do you work daily on your personal development? Do you work daily to increase your knowledge and ability to sell your product? Do you work daily to increase the effectiveness of your process? Do you work daily to increase your positioning through better marketing? If you work on these things daily you will determine your sales success in good times or bad. Good times will now become the norm.

Thoreau said it best: “Things don’t change; people change.” Make a commitment to fi gure out why you want to do something. When the why gets strong, the how gets easy. When you know why you want something, ideas of how will fl ow to you. Concentrate on the solution, not the problem. When you dwell on the idea of a prosperous market you create the reality of a prosperous market.

When you open the door to your belief system, you close the door of scarcity. When you are suffering from a lack of something it’s because you have a mental condition of lack. Everything apparent in your outside world of today is a direct refl ection of your inside world from yesterday.

As you improve yourself you begin to think and act on another level of energy. Imagine the analogy of playing a video game and having to get a good enough score at one level to go to the next level. Once you improve enough you enter a whole other level that creates another opportunity for improvement.

Mark Tewart is the president of Tewart Enterprises. He can be contacted at 866.429.6844, or by e-mail at mtewart@autosuccess.biz.

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Larry John Wright, Inc.A u t o m o t i v e A d v e r t i s i n g , I n c .

Contact Heidi Martincic 800-821-5068

heidi@ljohnw.com or www.larryjohnwright.com

Heidi Martincic Senior Vice President

Our dealers increase market share in a down marketNo new incentives? Low inventory? Depressed market? Call Heidi Martincic NOW to discover the ONE thing you need to sell more cars... and how you can get it TODAY! Larry John Wright is the #1 Automotive Advertising Agency in North America.

We work with dealers nationwide. This year we will produce nearly 6,000 commercials from our state-of-the-art studios. We give you unlimited, high

quality campaigns and promotions. We have negotiated and purchased media for hundreds of dealerships. Our media buying strategy is specifi cally

designed for auto dealers and can deliver as much as 30-40% more effi ciency than you are currently getting.

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The last place YOUR customers should ever see YOUR competitors’ ads is in YOUR

Showroom or Service Lounge. Play ONLY your television commercials during national and local commercial breaks

on network, cable or satellite programming in your dealership. Call for more details.

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NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

39january 2006

The retail automobile business is “The Greatest Business in the World.” There is truly no other business

like it. Here are a few comments you can share with people about this great business of ours.

1. Big business in small towns

According to NADA, the average automobile dealership spends about $4.1 million dollars per year. Most of these expenditures are made at a local level. This provides incredible economic support to local communities all over the nation. There is $2.5 million per year, per dealership spent on payroll alone. Think about those numbers for a moment: Every time you drive by a dealership, that business is putting a total of $4.1 million per year into the economy, and $2.5 million is going directly into local employees’ pockets!

2. The overall positive effect when a

vehicle is sold

When a vehicle is sold, the world economy moves. Think about the trickle down effect. The sales person makes a commission. The dealer makes money. The manufacturer gets another mark on the board. Factory workers in the plant keep working. Suppliers to manufacturers sell more parts. Another opportunity for the service department is created. People are positively affected when that vehicle goes across the curb. Everyone in the dealership should be proud when a vehicle is sold because of the incredible effects it has on the local and world economy.

3. One of the most stable business�s in the

world

The automotive industry has ups and downs, but even in the down years you are talking about millions of vehicles being sold and serviced all over the nation. Some people would say that stability and the car business don’t go hand in hand. But, when was the last time you saw a new vehicle dealership go out of business? Think about the last time you knew or know of someone getting laid

The GreatestBusiness in the World

JoshWeaver

off from a job. Chances are they did not work at a dealership. We hear every day about our manufacturing jobs going overseas and local factories closing. As long as the main form of transportation in the United States is automobiles, there will be a stable market for the retail car business. Therefore, the average employee at a dealership experiences a much higher level of security about the fi nancial health of the business. According to NADA, dealerships employ more than 1.1 million people in the United States. That is over three times the number of people employed by General Motors.

4. At the end of the day, it�s about the

money.

