NADA 2017 REVIEW FEBRUARY 2017

Transcription

1 NADA 2017 REVIEW FEBRUARY 2017

2 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE ii CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 2 TURN MILLENNIAL PRICE SHOPPERS INTO LOYAL CUSTOMERS 4 DOMINATE WITH DATA: HOW TO USE GOOGLE S FREE TOOLS TO SELL MORE CARS 5 ANALYTICS: THE MODERN UP LOG FOR YOUR VIRTUAL SHOWROOM 6 7 ACTIONS TO ONBOARD MILLENIALS IN YOUR DEALERSHIP 8 THE BIG EASY LEADERSHIP AND USED CAR SALES 9 TRIED AND TRUE: BEST PRACTICES FROM NADA 20 GROUPS 11 VITAL METRICS FOR TOMORROW S DEALERSHIPS

3 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION The 2017 National Automotive Dealers Association conference celebrated NADA s 100 year anniversary and was hosted in New Orleans. This annual event continues to be the largest dealer convention in the world, this year with over 25,000 people attending from over 53 different countries. There were nearly 70 different seminars and in the following pages we share the key points and learnings obtained from the sessions we attended. The convention is based around a huge exposition where many suppliers to the motor sector, including all the largest manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors and Toyota, showcase their goods and products. This enables the attendees to see at first hand the new technology, new products and systems available in the sector which may benefit their dealership. Staged around the expo are the workshops and seminars that continue to provide not only best practice and new ideas for dealers to consider but also, and just as importantly, remind dealers of some of the basics and how important it is to get these right. They cover topics from HR to legal and accounts, sales and after-sales to social media and technology. Although a 100 year celebration, it was a forward looking event, with a whole area dedicated to the modern dealership and an hour long session split into 10 minute bite size chunks. This looked at the latest technology such as automated service check in and check out (with appropriate upsells built into the process!), advances in virtual showrooms and big data. In addition, NADA led a workshop on the dealership of tomorrow and trends into the next decade and beyond, where despite many changes expected in operational matters, they did not foresee any significant disruption to underlying business models. The changes that will take place include more consolidation, growing sales of Electric Vehicles, more autonomous vehicles and a financial model that will become very much more volume based and dependent on a well-run and profitable aftersales department. Mark Fields, President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company also spoke of the future when he presented on the opening day of the conference. He confirmed Ford s commitment to the franchise model and his view that EV s /Hybrids would be sold in greater volumes than current conventional vehicles in the next five to 10 years. If you would like to discuss any of the topics raised in the document please do not hesitate to contact us. MALCOLM THIXTON HEAD OF MOTOR RETAIL STEVE LE BAS PARTNER SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE SIX WORKSHOP TRACKS WORKSHOPS 10 Dealer / Executive Digital & Traditional Marketing Employee Recruiting, Hiring & Retention Fixed Ops Legal & Regulatory Variable Ops 6 15

4 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 2 TURN MILLENNIAL PRICE SHOPPERS INTO LOYAL CUSTOMERS SEAN GARDENER JOE VERDE SALES & MANAGEMENT TRAINING SALES ARE MISSED BY A FEW WORDS, NOT A FEW DOLLARS Millennials are probably the most wanted customers at the moment; they will represent 46% of workforce by 2020 and 24% plan on buying a car within a year. When they visit your dealership they are ready to buy having done their research online. A hard sell will not work with them, so you have to adopt a thorough and professional sales approach. Sean then explained the fundamentals to winning the millennial customer. CAPTURE ENGAGE CONVERT THE FUNDAMENTALS: How to win more of your internet leads. The first online response to your Millennial customers should be: immediate and personalised brief and well-written - answer any questions they have, and always make sure to come back with another question, to help keep the engagement going unique - try to stand out and communicate through the channels they use ie. have a 30-second video to text them. Get them on the phone as soon as possible. Be more than words on a screen so your personality can shine through, persevere and always do your after-contact follow up. The most important skill for your team to master, is how the handle price. 96% of your online prospects will shop your best number if their online experience with you is only about price. A possible response to a customer s price concerns is: The lease programs are great right now. There are a couple of different factors that go into that what s a good time to get together, so we can figure out which lease would be best for you? Can you come down right now or may be later, on after work? It has been proven by research that customer satisfaction reduces once they have spent more than 90 minutes at any one time in the business. Therefore... INTRODUCE THE ONE-HOUR SALE - THE VIP TREATMENT FOR YOUR MILLENNIAL BUYERS IN-STORE VISIT.

