http://www.dealersynergy.com

Popular sharing platform AddThis just celebrated their fifth birthday and to mark the occasion they’ve released an infographic that takes a look at social sharing trends based on their five years of experience.

The AddThis infographic covers everything from the peak hours and days that people share so when people click, the top sites in terms of social growth, and more. The stats are based on AddThis’ experience with 1.2 billion users, 10 million domains and 70 languages. Some of the highlights include the following statistics:

•9:30am EST is the peak hour for sharing
•Wednesdays are the peak days for sharing
•The most users click on content two minutes after it’s shared
•Twitter as seen the top growth of all time, in terms of sharing

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

I am in the hotel at 6:30 am getting ready for my day of training at a dealership in Ohio and I was going through my emails and google alerts and came across this press release from Market Watch. I thought it had some valuable information for you all on AIS, so I decided to repost it here but I wanted to add some commentary before you get to the great information...

I am a simple person, math is math. Numbers are numbers, they do not lie. I hope when you read this post you will absorb the magnitude of opportunity right in front of you. This press release speaks of Female Shoppers and Blogs. Granted I think that is awesome but it goes far deeper than just blogs. If you look at the numbers that are in this study you will see how important the "Female Shopper / Buyer" strategy is. If you are a dealership that does NOT have a proactive strategy to maximize this demographic you are seriously missing the boat. 

The Key to being successful is NOT just working hard... Its working hard, working smart, being consistent and thinking outside the box.

Sean V. Bradley-

Women Car-Buyers Who Get Advice From Blogs and Social Media Show Double-Digit Increases in Excitement, More Confidence, and Say Blogs Influence Decision to Buy, Reports BlogHer, Inc.

"Put Her in the Driver's Seat" Survey on Women's Attitudes, Emotions and Favorite Information Sources on Car Purchasing Presented at JD Power & Associates Annual Symposium
BELMONT, CA, Oct 17, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- BlogHer, Inc., the premium cross-platform media network and publisher for women, today announced the results of "Put Her in the Driver's Seat," at the JD Power & Associates 2011 Automotive Internet Roundtable in Las Vegas. The survey, designed to explore how women feel and where they turn for advice when shopping for cars, revealed a significant positive impact on female buyers who used blogs and social media -- and a preference for blogs and official product information sources versus traditional media and social networks.
The Emotional Impact of Car-Buying

The survey revealed that, as a gender, women car-buyers were both more excited (74%) and more nervous (53%) about car-buying than were men buying cars (71% and 42% respectively). Of this group, women who sought advice from blogs and social networks during the car buying process demonstrated higher excitement levels: Women who consulted blogs about buying a new car were +13 points more excited than women who did not, and women who consulted social networks were up +12 points. Confidence levels also increased through social media use: Confidence among women who used Blogs for Auto advice was +8 points over women who did not, and +5 among women used social networks.
Blogs and social networks have different impacts on the stress levels of women car-buyers, the survey showed: The stress levels of women who used blogs for advice were -4 points lower than the total sample. However, stress levels remained the same for women who used social networks. Blog users also reported being slightly less nervous at -2 points lower than the total sample, while social network users showed an increase in levels of nervousness at +4 points higher than the total sample.

Information vs. Influence

Women's top five information sources for researching a car purchase were car dealership visits (65%), word of mouth (56%), car review websites (53%), auto manufacturer websites (43%), and blogs (31%). Other sources, such as auto magazines (21%), Facebook (17%), and TV advertising (16%), lagged significantly behind.

Of the top five information sources named above, the following four were also ranked the most influential on a woman's car-buying decision: Dealership visits, word of mouth, car review sites and blogs. However, one information source that women ranked as a top five information source -- auto manufacturer websites -- ranked dead last in influence on their ultimate decision.
"Women clearly articulated the features they need to see and the voices they want to hear when considering a car purchase," said Elisa Camahort Page, Co-founder and COO of BlogHer, Inc. "We see a huge opportunity for auto manufacturers to indeed 'Put her in the driver's seat' and let her buying preferences re-shape how the automotive community reaches the powerful women's market."
About the Survey With auto sales in the U.S. alone expected to top 13 million units in 2011 (A.T. Kearney, May 2011) and women making or influencing 85% of those purchases (JD Power & Associates) BlogHer's study specifically addresses the growing role played by social media and blogs in the automotive purchasing decision-making process, and the influence of such sources vs. traditional media and industry information sources. "Put Her in the Driver's Seat" survey was conducted using the following samples:


-- BlogHer, Inc. fielded a survey across two populations: U.S. online
general population in 7 markets and 26 million BlogHer network users.
The total sample size was 1,467 with a total of 1,090 women and 377
men across the United States.
-- The margin of error is +/- 2.46% with a confidence level of 99%.
-- All portions of the study were conducted in August 2011.
-- BlogHer was one of eight companies chosen to present research at this
annual automotive Internet industry event.


