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Tim Morgan of Radley Acura Named Autobytel Dealer of the Month; Dealer of the Year Awards Slated for January 2014
Autobytel honors exceptional dealers from a competitive field of thousands of automotive retailers for outstanding Internet lead management and customer service standards
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2013--
Autobytel Inc. (Nasdaq: ABTL), the company dedicated to helping automotive consumers and dealers connect online, has named Tim Morgan, General Sales Manager of Radley Acura in Falls Church, Virginia, the Autobytel Dealer of the Month for May 2013.
The company's Dealer Awards Program honors exceptional Autobytel dealers who employ the highest standards in customer service and Internet automotive retail sales and lead management processes. The Autobytel Dealer of the Year Award is slated to be announced at the NADA Convention & Expo in New Orleans in January 2014, with the crowning dealer chosen from this year's pool of monthly winners.
Tim joins Patti Scipione of M'Lady Nissan and Paul LeRose of Pauly Toyota--who were recently named Autobytel Dealers of the Month for March and April 2013--in that pool of winners.
"One of the primary reasons the Radley Acura team is so successful is the customized approach they take with every Internet customer they service," said Jeffrey Coats, President and CEO of Autobytel Inc. "Today's car buyers are unique, each with their own set of wants and needs when it comes to finding the perfect vehicle. Tim has helped implement a personalized sales process at Radley Acura--one that evaluates Internet leads individually, addresses every inquiry in a personalized way, and provides information of substance that goes above and beyond the standard price quote."
Each month, Autobytel's sales and dealer operations teams evaluate prospective candidates from a competitive field of thousands of automotive retailers in the Autobytel network, with a monthly winner selected based on key online automotive best practices.
Criteria evaluated for the Autobytel Dealer Awards Program include conversion rates, lead management processes, customer service principles, customer and brand retention analytics and Internet department practices, among others.
"We've learned a lot in the 10-plus years we've been an Autobytel dealer, " said Morgan. "The most important thing we've learned is how to communicate with Internet customers to gain a full understanding of what they're looking for in a new car and then guide them through the entire process of finding, buying and owning that car. Our customer service ratings and internal metrics prove we're successful, and Autobytel helps our efforts by sending us great quality leads. However, being named an Autobytel Dealer of the Month, which recognizes how well we stack up against other dealers, is especially rewarding."
Radley Acura is a 27-year Acura retailer located in Falls Church, Virginia, serving the Alexandria, Fairfax and Washington, D.C. markets. The dealership offers new, used and certified pre-owned Acuras and has been a part of the Autobytel program for over 10 years. Radley Acura is a Precision Team Dealer of Distinction, the most prestigious and coveted honor that Acura can grant to its dealerships, which recognizes those dealership teams that demonstrate superior achievement in customer satisfaction, new-car-unit sales volume, business management, customer follow-up, sales and service training.
Named #1 Dealers' Choice Awards in 2012 by Auto Dealer Monthly, and a finalist of the 2013 DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Award this April, Autobytel consistently ranks as a top quality Internet lead provider, with the company's internally-generated leads converting at approximately three times the rate of the estimated industry average.
For more information about the Autobytel Dealer Awards Program, or to learn more about the winners as they're announced, visit the "Dealer Corner" at dealer.autobytel.com. Visit www.autobytel.com to learn about the company's leading automotive information, products and services; watch exclusive new car videos, test drives and car reviews at Autobytel's YouTube page; or join the conversation on the Autobytel Facebook Fan Page.
About Autobytel Inc.
Autobytel Inc., an online leader offering consumer purchase requests, or leads, and marketing resources to car dealers and manufacturers and providing consumers with the information they need to purchase new and used cars, pioneered the automotive Internet when it launched its flagship website, www.autobytel.com, in 1995. Autobytel continues to offer innovative products and services to help consumers buy, and auto dealers and manufacturers sell, more used and new cars. Autobytel has helped tens of millions of automotive consumers research vehicles; connected thousands of dealers nationwide with motivated car buyers; and helped every major automaker market its brand online. Through its flagship website, network of automotive sites and respected online affiliates, Autobytel continues its dedication to innovating the industry's highest quality Internet programs to provide consumers with a comprehensive and positive automotive research and purchasing experience, and auto dealers, dealer groups and auto manufacturers with some of the industry's most productive and cost-effective customer referral and marketing programs.