5 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 3 TURN MILLENNIAL PRICE SHOPPERS INTO LOYAL CUSTOMERS SEAN GARDENER JOE VERDE SALES & MANAGEMENT TRAINING FIRST 15 MINUTES NEXT 30 MINUTES LAST 15 MINUTES DELIVERY CAPTURE: LIKE 71% BUY BECAUSE THEY LIKE THEIR SALESPERSON Look, act and sound like a professional to make a great first impression ENGAGE: IT S SHOW TIME BUILD VALUE IN YOUR PRODUCT CONVERT: CREATE A NOW MINDSET AND CONVERT TO A SALE TODAY Start to summarize two minutes out with yes questions A GREAT DELIVERY: IS IT THE LAST STEP OF THE SALE, OR IS IT ALSO THE FIRST STEP TO THE NEXT SALE? Remove the need for them to search online AN ONGOING RELATIONSHIP: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. Get your first 10 words right, make it a warm and friendly greeting Ask the right questions to establish trust, as you discover their hot buttons Show off your service department as part of your VIP treatment Properly handle price questions, so they don t become hurdles later on Take the lead and display, operate and show how the product works Make your car the star. Sell the sizzle and focus on their hot buttons Be quiet when the customer drives, the feel of the wheel seals the deal. Convert into a sale today with a positive statement and action Create massive mental ownership with physical involvement Set your deal up right with a proper 4-step wrap up Set up and handle the write up professionally. I ll always be your first contact. (Share contact) Marry them to your service department Ask them how they would like to be contacted by you Ask them for referrals. If they buy, maintain contact, do your initial after sale follow up and your continuous ongoing follow up If they don t buy their vehicle from you, maintain contact and do your unsold follow up for potential future sales Prospect with your customers to uncover new business Maintain contact with every internet lead coming into the store. Get management involved early, with a quick fly by to say hi. KEY LEARNING POINTS Ensure you react to the changing customer base Interact initially with the customer in the manner they want to communicate Crate a sales process for the millennial customer Ensure customers who are time poor are not made to stay in the dealership longer than necessary.

