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Provided by: Ken Madsen - director chatIQ
Automotive Internet Sales Departments: It’s Time to Evolve
In the last five years we’ve all witnessed the internet develop from
informational sapling into the towering, interactive behemoth whose
shade we bask in for hours a day, be it for professional or recreational
reasons.
Ten years ago, the only kinds of sales positions that were
internet-based were those filled by people savvy enough to run their
antiques-to-go operations through eBay. Now, almost every sector of
retail and manufacturing has online sales teams and everyone is scouring
the terrain for the newest and greatest internet tools.
 A colleague and I recently attended the Association of Automotive
Internet Sales Professionals gathering in Nashville, TN, and nowhere was
the promise of the internet more prominent. One thing that boggled my
mind however was, through all of the excellent presentations on
following leads, customer interaction, CSM tricks and tips, and getting
ahead of the competition, where was the outrage from the attendees?
That’s right. Outrage.
Here we are, approaching the twilight of the first decade of the 21st
century, and car dealerships are still treating their websites like
billboards; simply posting information and going no further.
The internet is no longer about leaving information for others to
peruse, it’s about interaction; bringing people and products together.
Automotive Internet Sales Professionals are simply not being afforded
the tools they need to fully develop their sales floor: the dealership
website.
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself (or your internet
manager) to tell whether or not your company is getting the most out of
its website:
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Can you tell who visits your website?
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Can you tell which links/pages on your website get
the most attention?
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Can you interact with the visitors of your website?
If you said “No” to any of these, your internet sales
department is horribly under-equipped. Imagine not being able to see
customers on your physical sales floor. Imagine not being able to tell
what makes and models customers are trying to decide between. Imagine a
customer showing up to the dealership and no one being able to talk to
them.
This would obviously never happen on a physical sales floor. But the
internet salespersons need to stand up for their end of the business as
well. If it won’t fly on the sales floor, it shouldn’t fly in your
internet sales department.
Thankfully, righting this internet-sales wrong is easy in this day and
age. Live Chat has arrived on the scene to empower internet sales
departments with the tools they need to turn their billboard-style
website into an interactive experience for the customer, and at an
extremely reasonable cost. If your website had Live Chat, every answer
to the previous questions would be a resounding “Yes!”
That’s not to say that no dealerships have embraced the promise of Live
Chat. And those few that have embraced it have seen the advanced
interaction capability payoff in spades. Customers appreciate a mode of
communication with the dealership when they are researching their next
car purchase. And the large majority of the time, that research is
taking place on the internet.
From a technological standpoint—based on what technology is available
compared to what is being implemented—automotive websites are stuck in
primitive times. It’s time to tell management to quit the
knuckle-dragging and get you the tools you need to convert those online
leads.
I leave you with some figures to consider:
67.5% of new vehicle buyers are using the internet in their online
sales process.
21% of internet shoppers cited 'quick response' as criteria for
selecting a dealer.
53% of all internet leads resulted in a sale.
Is your website evolved enough to take advantage of this?
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