Blog

Babe Ruth was known for hitting the most home runs, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that he also had the most strikeouts. Think about that for a moment…

My point is that you need to be at bat to crack those home runs out of the park. For many years I was at the frontline of Internet Departments. I have successfully built multiple Internet sales departments from the ground up from nothing to selling over 100+ units solely from the Internet. When I started, I tried creating and managing the Internet department every possible way imaginable. I had struck out several times before I developed that “Power” swing. I put a solid strategy together and I was cracking home runs right out of the park.

Soon after I started I realized that I needed a strategy and a focus. I needed to set some goals for my department, my company and myself. I worked with others and developed a four-point strategy we called D.I.M.E.. The four elements of D.I.M.E. are Design, Implement, Manage, and Evolve.

Design

This is where you create a vision of where you want your business to be in the future. List your goals and desired outcomes. Be specific about how your business will be affected. Don’t talk in generalities but in specifics-percentage increased or decreased, net gain or loss, numbers for retention, etc.

Implement

Work your vision through implementation. Establish a timeline for task completion. Be sure everyone understands their accountability especially outside vendors and inside managers.

Manage

Management is about measurement. Be sure to measure your progress against the standards you set during the design phase. You want to be sure that everything is moving forward and that you are achieving the desired results.

Evolve

Evolution takes leadership. Throughout the design, implementation and management of your plan others will be looking to you for guidance. In order to evolve, others must understand where your business is headed and follow the vision you have laid before them.

D.I.M.E. is the method we use at Dealer Synergy for everything we do from buying computers to hiring new employees. Having a strategy and repeatable method of execution allows us to get better at what we do every time we do it.

Having a methodology is important but your also need to know where your key areas for success are. Most businesses share four common elements of focus. I call them “The Four “P’s”. The first is products, the second people, then process and finally promotions.

Next month we will take a look at how the Four P’s apply to selling cars online…

Sean V. Bradley

BDC vs. Sales Floor
Does your sales force communicate effectively with your internet/BDC department? If you are like a lot of dealers the chances are that the answer is “NO”. I have worked in a few dealerships over the years where I have experienced the same problems as an Internet director. Nowadays, I have been working with dealerships nationally on a training and consulting level where I still see the same problems arise.

So how do we fix this common problem?

I learned from my previous dealer about the power of having mandatory weekly meetings. I am talking about sales meetings with sales managers, sales consultants, internet/bdc coordinators, and the internet director. The meeting needs to be mandatory and held once a week. These sales meetings need to be a half hour to an hour long with the purpose of uniting the two departments together.
The meeting must cover any news or updates in the dealership regarding advertisements and store policies. If there is an advertisement running for that weekend, there needs to be a customized script or outline created for the BDC so that the calls are answered properly. This advertisement needs to be reviewed in this meeting so that everyone is on the same page when speaking to customers.

The biggest goal of this meeting is to allow both departments to see how they operate. The way to do this is to role play around the room the phone scripts using coordinators and sales staff. Also, it is important to role play the sales process of how the customer will be handled once they arrive to the showroom. It is important that sales consultants and sales managers know what is being said on the phones and how it is being said. Why? It makes a smooth transition from speaking on the phone with one person and working in the showroom with another. When the customer comes in and works with a sales consultant, there will never be a “he said, she said” situation because the sales representative will know what is being said on the phone and will have the knowledge to check the notes of the conversation in the CRM.

What will these meetings do to your people?

These meetings boost strong morale in the dealership. The meeting needs to be positive and motivational at the same time. While these meetings are serious, people need to laugh and enjoy being in that conference room for almost an hour. It is a great idea to have bagels and coffee in the room for breakfast. One of the most powerful things I did at the dealership was taking pictures and videos at these meetings for memories. We need to understand that people love memories and they appreciate being remembered. There is nothing more rewarding then to look at them one year later and remember how effective these meetings were.

As the communication improves in the dealership by utilizing this practice, both departments will work together. The sales staff in the dealership will start to see value in the internet department and will only show respect as they will realize that the BDC is there to help them make money. When you motivate and lead your people by building value in the right processes, you will only see positive change.
Let’s face it, when I left my last dealership I had sales consultants that were sad about me leaving because of how I ran my department. This is the effect that needs to happen in your dealership right now. If you are not having the success that you desire in your sales and BDC department performance, it is a great idea to consider how the departments communicate with one another.

I just wanted to thank everyone for helping us put this site together :)

I am amazed by how much we got accomplished in only a couple of days. The site is going to be completed by the November Internet Sales 20 Group in Philadelphia.

PLEASE remember to add your profile picture... It would be nice for everyone to get an idea of who they are communicating with. Remember this isn't Match.com, its not that deep lol!

Continue to add articles, blog posts, pictures and of course video... anything that you feel is relevant and or important to you that you think other people in the community would see value in.

Thanks again for being part of AIS!

SVB-