How To Sell More Cars & Maximize Your ROI On 3rd Party Leads

Having the best leads with the wrong process will yield little results.  During a global pandemic, now is the time for dealerships to focus on both.  They need to have the best possible 3rd party leads at a low cost, which many dealers have found AutoWeb to deliver both: quality and cost.  In addition to the leads, dealers need to focus on creating effective processes to follow up with them. These two elements, when combined, will not only sell more cars, but it will also allow you to maximize your ROI.

This week on the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast, Sean V Bradley discusses the importance of the Internet sales department and BDC.  More specifically, how AutoWeb’s third party leads paired with the right process will have an immediate impact on a dealership’s bottom line.  AutoWeb’s high quality leads can easily generate an additional $1.6 Million in additional gross profit each year.

Joining Sean today is Sebrinner Blair-Henry and Paul Maglio.  Sebrinner is the BDC Director at Ritchey Autos and Paul is a Director of Client Success at AutoWeb.  As experts on 3rd party leads and the best follow up processes, they drop a tremendous amount of knowledge to help dealerships sell more leads.

About Sebrinner Blair-Henry

Sebrinner Blair-Henry is the BDC Director at Ritchey Autos.  Ritchey Autos is located around the Orlando, FL area and has four brands at three locations.  Their locations include: Ritchey Cadillac Buick-GMC in Daytona Beach, FL, Daytona Subaru in Daytona Beach, FL, and Subaru Volvo of Melbourne in Melbourne, FL.

With current market conditions during the pandemic and the inventory crisis, Ritchey Autos sells a combined average of 330 cars each month.  This is largely due to Sebrinner and the BDC which generates about 60% of those units, averaging 200 sales per month.

About Paul Maglio

Paul Maglio has worked at AutoWeb for almost 16 years and is currently a Director of Client Success.  He works with AutoWeb clients to help support them to help them sell as many cars as possible.  This is through helping them not only find more leads, but also by helping them find the right leads.  He also helps them by making sure that they are maximizing their performance on AutoWeb leads by having the right short term and long term follow up processes.

Show Notes: How To Sell More Cars & Maximize Your ROI On 3rd Party Leads

Different Between An Internet Manager & A BDC Director

There is a big difference between an Internet Manager and a BDC Director.  While both are responsible for Internet sales and phone sales, a BDC Director takes things to the next level.  In addition to the Internet and phones, the BDC director is also responsible for most, if not all of the follow up for unsold showroom visits, data mining, and equity mining.  Additionally, the BDC Director is also involved with CSI, special finance, OEM relations, and cross promotional marketing, along with many of the other dealings within a dealership.

How The BDC Can Help Your Dealership Sell More Cars

At Ritchey Autos, Sebrinner and the BDC’s production leads to about 60% of the sales for the entire automotive group.  This is because they are properl trained and have a very specific objective: follow up.  They handle all incoming leads, inbound calls, and essentially all follow up for the group.  This includes every email, text, phone call, and most of the outbound communications.  More surprisingly, is that they contribute 200 deals each month by doing all of this with just Sebrinner and a team of six.  However, when examining their process, it makes sense how they are able to deliver their outstanding results.

The Dilemma Of Staffing In A Dealership

Like most dealerships, Ritchey Autos has a large imbalance of resources.  For all three stores they have 10 sales managers, 5 F&I managers, and 25 sales associates.  Simply put, they have 40 people to handle one third of the business and another seven employees in the BDC to handle the other two thirds.

The Allocation Of Staffing In A Dealership

Dealerships need to allocate more resources to the BDC. The Internet and phones are the new showroom.  The BDC does, at a minimum, five to eight times the amount of activity and traffic than everyone else.  As a result, dealers are upside down in the allocation of people to the different departments which can have a drastic impact on performance and their ability to sell more cars.

The Correct ierspective Of Viewing Lead Volume

Part of this understaffing within the BDC is due to how lead volumes are viewed.  Fresh leads are not the only leads that the BDC have.  There is a residual flow factor, or carry over leads.  This means that there are still active leads that are still in the market over the past 90 days.  Essentially, 1,000 fresh leads per month does not mean that the BDC is only working 1,000 leads.  On average, a dealership receiving 1,000 leads per month will also have approximately 2,250 active leads from the previous month.

How The Right 3rd Party Leads Will Help You Sell More Cars

AutoWeb Is The Best Automotive Lead Provider

Sebrinner’s top lead source provider is AutoWeb.  She has been using them for over 17 years because of their performance.  Each month Ritchey Autos receives about 150 leads from AutoWeb at less than $20 per lead.  Currently, they are selling about 30 cars a month from these leads.  That is an astronomical third party lead provider close rate of 20%.

Sell More Cars With AutoWeb And Gross Over $1.6 Million

Ritchey Autos is on the AutoWeb Used Car Program.  Aside from AutoWeb having high quality leads, Sebrnner also uses them because the AutoWeb used car program is a fraction of the cost of AutoTrader or Cars.com.  This is because AutoWeb is a lead source provider, not an online classified.

Lead Providers Vs Online Classifieds

The biggest difference between the two is that lead providers deliver leads to dealerships.  Online classifieds do not provide dealers leads.  In fact, online classified companies don’t even claim that they provide leads.  They claim that they provide visibility through map views, SRP views, and VDP views.  While those items are important, they are not mission critical.  As such, they should not be the main focus at first.This is especially true during a global pandemic.  Dealers need leads, not views, and AutoWeb not only delivers, but they deliver the highest quality of leads.

