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I am often asked if a dealer should or should not use auto responders. Many dealers set up auto responders so that customers get an email immediately in response to their inquiry sent to a dealer. This is a good practice, as it lets the customer know that their email was received. There is nothing more frustrating than to send an email, never get a response back, and then wonder if the intended recipient actually got the email. I have had some ask, “Why would you set up an auto responder when you should just email the person yourself once you get the email?” Unfortunately, with many Internet salespeople wearing multiple hats at the dealership, that is not always an option. Auto responders serve a purpose, but you should try to make them as personal as possible. Let that customer know that their email is important, and you will respond to it as soon as you are able. Most auto responders simply say something like, “thank you for your inquiry, someone will be with your shortly”. This type of auto responder does nothing more than let the customer know that their email was received. Let me show you a custom auto responder that Liquid Motors could set up for you, “Dear Mr. Matt Jones, Thank you for your bid on our 2005 Ford F150 King Ranch currently on eBayMotors. My goal is to contact you inside the next hour to give you a detailed walk around description of this vehicle and answer all of your questions. I am currently assisting another eBay customer but your inquiry is very important to me.” Thank you Bill Salesman, LM Ford 800-581-2884.
Please be sure to leave your comments, feedback, or just add valuable information to this blog as our goal is to educate car dealers so they can be better today than they were yesterday. Make sure you follow Liquid Motors on Facebook, Twitter and our blog for a variety of information for car dealers.
I hear this question all the time, and I answer it with another question, “What do you consider success on eBay?” I find that the answer is typically, “Selling my vehicle on eBay.” I agree that selling your vehicle on eBay is one way of measuring your success, but you should consider this, eBay is just another online site where you market your vehicles. eBay should be thought of as another way to generate leads with the intention of selling any vehicle in your inventory. I am going to explain how this can work with some proven make-sense tips.
First of all, you have to consider the vehicles that you are going to list. Granted, you probably will not have much luck selling those mainstream vehicles that everyone can find in their own market, but listing some of those vehicles that you know are very popular can get you some leads. What you should consider is vehicles that are unique. Under $10k vehicles sell well on eBay, so you should consider some vehicles that you typically would wholesale. Other vehicles to consider are late models with low miles, those with aftermarket adds like lift kits, and those vehicles that are common in your market, but are not common in other markets.
Here is list of the top vehicles sold on eBay in the last 30 days.
Once you have the right inventory, you have to choose a listing style that will generate the most leads, because we all know that you typically talk to an average of 9 people before you find a buyer. This is why I recommend you use a Reserve/No Buy It Now auction and start your bidding very low. Once you have bidders, you have contact information. I get a lot of resistance when I tell a dealer he should start the bidding low. For some reason they do not want someone who is online, shopping for a vehicle, making them a “ridiculous offer” on their vehicle. I will explain in my next point why that is not the best attitude. For some reason, I find that dealers expect a different customer online than they do in their dealership. Hasn’t there always been those customers, even those that visit your dealership, that make you a ridiculous offer? Are you never able to sell those people a vehicle? They are probably driving something, so someone has. It may be how that other dealer handled the customer that made the difference.
That leads me to my third point–how to manage the leads. You have to assume that every bid you get on your vehicle is from a serious buyer, after all they did make a cash offer to purchase your vehicle. Though the bid may be low, you have no idea what their proxy bid is. You may be looking for $20k on a vehicle, received a $1500 bid, but the proxy bid is actually $15k. This bidder only has $15k to spend, so they are hopeful. But, it is your job, to communicate with that person to find out what they are thinking, what they are needing, and then cross-selling them on another vehicle in your inventory that better suits their needs and their budget. Yes, you will encounter those people that are not realistic, but if you think everyone who bids low on your vehicles is not a buyer, you will miss opportunities. I was asking one of my dealers recently if he was having much luck on eBay, and he told me that he was not selling any cars that he was listing, but because he started calling all the bidders, he was actually able to sell other vehicles. He knew what he should be doing all along, but he made an assumption in the beginning that these low bidders were not buyers.
