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HOW TO COMPETE WITH ONLINE ADS 5 STEPS FOR SMALL DEALERS
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SALES MATTERS | By John Chapin
FOUR INGREDIENTS FOR SALES AND BUSINESS SUCCESS
Winning Recipe
It happened again two weeks ago. I met with someone struggling to get their business going. One of the first questions I asked, and always ask: “What are you doing to bring in revenue (sell something)?” “I have a display at the local Walmart, and I belong to five chambers of commerce.” “And how long have you been doing that?” “Five years.” “And how much business have you gotten from each one?” “Pretty much zero from all.” I’m not kidding. I also wish I could say this experience is the exception to the rule. Actually, it is more the rule than the exception when I talk to a struggling salesperson or entrepreneur. What’s the definition of insanity? Right. For five years. Look, it really only takes four things to be successful in sales and business. If you have all four, success is virtually guaranteed. If you are missing even one, eventual failure is guaranteed. Good People Skills If you’re good with people – people like you because they feel good around you and believe you care about them – you’re off to a good start. If people like you, they’ll buy from you. The best salespeople and business people always have great people skills. They can connect and carry on a conversations with anyone at any level or any age. They have a charisma about them and their conversations flow smoothly and easily. They are able to make people feel important by talking about what’s important to them, being a good listener, and focusing completely on the other person as if they are the only person in the world. Even in a crowd, they can make you feel as if the two of you are the only ones there. That relationship, that connection, is usually the most important aspect when selling most items. A Great Attitude A great attitude includes: passion, confidence, conviction, commitment, and perseverance. It also includes being positive. The former attributes ensure you have the mental wherewithal to go out into the world with enthusiasm and remain that way while suffering the slings and arrows necessary to succeed in business and sales. The latter attribute, being positive, ensures
you present well to people. Your objective is to be a pleasure to interact with, to be the most pleasant person people encounter during the day, and to be a joy to do business with. You want people to enjoy the experience of working with you. This means going above and beyond, doing more than people expect, and always doing everything in your power to make sure the client feels important. You want to have a can-do, happy-tohelp-you attitude. The Right Activities Activity starts by having a plan that includes how much business you need, how many people you need to talk to, and where to find those people. In addition, you need the self-discipline to stick to the plan and ensure you spend your time and money on the right activities and resources. The most important activities you spend time on during the day are the ones that bring money into the business. It isn’t working on your logo, driving to the post office, or entering information into the computer. During business hours over 90 percent of your time should be spent on activities that generate cash flow. The fastest way to build business is by calling on people in person or on the phone. Business is a contact sport and is all about relationships. In order to build relationships and connect with people, you need to be talking to them live, not sending spam emails, LinkedIn messages, or connecting on Facebook. Also, your activities should be focused on meeting new people. Going to the same networking events and seeing the same people over and over again is a mistake. Incidentally, discomfort and fear of calling on people, both strangers and people you know, is what stops most people and causes them to fail in sales and business. If you’re going to be successful, you need to get over that. Bottom line: focus on meeting strangers and making lots of contacts. Business is a numbers game, if you talk to enough people during the day you will eventually run into someone who needs what you have or knows someone who needs what you have. So go out there and take massive action. A Good Product and Support This one goes without saying. If you have good people skills, a great attitude, and are focused on the right activities, you’ll make your share of one-time sales. But if you have a bad product, or are lacking support, the word will get out and any success will be short-lived. John Chapin is a sales and motivational speaker and trainer. He has over 27 years of sales experience as a number one sales rep and is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year: Sales Encyclopedia. For more information, visit www.completeselling.com or email johnchapin@completeselling.com.
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PRODUCTS & SERVICES| By Auto Remarketing Staff
CARS.COM LAUNCHES PRODUCT FOR FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE Promotes Dealer Listings
Cars.com has unveiled a new social solutions product designed to help dealers share their Cars.com used car listings with active shoppers on Facebook Marketplace. Cars.com’s new Facebook Marketplaceintegrated product, Social Sales Drive, can directly connect dealer’s inventory to its business page on Facebook. According to Cars.com, Facebook is two times as efficient as paid search when it comes to directing active car shoppers to a dealership’s website to engage with inventory. “Social is a must-have for automotive dealers with the increasing amount of time people spend on social media and their desire for a shopping experience that meets them where they are,” Cars.com chief executive officer Alex Vetter said. “The combination of powerful Cars.com advertising and targeting with the efficiency of social as a selling channel is a win-win for dealers and manufacturers. Cars.com is innovating at the speed of retail and leading the way for social selling in automotive.” In addition to Conversations, the company’s messaging platform that can seamlessly integrate into dealer websites for 24/7 chat options between dealers and car shoppers on Facebook Messenger, the Social Sales Drive solution can automatically upload a dealers’ complete used car inventory to Facebook Marketplace. According to Cars.com, over 50 percent of Facebook Marketplace car shoppers are connecting with dealerships during off-hours, between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m.
