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The Eureka! Link

Drew,

If every dealer had a good CRM system, analytics that tracked form conversions by referrers on their website, and incentivized their staff to interview for the proper ad source this whole article would be pointless. That is where this all came from.

If we want to start pointing fingers...

Yes, it is really the dealer's lack of awareness that he should be looking at this stuff that creates this situation. Yes, it is the vendor's faulty providing of the right tracking metrics that creates this situation. Yes, it is Autotrader & Cars.com's pricing and non-transparency that has added to this situation.

However...

It sounds like Autotrader is finally adding "BOB" (Big Orange Button) to help alleviate some of this. I bet Cars.com will not be far behind.
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The Eureka! Link

DrewAment
Dont know where all this came from. Dont know what you are all on. Dont know what half of you are saying. Dont know what this article was origianlly about.

Analytics on a couple dealers show about 165 clicks to dealer site from AutoTrader.com - with a conversion rate (not including phone calls) of 16%. IMO, this means the dealer is getting 16 more leads a month. In the CRM they show as dealer website, shouldn't they be sourced as ATC? But then again, what made them convert? Dealer site or ATC?
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The Eureka! Link

D
Thank You Alex;

At any dealership, the conversation that ultimately results in a transaction is between a consultant and a consumer, right?

And, at AT and Cars, the primary objective is to get the dealers inventory/offering in front of the consumer via online ads - and start the conversation, right?

Both of these have 'the conversation' as the common point of value.

Through the consultant (sales person), AT and Cars could manage these conversations not only from start, but throughout the entire life cycles of consumers' multiple auto purchases. This multiplicity is key.

In auto retail, Alex, as you understand, each year there is a particular number of units sold that defines the overall success of 'our industry'. Why not look at AT and Cars based upon a percentage of this number? Why not ask Chip and Mr. Golub, "what percentage of the total global market do you expect to DELIVER using your products?"

Based upon the percentage, challenge these companies to make their services into transaction-based offerings. So, if AT and Cars say they are responsible for 25% of all auto retail transactions globally, dealers who run the business that hire AT and Cars can assign a specific value to their service offerings.

The consultants (sales persons) responsible for conducting these transactions represent the new client channel for AT and Cars, if they are to come to market with a transaction-based offering.

So, once again, AT and Cars need to offer a service to the consultants that leverages the value of the conversations kept with the consumers
and attach to it a transaction-based revenue model.

Let me know Alex, if this is any clearer. Thanks champion!
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The Eureka! Link

I am on vacation, I return March 10th.

Sales inquiries (software/operation/marketing)
---Hold until April 10th and re-send.

Advertising offers
---send to our ad agency, email to:agency@usedcaraking.com

Billing Matters
---can sent to lori.trichilo@usedcarking.com

Issues needing a Store Manager:

cicero.managers@usedcarking.com
(manager: DJ Mollica & asst. manager: Fran Cardinal)

cortland.managers@usedcarking.com
(manager: Peter Detor and asst manager: Randy Sasso)

chitt.managers@usedcarking.com
(manager: Rob Curcio & asst manager: Bob Cziesler)

VERY Important issues that can't wait until I return, should be sent to Todd Caputo's attention at: info@usedcarking.com
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The Eureka! Link

D
Thanks Joe;

Gotta love the synthesis of thought. It made us an alphabet, a Bible and even cars (and God knows automobiles have come a long way, baybee!).

Dealers don't sell cars. They do run businesses where cars are sold (hopefully).

At least 90% of auto retail customers never even meet the dealer from whom's business their auto is purchased. But, in an age when socialization is important already, and becoming vastly more important each day, this is the disconnect.

A consumer is willing to buy a car from (you all know this...) 'someone they believe, like, and trust'. Almost always, this is a consultant they meet as a professional representative of the dealer.

All I am saying here is, AT and Cars would do well to introduce themselves to these same professional representatives at the dealers they currently serve. It would mean they (AT and Cars) begin to leverage a portion of the industry sector that is growing vs. shrinking - units are up almost 40% while dealerships are down grossly more.

Its easy! Afterall, I am not that damn smart. Remember, I began this journey as 'just a sales guy'. Condescending remarks are condiments for my coffee. I just leave them where they are...
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The Eureka! Link

D
Excellent Wine Brian;

Alright, here it is plain and simple.

Capture 'the handshake', capture the ROI.

Who handles the handshake? Consultants, for over 120 years. If AT and Cars are to survive an Information Age zeitgeist shift, then they must Stop Selling Subscriptions, and Start Selling Results.

Easy enough, I think to enjoy with your wine - you can call this "cheese".

And, call me tomorrow champion.
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The Eureka! Link

D
Okay Champions!

Joe you are almost there, president! However, the idea that a consumer is satisfied with only the 'price discovery' is a farce. For many dealers who have survived a turbulent transitional era in automotive retail spaces (and for some who have not...), the idea that each and every auto deal stands on its own merit has been established.

At Auto Buyer Consultants, my company down here right in Atlanta, GA, I have been working through an idea I shared with Chip and the crew at AT many years back - let's call it '04 or '05 when they came up with the "create your dealership on our website" concept. It is called "Active Communicating", and it has tremendous scope, so I am challenging myself here to keep it focused on your synthesis of thought, Joe.

Active Communicating will work something like this for auto retail present.

'A Handshake' is the currency of an Information Age (not Internet Age, Joe) wherein the commerce is 'Socialization' and the commodity 'Information'.

At the root of the problem preventing AT and Cars from being able to optimize their current value propositions (and the Revenue Models attached to them) is they are in the capsule of an 'advertising age' - no pun intended.

