Sales Playbook AUTOMOTIVE

Transcription

1 Sales Playbook AUTOMOTIVE Contents: SECTION The What 1.2 The Why 1.3 The Lingo 1.4 The Economy 1.5 The Seasons 1.6 The Playing Field SECTION The Conversation 3.2 The Questions 3.3 The Goals 3.4 The Value 3.5 The Expectations 3.6 The Close SECTION 2 SECTION The Decision-Maker 2.2 The Gatekeeper 4.1 The Inbounds 4.2 The Outbounds

2 Section THE WHAT Automotive purchases are always in season. New Auto dealers compete monthly against their local competitors and Used Auto dealerships compete against themselves to increase month over month and year over year sales results. Both new and used dealerships are in the business to move as many vehicles as possible through their lot and they are compensated and rewarded for how many they are able to move. Any and all means of advertising that can show returns and ability to move vehicles through an auto dealers lot will be considered and you most always will be listened to if it is in regards to helping them move more vehicles. New and Used cars for sale, Financing Options and vehicle trade-ins. 1.2 THE WHY Auto is a good vertical to target for a number of reasons: The end consumer is always there (people are always looking to buy, sell or upgrade their vehicles as a trade-in.) New dealerships typically have a new incentive EVERY month that they can offer to the end consumer as a reason to buy from them. Used dealerships often create their own monthly incentives to give their sales team as tools to sell. They spend a lot of money on advertising and are highly open to opportunities that can show actual returns on their investments. Spend a large portion of their budgets on traditional media that is not able to show real returns on their investments or adequately target the areas they cover. Co-op opportunities can exist to supplement their ad spend. Sales days are by the plenty, over the course of the seasons. Dealers must be sure to regularly maintain their websites and as a survey of vehicle owners, found that 67% of respondents say dealer websites were very influential in the decision to buy a vehicle. So what better way to drive someone to their website then from the internet itself?

3 1.3 THE LINGO Help develop your role as a trusted advisor by familiarizing yourself with some of the industry s terminology: Word - definition of word. 1.4 THE ECONOMY Financing solutions are a huge part of the Auto Industry. New dealerships have various financing options to put almost anyone in a car with as little as $0 down to advertise towards individuals affected by the economy. Used car dealerships have partnerships with the financial institutions they use to provide car loans and earn money simply by setting someone up with a car loan even if they just break even on the sale of the vehicle. They are all about moving vehicles. A bad economy gives the auto dealership a reason to advertise their financing options. A good economy gives the auto dealerships to advertise their high end cars and promote their latest and greatest vehicles.

4 1.5 THE SEASONS Every season is a good season to have a sale, some as often as every month: End of month sales Dealers new and used look at their month close as a key success metric. Provides an opportunity to announce and advertise their monthly sales incentives to the public during the last week of each month for higher impact and sense of urgency advertising above and beyond the typical spend over the first 3 months. Build this into campaigns. Columbus Day Monday, October 14th. Commemorates the landfall of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. Held Annually the second Monday in October. Veterans Day Monday November 11th The day the Armistice was signed to end the fighting of WW1. Publich holiday held annually. Christmas Day Wednesday December 25th The Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus. Holiday sales are huge and dealers have more incentives then ever during this time period to promote over the entire month of December Super Bowl XLVII Tuesday February 4 NFL Championship game annually. Presidents Day Monday February 17 Washington-Lincoln Day, celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February to honor the birthdays of two key American presidents. Notoriously one of the biggest annual car sales of the year for dealerships across the country. Daytona 500 Sunday, February 23 1st major racing event of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

