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DETROIT (Reuters) -- The deteriorating European markets have led auto industry executives to worry about possible contagion spreading across the Atlantic, but June new-car sales in the United States are expected to hit a five-year peak for that particular month.
Auto sales, which offer an early snapshot of consumer demand, have been one of the bright spots in the U.S. economy for several months until May results came in short of expectations and raised concerns about the sector's recovery.
Analysts and industry officials, however, said there are just too many old cars that need to be replaced, which will drive consumers into dealers' showrooms.
The average age of cars on the road is an all-time-high 11 years.
"The most interesting thing is the ongoing battle between pent-up demand and concern over financial issues," said Karl Brauer, chief executive of research firm Total Car Score. "There is, by no means, clear sailing ahead on the financial issues, but people are getting really tired of driving their old cars."
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters see the annual selling rate for new cars in the U.S. market in June finishing at 13.9 million vehicles.
That would mark the second month in a row below the 14 million rate, but would exceed last month's 13.7 million.
Opinions vary, however, as TrueCar.com expects a sales rate of 13.6 million, while General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said on Thursday the market was "surprisingly strong" and he saw it finishing between 14 million and 14.2 million.
J.D. Power and LMC Automotive, and Edmunds.com see sales rising 20 percent from last year to about 1.27 million new cars and trucks, while TrueCar sees an increase of 18 percent.
That would be the highest level since 1.46 million were sold in 2007, just before the U.S. economy slipped into a recession that forced GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy.
Some of the projected increase will be due to a recovery by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. from the impact of last year's earthquake in Japan that hurt U.S. supplies.
Major automakers including GM, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota will report June U.S. new-car sales on Tuesday.
Second-half worries
The downward spiral of the European market has raised concerns, however.
"I'm a little bit worried about the second half because we see softness in Europe," Akerson said Thursday at an event in Chicago. However, his positive forecast for June U.S. sales was based on the pent-up demand in the market.
Ford echoed Akerson's concerns on Thursday when it warned that second-quarter losses from operations outside North America could triple the $190 million first-quarter loss, hurt mainly by weakness in Europe.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker still sees an overall profit, however, as North America remains strong.
"The good news is we still have growth in the economy. It is moderate," Ford North American chief Mark Fields said earlier in the week. "Some of the economic figures in the last six weeks are a little bit contradictory.
The housing starts and permits actually were up. At the same time, we've seen consumer confidence come off its high earlier this year."
Ford expects a June sales pace in the high 13 million-vehicle range, he said.
"The (annual sales rate) does appear to be slowing down from the 14.6 million level in the first quarter, which we attribute to some demand pull forward into the first quarter with the warm winter and an increasingly cautious consumer given some signs of a slowing U.S. economy," RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak said in a research note.
Spak expects a June sales rate of 13.9 million vehicles, but said lower gasoline prices, easier access to credit and newly launched cars will bolster second-half demand.
He added there are more downside risks to his industry estimate at this time.
Analysts expect sales in June to decline from May, but Kelley Blue Book said such a decrease is what normally occurs this time of year.
Since 2007, the daily selling rate has dropped between 3 percent and 10 percent from May to June, putting the company's projected 8 percent decline within that trend.
Despite the expected second straight month below a 14 million sales rate, analysts are not backing off full-year U.S. sales projections yet.
"Despite the relative slowdown in the last few weeks, the first-half sales results this year indicate a relatively healthy car industry; perhaps the brightest spot in an otherwise struggling U.S. economy," said TrueCar analyst Jesse Toprak. "We expect second-half of 2012 to average around 14.5 million units."
J.D. Power and LMC still expect 2012 sales of 14.5 million new cars and trucks.
"We're seeing healthy retail sales growth as we head into the summer selling season and as automakers change over to the 2013 model-year vehicles," said J.D. Power analyst John Humphrey. "All indicators point toward an industry that continues to get healthy."
Source: http://www.autonews.com/article/20120630/RETAIL01/120629879#ixzz1zNUwocKk
http://www.seanvbradley.com
I was onsite today at a Chevy Dealership in Chicago training them on Automotive Internet Sales and specifically "Phone Sales", Phone Process...
I go into detail explaining my philosophy and strategy.
