Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining Talks About Reason of the Auto Response at GNYADA

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Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining Talks About Reason of the Auto Response at GNYADA

 

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining Talks about Auto Response Email at GNYADA

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Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining Talks about Auto Response Email at GNYADA

 

Stan Sher Reviews Dealer eTraining Auto Response Email at GNYADA

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Stan Sher Reviews Dealer eTraining Auto Response Email at GNYADA (Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association).

 

Transforming The Dealership Part 3 - A Live Week By Week Case Study (Dealer eTraining)

Welcome to Part 3 of a live dealership case study in which I am working on.  It has been two weeks since Part 2 was published.  I was away in Chicago consulting another client and also handling the Internet Sales 20 Group.  I came home to a major hurricane which slowed things down considerably.  But here is what we were able to accomplish.

CRM:

We have been working on pre-installation processes with eLead by installing email headers, templates, and other important parts of the CRM.  It has been a simple process as the CRM company is accommodating.  eLead will be spending the week at the dealership training and installing the CRM at the dealership which means we will be live in a few days.

Website:

Once again, the major challenge is that it is OEM mandated and certain things are not able to be done while others are being developed as we speak.  As much as I respect what OEMs are doing to make all dealers in the same brand unified I feel that they make it difficult for a dealership to create a unique image to stand out from the competition.

We are in the process of updating employee pictures.  This is a tough task because the owner wants all pictures to be the same exact size.  The challenge is getting the pictures to show up on the website in the same size.  I am still trying to figure out with the vendor what is going on and this is the one time where I feel they are not helping me as they should.

We drastically improved the way the specials pages look with come great content and even more specials.  We started to add video testimonials to the website which was a challenge also because the videos did not want to upload from my end.  In addition, we made proper changes for the new month and any news pertaining to changes.

Social Media:

I have begun to focus on Facebook this past week.  I have been posting engaging content and getting people responding it.  In terms of twitter, I know we have followers but for some reason I am looking for the login which no one can seem to find.  I might have to setup a new account but I will give it a week before I do it.

I have continued to blog and syndicate content.  The content has been getting some views which tell me that people are reading it.  We had an announcement from the OEM that there is a hurricane relief discount available to people in certain areas that lost their vehicles to flood and hurricane damage.  I was quick to post it and promote it on facebook before any competing dealer can think of doing the same, if they normally do it.

Videos/Pictures:

It was disappointing to me that when I left for a whole week and asked sales people to start getting their own videos and pictures that not a single person took an action.  They got all excited about the fact that they can brand themselves but they took no action at all.  I addressed that with management because the process takes all of one minute and I am even here to get the content up.  All they need is to have a form filled out, snap a picture or capture a 30 second video and have me handle the rest.  I hope that they fix the situation and get to it.  However, one person did get a picture for me that is now posted.

I added more content to the Flickr account.

Traditional Advertising:

I have not had to be involved with this.

Online Reputation Management:

I discovered a challenge that I have never had before.  In all of my years doing this I was always able to grow a dealership’s online reputation without problem.  I sat in and listened to reasons why the service department has a hard time getting reviews and I am noticing from the sales department why they are not doing.

The sales department is not pushing for it at all.  The service department explains that whenever they ask for a review to get posted that customers do not want to post it.  The understanding that I am getting is that a lot of the customers here are generally in aged in the mid 40s and range as high as 70+.  They do not want to leave an email address and they prefer to leave a survey in pen and paper.  This raises a challenge to me, a social and digital warrior that believes that everyone and everything should be online.  I am thinking that we need an iPad in service and sales with a 4G connection and we should work closely with the customer to get what we need by guiding them or assisting them.  It is obvious that post cards with links to review sites do not work well for the customers as they do not pay attention to them.

I have never been a fan of spiffing customers for reviews.  However, cars.com has a really neat format of how to generate reviews.  Cars.com offers to place customers into a contest where the customer has a potential of getting $100 for leaving a review.  There is an email template for it.  I am thinking of also creating a process strictly for cars.com to let customers know about the offer not just as delivery but also after delivery where they can be guided through.  I mean, “Who wouldn’t want a chance to get $100?”  It is also my goal to learn from cars.com if the review can somehow be syndicated just like the way DealerRater does it with google.

If anyone has suggestions of how to get reviews from customers that are more mature and not as computer savvy, I am open to some responses on here.

