One of the toughest decisions I think dealers have to make is When Is It Time to take away the Sales & Service Calls, When Is It Time to consolidate your BDC and Internet departments and When Is It Time to allow all appointments to be scheduled through BDC.  Many dealerships and large dealer groups have already opted in to what has become known as Consolidated BDC’s or E-commerce Centers.  Many dealerships have already created the position of a E-commerce Director, yet there was no initial set-up of the E-commerce Department. The E-commerce Department is growing to become an important element of every dealership, whether large or small, and yet many dealers have entered into this venture through the wrong door.

 I want to take a moment of your time and share with you what to do before you hire the E-commerce Director to build a department he/she may know nothing about.  Many dealers already have the right people, the right processes and procedures….but missing the correct elements or knowledge on how to consolidate the processes and procedures they already have and make it work. E-commerce departments consist of a consolidated venture of Sales-Service-Internet-Customer Retention and now Social Media, the reason any dealership in my opinion should invest in an E-commerce Department is to increase and manage OTB’s better (Opportunities To Do Business) The first few questions I would ask any dealer who wanted to start an E-commerce department would include the following;

·       How many calls does your dealership have?

·       How many are service/parts calls

·       How many are sales calls

·       How many are personal calls

·       Does your dealership call all un-sold traffic from the previous day

·       How many daily prospecting calls are made

The first phase in knowing When Is It Time is knowing your phone traffic and properly managing the calls, if your dealership still pages for sales calls, transfers service calls and utilize the position of a receptionist there is no true call management within your dealership and you are losing OTB’s (Opportunities To Do Business) every day. The second group of questions I would present to the dealer would include the following;

·       How many internet leads does your dealership receive?

·       How many are sales leads

·       How many our service/parts/body shop leads

·       How many are customer service leads

·       How many from your website

·       How many from the manufacture

·       How many from third party (Paid For Leads)

·       How many from social sites

The second phase in knowing When Is It Time, is knowing your virtual traffic and what your online dealership is doing. Ask yourself the question, is every part of my dealership represented online and if so, who manages those online departments? This is important information for any E-commerce Director to know, since part of his/her position is to act as an online General or Executive Manger for the Dealer Principal or GM. Don’t make the common mistake of expecting an Internet Sales Manager to produce this type of information….that would be like expecting a Sales Manager to do the job of a GM.  Setting up the E-commerce Department is crucial to the success of your dealership, increased traffic on the sales floor and in the service lane.

The third phase is Fixed Operations, how are you handling your OTB’s through service, parts and body shop if applicable? Most dealers, even those with a BDC still transfer service calls to the service writer, only for most of those calls to end up in a voice mail….does your dealership live on voice mail? On any give morning, service can start receiving calls as early as 7:00 am, and can go strong until 11:00 am.  How many calls in those four hours does your dealership receive and how many have turned into appointments and/or same day business. The third group of questions I would present to the dealer and some of the most important would include the following;

• What is your process for Service & Parts Calls?
• Who schedules the service and body shop appointments?
• How many appointments does your dealership have per hour
• How many service calls get handled the first time?
• Are your guests calling twice or even three time to get through to a busy service writer?
• Who calls all of your service customers after each visit?
• Who handles customer service calls

I have only presented the first three phases of When Is It Time to start a E-commerce Department for your dealership.  You may already have some or all of those things we spoke about, then ask yourself;

• How are we doing?
• what are we tracking?
• what am I investing?

It just may be that time for you, but before you do I would suggest a focus group be formed for your dealership, that would include the GM, Service Director, Parts Director, Sales Manager, Internet Manager, BDC Manager or Phone Operator……some of the key people who either make the decision or have first impression on your guest.  This focus group would share what they currently do, their success, their failures and any vacant processes the dealership may be experiencing.

Published 28 August 2010 - 0 comments (View/Post Comments)   

Changing The Business Model

I wanted to talk directly to those soldiers in the automotive industry at the dealership level.  Those men and women who have made a conscience decision to maintain their positions through these tough economic times, when our industry (Automotive) appears to be the one hit the worst in all this mess!  I have been monitoring our industry since 1995

• always Internet,
• always communications
• always market behavior

I have been able to create a proven series of strategic automotive processes and procedures, utilizing these three elements that have lead to noticeable trends, profitable opportunities and behavior based marketing conclusions.  Today I bring to you a True Shift in our industry, a Paradigm shift if I may use this scientific term to help my Automotive Readers and Internet fans of the industry understand this New Automotive Development that has been discovered.

Over the last 6 months, we begin to notice a trend in Dealership level traffic with several Neighborhood Dealers through-out the Southeast…….traffic was on the rise, yet vehicle sales were down and remain in that position, even today.  It appears through our data, that more and more people are visiting Their Neighborhood Dealerships and utilizing other areas of the dealership for their automotive needs……..Think On This, “The Size Of Dealerships, (the actual square footage) Has Grown over The last two Decade to match those of a small to medium size and sometimes larger Malls”………I know what you asking, what does this has to do with anything?  It has a lot to do with everything…..people are behavior based creators, they migrate to trends and follow the majority in order to justify their actions.  People walk around the mall, they eventually spend money….but they always return to that mall based on behavior, environment, or just somethings to do.  People go to starbucks, Internet cafés even barbershops because of the services they provide……..yet they return because of there is something else to do, while they wait.  These other industries have capitalized on their increased or residual traffic in getting them to spend their dollars in other areas of their businesses, while visiting their locations.