It all comes down to what makes sense. The right inventory, the listing style you choose, and the way you handle your leads can all determine your success on eBay. I do not believe that anything I have mentioned in this blog is a revelation. It is really just common sense, and I believe that anyone who takes this approach with eBay, will be successful. The reason I believe it is because I work with many dealers that are selling cars on eBay. Just remember, too, that if you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. If you are not selling any vehicles on eBay, why not try the above. Who knows, you might sell a car or ten.
Please be sure to leave your comments, feedback, re-tweet or just add valuable information to this blog as our goal is to educate car dealers so they can be better today than they were yesterday. Make sure you follow Liquid Motors on Facebook, Twitter and our blog for a variety of information for car dealers.
If you are on eBay local market, you get an eBay store for free. Stores are great because they not only show you are a serious eBay’er, but they also display all the vehicles you have on eBay in an easy to see format. Since it is against eBay policy to include your dealership website address anywhere in your listing except on the “About Me” page, your store can serve as a sort of micro site for your dealership’s complete inventory.
Another benefit you get with an eBay store is that it is indexed by search engines. With eBay being the #1 vehicle web site online, you can see why having your vehicles there will give your listings increased ranking in searches. There are several areas that are searchable in your store, so you want to make sure you are utilizing those. The eBay store description and store pages are both searchable areas, so if you are not using these areas, you are missing SEO opportunities.
With the Liquid Motors system, we have the ability to open up your store categories to create a user friendly experience. Below is an example of what I am talking about.
Here is an example of a store with the categories expanded:
Here is an example of a store without the categories expanded:
If you have an eBay store, you should check to see if you are utilizing the things I have mentioned above. If you are not sure how to manage the settings in your store, please let me know. Remember that an eBay store is not just for Local Market dealers. If you are listing 10 or more National Market listings, an eBay store can be a great benefit.
Please be sure to leave your comments, feedback, re-tweet or just add valuable information to this blog as our goal is to educate car dealers so they can be better today than they were yesterday. Make sure you follow Liquid Motors on Facebook, Twitter and our blog for a variety of information for car dealers.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that today is Earth Day. This is not necessarily because you actually remembered the date of the event, but because the media have not let you forget it! Billboards, print, TV, radio and the Internet have been reminding everyone on the planet that April 22nd is Earth Day. There are activities to promote and celebrate the movement in every community in almost every country around the world today.
Earth Day is our annual wake-up call that reminds us that we can, and should, create a better future for ourselves, our children, our community and our planet.
Being increasingly concerned with the state of the environment in the 1960’s, former Senator Gaylord Nelson set out to inspire action and to initiate change in favor of more sustainable living. His actions ultimately resulted in the organization of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, a nation-wide grassroots movement to promote ecology and respect for life on the planet and to encourage the awareness of the rapidly-growing problem of pollution.
Over the past 4 decades, Earth Day’s call for environmental awareness and protection of our planet’s eco-system has circled the globe. An expected 1 billion people, in more than 190 countries, are participating in Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary. The environmental event has become the most widely shared secular holiday in the world!
What better way to demonstrate your enthusiasm to help the environment than to promote the innovative, fuel-efficient, eco-friendly models at your dealership? Highlight those incredibly quiet, smooth-riding hybrids! For automobile dealerships, Earth Day is an excellent opportunity to give back to your community and your planet as well as express your ecologically-concerned conscience. .
My hope is that the wake-up call that car buyers at your store will get today, is to make a more environmentally-friendly choice in their automobile purchase, easing the emission imprint on our planet.
