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.

The Death of the Used Car Manager

How valuable is a used car manager for a single point dealership?

In my recent travels I have started to see dealerships do away without a used car manager.  I am talking about dealerships that are selling between 70 and 100+ used cars per month.  In fact, it seems to be a role and responsibility that a GSM or even GM have started to take over.  The technology that we have in place for merchandising and pricing inventory has turned used car sales into a simpler process where a few marketing tools such as vAuto, HomeNet, and others have eliminated the need for having a costly six figure manager on staff.  In fact, the dealerships that have no used car manager have a used inventory merchandising manager that is just in charge of making sure that inventory is properly being taken care of, the right amount of pictures get taken, and the inventory is posted properly on the internet.  They also deal with buyers and are in charge of making sure that inventory arrives as it should.  I noticed that these people work for less money then a used car manager and are basically an assistant to the GSM or GM.

Some might see this is as a negative thing because they might blame technology for putting people out of work while others might see it as a positive thing because they do not have to deal with the extra ego of an arrogant used car manager.  In all reality it is great to have technology that allows us to keep our processes in the dealership simpler and allow for a faster turnaround time.  When it comes to managing used car sales for multiple dealerships there might still be a need for the used car manager because the duties change.

What do you think of this?  Has the time come for used car managers to be extinct?  Please share your thoughts...

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The Reality of Zag.com/TrueCar

Friends,

I send this message as a true friend in the automotive industry.  As
some of you already know it is my mission to help dealers be
profitable and grow their results.

I wanted to reach out to you and send you this message to inform you
of what has been going on with Zag.com/TrueCar and the current
discussion.

I know that a lot of dealers are using Zag.com because they are sold
on the fact that they never pay for a lead and only pay $300 for when
the car gets sold.  The problem is that we give out access to our data.  Zag and TrueCar
pull all of our data including front end gross, trade value, and back
end gross.  Since they go into the database they pull information for
every deal that you did that month.

Now let's think.  Let's hypothetically say that you had an issue with
a deal.  I am talking about an issue where a customer was misquoted
severely to the point where you had one deal that you literally lost
$2,000 on.  This happens at some point or another.  Well now you let
Zag know of that information.  They take that low price and post it on
TrueCars.com as the best price out there.  Now you have customers
expecting to go into dealerships (including yours) to pay that
unrealistic low price.  This takes competition to a whole new level.

So I ask.  Why do we want to let a vendor take our data and use it
against us.  Let's face it, Scott Painter (CEO of TrueCar) has never
worked in a dealership or experienced the pain that we all had selling
cars and dealing with struggles.  He actually has been quoted saying
that he envisions this industry eliminating sales people with this
process.  Here is a man that is out to give consumers transparency
while hurting out business.  I believe in being fair, honest, and
showing transparency.  I do not believe in auto dealers getting hurt
to do it.  We should be playing on even field.  If Zag/TrueCar were
posting realistic figures allowing dealers to make a profit we would
not have any problems.

Check out this Automotive News Article: http://bit.ly/vbMAim

Also, Jim Ziegler has created a discussion on this topic right here
and you all need to read through this because it affect your business:
http://bit.ly/smOaRJ

Here are some more important resources for you to look at: http://bit.ly/jNtK8M

http://bit.ly/bIt4WP

The bottom line.  The automotive business has been great to me.  I
created a solid career out of it.  I learned skills in this business
that I would never learn anywhere (including college).  I have made a
decent living at it.  I started Dealer eTraining to give back to the
industry and help better our industry by providing training solutions.
 When I see a company get started that hurts our industry I care and I
want to see it go away.

As the saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch".  If you
are using Zag because you like the fact that leads are free and you only pay
for the lead when the car gets sold you need to consider the damage
that you are doing by losing money on these deals and letting Zag use
your data to make you look bad in front of your customers as well as
create more tension between competing dealers.  Let's put an end to
this madness.  I propose that whoever is using Zag/TrueCar stop using
them and pass that on to everyone including your competitors.