November/December 2018
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INSIDE
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THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF NEW YORK INDEPENDENT AUTO DEALERS ASSOCIATION
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05................................................. NIADA Government Report 06.............................................................. Social Media Study 07.................................Big Trends That Can Mean Big Profits 08.......................................How to Compete with Online Ads 10.......................................................................Email Security 14......................................................Good Cheap Cars: Part 2
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NATIONAL INDEPENDENT AUTOMOBILE DEALERS ASSOCIATION WWW.NIADA.COM • WWW.NIADA.TV 2521 BROWN BLVD. • ARLINGTON, TX 76006-5203 PHONE (817) 640-3838 For advertising information contact: Troy Graff (800) 682-3837 or troy@niada.com. The New York Driving Force is published bimonthly by the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association Services Corporation, 2521 Brown Blvd., Arlington, TX 76006-5203. Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, TX and at additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NIADA State Publications, 2521 Brown Blvd., Arlington, TX 76006-5203. The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of New York Driving Force or NIADA. Likewise, the appearance of advertisers, or their identification as members of NIADA, does not constitute an endorsement of the products or services featured. Copyright © 2018 by NIADA Services, Inc.
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WASHINGTON UPDATE | By Shaun Petersen
NIADA GOVERNMENT REPORT
Latest Government Issues and Activity
NIADA is your voice in Washington D.C., advocating for independent dealers, the used vehicle industry and small business. Here’s a look at the latest news and NIADA efforts regarding legislative, regulatory, PAC and grass roots activities.
LEGISLATIVE
The Republican-led effort to make the tax cuts of last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent cleared its first hurdle Sept. 28, when the House of Representatives passed the legislation dubbed “Tax Reform 2.0” by a 220-191 vote that fell mostly along party lines. Three Democrats voted for the bill, while 10 Republicans voted against it. The bill is actually a collection of three proposals that would make the individual and small-business tax cuts, which are currently scheduled to expire after 2025, permanent and extend the lower medical deduction threshold, as well as making it easier to contribute to and withdraw from retirement accounts and allowing qualified new businesses to deduct up to $20,000 of their start-up costs. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said since the tax law took effect “we’ve seen an economic turnaround with more jobs, bigger paychecks and historic Main Street optimism.” Now the bill must get through the Senate, which appears to be a more difficult task. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said the three bills will be considered separately, and none of them are expected to be acted on by the end of 2018. Because it takes 60 votes to pass tax legislation in the Senate and the Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority, the prospect of all three bills passing seems remote, but there is some bipartisan support for some of the provisions, including the changes in retirement and education savings.
REGULATORY
CFPB updates FCRA disclosures: The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection issued an interim final rule updating two model disclosures to reflect recent legislative changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, passed in May, requires nationwide consumer reporting agencies to provide their customers free “national security freezes” that keep prospective lenders from obtaining access to a consumer’s credit report, which makes it harder for identity thieves to open accounts in the consumer’s name. As a result, the CFPB has changed its models of the Summary of Consumer Rights and the Summary of Consumer Identity Theft Rights – disclosures mandated by the FCRA to be sent to consumers – to include a notice regarding the newly established right to a security freeze. Consumer reporting agencies and other entities can use the bureau’s model forms or their own similar forms, but any version must include a notice of the right to a security freeze. The updated model forms can be found at www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/ newsroom/bureau-consumer-financialprotection-issues-updated-fcra-modeldisclosures/. The new law also extends the minimum time in which nationwide consumer reporting agencies must include an initial fraud alert in a consumer’s file from 90 days to a year. Agencies say guidance is not law: Five federal agencies – the CFPB, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller – issued a joint statement to make it clear that supervisory guidance issued by the agencies does not have the same effect as law and they do not take enforcement actions based on that guidance. The statement comes after the CFPB’s controversial 2013 auto finance guidance, which was used as the basis of several enforcement actions, was determined to qualify as a rule by the General Accounting Office, which led to it being repealed this year by Congress using its power under the Congressional Review Act. The statement said the agencies will not take enforcement actions based on supervisory guidance, explaining that guidance can outline the agencies’ supervisory expectations or priorities and articulate their general views about appropriate practices for a given subject area.
