Digital Dealer - February 2019 - 23

THESE CUSTOMERS WANTED INFORMATION
IMMEDIATELY, GOT THAT INFORMATION FROM A REAL
PERSON THAT WAS RELEVANT TO THEIR NEEDS AND
MADE THE DECISION TO CHOOSE YOUR DEALERSHIP."
REVENUE. One of the

most scrutinized areas
of any business when
it comes to increasing
profitability is in the
sales department. In the
automotive industry, we
know that consumers
are increasingly extending their car buying time
online. They are communicating electronically in
a virtual interview with
prospective dealerships.
Dealers are signing up for
services that will increase
their online exposure to
consumers shopping for
vehicles whether those be
third-party listing services,
lead providers or the latest
and greatest shiny object.
All with the goal of increasing sales.
It's not, however, getting
more leads that inevitably
results in sales. Even the
best operating and most
efficient dealerships will
only be able to contact
and sell cars to about 15%
(or less) of the leads that
come into their CRMs. The
other 85% are stuck in a
virtual black hole in which
the dealer continues to
try to communicate but,
for whatever reason, the
customer doesn't respond.

GIVE CUSTOMERS
WHAT THEY WANT,
NOW. We live in a 'now'

society in which customers
want access to instant
information. You don't

even have to Google anything anymore. You can
simply ask Siri or Alexa
and they'll do the search
for you. What they can't
do, however, is connect
the customer with a live
person instantaneously
to get answers to specific questions like "Is this

human-to-human interaction
brings about quality in the
lead that no form lead can
provide.
Which method do you
think is better for a dealership's bottom line and will
increase your closing rate?
The one in which only 15
percent of the customers

INSTANT HUMAN-TOHUMAN INTERACTION
BRINGS ABOUT QUALITY
IN THE LEAD THAT
NO FORM LEAD CAN
PROVIDE."
vehicle still in stock?" or
"Does it have a rearview
camera?" or any of the
myriad of other questions
that a customer may have.
Which opportunity
(lead) do you think dealers
have a better chance of
closing? The one that
zipped into their CRM from
wherever? Or the one
that began online via chat
where rapport was built,
questions were answered,
and appointments were
made? These customers wanted information
immediately, got that
information from a real
person that was relevant
to their needs and made
the decision to choose
your dealership. Does it
always happen this way?
Of course not. But instant

are ever contacted? Or the
one where 100% of them
were engaged with by a
live person? The answer is
obvious.

REMEMBER THAT
SOMETIMES, CHANGE IS
DETRIMENTAL. As a deal-

ership, before you embrace
the spirit and tradition of
New Year's resolutions
and rush to make changes, consider that, perhaps
change in a particular area,
isn't even needed. Trying
new things is fine but trying
new things simply to try new
things is not sustainable. If
you're happy with your vendor, it's performing well for
you don't cut off your profit
centers. Put in the work to
find out if your technology
provider is performing as
expected before making a
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

change that you may find
backfires and find yourself
wishing you'd have stayed
put.
If you believe you have
a good service but have
ideas of what else you'd
like to add to that service,
let them know. You never
know what resolutions
they may be working on
too!
KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Achieving your New
Year's resolutions does
not always require more
technology, new vendors, increased spend, or
complicated techniques.
Sometimes, success is
found in fine-tuning and
perfecting those seemingly
'little things,' like quality
interactions, improved
response times, or knowing when NOT to reinvent
the wheel, that play the
biggest role in getting you
to the top of those New
Year's resolution high
achievers.
CAROL MARSHALL
has more than 20 years
of automotive industry
experience. She has held
executive in-store positions
such as general sales
manager. More recently, she
held positions with national
organizations such as Mazda
N.A. and AutoNation as sales
process manager and national
manager of eCommerce
field operations, respectively.
EMAIL: cmarshall@
activengage.com

FEBRUARY 2019

23
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - February 2019

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