leads

Building Rapport Before the Lead Is the Way to Win the Sale

By Tim James

In my last blog article, I discussed the importance of building rapport with leads through the use of “Why Buy From Me” and “Lead Response” videos personalized for each customer. Now I would like to take this one step further — Building rapport should in fact start much earlier than simply upon the receipt of a lead.

Think about the first contact a customer has with your dealership. Chances are good that they either went to your website, or found a vehicle that matched their interest on a third party site. At this point, detailed descriptions, images and video walkarounds can certainly make your vehicle stand out from the others. But how about further increasing the probability that the customer chooses to deal with you over any competition? How about building trust and rapport at this first entry point instead of waiting for them to put in their personal information and enter your CRM as a lead?

Just as you can integrate video walkarounds of the vehicle on VDP pages, you can also integrate your “Why Buy From Us” or “Why Buy From Me” videos into your vehicle display pages, as well as your most visited page on your website – your homepage. Sell The Dealership, Sell Yourself, Sell The Car…This simple rule can have a significant impact on the number of shoppers who see your online advertisements and ultimately trust you enough to reach out to you and inquire about a vehicle. And a HUGE impact on your sales once the customer arrives on your lot.

These actions help to build rapport and establish trust prior to receiving a lead, making the process of contacting the customer and engaging them that much easier when you do receive a lead. The fact is that you can build so much likeability and trust with a shopper that they decide that “you” are the dealership or sales person that they want to do business with, even before they have landed on a specific vehicle. You will even have shoppers who call you, email you, or even just show up at your dealership, without having settled on an exact vehicle, simply because they like and trust your dealership, or one of your salespeople. They thus reach out to you to help them find the right vehicle. Combine the above actions with walkaround videos and personalized video e-mails and you’ll find it much easier to win over a customer, leaving your competition in the dust.

Start creating rapport at the first touch-point, otherwise you could find yourself competing with four other dealers for the potential customer’s attention. A successful sales career is all about building relationships. The earlier in the car buying process that you can accomplish this, the easier it will be to engage a customer, more customers will show up for test drives, and you will haggle significantly less over price. You will get more sales and higher gross, because you are the good guys and the shopper wants to do business with YOU!

Can Anybody Find Me Somebody To Love?

By Tim James

That classic line from the song “Somebody to Love” by legendary band, Queen epitomizes the destination for consumers and the goal of all salespeople. There’s not a doubt in my mind that you’ve heard the phrase “People buy from people they like.” In the past, a consumer had to come into a dealership to start the car shopping process. This is where the important skill of “building rapport” came into play for salespeople. Great salespeople learned quickly how to find common interests and develop relationships with their clients, while assisting them to find the right vehicle.

Fast forward to today. Consumers now have the option of car shopping anonymously. Dealership Internet and BDC departments are inundated with leads arriving from countless sources. Consumers chose to share some or all of their information after narrowing down their online research. They’ve engaged with you to some degree and have given you the opportunity to earn their business. You must remember, however, that to the consumer, you are only a car dealership. Chances are also good that you are not the only car dealership who they (or a third party) has given this opportunity to. All dealerships have auto-responders and the standard “Why Buy From Us” email templates are sent to leads pretty quickly. Because the consumer is inundated with these templates, they are meaningless.

The fact is that people buy from people they like. So, how do you make that emotional connection with a lead? It’s certainly not through e-mail templates.

Consumers like to be treated as if they are special. They can smell an e-mail template before it even hits their in-box. While it’s fine to tell your dealership’s story, don’t forget the importance of building rapport — it will go a long way towards winning the sale.

Highly successful dealers have started sending out individualized “Why Buy From Me” type videos in their e-mails. These videos are personalized to each and every customer. These are not just a homogenized blanket “one size fits all” type of message. The reason this works is because of a very simple concept known to salespeople. By saying someone’s name, you recognize them as a person… and individual. No longer is your video message “My name is Tim. And I would like to earn your business… Mr. Blank.”

Instead the message is directed to the individual as … “My name is Tim and I want to earn YOUR business, Mr. Smith.” — That’s a very different message.

What do you do if you see someone you know walking nearby, but out of reach? You yell out their name! Why? Because it gets their attention! And that’s exactly what personalized video responses accomplish.

The bottom line is that the possible touch points on the consumer’s online car shopping path are increasing at an incredibly rapid pace, almost daily. It is becoming more and more difficult to stand out and claim a customer’s attention. This very simple technique can make your interactions more personal and help to gain the customer’s attention. I am sure you will find that more people appreciate, respond and give you the opportunity to earn their business.