The survey presentation can be found here: http://www.blogher.com/put-her-drivers-seat-social-tools-empower-womens-car-buying-process
About BlogHer Reaching more than 27 million women each month (Nielsen Site Census, September 2011), BlogHer ( http://www.blogher.com ) is the leading cross-platform media network created by, for and with women social media leaders. BlogHer developed and leads the marketplace with the most robust economic and networking opportunities for women in social media and brands seeking to engage in authentic and persuasive dialog with them. Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHer publishes and syndicates news, information, advice and recommendations to and from 2,500 premium blogs, delivers uniquely insightful research on women in social media across interest areas, hosts the world's largest conferences for women in social media and curates a daily news service, BlogHer.com. BlogHer's investors are Venrock, Comcast Interactive Capital, and Azure Capital Partners.
SOURCE: BlogHer, Inc.

After 12+ years in Automotive Internet Sales...

I have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. I have seen firsthand how powerful automotive Internet sales can be for a dealership. I have also seen how it can wreak havoc in a dealership that doesn’t execute properly. After speaking with and training more than 2,000 dealer principals and GMs personally, I have identified a lot of similarities that are consistent all over the country and do not discriminate.

First, dealers see the value, need and urgency to maximize the Internet not only to increase market share, volume and gross, but actually to retain current market share and profits.

The problem is that there is a lot of disinformation everywhere. Everyone has an idea and a strategy, but finding the right information that fits a particular dealership’s scenario and goals is hard to find. There really isn’t a lot of continuity out there. Sometimes “experts” contradict the ideas and strategies of other “experts.” The other issue is that there are a lot of these “experts” out there, but mostly these people have an “expertise” in only one or two fields — not enough.

Maximizing an Internet department is more than knowing how to build the “ultimate” dealership Website. It is more than having 5,000 followers on Twitter for your dealership. It is more than having a state-of-the-art BDC. The issue I see is that dealers are told if they do or buy something, it will be a “silver bullet.” There are no “silver bullets.” There never have been and I doubt there ever will be any. An Internet department (or any department, for that matter) is made or broken, maximized or underutilized in four key areas: Products, People, Process and Promotions. That means that all “4-Ps” need to be working “synergistically” to ensure maximum success. You cannot have all or most of your attention in one or two areas. You need to make sure that all four “cylinders” are firing.

Here are the questions that dealers should ask:

• What are you looking to accomplish with your Internet department? Increasing only Internet sales, or maximizing all profit centers online (parts, service, finance, body shop, etc.)?

• Do you want to sell volume, gross or both? Are you looking to increase new vehicle sales, used vehicle sales or both? Each possibility has a different strategy.

• Do you want to be proactive, reactive or not at all for special finance?

• Do you have all of the right tools (technology, resources, programs, etc.) for a viable department?

• Do you have the right people and the right amount of people in place?

• Have you developed a “mission statement”? Have you created a standard operating procedure for everything in that department?

• How are you planning to drive traffic? How are you going to handle your conventional advertising strategy? What is the proper formula between conventional and digital?

• How are you going to perpetuate success after initial launch?

After you answer all of these questions thoroughly and start to create a plan, you will need to prioritize. This is another sand trap for dealers. They have problems “putting first things, first,” and the result is that they do not focus on the most important items. The dealers who work hard but not smart are rarely successful.

Lack of consistency and acceptance of mediocrity are the biggest reasons for failure or limited success for a dealership’s Internet or business development department. That might sting, but that is the truth. We have found all over the country, no matter what the franchise or geographic region there are dealers who fall into this category. Sometimes it is the dealer principal, sometimes it’s the GM and other times it’s the Internet/BDC director, but it is the same story. Someone at the dealership heard of a successful Internet/BDC department or they read an article or they went to some workshop or 20 Group and were inspired and excited. So, they create a plan (with or without an outside consultant or trainer), and for a short while things are good (sometimes). Then, after a bit of time — or sometimes right after implementation — reality kicks in and they start to deviate from the plan.

