Stair Step Programs; What’s Your Plan of Execution?

As many of you know, several automakers have rolled out incentive programs that pay dealers escalating bonuses as you sell more of a specific model.  This has been a selling tactic that has been used for many years.  Instead of advertising rebates to the consumer, the manufacturers incent the dealers with these stair-step programs with the hopes of lifting sales. If you read the Automotive News article that was published on May 21st, Stair Step Incentives Are Back, you know that dealers are split on the topic of stair-step programs.  Some dealers know how to work the system, having a plan to execute once these programs are released.  But many dealers say stair-step programs wreak havoc on their markets. Dealers pushing for their sales bogeys in the final days of a program often slash prices well below their cost in hopes of a large volume-based bonus at the end.

automotive-stait-step-program

If you work for a dealership that just sits back and waits for customers to walk in the door throughout the month, you probably don't like these programs. Personally, I love stair-step programs because I always felt like I had a plan to execute on them.  Our group would utilize many of our existing marketing tools like Cars.com new car specials, Autotrader.com spotlight ads, our email marketing ability, social networking, paid search, and retargeting ads to drive specific car buyers into our lead engines.

In fact, while I was on the dealership operations side of the fence, we built a solution that would proactively segment customers based on specific models (i.e. Honda Accord) and drive them into our showrooms.  This solution ultimately morphed into HookLogic’s Lead to Show tool.  Hundreds of dealers use Lead to Show every day to segment customers that submit leads on those cars that are a part of the stair-step program and incent those customers to visit your showroom floor.

We would turn this on as soon as we would receive the announcement so that we would get a head start on our competition.  Driving more customers into the showroom would give our salespeople more “at-bats” on the cars that we needed to move, hence allowing us to sell more and hitting the bonus levels earlier in the month so we weren’t battling with our competition while they were in panic mode during the last week of month.

When you see these types of manufacturer programs, don’t take the same path as many of your competitors.  Heck, don’t follow the same ritual that your dealership has in past.  Come up with a multi-faceted plan and execute on it.  Use tools that will help you differentiate yourself from your competition and you will come out on top, with higher market share and a lower cost per sale...oh yeah, and more profit from the stair-step bonuses.

How Does CRM Help Sell Cars Today?

How Does CRM help sell cars today? Given the fact that car dealers rely heavily on Internet leads from multiple sources including their own dealership websites, it is imperative for dealers to have a way of prioritizing, handling, following up, and filtering through hundreds if not thousands of opportunities each and every month.

This is why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) plays such an essential role in selling cars in today’s market.

Automotive CRM Adaptability

The future of CRM is about adaptability

Ten years ago approximately 20% of dealers had an automated CRM system. Today this is so mainstream that it is pushing CRM providers to offer more features and solutions that better fit the dealerships’ needs.

As an example, it is only a matter of time before we see more mobile functionality within CRM systems incorporating apps with smartphones and tablets. These mobile functions will be tightly woven into a social play, including video and check-in features.

That being said, CRM providers will want to think differently from how they have in the past.  These companies can't be the best at everything so they will need to start allowing niche companies to “bolt on” their specialty products to enhance the dealer’s experience.

For instance Salesforce.com, arguably the world’s largest CRM company used in many industries, has an API that allows more specialized companies to offer Salesforce users more and better capabilities such as enhanced reporting, mobile functionality, and other capabilities to their users.

Within the auto industry this doesn't happen but if you look at the website space, companies like PureCars, UnityWorks, and ActivEngage are “bolting on” to dealership websites to enhance conversion and the customer experience.

Auto dealers should expect the same flexibility with their CRM providers.

Maximize the potential of your CRM

Most dealers don't take advantage of their sold customer data for remarketing purposes, especially around their service departments. I am not talking about the set-it-and-forget-it automated birthday, anniversary, service reminder emails and postcards.  I am talking about the polling of customer data for highly targeted campaigns.

A CRM should be used in a holistic endless manner throughout the customer life cycle to send highly targeted messages of all kinds to customers of all types.

Differentiate your dealership from your competition

To help differentiate your dealership, avoid using the default letters and email response templates that come with your CRM. Odds are the dealership down the street has the same one going out.  Be different and make your own.

In my career I didn’t care if my competition knew what tools I used at my dealership because I knew we would use them more effectively.

Don’t fall for the boilerplate CRM presentation

When you are considering a CRM solution, take your time to figure out your major and minor pain points that you and your sales staff have, document them, and then schedule a meeting to discuss these issues. Let the CRM provider think about these issues for several days before you have a presentation of their solution. If they follow your lead, you will get a presentation that will fit your needs and you will have an easier time making a decision that is right for you.

