Internet Battle Plan - Growing Your BDC and Internet Sales Department in a Car Dealership

Growing Your Internet Staff from 10 to 300 Cars per Month

Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix, AZ became the

USA’s leading Internet retailer of new and certified

used Chevrolet vehicles… Human Resource

Development was the key (secret sauce) to success.

A T T R A C T • I N T E R A C T • R E S P O N D • S E L L • S E R V I C E • R E T A I N© Copyright 2011 Ralph Paglia

January 18 - 20 in Atlanta, GA with:

Growing Your Internet Staff from 10 to 300 Cars per Month

Ralph Paglia - eBusiness Director

Organizational Development is the

essential stumbling block that

many dealers and ISM’s report as

the primary reason for Internet

Sales Operations failure or lack of

growth into a strategically

significant level of sales.



5

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000Courtesy Chevrolet Monthly Web Traffic; Nov. 2005 through Jan. 2007

BZ Results site Cobalt GM PowerShift Site Reynolds Spanish Site SEO/SEM Driven Micro-Sites

AZ Central-Chevy Site ClickMotive SEM Sites Other Sites

Courtesy Chevrolet’s Internet Sales Team growth has Allowed the

Dealership to Become More Aggressive with Lower Cost Online Marketing

Growing Your Internet Team’s Capabilities Allows

Dealers to Feel More Confident about Online Ads



6

Courtesy Chevrolet 2006 Lead Volume

by Broad Category Source Type

Third Party Sourced Leads

26,095

43%

GM Provided Leads

1,997

3%

SEM/SEO Generated Leads

14,792

24%

CRM & Non-Web

Generated Leads

18,738

30%

SEM/SEO Generated Leads Third Party Sourced Leads GM Provided Leads CRM & Non-Web Generated Leads

61,642 Leads Generated and Tracked within CRM System

Growing Your Internet Staff from 10 to 300 Cars

per Month Requires Large Quantities of Leads



7

Unit Sales Volume by Lead Source Category

Third Party Sourced Leads

989

25%

GM Provided Leads

249

6%

SEM/SEO Generated Leads

1,075

27%

CRM & BDC Recycled

Web Generated Leads

1,695

42%


4,008 eBusiness Department Sales of New & Used Vehicles in 2006

Segmented by Marketing Category (Total Store Sales >11,000)

Growing Your Internet Staff using Large Quantities

of Leads will Generate Higher Volumes of Sales



8

Sales/Lead Closing Ratios ranged from 5.15% to 16.64%

when segmented into categories based on Marketing Type

11.76%

5.15%

16.64%

9.93%

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

16.00%

18.00%


SEM/SEO Generated Leads 14,792 591 8,252 5,652 38% 1,075 11.76%

Third Party Sourced Leads 26,095 1,339 17,838 6,909 26% 989 5.15%

GM Provided Leads 1,997 55 1,316 501 25% 249 16.64%

CRM & Non-Web Generated Leads 18,738 1,997 15,065 1,665 9% 1,695 9.93%

Totals 61,642 3983 42471 14746 24% 4008 8.55%

Monthly Averages for 2006 5,137 332 3,539 1,229 24% 334 8.55%

Lead SourceTotal

LeadsWorking Completed Sold LeadsInvalid Leads

Growing Your Internet Staff using Large Quantities

of Leads will Result in Closing Ratio Variations


January 18 - 20 in Atlanta, GA with:Internet Strategy Current National Close Rate 9%

Realistic Planning Potential is 18%

Pains 50% of a dealer’s Phone, Lead and Showroom traffic originates from the net… What is your dealer’s current marketing strategy? Lead providers? What is submission ratio from dealer’s site? Who updates it? Dedicated people? Process? Pricing strategy? Does dealer monitor and measure visitors, leads, response rate, appt%, show%, close%, profit, CSI, etc… eBusiness training?

Strategic

Goal

Drive TRAFFIC to an INTERACTIVE web site that generates leads that flow

into dealer’s PROCESS engine which converts them into SALES.

Convert Internet leads into showroom visitors that buy cars

Tactical

Objectives

Use a predefined and consistently executed inquiry response process,

customized email templates and phone scripts that result in appointments

that generate increased customer visits to the dealership

Process 1. Autoreply acknowledges inquiry and sets customer expectations

2. Email with price quotes on several vehicles and sets stage for phone contact is sent within 30 minutes of lead arrival (business hours)

3. Call customer on phone within 45 minutes

4. Schedule showroom visit & test drive appointment

5. Confirm Appointment via email AND 3rd party phone call

Technology •Internet leads from ALL sources routed into Lead Management Tool that

integrates with DMS, reducing keystroke entry of customer information

•Wireless devices for ISS’s that integrate with Lead Management Tool

Metrics Lead volume by ISS with response time, appointment & closing ratios



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Inbound Internet Lead Management Process

Dealer Lead

Management

Process Map

Growing Your Internet Sales Team Requires that you

Define what Your Internet Process Should Look Like



5. New Chevrolet Internet Sales

6. Used Car Internet Sales

7. Bell Road Internet Sales

8. Commercial Internet Sales

1. New Chevrolet BDC

2. Used Car BDC

3. Wholesale Parts BDC

4. eFinance Sales Team

Growing Your Internet Sales Team works best

when it occurs “Organically” and is Specialized

Courtesy Chevrolet is a single point Chevy dealer with 3

fully staffed BDC Team’s, an eFinance Sales Team and 4

Internet Sales Teams. These 8 teams of automotive sales

professionals are identified as follows:

