Dealer Solutions October 2014

A Division of IPD

VOL. 7 | ISSUE 10 | OCTOBER 2014

David Villa

Jeff Cowan

PG:18

PG: 22

Laura Madison

PG: 13

Our Car People issue showcases five automotive industry experts in the areas of BDC, Marketing, Sales, Social Media, and Fixed Ops. Subi Ghosh

THE POWER of TIME

PG: 6

Tom Stuker

PG: 21

Inside Feature

Principal’s Office with

Carla Cosenzi

PG: 10

PG: 14

The Service Lane Experience Done Your WAY PG: 17

This is not your typical “Direct mail.”

WELCOME TO THE EVOLUTION! Systematic | Modern Day | Lead Conversion Credit App Generating Marketing Machine

www.ipdmail.com/evolution 2

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Featured In This Issue...

Articles

6.

The Power of Time

By Mark Tewart 10. The Dealer Principal - Empowering Management

By Carla Cosenzi 13. Personalization is the Key to Your Advertising

By Laura Madison 14. 5 Reasons Why Over 90 Percent of BDCs Underperform

By Tom Stuker 17. The Service Lane Sales Experience, Done Your Way

By Don O’Neill 18. Rise and Shine: Scraps are for losers!

By David Villa 21. Who Cares About Social Media?

By Subi Ghosh 22. How Service Appointments and Reservations Destroy

Customer Retention, Survey Scores, and Upsells

By Jeff Cowan 24. Everything Starts with Sales

By Ike Elam 26. The Harsh Reality of Online Reviews

By Erin & Amanda Ryan 29. Dealer Conferences & Training on Women Car Buyers

By Jody DeVere

30. 30 Day Notice

By David Cribbs

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C O N T E N T S

Conspiracy theory customer

Editor-In-Chief Michael Oquendo

Contributing Authors Laura Madison Mark Tewart Tom Stuker

Carla Cosenzi

Editor David Villa

Subi Ghosh

Jody DeVere

Creative Director Austin Janowsky

David Villa

Marketing Director Jason Yamnitz

Jeff Cowan

Don O’Neill David Cribbs

Erin Ryan Amanda Ryan

Copyright Š2014 all rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited unless expressly authorized by editor or publisher. The views expressed in the articles or advertisements are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the magazine or its staff.

Editorial inquiries, questions or comments can be made to the Editor-In-Chief at moquendo@ipdmail.com Advertising Sales: Please call 813-630-5888 ext 523 or 561 or email moquendo@ipdmail.com

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By Mark Tewart

Where did the time go?

I wish I had started years ago?

Look at the time I wasted?

Time slips away Have you ever said those things or have known someone who has? Time is the most incredible and valuable currency.

There are 1,440 minutes in every day, those minutes can be wasted, invested, enjoyed or anguished. Happiness and success are a direct reflection of how you spend the time.

You may have heard the comparison of a twenty five year old that invests $2,000 a year for forty years vs. a person who invests $4,000 a year, but starts at forty. The wonders of compounding interest play out and the twenty five year old comes out way ahead of the person who invests double but starts much later. The interest compounds and time becomes an accelerator.

The principal of compounding applies with what you do with your time for success and happiness as well. Imagine if you read one chapter a day on a subject for twenty years. 365 days x 20 years = 7,300 chapters. That’s a lot of knowledge on one subject.

Imagine if you productively prospected for one hour a day for new customers for twenty years. 1 hour x 6 workdays x 50 weeks a year x 20 years = 6,000 hours of prospecting!

If you lift weights, you tear the muscle apart. Your muscle heals and rebuilds and as it does, it gets bigger, stronger and better prepared to face that type of trauma in the future.

If you never lifted weights before, but lifted weights five days a week at the end of a year, your body will transform dramatically. A little each day adds up a lot!

There is a saying that, “We tend to overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what we can do in the long term.” Success is always about taking steps today to create a journey built tomorrow.” Jim Rohn said, “It’s about the person you become in pursuit of the goal.” It’s truly the journey rather than the destination.

Nobody can tell you how to live your life. Nobody can tell you how to find joy and fulfillment. However, I have never met a successful and happy person who talked about wasting time. Even your non-working time has compounding affects that can make you feel happy and successful, or wasteful and lackluster.

Live in the time that you have. Don’t let what you think you cannot do keep you from doing what can be done. You will always be amazed at what builds over time with simple day-to-day actions.

Start creating your success and happiness routines now that will allow you to experience the phenomenon of compounding!

Imagine if you did the same thing by exercising one hour a day for five days a week. 1 hour x 5 days x 50 weeks a year x 20 years = 5,000 hours of exercise!

If you will focus one hour a day towards whatever you want to accomplish in mind, body, and spirit, you will grow to be an amazing person in all areas.

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Mark Tewart is a Sales Expert, Automotive Industry Expert and Motivational Speaker.

