Fort Lauderdale, FL – May 20^th, 2013 — AutoUSA Internet Sales Solutions (www.autousadealers.com) today introduced Shop-By-Payment for Payment Pro^SM, powered by DriveItNow, a patent-pending next generation payment marketing tool that offers consumers a new way to shop on auto dealer websites. When a customer visits a dealer website with Shop-By-Payment, they are given the option to search inventory based on their desired monthly payment. The customer is prompted to enter in their name and a few details—no SSN or DOB required. Shop-By-Payment searches the available inventory based on their actual credit, the dealers’ current finance programs and returns a list of new and used vehicles that match the desired payment.

 

“Shop-By-Payment for Payment Pro revolutionizes the online auto shopping experience,” said Phil DuPree, President of AutoUSA. “Instead of searching for vehicles based on make, model or price, customers can now view and choose from all the vehicles they know they can afford based on the monthly payment.”

 

After displaying a list of vehicles that match the customer’s payment range, Shop-By-Payment allows the customer to change criteria such as monthly payment, down payment or the bottom line price they are willing to pay. The inventory displayed instantly adjusts to the new criteria selected by the customer. When the customer narrows the selection of vehicles, they click on a button with the desired monthly payment. That information then becomes a credit analyzed website lead and is sent to that dealership.

 

Shop-By-Payment for Payment Pro offers dealers the following benefits:

 

·      For the majority of car buyers, it is all about the payment. According to CNW Research, 70.5 percent of car buyers finance their vehicles. Shop-By-Payment instantly engages these customers by offering an easy, interactive and immediate way to view the vehicles they can afford, instead of viewing the vehicles they want and not knowing if they can afford them.

 

·      Because no Social Security Number or date of birth is required, Shop-By-Payment protects consumers’ privacy and credit reports. Payment Pro delivers payment quotes based on the customer’s credit without negatively impacting the credit score.

 

·      Payment Pro delivers accurate monthly payment quotes based on the customer’s credit, the dealership’s finance programs and the specific inventory available, producing high-quality, credit analyzed leads. With customers this far down the sales funnel, the next step is for the customer to visit the dealership and take delivery of the vehicle.

 

Shop-By-Payment is initially available to car dealers who are currently using AutoUSA’s Payment Pro. To see a demonstration of Shop-By-Payment for Payment Pro, visit www.AnywhereMotors.com.

 

Dealers interested in learning more about Shop-By-Payment for Payment Pro can call AutoUSA at 800-509-8714.

 

About AutoUSA Internet Sales Solutions (www.AutoUSADealers.com)

AutoUSA Internet Sales Solutions brings the best-in-class tools to increase Internet sales and lower costs for automotive dealerships. Leading products include Payment Pro^SM, a payment-based pre-qualification tool for dealer websites; ShowPro^SM incentive program, proven to turn more leads into shows; Leads&Listings^SM, providing the highest quality, new and used car email and phone leads from 100+ sites; PowerListings^SM 2.0, helping dealers increase traffic to—and leads from—their social media sites; and AVA Virtual Sales Assistant, helping dealerships manage more leads at a reduced cost. AutoUSA products are currently benefiting thousands of active dealers all across the U.S.

 

For more information, visit AutoUSA’s web site, subscribe to our blog at http://blog.autousadealers.com, follow us on Twitter @AutoUSALeads and “Like” us on Facebook at /AutoUSADealers

 

About DriveItNow® (http://www.DriveItNow.com)

DriveItNow® is a patent-pending monthly payment marketing technology service of Automobile Consumer Services, Inc. (ACS). ACS is a leader in developing innovative online shopping technology with the initial launch of LeaseCompare.com in 2000. LeaseCompare.com continues to be one of the top destinations for auto financing and leasing in the industry.

The broad term “Internet Marketing” encompasses a fast-changing industry. In the past two years, “new” developments such as mobile, social and reputation management have quickly become mainstream, while the effectiveness of “old” methods such as banner ads and e-mail marketing have been debated.

 

While dealers should be aware of the latest technologies, ensuring that perceptions about the Internet and its capabilities is extremely important too. Here are three things every dealer should know about Internet marketing:

 

1) The Internet Creates Buyers, Not Shoppers

 

Given a choice between greeting a showroom customer and working an Internet lead, most salespeople would choose the former; simply because they believe they have a better chance of closing the showroom customer in the short term. Many dealers (and salespeople) still view Internet leads as “Internet shoppers” who are potentially difficult to work with or even reach.

 

The reality is that, whether they’re in your virtual showroom or your physical showroom, they’re a buyer. Maybe not today, but statistically the Internet customer is highly likely to buy within 90 days.

 

94% of car buyers begin the process online, according to recent estimates, yet most dealerships attribute less than 30% of actual sales to Internet leads. Why the discrepancy? Most consumers do research online but instead of submitting a lead, they decide to call or walk into a dealership when they’re ready to buy. Because of all the research they can do on their own, though, customers today visit only 1.4 dealerships before purchasing a car, down from 4.5 in 2005, according to J.D. Power.