You have the power

Don’t roll over.  If you have a plan, stick to it. If you picked the right CRM provider, they will be your partner and help you execute on your plan.  Remember, you are the customer.

Come up with a plan.  Use your data to your advantage.  And execute well.  If you do this, your CRM tool will help you build a profitable dealership that will give you an incredible ROI.

Digital Summit @ Mountain View: Disclosures of an Auto Conference Virgin, Part 2

Dealers Doing it Right Panel

Last week, I shared a number of key learnings from the Digital Summit @ Mountain View, from my vantage point as someone new to the auto conference circuit. As promised, here are the last 4 of my top 8 takeaways from the Summit.

5. Look at search as only working part of a bigger, holistic strategy: “It’s not just about search anymore,” according to Jonika Hoomes of Google. Don’t get me wrong, search is still important. In fact, 71% of people find it useful while shopping for cars. The point here is that it has to be combined with other tactics to really make an impact. For example, search coupled with display really hits home. Some marketers may believe that display is just a branding tool (I, working for HookLogic, surely know otherwise!). Think again!  Display + Search = Sales.

6. Dealers MUST be online. The proof is in the numbers: So many great statistics were shared during the Summit that prove what most of you already know. Either way, here’s a pat on the back and some further validation that digital dealers RULE!

• People consult an average of 18.2 sources before buying a car. For choosing a president?  Only 14.
• 90% of car buyers start their research online
• 50% of car shoppers pick their dealership online
• 76% of today’s car shoppers who visit a manufacturer’s website, visit a dealer site within 30 minutes.

7. Make everything tangible and relatable: Both Guy Kawasaki and Grant Cardone both touched on something all marketers need to remember: Use salient points. Relate what you’re saying…and selling, to things your customers understand. For example, ask a car shopper, “How much did you spend on your last vacation?” and then, “How long did that last?” in relation to the price of a car and its longevity. It really puts things into perspective.

8. Video drives engagement: Our very own Jeff Kershner held a panel discussion entitled, ‘Dealers Doing it Right’ which touched on a number of innovative tactics, such as video, that car dealers are using to drive customer engagement and sales. According to panelists, using video in email leads to much higher open and engagement rates. Panelists also mentioned that inventory that is displayed on youtube tends to sell faster than inventory that is not. It seems like video is well worth doing. Lastly, I can’t help but give a shout out to our client, Capital Motors for creating this video  to promote their Trade and Upgrade program.  I highly encourage you to check it out!

How to Turn Chat Conversations into Qualified Test Drives

automotive-chat

Chat is proving to be one of the more effective ways to convert website visitors into qualified buying prospects. For auto dealers, automotive chat is a tool that can be leveraged internally and externally to produce a certain desired result. But what exactly is a that result? Is it to produce a lead? And what is a lead really?

Is it a person’s contact info or is it a person interested in buying a vehicle soon that has agreed to communicate with you in some form or fashion?

How to define a lead is tricky, but having a qualified buyer appear in your showroom is not. 

With ActivEngage’s new partnership with HookLogic, auto dealers will very soon have a tool for incenting qualified car buyers in online chat conversations on a dealer’s website to come in for a test drive and meet with one of your sales associates.

This is just one of several ways that ActivEngage will be able to utilize HookLogic’s innovative reward incentive programs in their managed chat conversations for auto dealers.

And later this week on Friday May 18, ActivEngage, National Sales Director Ralph Eberson will be on stage with HookLogic as part of our AutoHook Advanced User Webinar series. In this live event, Ralph will discuss the benefits of managed chat for auto dealers and how integrating with HookLogic enables ActivEngage to bring yet one more cutting edge tool into the mix for its dealership community.

About Ralph Ebersole

Ralph Ebersole - ActivEngage

Ralph D. Ebersole is a Regional Director of Sales for ActivEngage. A recognized Automotive Digital thought leader, he brings more than 30 years of automotive industry experience, consulting and training expertise. In markets across the country, Ebersole has also consulted in-dealership with thousands of sales representatives to optimize traffic and drive more sales. Visit Ralph on LinkedIn.

Live Event

Join us this Friday at 11:30 AM ETD for a live GoToMeeting Webinar event hosted by Ryan Gerardi of HookLogic with Guest Presenter Ralph Eberson from ActivEngage.