Whether you look in the service bays or on the showroom fl oor, lots of money is being made in the dealership. The income opportunities are virtually unlimited. You are paid more if you produce more. Whether it’s turning more hours as a technician or making the top gross of the day; no other business rewards performance like the car business. Isn’t that the American way? Americans love to be rewarded for hard work. In dealerships throughout the country you fi nd optimistic people that want to better their lives. I would challenge anyone to fi nd a business that opens more doors fi nancially than the car business. People in the business know that by working harder, they are allowed to achieve their goals. Most other businesses don’t even come close.

So let’s get ready to take on 2006. The coming year will no doubt bring on new challenges for you and your employees. Get prepared now, and get yourself and your employees excited again about the greatest business in the world – the car business.

Josh Weaver is the owner of Impact Direct LLC. He can be contacted at 866.401.5961, or by e-mail at jweaver@autosuccess.biz.

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Back to Basics

AnthonyHall

It’s time to get back to the basics of building a profi table sale.

Start with attitude! Of course, I always equate

attitude with the word enthusiasm. People can see and hear your attitude, good or bad. Your attitude directly affects the outcome of the sales person’s relationship with the customer. In other words, I believe they act toward your in direct proportion to the vibrations you send out. Attitude is equated as self-confi dence, pride, self-respect and will to win.

Winners have a charismatic quality that draws other people to them. Starting with a winner’s walk and a winner’s eye contact with a friendly, confi dent facial expression. Winners know their product and have studied their profession. People trust self-confi dence when they are spending their money. (Remember this: we don’t sell cars, we help people make decisions.)

Next commit to a solid sales process and follow through.

Step 1. Meet and greetThe meet and greet is not a thing we do, but a series of things we do. A timely, “Welcome I’m glad you’re here.” fi rm handshake, eye contact and winning smile. Get name, give name and write it down. Ask an authoritive control question: “Do you have an appointment with one of our sales consultants today?”

Step 2. Establish common ground. People tend to like people who are like them. There are four conversational topics most people will relate to. It is important that you fi nd something you sincerely like about every customer. Something you genuinely have in common. These subjects are:

• Family • Occupation• Recreation • Motivation

Show genuine interest!

Step 3. Select a vehicleAlways help your customer select a specifi c vehicle that he or she would consider purchasing, based on what you learned in step two. Never negotiate on a generic car and don’t even mention the possibility of locating a vehicle until they’ve seen what you have in inventory.

Step 4. Present the vehicleThis step is not to be confused with the demonstration of the vehicle. This is where you will build value in the customer’s mind. The presentation of the vehicle is the part of the sale that justifi es the price and payments. Do an organized presentation showing the benefi ts of the features for the customer.This is the longest, most important step in the entire sale process, slow down, sell the value-sell the technology, sell the safety, sell the styling and sell the excitement.

Step 5. Demonstrate the vehicleThis is not optional. Do not ask if they would like to drive. This step is where the customer takes emotional ownership. If they don’t own it emotionally, they won’t pay for it fi nancially. Near the end of the demonstration drive, ask them to buy the car.

Step 6. Inspect the trade-in with the customerThis step in the sale process is very serious and should be done with minimum humor or cutting up with the customer. Give the customer the impression you are very serious and concerned about the trade–in. At this point, your facial expressions, gestures and body language should be communicating with the customer.

Step 7. Tour the dealershipThis step is designed to personalize the sale. The conversation is about why the customer would buy here, from your specifi c dealership. There are thousands of other

dealerships, so explain why this one is special.

Step 8. Write-up/negotiate the saleThe strength of the fi rst seven steps has a direct effect on the outcome of the negotiation. Be prepared venerably to present the fi gures and overcome any objections. If negotiation stalls, always T.O. to a manager.

Step 9. Introduce the customer to the Þ nance manager.Always do a quality introduction to the fi nance manager. Do not sell fi nance, let the manager do that.

Step 10. Deliver the automobileUse the manufacturer’s preferred delivery presentation. Go over the checklist with your customer. Explain everything about the automobile to the customer. Show them how to work and operate all the options and introduce the customer to the service department.

