http://www.dealersynergy.com 856-546-2440
"Make Your Own Weather" - Sean V. Bradley - Millionaire Car Salesman (4/23/12)

Do You Know Your Residual Flow Factor?

Guest Post By Sean V. Bradley, CEO, Dealer Synergy

Question: What is your Residual Flow Factor?

No idea what I’m talking about? Don’t feel bad. There are thousands of dealerships in this industry that have no idea what I’m talking about when I ask that question. Even worse, they’re not tracking this very important variable of their Internet Sales department.

Residual Flow Factor is the amount of leads that carries over from month to month.

For example, let’s say your dealership generates 500 leads in the month of August. You close 10 percent of those leads and deliver 50 units. How many leads carry over on September 1? That’s right, 450.

The average buying cycle is between 45 and 90 days. So some of these carry-over leads are “dead,” inactive, non-viable opportunities for any of the following reasons:

• Bought elsewhere
• Changed mind
• Can’t afford the vehicle
• Credit challenged
• Upside down on trade
• Unrealistic
• Bad lead
• Etc…

However, dead leads should only account for about 200 out of the remaining 450 leads (about 45%). That means that on September 1, you will have a Residual Flow Factor of 250 leads.

So you’ll start the month of September with a minimum of 250 carry over leads, plus you will have another 500 fresh leads for a total of 750 opportunities for the month of September.

Now for the important part: Dealers need to respect the Residual Flow Factor, because it literally cripples dealers every month. Many dealers do not understand the concept of the Residual Flow Factor and in turn do not plan accordingly. They do not have enough sales consultants or appointment setters to handle all of the total opportunities. So dealerships wind up only doing “the best they can” with the leads. They are not able to put enough attention or focus on the leads. They are simply spread too thin, so they covert only the low hanging fruit and let other opportunities pass by.

Let me share an awesome, easy formula you can use to track your department’s reality:

Create a spreadsheet for all SOLD units. Then create three additional columns:

1. Date the lead came in on
2. Date the lead closed
3. Window period

For example:

1.  Lead came in: August 5^th 
2.  Lead closed on: August 8^th
3.  Window period = 3 days

So, if you sold 50 units in the month of August, you will have 50 “window periods.” Add them all up and divide them by 50. This is your dealership’s “gestation period” (average selling period).

My prediction is that your dealership’s gestation period is between seven to 11 days. And that is NOT GOOD! Remember, the average buying cycle for Internet prospects is 45 to 90 days. If your average selling ratio is only seven to 11 days, it means that your dealership is leaving a lot of money on the table.  Chances are you are not maximizing your dealership’s Residual Flow Factor.  Armed with this knowledge, you can change this today!

If you have any questions about this article or if you would like me to evaluate your dealership’s Residual Flow Factor, please email me at sean@dealersynergy.com or feel free to give me a call at (267) 319-6776.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry.

http://connect.carsdirect.com/do-you-know-your-residual-flow-factor/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=

BEWARE of YOUR Internet Or

Business Development Department Infrastructure

For more than nine years, I have traveled the country conducting consulting and training for approximately 500 dealerships, and before that I worked on the front lines for five and half years. I have tracked trends, patterns, common situations that effect dealership’s success, and what is crystal clear is that region, franchise or demographics don’t matter. I want to share some revelations I have identified that will help you sell more cars, more often and more profitably.

Dealerships are not staffing their Internet or business development department the right way.  I see the same thing over and over at dealership after dealership. For example, dealers will have 500 leads in their CRM and have one or two appointment setters working those leads — or worse, they have no appointment setters. They just rely on showroom consultants to handle all of those leads.

Let me just dive into my concerns in this scenario, beginning with having too few appointment setters. This doesn’t work because there are far too many leads to be handled for only one to two appointment setters. Understand that you only have an 11 to 14 percent connection ratio from phone call attempts. I train clients to make 120 calls per day, no exceptions. However, we find that the average dealership’s appointment setters are making only 50 to 75 calls per day.

