Boost Dealership Internet Sales This Month With These 7 Tips

What changes can you make in your Internet sales department? Here's a list of seven easy to do things at your dealership that will absolutely have an impact on your Internet sales and productivity without adding to your budget.

1.  Redesign your autoresponder for shoppers- take the time and rewrite your autoresponder or better yet make it a video and send the Internet shopper a link.

2.  Create an email offers to previous prospects- a monthly personalized offer to your shoppers is a great way to stay connected.  Put a combination of new and used in the offer to give your email maximum penetration for your Internet sales.

3.  Make two extra calls per prospect- just two extra attempts will absolutely connect you with more shoppers this month. Calling more will get you a couple more appointments and in this economy that is exactly what you need.

4.  Send one additional email per prospect- create your most powerful email offer and deliver it in text only form. Just sending an offer is not enough. Explain to your prospects what to do next.

5.  Update your website specials weekly- take the time keep it updated and watch your Internet sales grow.

6.  Ask for an appointment at least three times for each call- asking for the appointment is critical. A minimum of three attempts ensures you have made every attempt to move a phone-up from interest into an actual desire to come into the dealership and purchase a vehicle.

7.  Email all new car leads a pre-owned vehicle offer after 30 days- an industry study documented that shoppers will switch from a new vehicle to a pre-owned after the first 30 days. The key to this is to make sure your marketing doesn’t pigeon hole shoppers into what they originally sent their lead form in on.

Todd Smith, co-founder of ActivEngage, can be reached at todd@ActivEngage.com or visit ActivEngage.com or follow Todd on Twitter.

Chrysler Builds Cars the Fiat Way
Fiat's World Class Manufacturing system, designed to improve quality and productivity, will be applied to all future Chrysler production -- primarily a variant of the "lean manufacturing" system initiated by Toyota to eliminate waste and bottlenecks.
Detroit News, June 10, 2010

The Trollhattan project: Rescuing Saab
The factory floor is buzzing! Called the "best car from Saab in decades," the new owners' challenge is to get more 9-5 sedans into dealerships around the world. Right now, barely 5,000 are distributed and the company wants 15,000. Keep truckin'!
MSNBC.msn.com, June 9, 2010

Nissan Hopes to Juke Its Way into Millennials' Driveways
Nissan is hoping its new "Juke" will appeal to a generation of car buyers called "Millennials," a generation of young adults that aren't into car buying, or much else, from recent descriptions. The car is a little off the wall, and so are the potential buyers!
Edmunds Auto Observer, June 9, 2010

Cars.com: Both Toyota, Honda Suffer Notable Interest Declines
Honda must be wondering why consumers are drifting away from the brand in the same way they are deserting recall-plagued Toyota. A recent study by Cars.com indicated leads for the two Japanese automakers are down significantly year-over-year and continue to slide month-to-month in 2010.

Chrysler Continues Zero-Percent Financing
Chrysler will offer zero-percent financing on much of its lineup and also "attractive" lease rates on several models. The deals run through June 30 and are similar to the May incentives.

Prestige Financial Seeks Out Dealer Relationships as It Returns to Growth
The subprime finance industry certainly took a huge hit during the last few years. It appears, however, that credit is loosening up and the surviving financial institutions are re-emerging. Prestige Financial is adding dealers and planning to double originations.

CARS Opens Registration for "Plugging-In"

Center for Automotive Research hosts 2010 Business of Plugging In conference, Oct 12-14, at Detroit Marriott at Renaissance Center. Hear up-to-date info on plug-ins, see display vehicles, try one out in "Ride and Drive." Click here to register. For sponsorship/exhibit opps visit www.bpiconference.com or email.

Equity Alerts from Autobase Aids Dealers

Autobase, Inc. (division of Dominion Dealer Solutions), has released "Equity Alerts" -- provides auto dealers with automated process to mine their data for qualified customers who, with no money down, could lower their payment and get into a newer vehicle today. Tells dealers which customers are within dealer’s acceptable profit structure. More info at www.autobase.net.