For specific questions contact him via - twitter:@marktewart or by e-mail at mark@dealersolutions.info.

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The Principal’s Office

Looking for real management advice about people? Your goal as a dealer principal is to create a culture at your dealership that makes people feel empowered, productive, happy, and able to contribute to your overall success. So, don’t hobble them by limiting their tools or information. Trust them to do their job well. Get out of the way and watch them catch fire!

Sound a little too risky for you? Then perhaps you’re being too complacent with your employees. Who am I to tell you this? No one, but Grant Cardone himself has said that dealers NEED to have turnover. Ask yourself this: would

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Empowering Management with Carla Cosenzi

you still hire every one of your current employees now, even after having seen their work ethic in action? If not, then you’re being complacent.

In an interview with Carla Cosenzi, owner of the TommyCar Auto Group, Carla said that it is crucial to any dealer principal’s success to empower their leadership.

Without doing so, she does not believe that properly managing her dealer group would be feasible. That’s why it’s so critical that you can trust your employees to work hard.

Consider this: when I asked Carla to address the dealers the might be fearful of empowering management, she said, “People will leave no matter what.” Don’t focus on the few job hoppers, focus on creating an environment, a culture, that is so phenomenal your best leaders won’t want to leave. It is your responsibility to give your best people a reason to stay!

One way that Carla acts to generate a culture of success for her dealership is through giving. She has branded herself using CarlaCares, a group of nonprofit organizations to which she donates and supports. However, this is not for personal gain, as she describes herself as having a passion for giving back to her community. The bonus is the attitude change for employees that see her level of commitment. Her passion for giving is contagious, as she is also completely committed to being on-site, in her stores, every single day. Such conviction inspires her

employees to achieve more than most, all while having more pride in what they do than most.

There is more than one route to creating a culture of success, but of this can you can be certain: A culture of success is absolutely essential when empowering your leaders. This is their reason to stay. Perhaps, for you, it’s just being on the front lines with your team as opposed to the stereotypical desk jockey.

Regardless of your personal style of leadership, Carla has shared several keys that are fundamental for any leader to establish (or re-establish) a successful, inspiring, fun, profitable dealership.

Carla Cosenzi is the Owner of the TommyCar Auto Group.

For specific questions contact her via - twitter:@CarlaCosenzi or by e-mail at carla@dealersolutions.info.

Here are some key tips for any dealer principal looking to completely revolutionize their dealership: Encourage Growth

If you’re tired of stagnant employees, then do something to help them grow. Budget dollars for personal development training. Encourage your employees to set goals, and reward them when they make progress.

Be Open

Give your employees a purpose. Of course, you might have more experience and expertise, but your team still has valid feedback. Give your employees a structured way to have their thoughts shared on a regular basis.

Training, Training, Training!

You, as a leader, carry a great deal of knowledge. Yet, most employees do not understand every nuance as you do. Without such context, how can they be expected to make good decisions or take the initiative? Share your knowledge with them consistently!

Appreciate Their Efforts

Let people know that you value their contributions to your dealership. When cultivating a culture of success, having employees that feel fulfilled and useful is 100% necessary. People will be more driven to do great things for you when they are appreciated and openly acknowledged. It’s doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, even the simplest signs of appreciation let’s your team know that you care about what they’re doing. It will make them feel important (and they are!)

Require Accountability

No one is perfect. While helping your employees grow is wonderful, be sure to keep expectations high to maintain quality in your dealership. Your employees must understand that, while failure is something that can happen with innovation, there is ultimately a consequence for egregious lapses in judgement. Again, be consistent with this.

Support Independence

Now that they understand they are accountable for what they do, give them space! This is crucial. If you want to develop leadership amongst your employees, then give people an opportunity to demonstrate leadership. Managers do not exist for micro management. Allow your managers to guide the team, but let the leaders amongst the team be creative in reaching the ultimate goal set forth by the management.

Be Innovative!

One of Carla’s defining reasons for success included being a risk taker. As a leader, you’ve probably taken risks for both great loss and gain. So, give employees a way to try new things without putting the company in danger.

Clearly Define Roles

Surprisingly, if you don’t know what to do you probably won’t do it well. Establish clear boundaries to reduce inefficiencies and redundancies. Plus, people are less likely to be frustrated when they know exactly what is expected of them.

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Personalization

is the Key to Your Advertising We are in the midst of an enormous change in the automotive world. Dealerships all over the nation are rethinking advertising, experimenting with social media, and shifting into the new digital age.

Articles encouraging dealers to take more digital action are sprouting up in nearly every automotive publication. As we make this massive transition, there are a couple strategies we need to recognize that did work, that we should not leave behind entirely.