Let me break this data down for you:

• On average, 50 call attempts will only convert to five to seven conversations. Does that sound productive for an eight-hour day? Of course not. With two appointment setters each making 50 calls, they will have 10 to 14 conversations for the entire day. Remember that is only 10 to 14 conversations out of 500 leads. Leads mean opportunities to do business. These prospects are in the market but we do not engage them?

• Even if your people were making 75 calls each. One rep’s connections would be seven to 10 conversations and two rep’s connections would be 14 to 20 connections. That’s still inadequate compared to the lead volume.

Now, let’s discuss the scenario of having no appointment setters and just utilizing your showroom sales consultants. The average dealership has approximately 10 sales consultants, and they have lots of responsibilities as well as ways for them to sell an automobile. Let’s look at the eight different ways a showroom sales consultant can sell an automobile:

1. Walk-Ins

2. Be-Backs

3. Phone-Ups

4. Internet

5. Referrals

6. Prior Customers

7. Service

8. Prospecting

Lets be honest: I believe the vast majority of automotive sales consultants do not engage the full eight ways to sell an automobile and even if they do, the majority do not do it consistently. But, let’s pretend for a second that they do. How can the average sales consultant handle their full sales responsibilities plus handle the 50, 75 or 100 fresh Internet leads they receive per month? If an appointment setter — who does not have to do a product presentation, demo drive or a delivery — only makes 50 to 75 calls per day and converts only five to seven conversations per day, how many phone call attempts do you really think your sales people are making?

Exactly.

Let’s add another crazy, but important, variable called the residual flow factor. That means the “carry over leads.” Remember that the average Internet prospect is approximately 45 to 90 days. So, if you receive 400 leads in the month of June and you sell 40 units, it doesn’t end there. Just because you close your month doesn’t mean that all of those 370 other leads that didn’t buy are garbage. On the contrary, those are actual working (“cooking”) opportunities. So, let’s say that out of the 370 remaining leads, 200 are still active and viable opportunities. You will start July 1 with 200 “carry over” leads, plus you will receive an additional 400 “fresh” leads for a total working lead opportunity of 600 leads. This is known as your residual flow factor.

Now, let me give you the “secret formula” to success. I have numerous nationally recognized client success stories. Clients using this formula have graced the cover of every major automotive magazine, including AutoSuccess (The most recent would be Alan Vines Automotive, in the September 2012 issue).

Alan Vines Automotive has five appointment setters:

• Five coordinators X 120 calls per day = 600 calls per day

• 600 calls per day X five working days = 3,000 calls per week

• 3,000 calls per week X 4.3 weeks in a month = 12,900 calls

• 12,900 calls X 12 percent connection ratio = 1,548 connections with prospects

• 1,548 connections X 25 percent appointment made ratio = 387 appointments

• 387 appointments X 60 percent appointment show ratio = 232 appointment shows

• 232 appointment shows X 42 percent close ratio = 97 units delivered.

• 97 units delivered (as documented in the cover story)

Alan Vines Automotive receives 600 to 700 fresh leads per month and has a residual flow factor of 800 to 900 working leads.

My final point is that your Internet sales appointment setters should not be doing anything other than dealing with fresh and carry over Internet sales leads. The only exception is if you have them take incoming phone-ups. That is perfectly in alignment with the system. Do not, however, have them working on:

• Unsold showroom traffic

• Service

• CSI

• Data Mining

• Credit

• Getting lunch, coffee, etc.

• Taking pictures

• Greeting

If you think your one or two appointment setters (if you even have them) can work 300 to 500 fresh Internet leads plus do any or all of these things, you are wrong. If your dealership has these efforts tasked to the Internet appointment setter, I suggest that you delegate to someone else, hire BDC appointment setters or accept mediocrity.

If you have any questions or comment about this article, or if you would like me to personally review your Internet or BDC infrastructure with you, please feel free to e-mail or call 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.com.