After all, we all simply want to find somebody to love. Make sure that somebody is you.

KiNETiQ™ Mobile 1.0 – Platform Updates

Mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, now account for over 10% of all web browsing. With the growing demand for mobile content in mind, we have completely rethought, redesigned and re-engineered our mobile sites to provide users the best way to view your content and inventory.

Design Refresh

Our layouts have been retooled based on usability standards and real-time user data. Our mobile sites now offer the best experience both for our clients and their customers. New features include:

Modernized Layout and design
Quicker load time
Decreased user bounce rate
Clean and simple user interface for faster browsing and effortless decision making

Increased Customization

Our new mobile layout gives you more power to customize your mobile site. The design offers several ways to completely personalize your site:

Brand mobile sites with custom logos and color schemes
Automatically include custom links and navigation items on all content pages
Easily add inventory items, specials and promotions
Create custom content across all pages

Promotion Slider

Our PASS system is now available for mobile. Your promotions can now be shared across all mobile devices with our new mobile PASS system. Our mobile PASS system offers users a touch-friendly way to view offers and specials right from their mobile device.

Information: http://dealerimpact.com/mobile-website.php

Demo: http://dealerimpactmotors.di-mobi.com/

New Formatting for Text Lead Emails Released

Text-based lead emails have been updated to provide a more structured output of the lead data that is submitted to you through the forms on your website. The lead data has been organized into sections to help you quickly view your lead information in a consistent fashion.

The first two lines of your lead emails will state what Form was submitted, and what Website it was submitted from. The customer data will populate the sections according to which Form was submitted, with common Contact Information and Comments first, followed by Lead-type sections.

We hope this new consistent format will make it easier to read and manage your text-based leads.

Other Platform 2.0 Features and Fixes
Now that migration to our new system is complete, we are working hard to improve and expand the system on a daily basis. We love to hear your new ideas AND constructive criticism. It is your requests and feedback that will determine our future enhancements, so keep those suggestions coming!

Here is Just a Small Sample…

Addition of several new data exports – to get your inventory out to more places!
Secure Employment Apps viewable within VOCC
Improved decoding to provide more details automatically as they become available
Improved Listing Subtype filters adds more possibilities for inventory grouping
Improved Listing Subtype processing to auto add and remove vehicles on every import
Increased types of pre-configured inventory groups for display in vehicle feature widget
Added Pending status for manual temporary override of inventory auto-processing
Hundreds of bug fixes and minor system and customer-facing tweaks

Post vehicle inventory out to Craigslist, get more links back to your site

Need more exposure for your inventory? Want more links pointing back to your site? Instead of just having one landing page (your website) why not have 10’s if not 100’s of landing pages? Social networking is making all of this possible and if you’re not participating then you’re falling behind.

In a recent blog post, we discussed the idea of putting your inventory videos out on YouTube. These videos each have their own URL with keywords which all link back to your dealer website. Along the same lines, Craigslist is another option for you to penetrate specific geographic markets. YouTube is an international sensation (as is Craigslist) but with Craigslist there are metropolitan networks where you can post an ad. Customers then search these listings by city/region to find local deals.

Dealer Impact has programmed the functionality to automatically generate a nicely formatted HTML ad with your vehicle’s information automatically populated into it – full of pictures, information, and links back to your site. Just like with YouTube, search engires are able to index each and every one of these pages for keywords. Even if a customer isn’t searching specifically on the Craigslist site, they could still find your ad by searching a specific enough phrase on a search engine such as Google.

For a sample Craigslist ad, visit: http://www.di-web2.net/craigslist/sample.html

From a marketing standpoint, notice how the branding of the dealer website is retained through to the ad. If you’re familiar with Craigslist, most ads you see have a plain white background, typically a lump of text that is hard to read, and some ads don’t even contain photos. With the thousands and thousands of ads posted on Craigslist, you only have those initial few seconds to grab their attention and get them to read on. We believe in branding your ads to your dealership, providing a professional looking landing page to convert more leads into sales.

For more information on listing your inventory on Craigslist, please call Sales at 877.334.9638

The Factor x 10 drives traffic from social media and video portals

The Factor of 10 increases a website’s chances of being found by a factor of 10. The program creates 10 Points of Presence (POPs) out on the internet to increase your chances of being found and at the same time increasing your current website’s popularity with all the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Each of these pages is specially formulated (SEO) for the search engine spiders to find and index their content, thus by creating these satellite websites out on the web we create a network of doorways for people to find you. These satellite pages can exist anywhere, even inside the Facebook network.