The Personalized Greeting

Old World Strategy: Joe Girard, who is renowned for selling more vehicles than anyone in the world, claims his secret weapon was a handwritten card. The simple act of sending regular greeting cards aroused a sense of loyalty in his clients.

Customers felt he was a man who cared enough to recognize and honor their birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

New World Translation: Interact personally with customers by encouraging employees to hand write thank you cards and make calls to sold customers just to say “hello.” In the digital age, this type of effort stands out more than ever before.

When using technology, do not confuse

“personal” for “convenient.” Do not replace a follow-up call with a Facebook post or e-newsletter. Do not opt for less personal mass-communication like generic, template e-mails and letters.

To maintain a personal, thoughtful touch, look for companies like Imperial Press Direct, who are still incredibly convenient, while maintaining a Girard-type personalization by facilitating personalized videos in e-mails and sending out handwrittentype mailers.

Whatever we do, we have to make sure this personal connection is not lost as we move into the digital age.

The Importance of Process

Old World Strategy: From goal setting to activity action plans, Joe Verde mastered process. His rigid processes encourage sales people to track every customer, review goals daily, and even identify a particular place on the test drive to begin closing.

New World Translation: A new world process may look like a pre-planned, consistent digital posting schedule. We could dedicate entire calendars or planners to organize the week’s online schedule for each medium. This type of preparation

By Laura Madison

encourages consistency, which we know is key to increasing favorability for search engines and keeping a dealer top-of-mind to followers.

We can further translate Verde’s strict processes to create goals for everything related to the social media realm: the amount of videos and posts to put out each week, engagement and follower goals, etc… Since Verde is famous for tracking everything in auto sales, we can transition this to digital strategy utilizing tools to monitor engagement and influence on all types of social platforms.

Forming these types of processes will make us organized and effective in our digital transition.

This shift is an opportunity to reevaluate our strategies and create new, stronger relationships with our customers. As we make this transition, we cannot forget the things the greats taught us which has helped the automotive world become such a powerful, influential industry.

Laura Madison is a Sales Consultant for Toyota of Bozeman.

For specific questions contact her via - twitter:@lauradrives or by e-mail at laura@dealersolutions.info.

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5 Reasons Why Over 90 Percent of BDCs Underperform

by Tom Stuker

Almost 30 years ago, I introduced the BDC concept to dealers across the country. Initially people in our industry thought my concept was, for a lack of better terms, absurd. Today my concept is fully integrated and operational in dealerships around the world. BDCs are so prominent that even manufacturers want their dealerships to have one. With that said, over 90% of BDCs underperform, and here are five reasons why.

You were not ready for a BDC Here’s the typical scenario. You couldn’t handle listening to one more phone-up butchered by your sales staff. To handle the situation, you took BDC responsibility away from your six-figure sales managers that couldn’t get it done with your $50K salespeople and replaced them with a $4K manager overseeing $2K BDC sales reps to fix the problem. BDCs work best with a tightly run sales department.

The sales staff should average 12 units plus per month per person and have 100% accountability on floor ups, phone ups and all sales opportunities. BDCs fuel already strong sales departments and only amplify the weaknesses of one that is not. Truly great BDCs can be found at dealerships that already have 100% accountability for floor traffic. If every up counts, then count every up!

Wrong BDC Manager Would your BDC manager sell 15 plus units a month on the floor? Are they the best on the phone in your entire deal-

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ership? Do they set appointments themselves each day? Are they more retail than detail? If not, then you have the wrong manager in place. A manager that is three months into running your BDC should not be showing you a 4 color graph of why you’re not selling more units.

You don’t have 100% manager buy-in Do some of your managers consider your BDC to be the ugly stepchild of the dealership – a department forced upon them from the dealer or manufacturer? Either you’re 100% in or 100% out. Pick one and own it! Managers 100% in are spot checking, recording inbound and outbound calls and fixing red flags immediately.

They are also taking notes for the daily BDC morning meeting. A meeting that also covers save-a-deal, advertising, promotions, inventory and sales skills.

Dealerships 100% in also make sure that all internet leads and phone appointments are set for the manager on duty.

Most importantly managers should be on a rotation in order to work directly with the BDC each day, a truly hands on approach. This allows management to overhear calls, assist with T.O.s, polish selling skills, help the team overcome frustrations and supervise new or struggling salespeople.

Not on the phone enough If you’re not talking, you’re not selling!

After analyzing the productivity of thou-

sands of BDC reps in the last few years, I have found that reps from underperforming BDCs were on the phone less than 30% of the day. In more productive BDCs, reps were on the phone over 40% of the time and actively updating their CRM. Reps logging less than 30% of phone time are either avoiding making calls, not hungry or undermanaged.

BDC reps lacking “great” phone skills With average or poor phone skills, your BDC will always be an expense. With expert to great phone skills paired with active calling, your BDC is an investment with a great return. The skill level of your BDC reps and actual logged minutes determine whether your BDC dominates the market or not.