Investors and other interested parties can receive Autobytel news releases and invitations to special events by accessing the online registration form at investor.autobytel.com/alerts.cfm.
Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association Presentation - Internet Sales / BDC from Sean Bradley
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Sean V. Bradley's Presentation For The Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association "Keeping What's Yours & Taking What's Theirs!"
Dealer Synergy Is Hiring - Automotive Sales - Internet Sales - BDC - New Jersey / Philadelphia
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - Interns For Your Dealership
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - Membership Buying Programs
Welcome Richard Browne! Dealer Synergy's New General Manager (21+ Years Automotive Experience)
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Why Aren't Car Dealerships Selling Cars? - Automotive Sales - Car Sales
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Why Should Car Dealerships Train? - Automotive Sales - Car Sales
http://www.internetsales20group.com
http://dealersynergy.com/
http://makemoneymondays.net/
Make Money Mondays - Orphan Owners
Sean V. Bradley talks about how sales leads left behind by customer sales reps who have left the company are opportunities that need not be left behind.
Thanks to the crew at Digital Dealer for the opportunity to speak on Reputation Management at Digital Dealer.
Digital Dealer may have presumed Reputation Management would be the most sought after topic at the conference. Ah-no. I was shocked at standing room only in some sessions but not for the topic of reviews and reputation mgmt.
The lack of butts in seats for all rep mgmt sessions reveals many dealers simply view it and the truth of what is reputation best practice as a nice to have, not a have to have.
I likened it to hearing your smoke detector go off in the middle of the night—and you get up and remove the battery! The irritating beeping sound stops, but the fire is still raging, and you're not addressing it!
The reputation industry scandals are the clue phones that are ringing with warnings.
For instance, Forbes released news of “mug shot extortionists” who targeted a man who had gotten a DUI.
His arrest and mug shot quickly surfaced online and his wife received an email from a service provider letting her know that for a small fee, approximately $400, the service would get the posting and photo back down. Horrified of what the item might do to her business if it were seen by distributors, she quickly complied. Problem solved.
Then several weeks later the item appeared on a nearly identical site and she received an identical offer: Pay $400, and the new item could be removed from the web. By now my friend realized she was in an endless loop of extortion. But her initial $400 is gone, and for now, at least, the damaging item lives on.
Forbes also provided this news from a source in the U.K., who asked that they not be identified by name:
“I am aware of the extortion used by most of the biggest ORM firms out there, to name one, it is [redacted]. You will see a huge list of websites they claim they are able to remove bad reviews, reports, affair complaints and trade complaints from. Our team became aware of a scandal where we found that many of these sites have either been setup by the company themselves, or have created financial relationships with the owners of the sites to remove content when paid.”
“Most of the biggest [ORM] Online Reputation Management firms are involved in this kind of mafia extortion. A client of ours who refused to do business with [redacted, but a different company than the first] found a slew of negative listings about themselves appear online just a few weeks later. The company called again and remarked they ‘knew about them,’ offering our client a reduced contract of $25k a month to remove or demote the results.” “What a racket!” said Cheryl Conner, contributor for Forbes.
There isn’t any industry or person exempt from being attacked in this way, hence proactive review building and short circuiting complaints is now mandatory to survive as a business. Many decision makers are unaware of the dangers of reactive reputation management, versus proactive reputation management, and that is a bit frightening.
The search engines will shift algorithms again and Dealers Google scores will soar or hit the floor, based on using honest and unbiased steps to building reviews or manipulative means to publish reviews preferentially.
The worst practices and the impact of unbiased and dishonest reputation mgmt practices have yet to hit a dealers bottom line. Meaning, dealers have been sold worst practices, veiled as best practices that in the short term can satisfy a dealers appetite to get reviews posted and manage negative sentiment. Fact is, a number of our new dealer clients stopped following what they thought were best practice, fatigued from low review response rates, the hemorrhaging of removed reviews or de-ranking penalties.
What about the Google slap in August that was symptomatic of not paying attention to best practices? Perhaps Google was elusive and sent all of us mixed messages and failed to strongly sway dealers from setting up a review kiosk in the showroom. Regardless, that's not my point. My point is unbiased and honest review building has powerful meaning.
What I want to know is...could the next Google slap have been avoided had dealers followed the Google rules of how to harvest honest and unbiased reviews in a non manipulative proactive process. For example, will Google slap dealers who use, in my opinion, a biased process where the dealer sends a feedback survey and IF the customer is satisfied, customers are sent an email to post a positive review?