Dealership Process and Operations:

While walking around the dealership looking for things that needed improvement I noticed a binder with parts specials that looked sloppy.  I took it upon myself to let management know about this and created a new professional looking binder with better specials and more transparency.

I have been spending time watching how the sales department functions from how sales managers are managing their people to how they work deals.  I have to say that when it comes to working deals and selling cars they do a great job and they have decent grosses.  The managers get involved in deals and are aggressive to sell cars.  This dealership is generally number one in its district.  The other things that I have been observing are how the one internet coordinator functions throughout the day.  The GSM complains about the coordinator because he finds him playing on his cell phone a lot.  The fix to the problem was that I monitored CRM activities in the old CRM and read comments along with emails that were being sent to the customers.

I noticed something interesting and disturbing.  When an internet appointment comes in the internet coordinator sits with them and talks with them sometimes as long as 20-30 minutes.  When I approached management they agreed and said that it needs to be fixed.  I had the perfect fix for that.  At the Internet Sales 20 Group, Ralph Paglia introduced the “Showroom Appointment Reception Agenda”.  This form is a professional way for the coordinator to meet the customer that they communicated with.  What is amazing about this form is that it explains in a quick and transparent fashion what the customer will accomplish on this visit which is a 4-5 step process.  The coordinator turns over the customer to a sales consultant and moves on with their job.  This takes 1-2 minutes.  We are implementing this as of this week as the new CRM is installed.  There were major changes made to the document that Ralph provided which I will describe in the next section.

Call monitoring is not very strong in the dealership.  The dealership relies on cars.com and their website provider to have toll free numbers.  It is amazing that the newspaper always had a local number.  No one really ever listened to phone calls.  In fact, all sales calls are being handled by sales consultants and not the internet coordinator.  This is a whole other issue that I will be tackling soon if I get the chance to.  The way I monitor the calls is I stand in the showroom and listen to the sales consultants talk to phone ups.  I then log into to my limited tools and listen to the conversation.  My plans are to do the same with service and parts soon.  While taking many notes, I have discovered flaws in phone skills and will be planning on phone training sessions at this dealership after the CRM is installed. 

Ownership Challenges:

The only real challenges in the improvement and transformation of the dealership are dealing with ownership in this case.  The dealer principle is not hands on yet has very interesting opinions to how things should run.  As far as sales and service is concerned, she lets the managers do their thing and make money for the store.  But when a highly paid expert that has built numerous success stories is brought in a challenge is created.  Now, I am not saying that challenges are not fun.  This is a unique challenge where I am working with a personality that involves me trying to figure out how they think. 

Every best practice email installed needs to be edited because the writing does not work for them.  This stalled the processes of installing emails into the CRM by two weeks.  Take website content, wording of some serious best practices just never work and they need to be changed.  My challenge is that I need to change content and write it as if I was this other person.  Again, it is an interesting challenge.

The best practice implemented by Ralph Paglia was another example where 60% of the content was rewritten and another 20% was omitted just to satisfy their feelings.  Now I am not saying the document became a bad document but it had changed the TO process from internet coordinator to sales person in a way that I personally would have done differently.

I respect the challenge and although at some point it is frustrating it is what makes me better at my job and what ultimately brings more success to the dealership.

That is all for Part 3.  If anyone has questions, always feel free to contact me. 

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Transforming The Dealership Part 2 - A Live Week By Week Case Study (Dealer eTraining)

Welcome to Part 2 of what is a major real live hands on case study.  Last week I wrote Part 1.  For those of you that missed it, click here to catch up on what you may have missed.

We ended last week with starting to get more social media plans installed.  We also started a picture and video policy.  However, The major thing was CRM and digital marketing this week. 

CRM:

I narrowed down three choices of CRM companies that integrate with the DMS that dealership is using.  It is not a common DMS like ADP, Reynolds, or Arkona even.  We learned that the DMS only works properly with only 3 CRM companies.  The CRM Companies are eLead, VinSolutions, and CAR-Research.  All three companies have something great to offer.  We made the decision to stop being the pilot for the DMS company that was using this dealership to develop their CRM.  They are light years away from where everyone else is in the marketplace.  I came to a conclusion that we have no accountability in the dealership and nothing can be measured.  I noticed that the sales desk does a great job and so do F&I.  Now with processes, accountability, and reporting I think that this store can sell and additional 10-20 units per month.