Setting the foundation, placing the right management, changing employee perception, boosting phone productivity and elevating call performance are five of the top 10 reasons BDCs underperform.

If you enjoyed this article, then you will want to read the next edition of Dealer Solutions Magazine for the remaining five reasons.

Tom Stuker is the owner & CEO of Stuker Training.

For specific questions contact him via - twitter:@TomStuker or by e-mail at tom@dealersolutions.info.

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Pricing.

The Service Lane Sales Experience,

Done Your Way

Ok. So all the conferences are over, we are all “Vegas’d” out, and it’s time to get back in the saddle. Not just talking about selling cars, or finding the new product out there to help us.

The blood and guts, roll up your sleeves, make it happen, sell ‘em all mentality.

Showroom and internet sales are the life blood of any dealership sales goals. It’s the foundation that we build to keep sales momentum going. But, in the last few years, data mining has brought us to a new level in service sales. If you ask me, it has become just as essential as showroom and internet, and can mean the difference between profit and loss, and hitting those stair step incentives.

So as a sales organization, we put that killer, that head knocker, that closer back in the service lane and tell him sell everyone. We will sort it out later. He digs into that gold mine, leaving a messy wake behind him, aggravating the service writers (he is in fact taking their upsells away with a sale), and hounding the customers, all because our data mining tool says Bob has equity in the corolla he drove up into service in.

So here is my question to you this month: What if Bob can’t buy a car anymore? What if his income, job, marital status, (insert any reason here) has negatively affected his credit since you last sold him the vehicle. Worse yet, what if Bob

By Don O’Neill

doesn’t know he has those dings on his credit now? Well, let me map this out for you, because it happens every day in dealerships across the country. Bob, without any implied permission, is pushed into a sales process. He drives the new model, loves it, and just agreed on numbers after a three hour ordeal. Now comes that oh-so-painful moment of truth: that 780 is now a 550. You are the one who has to tell him.

“Bob, I know you love this car, but unfortunately I can’t get any bank to do this deal. Even if I could get this bought by a bank, it would be substantially higher than what you pay now.” Now the fun starts. “Why did you waste my time? Why did you show me something I can’t buy?” There are several retorts to this, but none of them will ever bring him back into your dealership. I promise you he WON’T be coming back.

The Solution? Pre-Screen him, plain and simple. By introducing a pre-screen process before you initiate the service lane sale, you are able to determine if that customer CAN upgrade, not just that they are willing to. You remove the risk of ostracizing that customer with an embarrassing episode. If Bob can’t buy, we won’t try to sell him right now. We can focus our effort on those who can buy, and let Bob leave happy with his service experience.

I can tell you that our Dealers utilizing ServiceMiner are becoming far more efficient at selling in the service lane, not just to find out if they can buy, but showing the consumer exactly what they qualify to buy. So in this selling season, remember, just because that equity tool gives you the “Green Light,” not all service customers are meant to be sold today.

Don O’Neill is the V.P. of Sales and Marketing of CreditMiner.

For specific questions contact him via - twitter:@DealerLegion or by e-mail at don@dealersolutions.info.

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Rise and shine: Scraps are for losers!

by David Villa

It was early in the morning, still dark outside. I was wide awake thinking about my day and, like they often do, ideas began to fill my head. I reached out, grabbed my phone and started sending myself reminders and emails of the ideas while they were fresh and clear in my mind not wanting to forget even the smallest detail. I decided to text my father a question about something I was supposed help him with, thinking he would get it later in the morning and respond. Then to my surprise my phone made a “ping” sound…it was my dad. He was responding to my text. Before I knew it we were having a conversation over text and then it clicked. “Top Performers are engaged in their success the minute their feet hit the ground every morning.”

My dad said “An early riser like me huh?” I said “you know it!” It’s at this time that our minds are the sharpest. It’s at the beginning of our day that we have the privilege of setting the foundation that the rest of the day will be built upon. We haven’t experienced defeat, faced the day’s obstacles, or been told why something can’t happen…the day is fresh and anything is possible.

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The old adage “Rise and Shine” comes to mind.

This phrase originated in the late 1800s as a military order meaning “act lively, do well.” So it’s not enough to just “Rise,” but we must “Shine!”

It might be dark outside, half the world may be curled up in their beds sleeping, but there you are…SHINING!

If we want to win we must be a step ahead of our competitors, and it starts in the morning. One of my favorite quotes is by an unknown author and reads “Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” I don’t know about you but I don’t want anyone beating me because they arrived before I did. If we are both there, and it is a fair fight, but I lose then so be it. But if it’s over before it even starts, then it’s my fault for missing the party.

So we’ve all heard it said, “I’m not a morning

“Feelings and emotions can be a hindrance and can hold you back.” ~ David Villa

person.” But I say if we want to become a “Top Performer” we had better start learning to be one.