Register Now: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/417484190

There is no cost or obligation to attend this webinar. Your information will be shared with HookLogic and with ActivEngage when you register for this webinar.

Digital Summit @ Mountain View: Disclosures of an Auto Conference Virgin, Part 1

Smiling Faces @ The Digital Summit, Mountain View

As a woman with years of professional exposure to predominantly ecommerce and retail, the auto industry – even as it pertains to digital marketing, is a bit foreign to me. When I was given the opportunity to attend the Digital Summit @ Mountain View last week, I thought to myself, “I’m going to feel like a fish out of water, but this is something I have to do if I really want to market AutoHook. I need to learn the industry,” And so, I went…

And yes, maybe I was a bit out of my element, but once I took it all in and had a few conversations with my fellow attendees I realized that we have a lot in common, and they are all marketers of the digital age just like me. Sure, they’re selling cars rather than technologies, but their challenges, experiences and thoughts within the digital realm are not so different from my own.  And these people are SAAVY.

On that note, I’d like to share the first 4 of my top 8 key learnings from the Summit which you may find quite valuable (or, entertaining at the least.  Keep in mind, I’m a newbie!):

1.       The key to a successful launch is a great story: Guy Kawasaki, the keynote speaker at the event, taught us all that if your business or dealership is embarking on something new, you must have a great story behind it in order to sell it well. For example, maybe your new showroom used to be a winery. Or maybe you’re running a big promotion in May because that’s the month you sold your first car. Play off of these interesting tidbits by giving people a tangible and relatable story to follow, and you’ll be sure to grab more attention and make more sales.

2.       Mobile. Do it:  Okay, we get it. Or do we really? Even though mobile is something that marketers in all industries are a bit sick of hearing about, we’re still just not doing it! The statistics are frightening. More than half of small/medium sized businesses still don’t have a mobile site. And, 40% of consumers have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience. My last thought on this one was, “Thank goodness we have an app.”

3.       Don’t abuse your social network privileges: As a good rule of thumb, Guy says that whenever you’re sharing via social media, make sure your Tweet, Status, etc. provides 1. Information, 2. Insights 3. Assistance. For example, a statistic such as “90% of car buyers start their research online” is informative, while “Taking a test drive? Acquaint yourself with the vehicle before starting the engine.” provides assistance. Just because you have the power to reach your audience as many times a day as you want, you shouldn’t feel like you have to.

4.       Lead to Show is a crowd pleaser: As someone who only learned about the Lead to Show product suite from an internal vantage point, it was refreshing to confirm my strong affirmation that our technology drives real, strong and significant results for dealers. When speaking with me during the main day of the conference, one client asked his partner, “How many cars did we sell through HookLogic last month?” His counterpart responded, “About 20% more than we would have without.” And that kind of thing was heard multiple times throughout my visit.

Look out next week for part 2. I’ll share some key stats and insights from my “virgin vantage point.”

Video Highlights of David Metter's Automotive ZMOT Panel at DD12

ZMOT ZMOT ZMOT. It seems to be all that we are talking about these days. If you are in e-commerce and/or automotive, it is hard to escape this new term that was introduced this past year by Shopper Sciences as part of Google's quantitative review of decision making behavior across shopping, services, and voting.

Although the term ZMOT, which stands for Zero Moment of Truth, might be new, the concept is far from new. The zero moment of truth for a shopper refers to "all the research consumers do online before making their purchase." Source: TechWyse.com.

In today's language, ZMOT pretty much occurs online during a shopper's quest to better understand product and availability. Product of course if mandated by the OEM but availability is primarily determined by the dealerships.

The automotive zero moment of truth for an auto shopper often begins with a search engine and ends either on a dealer's website or in the showroom.

By "end" I mean that the shopper comes to a conscious decision as to which product she is going to buy and from which dealer she will buy from.

From this point, FMOT enters the scene, which stands for First Moment of Truth. In a new car owner's  first moment of truth, the customer is on her honeymoon with her purchase and is more likely now to share her joy with friends as opposed to several weeks later. Thus, dealers today must consider their role not only in ZMOT but also in FMOT.

In a recent interview with Mike Esposito from Auto/Mate Systems, Mike summed it up perfectly by stating, "We used to talk about 'ups' and 'be backs'. Now you hear about ZMOT, and SEO, and digital marketing. The whole language has changed. The dealer that doesn’t come up to speed on these things is going to be left behind.”