PAC
The PAC Cup competition wrapped up during the recent National Policy Conference in Washington D.C., and the result was recordbreaking. A staggering $212,000 was raised for the NIADA-PAC fund as a result of the PAC Cup competition, more than double the record set in 2017. The competition pits NIADA’s four geographical regions against each other, with the Cup going to the region that contributes
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NIADA’S 2018 NIADA LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR, REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA.)
the most to the fund since the previous year’s NPC. As always, the competition came down to the final frantic moments, with the regional vice presidents encouraging dealers and industry partners from their regions to contribute. In the end, Region III Midwest, led by vice president Scott Allen of Texas, barely edged four-time defending champion Region II (Southeast) to win the Cup for the first time. In addition to raising money, the PAC distributed some as well, making contributions to Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and Massachusetts Senate candidate Geoff Diehl during the Friends of the Automotive Industry Congressional Reception and Dinner. A special contribution was made to Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who was named NIADA’s 2018 Legislator of the Year. One of three car dealers currently serving in the House of Representatives (Williams is another), Kelly, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, was instrumental in getting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed and pushed for the provision that allows automobile dealers to continue to deduct net interest expenses associated with their floorplan lines. He has also been a strong proponent of Tax Reform 2.0. As a fellow car dealer, no one understands the needs of NIADA’s members and the issues that affect them better than Rep. Mike Kelly. Shaun Petersen is NIADA’s senior vice president of legal and government affairs.
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SOCIAL MEDIA | By Kathi Kruse
SOCIAL MEDIA A PREFERRED CUSTOMER SERVICE CHANNEL
RECENT STUDY RESULTS
Social media is one of the first channels consumers head to when they have a question or an issue. In fact, 45 percent of consumers have done so. A recent Sprout Social study cited the disconnects between social marketers’ goals and consumer preferences, but there is one area they found marketers and consumers agree cannot be left out of the mix: customer service. On the front lines with customers and prospects every day, an overwhelming majority (88 percent) of social marketers understand the importance of customer service on social. Nearly half (45 percent) of consumer respondents have reached out to a company on social. Social media is a unique customer service channel. Handling customer service through social media is tricky. The same marketing individual or team is often expected to wear the customer service hat, and situations can quickly go awry when specific skills and focus are absent. Given many dealership customer messages go unanswered on social media, it’s clear dealers haven’t put enough attention on designating someone to oversee their digital reputation, which is fast becoming their only reputation in their customers’ eyes. In many cases, customer care is left to a group of busy people who view it as an afterthought. Great social media customer service has a strong impact on the dealership’s bottom line. Social customer care doesn’t just contribute to brand perception. It impacts your bottom line. Twenty-one percent of consumers are more likely to buy from businesses they can reach on social.
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The same percentage would rather message a brand or business on social media than call customer service. This tells us that social customer service has a financial impact and is swiftly becoming the consumer’s preferred care channel. Done well, social customer care means customers will spend more. It improves efficiency and generates data you can use to improve services and benchmark against your competitors. Done poorly, you will be faced with spending precious resources digging your store out of a hole. Research published in Harvard Business Review found customers who received a response to their query on social media were more likely not just to remain a customer, but to spend more money with the brand, and recommend it to others. The research from Sprout Social showed answering a customer’s question on social media prompted 49 percent of consumers to purchase. A rapid response is now standard. Facebook Messenger, already widely used for customer service, is setting the standard for response times on social media. It’s also a new channel for advertising. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed valued a quick response on social media above any other action a brand could take. Dealers have a lot of work to do to meet these expectations. According to Sprout Social, the average brand response rate is just 12 percent. On average, a response takes 11 hours. That’s far short of the Facebook-recommended 15 minutes, and a lot of potential sales lost. The top reasons consumers reach out to brands on social: • They had a question (57 percent). • They had an issue with the product or service (45 percent). • They wanted to commend a company on their product or service (34 percent). When a customer reaches out with a question (their number one reason for reaching out on social) use this as an opportunity to form a relationship – not just resolve an issue.
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There is a wide range for how many customer service requests a business receives via social, though 58 percent of marketers surveyed receive between one and 50 requests in a week. There is also a wide range in response times, though the majority (78 percent) responds to a customer request within 12 hours. Social has matured as a communication channel and consumers have blended it into their lives. They expect dealers to do the same. While many dealerships now use social media regularly, very few take social customer service seriously. Quality customer service – regardless of channel – relies on a meaningful, efficient, solution-focused exchange between dealers and their customers. The consumer preference for social media as a communication channel requires your store to re-think its customer service policies and procedures, and integrate them with your business strategy. The best social customer service keeps your store in the conversation and doesn’t allow malcontents and competitors to speak for you. All this data makes it crystal clear how important social customer care is to your social and overall business strategy. How can dealers and their social marketers actually improve their efficiency and strategy in this area? More than half of social marketers say the answer is a bigger team. Large, small or somewhere in between, a dealership must allocate the right resources into social media. Given the data, it’s clear that customer service cannot be left out of your social media strategy. Every dealership needs to reassess how their customers prefer to communicate and adjust resources to meet ever-changing customer expectations. Kathi Kruse is an automotive social media marketing expert, blogger, consultant, author, speaker and founder of Kruse Control Inc., which coaches, trains and delivers webinars focused on integrating social media and online reputation management into dealership operations. She can be reached at kathi@ krusecontrolinc.com.
