David Kain Internet Wisdom

Hopefully you have a very effective lead handling process in place, which helps you gain a lot of appointments and vehicle sales. Like a lot of people I tend to get complacent when processes are working well and do not take the time to review them to ensure everything is working at peak capacity. This tends to resolve itself over time because a client will alert me of a letdown and I will adjust and get back on track. Wouldnt it be great to make the adjustments before it frustrates someone, especially before it frustrates a customer? Here are a few ideas you might want to consider so you can proactive instead of reactive.

1. Review your current process step by step.

The old statement its the way weve always done it is very prevalent in business and you have a chance to validate whether doing it that way is still valid. Many dealerships have steps in their process that have never worked and yet they have their staff repeat them with each prospect. Please look at each action and ask yourself if they generate the desired result and if the answer is no, adjust it, measure it at a point in the future and repeat this until you have the best possible results.
2. Make sure your technology supports your process before you add more staff.

Sometimes we have a tendency to want to hire more people when our task list becomes unmanageable. This is expensive and sometimes creates more work instead of less work for Internet and BDC Managers. Many of the items your team does each day in the lead handling process can be automated. This is especially important as lead ages and you want to spend more time on the fresh prospects. You dont ever want to give up on a prospect but given the reality of time constraints it is unrealistic to think you can give the same energy and effort to every prospect. To ensure every prospect gets contacted you may want to explore technologies that can keep communicating with your prospects in an automated fashion until they either respond or unsubscribe. This is a great time saver and when used with well-crafted emails they seem like personally written communications.

3. Involve your team and develop process improvement experts.

Sometimes as the boss you may tend to think it is always your responsibility to improve processes. This can lead to a great deal of frustration for you and your team. Be considerate of the talent within your team and charge them with the responsibility to come up with ideas for process improvement. A simple request to ask them to review their actions and make suggestions for improvement will get the ball rolling. Be prepared to take some risks but ultimately you will find that this open idea concept works great and really pushes innovation. Imagine the benefit of having a whole team of process improvement experts trained under your guidance to always be on the lookout for ways to improve. Of course, it is always a good idea to offer a nice reward if their ideas significantly improve results.

4. Consider doing things your competition doesnt do.

The automotive industry in general tends to be very inwardly focused as we are constantly looking at our competition and duplicating what they do even if we have no proof it works. I encourage you to look outside the industry and see what leading Internet retailers are doing that you can weave into your process. This will give you a new stream of ideas and allow you to do things your competition may not consider. Until of course, they start following the new leader, you!

5. Test it, make sure it works and then put in play.

With new ideas it is always best to run it parallel to your current process so you can make sure you validate that it works without risking any letdown from the switchover. By running the new actions side by side on every other lead you can safely test them and mitigate the risk that the new idea is going to be an issue.

The Bottom Line:
Dont be complacent, be innovative, be flexible and youll keep leading the market. If you have any questions I would be glad to help just ask.

Technorati Tags: lead handling process, managing leads, tips on leads

Congratulations to the new group of Internet managers out there! You are embarking on an exciting adventure that will allow you to increase your income by serving the fastest growing segment in the automotive marketplace. Be excited about the opportunity and bring a lot of energy to the role. Regardless of what situation you walked into, there are some important first steps you should take to ensure you have solid success now and in the future. Take these five steps first and you will set the stage for good results.

1. Identify Expectations
Of course you have your own expectations and would likely not have accepted the job if you did not feel you could improve your income and position within the dealership. However, it is equally important to find out what your management team expects from the department. Ask them how they will measure the department results and be sure to obtain objective goals that you feel you can reach. It is important that you understand what actions are necessary to achieve the goals and how management will work with you to support your efforts.

2. Identify Resources
Todays progressive Internet departments should have the following tools in place to effectively manage leads and allow your Internet sales team the flexibility to work with customers both in and away from their office.

PC Every person working with Internet leads should have individual access to a computer so he or she can actively manage leads.
-Lead management tool An effective lead management tool keeps you organized and allows you to manage large volumes of leads and market to your customers long-term.
-Cell phone In order to fully serve the Internet customer you will need a cell phone so customers can contact you when you are away from your desk.

-Two-way pager An email pager allows you to respond any place anytime, which will likely exceed your customers expectations and position your dealership to sell the customer first.

-Leads There are many sources of leads, and your dealership likely has leads coming in from a variety of sources already.

Keep in mind that you will receive leads by email and by phone depending on your listings. Both types are vital to your operation and it is important that your team be the recipient of the emails and the calls related to the Internet. Your lead management tool will be the best source for identifying your lead sources. A good rule of thumb is to generate 80 to 100 leads for each full-time Internet sales person if they work the deals from lead inception to vehicle delivery and to generate 150 to 200 leads for full-time BDC/CRC or call center team member if they set appointments for the dealership sales team.

Lead Sources

-Dealership website leads - www.yourdealership.com
-Manufacturer leads - FordDirect.com, BuyaToyota.com, GMBuyPower.com, etc.
-Third-party leads — Dealix.com, AutoUSA.com, Autobytel.com, etc.
-Online classified leads - AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, AutoExtra.com, etc.
-Online Auctions - eBay.com, Overstock.com, etc.

3. Outline a Lead Handling Process

There are a lot of different patterns for managing leads, and most of them work if you implement them consistently. Draw a simple process diagram on a sheet of paper that identifies the steps to take and who should take them to complete the action within your department when a new lead arrives. Be specific and carry it out to the fullest detail possible.

4. Learn Your Products

Internet customers have easy access to information about their choice of vehicles and they typically know a great deal about their choices. As a result, they tend to judge the dealership person they communicate with on a more critical basis if they cannot effectively answer questions about their products. To meet Internet customers expectations it is important that you ensure that each person on your team is fully committed to learning about the products you represent.

New Inventory

Have your team become product certified by the manufacturer and sharpen their skills with product presentations by the dealership sales team. Test drive the products so they can learn about the unique features and benefits.

Used Inventory

Do a daily inventory walk, test drive new arrivals and ask the sales person that traded for the vehicle to tell you about the history so you can bring the vehicle to life for the customer.

5. Walk in Your Customers Shoes

In order to understand what your customer expects from your Internet department it is important that each Internet team member visit the sites where your customer submits leads. This will allow them to experience first hand what messages your customer receives while on the site and after they submit the leads. This will be an eye opening experience and will tell you a great deal of how customers are influenced by the lead submission path they take. You will also understand why customers are a little surprised when a dealership emails or calls them after they submit a lead.

There is plenty more to learn, but taking these first five steps will give you a head start and allow you to generate sales this week!

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Technorati Tags: Internet Managers, managing leads, tips to managing success