In the video below, HookLogic President of Automotive David Metter moderates a panel on Automotive ZMOT and FMOT at DD12 with panelists Shaun Kniffin from Germain Motorcars, Andrew DiFeo from Hyundai of St. Augustine, Tom White Jr. from Suzui of Wichita, and David Kain from Kain Automotive.

The premise of the panel revolves around the debate of whether or not dealers are responsible for stimulus advertising which again is where a shopper's ZMOT will occur. As you will see, some dealers must generate their own stimulus while others do not, but the overlying business problem facing all auto dealerships is how they address ZMOT and how they address FMOT.

The original panel was pretty much an hour long. This video is all but three minutes so clearly only a very limited amount of what was discussed made it into this video. The pieces that did make tell a simple story that we hope all dealers can use to their benefit.

Take a look and feel free to respond with your thoughts by leaving a comment on this post.  You are welcome to share this post and/or video with others on your own blog or in social media. If you do please let us know where you are sharing it so that we can chime in to people's responses.

To learn more about how your dealership can take its customers from ZMOT to FMOT using HookLogic's AutoHook Suite of Products, visit our website for a free demo or to read some of the success stories that our own customers have shared.

Don't Just Be Accessible With Mobile...Be Effective

"The invasion of the smartphone has changed how consumers shop for everything, including high-end purchases like automobiles."

When it comes to potential car buyers it is not uncommon to see people browsing mobile sites either looking at a dealership’s inventory, comparing prices and information, or shopping their trade in.

Walk in to any coffee shop, cafe, bus stop, train station, or almost any venue really, even at your dealership and you will see the masses browsing the mobile web or tooling through an app on the newest generation of cell phones, otherwise known as smartphones, many of them researching vehicles and local dealers.

Smartphones are defined as mobile phones that operate with advanced capabilities and operating systems, similar to that of PC functionality. These phones have Internet browsers and capabilities, and increasingly people are completing their internet browsing on these phones.

The new challenge then for auto dealers is not only how to be accessible via mobile but also how to be effective with mobile.

By effective, I mean being able to convert the right people at the right time.

Converting auto shoppers in a mobile environment often results in acquiring less information about each person because there is less real estate with which to work and also because if it isn't uber-convenient then there is a high chance you will lose the visitor all together. Therefore you need simple and highly effective conversion tools that differentiate your dealership from the others.

Gift card incentives are proving to be effective for this, and dealerships across the country are benefiting from increased incremental sales with effective tools such as HookLogic'sWeb to Show and Lead to Show products.

But it's not as simple as offering someone a gift card for coming in for a test drive. To do this effectively and consistently over time your dealership will need not only the best technology but also the right partners and a good process built in to both the front-end and back-end.

Nowadays the right tools and the right technology require being effective in mobile too. This might involve a mobile web version and/or a mobile app version of your reward incentive and it might require effective SMS (or text message) marketing techniques. For HookLogic Web to Show customers, influencing shopper behavior via mobile has recently been made all the more feasible.

As stated in a recent press release by HookLogic's Chief Product Officer John Berhman,

"HookLogic‘s new Web to Show 2.0 solution for mobile coupled with our AutoHook suite of products means we are able to influence car buyers into the showroom from whatever channel they choose to shop.”

autohook_iphone_vertical

In addition to this new mobile offering, HookLogic has also launched its mobile redemption app. With this new app, dealership personnel are now able to validate, redeem, and measure incentives directly from their mobile devices in real-time.

The dealer mobile redemption app is available in Apple iOS and Android versions and can be downloaded at the Apple App Store and the Google’s Android Market respectively. To learn more about this new app visit our recent blog post titled, Redeeming Coupons from the Palm of Your Hand.

To learn more about how HookLogic's AutoHook Suite of Products can help increase the number of incremental sales at your dealership, contact us today by visiting our website, or call 1-646-532-4707.

Redeeming Coupons from the Palm of Your Hand

Remember when customers would come in to your dealership with a print-out of a coupon code for their $25 gift card that you promised to give them for coming in to see you? Remember how you had to either write down the customers code and then later enter it into the system? Or maybe you escorted the customer back to your office right away so you could log on to the AutoHook redemption system and redeem their code on the fly?

Now with the new mobile app from HookLogic you are able to redeem coupons from the palm of your hand while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the customer using our new Android, iPhone, and iPad apps.

That's right. Redeeming HookLogic coupons is now easier than ever.

