Day 1

Well, the first day was a long one. After getting myself settled in my office, learning how to use the phone system, setting up my email accounts, I decided to jump in head first by researching what is currently taking place in the Internet Department.

I started by meeting with the current BDC Manager, who over the weekend decided to quit this position and sell cars. So I talked with her for about two hours so she could explain what she actually did. This left the BDC department with no one in charge, which is ok since it really wasn't being run like a professional BDC. It will actually allow me to start with a fresh business plan.

After this meeting, I met the with current Internet Sales Manager, who was handling all the internet leads, but really wasn't running it like a business either. This dealership uses Autobase and OneSource as their CRM programs, which I'm not so familiar with since I usually install WebControl in all the dealerships I've developed. So once I get setup with my login information, I'll go through and see how the leads are handled. I hear that Autobase has a new internet module available for it, so that will be one of my calls tomorrow.

As I interviewed the current Internet Sales Manager, it looks like 75% of his leads are being emailed information instead of calling. This is the reason that his grosses are so low. His philosophy is if someone asks to be responded to by email, which most of them do, you should honor their wishes. But anytime you do it that way, it takes longer to make the sale, and the price you're going to send him will be low. So this is why I'm a big believer that if there's a phone number attached to the lead, the contact is made by phone within 5 minutes of that lead coming into the CRM program.

The dealership is currently selling 45 used vehicles per month. I'm sure I can double that by getting them into AutoTrader. I'll contact them for an appointment tomorrow.

They are using a search engine marketing program which runs $3500 per month. We're already at the top of all the search engines, and really don't get many leads from the website. I may just cancel that program and use the money to develop a small BDC to start.

They're also signed up with Who's Calling which runs about $700 per month. It's a great program if it's used as a training tool, but I don't think most dealerships actually listen to the calls and train from them. I'll think a little more later on whether we can use this program effectively. No sense spending money on something that won't be used productively (profit-generatingly).

It's been a long day, so I'll sign off for now. See you tomorrow.