The unpredictable giants; Google and Yelp. Will they continue to throw down the reputation gavel and sentence dealers to review purgatory who do not pay them or fail to nudge the customer to post on yelp if they are a yelper [10 reviews or more] or on GLocal if an active Google-user? Will they say, we warned you, again! Will penalties only apply to those whose violations are the most extreme; for example, allegedly hiring for reviews,like Samsung did recently.
Please revisit the conflict of interest page from Google and define how you define honest and unbiased in terms of how you manage your reputation and build reviews or negate complaints.
Dealers with a biased or dishonest control of reviews may see a slow decay in their reputation scores and ranking.
Will dealer decision makers shift their consciousness to a more proactive understanding and do what Google says about honesty and unbiased review building, literally! Perhaps, we humans are wired that way; we need a good slap to our reputation before we wake up to that beeping sound, and finally call the reputation fire department to put out the review destroying fire.
Jerry Hart
President
eReputationBUILDER
Schedule a free demo
888-810-0441
I believe in holding my sales team accountable, and when I meet with my salespeople and go over what they are doing every day, I naturally tend to focus on their "planners". My dealership uses Car Research, while many of you use Compass, Higher Gear, Vin Solutions, or one of the other outstanding CRM's on the market today. I'm sure many of you are tired of your managers hounding you to "finish your tasks". The funny thing that I have noticed is that the tasks that tend to get the least amount of attention are the "orphan owners" that get randomly assigned to your account (based on your CRM of course) . It is these customers that I would like to address for a few moments.
One of the biggest problems in most dealerships today is that the average salesperson simply doesn't know all the tools that are available to them in the CRM. Yes, they might know how to enter and update a customers status, but that is about it. You wouldn't believe all the tools available to help you sell more cars and make a LOT more money. It would be the equivalent of buying a new Iphone and simply using it to make calls. How much would you be missing?
Most of your CRM's are tied into your Service Department, so if you do a little digging, you will find that somewhere in your customers information screen, usually under "Vehicle Information", you can find out everything you need to make a car deal. My salespeople could not believe that if the customer bought from our dealership, the CRM will show the remaining payments, interest rate, approximate payoff and approximate ACV or their trade! Do you think you could sell more cars if you had that information BEFORE you made that Orphan Owner call? You can actually search your dealerships files based on approximate equity, and then call these beautiful customers and let them know that they can upgrade their current vehicle for about what they are currently paying. Do you now see why the Orphan Owners in your planners are actually some of the hottest prospects you have been ignoring?
As Dr. Covey would say, you need a Paradigm Shift in your thinking. You need to see the CRM as the BEST TOOL YOU HAVE TO HELP YOU SELL CARS!. And if you don't understand how to use it, don't just rely on your friends limited knowledge (the proverbial blind leading the blind). There is usually a help line to call, a rep who can stop by, or how to videos on the site. In any case, there are tons of customers right at your fingertips that you have been ignoring for far too long.
Remember It's not about where you've been but where you are going. It only takes the courage to recognize it and TAKE ACTION NOW! OF course, when you realize how much business you have missed, it will make you sick.
Are you up for the challenge? I promise you it will be well worth it.
I truly belive in all my heart that CARS.COM is trying to do the right thing!!
THANK YOU to all of the dealers, Trainers/Consultants/Advocates, especially Jim Ziegler and Sean V. Bradley that made noise about this new program that was launched.
As of today here is a message from them :
http://dealeradvantage.cars.com/da/2013/05/moving-forward-testing-new-ways-to-drive-exposure/
He did also refer to a 23 minute video from Brian Pasch FOR the idea, which I have personally NOT watched. I think overall, this "test" was a good and bad one.
Good - we are engaging customers more and following up, and anything that does slip through the cracks on the dealership level, we can find out if the customer is still on the market with another automated email process. This does increase value to Cars.com to me as a dealership....ONLY if we fix the BAD!
BAD - ...which really should be "horrible"! Bottom line, a company we are paying for a car buyer...is now turning that buyer into a shopper with other suggestions. They are also providing financing options and other 3rd party validations, and that part is OUR JOB as the dealership to do!
**(Please refer to Robert Wiesman article EXACTLY about that written a few days ago!)
We can ALL work together (aka Synergize!!) to make this a HUGE WIN/WIN/WIN situation for us as the dealership, Cars.com as a trusted vendor and advertiser, AND the customer looking for the best deal!