6 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 4 DOMINATE WITH DATA: HOW TO USE GOOGLE S FREE TOOLS TO SELL MORE CARS CHRIS DERINGER DEALERON Empirical evidence shows the number of visits to showrooms have fallen - in 2005 it was 4.1 visits on average to buy a car, the latest data shows it is now down to just 1.2 visits. From a review carried out by NADA, 100% of car shoppers use Google at some point and 100% of dealers use Google Analytics. So dealers need to use it to their advantage. As we are all aware marketing is costly and in many cases it s your biggest investment after inventory, so how are you are checking that you are optimising marketing spend? Google has many data assets whether it be SEO/SEM desktop, SEO/ SEM mobile, dealer websites and users. Google also has many free services and currently have a 70% market share in desktop search and a 100% in mobile search. So the data and information that Google hold is not only extensive but can be invaluable to the dealer. The most crucial asset you have is the website; most dealers will use some level of Google analytics however you need to make sure that you have set up your Google Analytics to meet your needs not what your IT provider or digital agency thinks you need. This will ensure that they do not set up goals that you are not interested in but instead makes them look good. Average number of dealers visited who use Google at >2 ~100% ~100% who use Google during purchase some point in the $$ process 1 % of car shoppers buying process TNS Auto Shoppers Guide TNS Auto Shoppers Guide 3. DealerOn Survey 4. NADA Financial Data Chris then explained what he believes are dealership must do s for your dealer website: OWN your Google Analytics account. OWN your google search console account (verified) ie so Google can tell you if there are issues ie 404 alerts, sitemap errors, security issues etc. OWN your Google Adwords account even if you have a digital agency this allows you to monitor the cost etc. % of dealers Analytics 3 LINK YOUR Google console account to your Analytics account This will show you the benefit or not of the costs incurred in a month. Which pages are too slow, organic traffic, how you are ranking for search terms. LINK YOUR Google Adwords account to your Analytics account. Biggest dealer investment after inventory is marketing 4 USE Google URL builder (UTM codes) for all Digital Campaigns. INCREASING WEBSITE TRAFFIC AND SALES WITH SEARCH CONSOLE In addition to alerting you to any issues, Google can provide a site speed report for every page. You can review this monthly and sort by page views. You can then identify pages with slow load times and send the report to your provider to fix. INCREASING CONVERSION WITH ADWORDS AND ANALYTICS LINKING You should ensure that you measure your sitelinks measure spend, clicks, visits, bounces, calls, leads etc. at a sitelink and Ad level. You should then consider removing under-performing sitelinks. In addition, test and optimise these sitelinks and landing pages. Also you should consider demographic adwords optimisation and identify higher return demographics. KEY LEARNING POINTS Customers do their research before they come into your dealership, your web-site must be fit for purpose, easy to navigate and allow the customer to transact what they wish Ensure Google analytics and its reports and tools are set up for your business and what is important for your business Obtain monthly analytic reports, review and action as appropriate.

7 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 5 ANALYTICS: THE MODERN UP LOG FOR YOUR VIRTUAL SHOWROOM BRIAN PASCH PCG COMPANIES Brian started by asking the question, What is really working to sell your cars? and challenged this by stating that you may need to change your thinking. Dealers are spending more money on digital but confidence is waning. How can we prioritise, measure and optimise? Google Analytics is meant to be easy, but it requires time and focus to get the most out of it. Most of the dealer community use Google Analytics to inspect the wrong numbers! Brian then asked a few questions of the audience - What would you prefer a visitor for 35 seconds or 90 seconds, for 5 pages or 2 pages, 4,500 visitors or 2,800 visitors? Is time on site really important? Is cost per click important? The data you get is inconclusive you do not get quality information just quantity measures, more traffic does not mean real people. Google Analytics is the Up Log for your virtual showroom you need to get comfortable with the information, use the information and inspect it like you would any other area of your business. 5 THINGS TO LEARN FROM GOOGLE ANALYTICS 1. Where is my traffic coming from? 2. What are my most popular vehicles/pages? 3. Are my website visitors really shoppers 20% are BOTS? 4. Which investments are generating real conversions? 5. Who are the best players on my virtual sales team? You always need to ask real customers where did they come from, Google Analytics can tell you where visitors are based (VDP By location) but not why they came in. Following on from this you need to track telephone call conversions as over 90% of traffic do not identify themselves. Brian stated that you have an ordered process for showroom visitors so you need to have the same for the website visitors. You can start by checking that your website visitors start on the right page Google Analytics can tell you where they start and user flows but note evidence shows that 95% leave you on arrival! So making sure they are directed to the correct page is massively important. MEASURING ENGAGEMENT The key is measuring engagement measure cost per engagement rather than cost per click, and the bounce rate is a huge blind spot. There is increasing evidence of bot traffic, automatically generated by machine rather than real people, so you should measure activities such as page scroll, photo gallery view, video play/stop, Get eprice/ get my quote button click, Apply for financing button click, trade in car, vehicle specifications tab click, lead from submissions, phone call initiated, chat session started. The key is then to weight each of these with say 40 points for the best and ten for the worst. In addition measure Zero Page Engagements the so called ZEP Metric. OTHER TIPS Brian had seen some impressive results from turning on a facebook feature that encourages instant text messaging, so you need metrics on this. In addition, he recommended turning on goals and events for all channels, including: call conversions, chat conversions, SMS/ messenger conversions. Finally he recommended looking at Google Tag Manager and turning it on. KEY LEARNING POINTS Use Google analytics to your advantage Make it easy for the customer Always measure and review engagement GOOGLE ANALYTICS NEEDS TO BE THE REFEREE BETWEEN MARKETING INPUT AND OUTPUTS