If you have any questions about this video gotohttp://www.dealersynergy.com or email me. I would happy to answer any questions you may have.
Automotive Sales Training - Phone Sales - Internet Sales - Business Development - Sean V. Bradley
Most professional copywriters know that in a sales letter, the most important item after the headline is the postscript (P.S.) at the bottom.
Research shows that when people open a letter, they often scan to the bottom and read the P.S. before they actually read the letter itself. A good writer will take advantage of this opportunity to maximize their message with a strong P.S.
Do your salespeople know that including a P.S. in their emails is also incredibly effective?
It is such an easy way to increase the impact of your emails. That simple sentence at the bottom of a two or three paragraph email can help you increase urgency, reinforce your main message and add value.
Here are a couple of ideas on what you might include in your P.S.:
1. Main Theme with a Twist
Restate your main benefit from a different perspective. Whether or not they read the whole email, this gives you another chance to deliver your most important information.
2. The Time is Now
Use the P.S. to add urgency. Are the incentives expiring in a few days? Do you only have two left of the particular model in the color they are looking for? Let them know.
3. Add Social Proof
This can be a great place to add a customer review, especially if the review reinforces your particular offer or deals with a common objection or concern people have.
4. Sweeten the Deal
Is there a bonus offer you can add? Here’s the place to do it. For instance, “P.S. – Since it’s raining today and the showroom is a little quiet, my sales manager is including floor mats with the next vehicle sold.”
The P.S. should appear right below your signature line and should only be a sentence or two. Make sure it includes a call to action at the end as well.
Are you using P.S. in your’re emails and if so, what are you using in your postscript?
P.S.
If you want to see exactly how adding a P.S. to your email makes a difference, include a unique tracking URL in the P.S. so you can measure the clicks.
Source - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/using-ps-dealership-email-follow-up-sales-letter/
I received an email from a friend…it reads…
--
Hey L.A. You always talk about how people should practice empathic listening? well here’s a story that supports your argument100%.
I stopped in the local Subway to grab a quick sandwich. Luckily there wasn't a line, but I was still left waiting as no one was there to handle my order. Two other employees were busy helping other customers, and one of them yelled,
"Michelle, counter!"
About 30 seconds later a 20-something customer service rep came out, didn't look me in the eye and blurted, "Ca’I help you?"
I was ready, since I had ample time to prepare my script.
"Yes, please. I'd like a six-inch turkey, on whole grain, not toasted."
She slapped on gloves, then looked at me a bit puzzled and said, "You said meatball, right?"
That was odd. "Turkey" sounds nothing like "meatball." "No, I said turkey. On whole grain."
She searched for the turkey, fumbled around a bit, then looked at me again and said, "White bread?"
I thought she was joking. I gave her a "You're kidding right?"-kind of smirk.
Realizing she actually didn't know, I replied, "Well, again, I'd like whole grain please."
A few seconds passed as she feverishly threw together the sandwich, looked up and said, "You said toasted, right?"
Now I'm laughing. I replied, "Actually, no, I didn't say that. And no thanks, not toasted."
Finally she asked, "What would you like on it?"
Given my experience up to this point, it took everything I had--trust me-- to not return with something like, "I'd answer, but I don't think it will do any good, so just ask me a second time right now."
Instead, I maintained my composure and very slowly told her what I'd like, item by item. I even pointed at them to help her visualize.
Crazy Ha’un!
--
No…not crazy at all.
I'd like to think this experience is the exception with service people, sales people, or even just people in general. You and I both know that unfortunately it is more the norm.
The typical attention span today is mere seconds--if that. People are addicted to distraction.
Young and old. We communicate in abbreviated phrases. We get news in headlines, scrawls and tweets. If a website doesn't grab our attention in seconds, click. Next.
And don't even get me going on the entire notion of "present but absent," which is using your mobile device to text, call, tweet, email or whatever-- when you are WITH another person. Any time someone does that they are indicating, "I've got a more important person on the other end of this."
Present but absent.
OK, let me get this rant back on the tracks. My point is the reality today is that we must operate in the environment where people in general have shorter attention spans than ever.
We are more distracted and inundated with stimuli than ever before. To be effective in the sales game, we need to proactively counteract that when we are sending, and receivingCommunication.
