Vincent Hoss

If you are serious about increasing income or sales "You Must Study Your Competitors". If some one has already figured out how to sell your products or services, all you need to do is study what they are doing, where they are advertising, what is their line up of products etc. This is the fastest way to increase sales, just copy someone else that is successful in your market.

People that are already shopping with you or have shopped with you in the past are the easiest customers to resell. Do everything in your power to find out "What They Like" and why they have picked you over other places. Find out what brings them to you and why, is it location, a certain employee, coupons, etc. You must also find out "What They Do Not Like" about your store and be willing to adjust to their needs and wants.

Employees can be a wealth of information about "What Is Really Happening" at your store. If you are not listening, or taking all their ideas and putting them right in the shredder or arguing with them when they try to tell you what is happening, you are in trouble. Employees will stop sharing vital information if every time they comment they are squashed by those above them.

"Vendors Have Inside Information" you can learn so much from your vendors. take the time to hear their sales pitch and ask lots of questions about what is working and what is not. They see your competitors from the inside and can really help tip you off to what is happening, who is looking for a job, what new products have come out and how those products are working at other stores.

"There Are Only Two Ways To Increase Sales" When all is said and done there are really only two ways to increase auto sales. Either you increase "Ups" people coming into the store OR You increase the "Close Ratio" the number of people who bought vs the number that came in. 1. Find the best SEO Lead Generation person you can find, one that will only work for you and not every other competitor you have in your market. 2. You need some one that really understands the Internet, Social Media, Landing Pages, Collecting Reviews, AdWords and Lead Providers. 3. You will want someone who will track every text, chat, email, phone call and Up "Until They Buy Or Die.

Your website is the Mother Ship of all Internet activity, all aspects of your company flow in, around and out of the main website. The new responsive websites allow a customer or client to easily move around within your site from any size phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. Make sure your website is up to date, looks good and has clear call to actions.

The "Service Area" is where you show the search engines the areas and cities where you service customers. You may have an office in one or more cities, but usually most offices serve a radius around that office that they serve. You want to show the search engines all the cities you service with a separate GEO targeted web page.

Customers, Clients and Search Engines look at your social media sites to make a decision about your company. If you do not water, fertilize and take care of your social sites they will die over time and every one who lands on them will know.

Amazon has taught us not to buy a toy without looking at the reviews, TripAdvisor has taught us not to go to a restaurant or stay at a hotel without looking at the reviews. We usually have no problem collecting bad reviews, we must work to get happy customers to leave a review.

Besides the map, the only picture in the search results is the thumb nail image of a video. Make sure you have videos!

Do not let a customer or client go without getting there email and cell phone number to call, email and text them about what your company is doing. Use software that will allow you to keep track of them overtime who opt-in, while allowing them to opt-out from every email or text.

Need Customers Now? Make sure your online image looks good and start a campaign with Google, Yahoo, MSN, YouTube & Facebook.

The Internet Director is the the “Guardian” of your advertising budget and online image. The Internet director should be trying to get the best leads at the lowest price, while tracking every incoming up, call and lead throughout the sales process. You should get reports of cost per lead, cost per appointment, cost per sale and total profit so that you can adjust your advertising budget. The Automotive Internet Director should also be looking after the online image: Website, blog, social media, reviews, directory listings, videos etc. If you want your website to move up in the search results you need to water it daily or weekly with new pages, articles, posts, reviews, testimonials, coupons, videos etc.

The BDC is the “Guardian” of your leads, they are responsible to nurture and care for every one of your $35 - $100 leads, until they come in to the store. This is done by getting there first, “He or she that gets there first wins” and find out where the customer is at in the purchase process. It also means that we must follow up with every customer that comes in but did not buy and any than did not show up for their appointment. Second we must “follow up until they buy or die” whether it is one week or one year. The BDC must work with each different manager and sales person to find their strengths and weakness. Helping them to understand how and why follow up is so important. Often 40%-50% of our car sales come from existing customers and referrals; how much attention are we giving to the existing customers?

There are several different models, but I have found this model has the highest profit per sale, each manager should have has his or her own team, they hire and train their sales people, and they are paid on their team’s performance. Could the top sales person who is now a manager sell a 100 cars a month with the help of 6 or 10 sales people that he/she has trained and developed? The answer is YES! The incoming leads rotate to each Internet sales person and a copy is sent to their manager. The manage is personally involved in helping his/her team to follow up and to taking turns on every up, phone call and Internet lead. Then the BDC follows up on behalf of the GM. The BDC is the “back up” to the whole store, making sure nothing falls between the cracks. If there is a problem the BDC can go right to the manager or salesperson and fix it.

A great sales manager is also a great coach, they need to find the talents and abilities of each person and let them do what they are good at and are passionate about. Every person on a football team is there because they are the best person available for that position. Everyone cannot be a running back or quarterback, just like everyone does not have the product knowledge to answer emails or phone calls. We have to treat experienced high or low volume salespeople differently than green peas that are just starting. The goal should be to find and/or train “20 car” sales people and then provide an environment where they and their “20 car” friends want to work.