AddOnAuto Helps Dealers Succeed

izmocars, a leading Internet business solutions provider for the auto retailing industry, studied 120+ dealerships that were using the company's AddOnAuto (AOA) in-store accessory solution with tremendous success -- seamlessly integrating accessories shopping and financing with the car purchase and eliminating need to carry excess inventory or contract 3rd-party reselles and installers. More info at www.izmocars.com.

Personalization is Everything
Auto Accessories Study Reveals Interesting Facts

A new national dealership report reveals that when it comes to selling accessories to new-vehicle buyers, the right timing – along with providing rich visualization of the potential enhancements – makes all the difference.
 
Capturing a bigger slice of the vast $32 billion auto accessories pie has never been more critical for car dealerships, given economic realities. The industry has just emerged from the worst new-vehicle sales year in 40 years, while the auto accessories market has seen explosive 37% growth in that same ten years. But while enhancement sales represent among the highest-margin sales at dealerships, historically dealers have been unable to fully seize this literally million-dollar-per-dealership opportunity - accounting for a mere 10-17% of total sales.
 
In a nine-month study of 120-plus dealerships, conducted by izmocars, car buyers presented with an online configurator (allowing them to interactively customize their new car from a menu of accessory options) precisely at the time of purchase were dramatically more likely to buy. One in two buyers experiencing that process purchased accessories (up from one in ten before), and the average dealership generated $400-$600 in accessory-revenue-per-vehicle-sold, up from $80-$120 before – representing a revenue gain of 500%!
 
Click here to read more about the study. To speak to an izmocars expert about this study, email Melanie Webber or Angela Jacobson.
 

Add MPi EDGE™ and Watch Profits Rise

Service Departments continue to be a large source of profitability for most dealerships today, so it’s always nice to read about a success story. One such story comes from the Cascade Auto Group, Klamath Falls, Oregon, using the MPi EDGE™ solution to track and manage their service department repair orders. “Before, we averaged 1.5 hours of work per RO,” says Brian Lepley, Cascade Service Manager. “Now we average 3.5 hours or more per RO, and that’s directly attributable to the EDGE system.” Click here or click on the image to see how you can get in on the profits!

10th Annual Telematics Detroit Conference
AD man on the scene, Jim Stickford, reports

Telematics is a paradigm shift in the auto industry because it requires many different businesses - broadband providers, software developers, computer hardware companies, to work together with car manufacturers to provide an integrated product. Look for these developments:
 
•  Broadband service is going to get faster and less expensive, telematics devices are going to smaller and more ubiquitous. Vehicles themselves will become broadband platforms in which companies can make money through applications, such as traffic and weather service.
 
•  Regulation is coming. The governement will be demanding more information from vehicles. It appears that the federal government might be requiring safe driver technology in new cars as early as 2013.
 
•  While people may have concerns about Big Brother, those worries can be mitigated by cost savings. A 30 percent reduction in insurance premiums can take away the sting of having a device in your vehicle that monitors how and where you drive.
 
Telematics technology is growing faster than anyone thought. New platforms and service are being launched all the time, making it difficult for car designers to integrate the latest devices in vehicles. When it takes three years to go from design to vehicle production, it is difficult to go to telematics providers and ask what's going to be cutting edge in 36 months. Click here for more highlights of the conference.

Meet Trev: The EV with a 93 Mile Range

A team of students at the University of South Australia have put together an electric commuter car that can go 93 miles without recharging, has a top speed of 75 mph, accelerates 0 to 60 in 10 seconds and costs about .0146 cents per mile! Come on, automakers, if they can do it you can do it! Using light-weight materials, a lithium polymer battery, and a whole lot of ingenuity, this is a project worthy of automotive engineers on a much broader scale. Click here and then click on the image to learn more.