ACCELERATE | By GWC Warranty
BIG TRENDS
THAT CAN MEAN
BIG PROFITS
Trends to Watch
Studying nationwide and industry-wide trends brings to light opportunities around the types of vehicles that are selling as well as what customers are looking for in their vehicles and their car-buying experience. Remaining incredibly familiar with these trends opens the door for you to begin preparing for where the industry is going so you’re ready to strike when opportunity arises. Here are few trends we’re tracking that could be helpful for you too.
Content and Features on a Budget
Used vehicles are quickly becoming a more budget-friendly option for customers to get luxury features on an economy budget. J.D. Power’s recent APEAL study found the gap narrowing between mass-market and luxury brands in terms of customer satisfaction. Much of this is due to features like navigation, enhanced safety systems and more being increasingly more accessible to the everyday used car buyer.
A Focus on Used Cars
Manufacturers and retailers alike are realizing the profit potential from used cars. Much like customers seeking more luxury features at an affordable price point, used cars are proving to be the solution for those customers who are both budget and image conscious. Finding vehicles that can project the image young buyers want while also working within their limited budgets could hit a perfect sweet spot for your bottom line.
Rising Used Prices
The logical progression from used car buyers wanting more features is the natural rise in sales prices. Several retailers reported recent upticks in average sale price, largely because customers who want added features are finding them in used cars rather than new. As a segment of new car buyers migrates into the used market, you can continue to expect higher prices on those premium vehicles.
Digital Transactions
A recent Cox Automotive study found that most customers still want to complete their transactions in a dealership, but that could be about to change. The study found 71 percent of customers want to find accurate and detailed information online while 83 percent of customers want to complete at least one purchase activity online. Opening the door to digital technology in your dealership and purchasing tools on your website will prepare you to cater to these types of customers.
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November/December 2018
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ONLINE MARKETING | By Adam Tobias
HOW TO COMPETE WITH ONLINE ADS
5 Steps for Small Dealers
Car buying has become a primarily online activity. According to Cox Automotive’s Car Buyer Journey Report, customers spend just a third of their time at dealerships. The rest is devoted to online research. Only after careful research do car buyers proceed to a dealership to test drive and purchase. The challenge, therefore, is to be found online. Dealerships might have the right inventory and prices, but if they can’t get traffic to their listings, they won’t get buyers onto their lot. Online advertising is the answer, but most small and mid-size dealerships can’t justify the cost. But there is a right way and a wrong way for small dealerships to advertise online. And it’s expensive if you do it the wrong way.
The Benefit of Being Big
Large dealerships dominate advertising on third-party websites like Cars.com and Autotrader. They can afford the exorbitant costs of buying ad space there and can blanket the Internet with ads. Sure, they waste a lot of money on visitors who don’t buy from them, but with enough traffic, only a tiny fraction of visitors need to become customers to make the ads worthwhile. That’s the benefit of being big. When small dealerships try the same “spray and pray” approach, they undoubtedly fail. If you can’t compete on budget, you have to use other tactics to get found online.
When They Go Big, You Go Small
Small dealers can’t afford to blanket the Internet with ads, but anyone can afford to run a few highly targeted ads to the perfect customer. If you have $100, you can effectively advertise any vehicle online. Here are five steps to developing a highvalue advertising campaign. These principles are universal for any dealership, but they’re especially powerful for smaller dealerships trying to compete with large companies.
1. What is your niche? Who is your audience?
Most dealerships already focus on specific vehicles. That’s called a niche. Maybe your niche is broader, like trucks, European cars or used vehicles. Maybe it’s narrower: a specific brand, price point or customer segment. Having a niche is important. It allows you to define your target audience, the people who are most likely to purchase a vehicle from you. Instead of advertising to any car buyer, focus on advertising to this niche. But how do we find these people on the Internet? And how do we show them our ads?
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Cover Story
2. Ad targeting.
Ad targeting means creating rules or criteria about who should see your ad, when they should see it and on what platform. Using the tools available on ad platforms, you can target your specific niche. Targeting saves you money by showing your ads only to those people who are most likely to purchase from you. Your conversion rates will be higher, which means more people are clicking on your ads. This, in turn, gives you a better chance to make a sale. For small and mid-size dealers, the secret to online advertising is quality not quantity. You want each ad to make a big impact, and that starts with ad targeting.
