How Is Your Internet Department Setup?

[joe.pistell]

Joe, there are pros and cons to both setups but from my experience, if you can find the right people, having the ISC onsight works best and offers some nice advantages.

Out of sight out of mind. The key is the relationship not just with the customer but also with management. When the ISC/BDC is off site it becomes just that..the ISC/BDC department and not so much part of the "TEAM". When the ISC is scheduling appointments for the sales managers and closely working with them, a relationship comes about. Too many times would I see the off site fail due to not having total buy-in from the dealer and management.

As you pointed out - the "hand-off" with the off site ISC can be a tricky situation and when the communication is lacking, it becomes a he said / she said. Too many times, a customer builds a relationship with the initial person of contact and seeing that friendly face when they arrive can make all the difference as they are introduced to a sales manager. A simple "thank you for coming in, let me introduce you to my sales manager - can I get you something to drink?" can go along way in getting the customer feeling comfortable. This is something you don't get with an off site ISC.

Off site ISC vs NO ISC - Give me the off site and I'll make it work.

If you go Off Site - it's imperative that your team make frequent trips to the dealer and sits in on meetings to help establish rapport between the 2 departments. Appointments MUST be scheduled for the managers (this goes for onsite and off).

How many leads a month? I would keep it to around 150-200.

For shit and giggles and example purposes only...

150 this month
- 15 to 20 sales average
- 30 non buyers / bogus
- 10-20 bought elsewhere
70 still remaining to be worked

150 next month
- 15 to 20 sales average
- 30 non buyers / bogus
- 10-20 bought elsewhere
70 still remaining to be worked

You now have 140 from the previous months (estimating) and another month about to start.

This all depends on your long term follow-up process as well.

GREAT INFO JK!

TY

 

[ajholland]

Joe, there are pros and cons to both setups but from my experience, if you can find the right people, having the ISC onsight works best and offers some nice advantages.

Out of sight out of mind. The key is the relationship not just with the customer but also with management. When the ISC/BDC is off site it becomes just that..the ISC/BDC department and not so much part of the "TEAM". When the ISC is scheduling appointments for the sales managers and closely working with them, a relationship comes about. Too many times would I see the off site fail due to not having total buy-in from the dealer and management.

As you pointed out - the "hand-off" with the off site ISC can be a tricky situation and when the communication is lacking, it becomes a he said / she said. Too many times, a customer builds a relationship with the initial person of contact and seeing that friendly face when they arrive can make all the difference as they are introduced to a sales manager. A simple "thank you for coming in, let me introduce you to my sales manager - can I get you something to drink?" can go along way in getting the customer feeling comfortable. This is something you don't get with an off site ISC.

Off site ISC vs NO ISC - Give me the off site and I'll make it work.

If you go Off Site - it's imperative that your team make frequent trips to the dealer and sits in on meetings to help establish rapport between the 2 departments. Appointments MUST be scheduled for the managers (this goes for onsite and off).

How many leads a month? I would keep it to around 150-200.

For shit and giggles and example purposes only...

150 this month
- 15 to 20 sales average
- 30 non buyers / bogus
- 10-20 bought elsewhere
70 still remaining to be worked

150 next month
- 15 to 20 sales average
- 30 non buyers / bogus
- 10-20 bought elsewhere
70 still remaining to be worked

You now have 140 from the previous months (estimating) and another month about to start.

This all depends on your long term follow-up process as well.

Just curious, why do you feel it is so important to set the appt. for Sales Managers rather than the Consultants at each store? We currently go on a rotation and know what day each of them has off.

 

[danoneil]

I'm looking for some feedback or advice from anyone regarding the structure of your Internet Departments or thoughts on mine. I have 6 locations, 1 of which is about 30 miles from all of the rest. When I started we had 1-2 Consultants at each store who worked the floor and serviced internet leads when they weren't needed on the floor. Phone tracking was non-existent except for me listening to every call every month.
We then moved to have 2 Internet Sales Coordinators handling all of the incoming internet produced phone ups and leads. Their goal is to answer, follow up, and set appointments for Sales Consultants at each location. At this point, I am not convinced this model is working. It just doesn't seem efficient.
If anyone has a model that they have found works really well for a similar size dealer group I would really be interested in hearing about.

Thanks everyone!

We went to 2 separate ISM's for our Honda store in March of 2009. Since the change was made, internet sales have increased 50%. Quicker response time & better short/long term follow up. More salespeople on the floor. When a internet leads come in, whoever greets them, gets them. If we a ISM takes a deposit, the sales manager will assign to a salesperson of their choice (someone who is scheduled when the customer is scheduled to come in). ISM's do not show , demo or delivery vehicles. We average a little over 500 leads a month.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Just curious, why do you feel it is so important to set the appt. for Sales Managers rather than the Consultants at each store? We currently go on a rotation and know what day each of them has off.

Aaron,

It just like in baseball, do you want your 170 average batter getting more at bats than your 380 batter?

This way your managers can control who they give the customer to and thus you increase your chances of selling the customer.

Things to consider when handling out leads.

1. Match personality types. Managers should be able to access this.
2. Customer comes in looking at XYZ car, give them to the rep who does the best XYZ presentation.
3. When in doubt, give it to the guy/gal who has the best closing percentage. Of course you would need to be tracking that. A lot of dealerships think they have a guy/gal that is their number one guy/gal, but when you look closely at the number of ups in relation to sold units, he's/she's usually the worst closer. He/she just sells a lot due to the fact that he/she is an up hog.

Hope that helps! Call me anytime.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Just curious, why do you feel it is so important to set the appt. for Sales Managers rather than the Consultants at each store? We currently go on a rotation and know what day each of them has off.

Looks like Jerry had already provided some great answers and feedback to your question Aaron.

Anytime the sales manager is introduced to the potential customer early in the process, your chances of closing is greatly increased.

I'll add one more and one easily overlooked. Let's not forget we are dealing with people so it depends on the people you have and how you have your process and department set up. Many times your lSC / appointment setters will start to favor certain sales people, friendships comes about and favoritism can set in. This can eventually turn into confussion, negativity and a mess. Schedule the appointments for the sales manager and you remove this possibility.

 

[ajholland]

Does anyone use any special internet coupons to try to capture the internet shopper who was just planning on stopping in? Would you offer it on the website, autoresponder, etc?

We were thinking about offering a free car wash/vacuum for anyone who brings it in and takes a test drive. We would offer an additional $10-20 gift card for anyone who actually schedules a test drives.

I know right now we are sourcing about 1/2 of what we actually are generating on the internet and I want to raise that number up!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Aaron, I have something that works VERY well for me. It's on the lines of what you are referring to here. If you are interested, PM me and we can discuss.

 

[Carey_PA]

Hi,

I'm Carey the one Jerry and that other gentleman mentioned (thanks for the mention by the way )

Anyway, I wanted to say that our internet department is set up whereas myself and Tom take all internet sales calls and email leads, etc. And we set the appointments.

We then send all appointments to the managers (either used or new) and they distribute the appointmentm to the sales rep that is "UP" at the time the appointment comes in.

Seems to be working. And as the other gentleman mentioned, I have zero car experience, and I think things are going fairly well.

At this point this month, we (meaning the internet department..Tom and I) are responsible for 50% of our dealerships sales. Grant it we have some more days left so I don't know if that's hwo the month will end, but we're definitely beating the past 2 months (and all of the past months they had an internet department before we got here.)

Btw, Tom and I started June 21st of this year.