Are you stealing email templates?

An alarming trend has arisen on the Internet side of automotive sales and it is called "Email Template Theft" (ETT for short). This may be happening to your dealerships Internet sales team right now or your team could even be the guilty party.

Have you ever received an Internet lead who never responded and just seemed downright suspicious?

Could these leads have been submitted by your local competition?

As an Internet Director, it certainly happened to me. This was confirmed after time had passed when I shopped my competition then noticed startling similarities between their email templates and that of my own.

At first I was furious to the point that I wanted to start a blog and call them out online for all the Internet shopping world to see. Furious to the point that I wanted to purchase a ninja suit then sneak on to their lot during the middle of the night and put my dealership's license plate frames on all of their cars.

Unfortunately, neither of these options would have helped the situation or my own credibility. It took a while (meaning a few days in the car business) to start asking myself the questions that would help me realize why this happened. Does "ETT" happen to everyone? Are my email templates simply that amazing or is someone out there just that lazy?

Truth be told, it was most likely the latter.

As it is today, the Internet sales side of the car business is evolving at a rapid pace. My best guess was that someone having never sold cars online was put in charge of running an Internet department or BDC in my market and they did what they had to do to get started, fake it until they made it.

After serving on the vendor side with a CRM provider it is sad to say the same activity is witnessed. We are routinely asked by dealership prospects to provide "best practices" from our top performing stores.

"Can't you just copy the email templates and phone call scripts from [so and so] and put them into our account? We will change the name and everything…"

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Make no mistake that this is not good for you and it is certainly not helping your customers choose where to purchase a vehicle.

Sales 101 teaches us to set ourselves apart. When an Internet shopper submits a lead and the onslaught of emails they receive back are the same or similar enough to be perceived as the same, nobody wins. In fact, more harm is done than good.

In the age of price shopping and the demand for quick digital price quotes there are few options to retain anything resembling gross profit on the deal. We must build value, set ourselves apart and earn the gross we desire by allowing the customer to feel special and unique. How do we accomplish this?

First, stop using auto response emails. During the operating hours at the dealership we need to send personalized initial responses, period. These responses should not read "We have received your request and someone will be getting back to you soon." After 15 or 30 minutes with no response, "soon" has lost it's creditability and so has your store. If you were the customer in that situation your next question would  likely be about the price of the vehicle.

Second, tell your personal story and that of the dealership through the messaging in your emails. Do not be afraid to get personal. For your customers that eventually do buy, you will likely know much about their personal life so why not break the ice online first? We do it in person and should be able to pull it off digitally with strong personalized emails.

If you have a family, talk about your family. "This minivan has enough space in the back that even my 6 kids could fit with all their daily belongings." "Mr. Customer, I understand that you are on a budget and my family is as well. It is important to think about the true cost of ownership over time with the next vehicle you purchase and I am here to help you understand what that entails."

The same goes for the dealership. Mention how long you have or have not been in business. Focus the spotlight on your store's distinct advantages and leverage them to earn an appointment.

Third, use video of yourself, the dealership and the vehicle. Take the time to record something for each customer since they will appreciate it even if they never tell you. When a shopper sees that you are dedicating your time to them specifically, even before they have entered the store, things will work in your favor.

So let us all put an end to ETT (Email Template Theft)!

Challenge yourself to revisit your email templates. Use every ounce of creativity that you have to rebuild them and don't hesitate to ask for help. Your customers will thank you… monetarily.

Questions:

Have you had your email templates stolen?

What Email Templates do you see dealers using over and over - and find annoying?

Do you believe in using email templates?

As a 19 year representative of the "Vendor Community" and long time attendee of the various Digital Auto Conferences, it was refreshing to experience a show from the retail dealership perspective.

As the newly appointed Digital Marketing, Internet and BDC Director of a large Western Lexus Dealer, I was hoping to fully immerse myself into the newest plug and play gadgetry and techology-assuming I would be returning to So Cal with all sorts of new things to tinker with and install. Luckily for my Dealership's bottom line, I didn't find anything in the conference which truly "WOWED ME". I did however find some complimentary pieces and also listened to some excellent speakers of which I'd like to discuss and write about for DealerRefresh...

