I love this! Every part of me says this is great, because instead of looking at it as a bad thing, I see it as an opportunity to prove to my customers their not getting screwed. Or when they go in the other dealership, they can see they are getting screwed, and they'll come to me instead. It happens now without the iPhone technology.

Those who see this as a bad thing are not embracing the power and advantage this holds for the dealer. Customers want to feel like they're not getting screwed, and the internet helps them avoid that.

So the more confidence my customer has in me that I'm not screwing them, the more trust they have in me, and the more gross I make! Sounds opposite to what most people think, doesn't it?

Our new car internet grosses are now higher than non-internet grosses. And it boils down to one simple thing-- show the customer you're being honest, and most of them don't care that you're making a profit. As long as it's a fair one.

The other customers expect to get screwed, and that's why they chew you down so much.

Gumiyo is blazing even more trails with this mobile search option.

Maybe I'm crazy on this topic???

The old school side of me sarcastically says "oh, that's just wonderful", while the new school side of me says "yep, we deserve that - we did it to ourselves"......how do we fix it?

The old school part of me sarcastically says "oh, that's just great" while the new school side of me says "yep, we deserve every bit of bad press - we did this to ourselves"......how do we fix it?

Jeff,

Your creative writing and ideas continue to move our industry in progressive and sometimes uncharted territory. Keep up the great work!

Tom

Where are all the Female Auto Sales Reps? They enjoy a distinct advantage, especially in our industry.

Makes sense to me.

Jeff,

You should start being the "Hot Booth Model" Not to shabby must I say!

I had to say it!

Well as a vendor at this year's NADA (represented by one of the pictures above) I can say that our ROI on "booth models" was high indeed. Katie and Meagan were more than just pretty faces as they sold almost as much product on their own as their male counterparts! "Booth Model" ROI might be good, by "Booth Model Sales Representative" is great!! Can't say enough about how great the girls did @ San Fran - they rock!

-Ben

Hey, free stuff rocks... and so do booth models. Probably the one reason I agreed to help Nissan with their booth at the auto show in years past was because of the hot booth models...

And dealers wonder why the vendors keep raising their prices...

Hey Jason,

That vendor is right on, if they are a considerable presence at the show (like Dealer.com, izmocars, or Joe Verde for example).

From NADA's "08 exibitor prospectus:"

"Booth space cost is $30 per square foot...Cost of space does not include the following:
rigging or machinery moving, unpacking,
erection or repacking of displays, utilities
(i.e., electrical, water, gas, compressed air,
telephone, booth decoration, furniture,
carpet). Exhibitors may order these services
from the official show contractor, Freeman." NOT TO MENTION BOOTH MODELS!!!

So for the smallest space, (you know the kind, with just a curtain and poster behind them) which is 10x10, the cost for the booth alone is $3000 for the weekend. Take a display like izmocars' probably closer to 1500-2000 square feet and the cost goes to $45,000-60,000 for the booth alone.

Also, the design and construction of the displays can be huge money...there is an entire industry dedicated to designing trade show displays. Those displays also need to be shipped, sometimes across the country, or even internationally (not cheap!). Don't forget about all the promotional tchotchkes, you know, things like frisbees, flashlights, t-shirts, pens, hand-sanitizers, calendars, etc. that almost EVERY vendor hands out to anybody with a "Dealer" or "Manager" badge!!!

Add the aforementioned costs, hotels for all the exhibiting employees (izmo is not a good example for this, since they are HQ'd in San Fran), travel, etc. and it becomes pretty apparent that some of these exhibitors need to do HUGE business while they are in town in order to justify the cost.

Just imagine what the Automakers like GM, Ford, and Toyota pay to be at NADA.

I had a vendor tell me it costs over 60k to have a booth!

I bet she is the second one from the bottom

Which one is Andrea?

Funny as it sounds it's quite true. I ran a booth last year at the SXSW conference, and even during slow traffic periods, I could generate more interest by having the models walk around the event than by waiting for passers-by to arrive.