Because truly “the early bird gets the worm,” and those worms are precious. When you are second, you have to settle for the scraps and “scraps are for losers.” Sure you can sometimes scrounge up a worm or two (scraps) that are leftover, and many have survived their entire careers that way, but “things may come to those who wait...but only the things left by those who hustle.” Remember that success is not an accident, but rather a state of mind. So if we want to reach a level we haven’t

yet reached, we have to consciously make the changes necessary to do what is required to reach it. SO GET UP!!

“Now go get that worm.”

David Villa, CEO David Villa is the President & CEO of IPD. For specific questions contact him via twitter:@ipdmail or by e-mail at davidv@dealersolutions.info.

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?

IA D E M L IA C O S T U O B A S E W H O CA R

by Subi Ghosh

Why should I care about making it fit into my dealership? More importantly, for the skeptical dealer, how will social media ever affect my bottom line? Is that even the point?

Social media has seen highs and lows over the last couple of years when it comes to dealer sentiment. Some dealers have done some amazing things and are selling regularly and directly through social media. Others have invested time and energy without seeing tangible results. Is there an “X-Factor” that separates the two?

The reality is this — there is no secret sauce to social media. There are plenty of sound strategies that work wonders to help dealers achieve goals on social media, but for every sound strategy there are dozens of faulty ones that do not achieve ROI, or help achieve any other goals. Social media’s biggest benefit to the

bottom line is in the hyper-targeting abilities it possesses. Dealers can use social media to put strong messages in front of buyers in order to drive them to the website. From there, it can be easily tracked so that the dealer knows how much traffic, leads, and sales they’re getting. Social is great for branding. It’s strong for PR. It’s amazing for communicating. The real

juice, however, is in the way that social media can drive buyers to your website. That’s the ROI that dealers have been looking for.

Dealers that are willing to take a deep dive into the way that social media can drive buyers to their website will find out things they never knew. For example, the most powerful posts you can put on Facebook do not even appear on the dealer’s Facebook page. These “dark posts” are utilized to target anyone, whether it’s people from the dealer’s database, those who own a particular vehicle in the local area, and even those who intend to buy a particular vehicle in the near future.

There’s value in keeping up with a strong community presence, highlighting the people and places in the local area that can make for golden content on social media. That’s a part of it. The other part has to do with sales. Dealers that will hear me out on how this works will likely be amazed by the possibilities. Those who let me show them will be amazed by the results.

Subi Ghosh is the VP of Marketing at Dealer Authority.

For specific questions contact her via - twitter:@subi101 or by e-mail at subi@dealersolutions.info.

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HOW SERVICE APPOINTMENTS AND RESERVATIONS DESTROY CUSTOMER RETENTION, SURVEY SCORES, AND UPSELLS

BY JEFF COWAN

In my workshops I always like to have plenty of Q & A time so that I can address the real concerns that Service Advisors believe keeps them performing at their highest level. One concern that never fails to be mentioned revolves around the issue of service appointments and reservations.

Typically, when your Business Development Center (BDC) or your Service Advisor sets your customer up with an appointment or reservation, the customer assumes it means the same thing as it does at a restaurant: when they arrive at the given time, their seat will be ready no waiting. Just as when they make airline reservations, they expect to be on the plane backing up from the gate at that reserved or appointed time. When you set up a reservation or an appointment for your customer, they have been trained by business in general to believe that the work will begin at the appointment time. No matter how many times or how well you try to explain to your customers what is really going to happen upon arrival, the mere usage of the words “reservation,” or “appointment” reinforces their belief that the work will begin at the exact time of the reservation.

This is a serious problem. According to what I hear from your Service Advisors, and based on what we witness when providing our training on your service drive, three-fourths of the customers your service staff work with everyday have this misunderstanding at the initial write up. As your Service Advisors try to explain that the time set for the appointment was for the purpose of gathering information, the exchange with the customer quickly turns into an argument. Therefore the write-up and the relationship begin with an argument. An argument that

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your staff can’t win; an argument that takes about six minutes to resolve; an argument that only gets the customer thinking that what they were told was just a ploy to get them in, and an argument that drives the mindset that you don’t do what you promise. Anytime you start out a relationship like this, you put yourself at a big disadvantage toward accomplishing the goals of customer retention, high survey scores and, the chance to acquire any necessary up sells.

The simple, easy solution to stopping this and turning it around is as simple as implementing the following two steps.

Step 1. In service, never use the words appointment or reservation again. Not verbally. Not on signs. Not in print. Not on line. Not anywhere. Appointment and reservation times imply an exact time that an event is going to begin. Check-in time implies that waiting will be involved. For instance, when you go to the airport you are encouraged to arrive two hours prior to check-in. Once you check-in, the next step is to wait for the reservation time when you will board the plane and take off.

