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Top Trainers on Online Used Car Marketing
What’s the best thing about used car sales? High margins. What’s the best thing about online marketing? Dramatically lower costs per sale. It follows that effectively marketing your used car inventory online is a great way to make your used car business even more lucrative. This month we spoke with five industry trainers/consultants on how dealers can maximize this opportunity.
Craig Criswell, President, Internet Certified Dealer
Dealix Dealer Newsletter (DDN): What's the best website improvement a dealer can make to improve used car sales?
CC: Making sure the inventory is always correct - including photos, details, descriptions, and pricing. Whoever manages the images and submits them to other lead sources must be held accountable for all submissions.
DDN: What’s the most common shortcoming in the way that dealers use the Internet to market used cars?
CC: Most dealers are in control of the information displayed on their own websites, but have trouble staying on top of the information about their inventory published on third-party sites. This is a big problem because customers are much more likely to find a particular used vehicle on a third-party site before finding it on the dealer’s site.
DDN: If you could magically change the way dealers think about their used car business, what specific change would you make most often?
CC: I’d like to see a wand waved over those managers and executives who are still resisting Internet marketing. If they understood the power it offers their dealerships, they would spend their advertising dollars in an entirely different way.
www.internetcertifieddealer.com
craig@internetcertifieddealer.com
303.482.2027
Al Amersdorfer, President, Automotive Internet Technologies
DDN: What’s the most common shortcoming in the way that dealers use the Internet to market used cars?
AA: Having too few photos and/or no listed price is a big problem. Dealers should understand, too, that the point of having multiple photos is to show a vehicle’s flaws in addition to its features. Buyers will see these things when they come in; showing them up front is a great way to build trust and set expectations.
DDN: In the world of third-party used car leads, the subscription model currently dominates, but pay-per-lead is becoming more accepted. In your view, which is superior?
AA: Effectively evaluating the cost model requires that you first evaluate the source. No matter what the lead price structure is, good leads equal sales and bad leads equal wasted time and money. The biggest advantage of a "pay per lead" agreement is that it generally lets dealers budget their investment more efficiently.
DDN: If you could magically change the way dealers think about their used car business, what specific change would you make most often?
AA: We used to coach floor salespeople to visualize a sign hung around the neck of every walk-in: "I am a buyer." Used car salespeople, especially those working with Internet leads, need this same mindset. No salesperson or manager I’ve ever met can tell the difference between a buyer and a non-buyer just from looking at a new Internet lead. You have to work them all as if they were going to come in and buy tomorrow.
800.616.2632
Jennifer Suzuki, Internet Sales Trainer, e-Dealer Solutions
DDN: What’s the most common shortcoming in the way that dealers use the Internet to market used cars?
JS: Too often, dealers are not selling the vehicle value - they’re listing the vehicle but not selling the vehicle. It’s important to keep your online inventory up to date, including photos, descriptions, and prices - but this is something you have to assume every dealer is doing. More photos, more detailed descriptions, and more competitive pricing will go a long way toward increasing floor traffic and quality Internet prospects.
DDN: In the world of third-party used car leads, the subscription model currently dominates, but pay-per-lead is becoming more accepted. In your view, which is superior?
JS: When you’re spending money to make money, ROI is the most important factor. Frankly, I’m not as interested in the pricing model as I am in lead quality. Of course, you’ll need detailed reporting to manage expenses and cost per sale. We recommend third-party companies that have proven track records and offer excellent support to the dealer. That said, dealers should keep in mind that well-trained salespeople contribute more to ROI than any other factor.
DDN: If you could magically change the way dealers think about their used car business, what specific change would you make most often?
JS: I would love to open dealers’ eyes to the simple fact that the Internet can reduce overhead and generate sales. On the one hand, the Internet is a great way to move aged units. The benefits include reductions in floor plan expense, wholesale losses, and auction fees. And, of course, there are real profits to be made! So many dealers think that they will lose profit margins. But Internet buyers are willing to travel to find that one-of-a-kind vehicle. The market is getting larger - it’s not just your backyard any more!
800.625.1590
David Kain, President, KainAutomotive.com
DDN: What's the best website improvement a dealer can make to improve used car sales?
DK: One major improvement is to optimize the website so that used vehicle detail pages are more likely to be found directly by people using search engines. This takes extra effort, but so many people start the buying process on Google or Yahoo! that it can really pay off.
DDN: What’s the most common shortcoming in the way that dealers use the Internet to market used cars?
DK: Dealers put too little effort into quality photos, quality descriptions, and on-the-market pricing. Lead volume increases dramatically when the photos are clear and uncluttered, the descriptions go beyond the information tied to the VIN, and each vehicle is priced consistently with the market.
DDN: In the world of third-party used car leads, the subscription model currently dominates, but pay-per-lead is becoming more accepted. In your view, which is superior?
DK: I’m finding that dealers are frustrated with the ambiguity of the subscription model, which makes ROI measurements quite difficult. When a dealer has the measurement tools in place to determine where their phone, email, and floor traffic is coming from, they tend to be satisfied with the subscription model.
Unfortunately, most dealers don’t have adequate measurement tools, so subscription model providers are essentially asking dealers to have faith and assume they’re getting a fair return on their investment. The pay-per-lead model offers easier measurement and greater transparency. Another major benefit is that it lets dealers control their costs - to have lower costs during low-volume months and higher costs during high-volume months.
DDN: If you could magically change the way dealers think about their used car business, what specific change would you make most often?
DK: I would love to see dealers begin thinking of the Internet as their extended showroom, and to display vehicles online with the same care and promotional effort they use on the lot. On some level, dealers may know that more people are viewing their inventory online than in the showroom, but they need to understand the significance of this and make it a part of their business practices. It’s one of the most effective ways to intrigue website visitors and get them to call, email, or come in.
866.546.3428
Sean Bradley, CEO, Dealer Synergy
DDN: What's the best website improvement a dealer can make to improve used car sales?
SB: The most frequently requested used vehicles are generally priced at under $10,000. If your website doesn’t let visitors search by price, you should at least have a button that they can click to see all vehicles under $10,000. Remember - for every extra click a visitor has to make to find what they want, your chance of losing them grows.
DDN: What’s the most common shortcoming in the way that dealers use the Internet to market used cars?
SB: The failure to address what happens when a visitor doesn’t find the car they’re looking for. Sometimes you might have it, but the visitor doesn’t see it. Sometimes the car has just arrived on the lot and hasn’t been posted yet. Sometimes you don’t have the car, but you can get it, or else it’s very likely that you’ll get one soon. Dealers should make sure that every search results page sends used car buyers the message that they should contact you even if they don’t see the car they want - that you are committed to getting it for them.
DDN: In the world of third-party used car leads, the subscription model currently dominates, but pay-per-lead is becoming more accepted. In your view, which is superior?
SB: I believe that any lead source provider that gives you a real opportunity to sell a car is worth it. Personally, I like the idea that I pay for only the leads I actually receive. It’s just common sense that, if I receive 35 leads, I should pay for 35 leads. In my opinion, used car leads are wonderful, and especially valuable, precisely because they are leads on inventory-based units.
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