Of course the booth next to us was being promo'd by a guy in a gorilla custome brandishing a large hypodermic needle... so I guess that might have driven people our way as well.

Ha Ha Ha! Jeff, that's hilarious!

Screw Checkered Flag - I'm hanging out with you next NADA.

Dude, you make me laugh! Great post. I'd like to see your giant gorilla ROI report next.

Hmmmm I wonder about having the "Booth Babe" as a "chat host" on the dealer website. Give the visitor a choice, "Booth Babe" "Booth Dude" as we have many female clients in the market now. Hmmmm.

Great idea Jeff, as always, you never know what ideas you pick up at these trade shows.

Hey Jeff!

I think you are onto something! I have to wonder though: How do you calculate the ROI on your trip to San Fran??? All those pictures are beginning to make me wonder how you had any time to get anything done (business-wise, of course...)!!!

Nice post Jeff.

I'm certain there's a direct correlation between the amount of 'clicks' on a booth model & their 'design.'

What about ROI on balloons? Do you have a formula for that?
Maybe I should put that under "some dealers just don't get it" thread?

The concept of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is actually out there. It's used by numerous large industries (healthcare, insurance, etc.) to be able to track and integrate customer information across multiple platforms. In the industries where data management is critical (insurance being a prime example), EDI is the needed "standard", plus a sequence of maps that permit data throughput to other related areas and ways to enforce access security.

However, what the industries did to make EDI happen was WORK TOGETHER. The key to really taking CRM, ILM, DMS and so on in the alphabet soup is to get the OEM's, dealers and vendors together and agree on a standard. Once that happens, you can take OEM Financial Services customers and seamlessly pass them to any CRM vendor when they come due, trigger a specific customer class, do the right follow up without duplicating it to an existing process in the dealer's own CRM work plan. You can more accurately pull histories, sales activity across all departments... the potential is huge and the tech is already there. Most vendors would just have to plug into the process by building their own translator to the EDI standard.

But I'm sure folks already have this idea somewhere. Microsoft .net is a concept that may be able to break the standards barrier or a collaboration between vendors, OEM's and dealers may make it happen. What I've seen though is that there is a strong sense of territorialism in some respects (ADP's data agreements come to mind), which would complicate making an EDI standard work, because one company wants to be tight-fisted and force clients and potential product partners alike to spend bigger bucks than they can afford to participate.

The insurance and healthcare EDI initiatives worked because everyone saw a common good for it, especially since a customer could travel from one provider to another and still need access to all their information.

Just my two cents. If the industry was willing to work together more, EDI and a standard could get done all too quickly, and allow a fairer playing field for all the vendors to compete in.

Thanks for reading.

We've recently switched CRM Systems. I can't believe this system doesn't integrate with the DMS. In other words -- if a salesperson doesn't enter/edit the client record correctly, there's no "safety net." CRM/SFA Rule #1 should deal with Integration: the system needs to work with existing core processes to make like easier -- help us be smarter -- don't put the pressure on the Sales Staff to be the ultimate record-keepers for the dealership.

ALSO -- Shawn Morse/Alex -- I work for a group with multiple franchises -- and just switched from a system that was customer-centric -- everyone in the same bucket (sure miss it!). The technology and the system has been around for a couple years -- I will respect Jeff's and Alex's wishes to not make this a commercial.

Alex
Your original question about having multiple competing franchises under your dealer group and wishing for a single client file is almost answered. VinSolutions is working towards this as we speak and we will be rolling it out in the near future. One record per customer accross the entire group will certainly make life easier for dealer groups. It has to be a bad thing when you are getting worked on ACV against another guy in your group! I will let you know when it is complete if you care to take a look.

Sandy - I got a bounceback on the email I just sent you, so I left a message with Mario at your Ford Store.

Sandy - That is a conversation over the phone. Way too much to post. All good stuff though! I am sending you an email with my contact info.