From now on, you are going to start scheduling “check-in” times for your service customers so that after they check-in, they will wait for the appointed time set by the Service Advisor after they have had a chance to talk with the customer in person about their needs. In the customers mind, appointment and reservation times indicate that the event will commence at that specific time. Check-in time, however, precedes an appointment time. In the customers mind, check-in time refers to a preliminary period designated for the collection of information. After the information is given, an exact time for work to

begin can be determined. Check in time and its implications are familiar to customers.

Step 2. Now that we have replaced the words “appointment” and “reservation” with check-in time, the following word tracks are how you are going to explain check-in times to stop the arguments forever.

Word track one is to be said by your BDC or by the person scheduling the check-in time.

“Mr. Customer, now that we have established your check-in time for 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, allow me to take a minute to explain to you what that means and what will happen once you arrive. First, you will want to arrive as close to your check-in time as possible. Getting here early means you will have to wait and getting here late could result in you loosing your place in line.

Once you do arrive, your Factory-Trained Service Advisor will be ready with all of the information you just gave me. During the first part of the check-in process they will go over all of this information to ensure that I wrote everything down correctly, to make sure they understand what your concerns are and to see if anything needs to be added to your list. The second step in the check-in process is when you and your Factory-Trained Service Advisor will walk around your vehicle to collect numbers off your vehicle and do a quick visual inspection. The third part of the check-in process is when it will be determined which department and which Factory-Trained Technician will be the one best suited to diagnose and repair your vehicle. That decision will be based on what you and your Factory-Trained Service Advisor discussed and saw during the earlier part of the checkin process. Once that is determined we will then look at the schedule for that department and Factory-Trained Technician and that will determine approximately when your vehicle will enter our state of the art shop.”

By using this one minute long word track, I have fully explained to the customer exactly what to expect when they arrive, exactly what happens if they are early or late, and exactly what will happen and why. I have explained that the check-in time does not mean reservation or appointment. I have explained and prepared them to wait. Once they arrive prepared, the Service Advisor has two word tracks to deliver:

“Mr. Customer, thank you for arriving on time to get your vehicle checked-in. Now that you are here let me explain to you what we will be doing to get your vehicle checked-in. First, I will be going over all of the information you gave us on the telephone to ensure that it was written down correctly, to ensure that I understand your concerns, and to add anything that needs to be added. Once that is done, we will both walk around your vehicle to collect some numbers off of it and to do a quick visual inspection. Based on what we discuss, and what we see

during the visual inspection, we will select the department and/ or Factory-Trained Technician that will be best suited to address your concerns today. Once that is determined, we will take a look at their schedule which will dictate approximately when your vehicle will enter our state of the art Service Department.”

After the Service Advisor completes everything as they said they would, they follow with this final check-in time word track:

“Mr. Customer, now that we have reviewed all of your original concerns and done our visual inspection, I believe the department/ Factory-Trained Technician that would be best to diagnose and repair your vehicle would be ____. Right now they are working on another customer’s vehicle, so it is likely your vehicle will be entering our state of the art facility at approximately _____. Let’s give them about one hour to an hour and a half to complete your diagnosis, meaning you can expect a telephone call from me between ____ and ____ with an update on the status and findings regarding your vehicle. Fair enough?”

By using these two word tracks, which combined take one minute to deliver, you have done the following:

1. You have started the relationship on an up note, not an argument.

2. You have done everything to the letter that your BDC told them you were going to do.

3. You have established the reality that when you say some thing is going to happen, it is going to happen. They can count on you.

4. You have saved about four minutes at the write-up by being in control of your customer and the write-up itself.

5. You have slowed the customer down giving yourself more time to build rapport and inspect their vehicle which will substantially impact customer retention, survey scores and your ability to get necessary upsells.

6. The customer has been educated that speed is not the most important thing in getting their vehicle repaired.

It’s really that easy. By changing your verbiage from appointment or reservation to CHECK-IN TIME, and by delivering these three simple word tracks, you will experience immediate impact and the arguing will end forever. I have always felt the best way to win an argument is to eliminate all possibility of an argument arising. You can always tell a great Service Advisor by the number of scars they have on their tongues from years of biting back argumentative words. The solution I have presented here will do two things; stop the arguments before they start and save your Service Advisors from acquiring unnecessary scars.

Jeff Cowan is the CEO of Pro Talk.

For specific questions contact him via twitter - @JCowansProTalk or by e-mail at jeff@dealersolutions.info.

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Everything Starts with Sales

by Ike Elam

As we all know, hiring the right candidate for the job is easier said than done. The first issue in the hiring process will be setting the right bait to catch the fish you want. Are you just putting an ad in the paper, or on an internet recruiting job site? This is what the average person would do. You don’t want to be average.