Here is what I see on a regular basis from dealerships that succumb to mediocrity:

• They start to compromise their process based on outside influences, such as their competition doing business a certain way, and they feel they must conform.

• They are not consistent. They might do different parts of the strategy at different time. No continuity = No success.

• They do not track details of the department properly, if at all.

• They are not consistent with training, or don’t even bother to train at all.

• They are disorganized. There is no prioritizing of tasks, so the department is working and grinding all day but they are not being effective at their overall mission.

And, as important as all this is, people are the “wild cards” of the “4-Ps.” With money, you can buy everything else. But you have to find and cultivate and keep people. There are a lot of variables to think about in this area, including:

• Do you have the right person for the job? Do they have the right skill set and fit the profile for success? This is a common problem.

• Do you have the right amount of people? I have seen two Internet reps working 600 fresh leads per month. Not the best strategy.

• Do you have a schedule that make  sense and maximizes business potential? Statistically, you will connect with more people between the hours of 6 and 8 p.m. So, it might not be a good idea if you have everyone leaving at 5 p.m.

Bottom line, you need to embrace Internet sales. You cannot wait until tomorrow to get it together. If you don’t create a plan for today, there might not be tomorrow.

If you have any questions about this article or if you would like examples (for free) Please call or e-mail me.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 866.648.7400, or by e-mail at sbradley@autosuccessonline

http://www.dealersynergy.com

AutoSuccess September 2011

Great Question(s)!

I received a lot of great responses from my article a couple of months ago on getting Internet sales departments to effectively make phone calls. I had some people contact me with skepticism, but after we hung up from our call, they were complete believers and understood exactly what I was trying to articulate in my article. I also had people excited because finally someone broke it down with details on how things should work and why. But, I also had some communication with people that were a little confused about the numbers and the strategy. So, this article is going to break things down a little deeper.

Let me recap the highlights from that article:

• Your Internet Sales Department is primarily a phone sales department.
• You want to have a minimum of 120 phone calls per day per rep.
• Do not let your team settle for mediocrity.
• Implement the “power hour” exercise ASAP.
• The average connection ratio (From phone call attempts to connections) is only 11 to 14 percent.
• The key to success is understanding the logic: The more people you attempt to call, the more people you will connect with on the phone; the more connections, the more appointments; the more appointments, the more confirmations; the more confirmations, the more shows; the more show, the more sales.

Here, however, is the most powerful advice I can give:

Every dealership should really think about having professional appointment setters in their dealership, and I mean every dealership. We have clients all over this country and abroad, and it doesn’t matter if they are a small dealership, a large dealership, a dealer group, highline, import, domestic or even an independent dealer. Our most successful clients have professional appointment setters and some even have a full-blown team of appointment setters.

One recent example is Gary Mathews of Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee. This is a Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Hyundai dealership that went from 35 units per month to 86 units per month and were on track for 102 for August.  In a down economy, they have broken dealership record after record. And they are proud to tell you why: their dedication to their Internet business. One of the main keys to their success is that they have a team of appointment setters, and all they do from open to close in shifts is pound the phones and e-mail (the CRM is programmed with an automated e-mail action plan).  Think about it: How much more successful would your dealership be if you had a team of trained appointment setters, and all they did at your dealership was make phone calls all day from open to close in shifts?

Remember that you only have a 11 to 14 percent connection ratio on the phones. So, if you only make 50 calls, you will only have five to seven connections. Plus, if you leave this up to your sales team to do, there will be no consistency. How could there be? They have to do follow-ups, product presentations and deliveries; they sometimes chase stips; they have days off, shifts off, personal time, and so on.

You need 100 percent consistency on those phones, from open to close.

I will give you another example. We have a Honda Dealership client in New Jersey that went from 60 units online to more than 200. How did they do this? Well, they had a team of 12 professionally trained appointment setters who made 120 calls per day five days per week for a total of more than 30,000 phone calls in one month. That’s what it takes to sell 200 units online. More than 15,000 phone calls to sell 100 units online. More than 7,500 phone calls to sell 50 units online.

Math is math.

The push back I get from dealers is that they don’t trust “BDC Reps,” “appointment setters,” etc. The reason why most are not successful is that they have the wrong people in those positions and most don’t have the proper training.

At minimum, an automotive Internet sales / phone sales professional — A.K.A. “Phone Ninja” — should be trained in areas including:

• Inbound / outbound phone process
• How to qualify a prospect and Identify wants, wishes and expectations.
• Objections / rebuttals
• The power of leaving a great voice mail
• Outbound / inbound e-mail protocol
• How to execute the dealership’s value package proposition
• Science of communication — tone, inflection, etc.
• Automotive Internet sales knowledge
• Product knowledge

These people are truly phone sales professionals. The only difference between them and your showwroom sales professional is that they do not sell the vehicle; they sell the appointment. They should, however, be no less intelligent, skilled and trained.