But wait, this gets better.  Did you know that DealerTrack has stake in this?  Yes, DealerTrack and ALG are involved (http://bit.ly/vKu1VU).  That is right, a company that is supposed to be a dealer partner got involved.  I wonder how much more date is getting leaked in to TrueCar to hurt our business.

 

If you look at the facts you will see that you need to stop using Zag/TrueCar.  I have been saying this for a few years but now I am really speaking out loud about this.

--
Stan Sher
President
Dealer eTraining
Website: www.dealeretraining.com
Direct:             (732)925-8362      
Email: Stan@dealeretraining.com

View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter
View my facebook profile

 

Like Dealer eTraining on Facebook

The Reality of Zag.com/TrueCar

Friends,

I send this message as a true friend in the automotive industry.  As
some of you already know it is my mission to help dealers be
profitable and grow their results.

I wanted to reach out to you and send you this message to inform you
of what has been going on with Zag.com/TrueCar and the current
discussion.

I know that a lot of dealers are using Zag.com because they are sold
on the fact that they never pay for a lead and only pay $300 for when
the car gets sold.  The problem is that we give out access to our data.  Zag and TrueCar
pull all of our data including front end gross, trade value, and back
end gross.  Since they go into the database they pull information for
every deal that you did that month.

Now let's think.  Let's hypothetically say that you had an issue with
a deal.  I am talking about an issue where a customer was misquoted
severely to the point where you had one deal that you literally lost
$2,000 on.  This happens at some point or another.  Well now you let
Zag know of that information.  They take that low price and post it on
TrueCars.com as the best price out there.  Now you have customers
expecting to go into dealerships (including yours) to pay that
unrealistic low price.  This takes competition to a whole new level.

So I ask.  Why do we want to let a vendor take our data and use it
against us.  Let's face it, Scott Painter (CEO of TrueCar) has never
worked in a dealership or experienced the pain that we all had selling
cars and dealing with struggles.  He actually has been quoted saying
that he envisions this industry eliminating sales people with this
process.  Here is a man that is out to give consumers transparency
while hurting out business.  I believe in being fair, honest, and
showing transparency.  I do not believe in auto dealers getting hurt
to do it.  We should be playing on even field.  If Zag/TrueCar were
posting realistic figures allowing dealers to make a profit we would
not have any problems.

Check out this Automotive News Article: http://bit.ly/vbMAim

Also, Jim Ziegler has created a discussion on this topic right here
and you all need to read through this because it affect your business:
http://bit.ly/smOaRJ

Here are some more important resources for you to look at: http://bit.ly/jNtK8M

http://bit.ly/bIt4WP

The bottom line.  The automotive business has been great to me.  I
created a solid career out of it.  I learned skills in this business
that I would never learn anywhere (including college).  I have made a
decent living at it.  I started Dealer eTraining to give back to the
industry and help better our industry by providing training solutions.
 When I see a company get started that hurts our industry I care and I
want to see it go away.

As the saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch".  If you
are using Zag because you like the fact that leads are free and you only pay
for the lead when the car gets sold you need to consider the damage
that you are doing by losing money on these deals and letting Zag use
your data to make you look bad in front of your customers as well as
create more tension between competing dealers.  Let's put an end to
this madness.  I propose that whoever is using Zag/TrueCar stop using
them and pass that on to everyone including your competitors.

But wait, this gets better.  Did you know that DealerTrack has stake in this?  Yes, DealerTrack and ALG are involved (http://bit.ly/vKu1VU).  That is right, a company that is supposed to be a dealer partner got involved.  I wonder how much more date is getting leaked in to TrueCar to hurt our business.

 

If you look at the facts you will see that you need to stop using Zag/TrueCar.  I have been saying this for a few years but now I am really speaking out loud about this.

--
Stan Sher
President
Dealer eTraining
Website: www.dealeretraining.com
Direct:             (732)925-8362      
Email: Stan@dealeretraining.com

View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter
View my facebook profile

 

Like Dealer eTraining on Facebook