5 1.5 THE SEASONS, con t. March Madness Sale Saturday March 1 through Monday March 31 Month is the month associated with high school and college basketball tournaments National Car Care Month Tuesday April 1 through Wednesday April 30th This event seeks to educate driveers about the importance of properly maintaining their vehicles to endsure performance and safety. Independence Day Friday July 4th Independence of the united states from Great Britain. The declaration of the independence was approved by the Continental congress this date of THE PLAYING FIELD New dealers compete against other same dealerships across the country by sales numbers. In addition to both new and used dealerships both competing against themselves their month over month and year over year numbers as a success metric. Community outreach, sponsorship programs (little leagues, etc.) are a key way for advertisers to reach out to the immediate communities they serve to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Helping to get their efforts and messaging out about what they do for their community is huge complement to our targeting capabilities. Often can be multiple like dealerships within a single state or DMA. The importance of geo-targeting by zip code is huge for dealerships vs the targeting capabilities of most traditional media such as TV and Radio where often there can be 10 like dealerships between the end consumer and the dealership paying for the advertising; that they are ultimately only helping with their ad, rather than spending on their immediate market.

6 Section THE DECISION MAKER 99% of the time the end decision comes down to the general manager of the automotive group. The other key influencers in this process are typically: The internet manager The manager of single location within a multi-location dealership. Meeting with the internet manager is typically a must to discuss your opportunities with them before the GM will often sit down with you. The general manager is very busy with high level day to day activities of the dealership and hire the internet manager to make these recommendations to them. The internet manager usually handles the inventory feeds for their auto platforms, their website and the overall online lead generation for their sales team. 2.2 THE GATEKEEPER Most all new dealerships have a receptionist or a front desk. They will most always give you the name of the general manager and sometimes even call them at their desk to see if they will meet with you. But more often than not you will need to also ask for the internet manager who is more likely to see you about your opportunity regarding abilities to sell more cars for them. If you can know their names prior to seeing the gatekeeper it is a huge help. Saying is John here is much more welcoming and lets the gatekeeper know or makes them believe that they must already know you. If they say yes, they will likely also ask who you are. Say you are with a company they may already utilize or reference that it is about their cars.com account and position yourself against it to get them to see you. Get both the general managers contact info and also the internet manager contact info. If either of them are able to see you great but if not, follow up with an letting them know that you stopped in to see them about an opportunity that can drive more sales for them and allow them to measure the returns other dealerships are using now, that you think they will also like. Measuring returns on investment, increasing sales, ability to reach out to their local community and letting them know that their competition is already using your services should spike their interest enough to at least listen to what you have to offer.

7 Section THE CONVERSATION First, ask them questions to get them talking about their business specifically and or tell them a story about a vehicle of theirs that your family member has to warm up to them such as: How are the 2013 new models? What are the improvements between the 2012 and 2013 models. Are you guys getting into the hybrids? My sister got a hybrid and loves it. Then ask them questions about sales and their competition. How are sales going? How many cars do you guys turn on average in a month? How many did you move in your best month this year? How many did you move in your worst month this year? Do you have many like dealerships in the area that you compete with? What would you say your strength is over them? What is their strength over you? Ask them questions to figure out where they currently spend their advertising dollars and get them to tell you what is most important for them. If you were to break your marketing budget into a pie chart how would your digital efforts compare with your traditional media like TV and Radio? TV and Radio portion of pie questions: How many like dealerships are in the coverage area of that messaging. Do you think they are driving past them to come to you first? Would you like to be able to target people strictly in your coverage area? Digital portion of pie questions: Do you believe people are researching vehicles online before coming out to see you? What are you spending money on digitally to make up that portion of the pie? Inventory feeds, etc. So how are you getting your incentives out to everyone. Are you strictly using digital to list your vehicles on third party sites?

8 3.2 THE QUESTIONS Get the decision-maker talking about the business, how it s doing, what the future goals are. Here are some questions to drive this conversation forward: Do you have an internet manager? Would they like the ability to make changes to the campaign regularly and monitor the kind of success that is being achieved? Have you done much with Print, TV, Radio or Billboards in the past? Do you have a service department and do you promote it much? What banks do you use for financing? Lead into conversation about Propel Display, Retarget and Search targeting and tracking. 3.3 THE GOALS Who are buying vehicles from you? Who would you like to see buy more vehicles from you? What are the key success metrics that you like to see improve with an advertising campaign? Sell more vehicles Reach a larger more targeted audience Be a part of their immediate community Accept more trade-ins Finance more people for car loans 3.4 THE VALUE Transaction value will vary between makes and models. High volume dealerships can sell cars at a less expensive transaction price than the smaller dealerships. Used car dealers can make money even just by financing vehicles. Used car dealers go to the auctions 2-3 times a week, buy low and sell high.

