By Howard Leavitt on November 19, 2008
The last three months have seen economic conditions that haven’t existed since the Great Depression. It is no wonder that many dealers have been frozen in fear and inaction. Snap out of it, think what you have control of and make changes to be in position to survive through declining volumes.
If you are in contracts and can get out of them do so, cut your loss now and find economic solutions for your dealership. We built layers of management to solve the sales solution when volumes increased. It is time to operate lean and positive for the short and long terms. Bring your employees to the table to be part of the solution, they have great ideas and will work for the survival of your business.
Customer follow up, retention, and relationship building with your base is essential to compete with good products or poor. The basics, process, structure and accountability. Execute and you will succeed.
By Howard Leavitt on November 12, 2008
Sales staffs fail because it take too much effort and structure by management to make them work.
Dealers who do not make the commitment in technology, equipment, and formal training will not succeed in today’s changing market. We complain about lack of follow up and assume that the more we yell at the lowest common denominator the more they will sell and be accountable. NO.
Let’s invest a little to get a lot in return. Make the sales position a position of stature and responsibility. Some of us have, but I see so many dealerships who work in ways that worked in the past but that are failing today. Take control of your investment and destiny by establishing a work environment that rewards excellence and honesty - not just showing up to stare out the window. Conduct formal training, get the right technology, use what is available to close at a higher rate, just don’t talk about it “do it today.”
By Howard Leavitt on October 15, 2008
In my quest to sell AutoRaptor I talk to many dealers everyday who are trying to figure out how to get through the current economic conditions. Some common thoughts that i will share, they are not new or innovating but if followed they will work.
Three points stick out no matter where in the country the dealer is located.
1-Having structure in the Sales and Service process.
2-Expense control through out the dealership.
3-Have a effective Used cars operation. your niche.
Execute these three bullet points and you can not just survive but can grow when others fail.
AutoRaptor will help items 1 & 2 but you as Managers and Dealers need to champion the process that you establish in your dealerships. Computer systems with champions enhance good business pratices but do not fix poor business practices.It is time for action not doom and gloom
By Howard Leavitt on October 13, 2008
Why collect customer birthdays? Customers buy a car for themselves or a family member around their birthday. Use AutoRaptor special date feature to set reminders for your customers special dates like their birthdays.
By Howard Leavitt on October 11, 2008
New addition to AutoRaptor:
Results At Last the parent company of Auto Raptor has a new application in the testing stage. I am looking for Dealers who will be willing to test for 30 to 60 days at no charge.
The application is web based and is called Auto Raptor Auctions. We supply a link for your company’s web site that directs your customers to ARA. The site acts like a real Auction; you add cars as you would with any site like EBay. You set a time limit, incremental bid amounts, pictures and a base price that acts as a reserve.
I have been testing the application at Jake Kaplan’s Jaguar and they have had some success in the first couple of weeks. When your customer goes to the site he sees not only your dealership but also anyone who has signed up for the services. It will get you some customers from out of your area and is a way to sell old inventory at an economical cost.
If you have any interest please email howard@autoraptror.com. I will have Brett Cohen contact you to get you started.
By Howard Leavitt on September 28, 2008
In 1976 I moved from New York to Chicago and worked for a domestic dealer who sold 7000 vehicles a year. Different time and culture but some things never change. We would spot 40 units on a slow Saturday and the box is where all the money was made, not in the sale but in the after sale. The Finance Manager was king and every one would leave as a customer.
The Sales Person had twenty minutes to get a commitment or T.O. to the closer who got the job done. The pressure was to make the sale since, follow up; relation based database, let alone digital CRM’s did not exist. Make the sale now at all costs. We had control of the process and the consumer. The methods used then would put you in jail in today’s business world but were common practices in the sixties and seventies.
What has changed is the informed consumer; the Internet, but a large percentage of dealers still operate mentally the same way we did thirty years ago. Make the sales person go back and forth and try to wear the consumer down and then bring in the closer. We are afraid to empower, train and nurture the Sales Person so that they can handle the sale from the beginning to where they turn over the client to the Business office. How many still don’t follow up?
With all the technology that is available we still have allegiance to the philosophy that the Desk must control the sale. Wrong the Desk and the Sales Person can control the sale with the right process and system that helps empower the Sales Person. Add a strong work plan process that Manager and Sale Person together follow and you will succeed in changing your business forever.
