Three different basic types of structure for your internet department:

• ISM who handles leads from beginning to end, plus all online advertising, etc
• ISM who is completely hands off. Leads come in but the salespeople work the leads. Sometimes this ISM has people directly under him for whom he’s responsible
• ISM who handles incoming emails and sets appointments with them, then hands off appointments to salespeople

Each of these structures for your processes and your department have their pros and cons. Your end result needs to be defined and clearly outlined from the beginning of forming your internet department, so that you will know which structure you will utilize.

Note: these are basic structures, not mentioning structures which include a BDC/call center.

It’s about two articles I read this morning.

This is not on topic with Internet sales, but very relevant to all of us. The first article was about “passive homes” which, if you haven’t heard of them before (I hadn’t), these homes heat without any type of radiator! They use passive heat from appliances (think how hot your TV and stove get), the sun, and people, to heat the entire home. They’re able to do this by using VERY thick insulation that is air tight in walls, ceilings, windows, and doors. They bring in fresh air from outside to keep the home healthy. No gas, no heat pump.

Rolf Oeser for The New York Times

Amazingly, these homes are just as comfortable (maybe more so) when compared to a traditional home, but only use 1/20th the amount of overall energy! The home in the article is in Germany, and if you’ve ever been to Germany (about the same climate as Wisconsin, hence all the Germans there), it’s COLD there in winter. I lived there for a year and can attest to the freezing winter.

AND the big kicker is the cost to build these homes is only 5-7% more!

So the lesson here is that a well insulated air-tight home DOES mean a huge savings in energy.

The second article was on coal, and people using it for heat in their homes with a coal furnace. This used to be very commonplace, according to the article, however it dropped exceedingly in the 90’s. Then, since gas and oil prices went back up in ‘06, use of coal in homes has doubled each year.

Coal’s pretty darn dirty.

BUT it’s cheap! The article claims a ton of coal which costs about $130 would cost about $470 using natural gas to get the same effect. Problem is, you need a coal furnace to burn it, which most homes these days just don’t have.

One homeowner who uses coal was interviewed, and he uses coal in a furnace he installed in his living room (Mmm, coal dust, healthy!). He says that his furnace cost him about $2300 (I assume he installed it himself), and he bought 2 tons of coal which might last him through the winter, at a cost of $368. So for a total cost of around $2,700, this man hopes to cut his gas heat use in half. Just in half.

Laura Pedrick for The New York Times

Now, I’m not getting down on the man because he has to do what he can for his family, even if that means shoveling coal and bringing it into the living room (literally).

But let’s just say you have $3,000 to spend to make sure your family is warm this winter, as this man did. If you spent $3,000 in insulating your home, you could do several things

• Thicker insulation in your attic, thermal blanket over that for a typical cost of around $2,000.Typically yields a 30-40% reduction in heating costs alone.
• Storm doors and better seals around doors and windows, for two doors maybe costs around $500 for nice storm doors. Stopping cold air drafts, this alone could yield a 10-20% decrease, depending on how drafty your home is.
• Insulate your basement/crawlspace. Costs probably about $200 and won’t yield a huge return, but will help stop drafts.
• Get a can of spray foam and seal cracks around water pipes and air ducts. $4 can of  foam again won’t make a huge difference, but will go a long way in sealing your home from cold air drafts.
• Buy a tankless water heater, Titan tankless costs $200 and it’s made in America. Hotter water for less energy and takes up less space. Hot water is usually about 30% of your energy bill, and a tankless will easily cut that use by 30%.
• Spend the extra $96 on keeping your air filters clean, plastic film on windows surfaces, opening South facing blinds to let winter sun in, buying compact flourescent light bulbs, and unplugging your TV/stereo/satellite receiver/computer when not in use, keeping your dryer lint screen and exhaust tube clean, and you don’t have to turn the thermostat down (maybe just a little while you’re not at home).
• Receive a $500 tax rebate for your efforts!
• Sell your home for more money for your efforts!

I’m just trying to point out how coal is NOT the answer. Using more energy resources expecting your bill to go down won’t work. Especially long-term, when he has to buy more coal next winter, and his kids grow up with allergy and congestion problems, taking them to the doctor and buying medicine.

He could have spent the same amount of money and had a very comfortable home, without a big furnace in his living room.