When you’re looking for someone that will come into the dealership and make a statement, when you’re looking for the salesman that can make everyone around them different, you have to negotiate with him in a totally different way.

Most stores start this type of salesman out on a pay scale just like everyone else. If major sport teams did this we wouldn’t have anyone aspiring to be the best at any sport, since it would pay the same whether you were great at what you do or not.

I have been in and around the car business for over 25 years. In that time, I have never encountered a store that negotiated a pay plan strictly based on the ability of the salesman. It’s like everyone is the same in this regard.

So when they start, guess what they end up doing? No surprise, it’s what everyone else is doing. If you have a smokers section at your store, the smokers hang out together. Everyone, no matter what training and product development you start with, ends up hanging out with like minded people. It’s human nature. If I want a salesman that is going to commit all the way to the store being successful, then as a dealership we first must commit to them. What is the worst that can happen if you pay someone what they are truly worth? They just may stay out of bullrings, stay after the shift ends, work well with your customers, be the first one in the door every morning, learn

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everything they need to know about your product, and they will more than likely make you MORE money than an average Joe will produce. If you want greatness, then it starts with hiring right the first time so that you never need to look again.

Now that you have this salesman in your company, it’s time to teach them your way of doing things. Please be careful not to clip the wings of this asset. In order for people to grow and love what you’re about, it’s going to take time, patience, and love. When you’re showing a person that you care about them, their family, and their needs, you are creating someone that will want to be loyal. It moves them to be loyal because you’re paying them what they are worth. If you were approached every day by someone that was genuinely concerned about your bottom line, with wholeheartedly making sure that they do whatever it takes to keep the company afloat, you would give them the keys to the kingdom.

This is what happens in our business: power hungry managers demote the sales staff, but offer no real solutions. The sales staff suffer and our customers suffer. Your commitment, as a dealer principal, has to be to the sales floor. It is the first line of action. Everything you do, from promoting your store, to making sure every department has what it requires to do its job, starts with the sales staff.

Ultimately, if you fail to acquire the right person for the job, your customers will leave to give their business to someone else. Stop hiring bodies, it doesn’t work. Hire people.

No, hire GREAT people, don’t settle for any less. Hire so that you never have to hire again.

Ike Elam is a Sales Trainer & Manager at Team Toyota.

For specific questions contact him by e-mail at ike@dealersolutions.info.

25

the Harsh

Reality of Online Reviews

by Erin and Amanda Ryan

People are talking about your dealership online, but do you know what they’re saying and where they’re saying it? The social web has made each and every person a publisher in their own right, and that includes your customers.

It’s not uncommon for people to post about their experiences on Facebook, Twitter, and dedicated review sites. For customers, it’s great to search for reviews and comments about businesses in order to make a more informed decision about where to shop.

For businesses, however, this means that customer perception can make or break your business. Car dealers are especially vulnerable to online reviews because a car is a purchase that requires a lot of research, and the decision is rarely made on a whim.

The reality is, your dealership’s reputation can be the difference between a customer choosing to buy from you or deciding the dealership down the road will provide a better experience.

But why is that?

Your Dealership is Being Vetted Online Your average car buyer today visits an average of only 1.8 dealerships before deciding to stay and buy a car, according to J.D. Power and Associates. Another study by DME Automotive found that a staggering 40% of car buyers visit just a single dealership before purchasing their new car.

This is because today’s car buyer is doing all of the research related to car buying before leaving the comfort of home. They’ll check out models in their price range, reliability, safety, and options.

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But just as they research their future vehicle, they’re researching their future dealership as well. Sites like DealerRater help customers make an informed decision regarding reputable dealerships in their area.

Google even displays business ratings right in search results so customers can see a star rating of basically every dealership in their local area.

Customers Are Looking for a Reason to Shop Elsewhere One of the most important things to understand about online reviews is that customers aren’t looking for a reason to shop at your dealership, they’re looking for a reason to shop elsewhere. They’re on the hunt for negative reviews.

Your reputation can only be controlled to a certain extent, which makes reputation management such an important service for dealers. Because if you’re not searching for ways to manage your reputation, it will end up managing your dealership.

How to Alter Reality and Conquer Online Reviews You can’t control online reviews, but you can alter reality and solve problems by facing down negative online reviews and criticism. Work with review sites to gain access and respond to customer reviews directly, ask customers to post feedback, and keep up with the sentiment surrounding your dealership.

Wikimotive’s Reputation Management team scours the web for reviews and mentions about your dealership to help you better understand your online reputation. We want you to know about issues as soon as possible so you can become the most popular dealership in your area!

Erin Ryan is the Social Media Manager for Wikimotive & Amanda Ryan is the Director for Social Media for Wikimotive.

For specific questions contact them via - twitter:@TheErinRyan | @AmandaShares or by e-mail at erin@dealersolutions.info or amanda@dealersolutions.info.