Andy Fedo
Director of Internet Sales, Lithia Nissan Hyundai of Fresno
This blog was inspired to me when I got here in the late morning (I'm usually the closer!), and both of my two Internet Coordinators were running around; one looking for pictures of a particular vehicle, and the other was finding out from our Sales Managers if we can do "better than the internet price" because the customer wants to know before she gets here...
All I could do is shake my head, and try to explain some facts in the automotive world:
- More than 3 out of 4 customers will NOT buy the vehicle they originally inquire on via the internet
- Most customers will ask about price as an inquiry, but most of the time it is NOT an objection
- About 9 out of 10 customers go to the internet before coming into a dealership
- Most customers visit 2 OR LESS dealerships before making a purchase
I'm sure this is happening more often than it should in dealerships everywhere, and it is very ineffective. To put it blunt...a waste of time!
Don't lose mind of the fact that we do this every day, and know the quickest and easiest way to get it done. Most often we help people purchase vehicles more times in a week, than most people experience in a lifetime! So why are we as professionals running around on wild goose chases looking for information that will end up being irrelevant in the sale?
Spending more than 80% of your time on less than 20% of your customers is a recipe for disaster! You will not be happy with your end-of-month results if you tend to try to give the customer too much "TLC" before they get to the dealer. Imagine all of the customers you can be calling, scheduling for appointments and getting to show up, rather than having a few valuable employees seeking information on one tough prospect. This is the opportunity cost that you have to sacrifice to do this for one customer, in hopes of that one customer you are spending all that time on is going to convert to a sale. Does this make sense? ...I hope you said NO
The customer controlling you, the professional appointment setter, is indeed getting what they want, but not helping you get what you want in return. We want to create a reason for the customer to come to the dealership, and without avoiding the question, give the best answer to make us both happy. For example, we tend to get scared when a customer asks the price and treat it as an objection before we have to. Even worse yet, bring up price before the customer because we THINK that is the most important thing to them. Having a list of fact finding questions and good answers that make sense to the customer will help you avoid running around, and get the customer to do what we want...and that's to come into the store. We can find out information about what they want, to better guide them to the best deal possible.
Asking question a question like: "what was it in particular you liked about that vehicle?" is a very simple but powerful statement. You will find out if your customer likes the budget, brand, style, etc...of that car, and then be able to make suggestions of similar vehicles. A customer may have been looking at 3-5 vehicles on your site, but only asked about one. You may make suggestions, and find the vehicle is one of the same ones that they were also looking at! By making numerous suggestions you are creating an "information overload" situation, while also understanding what the customer’s wants and needs are. I have even found that sometimes they come to the conclusion themselves that it would be easier for them to come in and take a look, simply because of how informative I am on the phone.
Constantly mixing in phrases like "when you get here..." and "I'm glad we had this chance to talk before we meet..." paired along with being helpful on the phone will help you convert more "lookers" into "buyers" when they do get to your lot as well as get more prospects interested in coming to see you soon!
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley "Vendors vs Partners"
I just wrote a powerful article for the May issue of AutoSuccess Magazine and explained my opinion of Vendors vs Partners... People, there is a HUGE difference between the two. Watch this video and find out which ones you are working with at your dealership
I have just read an eye-popping article from the fine folks over at eMarketer titled, "Auto Industry Braces for Major Shifts in Search Marketing." If you don't have time to read it, I'll point out the highlights and give you some of my own thoughts.
As all of us know, paid, as well as, organic search helps drive leads, increase a dealership's traffic, and sell vehicles. This remains true. Yet, the emergence of digital marketing and its impact on search is changing the way your customers find your dealership online. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of it, take a moment to check out this graph. As you can see, there's a myriad of ways your customers, when shopping online, can find your dealership.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that MORE and MORE people are going online to search for their next car. (See: ZMOT; See also: it's 2013!! Everybody is going online first to do research before buying!!) So, how do you increase your traffic? Well, in a recent survey of US Auto Dealerships for Cars.com, Datium found that 55% of respondents' digital ad spending went to paid search engine marketing (SEM).
Think of searching online like putting together a puzzle. You dump all the pieces onto the floor, and now you have to somehow make sense of the rubble and construct one collective entity. That's what customers are doing when they go online to search. They are trying to sift through all the information to eventually make a purchase, and hopefully with a sustainable and effective digital and search marketing strategy, it's made at your store!