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Robert Wiesman Will Be A Speaker At The Internet Sales 20 Group "How To Be a Showroom Executive"

Why am I seeing so many dealers with business listings UNCLAIMED? Reminds me of the old days, circa 1998 and URL’s for the company name we're not claimed. Didn't that suck when you found out the URL was taken by someone or some company much less deserving of that URL. Same with your listing.

I’ve seen what happens to your face when you find out your competitor has claimed your listing. Signing up for a listing is one thing but much more important is CLAIMING your listing. For some this may seem like a no brainer, however based on how many dealers we support for reputation management, I’m shocked at how many have major review listings for their dealer name unclaimed.

Business listings should play a role in your marketing plan because who wants to waste time with promotions that don’t benefit your bottom line. Business directories are a great form of targeted advertising.

Google has some great suggestions you can do to Optimize your listing and lift your Google score to help users find your dealership. The third recommendation is my favorite…..

Include images and videos to help your listing stand out.

Can online directory listings increase my web traffic?

Knowing how many cars and R.O’s are coming from your preferred dealership listings is a reality many are tracking, in terms of where they rank and traffic. I’m really impressed with BDC directors that are aware that Yelp makes it pretty stinking ridiculous in terms of NOT allowing us to know which keyword was used before your vehicle prospect clicks to your Yelp listing, but I digress.

Listing your company and company URL on online review sites and directories not only helps your ROI, but can also help your website appear higher in search results for certain terms. The more quality web pages that you can get your site listed or mentioned in, the more authoritative Google will begin to think your website is. When Google chooses where your webpage will appear in search results, Page Rank (the authority of the webpage) is one of the factors that can significantly increase your chances or being ranked first, or at least on the first page, for a particular search term or phrase.

What does my dealership need to do now?

Claim your unclaimed listings!

It may take some time to find the right mix of directories to advertise your business in. Implement some sort of analytics or tracking system to see which directories are giving you the best return, either in click throughs to your site, in direct revenue, or in call volume. This could include using special tracking campaign links for online directories, or a unique phone numbers or URLs for print ads. Over time, cut the zero- or low-performing directories and re-invest in new ones until you find a good mix of print and online directories that perform well for your dealership.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that listing your company in directories isn’t just a one-time project. It needs to be maintained and your strategies adjusted based on what your competitors are doing, and based on your changing business goals. However, studies are proving the maintaining business directory listings as part of your marketing plan can be a profitable business strategy for your dealership.

I highly recommend ChatMeter and Yext if you need help with managing, optimizing, and monitoring your online listings.

Jerry Hart
President
eReputationBUILDER
888-810-0441

(I just had this video from AutoUSA sent to me from Ralph Paglia)

Greg Coleman, Director of Business Development and E-Commerce at Lexus of Lexington and Toyota on Nicholasville, shares tips for formulating effective pricing strategies for vehicles.

Comment by Ralph Paglia 5 hours ago
Greg Coleman's description of how his dealership has been proactive on pricing transparency as a consistent strategy around building value on what the dealership provides car buyers is strong... Great message delivered by somebody who has done it and seen the results.

Discovering Your Value Proposition - "Why Us" - Your "Differentiator" - Automotive Marketing - Tracking optimization ROI...

Landing Page Optimization 

Here I was sitting in a landing page optimization course and the first thing they did was throw a formula at me. C=4m+3v+2(i-f)-2a.Thankfully, it really wasn’t a mathematical formula, just a conversion sequence that helped you visualize conversion. Dr. Flint McGlaughlin the founder of MECLABS, the world's largest independent research institution focused on offer response optimization, was standing in front of the class saying, “You don’t optimize websites; you optimize thought sequences. Say it with me, C=4m+3v+2(i-f)-2a.”

What goes in that landing page optimization formula you say?

Motivation of user, force of the value proposition, incentive, friction, and anxiety.
He went on to say that the sales funnel we all know and love is actually upside down, “The value proposition is the fundamental force powering your prospects up the sales funnel,” he added.