A couple of very rudimentary, but nevertheless important points.
Pay Attention
I believe that to truly be an effective communicator, you need to work hard at the art and science of simply paying attention.
Yes, that means actually listening to what the other person is saying, and not thinking of what you will say next. Or worse, interrupting them with what you want to say.
It means not checking your emails, texts, tweets, Facebook or any other site while you are speaking with a prospect or customer. I heard a speaker say that there is no such thing as multi-tasking, since a person can only do one thing at a time. If you are flitting from thing to thing, you are not doing any of them very well. Certainly you wouldn't have your A-game when you are talking on the phone and trying to perform several other activities.
Here's a test worth taking: on the remainder of your spoken communication today, on the phone and face-to-face, practice "Venus Fly Trap" listening. That means grabbing on to every word you hear as if you would be tested on it, with dire consequences if you failed. You might be surprised at how much you really hear.
Pre-empt their Distraction
What's harder to control, but certainly doable, is grabbing and keeping their attention. How? Talk about their favorite subject: them. This is not new. But then again, I don't know why more reps don't do it.
Sitting in my voice mail inbox right now is a message from a clueless caller who left a 90-second message about the service he provides to Fitness Facilities and how he wants to set up an appointment so he could show me how I should be using his service in my Fitness Facility. Uh, hello. It wouldn't take more than a few seconds to find out exactly what I do, which is not run a Gym.
What my business is is helping salespeople do what he didn’t. Create interest, engage prospects and customers, and move the sales process forward. That's what we talk about here every week, and my sites are full of free info, and much much more that you can invest in.
if you made it all the way to here, congrats. You either have a refined attention span, and/or I kept your interest. Follow these ideas and you will be way ahead of those who are busy being distracted.
Tired of watching your boss’s eyes glaze over every time you mention a “20% increase in likes?”
Depressed from hearing your colleagues report on revenue growth while you report on retweets?
Sick of people asking you what it’s like having “the fun job?”
This article is for you.
The truth is; most social media programs today are still lacking a true sales strategy at the core. We do have a social media strategy, you may say. On Mondays, we post a funny tweet, on Tuesday we post a car picture, and on Wednesday, we post statistics.
To this, I say, an editorial calendar is not a strategy. It’s a schedule. To take your social media to the next level, you need to start correlating it to true sales metrics. The good news? You totally can.
Here’s how to do it:
Example of a Social Lead Funnel
Step 1: Create a spring campaign for a free car wash for new Twitter followers (use a service like TwitHawk to geo-target.)
Step 2: When your followers come in for their free car wash, make sure they feel welcome. Have your staff go through shaking hands, handing out lemonade and cookies, and bringing around an iPad asking people if they’d like to sign up for your social channels for more great offers and information.
Step 3: From there, nurture them with content marketing that balances car shopping best practices (How To Speed Through the Car-Buying Process) with marketing about your dealership (Why Lola’s Car Dealership is the Best).
Step 4: Once you’ve nurtured the relationship with about 3-5 pieces of strong content, it’s time to reel them in with some urgency. Send them a deal they can’t refuse: either a service coupon that’s only good for the next three days, or an LTO hefty discount on a car that only lasts for the next two hours. Take a cue from Groupon; the shorter the window, the more people are inclined to act, so don’t be afraid to add an element of adventure and excitement with a super-tight time frame.
This is just one example of a content marketing funnel, and there are many variations you could try.
My overall point is that it’s now fully possible to tie social media to the ROI metrics your Dealer Principal or COE actually cares about: leads and sales. You now have the means to up your game from marginalized maven to basking in the glow of revenue generation with all your digital marketing colleagues. Won’t that feel great?
What have you done at your dealership to help create a Social Funnel? Sound off in the comments!
Source - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/likes-to-leads-creating-a-social-sales-funnel/#more-7844
We know the fun part. When you first get your hands on one. They are new to you. All coddling is out the window and it is time for action. These first intimate interactions are exciting. It is that magical time when you first get together…
I am speaking of the moment the lead arrives.