The Factor x10 Examples:
Satellite Pages

Yes Team Auto Pontiac – Steubenville, OH

Facebook Fanpages

Holmes Auto – Des Moines, IA

YouTube Channels

Des Moines Imports – Des Moines, IA

Please contact us to find out more about the Factor of 10 and make it easier for customers to find you vs. your competition.

Brian Cox

President

Dealer Impact Systems

www.dealerimpact.com

The Newest Sales-Boosting Strategy

By David Wengel

Making the sale hinges on the lead. On-demand lead scoring is a technique that clarifies who your best leads are and allows you to target them accordingly.

How many sales versus marketing conflicts would vanish if marketing could easily vet and prioritize every lead it passed on to sales? And how much airfare could you save if you could grow wings and fly?

If you’re a marketing executive, then you would probably put both questions in the same box because one is just about as likely to happen as the other. Vetting and prioritizing sales leads is labor intensive and expensive. Doing it fast enough to get the hot leads to sales before they cool off has been close to impossible — maybe only slightly less impossible than actually sprouting wings.

It would be in the marketing organization’s best interest to rank the promise of every lead it passes to the sales organization, but the realities of time and cost effectiveness have not allowed the necessary information gathering and analysis. Devoid of solutions, marketing executives have been left to soldier on as best they can: No matter how much they spend on marketing, most companies still treat every inbound lead the same, no matter how valuable the leads are likely to become.

Recently, however, on-demand lead scoring, supported by advances in marketing technology, has developed to improve the quality of leads that marketing sends to sales.

On-demand lead scoring should ideally combine historical customer information with consumer data and predictive analytics. If you’re setting out to automatically prioritize each incoming lead, then you’ll need the level of insight that comes from combining these three types of information. Without all three, you’re throwing away chances to boost sales conversions and customer value.

The most basic on-demand lead scoring solutions reveal exactly who is contacting your company through your marketing programs, whether they’re reachable given the contact information they provided, which leads should be top priorities and which products or services are most relevant to the lead.

This information enables salespeople to target the hottest prospects, whichever criteria you use: those who are most interested in your products or services, most likely to buy a lot of them or most likely to turn into long-term customers. The same knowledge can tell you which of your messages and offers will provide a more customized experience for each prospect.

For example, an auto dealer receives names and phone numbers of active car shoppers within minutes of their filling out forms on auto-related websites. The leads are instantly and automatically scored based on 1) the individual’s verified contact information, 2) household demographics and 3) the dealer’s experience with customers fitting that demographic profile. The sales team knows to immediately pursue leads that score in the top 20 percent with an immediate outbound call or customized email. Others are prioritized for follow up in order of their potential.

On-demand lead scoring applies the same methodology to phone channels. When a credit-card issuer’s advertising drives prospects to its toll-free numbers and websites, the on-demand scoring solution grades them for potential value, matches them to the most suitable credit card and immediately routes likely-to-convert prospects to the best agents. The callers who are least likely to convert are routed to an interactive voice response (IVR) system, allowing the likely-to-convert callers to get more attention from agents.

A lead scoring solution’s predictive power is limited only by how much a company tailors it to specific business, goals and customer knowledge. For example, is the objective to grow revenue by increasing conversions or by focusing on cross-selling opportunities? Has the company found more upside in identifying prospects who look like its most loyal customers or in those who look like those customers most likely to respond to a particular offer?

In each case, the key is a rich mix of data that includes demographics, lifestyle and behavioral information, sales histories and product and channel usage. With currently available services, a company’s customer database and sales histories can be combined with descriptive and behavioral information to create predictive profiles. Companies that have embraced on-demand lead scoring have found three best practices that determine how successful their solutions are.

The first is that the lead-scoring information must be actionable at the moment you need it. Most existing customer insight platforms can offer microscopically precise insight on existing customers, but none of this rich information is actionable in the instant new prospects submit an online form or call in. In the past, you could segment your customers but you couldn’t predict which prospects would behave like your best customers unless you stopped to ask each prospect, say, the five attitudinal survey questions you’d found to be predictive. A lead-scoring solution must be able to link your customer knowledge to brand new prospects in the instant you begin to interact with those prospects.

The second best practice is a basic tenant of good solution development, but it merits mention nonetheless: data quality. Your lead scoring is only as good as the information that drives it. If your scoring doesn’t include verification of contact information, then you won’t even know which leads can be reached, making the effort worthless. And if your scoring solution doesn’t include up-to-date consumer contact information, then you’re slashing your ability to assign scores to your leads.