In an effort to maximize your efforts on eBay, you should understand how someone goes about finding your vehicles on that site. You may not realize that most people using the search box on eBay are searching your title only. So, if you are not customizing your titles to include the most common search terms for your vehicles, you could be missing leads. You may not realize also that there is a title and a subtitle and both are included in that search. Here is an example of a title and subtitle on eBay:
What’s important is to think like a consumer when customizing that title. If this is hard for you to do, then ask your spouse or a friend to tell you how they would search for a vehicle online that they are interested in. We as car people know that certain features are standard on some vehicles, but you might be surprised to find that consumers do not know that. All they know is that they want a certain vehicle with certain features. So this leads them to include those in their search. Here is an example of a Toyota Camry. By including the word leather, you can dramatically reduce your competition.
As you can see including leather in the title in this example, there were 35 vehicles that were found; however, excluding leather meant your vehicle can certainly be lost in a crowd of 8,225 other listings.
Knowing and understanding how different sites are searched can help you maximize your potential on those sites. Giving your listings more relevance and eliminating some competition is certainly key in generating more leads.
Please be sure to leave your comments, feedback, re-tweet or just add valuable information to this blog as our goal is to educate car dealers so they can be better today than they were yesterday. Make sure you follow Liquid Motors on facebook, Twitter and our blog for a variety of information for car dealers.
Over the past 5 years I have been involved on a daily basis with dealerships all over the country evaluating and making recommendations regarding their Internet operations. During that time I have seen it all, from Internet directors who did not know how to check their email to people who know so much about technology they could have been part of designing the Internet. If technology has passed you by just remember the basics and learn from the errors others make by avoiding the 5 most common mistakes I see daily.
Phones
From full voicemail boxes to main phone lines that simply ring incessantly and go unanswered, I am absolutely shocked by the way phones are answered and some of the voicemail recordings I hear. I understand that many people use their personal cell phones as part of business, but when you record your personal greeting do it in a quiet place and think about the tone and pace of your voice. When you have wind blowing or people talking in the background your first impression may not be the one you are trying to send. Also, “Peace Out” is not a professional replacement for, “Thank you for calling and have a great day.” I talk to dealers daily conducting training and every week without fail I will be talking to a dealer about a very important aspect of their business and I will ask a question and there will be silence on the other end of the phone. Then I know what is coming, “Sorry, I was being asked about something else. Can you repeat that?” I am pretty sure that this type of phone etiquette can not be turned on and off which means you are doing it to your customers and don’t even know it!
Did you know that some phone numbers only work if you are calling from inside your local calling area? Everyone reading this will say, “Of course.” Then I ask, why do dealers use those number everyday on ads that will be seen nationally? If your Craigslist ad is indexed by Google and someone from another state sees your ad but can’t call you those are missed opportunities. How about a more common scenario: Craigslist tells a customer no LOCAL results found but here are some NEARBY. This does not even take into consideration eBay, Autotrader.com or your dealer web site.
One thing I can not understand is why a dealership would have an automated system to answer their phone. I understand the cost savings argument but I recently called a BMW store and was greeted by an automated receptionist. I almost fell over laughing as I listened to the computer tell me that customer service is job one and how much personal attention I would receive from this store. Then I had to call back twice because I hit the wrong selection and got stuck in loop hell! This is the most impersonal form of communication and that includes auto responders.
Photos
Good or bad I happen to be one of those people who believe a picture says a thousand words. Magazines are a great example of how the human mind works. We flip through page after page and when a picture grabs our attention we want to read more about that product or article. This is the same thing with your vehicle pictures. You can do a quick search across the Internet and see a vast array of classic mistakes.
This happens to a lot of dealers all the time!
Did this truck just come out of service and is it leaking fluids?
You can’t miss the picture in front of the body shop which sends a very clear message: fresh paint!
And finally, one that looks great! Until you realize the dealership sign in the background is from the store next door and not the dealership selling the car!
Here is a step by step guide with proven techniques for taking your vehicle photos. Even if you don’t take your own photos have your lot service company be sure they follow your instructions.