 

And, according to a recent study by CAR-Research XRM, only 25% of people leave showrooms because they are “still shopping.” The rest leave because of inventory, financing or some other issue. These customers are ready to buy, the only question is, are they buying from you?

 

2) Internet Marketing is More Than a One-Person Job

 

If I asked you, “Who is in charge of your Internet marketing,” would you answer, “The Internet Sales Director?”

 

To be effective, Internet marketers need to have knowledge of and take advantage of all facets of the Internet. This means managing the dealership’s website and SEO, e-mail marketing campaigns, and being the resident CRM expert.

 

In addition, Internet marketers should know how to properly leverage and manage the dealership’s presence on independent auto shopping, research and review sites, the manufacturer website, social media sites and reputation management sites. Finally, they need to keep up with the latest trends and create strategies for search marketing, payment marketing, mobile marketing, banner advertising, e-mail marketing and video marketing.

 

That’s a lot for one person to keep up with, let alone the time needed to work the leads that come in as a result of all that work. To stay competitive, dealers need to allocate the appropriate budget, training and resources for their Internet departments. According to a recent article in Ward’s Auto profiling the top 100 e-dealers, successful Internet dealers typically spend 40% or more of their overall advertising and marketing budget on digital.

 

3) Evolve Your Communication

 

Most dealers are probably not Internet gurus; nor do they want to be. Several years ago, the perception was that this was okay. Hiring an “Internet nerd” who could run the Internet operations was the norm. But staying competitive today—and maybe even survival tomorrow—depends on how successful your dealership’s Internet marketing program is.

 

Every manager needs to understand that customers can engage with the store and its sales staff anywhere online. They need to stay abreast of trends, direct strategies, manage processes, hold teams accountable and respond to customers’ online concerns and opportunities—wherever they arise. One click, one call, one person doesn’t work any more.

 

What do you think dealers need to know about Internet marketing?

www.autousadealers.com Josh Vajda, Director of Inside Sales, shares three proven methods for getting Internet leads into the dealership showroom.

It’s becoming more common for customers to shop, communicate and conduct daily business using their mobile devices. If you are selling cars in a dealership, I’m guessing you’ve received many responses from customers with the signature “sent from my iPhone/4G-LTE smartphone/mobile device.” When you see this type of response, do you attempt to communicate as you normally would?

 

Almost all of the e-mail templates and responses I have seen were created for customers who are sitting at their computers. Many salespeople have been trained to reply to an Internet lead with a fairly long, personalized response that includes links to several pieces of inventory, reasons for buying from this dealership and one or two questions designed to engage. This type of e-mail is great if your customer is sitting at the computer. But if you send that same response to a mobile customer, they’re probably not going to engage.

 

So what’s the best way to communicate with a mobile customer? Here are a few tips:

 

1)    --Get to the point. Mobile customers don’t think or respond the same way, and don’t have the same level of patience as when they’re sitting at home on their computers. A mobile customer is probably going to be distracted; multi-tasking, bouncing from checking e-mail to Facebook, to Twitter, to attending to their daily life. For this reason, keep your e-mails to no more than a couple sentences and you’ll be more likely to engage that customer in a conversation.

 

2)   -- Choose attachments and links carefully. If you’re used to sending a brochure about your dealership, an embedded video, or showcasing a particular vehicle with hundreds of photos, think twice before sending memory-heavy attachments to the mobile customer. Mobile users aren’t likely to open an attachment that’s difficult to view on a small screen or takes a long time to download. Instead, send a link to a video or send one good photo of the car that they inquired about.

 

3)    --Be Patient. On mobile devices, many people respond one line at a time, as if in a chat. Going back and forth one line at a time may become frustrating to you. But remember, this is not about you, it’s about the customer and their needs. You may reach a point where you think that one phone call could replace all this, and ask the customer to just call you, or you may try calling them. Or you may be tempted to write, “if you set an appointment to come in and take a test drive, all your questions will be answered.” Yet, just as we’ve been taught to earn the right to ask for the sale in the traditional sales process, you must earn the right to ask your mobile customers. When you’re communicating via mobile, it may take a lot longer, moving one small step at a time. Trying to skip ahead in the process could disconnect them from the conversation.

 

What tips do you have for communicating with mobile customers?

Many dealers offer estimated payments and credit apps on their websites, but neither offer the benefits of real payment quoting. What are real payments? Tarry Shebesta of DriveItNow explains, and outlines the benefits of offering real payments on your dealership's website.

One of the first leads we received when we first started the Internet Department was from 3 hours away on a new Pathfinder. After an initial back and forth via email and a productive phone call, the salesperson went to the manager for some availability and pricing information. “Just get them in,” was the answer.

We all know that when we get customers in the door, we’re likely to close them. Our dealers (and our own internal measurements) tell us we close about half of our Internet customer visits. So if we can “just get them in,” we can “just close them.” HOW we get them in, though, is the real magic, and it starts with our contact rate.

Here are some tips to help you drive your contact rate – thus your appointment and show and sales rate – higher:

1.     People hate long emails.  Look at your email responses, starting with your initial response. Does it get to the point quickly? Is there even a point? Make sure the customer know why you’re emailing them and what you want from them up front. Keep it short and simple and people are more likely to respond.