3. Choose the right platform.
Advertising platforms vary widely on cost, features and targeting ability. Choosing the right one is often the most difficult step. • Third-Party Car Websites Third-party websites – like Cars.com, Autotrader and CarGurus – are the most popular platform for dealer ads. They get the lion’s share of car search traffic and are often the first place buyers look. But because of this, they are also the most expensive platforms. Only large dealerships can afford to advertise effectively on these sites. Every ad is in competition with thousands of other car ads, putting a premium on top ad space. • Google Ads Google Ads (formerly AdWords) lets you run ads on Google searches. Advertisers target the keywords relevant to their product and their ads are shown on the results pages. Google Ads can be affordable or extremely expensive. Broad terms like “used cars” get hundreds of thousands of searches every month, but the cost is prohibitive for most small dealers. Plus, this keyword attracts a wide audience, most of whom won’t be interested in your vehicle anyway. Specific terms like “Honda HR-V 2016 Atlanta” are less expensive and more effective for a small dealer. This type of Google search shows buyer intent – they have done their research and are looking to purchase. This is the perfect time to show them your ad and get them to your website. • Social Media Like Google Ads, advertising on social media can either be cost-effective or expensive. Instead of keywords, though, sites like Facebook group audiences based on their interests. You can choose a broad or niche audience, which will determine the cost and impact of your ads. • Display Network Display networks partner with websites
November/December 2018
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and online publishers to deliver banner ads to visitors based on their search history and interests. When you target a specific audience, the display network will show them ads when they visit a website that is part of the network. For example, your audience could see your ad on USA Today, DrivingSales.com and Lifehacker. com. Display network ads are among the most affordable and effective. The ad space itself is inexpensive, and your ads don’t have to compete with hundreds of others. Since they are based on search history and interests, you know you’re targeting a high-quality audience.
4. Ad content.
The content of your ad has a monumental impact on its success. The right targeting is only half the battle. We’ve grown so used to seeing ads everywhere our minds have become very effective at ignoring them. To win visitors, your ads need to be creative and provoke people to action. If you’re not using the right language, or your ad is not visually appealing, chances are visitors will not click on your ad. Creating compelling ads is tough work. If you don’t have experience, you are probably better off seeking the help of a marketing professional. But even pros aren’t perfect, which leads us to our final step.
5. A/B testing.
A/B testing is a method to gauge the performance of an ad before you spend too much money on it. Create two different versions of the same ad and run a limited campaign for each while measuring their effectiveness. Then choose the top-performing ad to run a larger campaign. Repeat this process over time to refine your ads. A/B testing helps advertisers ensure they are running effective ads that generate highquality leads and, eventually, sales. It’s truly an invaluable tool. It’s hard and scary, but you’re not alone. Online advertising can be a full-time job on its own. It’s only natural to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work and choices involved. Large dealerships make it hard to get the premium ad space on a small budget. And if you’re not in the premium ad spot, it’s easy to get lost in all the noise. However, by targeting your niche audience with engaging ads on the right platform, even small dealers can compete with the big players. Take your time, get it right and watch your sales soar. Adam Tobias is the co-founder and COO of Dealercue, which provides dealerships with real-time, intelligent, market-driven vehicle appraisal, pricing, inventory management, and sourcing solutions. He can be reached at adam@dealercue.com.
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SECURITY WATCH | By Tyson Lee
EMAIL SECURITY TIPS
How to Keep Hackers Out
I recently received an email from a dealer we just funded on a bulk purchase asking to cancel the funds we had just sent electronically. He said he would send me his new banking instructions. Thinking this strange, I called the dealer and texted him a picture of the email I received. He said, “Tyson, I did not send this. This did not come from me.” While on the phone, I got our IT department involved. We found the hacker was deleting the messages the dealer was sending from the dealer’s email, but we could still pull them up in his archived folders. We had the dealer change his password, but the hacker was still able to send emails out. We then had the dealer unplug all Internet access, all computers and the router, and to power everything down. We had him call his Internet provider to make sure the IP address would be changed. The dealer also contacted his anti-virus provider to see what they could do. Just think what this hacker could have done if he was able to get ahold of credit card numbers or customers’ personal information! What a mess it could have been for this dealer. Here are some tips on how to keep hackers out. Use strong passwords. Strong passwords, although hard to remember, are your first step towards MANAGEMENT MATTERS
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By Victor Kraft
FINANCIAL TUNE-UP
Give Your Dealership a Competitive Edge
The business of buying and selling vehicles continues to transform. Dealerships face challenges related to operations, the industry’s regulatory environment, and buyer financing. However, taking advantage of tax reform, getting your financial reporting in shape, understanding the true cost of inventory, and broadening customer financing options can help keep your dealership in fine tune and give you a competitive edge. Get familiar with the impacts of tax reform on dealerships and their owners. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has major implications for dealers. Chief among them is the deductibility of interest expenses. The good news is floor plan interest is still deductible in full. For dealers with less than $25 million in gross receipts, non-floor plan interest is limited to 30 percent of net income before interest and depreciation. The limitation has a higher chance of applicability when profitability is low and there are large amounts of non-floor plan interest expense (e.g., lines of credit, bank notes, and mortgages). Dealership business losses can no longer be carried back to prior tax years to claim