8 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 6 7 ACTIONS TO ONBOARD MILLENIALS IN YOUR DEALERSHIP JENNIFER SUZUKI E-DEALER SOLUTIONS Jennifer began by stating her aim was to discuss both the pre and post hire process. It is undeniable that dealers cannot create a profitable business without a talented workforce. The level of new car registrations hit a high in 2016 of 15.5m sales however the average workforce tenure has declined from 3.8 years to 2.4 years. Millennials do not join your business because they want guaranteed income. They want to feel they are making a difference, want to learn and have a career path and want to be coached. The millennial generation are an ever increasing proportion of the workforce and of new hires. It is interesting to note that 39% of terminations happen within first 90 days for sales consultants. Hence it is important to have a plan/structure for when the staff start. WHAT IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE MADE ON HIRING? Millennials love targets, structure and feeling wanted so you need to have a structured programme for when they start. MEDIAN WORKFORCE TENURE (BLS TENURE DATA) ONLY 33% OF SALES STAFF ACHIEVE A THREE YEAR TENURE - SALESPERSON TURNOVER IS 67% YEARS (NADA WORKFORCE STUDY)

9 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 7 7 ACTIONS TO ONBOARD MILLENIALS IN YOUR DEALERSHIP JENNIFER SUZUKI E-DEALER SOLUTIONS PRE FIRST DAY NEW HIRE VISIT TO DEALERSHIP New hire introduced by a team member to all departments, receives all training manuals and receives upcoming training schedule that begins on their start date They receive a career path plan with goals, standards and benchmarks first the first three months The general manager engages with them and provides a copy of the pay plan. Ensure that on day one they will have a computer, business cards, introductions to their new team and details of training. WELCOME FIRST DAY Issue a welcome pack, e mail, login sheet, sales meetings details The general manager introduces new hires to the sales team in one to one meetings The general manager also meets with the new member of staff to review growth plan, work schedule, expectations This structure will only help improve retentions. Jennifer noted that the dealership model has changed and that it was very difficult to be a gross store as we are now selling relationships and this starts with how you look after your staff. You should also consider pay plans. They should always be performance based and transparent. However, should you consider moving from the traditional model and think about retention bonuses, tuition student loan subsidies? Also you should look to consider limiting hours that people can work and potential hours and days of work. These ideas and flexibility will all help to retain staff. Jennifer discussed career path goals millennials love this sort of detail. This could be for the first 12 months and gives staff the start of a true career path. This can then be reviewed, updated and extended as necessary. Again with the millennial generation this will again help reduce staff turnover. Finally, Jennifer noted that all groups should consider a detailed internal training programme and topics to be covered. KEY LEARNING POINTS Behaviour driven pay plans are key Millenials like structure, goals and a career path make sure you can meet this Having a well-defined new starter process and training process identifies with the Millenials and help drive retention rates.