After numerous conversations and demos of CRM products we decided on eLead.  I have been a customer of eLead in the past and have great relationships.  I wanted VinSolutions because Vin had some cool features that no one else has.  However, the owner of the dealership liked the functions of eLead and felt that it was simpler for the showroom.  Their opinion was that Vin worked well for someone on a high level like me.  I liked CAR-Research too but we all agreed that for what we need eLead would be the right fit.  Also, eLead has agreed to do install in the beginning of November where no one else could accommodate the owner's quick need.

Next --->

Website:

So we signed a contract for the CRM and that is in the works.  The next aspect that is important is to really make the dealership website great.  The challenge is that it is OEM mandated and certain things are not able to be done while others are being developed as we speak.

We have begun the process of changing and updating employee pictures and bios.  The way that we get employee bios is that we have a questionnaire in their employee packet that they need to fill out when they start employment here.  I revised the questions to make better bios.  The owner liked how another dealership on the West Coast had their staff page so we started to research how we can get a similar page built.  If I can get the owner to agree in the near future, I would like to add videos next to the employee picture and bio of each employee.

We are reconfiguring buttons on the website to make it easier to navigate and have better call to actions.  We want to stand out from competitors and really be unique.

Other best practices that I started working on are basically because I love the way that Checkered Flag in Virginia Beach has their website providing major transparency with things like a "women's page" or a page explaining "taxes and fees".  This dealership is active in the community so we are working on making these efforts stand out as well.  I have been working on content because I do not want to be a copycat but I love the ideas and would love to use them since very few (literally) dealers on this planet are that much outside the box.

I noticed that the dealership had no specials for pre-owned and service.  I got with the used car manager and we had 8 vehicles that are aged units that he wants to just sell and move on.  I created specials with comments.  The page got filled up nicely and now the site has more great content.  After that I got with service manager and went over some promotions that he gave me.  The site now has 7 service specials.  That's right I said "SEVEN".  Dealerships miss out on opportunities by not updating service specials or keeping 1 generic special.

Social Media:

I have not begun to focus on Facebook, twitter, and G+ but will add my focus when I get back from Internet Sales 20 Group next week.  However, I have created a blogging strategy that I love.  It includes content syndication and it spreads the content virally.  For those of you that would like to know how I do that, just take a look at how I have been marketing my own business (Dealer eTraining).  I believe that content needs to be visible and easy to find.  I have employed the same strategy to brand my own name and get known by industry people at conferences in the last 4 years.  The strategy is to connect multiple social networks and blogs together using one platform.  For blogs, I use posterous, blogspot, wordpress, and tumblr.  I will have the dealership outsourced graphic designer work on designing these blogs so they look amazing.  We have been adding content that includes videos, pictures, spy photos, community events, celebrity information, interesting news, dealership information, and just anything that will catch people's eyes and create engagement.  It has only been 1 week so I cannot report changes yet.  However, over time we should see a big increase.  Every blog is optimized with proper keywords, backlinks, and content.

I got the dealership signed up with Pinterest and read a lot on it.  I saw what Jim Ziegler has been teaching and saw how major Pinterest players operated to drive traffic.  I implemented the strategy and it took me all of 2 hours.  The Pinterest profile now has over 50 images and some were re-pinned while others were originally and strategically posted to drive traffic to the dealership website.  As time progresses we will continue to optimize the profile even further.

Videos/Pictures:

I got started on a basic cost effective VSEO strategy.  Last week we implemented a strategy to have sales people fill out a form.  We revised the form to have 8 questions with a waiver.  We have started gaining traction and filmed a few happy customers.  The testimonials got uploaded to not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of the most power video search engines out there.  We took these testimonials and created blog content on our syndicated channels as well.  We used sites like youtube, vimeo, daily motion, and metacafe.

I did some research the other day to see which photo sharing sites are best for seo and everything else and as always Flickr was the choice.  I started a Flickr account and had 40 pictures optimized for starters.  I also connected Flickr with Pinterest as they work well together.  I discovered this by researching it and reading about it.  We take pictures of guests at delivery time.

Traditional Advertising:

The dealership advertises in the local newspaper on weekends.  Last week when I was given the advertisement I saw a few major things missing.  The dealership advertised their local number and there was no call tracking to see how many calls we get off the advertisement.  Well I noticed that our current call monitoring solution has 2 extra phone numbers not being used so I placed one of the numbers to start tracking those calls.  I also saw no QR codes (no surprise).  A lot of dealerships still do not know much about it.  I looked over the ads for all competing dealerships in the area and no one else had QR codes.  I created a QR code for new car inventory on the dealer website as well as a separate one for used inventory and placed them on the add next to new and pre-owned.