Sell More Cars With AutoWeb And Gross Over $1.6 Million

Not only does AutoWeb’s leads help Sebrinner sell more cars, but they also help Ritchey Autos generate massive gross profits.  At their average PVR of $4,500, they are grossing $135,000 each month, or approximately $1,620,000 per year.  Moreover, the ROI is through the roof at approximately 4,400%.

The Right Process & Leads Will Help You Sell More Cars

Process Isn’t One Of The Things, It Is The Only Thing

Sebrinner attributes much of her success to having a fine tuned process.  When it comes to handling leads, process is everything.  It all starts with the first contact attempt, which is a phone call.  While she and her team have scripts, following the script is not necessarily the goal.  Sebrineer places a large focus on having a conversation with the customer.  She starts by asking the customer about their time frame to purchase a vehicle and when they are able to visit the dealership.  If they are unable to visit in the near future, they then offer a virtual process.

Automotive Internet Sales: The Follow Up Vs Engagement Dilemma

Known as the follow up vs engagement dilemma, the hardest part of Internet sales is getting the customer on the phone.  Engagement, or physical conversations with the customer is one of the goals of the BDC.  However, a majority of the time is spent on the follow up, or the contract attempts to get the customer on the phone so you can engage with them.  On average, it takes roughly 9 attempts to reach the customer once.  With this in mind, the BDC or Internet department can sometimes be referred to as the follow up department.

Consistently Follow Up

The key to a successful BDC in a dealership is follow up.  Not only must you consistently follow up, but you must also use different forms of communication too.  At Ritchey Autos, Sebrinner and her team start by calling the customer.  If they do not answer, they then send a text message.  This is then followed by an email.  Finally, if there is still not a response, the customer will receive a video message from a sales associate highlighting the vehicle of interest.  All of this follow up occurs on the very first day.  From there, they have a short term and long term process of consistent follow up.

Video Communication Will Help You Sell More Cars

The Elements Of Personal Communication

Video communication is the most effective form of communication.  There is a 7-38-55 rule of personal communication.  This means that 7% of communication are spoken words, 38% is through voice, tone, and inflection, and the remaining 55% is through body language.  When using video, you are able to communicate 100%.  It has almost the same value as if the person is there. You have sight, sound, motion, and emotion.

1 Minute Of Video Is Worth 1.8 Million Words

You could always send a digital brochure on a vehicle to a customer, but that is not the most effective way to deliver that information.  Not only can you utilize 100% of communication through video, but additionally, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.  60 seconds of video at 30 frames per second equals 1,800 pictures.  So, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then one minute of video containing 1,800 pictures would be worth 1.8 million words.   As a result, video emails have the ability to incease read open rates up to 300%.

The Best Way To Use Video To Sell More Cars

One of the best ways to utilize video to help you sell more cars is by creating vehicle walkaround videos.  A proper video walkaround of a vehicle should start with the sales associate introducing themselves.  Then, just as they would in person, they should start their walkaround on the outside of the vehicle.  Once the exterior has been highlighted, the sales associate should then focus on the interior.  It is important to focus on the most important features and options.  Additionally, the sales associate should make sure to highlight the customers wants, needs, and wishes in the vehicle.

How Sebrinner Sends Video Messages To Customers

There are many different ways to send video communications.  At Ritchey Autos, Sebrinner has set up an HTML email template.  This email is sent on the day the lead comes in.  The template starts with an initial greeting.  Then, they talk about price.  They do not quote exact prices, rather a price range that varies based on the features and options the customer is looking for.  After price, they ask if the customer has a vehicle that they are or are considering trading.

Once the greeting, price, and trade has been addressed, Sebrinner’s template then has some information on their digital retailing process.  Finally, after all of the hot points for many customers have been addressed, the video is inputted.  Sebrinner uploads the videos to YouTube and includes a link directly to that video.

Other Ways To Send Video Messages To Customers

There are many other ways to send videos to customers.  The video communication tool that is recommended and used by the Millionaire Car Salesman team is BombBomb. BombBomb’s software lets you record and send videos directly to anyone from your computer or smartphone.  More importantly, you don’t need any special software or cameras.  Another reason why it is the preferred method is because of it’s integrations.  BombBomb not only integrates with the most used email platforms, such as Gmail and Outlook, but it also integrates with most of the automotive CRMs as well.

Free Automotive Sales Training & Resources To Help You Sell More Cars

Dealer Synergy & Bradley On Demand: The Automotive Industry’s #1 Training, Tracking, Testing, and Certification Platform and Consulting & Accountability Firm

The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast: is the #1 Resource for Automotive Sales Professionals, Managers, and Owners.  Also, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today!

The Against All Odds Radio Show: Hosting guests that have started from the bottom and rose to the top. Also, join The Against All Odds Radio Show Guests & Listeners Facebook Group for the podcasted episodes.

Join The Millionaire Car Salesman Club: on Clubhouse

Win the Game of Googleopoly: Unlocking the Secret Strategy of Search Engines

AutoWeb: Visit AutoWeb.com/dealers for help in revolutionizing your business to help you sell more cars.

CallRevu: The industry leader for call tracking, lead management, and business analytic solutions.

CarNow: Sell more cars now!  Not only is CarNow.com. the market leader in tailored digital solutions, but they are built to help dealers sell more cars.