Kershner's back to the dealer diary

[Jeff Kershner]

Bottom line - does this dealer have a line of site with all vendors and online resources?

They sure do. ME.

 

[BradyFerron]

They sure do. ME.

Game on! But what were they doing before you?

Brady

 

[Bruce Hartz]

"To some degree, I can't believe I'm typing this. It's SO elementary, yet wasn't being done at the level it needed to be."

Jeff, you are so right! I'm always shocked when I visit our competitor sites as to how bad their Used Car pics and descriptions are. I also take all of our Used Car pics!

Every day after 6 PM I shoot all the cars that came out of clean-up, I drive each of them to the shopping center next to us when the shade is just right against a big wall. This week Corporate made us switch to vAutos comment generator and it sucks big time, I can not believe how bad their comment tool is and now we are paying for bad comments??? Really!

I will be doing battle with them shortly to let me tune the tool and let me add important equipment and repairs to the vehicle comments.

Good to know we are on the same page and Good Luck even though I know you won't need it!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Game on! But what were they doing before you?

Brady

Trying to hire me back.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I found this interesting...

Brand Compliance. We all have to deal with this to some degree. Some Manufacturers worse than others with some being absolutely absurd. ...you know what I'm talking about.

Here's something new that I had never dealt with before - "Matchmaker Website Pricing Compliance"

Compliant Pricing for "Matchmaking" websites. Websites displaying estimated transaction pricing such as TRUECar, Edmunds, KBB, and similar are considered Matchmaker advertising websites and the disclosure of pricing on these website platforms is not 1to1 marketing. The intent for manufacturers to have compliant pricing rules (New inventory, not pre-owned) is to help prevent distressed advertising [online], particularly on websites like the ones mentioned. Dealers providing discounted pricing on 3rd party "matchmaker" websites must adhere to the monthly 3rd party pricing matrix.

Basically - the manufacturer sets price rules around how much the dealer is allowed to (up to) discount their New Vehicle Inventory for display or by quote on 3rd Party price driven websites.

...yet another rule around pricing, not that I'm totally onboard with the idea but it does make it easy when price quoting through "matchmaking" platforms while keeping all the dealers on the same page with pricing.

You have pricing rules from the manufacturer, now you have to manage it. Potentially across several sites depending how many you partner with. Some of the platforms offer features that allow you set bulk pricing rules by make/model/trim, but only for their site. What about the others you're signed up with?

Wait, doesn't Homenet have some sort of pricing function? YES. it. does. (dusting the cobwebs off my Homenet memory bank.)

The pricing matrix in Homenet is a real time saver and I'm glad I remembered it. It allows you to set up rules to automatically adjust your vehicle pricing. You can adjust prices by percentage, fixed amount, incentives, rebates or deduct amounts by mileage or age on specific inventory by the year/make/model/trim. When building out a price rule, you designate which field you want the adjusted price to be automatically populate. Homenet has 4 main pricing fields and 4 misc pricing fields, perfect for purposes like this.



Once you have your pricing rules build and set to automatically populate into one of the misc price fields, call Homenet support and have that misc pricing field override the selling price field in the inventory feed to that particular "matchmaking" website.

So glad I remembered this feature. We're currently signed up with several matchmaking websites, so it saves a quite some time each month.

 

[BHavican]

Once you have your pricing rules build and set to automatically populate into one of the misc price fields, call Homenet support and have that misc pricing field override the selling price field in the inventory feed to that particular "matchmaking" website.

Getting your inventory host to do the override is the big key in this because trying to get "matchmaking" sites to use a Misc field will drive you insane.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Getting your inventory host to do the override is the big key in this because trying to get "matchmaking" sites to use a Misc field will drive you insane.

Partnering with an Inventory management service that offers the flexibility and additional fields to execute on something like bulk pricing rules, is a HUGE key to efficiency .

I've witnessed a lot of dealers try and FAIL at moving from one inventory management service over to another, only to make an emergency return within a few days.

This usually fails when the dealer has been using a service like HomeNet for any length of time. The person that makes the decision to move is usually the GM/Principle/Owner; someone that doesn't actively use the program enough to know about ALL the data conversions, ALL the pricing rules, ALL the photo distribution rules, and ALL the inventory feeds that have been set up over the years. If you're not aware of these items, then you're not asking the questions you need to ask before even considering the move to a new provider.

What inventory management system are you using and why or what's your favorite features?
I started a separate discussion for this question. Please join us over here

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Since MBH is a smaller dealership and I have the ability to train and coach my sales team on a daily basis, they're all part of the "Internet Sales" department - as much as I hate to use that term.

Prior to my arrival, the CRM/Lead process and distribution was a bit more...micro managed. I get that. I've taken that approach and still would if the dealer landscape called for it. But with 5 sales people (two of which have been here since I was initially here over 10 years ago are still utilizing some of the processes I put into place back when,) all are just as willing to learn and adapt as any other. Because of th because of this, I've "loosened up" the CRM and assigned each sales rep as a BDC agent - allowing them additional access and abilities (and responsibilities.)

We are a cradle to grave floor. The better you perform and the more set goals/activities you achieve, the more opportunities you are rewarded. With that, comes daily one on one coaching and an open door to my office. The only dumb question is a question not asked, and believe me - it gets utilized.

Each day I review their work plans and active opportunities. If they're looking to save a deal, I'll help them out but more importantly I'm reviewing their follow-up and COMMUNICATIONS.

What are they saying/typing, how are they saying/typing it, are they employing those 4 Letters that will Sell them More Cars this Month? Are they effectively utilizing the CRM and all the tools at their disposal?

One thing I'm always sure of - my sales team have the best tools to get the job done. More importantly, they're constantly trained and coached on how to best utilize those tools. Utilizing the best tools, with best practices and processes breeds action, and with actions come more opportunities.

 

[Rob]

What inventory management system are you using and why or what's your favorite features?

As far as I'm concerned, there is only Homenet. The Data Conversions are almost endlessly flexible and powerful.

 

[MikeFitzpatrick]

The first week or so - back at the dealership.

If you were stepping back into a business management role at a new dealership - what's the very first thing you would dive into that would potentially have the most impact on increasing opportunities??

Let's if we're on the same boat.

Of course you have already said what it is you did. While reading through your posts I couldn't help but notice a common thread though. You rolled up your sleeves and went to work. You started weeding out the bells and whistles type products and made it very clear that the patent pending whichamacallit that is "blowing it up" at the dealer in another city isn't on your list of thing to add/do.

I think that this is great for dealers to see first hand that working on the basics like good merchandising and product/sales training is the most important thing they can do.

Looking forward to what comes next.