Local Brochure:

The owner of the dealership was getting her nails done and saw a plain brochure at the salon.  She brought it to my attention and would like something similar but created.  I started working on ideas on how to digital enhance it with QR codes, social media, and an online reputation, all in a fold-able brochure.

Dealership Process and Operations:

Last night I was handed a book from the OEM that goes to the owner of the dealership.  It talks about performance of sales, internet lead management, and service.  It has national averages, store averages, and goals of what needs to be accomplished.  I even got to read the customer comments to gather an idea of what practices that I need to fix and train on in the store so that we can improve the customer experience in the store while creating better communication.  In the next few weeks I will be training various departments on CRM, communication, and best customer practices.

So far...that is all we have for the first 2 weeks.  I feel like we have already come a very long way.  It is exciting for me because I get back to my roots of not only digital marketing and managing Internet operations but I get to focus on store processes.  I really love what I do and I am passionate about it.  If anyone has questions, always feel free to contact me. 

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The Selling Process…has it changed?

Does your dealership have a BDC or Internet Sales Department?  When appointments show up to the dealership, is there a set process to handle these customers?  Let me let this thought process for a second…

Ok, so right now you are probably realizing that you do have these departments yet they are under performing.  Perhaps you have trained your sales staff in the basic methods of the road to the sale or you might have just hired a few “green peas” and thrown them out on the floor to learn as they go.  Sound familiar?

Here is a fact: Over 90% of consumers go online before they walk into a dealership.
Here is another fact: In order for the showroom to be packed, traffic needs to be generated through appointments.  Walk in customers do not just walk in like they used to.

When a BDC appointment comes in, how are the customers being greeted?  Are they still saying, “Can I help you?”  If this is still happening, your dealership is in trouble.  The proper way to handle a proper meet and greet is as follows: “Welcome to ABD Motors, my name is Stan and you are? Great meet you.  Are you here for a VIP appointment with our guest relations department?” Qualify the information.  One you know what is going on make sure to inform management and the BDC that their appointment is here.  Now continue with your road to the sale starting with logging the proper information into the CRM while simultaneously building really good rapport.  Make sure to read the notes in the CRM that are already there so you can build that common ground.  This is just the beginning of the process.

Are your sales consultants prepared to handle the modern customer?  The modern customer shows up with an iPad and/or iPhone.  They do not need to walk in printouts because they have the information in a digital format.  These customers ask questions to which they already have an answer right at their finger tips.  At the same time while working with your dealership they are also reading reviews about your dealership as well as others.

So what has changed?  Not a lot really.  The real change is the quickness of the transparency that dealers need to have.  The processes that we have been taught over the years still apply to the selling professional.  However, the modern day selling professional needs to be armed with knowledge of how to use certain consumer websites to pull factual information; sell the value of the car as well as the dealership’s online reputation.  This modern day professional needs to be able to take out their smart phone at delivery and film a customer testimonial as well as take a picture of the customer with their new vehicle.  There are so many great apps available on mobile phones that can really help a sales professional do amazing things that will enable a smooth, efficient, and powerful road to the sale process.

If anyone has questions on how to achieve sales greatness by using the modern road to the sale process, please feel free to contact me at stan@dealeretraining.com

 

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The New Road To The Sale - Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association - September 27, 2012 - Stan Sher (Dealer eTraining)

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http://www.automotivebdctraining.com

It's that time again.  Another powerful workshop at the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association (GNYADA).  Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining will be teaching BDC and Sales consultants how an appropriate road to the sale should be in today's market.

The BDC or business development center works with prospects over the phone and brings them in for an appointment.  However, the ball gets dropped because sales consultants are not prepared to handle the customer needs.  This happens because they do not use the dealership's CRM system properly and do not follow proper protocol.  The goal of this workshop is to train dealership personnel the importance of using a CRM and what to look for in the CRM to build a better rapport with the prospect.  In addition, we will be discussing the use of mobile tools that sales consultants can use to help their prospects have a better car buying experience while also helping make their jobs as sales consultants more efficient.

