Pay for photographer?

[eddyshaf]

Wow - what an excellent thread! Thanks to all for the great ideas...I particularly like the one using freelance photographers - awesome!

My personal opinion is that this should be a full time position which encompasses far more than just taking photos of pre-owned inventory. Keep in mind that I have not been able to sell this idea to my own management yet...

For something like $14-$18 per hour you should be able to have Pre-Owned Photos, Vehicle Descriptions, Actual Walk Around Videos, New Car Photos, New Car Vehicle Descriptions and more. If there was any available spare time this person could easily contribute to your social media efforts etc... The job title I envision is "Interactive (Online) Vehicle Merchandising Manager"

 

[yagoparamo]

Eddy,

Problem is--if you can find someone to do all that stuff for $14 he/she will be smart/driven enough to either learn sales, or to look for something else with in 6 motnhs to a year. Genereally speaking, we tend to forget that the photo taking and comment writing process are as boring and tedious as a job can get. When I started my company 10 years ago I took the photos, and after the 60th Corolla I couln't handle more Toyotas...

 

[joe.pistell]

...My personal opinion is that this should be a full time position which encompasses far more than just taking photos of pre-owned inventory. Keep in mind that I have not been able to sell this idea to my own management yet...

For something like $14-$18 per hour, The job title I envision is "Interactive (Online) Vehicle Merchandising Manager"

Eddy,

You will find that your management team either "gets it" or it's asleep at the wheel. They will LIMIT your growth -or- give you the tools and mentoring you crave to let you fly!

This means your career's trajectory is in the hands of your manager/owner. Think about it. You only live once. Dealers everywhere are looking for great players like you. I say...

Either They Use Ya... Or lose Ya.

Every morning when I wake up, I thank my lucky stars for lazy managers that don't like change and are... asleep at the wheel.

 

[joe.pistell]

Eddy,

Why won't they support your idea? Because all they see is COST with little upside (aka low ROI).

• Management doesn't know that 90% of all of it's buyers pass thru their website.
• Management doesn't know that they only close 1% of their websites visitors.
• Management needs to think about the 99% of visitors that GOT AWAY and bought elsewhere.

Ask for a meeting. Discuss these points. Tell them that proof for these facts is EASILY obtainable.

Lastly, suggest that your manager create a payplan that is 50% salary and 50% sales. Tell your manager you want this player focused and rewarded on getting bodies in the store and cars over the curb.

HTH

 

[eddyshaf]

@ yago - I completely agree and plann to use the position as a stepping stone to indoctrinate new hires into sales - that way they have a strong internet background and focus prior to selling.

 

[yagoparamo]

Eddy,

Then you are in the right path. I believe that I've been succesful because I've walked all the steps of the process so I both understand what needs to be done and I also understand how needs to be done. This will be a great way to create a team of people that really knows what i takes to get the entire Internet procces done.

As a word of advice, and always depending on the volume of cars that you sell. If you do 100+ cars, try to get your photo company to work with you were you take your photos and they come once a week, etc. This will make the influx of cars easier to manage as well as it will be easier for you to move people in and up at the e-department. It will aqlso make your life easier if one of your guys gets sick, quits, etc.

 

[bustin dailey]

Here is my situation.

selling 120-150 cars per month
Paying minimum wage + $1-$3 more depending on attitude
Hours are EXTREMELY flexible, and equipment is provided by the dealership
30-40 hours per week

I provide professional equipment (Macbook, and a DSLR with a wide-angle lens)

I expect 20+ photos of every vehicle
20 vehicles per day depending on weather
Every vehicle needs to be spiffed (washed in the auto car wash, touched up inside, etc etc) before photos.


Here is the catch, and where I get my value from doing everything in-house.

My photo taker is also responsible for:

Applying buyers guides to every vehicle window
Applying all certified pre-owned material
Uploading vehicle photos and data to our text-message info system, and placing text info tags in the windows to every car.
Writing PERSONALIZED vehicle descriptions with features for every listing
Knowing how to operate a DSLR manually, and edit photos quickly is required... (and honestly these are abilities that damn near every 20 year-old has these days)


This way, my lot guy can focus on keeping the cars clean, straight, and keeping the keys in order... Not at a computer, which can consume quite a bit of time for the typical lot-guy.