2.     Keep. Trying. Industry studies consistently show two things: first, the more call attempts made by a sales associate, the more likely they are to make contact with the prospect (with some diminishing return after 6 call attempts, according to LeadCritic’s 2009 study). Second, most salespeople abandon the lead after 2-3 attempts. If you want to contact the customer, you have to put in the effort and be persistent where others are not.

3.    Stand out. Your customer likely sent a lead to another dealership (or 5). If you want the customer to return your contact attempts (email or phone), you have to a) be different, and b) clearly state who you are and where you’re from.

4.    Personalize your approach, not just your responses. In their keynote address at the Digital Dealer conference in October, Google discussed how online car shoppers are in a state of “constant consideration,” and no longer follow a linear buying cycle. That means each lead could be at a different point in the process, and you may have to pick up the process in the middle.

5.    Give reasons to call, respond or visit. If you’re not offering something to the customer of value or perceived value, they’re less likely to take an action. You can offer your assistance, or cash equivalents on your website in the form of incentives, or information that’s of value and typically hard to get (like payments on their vehicle of interest). Give before you expect to receive and you’ll get more back.

What have you done that’s helped you convert more leads into shows?

 

In October, we facilitated a panel called “The Five Things in Common That Successful Internet Departments Share” at the 13^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas. We were thrilled to have over 200 attendees and want to thank our panelists for doing a great job. We decided to share some tips from our panelists for the benefit of all who couldn’t make it to the conference in hopes that you’ll find it as helpful as the attendees did.

 

Our panelists included:

- Greg Coleman, Director of Business Development & E-Commerce Director, Lexus Store of Lexington & Toyota of Nicholasville

- Justin Brun, E-Commerce Manager, Acton Toyota of Littleton

- Richard Tolsma, Internet Manager, Dan Wiebold Ford, Idaho

- Ray Fenster, President & CEO, RayFenster.com, LLC

- Dennis Colome, Vice President Sales & Marketing, eXteres Auto

 

Here’s a summary of some tips from their discussion:

 

1)      Boost your phone call volume without paying additional money: “Make your phone number prominent on every website page. In addition, include your phone number in the website page title and description.” – Ray Fenster

 

2)    Relevance is content, not just keywords. “Don’t ‘keyword stuff’ your website search terms, i.e. don’t go after every city in the state. Google is onto this and no longer allows it.”  – Dennis Colome

 

3)    All leads are created equal. “Our dealership uses a strict 180-day process for follow up. Once a lead reaches 60 days with no contact, then the process becomes automated.” – Richard Tolsma

 

4)    Turn your “dead” leads into service opportunities. “If a customer isn’t ready to buy a car, give the lead to fixed ops to market and see if they can get that customer in for service. Something like 80% of service customers will buy a new car from that dealership. The closing percentage goes way up.” – Ray Fenster

 

5)    Don’t be afraid to share pricing, just be smart about it. “Be up front in your pricing, but be sure to give the customer several pricing options. Give them the price for the vehicle they inquired about, then follow up with second and third pricing options that are lower.” – Dennis Colome

 

6)    Generic responses don’t add value to the conversation. “Respond to specific questions and concerns in the customers’ initial e-mails. Also acknowledge the source from where the lead came; for example, if you get a lead from ZAG American Express, mention something about the program and how exclusive it is and how happy you are to be working with them.” – Justin Brun

 

 

7)    Have a pricing strategy. “When responding to pricing questions, use a “we start as low as” strategy and show the customer the option, i.e. a Toyota-Corolla. Giving them the lowest price on the lowest model will set their expectations and they usually upsell themselves. The vast majority of our customers buy a different vehicle than they originally inquired about.”  – Greg Coleman

 

8)    Be patient. “Third party leads typically research five to six vehicles on the third-party sites because they are looking for unbiased info. When they submit leads they are often three to four months out, so work with them for a while. True ROI has to be measured over time.” – Dennis Colome

 

9)    Know Your Market. “We perform a competitive analysis via e-mails and mystery shopping websites and third-party sites, and build a pricing matrix based upon the information gathered. On new vehicles we found our competitors are just showing the MSRP; so by displaying that number minus any available rebates, we automatically show a lower price than what’s in the market.” – Greg Coleman

 

10)Trends are worth more than ‘snapshots’. “When you report to management, they want to see results. Whatever program or product you are reviewing, show 30-day, 60-day and 90-day snapshots so they can see trends as to what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t be afraid to get rid of what’s not working. Not all products work for all dealerships.”  - Ray Fenster

 

Which is your favorite “top tip?” What are you doing in your department that works? What’s your “top tip” to share with other Internet sales personnel? 

 

Greg Coleman, Director of Business Development and E-Commerce at Lexus of Lexington and Toyota on Nicholasville, shares tips for formulating effective pricing strategies for vehicles.

Justin Brun, E-Commerce Manager with Acton Toyota of Littleton, shares three tips for effective Internet lead response.

Are Internet customers all that different than showroom customers? Josh Vajda analyzes the sales processes used with Internet leads and with showroom customers, and gives recommendations on how to ensure that both groups of customers are being treated the same, for maximum closing rates and profitability.