But his attitude reflects that of so many Americans. We think more is better. When really, we can spend smart and have more.

This shows how ignorant we are to our energy challenge. Using more of our natural resources for very short-term enjoyment is why we’re in this situation to begin with. We can do some small, smart things to our homes that will yield very nice returns, pay for themselves very quickly, and not continue to cost us money down the road!

Think smart if you’re in this same situation. It’s not fun to be cold in your home this winter. But you can be warmer without using more gas, electricity, oil, or even coal.

If you have any questions about this, comment below!!!

Resources:

• Eco Real Estate
• Green Building

“What will 2009 bring us?”

The title to the new magazine I’m developing for our customer list. The magazine is called DRIVEN and will be presented to customers in PDF format.

SO what is all this? Well, I got the idea actually from Armand Morin and the Internet Marketing Newsletter he has. The basic idea is to have something of extreme value and professionalism to give your customers. It’s free, but feels like it should cost $6 a copy!

The magazine will feature articles from top industry writers across the nation (not throwing names out yet, but one of the NYTimes writers will be writing for it). How much credibility will that give our dealership? TONS.

I hope none of my competition is reading this.

>> How to create a highly-professional Magazine for your dealership

It’s important to follow-up with your customers. Okay, you already knew that and understand it. But how do you get your customers to respond? Phone calls are one of the best ways to keep in touch with your customers, but how do you do that when you don’t have a large (expensive) BDC call center, your salespeople leave orphan customers, and you have a customer list of people from the 90’s you haven’t talked to in years? How do you keep up with all these people efficiently, and get them to respond?

Well, in comes the digital revolution, where e-mail is the #1 form of communication.

Dealers everywhere are mining customer e-mail address information, which is a GREAT thing to do. Really, it’s becoming nearly vital to survival. I mean, what is more cost/time efficient in communicating with thousands of people at once than an automated e-mail?

The problem comes in form of the content of those e-mail. How valuable are your follow-up emails?

I can probably speak for most dealers when I say, not very much. Most dealer follow-up emails are simply monthly specials, or a copy of the newest rebate sheet. This is NOT good enough!

Your customers may or may not care about this information. In fact, if they’re not in the market for a car, they’re most likely to unsubscribe or completely ignore anything you ever send them. Why? Because you have nothing of value to give them.

Let’s think about what’s actually valueable. And auto related at the same time.

>> Valueable information your customers will read

Being an auto dealer, and in the business of selling, servicing, and dealing with cars more than anyone else, you are a goldmine of knowledge for your customers that no one else can be. And customer education on why your product, services, or just generally the way you do business is better can mean a huge difference for your bottom line.

Okay. Let’s think a little more outside the box. What if you had outside industry experts everyone knew about to validate your products, services, or the way you do business? Like the NY Times, Edmunds.com, or other local businesses? How POWERFUL could that be to your customers, and your bottom line?

I hope you’re getting the idea here.

Now, take all that, and wrap it in a package that looks better than any local newspaper or magazine, put it in a format that’s cheap to distribute and easy to read, and don’t you think you have yourself the best possible piece of follow-up your customers could get their hands on?

You’re darn right you do!

I’m going to share a secret with you. A secret that I hope my competition isn’t reading. A secret never before told in this business I know of. Something that will amaze your customers, your GM, your dealer principle, and your prospective customers.  You can wrap all this up in a package that looks like a million bucks, it be absolutely valueable to your customers AND your fellow employees, and you can do it all for FREE! Yes, FREE!

I designed the cover art you see in this article myself, totally original, with free image editing software. I’m putting it in PDF format with a free publishing piece of software. And I’m getting all the articles, written by credible top industry experts, for free.

I’m not letting the cat out of the bag yet, but all the details of how I did it and the results will be posted on this web site. So bookmark this site, and stay tuned. The information to come is worth thousands of dollars, and will add thousands of dollars to your bottom line over and over again.

Stay tuned here for $$$valueable$$$ information.

But if you’re not big time in it yet, which most dealers aren’t (a big competing dealer down the road still isn’t, I just don’t get it!) then you need to start local. And you need to enhance your local web presence.

We’ve gone some big time with YouTube, eBay, with good success. But it’s the local stuff that pays the everyday bills.