Step 11. Follow up with the customerCall the customer within the specifi c time set by the dealership or manufacturer. If the customer has a complaint, it is your personal responsibility to be sure it is handled. Send birthday cards, anniversary cards, Christmas cards, etc. Always ask for referrals.

Get back to following the basics. The better and more professionally you implement these steps, the more success you will have in 2006. Your future is in your hands, as Teddy Roosevelt said “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Anthony Hall is a training consultant at Ziegler Supersystems. He can be contacted at 800.610.9047, or by e-mail at ahall@autosuccess.biz.

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magazine, call 866.269.8604. 12 issues for $75.

40

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NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

42

KarenDillon

How do your customers view your service department? You can easily answer this question by the number of customers

in service who purchased their vehicle from your dealership. The national average is less than 20 percent.

Some reasons this number might be so low:• Product quality has improved, reducing

the number of warranty repairs we have seen in the past.

• We haven’t made introducing our customers to the service department a priority during the sales and delivery process.

• We haven’t “sold” the knowledge and experience of our trained technicians, along with the investment we have in the latest high-tech equipment needed for today’s vehicles.

• We haven’t made it simple for the customer to make a service appointment, so they view the independent facilities as being more convenient.

• We haven’t exhibited the necessary effort to earn their trust and confi dence and impress upon them our desire to service all their vehicle needs, so customers get the impression early in the ownership experience that dealers do not need their business. This sets the stage for increased future defection of customers to independent service facilities for customer pay work.

• Once they drive off with their vehicle, we are on to the next prospect.

How do we remove the above obstacles that we have put in place?

1. Establish a process and hold key people accountable to ensure the service department is presented fully to each customer at the time of delivery of their vehicle.

The sales person should:

2. Emphasize the dealership’s commitment to earn the customer’s business in both sales and service.

3. Introduce the service manager and/or service advisors.

4. Discuss the dealership’s highly trained technicians and the dealership’s investment in specialized tools and equipment necessary to properly maintain and repair that customer’s vehicle.

5. Review the normal maintenance required to keep the factory warranty and/or extended service agreement in effect and explain that the dealership maintains all service records.

6. Offer online appointment scheduling for confi rmed appointments from your Web site. Review the ease and convenience this online service appointment feature offers the customer.

7. Log the customer into the dealer Web site, registering them to make online appointments and schedule the customer’s fi rst appointment, thus beginning the customer’s relationship with the service department.

Once we’ve addressed the above and have the customer in our service department, what process will convince them to return?

1. Does your service manager exhibit enthusiasm and inspire the other service department personnel to want to provide exceptional customer service? You need a leader to enforce your views on outstanding customer service and its value. If this isn’t happening, you may need to heed Tom Hopkins, who said, “If you can’t change your people; change your people.” 2. Are your personnel who interact with your customers in the service department happy to be working at your dealership? Do they view what they are doing as an important career or as “just a job”? Do they understand the customer on the service drive is the person who, in reality, signs their checks? These are critical areas you should research and then spend the time and effort necessary to be certain everyone is committed to doing whatever it takes to provide outstanding customer service.

3. Keep and maintain an appointment schedule. When a customer calls for service, it is tempting to tell them to “come on in”; however, if we can’t accommodate them and complete the service on their vehicle properly and timely, we’ve lost -- not gained -- a service customer.

4. The service advisor should greet the

customer by name, letting them know you are pleased to see them. The advisor should do a complete walk around and discuss the customer’s concerns and to be certain he or she understands exactly why they brought in their vehicle.

5. Suggest recommended maintenance based on mileage, fl uid levels, service history, etc. If they have not been in your service department, ask them when their last service was performed.

6. It’s important the customer understands there are services that should be performed to prevent a safety or mechanical problem. Always take the time to provide a full explanation of the services being recommended, why they are recommended, along with the benefi ts to the customer of having the service performed.

7. We MUST earn the customer’s trust by only selling needed services. Trust is a huge deciding factor in a customer determining whether or not to return to a dealership for future vehicle services and vehicle purchases.

8. Let the customer know when their services will be completed and, if there is going to be a delay, contact them and communicate this to them.