If you are an automotive dealership in the Greater New York area please sign your sales and BDC staff to this powerful workshop on September 27, 2012.  This will be the most powerful 3 hours of that day for your staff.  The "New" Road to the Sale is a session where I will teach your staff how to properly handle today's savvy consumer by knowing the resources that the consumer will use when shopping for vehicle.  Attendees will learn how to properly handle customers that come in from appointments that derive from the BDC.  Attendees will also learn how to properly use modern technology and tools to better interact with and follow up with customers both when they are in the showroom and when they are not.  To view more information and to register please visit http://autoedcenter.com/education/seminars/12-09-27-new.php

Fran Taylor of Taylor Techniques To Speak At Internet Sales 20 Group October 23 - 25, 2012

Fran Taylor - President and CEO of Taylor Techniques

http://www.internetsales20group.com/

Facebook Event: Internet Sales 20 Group

...

Without a doubt Fran Taylor is the undisputed KING OF PROSPECTING trainer in the world. Fran teaches how to stream line the sales process , cut expenses and generate income with out spending money. If you don't know him, you should.

Do not miss this event.  For more information, please visit the website, http://www.internetsales20group.com or contact me directly at (732)925-8362 / stan@dealeretraining.com

Automotive BDC Internet Retention - Guest Relations

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Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining discusses how the business development and/or internet sales department needs to be viewed as the guest relations department. Guests come to stay and remain with the dealership while customers come and go. Start viewing customers as guests and the dealership will increase levels of professionalism as well as revenue.

Automotive BDC Internet Retention - Guest Relations

http://dealeretraining.com/
https://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining discusses how the business development and/or internet sales department needs to be viewed as the guest relations department. Guests come to stay and remain with the dealership while customers come and go. Start viewing customers as guests and the dealership will increase levels of professionalism as well as revenue.

Check and Train Yourself - Automotive Dealer eTraining

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Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining explains the importance of constant training and evaluation of current skills, thought patterns, and processes. One should never be satisfied with where they are and should seek to improve.

Check and Train Yourself - Automotive Dealer eTraining

http://dealeretraining.com/
https://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining explains the importance of constant training and evaluation of current skills, thought patterns, and processes. One should never be satisfied with where they are and should seek to improve.

Stan Sher - NADA 2012 Review

It's that time of year again.  Yes, one of my favorite blogs of the year.  I have always enjoyed writing about my experiences at conferences and conventions.  This blog is going to be great.  Why so great you ask?

 

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

 

Boom...here it is.

 

This has been my most productive and educational NADA convention out of the three that I have attended.  I realized this year the importance of spending a whole Friday on this trip and even a whole Monday (which I missed out on).  I met some really great people and have connected with some great vendors.  This time I had a chance to attend more workshops and pick up some great new ideas to better myself as a business professional.  Let's get started...

 

I was talking to Jim Ziegler on the phone today and he told me that I have come a very long way.  I had responded to him by saying that I have just begun and I am still on my way.  Love me or hate.  Believe in me or don't believe in me.  It does not matter to me.  I am out to bring greatness for our industry and will be a leader.  I appreciate Jim for friendship and support.

 

NADA 2012 has proven to be the ultimate convention to be at.  It all started with my arrival on Thursday.  I had traveled with my very close friend and colleague, Mark Rodriguez (Auto Client Care).  Mark is a very dear friend who has collaborated with me on several consulting projects.  His specialty is phone training for sales, internet sales, BDC, and fixed operations.  He is an excellent trainer and has been constantly evolving with technology which allows him to bring value to dealerships.  Mark is a top rated speaker for the Greater New York Dealers Association.  Mark and I will be collaborating on a workshop for NJCar on March 13, 2012 that is titled "BDC Boot Camp".

 

We arrived in Las Vegas and visited our dear friends, PCG Digital Marketing at their Digital Marketing Strategies Conference.  We got see some great people like Glenn Pasch, Cory Mosley, Jim Ziegler, and many others.  We had some lunch and decided to do some gambling.  I won $800 and decided to be generous.  I treated my buddy Mark to a show, Cirque Du Soleil "Love".  This was an amazing time and it proved to be one of the best shows that I have ever been to.  I made it to the PCG reception and catch up with friends, Elise Kephart, Lizelle Landino, Jody Devere, Gene Kocibua (one of my clients), Brian and Glenn Pasch, Eric Hoopman (Dealerfire), and many others.  Towards the end of the night I joined my VinSolutions friends at Sean Stapleton's suite for the VinSolutions party.  It was great networking and a great time to catch up with friends.  I got to see my friend's Larry Bruce, Dan Moore (Smart Web Concepts), Arnold Tijerina, Eric Sietsma, and many others.