#1) If you’re not on AutoTrader.com, get with the program. We sold 4 cars directly last month out of 45 phone calls with AutoTrader, but the real success is it’s local market potential. The truth is, it’s hard to say how many customers bought because of our advertising on AutoTrader, but it’s safe to say 70% of our used car sales are because of it. It’s the #1 car shopping site for a reason.

With that said: PICTURES PICTURES GOOD PICTURES and GOOD DESCRIPTIONS. I actually went shopping for a car myself for my wife, and began to notice the quality of pictures and descriptions were varied. Some were great, most were mediocre or poor, and some were nonexistent. This is what drives the buyers to want to buy your car, next to price. You still have to be competitive there. But the whole reason they’re online is to make their experience EASIER.

#2) Respond to your leads. After shopping, I would say 80% of the dealers I contacted NEVER RESPONDED. What? That doesn’t make sense, you say. But it’s true! And one of them was even rude. I mean, people are online to get away from this!

#3) Your dealer website is your #2 resource for local business. People know there’s a Nissan/Toyota/Dodge dealer nearby, so they search for them. Search for your dealership and make sure you pop up at the top.

Next, when people get on your site, make sure it takes no more than one very very obvious click to get to your pre-owned and new inventory. If it takes more, people click off. There’s another dealer down the road.

And make sure you have pictures, 9-15, on every car. If you have a lot service then you should be good in this area, just make sure they’re coming on a day during the week when you normally get cars from the auction. And if you’re doing them yourself (like we’re moving to do), then stay on it! There’s no excuse not to take 15+ pictures of every car. People buy or not buy based on the pictures.

Remember, there’s two main reasons people are searching online. #1, they’re tired of being lied to and drug around by salespeople (or think they are anyways). And #2, it’s more convenient. And if you have the better presentation online, they’re more likely to come see you because they feel better informed. And that’s your goal for the internet, to make your customer better informed about your product. Because if you don’t, I will, and I’ll earn their business.

By the way, there was just an article in Digital Dealer about local online ad spending going up 48% for 2008!

• Baby sign of hope in devestated South
• Selling parts, service, and vehicles online
• Drunk threatens city with TV remote
• American Red Cross Disaster Relief

Jot lets you set calendar events, write a blog post, send reminders, and much more. Now, you can send emails using Jott!

And just when Jott couldn’t get any better (for Blackberry people which I’m unfortunately not). http://jott.com/jotters/index.php/blackberry

Well, that’s just fine by me.

Fact is, the Internet-savvy portion of the nation’s sales force is carving out a bigger slice of the pie every month, as more consumers turn to the Internet, and more owners wake from their collective marketing slumber. Compare this to the retail world that most managers know: you pay dues for years before getting considered for any kind of promotion, and even then, you’re tossed into another “keep your head down and get the job done” spot. You rarely get purchasing power, and you certainly don’t get to make changes to the business model. Hell, it might take you ten years before you get to sit in on a meeting with the Owner.

Considering that, it’s only natural that an ISM’s vertical moves are looked upon with jealousy and disdain. After decades of the same ol’ same ol’, stagnant Managers are now seeing twenty-somethings walk into a store and become the Owner’s right-hand-man within just a few years. It sure doesn’t seem fair… but then, those Managers on the sidelines are the same ones who have been yessing ownership to death for years when questions arose about what customers want out of a dealership, how marketing dollars should be spent, etc.

That brings us to another group who’d love to see you fired: your store’s ad agency. Newspaper, radio and direct mail worked well enough for decades, allowing the ad firms to rest on their laurels and watch the management fees roll in. Now you come in talking about ROI, pay-for-performance, and cost per sale… but instead of it waking your ad agency up, it just pisses them off because they no longer have a clue how to really make a dealership’s marketing dollars work efficiently. Can’t blame them for being upset. All you can do is continue to prove them wrong while they search desperately for a single study that proves newspaper ads work better than Internet marketing.

Twenty-somethings controlling the media buy? Putting together reports that monitor their superiors’ performance? Going to lunch with the owner? It’s happening, because the Internet envelops all aspects of a dealership in cutting-edge fashion, and dealerships now need more than a couple guys who “just move metal”. Don’t be discouraged by such role players… in fact, embrace their spite. Because chances are, the more lazy old timers you’re pissing off, the bigger the impact you’re having on your store.

Mitch Turck
E-Commerce Consultant
DealerDex CMO

Blog: http://dealers.dealerdex.com

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