Dealer Communications Digital Dealer magazine November 2011 : Page 6
D IGITAL Dealer E-MAIL Dealer welcomes your letters and after verification will run them signed or unsigned. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. my day seven template. Steve Stauning, I really enjoy reading your articles every month in Digital Dealer magazine. Any chance you would be willing to comment on what key metrics you like measure in an Internet department? And what are acceptable performance standards for them? Thanks for all your great information. Name withheld upon request Hello Reader, Thank you for the kind words – I’m glad you enjoy the articles. The three primary metrics that I like to track (for both vendors and salespeople) are: 1. Connection rate. This is the percentage of prospects with whom you connect in the first 30 days of receiving a lead. The minimum number I would expect to see on this is 50%. (This means 50% or more of your e-mail prospects respond to your templates or phone calls.) 2. Appointment show rate. This is the percent of connections who show for an appointment. I push for 50% here, but there are a lot of factors at play, so I can sometimes accept 30-40% (especially if the connection rate is above 70%). I do like to track appointments made, but only to look for leaks. That is, if someone makes 10 appointments, but only three show up, then we have an opportunity for training and/or tighter processes. 3. Sold customers. I like to track this as a percent of total leads (as most do), but also as a percent of appointments shown. This second measurement will show me whether the rep has issues closing appointments that show. The minimum percentage I would expect on close rates of shown appointments is 50%. Generally speaking, you should expect to pull this data directly from your CRM (provided your team is updating their prospect and customer information). Good selling, Steve Stauning Steve Stauning, I read your article in the October 2011 issue of Digital Dealer magazine, “Penny for my Thoughts? My first thought is that your e-mails need to be refreshed,” about updating my templates and even copied this one into “It must be me. While I’ve tried very hard to make sure you have all the information you need about why buying a car from ABC Motors is a great decision, I haven’t been successful at getting you to reply to my messages. Because I don’t want you to miss out on a great deal or the experience of buying from us, I would like to turn your file over to another customer service manager, if that’s okay with you. It’s been my pleasure to assist you thus far, but please let me know your thoughts so I might transfer your file.” Any way I could get some more specifics from you? Rob Ernst Internet Manager and Dealer Trades King’s Ford Cincinnati, Ohio Hi Rob, Great strategy... no reason to reinvent the wheel here... However, rather than get a few templates from consultants like me, what I really recommend is for you to mystery shop “successful” dealers and liberally “borrow” their best templates. Start with dealers who’ve been on the cover of Digital Dealer magazine and be sure to include Internet sales leaders that are at the top of the Wards 500 list. Once you have templates in place that you like, be sure to measure which ones generate responses and tweak (or toss) those that do not. Good selling, Steve Stauning Rob Lange, I just read your article in the September issue of Digital Dealer magazine , “Why Don’t they Speak to Me?” Good stuff! We have a similar process in terms of matching our method of contact with the one that our prospect would prefer. I would like to request a copy of your detailed document so that I can compare it with our current process. Thanks Rob. Keep up the good work. Sincerely, Kevin McCarthy Internet Sales Manager Mike Toler Chrysler Dodge Jeep September 2011 page e-Commer Director ce Group , CDC Eastern 1 Automotive 28 MICCICHE Region , Inc. VINNIE How Internet to Turn into Take Dead New Leads Sales page 8 Sales: Time to Won’t Blog – Y Regr ou et It page 12 Demystifying Organic SEO and Sear ch page 32 SEO: Kevin, Thank you for reaching out, Kevin. Happy to try to help in any way. One of the things online customers have told us is they definitely prefer having contact with them initiated the same way they initiated it with you… makes a big difference to keep them in their comfort zone and make an immediate connection. Please stay in touch and we can discuss any thoughts you have after reviewing the material. Rob Lange Rob Lange, I read your article in the September issue of Digital Dealer magazine, “Why Don’t they Speak to Me?” I must say I agree with it and it makes total sense. I am new to the sales of cars and I am in charge of Internet leads. I would like to receive that detailed document you mentioned. Thanks, Jamison A. Veracity Motors Bismark, ND Jamison, I forwarded the material to you and thank you for your interest. Being new this should give you a great jumpstart and insight in to what customers respond to during online and phone communications after they submit a request for information online. Please let me know if you have any questions after reviewing the material or even if you just want to role play a bit to have it come to life. Thank you! Rob Lange Send letters to: mburkel@dealer-communications.com DD 6 November 2011 DigitalDealer-magazine.com
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