 

On Friday, I picked up my badge and attend workshops that were led by some great industry friends.  I started the day with seeing my friend Jared Hamilton (Driving Sales) who taught a very powerful workshop on management reporting.  We continued the day with a workshop by Jennifer Suzuki (eDealer Solutions) on handling incoming calls.  The convention day ended with a workshop by the always amazing Todd Smith (ActiveEngage).  The parties that were attended were the ADM Member Reception hosted by Ralph Paglia and Brian Pasch.  I had some productive business meetings, networking opportunities and a great time speaking with friends (old and new).  After this party, my friend Gene Kocibua and I went to another hotel to go to the Tier10 VIP Marketing party.  A thank you to Sean Wolfington for having us at the party.

 

Saturday is when the action began.  I spent the full day visiting booths and seeing my friends from the industry.  I got to meet my new friend Ken Engberg (DealerTrack) as well as many other people.  It was great to see Fran Taylor, Rob Fontano, my DealerOn friends, PCG Digital Marketing friends, and many others.  I had some incredible business development meetings with some great people.  My business, Dealer eTraining has really started to show signs of growth and opportunity as dealers expressed interest in my service and vendors saw the value of what I can do for them.  I must have spoken to over 200 people that day.  That night was another time to network and go to some great parties.  I had met Paul DeMoret (http://scan123.com/) and had dinner with him and my friend Mark Rodriguez.  We went to the eBay party and saw Vanilla Ice perform.  I played some more Blackjack and won some money.

 

In this event I reunited with my old Dealer Synergy friends.  Sean Bradley has taught me well with my time with him.  He was a great influence for me to do what I am doing.  It was amazing to see him.

 

We finished off Saturday where I continued to have big meetings and business development opportunities.  The parties that I went to were hosted by PCG Digital Marketing/KPA/Colorado Dealer Association for Super Bowl and DealerTrack for their beautiful event.  The following morning we department back home to continue a productive week.

 

I have been spending my week making this dealership that I am representing bigger and better.  I am also spending the week catching up with my connections and developing relationships that will help our industry continue to grow.

 

How was your NADA 2012 experience?  Please share your thoughts.

Scott Painter (CEO of TrueCar) speaks to Stan Sher (President of Dealer eTraining)

It was Monday December 12, 2011 and I had decided to take a nap at 4:00 PM as I had just spent an average of 14 hours per day working from my home office.  I actually spent all weekend working on projects and creating more curriculums.

My nap was rather long and I slept until 8:00 PM.  I woke up and looked at my cell phone only to find a voice message from a random phone number in California.  I listened to the message and saw that it was one of Scott Painter's people trying to contact me because Scott Painter wanted to have a conversation with me. 

 

My initial thought was, "WOW, the multi billionaire guru with a Wikipedia page wants to talk to me.  I feel special."

 

I called the gentleman back and set the call up.  I later learned that he was also speaking to Jim Ziegler.  As far as I knew we were the only two people that Scott Painter was talking to.  I had prepared my list of questions and was excited to talk to this person just to see what he has to say.

 

Fast forward to the next day.  I started to think a few things.  I was thinking that maybe I made Painter so angry that he was trying to get his attorney on the phone with a cease and desist message.  On the other hand, I do think great things of myself and I know that I am a very abstract thinker so I was thinking that maybe Painter would be looking for my help to make his product better and stop hurting dealers.  I had spoken to Jim Ziegler and knew that he had a call at 1:30 PM so I was anxious to find out what happened.  So at 5:30 PM (30 minutes before my call I called Jim again).  I learned from Jim that it was a regular Q&A session and that he was offered a trip to California to explore the TrueCar operations.  Jim had spoken well of Scott Painter as he Scott was very professional and seemed to be an easy going person to talk to.

 

Moving on...

 

It is now 6:00 PM and we get on the call.  It was a 55 minute call.  We started the call and Scott had informed me that he might have to get off sooner because his wife was about to have a baby any minute now.  "Congratulations Scott and family!”  I had congratulated Scott.  I also started the conversation by giving him my respect.  I too am a college dropout and I too have visions of doing huge things in the future.  I started the conversation with an upfront from the heart compliment.  Anyone that knows me knows that I have a huge heart.  If I am against what you represent it I will let you know that too.  However, if you are brilliant enough to come up with a huge idea and get to the level that Scott has I have to give credit to where it is due.