10 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 8 THE BIG EASY LEADERSHIP AND USED CAR SALES TOMMY GIBBS TOMMY GIBBS & ASSOCIATES Tommy began by making the distinction between management and leadership. Managers seek control of people and things, compliance, by design it pits one dept against another, will allow bullies to exist if they are productive and is essentially about retaining power. Leaders influences others, they walk the walk, they put ethics before production, they take a chance on things that might work, it is not about being the boss, they are the champion of responding, they do what they say they are going to do, they do the things they hate first, they recognise the emotions of others, stay connected and grounded, seek feedback from those who will tell you the truth, they are the champion of culture and eliminate legacy thinking the best way to predict the future is to create (Abraham Lincoln). LEADING WITH USED CARS RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) Tommy confirmed the issue of falling margins is due to the longer a used car is in stock, particularly as they move to 60 days. He also said it was a fact that the used car dept is key to doing new and used car retail volume. However, most used vehicle managers are trained internally (or have little training) despite being responsible for managing many millions of s of inventory. Is this right? TRACKING 30/30 You need to look at ROI on every car you hold which is heavily influenced by number of days you hold the stock. Be careful of I don t want to get rid of it because I cannot replace it! Tommy presented a schedule that summarised vehicle sales in two columns one that had been sold within 30 days and the other over 30 days and said that every time that he had seen the analysis it produced it was very clear how much average returns were far greater in the less than 30 day column. PRESS IT PRESS IT Keep the average cost of units sold as low as you can and continue to press it down otherwise you may well find that you are in the newsed car business rather than used look at these statistics on a monthly basis. TIME TO ATTACK Focus on higher value stock and in particular those cars held for too long. KEY LEARNING POINTS Attack the ageing profile of the used stock and keep this as low as possible Focus on the higher value stock and aim to keep the cost of stock per vehicle as low as possible Review the ROI on each vehicle to ascertain what vehicles give you the largest return- take the emotion out of the process and replace it with facts. IT S A SHORT LIFE Focus on the main elements of used car stock lifecycle and reduce each phase to a minimum: Acquisition Trade walk the stock with colleagues and decide wholesale or retail Assign Expiration date no worse than 60 days suggest 20 to 60 Think retail on every car so price it right Look to book get the pricing right. Life cycle factors include acquisition to shop, shop and parts issues, photos quality and quantity, time to get posted on the internet, pricing strategies and lack of accountability. EARLY WARNING RADAR Consider an EARLY WARNING RADAR strategy enact when over appraised, you have a make a deal car, it has odd equipment, it s a bad model for your store, it s a bad colour, no experience, customer trade out, potentially large repair bill, high dollar vehicle, high mileage, gut feeling. Suggested expiration dates - EWR 20 days, Auction purchase - 30 days, trade ins - 45 days. If you are on 60 days turn, it s not about how many days held it is about how many days left.

11 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 9 TRIED AND TRUE: BEST PRACTICES FROM NADA 20 GROUPS TIM GAVIN NADA 20 GROUP Tim sits on the NADA 20 group where invited dealers meet on a regular basis to swap and discuss best practices. Below are some of the best practices noted in these meetings: NEW VEHICLE SALES MARKETING: The power of your own customers: Give customers monies if they recommend and educate customers at time of pick up and service delivery Include all the customers household vehicles in your CRM Engage the service dept in this by ensuring that the service advisor earn bonuses for passing customers to the sales dept. THE SILENT SALESPERSON: Put a flyer on each dashboard at time of service ¼ page handout on every invoice leaving the dealership detailing offers coming up etc The petrol cap that waves hello put a thank you for your purchase with dealership details on the inside of the petrol cap of every car sold. DO IT DIGITALLY: Do your brand vehicles use a start-up menu when you first turn the car on ie in the navigation system? Is your name/address/phone/website on the on board computer system? PRIMARY REASON SHOPPERS CHOOSE THE DEALERSHIP THEY VISITED PRIOR EXPERIENCE IWTH DEALERSHIP FAMILY, FRIENDS, CO-WOORKERS INTERNET SITES TV NEWSPAPER RADIO OUTDOOR DIRECT MARKETING 6% 4% 4% 3% 2% 17% 22% 26%