CLICK HERE: Step by Step for Perfect Vehicle Photos
Titles and Descriptions
When every major Internet marketing expert and company agree that custom/personalized vehicle titles and descriptions that talk to consumers on a true human level lead to more clicks and prospects, why do Internet managers still use system generated information? As a proactive company we contact our dealers on a monthly basis to discuss their successes and areas of potential improvement. The most common area for potential improvement is custom titles and descriptions. Have you ever heard the saying, “Show more, tell more, sell more”? It is absolutely true. We did a study with a major auto group and found that when they increased their photo count from 9 to 25+ per vehicle and included custom titles and descriptions on each vehicle the results were amazing! Triple digit increases in same store over the previous years click thru rates. What are you waiting for? It works and will make a huge difference in your bottom line.
Delayed Days to Market
Does it take you 7 days, 10 days or 24 days to get your vehicle out of the shop, detailed, pictured, priced and ready for market? Would you be surprised that the average dealer takes 24 days from the day of acquisition to the day pictures are taken? Take a look at this study conducted by Liquid Motors in 2008-09:
Dealer Web Site
There are many things I could cover here but I want to talk about two simple things that truly can be controlled at the store level. Most web sites are too busy! You go there and they have eight different sections on the home page with coupons and pop ups, and are simply bombarding the visitor with everything. Make your site clean, simple and user friendly. Remember, the majority of your traffic wants to see inventory fast. Do you have to click 4 times before you can see your pre-owned inventory page?
The other mistake that is very common is the dealer site URL. How many of you have your dealership name as your URL? Let me give you an example: Dallas Dodge in Dallas, Texas, will be virtually impossible to beat in natural search results for Chaparral Dodge in Dallas, Texas, for a prospect that searches, “new Dodge truck Dallas Texas”. This is because the URL name is directly in the search request. Keep this in mind when you purchase your URL’s.
If you’re a dealership that is considering getting into Social Media or expanding your marketing efforts take a second, step back and evaluate the basics. Make your process about the people and not just the sale and you will see an incredible change in your store.
Please be sure to leave your comments, feedback, re-tweet or just add valuable information to this blog as our goal is to educate car dealers so they can be better today than they were yesterday. Make sure you follow Liquid Motors on facebook, Twitter and our blog for a variety of information for car dealers.
That assumption could cost you deals. I was included in an email that was floating around one of my dealerships and realized just how important it is for dealers to think like consumers when customizing their titles and descriptions for SEO. The email was about an Infiniti vehicle, and I noticed that it was spelled wrong (Infinity). I found that interesting since we are all in the car business, and how could it be spelled incorrectly? Assuming that everyone knows how to spell correctly can cost you leads. Another commonly misspelled brand is Volkswagen. A lot of people spell it with an “o” instead of an “e”. To maximize your exposure online, you should consider including both spellings to get the most results. You can test this yourself by going to Craigslist in your area and doing a search both ways. I found searching in Dallas, TX that I would have limited my competition and potentially have gotten more leads by doing this.
Volkswagen spelled correctly:
Volkswagon spelled incorrectly:
Ad with both spellings for maximum SEO:
Infiniti spelled correctly:
Infinity spelled incorrectly:
Ad with both spellings for maximum SEO:
As you can see in the examples, a dealer did use this tactic to maximize his efforts. Notice the 2003 Volkswagen Passat and the 2004 Infiniti G35. The takeaway here is that you have to be creative and think outside the box to maximize your efforts. You cannot assume that everyone can spell correctly or thinks like you do.
Here are the changes that were announced in January.
Fee Changes Implemented March 30, 2010
eBay Motors will remain an industry leader with the lowest cost per lead. We are rebalancing price structure to be inline with how vehicles dealers actually do business. We understand that majority of sales take place off of eBay and believe that this is a natural sales process. All our Dealers, especially new dealers, will enjoy not having to pay a Successful Listing Fee in order to collect valuable eBay feedback. We understand the UPI process is cumbersome and we wanted to reduce need for them to filed. UPIs may still be filed for feedback reasons, relists, and to report malicious bidders.