9. Last impressions are lasting impressions. Be certain the last words the customer hears when leaving your dealership are “Thank you.” Use an online appointment system that automatically generates a CSI e-mail to the customer after the vehicle is picked up, thanking them for their business, letting them know they may be receiving a survey regarding their satisfaction with this service and requesting they contact the service manager with any issues or concerns.

Taking these steps and addressing these points will take additional time and emphasis; however, this will be time well invested, as when we increase the percentage of our customers who return to our dealership for scheduled maintenance, we increase our opportunity to sell them their next vehicle.

Karen Dillon is the president of TimeHighway.com. She can be contacted at 800.901.3170, or by e-mail at kdillon@autosuccess.biz.

How to Bring More Customersto Your Service Department

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Effective Credit Application

TonyDupaquier

Knowing how to fi ll out an effective credit application positivily impacts approval. Consistency in the credit applications

ensures all deals are done correctly.

Exercise: Give all sales professional a credit application to complete. This will show how the sales professionals perceive the credit application. Review the applications one by one and critique each application on its legibility and depth of information. Offer constructive criticism and show the benefi t and value of doing it the right way. When reviewing the applications, pay attention to the following areas:

Time spent on the job and at current residence Don’t fi ll in a generic three years, when in reality it may be three years and eight months. This can make a difference in a tier

level or even approval status.

Banking Information Many lenders look for as much stability and ability to repay a note as they can fi nd. A customer who has a checking or savings account shows responsibility that most lending sources like.

ReferencesLenders want full addresses and phone numbers for each reference, including the zip code. A forgotten zip code can be found on the U.S. Postal Service’s Web site at www.usps.com.

The customer�s incomeThis is the most important section on the credit application. To be specifi c, gross monthly income is what is required, although there a few lenders that require gross yearly household income. Make sure the sales staff knows the difference between gross and net. Also, make sure to show sales

professionals how to translate an hourly wage into a monthly income, and tell the sales professionals that they need to obtain proof of income for every customer, i.e. check stubs.

On a side note, some of the lending sources use what is referred as a short application. These short applications only ask for a limited amount of information. To ensure sales professionals stay in the habit of properly fi lling out credit applications, always have them fi ll out a long application and, if needed, fi ll out a secondary short application in the business offi ce.

Taking 20 minutes during a sales meeting to properly address these issues will help the entire dealership achieve greater success.

Tony Dupaquier is the director of F&I training for American Financial & Automotive Services Inc. He can be contacted at 866.856.6754, or by e-mail at tdupaquier@autosuccess.biz.

NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

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Turning a Phone UpInto an Appointment

JeffMorrill

Situation:A customer is reluctant to come in until he or she gets a discount or a price quote over the phone fi rst.

Challenge:Negotiating before following the other steps to the sale is not a very effective way to sell a car. To properly follow the steps to the sale, you need to be with the car and the customer together.

Goal:On the phone, you’re not selling the car, you’re selling the appointment. So you need to persuade the customer to see the benefi ts of visiting you at the dealership or you meeting the customer at his or her home or offi ce with the car.

Technique:By asking good questions, guide the conversation from discounting to appointment.

“OK, that sounds like a truck that might fi t my needs. Before I come down, though, I want to be sure I can get a good deal. How much can you knock off the price?”

“Ms. Customer, would you like to buy the car over the phone by giving me a $1,000 credit card deposit and completing the paperwork by fax?”

“Heck no. I don’t share that kind of information over the phone.” The answer is almost always no.

“I can understand that … privacy is a major concern nowadays. Would you feel more comfortable giving me that information in person, after you had seen the car?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” The answer to this question is almost always yes.

“Yeah, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for us to spend some time together. Are weekdays or weekends better for you?”

We’ll discuss how to properly set appointments next month.

Before employing this technique, you need to take a few moments to gather some preliminary data from the customer (phone,

town, ad source, etc.) and to give him or her an opportunity to get excited about you, your car and your store. You need to build some rapport and earn his or her trust before you have any right to ask them to take time to come see you.