Thursday:
The opening speaker for AutoCon was Sean Stapleton of Vin Solutions. Sean spoke about Integration and reaching people at the right time with the right message relevant to their behaviors. Their new Wheel Solution offering one universal log in and dashboard for everybody in the Dealership is getting much closer to fruition. It will be interesting to see how much money Auto Trader (which now owns Vin Solutions) puts into R&D to continue to develop and fine tune their software. Some of the take home quotes from Sean "Mass Media has Lost It's Mass" and "Will you be able to Dynamically Change Messaging and Content based off your Prospects and Customers Real Time Behavior"

After the opening speech my GM and I attended the 10AM Workshop given by Ralph Paglia of ADM on Digital Marketing and where it's going.  Ralph is a notable thought leader in our business and I was hoping to get a good sense of where the next evolution was going to come. Ralph's message was excellent but I thought he spent a bit too much time talking about the past and how we got to where we are now. You will always learn or take away something from a Ralph discussion. His take home quotes "Measurement must equate to Activity and ultimately Drive Action" and the most important thing to any Dealership over the next couple of years was "Social Relevancy and Improving and Managing your Online Reputation".

Up next at 11:45AM was Jerry Thibeau of Phone Ninjas and his workshop Putting Dealer's Phone Processes to the Test. Both my GM and I were really impressed with Jerry's phone skill teaching and process. He actually secret shopped our store in front of the entire class and one of my ISM's held up quite well as Jerry tried to break him down piece by piece. We're going to have Jerry out for a two day training seminar at the end of the month.

I'm blown away at how many Dealers today still don't understand how important phone skills are as the chief pillar in the architecture of your Digital Dealership. It's a fact 7 out of 10 walk in's have actually been online shopping your store thru a variety of pathways (3rd Party Sites, OEM sites and of course your own site). If you don't have a well constructed phone answering process (whether via a virtual BDC, BDC or Professional In store Operators)to handle these same online shopper's inquiries to achieve the ultimate goal of SHOWN APPOINTMENTS- your chance at remaining viable is nominal at best.

Friday:
The last session we attended was Marc McGurren of PCG Consulting's workshop A General Managers Guide to Your BDC, Internet and Digital Marketing Dept. Marc is a fresh speaker who really engages his audience making most of the class interactive.  It was very well attended and obvious many Dealer's were in the room looking for a "Secret Sauce" or "World Beating Strategy" to take their store to the next level.

The class was unique and interesting because it was the first time I could genuinely see the frustration, confusion and disconnect so many dealers have with regard to managing a well run BDC and Marketing Dept. Wearing my vendor cap and watching and listening intently, I was BLOWN AWAY by Dealers questions and comments about whether they should be using Auto Trader or Cars.com etc. It's never been more clear to me the need for intelligent, informed and well trained people needed in the Digital Marketing, BDC and Internet Depts across Dealerships in North America.

Marc offered his informed opinions and recommended various solutions but nothing any progressive and forward thinking dealer isn't likely already using or has contemplated using. He does have a slick spread sheet which calculates and fully customizes ROI for every part of the Dealership's bottom line.  I have seen many already out there similar - but if your store isn't using one of these, you should be.

Summary:
There was a time where I was offering content via my own Driving Sales Blog "Confessions of a Digital Car Guy" on a semi monthly basis from 2008 thru late 2009. As an often published writer on many of the Digital Marketing magazines/sites in their infancy, I lost my passion for writing about the Digital Car Business because of slow adoption rates and my personal frustration with trying to engage and help dealers get better. After attending this show I can honestly say my writers block has been lifted and my enthusiasm for the space has returned.

There are a lot of supremely sharp and well intentioned vendor folks in the space now. They are trusted resources for Dealers and many of them are inexpensive with regard to their platforms and how they improve and build efficiencies inside dealerships. Many of them are former dealers or dealership personnel themselves and "get it" in regards to what is necessary and utilitarian inside a modern day store. But I must digress. There is still a lot of room to improve and clearly work to be done.

If your Dealership does not employ a person who has an accomplished Digital Marketing and or Media Background to help guide or run your Internet, BDC and specifically your Digital Marketing Dept...you should do everything in your power to find, even hunt down such a person and pay them what is necessary to get your store on the right track.

In this very crazy economy where margins are dynamically being adjusted, it probably wouldn't be hard for your store to woo one of your sharpest and impassioned vendors into coming aboard. You should consider it seriously as the knowledge these people often possess is exactly what is needed to modernize the parts of your store you struggle the most with.

In closing, I wanted to add what I thought was an "Optimal Front and Back End Marketing Strategy" to digitally evolve over the next 12-16 months.

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  • Fully Optimized & Intelligent Website
    
  • Database Marketing (Sales and Service preferably thru an intelligent and fully DMS integrated CRM)-
    
  • SE0-SEM
    
  • New/Used Inventory Push to the Endemics and Classified Sites
    
  • HookLogic (Lead Intelligence to increase shows)
    
  • Building and/or Growing an E-Commerce Store- for Parts and Service

Did you attend AutoCon 2012?
If so - what did you think? I would love to hear from you in the comments.