12 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 10 TRIED AND TRUE: BEST PRACTICES FROM NADA 20 GROUPS TIM GAVIN NADA 20 GROUP USED VEHICLE SALES Quality, clear photos, do all your employees know what you expect for your online photos. The most powerful marketing tool are your valeters. Is every vehicle in your showroom ready clean? KEY LEARNING POINTS Your current customers can be your best marketing tool (and cheapest) Based upon recent vehicle sales the service department represents a huge opportunity for growth, profit and customer retention Engage with the customer at point of vehicle sale to arrange future services and engage with the customer thereafter to arrange services etc Make it as easy for the customer as possible. This will only increase retention and profitability. SERVICE Tim noted that demand for servicing will continue as the market flattens Service lags vehicle sales by 3-5 years therefore as registrations have increased over the past few years. This presents significant opportunities Keep them coming back book in first service at time of car purchase Ensure the service advisors have a script to follow Ensure there is a BDC follow up Consider giving a return appointment voucher Multi point inspection form min rule -- Dual signatures -- Initial any declined work 41% 53% 1.5x were introduced to service department at the time of purchase. said it came into play when deciding where to repair the vehicle. VITAL METRIC: introduction to service at time of sale = 100% How many more times those who were introduced to the service department at the time of purchase returned for service in the past 12 months. DO IT DIGITALLY: Do your customers schedule their service through your website. They want to. 59% of service visits are scheduled, 69% by phone, 14% in person, 14% on the website. 45% of people do not know who can book online but 76% of people who do it would do it again. You need to make the journey for the service customer as simple as possible. What does your service home page look like? Are you using keywords for service in your Google adword plan ie Tyres, brakes check engine oil, recall? What is your online scheduling process? What are your service department specials? Do your sales staff walk your customers through the online service scheduling process at time of delivery? Are you texting? This has become a very common means of communication in the age generation. Is this is the way they like to communicate? Then communicate with them in this manner. Tim concluded on the service dept by stating that 65% of all online activity is now mobile and 50% of mobile activity is through apps. Does your service dept have an app? Does your dealership push the traffic to the app?

13 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 11 VITAL METRICS FOR TOMORROW S DEALERSHIPS LES ABRAMS COX AUTOMOTIVE DICK PARRISH NADA 20 GROUP The presentation started off by saying that dealers are now data rich but analysis poor ie do not use the data and metrics available to them to drive operational efficiency. Achieving operational excellence can have the greatest impact on improving profitability. OPERATIONAL BEST PRACTICES (IN THE U.S.) Net profit before tax percent of sales 2.2% 0.5% 0.6% 0.8% 2.9% 7.0% INTERNATIONAL DEALERSHIP PRACTICES = BIGGEST COMPONENT OF POTENTIAL PROFIT Average performer and external factors Region and demographics Brand/origin Size and structure Operational practices Top performer favourable external factors

14 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 12 VITAL METRICS FOR TOMORROW S DEALERSHIPS LES ABRAMS COX AUTOMOTIVE DICK PARRISH NADA 20 GROUP EXAMPLES OF FIXED OPERATIONS EXCELLENCE Service BDC Customers don t always keep track of when their car service is needed or recalls required. Analysis proves that if dealers proactively make outbound calls to their customers then their after sales increase SERVICE SCHEDULES AND RECALLS 32% 29% 27% 24% do not track notified by dealer OUTBOUND CALLS INCREASE BUSINESS DECLINED ASR S CHECK-IN CONFIRMATION FIRST SERVICE SPECIAL ORDER PARTS notified by manufacturer register or search online DUE/OVERDUE FOR SERVICE RECALLS Service lane vitals Service advisors are incredibly busy but also incredibly important to the business and will have 15/18 RO s per day per advisor (approx.). However, if a customer has to wait more than five mins when they come into the dealership then you have lost CSI already. You need to ensure there is an under five min welcome. Engage customer The customer is time poor so engage with them quickly, efficiently and effectively 5-8 minutes Walkaround Trust Upsell confidence Additional ASR Effort Ease of quality delivery Drop keys off No walkaround Ensure you carry out a walkaround with the customer This conditions the customer and builds trust makes then understand what you are doing and any potential issues Multipoint inspections complete and communicate in first 15 mins this will build trust and the customer will recognise how their car is changing. EXAMPLES OF VARIABLE EXCELLENCE Commitment to CRM Your prospects in your CRM should be about seven times your number of vehicle sales. Ensure the CRM holds quality data as the CRM allows deal protection (you know everything about the deal). The CRM can help speed up the sales process and increases quality communication with unsold prospects. PRE-OWNED EXCELLENCE Value proposition attractive inventory. Online price aligns with the desirability under 20 days old each car stands on its own, over 30 days say 90% of average market price Aged inventory Should be age intolerant. Know the % of vehicles in under 30 days. Dick stated that a good ratio is greater than 45% and a great ratio is greater than 60% Appraisals New car sale to trade ratio = over 65%, appraisal to trade ratio = over 55%. You need to understand your average price per vehicle and look to drive this down and understand the stock turn by price. CUSTOMER AND STAFF RETENTION Les noted that among the 22% purchasing from a dealer and using them for service in the past 12 months, 85% state their experience with the service department has influenced their likelihood of purchasing another vehicle. So as noted above the service department and service advisors are very important to your business. However, Les stated that their employee retention is poor. Sales person and service advisors have the highest turnover of the staff but they see more of the customers than anyone else. The annualised turnover of our staff is 67% and 39% respectively. Their respective median tenure is 1.6 and 2.3 years. This level of turnover does not help a profitable dealership and to that end (as already noted) dealers need to really think about their millennials, and consider their hours, training, career path, compensation.