How it Works

We took the coupon redemption and reporting capabilities that are currently present in our web-based user interface and moved them into a streamlined mobile application that allows for on-the-go productivity.  AutoHook clients are now able to validate a customer’s HookLogic walk-in incentive coupon and have the dealership's walk-in metrics at their fingertips, without being tied to their desks.

The process is the same but the convenience is greater. To redeem, users will simply launch the mobile app from their preferred device, enter the coupon code, and hit submit.  Upon doing so you will then be asked to enter the customer’s shipping address to finalize the redemption. That is all there is to it.

For reporting, users enter the desired start/end dates, the site that they wish to pull data for, and whether they want to pull data based upon coupon redemption or issued date.  Hitting “Run Report” will pull up the lead and walk-in metrics on a dealer by dealer basis.

AutoHook Mobile App Screens

Both Apple iOS and Android compatible versions have been released.  Future releases will bring additional functionality from the existing UI over to the mobile app. Choose your preferred app now by pressing one of the two graphics below.

AutoHook for iOS

AutoHook for Android OS

Is Your Customer List Safe from Employee Theft?

The notion of a dealership’s employees having ownership of the organization's customer lists or communications is a frightening one. The question of ownership of work product, email, and even actual customer lists is being called into question by to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies being adopted by many businesses, including auto dealerships. A 2010 US Supreme Court ruling declared 9-0 that employees are not entitled to privacy if they use an employer’s issued device. The ruling did not, however, establish ownership or privacy rights of employee owned devices accessing corporate data or systems. The implication of this ruling could mean that employers do not have rights or ownership to company data if it was accessed and stored locally on employee computers with the company’s permission.

"Data ownership and access to sensitive customer files should be a key concern for dealerships," says Erik Nachbahr, President and Founder of the Baltimore-based Helion Technologies, a managed information technology provider for auto dealerships."Many auto dealers encourage employees to access their corporate computer systems with employee owned laptops to help control costs.

While expense control is always important, this practice leaves dealerships vulnerable to unauthorized access or theft of customer lists or even financial data," says Nachbahr.

Given the murky nature of data ownership issues, dealerships should evaluate and clarify their BYOD device policies, recommends Nachbahr.

About the Author: Erik Nachbahr
 (LinkedIn), President, Helion Technologies www.heliontechnologies.com Visit Helion at Digital Dealer 12, Booth # 330

Polk to Discuss Passive Lead Scoring in March Webinar

Last month we wrote about passive vs. active lead scoring here on our blog. In this post David Metter explained how the practice of lead scoring was co-created with Polk and that while somewhat controversial, the practice of scoring leads is ultimately a smart choice for most dealerships. The part that is controversial is more about the idea of assigning a score to a lead for your sales reps to size up potential customers, and not so much about the importance of knowing the real potential of each lead coming in to your CRM. We agree that it does not behoove the dealership to know the score that each person has been assigned, after all, the score is only temporary. We do believe however that it is important to know each person's real potential to become a customer. Thus the practice of passive lead scoring was born.

To score leads, people coming in to your CRM are evaluated based on certain criteria using an algorithm that helps identify where about in the buying process a person might be. With passive lead scoring, an action is taken that is appropriate to their current situations as opposed to blanketing everyone with the same message.

This action is not a conscious or deliberate action that a sales rep takes because of the person's score, but an action that is automatic and unknown to the sales rep all together.

In our case, this action is an automated email offering the recipient an incentive for coming in for a test drive, something that a person with a low score is not likely to be interested in whereas someone with a higher score might be.

The result is that more qualified buyers appear in the showroom for your reps to work with, less time is spent courting people (or annoying people) that aren't ready for the showroom to begin with.

Lead Scoring Discussions Led by Polk

To talk about this important topic, we have invited our lead scoring partner Polk to lead discussions this month on the significance of lead scoring and the process that Polk goes through to score dealer leads. Representing Polk will be Senior Solutions Consultant Mark Pauze.

Since starting with Polk, Mark has worked closely with clients to understand their diverse business, research and analysis needs, developed solutions to meet those needs and directed teams to deliver customer solutions. He works with clients to help focus their consumer and industry intelligence efforts and develop integrated solutions that will address their needs. Mark has been focusing his efforts most recently on lead marketing at Polk and has worked with a wide range of customers on diverse lead marketing solutions.

Webinar Registration Link

A webinar will be held on Friday March 16 in our Advanced User series for auto dealers. To register, click the link below. For more information about the AutoHook Webinar Series, visit our post titled, AutoHook Webinar Training Coming in January.

Friday March 16 at 11:30am EST (For Dealers) - REGISTER HERE