 

I continued to explain who I was and what my background was.  I had explained to him how I got in to the automotive industry and my experience in retail.  In addition, I talked about my roles in dealerships and how I started Dealer eTraining.  From there I moved onto explaining to him why I am completely against his product (TrueCar) and I gave him at least three real scenarios from when I worked in dealerships as a sales person and a manager.

 

He understood where I was coming from.  Scott was also very professional and knowledgeable with his answers.  He seemed to give me legitimate responses.  I told him about my theory of how I believe he is pricing cars out of the market and how he is hurting the business.  I even compared him to Edmunds where I said, "at least when Edmunds is advertising True Market Value (TMV), the vehicle is priced a few hundred over invoice".  I added to that by saying, "if we were selling cars a few hundred over invoice and you had your pricing fairly structured like that no one would be hurt."

 

When asking him about where pricing data comes in he started to tell me about how when a car gets sold the data is available to multiple sources and how many of them are partners are TrueCar.  When I asked him where he gets these ridiculous low prices to put on the bell curve under "Best Deal" he told that consumers actually provide them with pdf files of their purchase.  This is where I am still puzzled after everything he said to me.  Something here did not seem to sound right.  Why would a consumer give you a copy of their retail agreement?  It is one thing when you survey the customer and they tell you what they paid for the car (which cannot be a fact sometimes).  It is another to have someone takes the time to send you this information.  I had not asked more questions on this because this was the one thing that made me actually want to go and see the TrueCar operations for myself.  

 

The majority of the discussion was exactly like the one that Jerry Thibeau had with Scott.  The only difference is that I literally have 30 ideas that can turnaround TrueCar for the better if in fact this beast cannot be defeated.  I had mentioned two ideas right off the bat.  Here they are:

 

1. Ok if you are going to advertise on the bell curve, "Best Deal".  Can you at least have the decency to omit the sales prices from customers that stole the vehicle?  I mean there comes a moment when a sales manager makes a mistake and we roll a car and lose $2,000 on it and the customer makes out like a lucky bandit.  This is where I assume these figures are coming from.  So I said, "I know Honda does not allow advertising under invoice so why not keep the sales figure legitimate and have some profit in it to keep all things fair".  

 

-Scott told me that his AutoNation people have brought a similar idea to them.

 

2. I had mentioned that if they incorporated reviews and partnered up with a review site.  Take the reviews and incorporate them underneath the prices in the bell curve that they can now offer a lot more than just pricing.  I am talking about value added benefits.  Now the customer has a choice if they want to pay more for a better experience or pay less for a worse experience.  Now that is real transparency in my opinion.

 

-Scott told me that his brother in law is a GM of a Mazda dealer and he was mentioning something similar.

 

What are my thoughts?  

 

My thoughts are that Scott has opened up as much as he is willing to open up.  I still disagree with what is being done with TrueCar and why TrueCar is partnered with some of the current partners.  I also believe that there are a lot of ways that the TrueCar model needs to be reworked.  TrueCar has a lot invested and the commercials are there like AutoTrader.  If they are going to grow and advertise to the public they need to fix the problems that they are creating.  TrueCar needs to follow all state regulations and all OEM regulations.  They should also make it so that whatever is being advertised allows for dealers to remain profitable and actually makes automotive dealers look good instead of bad.  If they want to make innovations to the industry they need to help get consumers respecting dealers instead of plotting against them.  I believe that incorporating other transparent strategies and not basing things solely on price can make a difference.

 

Now the reality is that these things are probably not going to happen if Scott's intentions are really what he made public when he did the videos and presentations.  Perhaps Scott was looking for a way to win me over because I have a lot of influence.  Perhaps Scott did not think before he spoke when he was quoted in the past.  No one will ever really know the truth.  One thing that I do know is that Scott handled the call with me professionally and very humbly and he was great to speak with.  Scott invited me to visit their operations so that he can show me what they do and how they do it.  I know other people have declined.  I am going to accept it.  The reason why I am going to accept it is because I want to see it for myself.  It is an educational experience and it will allow for me to bring back even more thoughts to the industry.