Finally, if your lead scores aren’t customized to your business, then their predictive power will lack punch. Off-the-shelf lead scoring systems typically rely on consumer profiles that aren’t even tailored to your industry, much less your company, so they provide uneven results when used to drive your real-time decisions. An online shoe store will miss some sales if it relies on the same customer profiles that an insurance company uses for its automated processes. A lead scoring solution that includes information from a company’s customer databases and sales history will be more predictive than one that doesn’t.

There is no single instant cure-all to the problem of dead leads, but on-demand lead scoring solutions are a huge step forward from what passes for lead qualification at many companies today. Lead scoring can improve the relationship between sales and marketing, which creates a stronger company that closes more sales and spends less on qualifying leads — without growing wings and flying.

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19811.asp

Why now is the Time To Step Up Lead Efforts

Published: June 05, 2008, iMedia Connection

With consumers tightening their purse strings, it’s more important than ever for marketers to reach out to potential customers with relevant offers they can’t refuse.

Debate continues in the media as to the fate of the U.S. economy: Are we in a recession, or merely flirting with one?

For brand marketers, it turns out, the effect is the same. Consumers, made wary by gas prices over $4.00 a gallon, the mortgage mess and less-than-stellar employment forecasts, have tightened their purse strings. And when consumers spend less, marketing — traditionally a company’s first budget-cutting line of defense — is in trouble.

Yet there is much evidence, scholarly and anecdotal, that points to the wisdom of maintaining marketing spend during a recession. In fact, a recession is an ideal time to take advantage of consumers’ comfort with familiar brands by creating web-based interactive, direct-response campaigns that offer special promotions and savings.

Why web-based? A recent report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that 81 percent of internet users research products online — for convenience (78 percent), time savings (68 percent) and the ability to find bargains (ranging from 38 percent of 50-to 64-year-olds to 62 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds).

Tough economic times not only lead consumers to do online research, they lead to more time spent researching and comparing brands and prices. A recent Prospectiv survey, which discovered that 84 percent of those polled had changed their shopping habits due to concerns about recession, gives further clues to consumer behavior in this economic downturn:

66 percent are logging more hours online researching and comparing brands and prices
74 percent would welcome more online offers, coupons and e-newsletters from their favorite brands and products
60 percent are more likely to sign up/join a website or online community that offers recipes, healthy meal ideas, cooking tips and savings they can use at home

As consumers under financial pressure ponder a switch from favored brands to generics, brand marketers must seek out ways to engage consumers online, using direct-response interactive marketing to reinforce the value of brand.

We strongly believe that marketers should consider countering the effects of the downturn by stepping up programs that build strong relationships with consumers who have exhibited interest in your goods and services. Take the opportunity to add to your in-house opt-in email newsletter list and reach out with these tips:

Consumers are eager for special promotions and savings during tough economic periods — now is the time to consider a brand-building campaign.
Consider campaigns designed to generate leads as well as near-term sales. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or website, use a well-timed, anti-recession campaign to drive traffic.
Provide information that’s clear, relevant and easy to find online. The Pew study found that 43 percent of searchers were frustrated by a lack of information, or the difficulty of finding information about brands they were interested in. Another 32 percent were confused by the information they were able to locate.
Be selective in your programs. Market only to consumers you identify who have an interest in your product/brand and have requested your offers and promotions.
Be aware that some 70 percent of internet users are still concerned about giving out personal information or credit card information online. Treat your customers with care — many of them are wary.
Monitor campaigns closely for performance and redirect your efforts as needed to improve results.
Consider using pay-for-performance lead-generation programs. You’ll pay only for results, versus clicks or impressions.

Don’t forget the most important metrics of a brand campaign — quality and relevance. In difficult times consumers aren’t shopping for nice-to-haves; they are focused on must-haves. Here, pay-for-performance lead-generation campaigns that build your own opt-in email lists and produce consumers who are interested in your product and brand are particularly useful because they make it easy for marketers to ensure relevance, and simple to measure lead quality at several points in the campaign, before handoff to sales.

Finally, in a down market brand marketers must maintain a laser focus on lead-generation best practices to ensure high quality leads and maintain a respectful relationship with consumers to build trust and discourage abuse of consumer privacy.