Here are the highlights for Vehicles Sellers::
- Everyone will continue to be able to list 4 vehicles FREE every 12 months with no Insertion Fees for Auction-style or Fixed Price. We’re changing the Successful Listing Fee on these items sold at $2000 or less to $60. The Successful Listing Fee for these items sold for greater than $2000 will continue to be $125.
- After the 5th listing we’re changing the Cars and Trucks, RVs & Campers, and Commercial Trucks fees to a $50 Insertion Fee and $0 Successful Listing Fee. Motorcycles, Powersports, Boats, Trailers and Other Vehicles now all have an Insertion Fee of $20, plus a Successful Listing Fee. The Successful Listing Fee will be $30 for vehicles sold for $5000 or less and $60 for vehicles sold for more than $5000.
- We are also changing feature fees for 10 & 21 day listing duration, BIN, Bold, Bolder, Icon and a few others. Reserve with remain unchanged at $7.
Here is a link to all of the fee changes:: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/VehiclesFeeUpdate2010.html#charged
Top-rated seller status for Motors Vehicles
Since Vehicles sellers have a different sales frequency and Dealers are held to industry-accepted performance standards we’ve decided to introduce unique requirements for eBay Motors Vehicles sellers. eBay Top-rated sellers in Motors Vehicles will get a prominent Top-rated seller badge on their listings , increased visibility on their fixed priced listings in best match search results , and 20% off any Successful Listing Fees. Here are the details::
* Vehicle sellers with accounts in good standing, 40 or more vehicle transactions every 12 months, high positive feedback rating & DSRs and who have been registered for at least 90 days can qualify.
* Top-rated seller status requirements for vehicle sellers will not include shipping DSRs. However, there will be a maximum number of Vehicle Purchase Protection claims a seller may have to be Top-rated. DSRs on Item As Described and Communication will also be important.
* Only vehicle transactions with U.S. buyers will count.
* Starting in September 2010 on eBay.com and eBay Motors, the PowerSeller icon or references to the PowerSeller designation can no longer be included in listing templates, listing descriptions, About Me pages, or eBay Stores pages. This will ensure clear differentiation for eBay Top-rated Vehicle sellers.
To help your dealer’s reach Top-rated seller status, we recommend the following Best Practices::
- Encourage Dealers to close at least 40 vehicle transactions with U.S. buyers within 12 months. The $0 Successful Listing Fee after 4 vehicles is making it so Dealers don’t have to pay Successful Listing Fees to reach this goal.
- Help them avoid receiving 1s and 2s on the Item as Described and Communications DSRs by teaching them how to build robust descriptions and ensuring quick & complete eBay lead delivery.
- Dealers will need to maintain a low rate of Vehicles transactions that result in a Vehicle Purchase Protection claim filed against them over 12 months. Making sure your Dealer’s listings provide accurate descriptions, options, condition and vehicle history can all help avoid these claims.
- Make sure your templates are comply with eBay Selling Practices policy requirements. Here are the details:
- Provide accurate and consistent details regarding their items, including item condition and product details.
- Include only relevant terms and conditions. Violations would include conflicting information in a listing, failure to uphold stated terms, or a disclaimer of seller responsibility to deliver the item as described in the listing.
- Ensure that the vehicles are available for sale for the entire duration of the listing. If a vehicle has been sold on the lot please remove it from eBay ASAP.
- Listings (template or manual description) cannot include comments that undermine confidence in the marketplace, such as comments expressing negativity toward buyers or the selling process. I’ve provided more detail on this below.
- Monitor their account status to ensure their account isn’t on hold or suspended.
Find more info on the program here:: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/VehiclesTRS.html
I would be very interested to get your feedback on these changes: good, bad or otherwise so please leave your comments.
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