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protecting your email and other online accounts from the bad guys. Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters such as $, &, or %. Use a secure online strong password generator such as https:// xkpasswd.net or https://www.passworddog.com if you need help. Don’t use the same password across all the online services you access. With the growing number of online services we access, remembering multiple passwords is getting harder. So, users tend to use the same password across all the services they use. The danger with this approach is if your password gets leaked or one of the online services you use gets hacked, all your online service accounts are vulnerable to unauthorized access. Don’t write your passwords on sticky notes. Do not write your passwords on sticky notes and keep them with your phone or leave them next to your computer. If you are having trouble keeping track of different passwords you use for your online accounts, there’s help for you in the form of password managers or password vaults that help you store you passwords in a secure manner. Check out LastPass free password manager at http://www.lastpass.com. Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). Most of the popular email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft, and online services such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter support two-factor authentication. With 2FA, you use a second factor besides your
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refunds. This will likely affect dealers who have alternating years of profits and losses. The maximum C corporate tax rate is now 21 percent. Pass-through entities, such as S corporations and partnerships, are eligible for a 20 percent deduction of qualifying income. In some cases, restructuring the entity type may reduce dealership tax liability. Understand the importance of timely and accurate financial reporting. The need for timely and accurate financial reporting is crucial for all dealerships. Dealerships may have cash in the bank, but if future obligations, payables, and bills have not been recorded, a dealer is exposed to cash flow issues and may be hampered in its ability to secure lending. A good rule of thumb is to have monthly financials closed within 10-15 days after the end of the month. Many small dealerships use the cash method of accounting. There are inherent limitations of this accounting method as sales and expenses are only recorded when cash is received or paid by the dealership. Long term obligations, bills received but not paid, and the value of inventory may not be accurately captured under cash accounting. Consider using the accrual method of accounting, as it paints a clearer picture of the status of the dealership and is the preferred method of banks and lenders. Know your inventory. Do you know the true cost of each vehicle on your lot?
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password to access your account. This second factor, in most cases, is simply a verification code sent to your phone. Be aware of phishing. Phishing is a form of fraud in which fraudsters send you emails that look like the ones you would receive from a reputable company such as Facebook or Apple, but are meant to trick you into revealing your user ID and password so fraudsters can gain access to your email, confidential data, or other valuable information from your account. Once they gain access to your account, they will then try to send emails to people on your contact list and try to trick them into revealing their account credentials. Install anti-virus software with email scanner. Hackers send viruses, malware and spyware as email attachments. Virus and malware are software programs or code written with the intent to harm or disable your computers. Spyware is software written with the intent to steal your confidential information or let hackers control your computer remotely. One of the best ways to protect yourself from these is to install antivirus software that includes an email scanner. AVG Free is one such free software with email scanner (http://free.avg.com). Antivirus email scanners scan email and attachments and remove or block viruses, malware and spyware. Since hackers are changing their software constantly, make sure you update the antivirus software and virus definitions regularly. Tyson Lee is the marketing and sales manager for United Acceptance, Inc. He has been helping dealers across the nation for the past 12 years.
Vehicle costs include the acquisition cost, floor plan interest and fees, and reconditioning costs. We recommend analyzing the dealership’s overhead costs (building/lot rent, administrative salaries, etc.) and applying a standard pack to each vehicle. Knowing the true cost can help dealers make better decisions when negotiating deals with customers. Having the right product mix is crucial for dealerships and should be tailored for the market and desired customer. Performing a two- to three-year sales analysis of vehicles by make, model, and type can shed light on which are losers and winners. Diversify product offerings. Increases to the cost of vehicles continue to exceed wages of consumers, which has put pressure on selling prices and hampered margins. Consumers are reliant on vehicle financing, which presents dealerships opportunities to offer a variety of financial products associated with financing. GAP (guaranteed asset protection) insurance, extended warranties, and voluntary debt cancellation coverage provide risk coverage to customers while providing backend revenue to dealerships. Victor Kraft is a senior associate in CLA’s dealership practice. Find out more at CLAconnect.com/dealerships.
MARKETING MATTERS | By Kenny Atcheson
NEWSLETTERS
Which Type is Best for You?
