Until today, if anyone approached a major Internet department and said that they should be closing 61% of their leads, many may have balked. They’d cite example after example of how this simply isn’t possible. And the truth is, the more they’re like the lowest closing-ratio dealer, the more examples in their arsenal. And with more examples comes a stronger belief. But, just like the General Manager in Part 1 wiped last month’s sales board clean, we have to put that behind us.

Summary: The dark before the dawn – the Internet Manager has a mental breakdown.

It was May 1^st, and the General Manager was wiping clean last month’s stats off our sales board in his office. All my late-night, hard-won battles vanished in his big swipes. Sales always look so clean and easy when they’re just numbers. And the eraser glides so easily over them. But, we all know there’s a story behind every number on the board.

Almost every dealer has one. Every salesman on the floor has been wronged by him at some point. If they haven’t recently, it’s only a matter of time before he strikes again.

He’s Half-Deal Man.

In Part 1, we got a better sense of the internet car shopper’s mental model. Now, let’s talk about how to apply that understanding.

This very millisecond, somewhere on the interwebs, a customer is about to press “Click Here for a Quote.” This customer is moments away from reaching dealers’ CRMs. They bite their nails, pondering the ramifications of giving out their personal information for the promise of super-awesome dealer quotes. The risk seems worth it, so they proceed… but then change their phone number slightly because that way maybe they’ll only receive quotes via email. Hopes are high. They refresh their inbox. Dealers are responding. Let’s follow along the most likely path taken by this internet shopper.

Maybe you’re a GM, and you suspect your Internet department is underperforming. Or you might be an Internet Manager who’s tired of losing deals to competitors that tell your prospects to bring in their lowest quote. Either way, you’re in the right place; this is no average article – It’s a step-by-step plan on how to improve sales.

A crowd of salesmen assembles on the showroom floor. None of them quite understand why they’re whispering. Some have heard rumors of a salesman who existed many years ago. Others swear this isn’t true. A few say he could never survive again because we live in different times.

In Dealer Reviews: Part 1, I discussed how dealer reviews impacted my quote response rates. What if you’re a 2-star rated dealer? What can you do to turn this around? Here’s an Action Plan for turning around your 1- and 2-star rated dealer reviews.

Good Dealer Reviews Step 1: Find the biggest wound and stop the bleeding

Look at your reviews and try to isolate the common complaint – and simply put a stop to it. Don’t just look at who’s mentioned in these complaints. For example, if salespeople are mentioned, these salespeople may just be following an existing sales process. If your Desk Managers aren’t listening to salespeople regarding the customer’s wants and needs, this will create a disconnect and a negative experience for shoppers. You may need to do away with the practice of putting processes before people. 

A strange thing happened last week. I began to send a quick video clip to each internet lead (like this video intro) immediately after emailing a quote. I was certain that after one week I’d be writing an article about how successful my video clips were – how they were the secret ingredient to my deals. But that’s not the article I’m writing. Because something else happened.

In nearly every response to my email, these prospective customers mentioned how they’d read about me on Yelp or through Google reviews. That’s because just before I started sending videos, I also happened to pick up two new Yelp reviews and one Google review in a single day. They were all 5-star reviews. Plus, one or two previous prospects I’d quoted a few weeks ago suddenly re-initiated contact with me. One said that even though she found a lower price, she hoped I could match it because she’d read so many positive reviews of the dealership where I worked.

The most important person you can hire in your dealership right now isn’t another 30-unit Internet Sales Manager (though, they are nice to have) or a 175-call-per-day BDC Rep who’s as good on the 175th call as he was on the second call (…actually, you’d better get that one) or a rock-star Service Advisor from a nearby competitor who’d connected with 868 service customers on Facebook (Hmmm… I’d lure that one, too).

In Part 1, a sampling of 18 dealers and 1077 Yelp reviews revealed that customers were 26% more likely to have a positive experience at large dealers versus small ones. If you’re like me, you neither expected nor hoped for this result. In Part 2, we’ll look into possible reasons for this, drawing from my experience working for small dealers.