What Happened to Managers Training Salespeople?

Did you watch Car Lot Rescue on Spike TV last night? I did - it was both entertaining and inspiring!

As one who trains Internet Sales Departments in auto dealerships, it reinforced to me that without a well-trained, motivated sales team who have a positive attitude, it doesn't matter how much money a car dealership spends on advertising or how good their business development center is at bringing prospects through the door. The customer experience when they arrive will be lacking. Lack of product knowledge, combined with a lack of sales training from management, seasoned veterans and experienced trainers leads to inferior results and people turning over.

By the way - Claude, the Sales Manager, who Tom ripped into for not training his salespeople, was actually my GSM at the first dealership I worked at, 13 years ago. We had an EXTENSIVE new hire sales training program at the time, in which Claude participated, but ownership had been instrumental in ensuring that it happened.

It wasn't so long ago that salespeople couldn't work with a customer by themselves for at least 4 weeks - until they PROVED they could be a professional, but that practice is now long gone. For those who weren't around the business then or forgot, here's how it worked:

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Adam Ross is the Managing Director of Infinite Prospects, Inc. Adam is a seasoned veteran of the car sales industry who has more than 12 years of Automotive Internet Sales experience on both the dealer and vendor side, and educates car dealerships on maximizing sales and fostering relationships through technology. Adam has thousands of connections in the automotive industry. From lead generation websites, to implementing best practices for following up with prospects and closing appointments that lead to sales, Adam is the person you want to lead you through the technology landscape. He'll help you select the best sales technology for your car dealership, get your team running at top efficiency using the tools necessary for success, and maximize the capabilities of the solutions you already have in place. Contact Infinite Prospects at (201) 448-7253 to speak with Adam.

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Recapture Visitors Who Exit Your Dealership Website

by Adam Ross, Managing Director, Infinite Prospects, Inc.

How many unique visitors does your dealership's website receive each month? 3,000? 10,000? 25,000?

The volume of shoppers who leave your website without completing a form, calling, or any other interaction - and then never return - is staggering; sometimes as high as 75%.

A percentage of those people mistakenly closed the window that they were using to browse the inventory, not really meaning to leave the site, however it's difficult for some to open a new window and quickly find the webpage or website they were just viewing. Others may have clicked on a link to a 3rd party site (like YouTube or DealerRater) that didn't open in a new window, thereby causing a site exit.

What if there were a way to re-engage 20-40% of those folks and bring them back to the website? Actually, there is!

The Importance of Positive Online Reviews To Car Dealers

by Adam Ross, Managing Director, Infinite Prospects, Inc.

How many positive reviews from customers does your dealership have on Google Plus Local, DealerRater, Cars.com and other consumer review websites? If the answer is "not many," "not enough,"or "none," then you're significantly increasing your chances of being ruled out by many potential customers and losing them to your competition.

Want to increase your dealership's sales and service opportunities by 80%? Get more positive reviews and push those negative reviews down! Statistics show that 4 in 5 consumers choose NOT to do business with a company because they read negative consumer reviews online, or because the dealer they wound up doing business with had substantially more positive reviews.

Adam Ross To Speak On Automated Quoting and Craigslist at The 8th Annual Online Sales Success Workshop

Exciting News! Managing Director Adam Ross Will Be Speaking at the Mosley Automotive Training 8th Annual Online Sales Success Workshop on June 19 at the Water Club at Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ.

The Masters Champions of Automotive Internet Sales

Who Would You Nominate for a "Green Jacket?"

As the best golfers in the world compete for the Green Jacket at Augusta, I can't help but think of the largest similarity that Major tournament golf champions have with the champions of the Automotive Internet Sales world - Consistent Excellence.

Great golfers lead The Masters for a day or two and often fade. Only the best of the best are still in contention late on Sunday. These are the professionals that have paid their dues - made mistakes and learned from them, pushed themselves, sacrificed, maintained focus in the face of adversity and persevered.