Customer newsletters will transform your dealership from a faceless, personalitylacking business into a group of human beings customers can relate to, trust, and refer to others. Communicating with customers on a regular basis strengthens relationships. It puts your brand top of mind, which will lead to more referrals and repeat purchases. Regular communication is something that happens in a relationship, not a onceevery-so-often message when you want to sell something or when one party needs something. A newsletter: • Builds trust as customers get to know your dealership as people, not a logo. • Changes and improves customer perceptions of your business by humanizing your dealership. • Is perceived as a publication, not advertising. • Has pass-along value because it gets shared in the break room at your customers’ jobs. • Is a place to thank customers for referrals – encouraging more referrals. • Is good for making announcements that get noticed due to high readership since it is a publication rather than an advertisement. • Can be a place to highlight an employee. • Is like advertising in a vacuum. The competition can’t see all the reasons for your success. These benefits can be earned by sending any type of newsletter, but there are differences. EMAIL NEWSLETTER Pros: • Email newsletters can be shared with the click of a button. This could put your dealership in front of potential customers at no cost. • You can protect your brand by putting a link to your feedback system in every email newsletter, such as on ThanksForFeedback.com. If there comes a time your customer is not happy, they can vent internally instead of publicly on Google or Facebook. • Though you still need to prepare the email newsletter to be effective, you won’t pay printing and postage charges. • Your customers’ physical addresses can change frequently, but they may have the same email address forever. Cons: • Low open rates could be 5-20 percent. • Open rates continue to drop. It could get worse. • Emails have zero staying power. If they are not opened on the day they are sent, they disappear into a black hole. • Emails must be short or they won’t get read.
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• You have to get someone to sign up for your email newsletter, versus a print newsletter you can just start sending. 8.5X11 PRINTED NEWSLETTER Pros: • Print newsletters have more space, which allows for more information to be shared. Emails have to be shorter to be read, but a printed newsletter can be enjoyed over time. • Your customer may read part of the newsletter one day, then set it down on the counter to pick up later to read another portion. It has staying power. • There are psychological benefits to giving your customer something to hold in their hands. They are more likely to appreciate it and remember. • When done correctly, your printed newsletter will be opened more often than email newsletters. The open rate may be 10 times higher. Your customer’s postal mailbox is usually empty, but their email inbox likely gets 50 messages per day. Cons: • Printing and postage increases cost. • That’s about it. POSTCARD NEWSLETTER Pros: All the same pros as the 8.5x11 printed newsletter plus… • Postcard newsletters arrive already opened. • Because it is already opened there may be something that catches your customer’s eye immediately, such as an announcement. • Other people see the postcard while it’s delivered or sits on a desk or in a break room. • A postcard that sits around a break room or on a coffee table can stay in better condition than a piece of paper as postcard quality is higher. • Print and postage costs are about 20 percent less. Cons: • Although it costs 20 percent less than other printed newsletters, it is still more money than an email. What Type of Newsletter is the Winner? All of the above can contribute to profits when done correctly. If possible, pick a print newsletter style and send email newsletters. If the only con of printed newsletters (postage and printing costs) is still more than you want to pay, do them every other month and send email newsletters in between. This cuts costs by half. People react to different media in different ways. Some people would rather get a quick email, but some would rather enjoy their coffee or lunch break with paper in hand. Why leave anyone out? Do both and reap the benefits. Kenny Atcheson is the founder of Dealer Profit Pros and author of Marketing Battleground: How to Deploy Under-the-Radar Strategies to Explode Your Profits. Kenny teaches workshops and speaks at conventions and 20 Groups. His company offers several marketing and advertising programs found at www.DealerProfitPros.com.
INDUSTRY NEWS
SAFETY WATCH
GWC WARRANTY WELCOMES ACCOUNT MANAGER TO NEW YORK
NISSAN TO RECALL 166,000 VEHICLES
Faulty Ignition Switches
Thomas Barry
GWC Warranty, provider of used vehicle service contracts sold through automotive dealers, is proud to announce the arrival of a new account manager in upstate New York – Thomas Barry. As an account manager, Barry will work with GWC Warranty dealer partners throughout upstate New York to help them sell more cars with GWC’s best-in-class service, products, training and technology. Barry, a SUNY Cortland graduate, joins GWC Warranty with 15 years of experience in the automotive industry. Barry’s track record of outstanding customer service is a natural fit for GWC Warranty, where every employee is dedicated to providing best-inclass service to dealers and end customers that helps avoid post-sale dissatisfaction and protects dealers’ reputations. As part of APCO Holdings, LLC, GWC Warranty has helped protect more than 8.5 million drivers from costly, unexpected
out-of-pocket repair bills by paying more than $3.5 billion in claims to date. This longstanding record of excellence has earned GWC an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and designation as a Motor Trend® Recommended Best Buy for Independent Dealers. In addition to these honors, in 2017, GWC Warranty was once again named to the 2017 Auto Remarketing Power 300. In 2018, GWC was recognized in SubPrime Auto Finance News’ SubPrime 175 for the fourth straight year. For more information visit www.GWCwarranty.com.