You see, Joe, advertising is becoming obsolete each and every day. It has been surpassed in an Information Age by ACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS. When I recognized these things, I began to build out the first auto retail platform that targets 'consultants' - the top 20% to 25% of auto retail professional sales consultants, that is. I recognized the value proposition the consumer seeks has always been dependent upon a conversation between these two parties - 'the consultant' and 'the consumer'.

So, (stay focused, Dee) the key to auto retail future is to remove as many unnecessary layers between these two as possible, and to initiate the handshake as early as possible.

At AT and Cars, the handshake has yet to be identified as the 'Currency' of an Information Age, and they therefore offer a subscription-based value proposition to dealers (both on the verge of obsolescence, today) that ignores the value of the actual transaction.

If these vendors you cry out to for ROI are to REALLY introduce something, then it should be a product based upon "Active Communicating" which harnesses the valuable conversation between the two most essential components of any auto retail transaction. They would harness the manpower of the dealer clients they currently struggle to keep on their subscriber lists by leveraging a transaction-based proposition to the professional consultants responsible for managing the conversations and handshakes that are the true ROI.

Give me a call if I got off focus, champion. I think I brought it home well, though.
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The Eureka! Link

Would auto dealers be willing to pay on a CPC type model in order to get the click through for that vehicle? Without something like that Autotrader, and the like, would be losing their lead information.

If there are too many unanswered questions people may need to look at a few different ways to resolve this too. Often times you'll see marketing information where dealers have an opportunity to answer some of the questions such as the vehicles comments. Granted you can't put in a lot of the stuff you like and stay within the guide of the aggregater but folks have to learn to wisely, and creatively use the space they have to answer some of those questions themselves.
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The Eureka! Link

joe.pistell
Mr. Perry and Mr. Golub, if I may speak for the dealer body,  it’s well known that we all are upset about the high costs of advertising in classified sites like AutoTrader.com and Cars.com, but, it’s not the costs of the services, it’s the lack of visibility to your shoppers! Gentlemen, this is the Internet Age, even newspapers give us coupons for shoppers to submit. Why in the world have you not built your system to give shoppers tools to REWARD both shopper and dealer? (aka lead generating tools) Please help us create ROI!

The potential for lead generating opportunities are literally everywhere on your sites!  Today, I’d like to focus on just one opportunity... I’ll nickname it “The Eureka! Link.”  Let’s go find it!

Is there a moment in Classified Shopping that splits the casual car shopper from the highly motivated shopper?   My “Uncle Joe” marketing instincts are telling me yes, and if I’m right, it’s got win-win written all over it.  First, some back ground…

Shopping on the web is now 2nd nature for many of us.  Whether it is travel, real estate, automobiles or appliances, the mechanics for shopping a high-ticket purchase is almost the same for every industry.

Here are the steps:

  1. research for products to fill the need
  2. price discovery on that product
  3. possibly communication beforehand
  4. the transaction itself

IN THAT ORDER.  If this makes sense to you, here is the simple path to a merchants door.  Research, Price Discovery, Transaction.

I want to focus on the “price discovery” stage of shopping, and establish it as a CORNETSTONE in the shopper’s Internet journey.

Here’s an example to clarify my point:
Say you’re planning a vacation; you’ve got the “product selection” narrowed down to Aruba, but, you’re not ruling out Bermuda. You need a finalist.  It’s time to compare costs between the two destinations.  You compare costs with the “price discovery” tools and now you’re down to one!  We’ve all done it right?  Imagine how frustrated you’d be if there was No Expedia, No Orbitz or No Kayak.  I say that “Price Discovery” sites are a critical part of decision making process.  There’s no denying it, “price discovery” tools are at the center of internet shopping!

How does this apply to car shopping? “I want to fly to Boston on the 3rd, find the best prices, but I can’t arrive later than noon”, sounds the same as “I need a SUV that seats 7, with AWD, a good price and less than 30k miles”.

Shopping behavior is shopping behavior, regardless of industry.  It’s the same mental drill down process.  It’s a TASK BASED PROCESS called “Shopping.”
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Ok, we’ve established that the steps of internet shopping are: Research, Price Discovery, Transaction, then lets side step out of vacation shopping and into automobile shopping.   We have Research, Price Discovery, Transaction, now it’s time to put names on them:

Research = Edmunds, KBB, OEM, etc..
Price Discovery = Cars.com, AutoTrader.com, etc…
Transaction =  DEALER'S WEB SITE

Ok, it all fits!  Where to next?

In the travel biz, the Kayak.com shopper can execute the transaction right at Kayak.  In the automobile biz, the shopper is ready for the “transaction” but, as we all know so well… the auto shopper vanishes….  WHY?  Because there are a lot of questions unanswered.

We know from AutoTrader/Polk research that the typical car shopper will spend MANY hours inside the classified sites.   They’ve invested time and energy into drilling thru classified pages, finding the best choice.  The auto shopper who is ready to buy has to visit the dealer(s) in person.  They use the “price discovery” tool to drill the list of many choices to a small list. What makes Auto Industry different from the Airline industry is the Auto shopper can’t buy online.  There are too many unanswered questions.  Where do they go to find more answers?  THE DEALER'S WEBSITE.

The “Eureka Link” is the link to the dealer’s home page.
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Where Will Your Next Sales Manager Come From?

I am chiming in a little late. I have to say that this was a great read. I cannot wait to see what kind of General Managers we will have running dealerships in 10 years. I still see some of the same old school tactics being used in some stores while others are embracing change. It is a never ending battle to get people to change their thought process. It will be great to see internet managers become properly trained desk people.

@Jeff Collins, the reason why more people are not on these forums is because they a) don't know or b) don't care

-I discovered this site 5 years ago when I started searching "internet sales training or "internet sales advice". Now I am a proud member of the forum. I even wrote an article on here before. I am thinking it is time to write another one soon.
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