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Internet Sales results Start at the Top

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A Nicer Way to Sell a Car

September 16 , 2007
By Barry Baker

As Automotive Internet Sales Trainers, we typically speak with many dealerships across Canada every week. Often the feedback is similar in regards to the Internet; senior management suspects they could be generating better results, but are equally suspicious of reports regarding dealerships that experience stunning sales growth via the Internet. If the story comes from the dealership across the street however, the results become credible.

The majority of General Managers and Dealer Principals assume that the reason they don’t see better results is that buyers in their market don’t use the Internet. Many dealers in smaller communities believe that marketing your vehicles and your business on the Internet is a phenomenon peculiar to major metropolitan centers.

On the contrary, small town dealers often experience some of the biggest Internet sales success. This year alone we’ve received reports from several dealers - from the Atlantic to the Pacific (not just the oil patch) - that have experienced 50 per cent unit volume sales increases over the same period last year.

How is it that these dealers have experienced such dramatic results? They attribute their success to a compelling Internet presence, and employing a dedicated strategy for handling incoming leads via telephone, email, and even walk-ins.

As you can no doubt attest, a dealership needs to do a lot of things right to generate 50 per cent growth in unit sales. The place to start doing things right with your Internet initiative is at the top.

Senior management’s most profound role with respect to the Internet is to create a focus on the Internet Sales Process. If one reflects on how sales focus is implemented in other departments, the common report card is the General Manager’s or Dealer Principal’s Monthly Financial Statement.

The Financial Statement helps all managers evaluate their performance. It unequivocally measures current results against past performance, and forms the basis for budgeting future profits and sales volumes. These projections are used by Managers to establish sales targets for their departments and team. The only item missing is how many visitors we require in the store to achieve those targets.

Given the measurement and focus provided by the Financial Statement as it is currently structured, dealerships have difficulty recognizing the importance of the Internet; it has a much broader impact on sales results than just Internet leads. The Internet is a tool to drive more well-qualified leads to your well-trained salespeople. Internet-savvy salespeople use the Internet to build rapport and common ground before trying to sell the vehicle. However if the customer’s Internet experience with your dealership ends the minute they make contact, you may be leaving a lot of that opportunity on the table rather than converting it into sales.

While the kind of sales results mentioned above are more common today in smaller trade areas and rural communities, your store can achieve similar success by employing similar focus and similar Internet-savvy sales processes.

Look at your Financial Statement to see which way your Dealership is trending. Next month we will address your best opportunity for growing Internet sales. It doesn’t have anything to do with technology; rather, it has everything to do with measuring your results and adding the Internet Department to your Financial Statement.

Internet Sales & Marketing Training

This article is the third of a continuing series that examine how the Internet is helping dealerships deliver better results:

Internet Sales Results Start at the Top
Technology vs. Results on the Internet
Counting the Prospects on your Web Site
How does your web site compare to industry benchmarks?

We would love to hear what you think of this article. And of course, if you have any suggestions for future articles that you'd like to share with us, please send those, too!

Need some fresh, free content for your web site or e-zine? You are welcome to reprint this article on your web site or in your e-zine. We simply ask that you let us know where the article will be appearing, and include our byline with a link to the ASLInternet.com website.

Barry Baker is Director of Sales Training for ASL (Aged Stock Ltd), a company that empowers dealerships to achieve superior results through effective Internet sales process and effective Internet sales tools. For more information, go to www.ASLInternet.com/training.

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