Organic Growth

Let’s Take a Look at How It Happens…



Courtesy Chevrolet CRM/eBusiness New BDC

with 27 Work Stations Opened in September, 2006



Courtesy Chevrolet CRM/eBusiness New BDC

with 27 Work Stations Opened in September, 2006

90,000+ Outbound

Phone Calls / Month



Document Roles & Responsibilities

for All Internet Sales Positions



* July 2006 Interactive Marketing Budget

Document Pay Plan & Bonus Structure

that reflects taller Internet sales funnel

Lead Volume puts pressure on response

times as a factor of staffing levels!



Top 4 Ways

to Close

More Sales

to Leads

Received

Dealer Response Attributes

Experienced by Customers within

24 hours of Submitting an Inquiry

Purchase

Respondents*

who DID

NOT

experience

the attribute

% of

Purchase*

among the

Leads who

DID

Experience

the attribute

Statistical Correlation Factor of Response attribute

with Vehicle Purchase

#1Make Direct Phone Contact with Customer

(after sending Email w/availability & prices) 17% 27% 11

#2 Send Price Quotes by Email to Customer 20% 27% 9

#3Contact Customer more than once by Email

and Telephone (within First 24 Hours) 21% 25% 5

#4Make sure Customers are either Completely or

Very Satisfied with the Lead Response 21% 24% 3*Survey Participants who Purchased a Vehicle were identified via RDR data cross reference and matching with Internet Lead Data

Staffing and Organizational Structure Determines

Process Execution Capabilities and Monitoring



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Customer goes online

and submits Lead

Internet Sales Specialist ISS)reviews lead, selects 4

vehicles for Price QuotesSends email with Quotes & Cars

BDC Staff makes initial phone call,

collects customer info, sets up an

appointment for the ISS

If no appointment, ISS

Contacts customer and seeks

appointment and/or agreement

Staffing and Organizational Structure Determines

Process Execution Capabilities and Monitoring

Lead Process Maps

should be indexed to

email

templates, phone

scripts and word

tracks so that

dealership employees

have a “paint by

numbers” guide to

what is expected when

a lead is received.

This process map

focuses on the first 12

hours after a new lead

is received.

Lead Process Maps

should contain brief

explanations for the logic

and execution tips for

employees to review

before actually using the

email templates, phone

scripts and word tracks.

Actual template

illustrations make it easy

for dealership employees

to recognize the right

template or document

when they see it in their

CRM tool.

When Lead

Process Maps are indexed to

correspondingly numbered

email templates, phone

scripts and word tracks, the

dealership is far more likely to

execute the repetitious tasks

that create customer

experiences which correlate

with higher sales closing

ratios. The best process

maps break down email and

phone contact processes into

separate flows so that they

can be executed by different

resources when scaling up

lead volumes and

organization structures.



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Although many car guys will say they believe in the concept of following up until

prospects either buy or die… Large scale lead generation through highly effective

marketing practices requires that scarce resources be allocated to where they will

generate the most sales. Outsourcing followup on leads that have reached a

designated status (dormant) or assigning them to alternate resources such as a BDC

will allow ISS’s to stay focused on the 50% of the leads that buy, and do so within the

first 10 days

Have a defined process for “closing out” unsold leads



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LMP Scoring Index

Objective Review of

Dealership Employee Lead

responses encourages

consistency and creates a

numeric accountability –

an LMP Report Card for

Dealer or GM review…



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Nothing has more impact on results

than phone contact with the customer!

Outbound phone calls, ongoing phone follow-up and

responding to emails requires adequate staffing and skill levels

Telephone Process

• 85% of Web visitors who contact the dealership

before coming into the showroom, use the phone

• Direct Phone contact (after responding to an

Internet lead by email), has the greatest impact on

increasing sales closing ratios

Phone Follow-Up Sales Strategy:

• Focus on having a set of objectives in front of

us, each time we make an email follow-up call

• Word Track Forms (scripts) are used for training

and collecting customer information during each

call that is made immediately after sending

personalized email response



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Top 10 Reasons To Partner With Hire The Winners

1. Find out why your lowest producers aren't producing.

2. Learn what the potential is of every sales consultant on your team.

3. Discover opportunities for improvement for each sales consultant and how you can focus

your training for immediate improvement.

4. We can show you how to find and recruit excellent talent to grow and improve your sales

team.

5. HTW has tools to help make informed hiring decisions and get best talent available.

6. We provide you with tools that allow your sales team to practice on the simulator not the

public (Lost sales from poorly trained sales consultants are killing us).

7. We provide you with a hiring process and support to strengthen your management teams

interviewing skills and, if used correctly, will provide you with information you need to bring

on the best talent available.

8. We provide you with tools that show you what the sales applicant can and can't do when

put into the automotive sales situation. You will know in 20-30 minutes the potential of

every candidate.

9. Tools that will assist you in creating customers in a challenging market (What you can do to

cause more customers to visit your store without raising your advertising budget).

10. Your management team will have access to high quality sales professionals

Internet Battle Plan - Growing Your BDC and Internet Sales Department in a Car Dealership

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