This can be measured by four essential elements of offer:

Appeal- how much do I desire this offer?
Exclusivity- where else can I get this offer?
Credibility- can I trust your claims?
Clarity-what are you actually offering?
In order to express your value proposition on the Web, you must have congruence (having every element of your page state or support your proposition) and continuity (making sure that every step of the buying process states or supports the proposition).

I know I can’t say it as best as Dr. McGlaughlin can, so I found a video where he discusses the value proposition in better detail.

Got it? Good. Next was incentives. The object of incentives is to balance emotional forces from negative to positive. To determine your ideal incentive you must consider: marketing intuition, perceived value differential,and return on incentive. Here is another video in which Dr. McGlaughlin discusses these elements

Next Dr. McGlaughlin spoke about friction and anxiety. Friction, in marketing, is the psychological resistance to a given element in the sales process. Anxiety, in other words, is like concern, but it is just as lethal as friction. To get a better idea of these two elements, click here.

What does this mean for you?
If your Website isn’t optimized properly, you're losing customers. Dr.McGlaughlin showed us case studies where there was a 200% increase in capturing lead information by simply adjusting elements of their website. Take a look at the links presented above to better optimize your website, you won't regret it.

With this information presented to me I had to take a 50 question test to get certified in landing page optimization. I passed, would you?

Source = http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1970539%3ABlogPost%3A411848&xgs=1

Fire Your Internet Sales Manager

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

I know I am going to get a lot of heat on this article, but it has to be said. I have worked with thousands of dealerships over the years and there have been numerous reasons given for mediocrity, and even failure. In the beginning of automotive Internet sales in the late 1990s, it was a novelty and an incremental business, but most dealerships were not able to truly harness it and make it a major profit center. However, over the years and through evolution of the automotive sales industry, and the country as a whole, there has been a lot of change — change in how people are researching, shopping, making decisions and ultimately buying a vehicle. There has even been change inside our industry by dealer principals, GMs and sales consultants. It seems that dealers are getting it. They understand that Internet sales, business development, digital marketing, and social media are all important.

What I am seeing now is a scary pattern emerging. A lot of dealerships are not maximizing on opportunities right in front of them because they do not have the right person in place. The Internet sales manager or BDC director that they have in place is the wrong person for the position, and they are hurting the dealership! Here are some problems I’ve seen at dealerships:

•  A computer geek in the position who is not an automotive professional. There is nothing wrong with being a geek. I have a problem if they have no idea how to sell a car, and don’t have the respect of their team and employees. They can’t motivate and drive the department to success.

•  An IT professional is the head of an Internet sales department or business development center. Just because they are good at fixing computers or understanding technology does not necessarily make them the best choice to run a million-dollar sales department. “Internet sales” is still sales.

•  Instead of terminating a sales consultant from the showroom floor, they are given a “second chance” running the Internet sales department. I don’t get this one at all. If someone can not be effective on the showroom floor, why would you have that person be the head of a department where 92 percent of Americans go before they ever step foot into your dealership?

•  A sales consultant is promoted from the showroom to running the Internet department. Please understand just because someone can sell a car does not mean they can run a department, let alone an Internet sales or business development department. Just because they can sell cars does not mean they are capable of being a manager or a leader. There are a lot of successful sales consultants who sell 20 or 30 cars per month, but don’t work well with others. They have no concept of interdependence.

•  There is no Internet sales manager/BDC director at all. That is just bad, and again, makes no sense whatsoever. When 92 percent of people are going online, there needs to be major attention to this area.

•  A dealership’s manager also manages the Internet department. I have seen it all, my friends. The dealer principal or general manager takes on the Internet department as an “additional” responsibility instead of having a dedicated manager, or they dump the responsibility of the Internet department onto the GSM or sales manager. This is not a viable solution.

Remember Basic Math

The average dealership in the United States delivers fewer than 100 units per month. But the average dealership has:

•  A GM or GSM

•  One to two sales managers (new car/used car), or “closers”

•  An F&I manager

•  10 Sales Consultants

If you want your Internet or business development department to deliver units, you are going to need the right Internet manager or BDC director.

