Tracking electronic leads is one of the most misunderstood aspects of dealer operations. With the range of solutions and opportunities available today, they can also become one of the most profitable.
Integration. As the automotive industry advances, it’s a subject that’s becoming increasingly important. We’re witnessing ever-greater integration between communication systems and the automobile itself, while at the retail level, there’s an emphasis on greater integration between the virtual and actual showroom.
Yet there are many dealers that are struggling to incorporate Internet driven sales and service leads into their everyday business.
“There’s this general misconception that Internet functions are a completely separate part of the dealership,” says John Ruble of Dealer-FX, an automotive marketing and performance management firm that among other things provides service retention and sales tools to dealers.
“It’s really quite an alarming scenario. There are more and more potential buyers doing their research online and their first point of contact with the dealership is usually via the Internet. Yet in many cases, these leads aren’t properly followed up, simply because they aren’t viewed in the same way as physical customers.”
The problem, says Ruble, stems from a reluctance to embrace new practices and put in place an online sales process that mirrors that on the floor.
“It comes down to accountability,” says Ruble. Because there isn’t that physical aspect, virtual sales leads aren’t considered a priority most of the time. As a result, there are often only one or two members of the sales staff assigned to Internet sales and most of the time, they’re simply overwhelmed. “As a result they end up cherry picking e-leads, which costs the dealer a lot of business.”
Glen Demetrioff, CEO of DMT Development Systems Group, which has developed a range of lead management tools, including its eDrive platform, agrees. “If you have a good look at industry statistics from the Cobalt Group’s e-business study at NADA, dealers either, A: don’t respond to e-leads properly, and B: for the leads which are followed up, response times and quality are below customer expectations. That’s usually because there isn’t the necessary level of investment at the dealer level, in terms of staff allocation, processes or training to effectively respond and deal with e-leads.”
Room for improvement
And given that the number of vehicle sales that originate with Internet leads is scheduled to grow significantly in the coming years, there’s definitely cause for concern.
However, there are solutions. Dealer-FX and DMT as well as other companies like DealerFire and many others have developed specific programs that enable dealers to effectively tackle e-leads and turn them not only into initial product sales but also repeat business via sophisticated CRM tools.
There are an increasing number of dealers who are beginning to understand the importance of e-leads and how to incorporate them into their overall business.
“It’s already happening,” says Frank Romeo, President at Pine View Hyundai in Woodbridge, Ont. “The Internet has given the consumer more accessibility in terms of information on the vehicle, so they’ve done their research. That means they’re already armed when they set foot in the dealership,” he says.
“Increasingly, our job is to listen and ensure they’re put into a vehicle that meets their requirements. Sometimes that might change. There’s often still a big difference between researching something online and physically sampling it. That said, in order to make the sale, you still need to get the customer into your dealership and that means being thorough in responding to their initial contact online and building a dialogue with them,” says Romeo.
Dealer-FX, a U.S. based company has been actively expanding to Canada and has partnered with Hyundai and Mitsubishi Motor Sales to work with dealers nationally on sales generation programs. And so far, the company says the results have been promising.
O’Regan’s South Shore Hyundai in Bridgewater, N.S., teamed with up with Dealer-FX for a private one-day sales event in February, a month in which traditionally, car sales are generally low. By cleaning up the dealer database and prioritizing customer responses, with “hot” leads identified via Dealer-FX contact centre reps and instigating follow ups (which in turn provided detailed information on each potential customer), South Shore was able to sell as many cars in one day as it usually did for the month. “We finished at 200 per cent of our target, said South Shore Hyundai President Tim O’Regan. “The event was a big success.”
Look outside the industry
DMT’s Demetrioff says that to implement an effective strategy for e-leads, dealers need to “think outside the box” and have a look at other industries where significant transformations in the sales process have taken place. He cites the music industry as a prime example. “We’ve gone from buying records and CDs in physical stores to downloading MP3 files from iTunes. The Internet revolutionized the way in which many of us purchase music and it’s doing the same for automotive retailing.”