By Howard Leavitt on September 21, 2008
As a Sales Representative you create your work plan using Tasks to increase your sales. One action creates a continual set of actions on the way to the final sale and referrals for more sales.
What happens when your customer leaves the desk? What do you do to create a sale? If all you do is wait till your next up you are missing opportunities to increase your income, you have failed.
Create a call to action by setting a task, follow up withing 24 hours with a specific action. When the task appears on your Dash Board click and complete what happened and set the next task based on what occured from your original task.
Repeat the operation,
1-Create a Task
2-Complete the task, create a new task or make the customer inactive with a long term tasks.
Make decisions and use tasks to create your work strategy.
By Howard Leavitt on September 2, 2008
Enhancements based on user feedback, deliver what users need. Keep it simple.
*Up Sheet List - Search - Added date range criteria (created, sold, delivered)
*Up Sheet - Add Contact - Dupe Check on entered Email Address
*Up Sheet - Add Contact - Dupe Check on entered Phone Number.
*Up Sheet - E-Lead - As an Admin, I’d like to choose who would allow their sales persons to “Take” a given incoming E-Lead/unassigned Up
*Contact - Add - Provide an ‘Add Contact’ option within the Contacts tab/section. (Until now one could only add a Contact when creating or editing an Up Sheet.)
*Ability to print letters for each contact, first phase of this feature. (remember to use the browser back arrow to get back to the application.)
*Results At Last will import a Dealers customer list into their AutoRaptor database. Limited feature in first phase, please call for more information.
* Unlimited number of phone numbers per contact
* Ability to search by phone
* Ability to search by e-mail
* Improved printing of the dashboard for daily work plans
* Allow sales persons to add freestanding tasks that are not associated with a contact.
* Display the company name on the up sheet view screen
* Include cell after home as a default blank phone number when adding a new contact
* Make work the new default for added phone numbers as home and cell are shown by default (adding a 3rd number will default to work since that’s the 3rd most common)
* Second phase of the duplicate checking feature. Ability for contacts to determine how similar they are to one another and hence the improved duplicated checking that finds similar names not just exact matches
* Ability for the administrator to search and export to an Excel CSV file for marketing purposes. Email blast, letters etc.
* Ability to create up source categories.
* New report features defaults to six months plus displays percentage, numbers and or both.
* Ability to edit tasks and reschedule tasks
* International address support, phone support next enhancements
* Ability to edit inventory vehicles.
* Ability to add (and instantly map) new inventory vehicles
* Ability to hide invoice and balance prices from sales persons with permission to see them and have a quick link to show them (so customers can’t see them)
* Ability to establish action plans for after a sale
* Reports are printer friendly now
By Howard Leavitt on August 17, 2008
It starts at the top, from the Dealer Principle. You have to believe in the concept that follow up can be accomplished using technology combined with a structured process. You have to lead and have your Managers believe in the system and the process. The process is the easy part, commitment and accountability is the hard part.
Ask yourself how long it takes to get a process in place and why you are having only moderate success. Team effort working for the same goal - not an individual’s agenda - and the process will work. As a Dealer you must designate a champion who will instill in your staff the mission which must be clear and simple. KISS, “keep it simple son”. That is what AutoRaptor is about.
Invest in the needed equipment, the training, and support your staff with easy-to-use software that sells cars. That is the mission of every Dealer.
The automobile business is in transition, but structured follow up for new and repeat sales remains the same. You can control this portion of your business by just taking charge of the process. Try AutoRaptor.
By Howard Leavitt on July 8, 2008
Internet leads (aka “e-leads”) require a different approach than brick and mortar ups. But just how different?
Most everyone uses auto responders - those emails sent automatically in response to an emailed lead. Why would a generic email get a response on its own without a personal phone call or personalized email to set up an appointment?
AutoRaptor makes accepting e-leads and sending emails as simple and as seamless as possible, but above all we recognize that people sell cars to people. So along with those tools we also make it easy to schedule and track follow up - from first meeting a customer through to the sale and beyond.
Auto responders aren’t the same as real follow up. A personal touch leads to appointments, and appointments lead to sales.