 

Look we all want to see this fail (including myself).  We need to consider how big it has become.  I mean over 5,000 dealers need to cancel.  If we can get them all to cancel then great.  Otherwise, there is a chance this will continue to grow since the marketing tactics and investments have pushed for the massive growth to happen.  If we cannot defeat this gorilla then we need to help create ways to make this gorilla work for dealers without hurting them.  I am proposing to have an open mind here and have a strategy for what happens is we defeat this as well as a strategy for what happens if we have to live with it.  If we have to live with it let's at least consider the options of making TrueCar make changes that benefit the dealers.

 

I am not going soft on your guys.  The negative experiences that I had with them at the dealer level will never change what I think of them.  But it is my mission as a member of the industry to give back to the industry that has provided me with skills, opportunity, knowledge, and training to be a better human being.  This is what Dealer eTraining (my company stands for).  Go to my website www.dealeretraining.com and look on the home page.  I have a section there where the last sentence states, "Dealer eTraining is about the dealership’s success first and foremost.”  This is my signature motto.  Anyone that has worked with me, been trained by me, or has met me knows that I mean well.

 

I welcome thoughts and comments.  When you respond I want you to do it with an open mind.  I have done everything with an open mind and you should too.  Thank you.

 

Stan Sher

Another Dealer eTraining Testimonial - Automotive Internet Sales Training

 

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Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining spent one week working with a dealer group in Wisconsin. The week was spent training management on cost effective digital marketing strategies as well as training the BDC department on effective lead handling procedures and phone processes. After an intense 4 days of training, they were ready to take it to the next level. Here is their testimonial.

Create The Be-Back

http://www.dealeretraining.com/

 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stansher83

 

http://twitter.com/stansher

 

http://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

 

 

Picture this...you are a sales consultant working at a dealership.  You have gone through all of the steps and you are going through the negotiation process.  After all is said and done the customer decides that it is time to leave and a deal cannot be made.  It got down to the customer not being satisfied with the trade or the deal that is being offered to them.

 

Does this sound familiar?  It should.  This is what we deal with the most in our business if we are not making deals.  There are many reasons why customers end up not making a deal on the spot.  In some cases, sales consultants or BDC reps end up trying to get the customer to come back.  In other cases, the customer leaves and never gets contacted again.  This all depends on how the dealership is structured with process, CRM, and management styles.  

 

I remember as a sales person I would have a manager sit down with me just to make sure that I am pounding the phones.  I believe that this can be extreme in some cases.  A sales person needs to be dedicated and care enough about their career as well as their livelihood.  Successful sales professionals still use the telephone and innovative methods of communication to follow up.  A few months ago, I wrote an article about the number one sales person in the country for Hyundai.  The man sells 60 units per month consistently and makes twice what his sales manager makes.  He is dedicated.

 

Now comes the interesting aspect of this article.  How do we follow up with these customers that did not buy?  How do we create a process to ensure 100% follow all of the time?

 

I recently had a dealer client ask me to create some processes for different objections for why people did not buy.  After evaluating their dealership, their product, and how their staff operates I was able to create a custom process for various objections.  It adds a few more calls per day to the BDC but will create more be-backs.  My thinking is that every action needs a reaction.  If they do heavy follow up, make a lot of calls, send properly crafted emails, engage in social media follow up, you will create a big enough buzz to get these customers to come back and make that deal. 

 

It is all about process, process, process, process, and you guessed it PROCESS!!!  Along with process comes the training on handling these opportunities.  Along with the process and handling these opportunities comes effective communication between sales and BDC departments in order to have effective follow up.

 

Now let's think about this for a second.  What do we do when we get a fresh internet lead?  We follow up with a solid phone call, email, and social media engagement process for a set amount of days, right?  If we are serious about initiating contact with the prospect, why are we not serious about getting a bigger interest out of them after we have engaged them and had a chance to build rapport face to face?  Why not create a similar type of strategy for someone who already has your attention?  Shouldn't it be easier to sell them a vehicle at this point?

 

It might be a great idea for dealerships to consider having a process for handling customers that did not buy with a solid, mandatory follow up plan.  Since it is a numbers game dealers will see tremendous results and a better be-back ratio.  This can be done for customers that do not buy due to trade issues or pricing issues.  If the OEM makes positive program enhancements, it might make sense to create a process to engage those prospects that left and did not buy.  Dealers and managers need to remember that persistence pays off big dividends.  Think about it.

 

Stan Sher is the founder and president of Dealer eTraining, a premier automotive internet sales and digital marketing consulting company. For more information, please feel free to call 732-925-8362 or email stan@dealeretraining.com .