Imagine a lead, as it grows, becomes an infant. It enters your dealerships CRM world brand-spanking new. It is helpless. It needs your immediate attention and devotion. Like a baby, it needs your warmth and your motherly/fatherly care. This is a beautiful time. You get to read the information the customer submitted on the lead, read into the customer with a little lead deconstruction and smile at their peccadillos. You get to garner pricing for it, check the inventory, and coddle the lead with a detailed, personalized first manual email response and phone call. The world is new and you love that lead. It represents hope…the future… a sale.
While a good motherly/fatherly Internet Sales Manager is still caring for that newborn lead at three months with the same utter devotion they did at one day old, other ISMs do not. Unfortunately, for some, that new baby smell wears off. They don’t feed the lead daily. They don’t call out to it. They don’t keep a watchful eye and make sure it isn’t in need of help. And this is the problem with lead management at car dealerships.
I’ve devoted my life to only a few things.
- My children and family. (I am insanely proud of the Dad I’ve become).
- My comedy and writing. (Hey, everyone needs a creative passion outside of their daily duties).
- Improving the way dealers do business. (More specifically, how improved communication with customers can change the way car dealers are perceived.)
At DealerKnows, from our in-store consulting to our Virtual Dealer Training…from the watchful eye we are in a dealer’s CRM and website to the honest and progressive brand that DK has become, our love of improving dealers’ phone, email, chat, text and video practices make us incredibly proud. We witness the growth and transformation of their Internet profitability the same way a good parent cherishes watching their children grow and learn. Now why can’t more Internet Sales Managers feel the same way about their very own leads?
Today’s ISMs must take ownership of their leads and be proud of the care they give them. They must recognize that managing a lead isn’t just a Day 1 wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am task, but a consistent, long-term daily regimen with each and every lead they parent.
Regardless of the statistics showing that Internet sales are being closed sooner and sooner to their arrival in the CRM, we believe that a lead has value (and the ability to sell) at any point in its lifetime. And this is where Internet teams fail. They give up. They skirt their responsibilities of being the lead’s guardian all the way through from conception to conversion. They like the lead when it is new to them, but don’t want to participate in the diaper-duty associated with long-term lead management.
What are you doing to ensure all tasks are completed in the CRM?
How often are you looking to guarantee leads aren’t being flipped to lost or bad far too early in the cycle?
You need to check regularly. We find this to be one of the most common process breaks and profit leaks in every dealership. As we at DealerKnows monitor the daily goings-on inside our clients’ CRMs, we see when they are ignoring the babies. They don’t try to raise them or educate them. They simply tend to them in the first few days and then pay them no mind after a few days. It is neglectful. And we can assure you it is happening at your store too if you’re not training them to be better parents.
Reinforce the need to follow-up with all leads until their adulthood, or at least until they buy. If you are a dealership operator, you need to be the social services of your store. Make sure your people are caring for the store’s leads consistently and don’t just focus on those first few response-time metrics. If you are the Internet Sales Manager, don’t think your job is over after your first interaction with the lead. Take care of it. Love it. Care for it until it matures. Don’t abandon your leads too early in the process.
You can’t just make the baby… you have to raise the baby.
Source - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/internet-lead-follow-up-like-raising-babies/#more-7856
I recently came across a case study from the folks at BoldChat, and in it, they discussed the impact and implementation that their Live Chat program has had on NorthFace's business.
Before we dive into the key points in the case study, here's a question you need to ask yourself:
- Does your dealership website incorporate some variation of a LiveChat program?
If your top priority is customer service, it should. Here are a few benefits that were pointed out in the Case Study:
- You will see an increase in customer engagement
- If a customer is not sure what type of car they're looking for, chances are that they'll much prefer a live chat to a phone call. They might not want to get on the phone until they're absolutely sure what they want.
- This also falls under the category of ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth). Customers are going online first before hitting the store/dealership. You must be there during the Zero Moment of Truth and Livechat can give you that advantage.
- After implementing Live Chat for their website, NorthFace saw a rise in chats/month from 4,000 to 17,000
- It will benefit your customer service team!
- Participating in live chat with customers will require your CSR's to become experts and more well versed in the product (i.e. vehicles) you're selling
- Before implementing chat, you'll want to vett your CSRs to ensure they're product evangelists.
So, does your website have some sort of Live Chat program? Why or Why not?
Carter Nies, Dealer Synergy National Sales Director & 17 Year Automotive Sales Veteran - General Sales Manager
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