That’s right, my opinion has every dealer displaying actual inventory and some dealers displaying actual inventory and a vehicle builder. I have heard a number of different reasons why dealers don’t think they should display their actual inventory. The most common reason is because they are a small dealer without a lot of inventory. My response to that would be that until the car buying process has become completely automated and the difference between buying a car from one dealer online vs. another is just financing or service, the customer is going to eventually visit your dealership before buying the car. If you have presented your dealership differently than you actually are, you may have just lost that sale on a lack of trust alone.

Both methods have their pro’s and con’s. Actual inventory lets the customer know that they can come to the dealership and buy the exact car they were looking at online. A vehicle builder or form allowing the consumer to request a specific type of vehicle makes your inventory limitless and could increase your number of leads significantly higher than you would have seen with actual inventory alone. Both methods will gather leads from different types of buyers.

The best thing you can do is to do your homework, find out what types of cars people are buying and stock them. Otherwise you may lose a future customer when you have to tell them you can’t find the F-150 with Navigation, DVD, Rear Spoiler, 22” wheels and the talking Knight Rider feature that even a 100% accurate Build-A-Car tool will allow them to create.

You should also keep in mind that not all buyers are the same. For example, if I were going to start looking for a new car to buy my first task would be to go to Google and search for that type of car. I would be looking for local dealers that stock that particular model. Once I found a site I would “build” the vehicle I am looking for just so I have an idea of what options are available, what the differences are between trims and what MSRP is for the vehicle. I would take notes and I would not submit a lead (sorry, that’s how I am). Now that I know what car I want, I would search actual inventory for that vehicle. If it isn’t on the site I am searching, I will go search somewhere else. Once I have found the vehicle of my dreams online, I would call the dealer to confirm that the vehicle was actually in-stock, if it isn’t I am done shopping at that dealer. If it is, I would go to the dealer, test drive and make my decision to buy or not to buy. You may notice that I never submitted a lead. I just don’t want anyone to call or email me at all in the process. If I could swipe my license in a candy machine that spit out the keys for me to test drive and swipe my credit card when ready to buy, that would be my ideal buying experience.

I hope you enjoyed my opinions. If you are curious to discuss this with me in more detail, please feel free to call me at XIGroup.

Joe High

General Manager, XIGroup

By: Brian Page, General Manager of Dealer Data Services at Dealer Specialties

“To capture the ever-increasing Internet market, it helps to have a thorough understanding of the online car shopping experience. Consumers typically go through five steps before making a final decision about the type of vehicle they want to purchase, including where they plan to purchase it.”

Know the Five Steps Online Shoppers Take  (click on link to view full article)

Yet all too often, with months of implementation, dealers get frustrated because they are not seeing the return on investment they had anticipated. In these cases, it’s easy to blame the product or vendor. It’s not uncommon for dealers to approach XIGroup , unhappy with the relationship that they had with a previous web solutions provider.

Although we are always happy to help dealers identify ways to improve their web strategy, the first step is try to help dealers understand the reasons for their past frustrations or perceived lack of success. Selling products and services to a frustrated dealership that doesn’t have an internet sales strategy is a recipe for failure.

To keep an internet marketing program competitive, regular maintenance is required. If a dealer becomes frustrated with his results, the first thing he should do is check to see if the person responsible for maintaining the web site performs the following daily, weekly and monthly maintenance:

Daily Maintenance

• Update Inventory – Monitor inventory and make sure that information in the DMS matches with the information displayed on the web site. If the reports don’t reveal a 100% match, identify why. Ensure that all new cars coming onto the lot are entered into the DMS immediately. Also, if there are specific cars or brands you want to focus on trying to move, spend time creating specials around them. The primary goal is to make sure all inventory is matching, accurate and displayed for the customer in an appropriate manner.
• Ensure Vehicles are Competitively Priced – For dealers who display vehicle prices on the internet, it’s critical to make sure that the listed price is very competitive. Price them to sell on the internet, or don’t price them at all. To keep abreast of competitive pricing information, check out competitors’ web sites in your area, track leads submitted on a vehicle versus the number views a particular vehicle has gotten and look at the various reports available in the administrative tools section of your inventory software. If a report shows that a vehicle has been viewed 70 times but no leads have been submitted, that’s probably a good indication that the price is too high.

Weekly Maintenance

• Analyze Sales Trends – Every week, dealers should spend some time in the administrative section and analyze which cars are being looked at the most, whether the majority of leads received were new or used, and what types of vehicles were sold that week. With just minutes of due diligence every week, trends will start to emerge that dealers can then take advantage of by creating specials or other marketing campaigns.
• Analyze Traffic – Dealers should also be aware of where the traffic on their web site is originating from. Reports reveal whether leads are received as a result of print advertising, search engines, third-party lead sites and more. Also they should take note of whether leads were submitted through the inventory page or the Contact Us page on their web site. This knowledge is invaluable when it comes to deciding where to spend the majority of marketing dollars, as well as responding to consumer shopping trends.
• Change/Update Web Site Content – If a car buyer returns to a web site several times in the course of a month-long buying process, and the web site has not been updated in any way, it conveys a subtle message that a dealership is not actively engaged and the consumer may chose to shop somewhere else. Content changes do not have to be drastic. If a dealer is placing an ad in the newspaper that week, upload the ad to the web site. Update dealer events such as holiday extravaganzas. Include recent articles on car buying trends from automotive publications. Informative content updated on a regular basis will keep consumers engaged and returning to the site again and again.

Monthly Maintenance

• Analyze Competition – Most dealers are somewhat aware of what their competition is doing, but every month they should do a comprehensive analysis of not only their local competition, but dealerships in other locations around the country. Find out who the most successful dealers are that represent the same OEMs. Analyze their web site and marketing strategies. Talk to dealers at conferences and pick their brains about their marketing strategies, both positive and negative, and don’t be afraid to ask what hasn’t worked as well as what has worked. Over time, dealers will begin to recognize marketing trends and get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. By learning from others’ mistakes, dealers can avoid a lot of wasted time and expense.

By: Bill Mulcahy, Sales Manager