Digital Marketing Department for Car Dealers... Can it Pay Off?

I originally wrote this blog post (CLICK THIS LINK) almost 2 years ago, titled, "We need to Re-Position and Re-Name The Internet Department," on AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com, but the subject matter is more relevant than ever. An "Internet Sales department" will, sadly, no longer be sufficient for car dealerships going forward. That day is coming sooner rather than later.

As online consumer use has grown, the size of the staff working to capitalize on that



increased usage has remained relatively stagnant. There will continue to be the need for appointment setters responding to leads via email and phone, business development coordinators to make lease retention, unsold showroom and service follow-up calls. However, there is also enough work in marketing a dealership online to occupy one person (or an entire staff) on a full-time basis, in a DIGITAL MARKETING DEPARTMENT without that person having the burden or responsibility of setting appointments or selling cars. Most dealerships assign this role to the Internet Sales department, who are then forced to split their time performing both their original role (calling leads and selling cars) and this new added role of online marketing and keeping up with the latest trends. As a result, most of the time you will both see a drop-off in sales productivity and see a valiant but usually inconsistent attempt at marketing the dealership - limiting yourself in both areas.

Just to name a few of the responsibilities this department could cover better, simply because they can dedicate a full-time effort, rather than a part-time one:

• Monitoring and reacting faster to ongoing changes to Google algorithms effecting search presence,
• Overseeing the online Review Site (Reputation) Management for the dealership
• New Social Networks popping up just in the last year that can't be ignored (Google+ and Pinterest), added to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, FourSquare,  and many others
• Publishing more often to your Company Blog
• Reaching out and sharing best practices across the online Digital Automotive community on sites like dealerElite.net, DrivingSales.com, DealerRefresh.com, AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com, AutomotiveReputation.com to name a few.

My favorite analogy to describe this is: think of your hand. You have 5 fingers - each of them represents a profit center of the dealership (New, Used, F&I, Service, Parts). All 5 are connected to a palm, which ties everything together and makes each finger that much more powerful. The palm is the DIGITAL MARKETING DEPARTMENT. Fingers + Palm = Hand, which can accomplish much more than any one finger or two fingers can.

Compensation would be largely salary-based, with specific goal bonuses for # of check-ins in a certain time period, minimum number of outbound posts, volume of inbound engagements, and other measuring tools currently available that would show increase in reach, popularity and brand awareness. What are your thoughts about this idea?

Please comment below or visit my website to connect with me, Adam Ross, Managing Director at Infinite Prospects, and schedule a no-obligation FREE one-hour consult on your dealership's online marketing strategy.

Improve Your Monthly Internet Sales on InfiniteProspects.com

CAR DEALERSHIPS - IMPROVE YOUR MONTHLY INTERNET SALES!

Visit our All-New, Content-Rich Website at http://www.infiniteprospects.com NOW!

Are you overwhelmed by the multitude of Internet marketing choices?

Infinite Prospects provides expert insight into Automotive Internet Marketing solutions for dealers and sales professionals.

Infinite Prospects Releases its v3 website - (screenshot of homepage)

 Through personal, one-on-one coaching, you will discover:
» Secret marketing techniques for online auto sales success
» How to take advantage of the newest online trends and opportunities
» Insider knowledge to proven processes that increase monthly sales
» How to gain customers' attention through the latest marketing products and services

Learn about how Infinite Prospects can help your dealership sell more cars online. Whether you need on-site sales training and consulting for your car dealership, technology training and consulting, or to guide your team through the follow up and sales process with both automated and manual contacts, Infinite Prospects is there for you. We are authorized resellers for InstaQuote, PureCars, Cargigi, eXteresAuto, AutoE Dealers and HomeNet, to name a few, plus we are Certified in Teaching and Training AVV WebControl. Contact Adam Ross, Managing Director at Infinite Prospects today - call (201) 448-7253 or visit our content-rich website at http://www.infiniteprospects.com. We look forward to your feedback and comments!