If you have any questions about this article please feel free to call or e-mail me.

http://www.dealersynergy.com

http://www.twitter.com/seanvbradley

http://www.facebook.com/seanvbradley

Special Finance Online

Special finance is back — I am seeing all over the country that sub-prime sales are up. More and more banks are approving people with bad credit and no credit. Special finance is not just for used car dealerships and buy-here pay-here dealerships. Special finance is for every dealership, even highline stores can benefit from sub-prime deals. More than 50 percent of the United States has less-than-perfect credit. So, if you are not actively and proactively taking advantage of special finance, you are missing the boat. Dealerships that are successful with special finance boast grosses averaging of more than $3,000 per copy.

Now that I have your attention, let’s focus on something very special — “special finance online,” where special finance meets the Internet. We know that more than 89 percent of Americans go online before they ever step into the dealership for some type of research. That goes for people looking for a bad credit/no credit car loan. Most dealerships in 2011 are doing unsatisfactory in their Internet departments; most dealerships’ Internet sales departments or BDCs are non-functioning or unprofitable. The bottom line is that most dealers are still struggling with automotive Internet sales, so it would seem absurd for most dealerships to worry about any other form of Internet sales. That fact, however, is in your best interest. There is a huge opportunity with “special finance online.” It is like the Wild Wild West. Since no one really has dominated special finance online, which means the door is wide open for you and your dealership.

Here is what you need to do to dominate special finance online:

• First, create a “special finance” Website like www.autocreditapprove.com – Make sure it is NOT www.abcmotors.com / we do bad credit / no credit. You want to make it a complete separate entity, as if you have your own special finance lead source provider site.
• Make sure that you have the proper “onsite” SEO done to your site. Title tags, descriptions, anchor text, alt tags, key words, site map, and so on.
• Make sure you set up a separate Google Places page for your new special finance company, fully set up with unique content.
• Set up Google Alerts.
• Create an online reputation strategy for your sub-prime site. Google Reviews, Dealer Review Boost, Dealer Rater, Car Folks, Edmund Reviews, Yelp, etc.
• Create a campaign of “focus” (microsites) — one site for each relevant category.
• Create a Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) campaign.
• Set up a full special finance social media campaign/strategy (along with social media SEO)
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Flickr
  • YouTube
  • MySpace
  • WordPress Blog
  • Create a powerful search engine marketing campaign (Pay Per Click)

Basically, you are going to build a special finance site and think of it as a brand new dealership. In the same way that you are going to dominate automotive Internet sales, you are going to dominate special finance online. The idea is to make sure that when anyone searches for anything at all related to bad credit/no credit auto loan in your area (and surrounding areas) they will find your sub-prime site. You are going to be the “Autotrader” or the “Cars.com” for special finance online in your area.

You might be asking how is this possible? It’s simple: Everyone is asleep at the wheel. Again, most dealerships are struggling on how to simply survive with automotive Internet sales, special finance online is not even on their radar.

If you have any questions about this article or you would like me to assist you for free in starting your special finance online campaign, please call or e-mail me.

http://www.franklincoveydealersynergy.com

Sean V. Bradley, Karen M. Bradley And... Dr. Stephen Covey (Author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

http://www.dealersynergy.com

How Many Phone Calls Can and Should Your Internet Department Make?

Here’s a question I hear a lot at my Internet Sales 20 Groups: “How many phone calls should my department make per day?” This question is huge, because simply dialing the phone can dramatically change the outcome of your dealership’s Internet Sales. Your dealership’s Internet Department and BDC are, after all, a number’s game. Let me break it down for you:

• The more people you dial, the more people you get on the phone.
• The more people you get on the phone, the more time you can execute your phone process or sales script.
• The more people you engage on the phone, the more appointments you can set.
• The more appointments you set, the more appointments you can confirm.
• The more appointments you can confirm, the more people show up.
• The more people show up, the more people will buy vehicles.
• More vehicle sales equals more money for everyone — both the dealership and you.

I know that  this might sound too easy to be true, but it really is this simple: If you dial phones more, you will sell more vehicles. I have been doing automotive Internet sales and business development for more than 12 years now, and that has proven to be the case over and over again all over the country. Doesn’t matter what type of franchise you have or how big your organization is — math is math.