The thing, however, that blew my mind reading eMarketer's article is this little tidbit of information: "Only 20% of new-car shoppers in the US buy the brand they first searched for, according to Google data."
As the article aptly points out, "OEM brand sites—often developed with major digital agencies, strong media support, and cutting edge SEM and search engine optimization (SEO)—attracted more attention in search results than dealerships." While this is certainly true, things are changing.
Dealership websites are becoming more and more sophisticated, user friendly, and even mobile-friendly. If we had a time machine, we could go back a few years ago and compare a dealership's website back then to what it is today. The difference would be astounding. More and more dealers are recognizing the power of SEO as well as VSEO. The dealer with an optimized and indexed site is going to show up first on Google and as a result, draw in more traffic. After all, your goal should be to show up on the first page of Google. The recent studies have found this to be case as auto dealerships are in "direct competition for influence over U.S. Car shoppers."
Lastly, according to a 2012 survey done by a conjunction of folks like Google, Compete, TNS Global, and R.L. Polk & Co., 74% of U.S. new vehicle shoppers visited used dealership websites via desktop. They also surveyed the sties on mobile phone and/or tablet during the buying process.
This change in auto search marketing, due to advances in digital marketing, isn't exactly going to push OEMs out of the lineup, however. OEMs and other related agencies are still able to push foot traffic to your dealership thanks to such things like video content.
Where do you see search in the automotive industry going in 2013? Given the advancements of digital marketing, video social, social media, online reputation, the best it yet to come when it comes to search!
Great follow up to the Dallas event everyone! Also great to hear the updates from some of our members, and thank you to everyone that helped me learn last month in at the Internet Sales 20 Group.
I got back to the office and my scatter-brain didn't know what to do first. I have had the advantage of doing this a few times before with a previous job... ;-) so we are doing a pretty good job of not making mistakes as we build moving forward. I find myself continually referring back to my IS20G handbook, and the Thirty-something pages of notes I took in 3 days to help me be thorough in anything we work on improving.
As Karen and Sean Bradley mentioned on the phone, we have to focus on a few goals, then define a way to get there, then have an action plan to accomplish it. I am taking the next step now on working on the next 3 action plans to grow the department. I feel that our team has implemented strategies and process to address our first 3 issues that I deemed urgent at IS20G. Our most important goal was to get rid of our sub-par rating on all customer review websites NOW, and we did some VERY basic things in just one month to see INSTANT improvement:
- Make colorful flyers and put them at all salespeople's desks, as well as the sales tower. Have them actively put them in customers hands while delivering their new vehicle.
- Send "Thank you" cards for everyone that purchased and visited the previous day.
- Conduct "how was your experience" surveys while addressing the "Thank you" cards.
- Send my flyers for reviews in the "Thank you" cards, especially the customers that I speak to and complete the quick survey
- Take pictures of everyone with thier new vehicles! Ask for permission to use the picture on Facebook and other social media websites..and make it FUN! Ask the customer to tag themselves, like/share the picture, and be active in your dealership's pages. Who doesn't like to brag and show-off to everyone when they purchase a new vehicle!??
- SPIFF our salespeople on getting reviews, and asking customers to mention thier names. My personal reward that we came up with here: I buy them a drink! (...no alcohol! Starbucks, Rockstars and Monsters to keep them alert!!! LOL "Drink of thier choice" is inexpensive and goes a long way with your sales team!)
The key to implementing successful proceedures is to have everyone embrace the new process, show everyone in your dealerships that it is a positive thing that you are implementing, and most importantly, make sure everyone is AWARE and proactive in sharing with customers.
I did a simple "S.W.O.T." (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities to grow, Threats to hinder us) analysis to see where I was when I flew back to California a month ago, as opposed to where I am at month end. I can see where I have improved, and where we still have room to implement new strategies to continue to sell more cars, more profitably and more often!
p.s. Let's get on the phone with our Accountabila-buddies! Synergize to be more successful...and see you all in L.A. in November!
Andy Fedo
Director of Intenet Sales, Lithia Nissan Hyundai of Fresno
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - "The Prosperity Equation"
Sean references Jim Ziegler's Prosperity Equation Book this week...
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Make Money Mondays with Sean V. Bradley - Automotive Internet Sales Coordinator - Appointment Setter