DMT developed eDrive; a platform that allows for instantaneous communication any time, anywhere, so when a lead comes in a sales person can instantly respond to it. “It doesn’t matter where they are or what they’re doing. We’ve designed it so it can be used on portable devices and can generate a response in real time, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It’s essentially a very basic principle but it enables both parties to save time and also expense. Remember, the more steps you have in the sales process, the more time it consumes and the more expense the dealer incurs, in terms of staff hours and phone calls.”
Not only that, but the more drawn out the process becomes, the greater the risk of the sale falling through. “Because there’s so much competition, a customer will go somewhere else if you can’t provide the vehicle they’re looking for in a timely fashion,” says Gold Key Langley Volkswagen’s Oliver Sea. “But if you’re able to respond quickly, you stand a better position of earning their trust and if they’re happy you’re likely to earn repeat business.”
Always connected
Demetrioff says that in today’s connected world, consumers can be searching for a vehicle at any time and having sales people prepared for that is critical. “Today, nearly everybody has their phone with them, all the time. Let’s say it’s a Saturday night and the sales person is at the movie theatre. A consumer is searching online while taking a taxi somewhere or waiting for a table at their favourite restaurant. They send an inquiry to your dealership asking for more information or a quote. With our tool, the sales person can see the lead come in and instantly provide a response to that consumer’s request while at the movies. When you email or call a work colleague you expect a timely response, so why not when you’re shopping for a car?”
Additionally, DMT’s eDrive Rapid Response feature not only allows the sales person to respond quickly to the e-lead, but also sends a copy of the message to the sales manager, dealer principal and the vehicle manufacturer, providing a new level of auditing to the sales process.
Demetrioff says that DMT’s eDrive has developed a 100 per cent success rate. “Of one thousand leads put through, not one was missed and the average response time was 43 minutes.”
Supplement to your sales staff
He also stresses that at the end of the day, the best people to respond to e-leads are always the sales staff who work on the showroom floor. “A customer, is a customer,” he says “no matter whether they first contacted the dealer online or walked through the door. You don’t need dedicated Internet management personnel to bring e-leads into the store; you need to have technology that’s readily accessible and easy to use by those who are doing the selling. The whole idea of our product is to supplement the traditional sales process; providing a tool that enables showroom staff to do their job the best way they can and earn additional business.”
At Dealer-FX the driving force behind the company’s e-lead solutions, is to develop a world-class customer service experience. To do that, John Ruble says that a schedule needs to be developed in the CRM for each e-lead type. Developing a system like this enables staff to automate email responses based on whether the lead is “hot” or “cold.” For non responsive leads, he says an email template can be sent automatically and then a phone task will show up on the dealership’s calendar asking the sales person to call the customer.
Frank Romeo
Service can drive sales
Even when it comes to service customers and those who purchased a vehicle elsewhere, they can still become sales prospects for a dealer via effective use of CRM and e-lead tools. “Service is often a good avenue to generate new sales prospects,” says Ruble. “At any one time, a third of a dealer’s service customers are in the trade cycle, so they’re looking for a new vehicle.” And although it’s a rare situation where service staff have referred customers to the sales department, given the availability of CRM and e-lead tools today there is no reason it can’t happen.
“If you can use your CRM to send e-leads to the sales department based on interaction between the customer and the service advisor, it is yet another effective avenue for generating business,” says Ruble. Some stores actively seek out service customers as sales prospects, especially those with low mileage, well maintained vehicles that are in demand. An effective CRM and system of e-leads enables you to actively track each service to sales response, providing a greater potential for new business for the showroom.
Frank Romeo
Frank Romeo, President at Pine View Hyundai in Woodbridge, Ont, believes that the role of the physical dealership is changing. “More initial sales leads are coming via the Internet,” he says. “Yet they still need to be treated the same way as a walk in customer off the street, because the end result is still the same; they’re seeking to purchase a new vehicle.”
Glen Demetrioff
Glen Demetrioff
“We have our phones with us virtually all the time,” says DMT’s CEO Glen Demetrioff. “So if, as a consumer, you can quickly access information 24/7 no matter where you are, as a dealer, shouldn’t your sales staff be able to respond to inquiries in the same manner? At the end of day it’s all about customer service.”