 

[yagoparamo]

My answer is biased but... here it is.

I see taking your own photos as a solution if you sell just a few cars (25 or less) or really high market.

You are trying to find an individual with many qualities: good photos, relaible, good with technology, trainable, good writter, neat, organized, etc. Not easy to find all in one person!

At minimun plus a few bucks, the best people will go work for: Starbucks, Wallmart, Costco, etc, etc, etc, etc. Anyone any good is gone from the start. BTY- I think that Costco basic starts at $18/h plus benefits (ouch!).

Then you must work with the dealer's flow. Some months you will sell 100 (not enough work) some months you will sell 150 (too much work).

So my questions is, why go thru the pains of HR, training, etc, then lose the guy, then start all over again?

A photo company doesn't just take photos; they do the HR, the training, charge you by the car (so if you sell 80 you only pay for 80--if you sell 180 then they bring 2 people), take care of the equipment, put the labels, etc. And the best deal: You can scream at them if they don't show up and they will not quit (your guy will after the 3rd or 4th time).

A photo company at $12 will cost you $1500 a month, and for $400 you can hire a person off site to writte the reviews/comments in the cars.

Even of you spend $2500 a month to do 120 carsby adding premium things like DSLR photos etc to me is money well spend when I have one less employee in payroll, HR, to manage, etc.

 

[yagoparamo]

We have been back and forth on this a few times. Internally it is a little work on the outside can be expensive. I like the idea of ​​Wayne for freelance photographers. We are currently looking at a 3rd party software that will allow us to streamline the process and use it internally, I will update once the progress on this issue.

Ronie,

Is not a little work, freelance still the same as hiring a company (or pretty darn similar), and getting a 3rd party software is half the problem (now you have to train someone on that software).

I still see this as changing your oil. It can be expensive to do it at the dealer, but doing it yourself takes time, effort, and a certain degree of risk.

 

[SDA]

Weighing in even though I can see this is old news (and this will likely be severely biased) because I am currently one of these photographers that you speak of.

With the $10-12 hourly pay, you will likely (as most have said) lose out on several things. Quality, level of responsibility and incur a very high rate of turn over. For the people making this - it's a job for pizza money and the results will likely be marginal at best. I will also say that the efficiency level will not likely be very high if there is inventory that is surpassing 40-50 cars a month. For a small operation that seeks results of just "getting out there", this might be the route to take.

With a dealer service, things are better. The workflow is smoother, the cost is much more effective because they make their money in the quantity of dealerships they serve. However you still miss out on the quality portion. These are people who don't have much if any background in using cameras and are just "trained" how to take the simple photos with more emphasis on the process of start to finish rather than thinking about the quality or even how a few poor photos will effect this specific dealership. There isn't much accountability between dealership management and an outside employee.

Now if you were to pay someone a small hourly rate - say $10 plus give them a comission cut of each car sold what do you think the effects of that would be?

-Better candidate pool to choose from. People with college degrees who are photographers now become part of the mix
-Longer turnover rate as employees who can now make a career out of this (or a large part of one)
-Accountability of doing a better job both logistically and in terms of photo quality which in turn can mean faster sales on the lot and higher inventory turnover.

Higher cost of operations is likely your only drawback here. However, think about it this way:

If you add $30 to the price of each car to pay a commission to a quality photographer, and the effect of the higher quality photos is that you sell 10 more used cars a month, doesn't make more money in the long run anyway?

By paying the higher comission to the photographer doesn't that dangle the carrot over their head enough to get them to work not only at a high quality rate but also a high efficiency rate?

Also, if I can do the same job in 5 hours why pay me for 3 hrs a day of not doing anything? The dealership will benefit from having the results up online faster and the support staff like porters and detailers will have more time to spend elsewhere.

If I am paid just hourly, in all likelihood I am going to slow down to make sure I get that extra hourly money because it's a lower paying job. Why would I want to be at work a single minute longer than I need to be if all of my tasks are completed to the high standards of which I am held to? So in essence the lower paying hourly wage job might look like it is saving you money but in reality it's also wasting a good amount.