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Nissan recently said it will recall about 166,000 small cars, commercial vans, and midsize pickup trucks to replace ignition switches that may cause engines to shut off while the vehicles are being driven. The recall mostly affects vehicles sold in Canada, although 13,000 are in the U.S. The cars in the U.S. include certain 2017 and 2018 model year Juke subcompact crossovers, Frontier pickup trucks, Sentra and Versa small cars, and NV and NV200 commercial-oriented vans. In Canada, the recall also includes the Nissan Micra city car. If the ignition switches are moved from “on” to “accessory” while the vehicle is being driven, the airbag system could be turned off. Owners of affected vehicles began receiving notices in the mail in September to make an appointment with their dealership for an inspection of the ignition switch and a possible replacement. In the meantime, the automaker said drivers of the affected vehicles should take all additional keys and other items off of their key chains until their ignition switches are inspected to reduce strain that could cause the switch to move.
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n the first installment of this threepart series, we looked at how to take advantage of upstream online auctions. Upstream is just a fancy way of saying “before the vehicle is shipped to physical auction.” We focused on OLOCs (One-owner, Low-mileage, Offlease Cars) and discussed how you can acquire affordable cars your customers want, without having to go to a physical auction. I received a lot of great feedback and even helped some dealers buy a few cars online for the very first time! Turns out, it’s not as hard as they thought! A lot of folks told me the cars they need – the $2,000 to $7,000 cars – are only at the physical auctions. So, in this article we are going to focus on buying cars from the physical auction. I’ve shared before that if you go to a physical auction there will be only a limited number of cars that might work for your lot and you will only be able to bid on a few. This means you probably won’t get the cars you need at the price you want – or at least not all the cars you need. So, why are we talking about going to the auction again? Well, I didn’t say we were going to go to the physical auction. I said we were going to buy cars from a physical auction. Some of the most successful used car dealers (and new car dealers as well) have mastered buying cars from multiple live online auctions. Remember, one auction will have a limited number of cars, but five auctions will have five times as many. How can you be at five live auctions at the same time? It’s made possible with the power of the Internet, of course. Thanks to advances in technology, nearly all auctions have a live video broadcast allowing dealers to bid and buy from the comfort of their office. You can watch and hear the sale, and then bid and buy right from your phone! Yes, multiple auctions, multiple cities and multiple states all from your computer or phone.
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The live online auction I’m most familiar with, of course, is LiveBlock from ADESA. You can preview cars that meet all the criteria you want and gather all the information you need to make an informed buying decision: vehicle history reports, build data, Autoniq data, Market Guide, book values and more, all at your fingertips. Then, you can bid on the cars live as they run across the block at auctions around the country. In fact, you can watch and bid four lanes at once! Yes, it will take some practice and, yes, it may be a little confusing at first – but like anything else it becomes much easier after a very short time. Do you remember your first trip to the auction? That wasn’t easy, was it? Over the course of my career, I’ve seen many independent dealers become successful at buying cars this way. They have multiple screens set up to watch, bid and buy at eight or more auctions at a time. I have seen big franchise groups with “war rooms” that have three or four employees in a room, each with multiple screens buying cars. The point is, you can do it! I know, you tried it once and it didn’t work out. You couldn’t buy the cars you wanted or the car you bought turned out to be a problem. Maybe that was a long time ago, or it just made you so frustrated you gave up and
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never tried again. Whatever the case, you should reconsider online auctions as a great way to acquire the cars you need. Don’t make this like asking for directions when you’re lost – if you don’t know how, ask for help! Any auction company will be more than happy to make sure you are fully trained and set up to succeed. Seriously, email me and I will connect you to people who will take the time to show you how to buy and sell online! If you’re still worried about making a mistake or getting a bad car – don’t be. There are now products out there like ADESA Assurance that can help reduce the worry – and the risk – of buying cars. If you underestimated the recon costs after buying or had a customer change their mind about buying a car, just send it back. Yes, you read that right: send it back within the defined timeframe and get your money back. There are, of course, some eligibility requirements and conditions but, boy, how times have changed. I want to close with one final tip regarding live online acquisitions: proxy bids. That’s right, proxy bids, also known as AutoBid. This is the most under-used tool in the toolbox. After reviewing the condition reports and data on the cars you need for your lot and determining exactly what you are willing to pay, simply set that number as your AutoBid. You’ll receive notifications if you win the car and what your winning bid was (which won’t exceed your AutoBid) or if you were outbid. You don’t have to watch the sale if you don’t have time – AutoBid will do the work for you. It’s really that easy! Next time I’ll uncover how to take advantage of the latest technology to buy fresh trades directly from the franchise dealer’s lot within minutes of the deal being closed. Until next time, have fun and sell cars! Doug Hadden is executive director of dealer consulting services for ADESA Auctions Inc.