Yes, you might need to fire your current Internet sales manager or BDC director. You might have been thinking about doing it for months now but weren’t sure. Let me make it easier for you.

Think of your current Internet sales manager or BDC director:

•  Are they a family member or in a relationship with anyone else in the dealership?

•  Do they have any automotive sales or management experience?

•  Do they have an aversion to the phone?

•  Do they have the ability to take a “TO” from their employees, sales consultants, appointment setters, etc?

•  Do they have the ability or desire to proactively “TO”?

•  Do they have the respect of their team (or the dealership for that matter)?

•  Can they, or do they, lead by example?

•  Do they train their team? Do they know how to train their team?

•  Do they have “one on ones” with their team?

•  Do they know how to project and forecast, and not merely guess and hope?

•  Are they rude and or mean to their team or their customers?

•  Do they have Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.s), or do they just “wing it”?

•  Can they desk a deal?

If you are reading this and you are a dealer or GM, do this calculation before you open the showroom tomorrow:

Look at your electronic leads, phone leads and walk-in leads. Say your electronic and phone leads are 70 percent or greater of all leads. Now look at your manager running your Internet or business development department. Are you comfortable with them in charge of 70 percent of your opportunities? If not, make the change today. If you can’t promote that person as your nest general sales manager, you have the wrong person in place.

If you would like a free personalized analysis of your Internet Sales Manager, contact me at the email below with “ISM” as the subject line.

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.

 My name is Robert Wiesman, a true front line automotive sales professional. I have roughly about a year and a half in this business and if want to be a six figure player YOU NEED TO INVEST AND TREAT THIS LIKE YOUR OWN business!! I can not stress that enough! Everybody knows it, everybody says it, but hardly any one really does it! I do!!

Invest in yourself

1. Look good

2. Drive what you sell

3.Training materials, role play everyday and when you get home with your signifigant other, buy any books, audio, dvd and virtual training you can get your hands on, Derek Jeter hits the batting cage daily, if you are a pro you should as well.

4.Dominate social media, custom pages, solid informative content. You can not post too much.

5. Brand yourself. Look at www.robertwiesman.com. Build yourself as a brand and keep it in front of people.(Not going to give away all my secrets.

6. Your own website. Make yourself stand out to your clients as a true professional. 'Before we get together sir take a moment and check out my web page to learn a little more about the services I provide. Helps with credibilty. Keep it posted consistently with strong information that will make it a resource for car buyers.

7.YouTube Channel. Consistently record informative videos that give great information on one of life's biggest accomplishments buying a new car. Service tips, specials, up keep, performance, etc.

8.Prospecting tools. Keep your name in front of as many people as possible. Stickers with your information on them in the door jams and gas cap, pens of course drop them off at every bar, restaurant, etc. magnets for the refridgerator, insurance/registration card holders with your information on it, referral cards with your bird dog program on it,brochure with your information and a brief desription of the services you provide. I use many more and I am determined to stay on every ones mind and stay in front of as many people as I possibly can.

9.Marketing. Treat yourself like you are the dealer. Utilize SEO, VSEO, old school but effective is ads in local magazines ad newspapers. Radio is still solid but what is even better is being a guest on a local talk radio show as an "auto expert". I can not stress how important it is to brand yourself and keep your name buzzing and on the tip of everyones tongue. I am not going to give you all my creative ideas.

10. Technology. Maximize and utilize all this amazing technology. The iPhone and iPad have some great tools to run your business more efficently. This is 2012 baby it's time you joined us!

There are many other ways to invest in yourself and YOUR business. It really is your business so why would you even think for one second you do not need to invest in it? Treat you as if you are the dealer, the entity. Become a house hold brand, that is a automotive professional that geniunely cares about others vehicle needs.

The few ideas I listed above will plant many seeds and if done on a consistent basis will turn into many many deals that come to the showroom asking for YOU!!!!

Put your money where your mouth is!

www.robertwiesman.com

Robert Wiesman

717-816-9313