Ad Agencies & Large Web Companies are not your friend: They are not going to rock the boat and take a chance on offending any of their other clients in your area. If no one is checking their work they do the minimum to keep you from leaving. If one web company has 20 Toyota dealers in the same market they are going to be very careful not to offend any of the other Toyota dealers. Ad Agencies will charge $150 to $200 per hour for every hour of work even though they only have one guy who knows what he is doing all the rest make $20 to $50 per hour.

Why is it important to do everything in your power to keep existing customers happy? They know where you are, they have been here before, they have purchased from you in the past. A happy customer is like a gift that keeps on giving. They do less research, they buy faster, they tell their friends, and they cost less to service. I have worked at dealerships with a 45% repeat and referral rate and I have worked with dealers with a 95% repeat and referral rate. A 45% dealer sells 200+ a month, has high turn over, not so great customer experience and will not spend anything on existing customers or employees. The 95% store is Holz Chevrolet in Hales Corners, WI they have almost no turn over, I was the first sales person hired in 6 years, I had to prove that I had sold over 20 cars a month for 12 months before I could even interview. They spent a lot on employees and customers and hardly anything on advertising. They are selling over 1000 cars a month in a town of 6,000 people. The owner told me "Dealers come from all over the country to ask me how I do it. I tell them it is simple I want the very best sales people and I will do what ever I need to do to keep me." All the gifts that came from the the manufacturer and vendors were given to the sales team and the pay plan was an inch thick; they paid on everything.

1. Follow Up: Once an owner asked me "Why do you follow up after 2 weeks?" I pulled the last 100 sales and showed him 33% bought within 30 days, 33% bought within 90 days and 33% bought within a year of the email or phone contact.

2. Advice for a new sales person: 1. Learn your product. 2. Learn how to sell a lot of cars each month, (volume). 3. Learn how to make a living selling cars by selling cars at a profit, anyone can give away a car 4. The longer you stay in one place the more money with less work you will make from referrals and repeat customers. 5. You need a way for people to remember you, my way was M&M's toys and giving away M&M candy.

3. The Internet sales guys have been the loser sales people at the dealership for many years, the Internet Department was in the far back of the dealership or upstairs because they thought they only lost money. You do not have to lose money in the Internet department, I made so much as an internet sales person the managers took me off the list of sold's and gross because I was making more in a week than most were making in a month, my sales team worked so hard and we made so much that management cut my pay to match the lazy sales managers that waited around for an up.

4. How times have changed: At some dealerships theses Internet principles of 1. Tracking every Ad Source 2. Immediately response 3. Manager involvement on every Up, Call and Lead and 4. Following up "Forever" are now the fundamental principles being used in every aspect of the Sales, Service, Parts, Body Shop and Rental Car departments because they increase sales, repeat business and referrals.

5. Holz Motors Hales Corners WI population 6,000 is WI's largest Chevy dealer 1000+ per month: The owner once told me "Other dealers often ask me how can you sell so many cars out of a town so small? How do you do it?" He said "Simple I want the best sales people I can get & I will do what ever to keep them" You cannot even interview for a sales position with Holz unless you can prove with pay checks and vouchers that you can consistently sell 20 cars a month. Some sales people have been there 10, 20 and 30 years. Warning it is very very cold in Hales Corners WI and the new sales guy moves all the cars after it snows.

6. Be Aggressive On-Line: Many advertising, social media and web companies work with every dealership in your metro area so they cannot help you without offending one of their other clients. Find a web SEO, graphics, social media, review guy who will only work for you and let him target every possible keyword, make, competitor etc. You want to show up in as many web and social media search results as possible. The very best leads are exclusive leads that you generate!

7. What Kind Of Customer Do We Have? This is a common problem on the phone, in person and through an Internet lead NOT every one is a price shopper! Some are simply calling for availability, pricing, options, location, hours etc. Before you give a price, try to find out what the customers is trying to accomplish. At the dealership the sales person often does not know after several hours why the customer is at the dealership. Some customers have ruined their credit and will take almost any car and payment if you get them approved. Other customers want the payment to be slightly higher, the same or lower than their existing payment. The "True Price Shopper" just wants the numbers, the sales person and the manager need to know if this customer came in as a shopper and be quick to lay out all the correct prices, interest and options and let the customer choose. Do not try to turn a $30k truck in to a $1200 a month payment with out clearly explaining why there is $30k of other stuff because most shoppers know basic math and will either leave or leave mad.

8. Isn't This The Truth: Owners that want to stay in business need to "Increase Income" & "Decrease Expenses" Many employees and even managers do not understand this concept.

9. A Great Coach/Manager: Are you putting the best person for the job in the correct position EVEN if your friend, buddy, potential girlfriend or boyfriend etc wants the job?

10. Accountability: Check what is happening with every employee, every sales person and every manager, they must be held accountable. The interesting thing about correct numbers: Number do not lie, they do not misunderstand and they are not emotionally involved. Compare how each person is doing in their position and against others in the same position, so that you can go right to the problem & fix it!