Just the other day I went to the Barber shop in my Neighborhood, I went early so I could get out of the Barbershop just as quickly as I entered….when I arrived they were full….every chair and the waiting area.  I was not up to the task to wait, yet when I looked around there were pool tables being used, televisions being watched, Big Televisions…I must say, video games being played, juice machines being used and comfortable seating being occupied, so I stayed and waited the hour to spend $20.00 for my hair cut, $10.00 on some pool games and $3.00 on a drink and a snack…..$33.00 in total.  The biggest part of my day at the Neighborhood Barbershop was the experience, fun, the conversation and purpose…and I will return.  I also found out that some of the guests of this business were there for just the fun….a community type social atmosphere where you can have conversation, show off your socks and hell….spend $33.00 dollars.  Now I am not telling you to place a barber shop inside your dealership (No A Bad Ideal)…but what I am introducing to dealers, their managers and employees is “Change Your Business Model”

I immediately began to research the area around certain Neighborhood dealers in our growing network, monitoring the behavior of local businesses, i.e. new business openings, lay-offs, industry types and their consumer traffic flow…etc.  I created a process which allowed 90% accurate monitoring 30 miles around 10 dealerships in 5 different market areas and the first thing that we noticed was a consistent number of New Parts and Service Centers that were being established, not related to any manufacturer or local dealer and through;

• Internet Based Programs,
• Social networks,
• Automotive E-marketing
• online surveys

….the behavior of the market place supported this new growth and opportunity.  Consumers had began to keep their trade-ins…..rather than buying a new or preowned vehicle, the trend reported more consumers were servicing their vehicles, painting and customizing them…….at that moment my reticular activating system begin working over-time…..I expanded the research to include a larger marketing area, I began to separate Franchise dealers from Used Car Centers….yet the data was the same and the increase continues.  There is opportunity in a down market, and in the 14 years of doing this automotive thing…..NEVER have I experienced an industry-wide down turn, like that we are currently in, but just as GREAT as the down fall is…….My reports reveal The Opportunity is even Greater and expanded beyond our researched areas……………………….

So here is my quest, my suggestions, my professional opinion, “Change Your Business Model” and do it right now, through a series of strategic automotive processes and procedures you can almost immediately increase your service, parts and accessories market in 60 days…….the only investment you would have to make is after the first 60 days, only then implementing creative services to maintain your All-New customer base, while they are visiting your dealership.  SCD, (Systematic Concept Duplication) can be implemented into your everyday activity, while focusing on your Fixed Operations, Parts, Accessories, Body-shops, Custom Wheels, etc………Variables is suffering….across the board, so why not allow this new opportunity to cover 80% or even 90% of your bottom line, while you reorganize the front end of the store.  The goal is not to always sell more cars, but to make a larger profit, does it really matter where that profit comes from?......this is a real trend with real methods that will create a residual flow of quality traffic.  The New Automotive Industry should be controlled by us, not a group of outsiders, who have also noticed this trend, how long will this last? I Do Not Know, but this area of new potential growth is large and wide-spread…NO ONE Business has closed in on this growing market, NO ONE!!

The move is 95% mental….refocus, realign and re-organize, this project will take additional time, extended hours and STOP HIRING SALES PEOPLE and start hiring mechanics, porters, oil changers and service advisor's…..but not until you implement SCD into your activity and become over whelmed with traffic and new profits.  Who am I…no body, you can do this yourself……I have no problem sharing with you the step by step process that must be completed, the monitoring you will have to and the reports that must be generated or just call me (910) 988-7815.  I do not us anything but what you already have and then I make it better!!!  My tools of operation include the following FREE services managed online, along with your website, your location, your hours, your people, your toll free number, your email addresses and your will to turn a profit.

The questions should be, How Cam These Services Increase My Business?......the answer is they all have people who know people, who talk to people over the Internet.  Social Network Marketing is more than just signing up, I have determined the series of processes that links your dealership to people which equals profit.  There is science in the car business!!!!

• Constant Contact
• Facebook
• Myspace
• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN Live
• Twitter
• Black-planet
• Blog
• Sales Genius
• Youtube
• Plaxo
• Photo-bucket
• eBay
• Pay-pal
• Dealer-specialties
• Merchant Circle
• James List
• Craig's List

We Are BDC

Dr. Harold Elam Jr

Automotive Business Development

2039 Merrimac Drive

Fayetteville, NC 28304

email me

(910) 988-7815

The Neighborhood Dealer Project

Published 28 May 2009 - 0 comments (View/Post Comments)