Opportunity for brand marketers comes in many forms. In these unstable economic times, it is incumbent on marketers to reach out to consumers with offers, promotions and information that reinforce brand preference, provide much-needed purchase information, and offer advice, tips and ideas for living well while saving.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19521.asp

Weekly ISM Checklist

from drivingsales.com, posted 6/3/08

Now for the weekly check list. ISMs need to be completelting these items on a weekly basis and reporting to their management on their progress of each of these items. Following this task list regularly will greatly increase your success:

Weekly Check List

Date _______

1. __ Visit dealership website. Call toll free and other phone numbers to ensure they’re working and being answered properly.

2. __ Check AutoTrader, Cars.com, UsedCars.com, and/or other third party website photos, pricing information, and phone numbers.

3. __ Blind shop competitors selling both similar and different makes and models.

4. __ Post any upcoming Events and Specials on website. Be careful about posting any future discounts or pricing – those should be only posted once they are on, or when they are about to end to instill urgency.

5. __ Schedule broadcast email once per month, at the beginning of the third week of the month. Preferably, send on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. Always have something for the customer first and foremost â€“ give them a compelling reason to open your email.

6. __ Schedule automated targeted email campaigns to existing customers, including interests, specials, birthdays, etc.

7. __ Check with vendors to see if there are duplicate addresses they are sending leads to, to former employees, etc..

8. __ Test templated emails to see how they are arriving to customers.

9. __ Check your site for manufacturers compliance or non-compliances issues.

10. __ If you find any issues, send an email to your vendor (so you have it in writing), cc-ing your GM or ID, and immediately follow up with a phone call. If the issue is not resolved in 24 hours, re-send the email, and cc you GM or ID. They should take it from there.

Following these processes and checklists will help you maximize you efforts and success! Good luck.

http://drivingsales.com/blog/rafi/2008/06/03/weekly-ism-checklist/

Ensure That Your Web Site Pulls in Buyers

From Digital Dealer Magazine May 2008
by : Peter Batten

Your online store is just as important as your showroom, and the reason why is clear: 70 percent of new vehicle buyers use the Internet to vehicle shop, as do 61 percent of used vehicle buyers (2007 J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com & Used Autoshopper.com studies). But, as you may have noticed, simply having a web site will not increase your traffic, leads, or sales. In fact, a flaccid web site can do more harm than good as potential customers quickly ascertain that they will not find the information they want and leave your site in favor of a big portal or automaker site. But it does not have to be that way. You can make your dealership web site a best-in-class consumer destination with the features and tools that give your customers the comprehensive content, intuitive navigation, and breadth of information found on leading portals and manufacturer sites. That’s right: your site can be as impressive as any automotive site out there. And you can do it all with a minimum of development time.

Lifestyle search capabilities
With a lifestyle search, a consumer can search for vehicles that match their needs without having to know any esoteric vehicle information. For example, a customer can search by body style, like SUV, coupe, or convertible, instead of having to start searching by make and model. Many consumers do not know what exact trim they want; they just know they need an SUV because they carry cargo on slippery roads, or a compact because they want to save on gas bills. Lifestyle searches are intuitive for consumers, allowing them to find the vehicle they want with the least amount of hassle and frustration.

Powerful comparison features
A J.D. Powers and Associates study focusing on best practices on manufacturer web sites found that consumers loved powerful comparison tools that allowed them to compare multiple vehicles at one time (2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation StudySM – J.D. Powers and Associates). They found that side-by-side and advantage-based comparisons are especially useful because shoppers can quickly scan the results and even print out results for future consideration. There are several companies who can equip your web site with a robust comparison tool in record time.

Vehicle images and videos
The same J.D. Powers and Associates study cited above found that consumers gravitate to vehicle images and videos, which put them immediately in the virtual driver’s seat. Videos are especially valuable for demonstrating functionality and versatility of a vehicle including: acceleration, cornering, stopping, and much more. Color changes and interior shots are invaluable for helping the consumer to experience the vehicle and for generating excitement and the desire to buy. Consider including a comprehensive equipment listing for each of your vehicles alongside a detailed photo that consumers can click to view different angles, interior shots, colors, and live-action video. Build-A-Car tool tied to your inventory
The advantages of a Build-A-Car tool on your web site have been well documented. Give consumers the opportunity to design the car of their dreams and they will stay on your site longer, return again and again, and convert into a valid prospect at a higher rate. Bump this tool up to the next level by integrating it with your inventory so customers can see what you have available.

Online credit applications
You want prospects to become buyers. An additional feature to help you meet this goal is the online credit application. By including a secure link to a credit application that a customer can immediately complete, you are saving that customer time and hassle and also converting a lead into a viable prospect. Use the credit application as a virtual shopping cart to close qualified buyers in record time.

http://www.digitaldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1914