This technique will usually work better with used car customers — you have a unique car and to see it they have to visit — and local new car customers —you are the most convenient option for test driving. The technique is more limited for a distant new car customer because you have to give him or her a reason to make a special trip. But try anyway, and if you can’t set up the appointment, ask if it’s OK to call back and then go see a manager for guidance.

Once in a blue moon, someone will take you up on your offer to sell the car over the phone. To fi nd out if they’re real, ask for the credit card number with their offer and let them know that you will run it if the offer is accepted. If it’s a silly low offer, make sure you get a real offer or close to a real offer before agreeing to take it to your manager. This is a good way to handle a customer who wants to negotiate before coming down, but not necessarily a good way to handle other objections to an appointment. For example, for the convenience objection (you’re too far, a long drive, etc.) use, “how long are you going to own the car?” Wait for the answer. “This is major purchase, not a gallon of milk. Doesn’t it make sense to drive an hour to fi nd a car that you’re going to own for all those years?”

Sometimes the customer hits you really early in the call with negotiation/discounting stuff, before you’ve had a chance to assess his or her needs, and maybe too early to try to schedule an appointment. To change the subject, try “before we fi gure out the price, let me learn a little bit more about what you’re looking for.”

Practice, practice, practice. If you don’t role-play this technique (or any other, for that matter) you won’t learn it or be able to use it in the heat of the call. Find a colleague during some down time and try this out.

Jeff Morrill is co-owner of Planet Subaru in Hanover, Ma., and Planet Chrysler Jeep in Franklin, Ma. He can be contacted at 866.872.8699, or by e-mail atjmorrill@autosuccess.biz.

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Improve YourBody Language Skills

PattiWood

There are many reasons we lack body language skills or do not use them. No matter where your

skill level is now, here are the challenges and solutions to take you to the next level.

1. Time constraints. We are overworked and overstressed. We lack face-to-face time at work because there are so many tasks to accomplish. With family, it’s a matter of keeping a good calendar, being a taxi service and outsourcing. We are too tired from work to be close to each other, and it creates a negative cycle. The lack of practice communicating makes it hard and stressful to get close, so we may work more to escape family life. If we are single we may work more to escape the scary prospect of the dating and romantic relationships.

What you can do: Budget time at work and at home to communicate face to face. Liken it to scheduling work outs to improve your physical health. Put in your daily calendar; will spend 15 minutes from 9 to 9:15 a.m. visiting with a coworker. I will spend fi ve minutes in the morning saying hello to each of my coworkers. I will take my boss to lunch this month. On Tuesday nights, we will turn the TV off and have the family dinner in the dinning room.

2. The desire to have everything happen quickly, instant messaging and instant relationships give us little patience for the subtle nuances of the timbre of a voice or the subtle shoulder shrug.

What can you do? Take a day or a morning each week to give the messages you would have sent by e-mail either face-to-face or over the phone.

3. We have lost rituals that created body language modeling and practice like dinner around the table or sitting on the porch. I had several favorite shows as a child. One

was The Waltons, about a large extended family who lived together in one house, and Andy Griffi th in which they sat on the porch in the evening and talked to each other, and the guys got together at the barber shop. The children had all those models and guidance. Instead, we put the old parents in nursing homes and sit in front of the tube rather than on the porch. Some of my favorite family memories from childhood are playing a card game called Michigan rummy with the family on Friday nights. Playing with each other, we would laugh and talk and eat popcorn. What can you do? Create interpersonal rituals. Eight years ago, I realized how much I missed the fun banter during card games so I created a game group. We have been meeting for years to play spades and dominoes. Create rituals of interaction in your life.

4. Increased anxiety. We lack body language skills so our anxiety increases. Our anxiety increases, so we fear interactions, especially those that require impromptu discussions and small talk. In 2002, $60 million was spent to promote Paxil, an anti-anxiety pill prescribed for social anxiety. As of that year, 37 million Americans were using it.

What can you do? Don’t delay interactions, especially ones that require you to communicate negative interactions. Research shows that delay increases amenity. Instead quickly write out then role play in your head the ideal script for the interaction and how you will positively deal with any problem.

Patti Wood is the president of Communication Dynamics. She can be contacted at 800.849.3651, or by e-mail at pwood@autosuccess.biz, or visit www,pattiwood.net.