15 FEBRUARY 2017 // PAGE 13 VITAL METRICS FOR TOMORROW S DEALERSHIPS LES ABRAMS COX AUTOMOTIVE DICK PARRISH NADA 20 GROUP DIGITAL MARKETING EXCELLENCE MEASURE IT Over 90% of customers have conducted internet research however 56% of buyers who purchase just show up therefore they have already done their research. You should always ask the customer why they choose you. Dealers currently only look at the last touch point with the customer, however you will soon be able to track the whole journey as the sales process is moving online. Customers want this and then will come to you when you are ready. Ensure your web-site can have a trade in valuation, negotiation, credit approval and F&I the process online should be the same as in the store. Make it as easy as possible for your customer. This ease of online interaction will only increase satisfaction as the customer is doing the work in their own time and when they want to rather than when you want to engage with them. The more time that is spent in the dealership by a customer results in a decline in customer satisfaction so the more a customer can carry out online in their own time the better. KEY LEARNING POINTS The best dealers achieve the best gross through the best controls, processes and uses of all digital channels Operational excellence has the largest impact on profitability Allow the customer to carry out the research and work in their own time not when it suits you Retention of staff is key to the retention of customers and increased profitability. 24 AVERAGE TOUCHPOINTS: 19 ARE DIGITAL IN- MARKET AUTO SHOPPER searched on Google visited OEM website inquired family, friends, colleagues Looked at photos visited brand s social page browsed newspaper ads influenced by online ad watched YouTube video watched video ad loan calculator on third party site searched on mobile saw a TV ad Built-andpriced on OEM site read professional review search dealer inventory on Tier 2 visited dealer website requested quote online located a dealer from mobile clicked display ad visited used mobile newspaper on lot site filled used model comparison tool out a form read consumer reviews visited a dealership test drove a vehicle

16 HOW WE CAN HELP YOU If you would like further information about this publication or our specialist knowledge of the motor retail sector, please contact: MALCOLM THIXTON HEAD OF MOTOR RETAIL +44 (0) STEVE LE BAS PARTNER, BUSINESS ASSURANCE +44 (0) CHRIS BOND PARTNER, TAX +44 (0) This publication has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as broad guidance only. The publication cannot be relied upon to cover specific situations and you should not act, or refrain from acting, upon the information contained therein without obtaining specific professional advice. Please contact BDO LLP to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. BDO LLP, its partners, employees and agents do not accept or assume any liability or duty of care for any loss arising from any action taken or not taken by anyone in reliance on the information in this publication or for any decision based on it. BDO LLP, a UK limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC305127, is a member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. A list of members names is open to inspection at our registered office, 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU. BDO LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to conduct investment business. BDO is the brand name of the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. BDO Northern Ireland, a partnership formed in and under the laws of Northern Ireland, is licensed to operate within the international BDO network of independent member firms BDO LLP. All rights reserved. HB009209