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27

Dealer Conferences & Training on Women Car Buyers

by Jody DeVere

Where are you on the “women car-buyers topic?” Do you know the number of women who influence purchase decisions of your brand? Buy your brand? Use your brand? Are you communicating effectively with women in your sales and service departments, in your marketing and advertising? In your digital marketing and social media efforts? How does the changing face of women as consumers impact your business?

Why is this important to have this knowledge? Look at the facts. Women are the most dynamic and fastest growing economic force. Globally, women control about close to $28 trillion in spending and this continues to rise given advances in education, career opportunities and social and political leadership. In many households purchasing decision is either women-dominant or joint breadwinners, 72% of women in the U.S. earn 50-100% of the family household income. 28.8% of all businesses are women owned. Women are also more likely to own their own business to give flexibly as they juggle work and family.

Meet the curator of the world’s premier conferences on marketing to women and Mom’s, my good friend Nan Mc-

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Cann President of, PME Enterprises and Co-Founder of the, M2W® : The Marketing To Women Conference and the M2Moms® : The Marketing-To-Moms Conference.

Nan McCann states, “Few of the big auto makers and a mere handful of dealerships attend our conferences to learn how to improve their work with female consumers. Information is power. To understand the market through the female gender lens it’s important to learn from the best in the business.”

“Our conferences, M2W® and M2Moms®, are both in their 10th year and help marketers learn how to improve consumer engagement and business to drive increased market share and revenue with today’s power consumer, the gender that makes the most purchasing decisions across ALL brand categories ALL the time...WOMEN, states Nan McCann, President, PME Enterprises”.

Nan continues, “Tom Peters, marketing guru, author of the acclaimed book In Search of Excellence and long time champion of this topic has famously said, “Bottom line: This “Women’s Thing” is...Unmistakably, in my opinion...

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY Number 1. And there is no close second.”

“Let me be clear. This is not a battle of the sexes. This is simply a matter of how we think, design products, communicate, market, sell, service and manage our brands. It is a matter of smart business. And this is not just a U.S. economic reality. It’s a global imperative where WOMEN are economic game changers and you are building your brand fortunes in their dynamic court, declares Nan McCann.”

Does your dealership attend conferences and or training on communicating effectively with women car buyers? Specialized conferences and training by experts provide the needed insight, competitive edge and know-how which is key to success in gaining “Market-Share Advantage with Women”.

Jody DeVere is the CEO at Ask Patty, Inc. For specific questions contact her via - twitter:@askpatty or by e-mail at jody@dealersolutions.info.

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Y A D 30 E C I T NO

By David Cribbs

the has been filed with An official complaint rer ve ne at of dealers th authorities on behalf d ate loc re s tice that up ceived the 30 day no . alt ph as e nce to onlin their shopping experie ely tim a in ive the notice Dealers who did rece ing these leads on be liz po manner are mono rs ale de e es ustry. Th half of the entire ind to stats that showed ss ce ac gained exclusive r re visiting 7 or 8 deale them that the ups we es oic ch alt ng their asph websites and narrowi er re actually buying aft we d down to 2 or 3 an . l dealerships 1.3 visits to a physica is preliminary inforOnce armed with th began to turn their on mation these dealers s. om ro ow sh into online line advertisements gressive dealers even ag re Some of the mo ess bring the sales proc had the audacity to an th wi d rte ons. It sta to these online locati to rs me sto cu , allowing initial meet and greet d an ail em e dealer by communicate with th a r Fo . ity bil e chat capa evolved into an onlin e es Th e. er th not stop handful of dealers it did lp he to eo er online vid dealers began to off cilect a car and parti se th the customer bo . ion tat en es lk-around pr pate in a virtual wa cs mi na dy re that the mo Dealers were finding at they could bring to th s es of the sales proc ey locations the more th these online asphalt

30

rs. s from other deale separated themselve le op pe les sa dealers and The boldest of the st mo e th ing a way to br actually figured out e lin on s es oc the sales pr effective element of g tin ica un mm ey began co which is rapport. Th ing us s eo vid l h persona with customers throug e and personal youtub s ite bs email, text, we channels. showing up to these Customers are now dere prepared to take select showrooms mo ing ipp sk e ar ese dealers livery not because th r Fo . em th en have tak steps but because they y da 30 e th not receive the dealers who did e to rest easy. I have inu nt co notice, you can ith the proper author filed the complaint wi ve ha I . ck ba ng a call ties and I am expecti for “Blue� as I will be k as to instructed them holding my breath.

iner at IPD. David Cribbs is Lead Tra - twitter:@DeskingDeals via him t tac con ns For specific questio olutions.info. ers eal @d idc or by e-mail at dav

Tune in to BlogTalk: www.blogtalkradio.com/auto-dealer-live Tune in to USTREAM: www.ustream.tv/channel/imperial-press-direct

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