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NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

A New Commitment I Give to ... Me

MichaelYork

Over much of the past year I’ve written about, spoken about and wrestled with commitment.

It all started in 2002 when I got the idea to do a book called “The 10 Commitments.” At the time my publisher said, “It’s a catchy title, but I’m sure it’s been done before.” Nope. But even if it had, I still had to do this book.

A year later, I made a conscious decision to position myself as a writer and a consultant who speaks … not as just a speaker. I committed to writing. I was already writing at the time and had been for years in my journals, but I began writing more on a consistent basis.

I began writing for publication, writing to infl uence or just to capture ideas (taking notes). I committed to it. Consistency (continuing) is a big key in any commitment. Not only has it made a giant impact on my business and what I do, but who I am as well.

As we roll the calendar over into a brand new year, how will you write your new script? What’s your vision or mission or passion or purpose for 2006? What will you commit to? Not a resolution, but a commitment. There’s a big difference. And what I’ve found is that before you can commit … to anyone or anything, you must believe. You must believe in something, or there is little or no foundation to build upon.

Walt Disney once said of making dreams come true, “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.” I have my own list of things I believe in. Do you have one?

If not (or even if it’s not written down), I encourage you to make a list. Making a list is a powerful thing that can begin a process. A process that may lead you to

greater achievements and incredible accomplishments … in life and in your work.

One of my favorite list of “things to believe in” comes from a book by Merrill Oster and Mike Hamel that also appears in my book. Here’s their list:

• I believe in God as the fi rst principle.• I believe in the power of dreams and

visions.• I believe in using my God-given

aptitudes for excellence.• I believe in work as a vocation, as

saying yes to an authentic life.• I believe in giving back to build a better

community.• I believe in going beyond success to

signifi cance.• I believe in taking calculated risks.• I believe in win-win relationships.• I believe in the value of values.• I believe in lifelong learning.

Wow. Me too.

Do you know what you believe in? It’s the fi rst step in making any commitment.

The bedrock of this book, and any achievement worthwhile, is that

“commitment is stronger than motivation.”

To truly succeed in anything, it takes more than motivation. The more I studied success and the individuals who had really achieved it, the more I was convinced it was all about commitment. Doing a few disciplines on a consistent basis, even when you don’t feel very motivated to do them.

Vision is one of the uncommon characteristics of achieving big success. And big really is available. If you have a vision for what something can become, or what you can become, you’re less likely to let a bad day or tough week keep you from achieving it. Your “thing” is out there on the horizon. You can see it, feel it, almost touch it … and you’re going for it. You may not get there today, but you have a strong reason to continue your pursuit. That’s resolve. That’s commitment.

The story on the commitments? Each commitment ends in “I-N-G” As in, Beginning, Becoming, Leading, Understanding, etc. Largely because a commitment is ongoing, it’s never past tense but always in the present. It’s the process that takes you somewhere special.

The fact is, the wealth of the ages is at your disposal right now. Shelves of books wait at a library around the corner with a “free pass” for you to get in and check them out. Your “www” access to the whole wide world of information that can change how big and how fast your success happens today. How can commitment change you and your success for 2006? Find out for yourself. If you’d like my short list on commitment, e-mail me at the address below.

Michael York is an author and professional speaker. He can be contacted at 800.668.5015, or by e-mail atmyork@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.MichaelYork.com.

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If you have a vision for what something can become, or what you can become, you�re less likely to let a bad day or tough week keep you from achieving it.

SUCCESS IS JUST ASUBSCRIPTION AWAY!To get your subscription to the #1 sales-improvement

magazine, call 866.269.8604. 12 issues for $75.

48

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Some Best Practices for 2006

ScottJoseph

50

The auto business can teach us hard lessons, but direct experience isn’t always the only way to learn.

Absorbing the best practices of others allows you to learn from their experiences. A lot can be gained from looking at what some of the most successful dealerships do. Here is a brief look at three best practice principles as they relate to direct mail advertising. In upcoming articles I will provide case studies that exemplify each.