Let’s go a little deeper. I have dealers who tell me over and over that their Internet sales coordinators, BDC reps, and appointment setters are only making 50 to 60 calls per day, and that is like pulling teeth from them. They complain that they can’t make any more calls — it’s impossible. Or, they don’t have anyone to call, or they are worried that they are calling too much, or that people are mad at them for calling too much, or countless other excuses for mediocrity.

Here are some important statistics:

• 55 percent of communication is visual perception and body language

• 38 percent of  communication is tone and inflection

• Only seven percent of communication is text or the words that we use

This means with Internet prospects, it makes a lot of sense to escalate the e-mail to the phone call and the phone call to the appointment. The appointment builds the relationship, product presentation and demo drive, and all this builds value.

The average Internet prospect is searching five to seven other dealerships and or Websites (this can be same franchise or other franchises). That means five to seven other dealerships are following up sending e-mails and leaving voice mails.

The average connection on a phone call attempt is 11 to 14 percent. That means if you dial 50 attempts you are only going to reach five to seven people. Think about that for a moment: If you have full-time appointment setters, BDC reps and Internet coordinators and they work an eight to nine hour day, they are only connecting with five to seven people? That is not enough at all.

On average, you will close 25 to 33 percent of the people you actually get on the phone. That means if you attempt to call 50 people, you will get five to seven people on the phone, and from those you can expect to make about one or two appointments. That is nowhere close to being enough.

Let’s just use a safe and realistic 50/50/50 closing ratio. If you make two appointments per day, five days per week, that’s 10 appointments per week, or 40 appointments per month. Out of 40 appointments per month, about 20 people will show up and about 10 people will buy vehicles.

Our clients are making 120 phone calls per day per rep. Out of the 120 attempts, they are connecting 11 to 14 percent, which means they speak with 14 to 17 people. They are converting 25 to 33 percent to appointments, which gives us between four and six appointments per day per rep. Let’s say they make five appointment per day, five days a week, for 25 appointments per week or 100 appointments per month. Of those, 50 people will show up for the appointment and they will deliver 25 units.

Now that I have your attention, how do you get your department to actually make these phone calls? Its simple: accountability. Do not let them accept mediocrity. They will give you every reason, why they can’t do it. You have to encourage them they can and they will. For a sure-fire way to prove it to them, however, have them go through the “Power Hour.”

The “Power Hour” is a contest you will have with your team. Put some type of bonus, prize, or gift up for the winner. Here are the rules: For one straight hour, your people are going to make as many Internet sales calls as possible. Whoever makes the most Internet Sales phone calls wins the bonus. At the end of the “Power Hour,” you calculate how many phone call attempts everybody made, and then add them together and divide them by the number of people who participated.

For example, I just did this very exercise today at a Ford / Mazda dealership in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A couple of weeks ago, they were kicking and screaming that they couldn’t make more than 50 calls per day, per rep. I put out a $100 bill for a “Power Hour” prize. They have four appointment setters and an Internet director. Here are the results:

1. 20 Calls
2. 28 Calls
3. 36 Calls
4. 42 Calls
5. 53 Calls

They made 179 calls in one hour, for an average of 35.8 calls per rep.  Now, multiply 35.8 phone calls times 6.5 working hours in a day (that’s taking out breaks and lunches), and you get 232.7 calls in a day. Now, that might seem crazy, but the math doesn’t lie. I’m not suggesting that they should be making 230+ calls per day per person, but  I am saying that they can sure as heck make a lot more than 50 calls per day.

The reality is that they were killing themselves making phone calls because they wanted to win that $100 bill. They had the desire, the want and the need to make a lot of calls. The end result for this dealership was that they all were floored at the end of the exercise when I broke down the math to them. They could not believe how many calls they were able to make in one hour.

I have been doing the “Power Hour” exercise for more than seven years now and it works every time. If you have any questions about this article, or you would like me to e-mail you the video of this exercise and the exit interview of this exercise, please e-mail or call me and it would be my pleasure to send it to you.

In conclusion, you need to make sure that your team is dialing the phone. An Internet sale is predominately a phone sale. Just think about the math. Remember you only have a 11 to 14 percent connection ratio. Everyone will tell you the hardest part of Internet sales is simply getting the prospect on the phone.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 866.648.7400, or by e-mail at sbradley@autosuccessonline.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpyJj4MV-ds 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gCVyJLdJVQ&feature=relmfu