Best Practice No. 1: Buy solutions that

address business problems

A successful campaign can only happen when you focus your attention on buying solutions to your business problems – not buying print or a price per piece. A solution is not just a more complex printing project; it is a combination of strategy, services, technology and output that meets a business need.

You must partner with companies that make it a priority to listen to you to understand your needs, goals and pain points, and then clearly provide a solution that meets those needs.

Best Practice No. 2: Choose a strategy for

growth

In order to grow, you must choose a business strategy that directs your dealership’s efforts; without a strategy it’s much too easy to waste time and effort on the wrong prospects or offerings. It does not make sense for me to advocate any particular strategy because too many variables affect tactical decisions. What I do advocate is having a strategy for growth rather than blindly trying to make generic offerings to every customer or prospect that comes along.

I’ve got great news! To start an effective growth strategy you only need to focus your attention on accomplishing three goals: 1) you must grow your active customer base, 2) you must grow your average profi t per transaction and 3) you must increase how often customers buy from you. The numbers do not lie. If you accomplish a 10 percent increase to these three goals in one year your gross profi t will increase a minimum of 33 percent!

If you have 1,500 active customers, and your gross average is 2,000 per car and your average customer buys from you 0.35 times per year, then your gross profi t is: 1,500 x $2,000 x 0.35 = $1,050,000.

If you accomplish just a 10 percent increase with all three goals then: 1,650 (active customers) x $2,200 (average gross) x 0.39 (average frequency) = $1,415,700. That’s more than 34 percent added to your gross profi t in one year!

Do not waste any more time. To increase each goal by 10 percent start brainstorming ideas. To grow your active customer base you obviously can start with increasing your fl oor, phone, parts and service traffi c by:

• Running special events.

• Increase the perceived value of your product through better sales training, which leads to better customer education.

• Track all advertisements and measure the ROI. Know exactly what is working and, more important, what is not. Advertising dollars will work harder and become more cost effective.

In order to increase your active customer base you must increase customer retention. Here are a few ideas to help:

• Communicate frequently with customers to nurture them.

• Provide a compelling reason why they should come back in and buy another vehicle with special offers before they are announced to the public.

Another way to grow your active customer base is to increase your closing rate by:

• Improving the sales skill levels of your sales staff.

• Develop a way to qualify the wants and needs of our customers up front.

• Offer great deals for the customer.

You can increase your gross average if you focus on:

• Attracting buyers who negotiate less.

• Increase the sales skill levels of sales staff.

To increase your transaction frequency you could focus on:

• Communicating with customers (by telephone and letters) to maintain a positive relationship and to create a compelling reason they should come in and buy again now.

• Run special events such as “clearance and new model introduction” events etc.

• Special offers for sales.

• Monthly parts and service offers to induce frequency

Best Practice No. 3: Increase advertising

effectiveness through relevance

You will be wasting time and a lot of money trying to force-fi t one offer to everybody. Today’s technology allows you to make specifi c offers to each individual based on how he or she buys cars.

Too much information or not enough information is annoying, and no dealership wants to annoy its customers and prospects. Variable data printing, only possible through digital printing technology, gives marketers the ability to send each recipient only the information that pertains to him or her. Countless different messages can be conveyed to any number of individuals – all in the same print run. This highly targeted, relevant communication has proven over and over to greatly increase the effectiveness of marketing and communication efforts.

Scott Joseph is the president of J&L Marketing Inc. He can be contacted at 866.429.6846, or by e-mail atsjoseph@autosuccess.biz.

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www.resourceautomotive.com(847) 953-6000

There are many pieces to the profit puzzle.Some companies focus on just one,

and that’s not good for your bottom line—or your customers.

At Resource Automotive, our 40 year

heritage has taught us that long-term profitability comes from

a balanced strategy of driving revenues through process

improvement in all departments, not just one.

Each of our products and services embeds innovative technology

as well as adherence to regulatory and compliance requirements

within the automotive industry.Additionally, all of our tools are

tailored to fit your specific sales, service and customer satisfaction

objectives.

For immediate impact—throughout your organization—call

us today.

Why limit your profit improvement

to just F&I?

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