9 3.5 THE EXPECTATIONS Reach a larger more qualified and targeted audience within the markets they serve with trackable products that can measure true returns and increase their bottom line. Often feel a lot of their advertising receives wasted reach or is not able to effectively track the results they gain from their campaigns. Ability to put their message in front of their local audience. Best to find out how many cars they sell per month year over year for each particular month and set a clear expectation if you spend x amount of dollars what would you need in return to make that a profitable investment. Show increase in site visitors and how it correlates to vehicles sold. 3.6 THE CLOSE A well constructed and thought out proposal that has tracking in place to measure its effectiveness can be sold in a one time close for such things like holiday specials, Presidents Day weekend sales, etc. Having a proposal with a clear objective, with what the dealership will receive laid out very clearly that has capabilities to measure a return on their investment allow for much quicker sales cycles and provide a sense of urgency. A longer sales cycle typically exists when the dealership is already using another vendor and they need to get out of the contract. Longer sales cycles allow for full year plans to be presented with a clear timeline of how the campaign will unfold each month. Section THE INBOUNDS Digital 3rd Party Auto Sites Autotrader.com Cars.com Carfind.com Reach Local Craigslist SEM & SEO Providers Newspaper Content Website Banners

10 4.1 THE INBOUNDS, con t. Traditional TV Print Radio Billboards Specialty Publications Speaking about the competition 3rd party auto sites Inventory feed is all they need, people are going there looking for either a specific vehicle they have pre-determined they want or a specific vehicle type in regards to a set price and style (SUV, Sedan, etc.) that they are looking for. The bells and whistle upgrade options just increase their spend with these vendors and the sites are to overwhelming with everything car related so the additional exposure will go un-noticed and blurred in with all the auto ads so they do not stand out on these auto specific sites, where the additional money could be better spent on non-auto sites so they stand out more to a targeted audience segment you know is interested in buying a vehicle. Reach Local and other SEM/SEO providers Reach Display - Provides a tier 2 ad network and delivers their ads below the fold, propel delivers our display ads on tier 1 ad networks and exchange sites above the fold and through the DSP provider that Forrester ranked #1 for targeting capabilities. So Propel provides better display targeting, sites the ad are delivered on and positioning the ads receive on the sites we reach. SEM Propel offers a smaller margin then reach local does right off the top of our SEM campaigns. A similar product and tracking capabilities as propel, however if pitching a local dealership in MA you can mention how their campaigns are managed out of TX by someone who does not know the local markets as well as our team that manages the campaigns and know the geographic areas and competitors that the dealership is competing with that we would go after to increase their impression share for. Propel can track the phone calls back to the keywords, which I believe reach does not do. SEO Our tracking dashboard for SEO and really all our products sets us apart, the amount of quality off-site articles, blogs, social bookmarking, and directory link building is

11 4.1 THE INBOUNDS, con t. Craigslist A good free tool you can recommend them to use, but not spend money on. Sometimes is ok to agree about a competitor if you know it works and you can let them know this is a great free tool, but they should take it for what it is free. Newspaper Content websites Buying a site, or a position on a site can deliver an extremely high volume of wasted reach at more expensive rates because their campaigns are dependent on the user visiting the publisher site in the first place to even have a chance of seeing there ad as it is the only site they have bought, that the user is someone who lives in the geographic area that they are targeting, that their ad is in rotation on the site when that person is on that specific site and living in the area, as well as hoping the person is in the market to buy a vehicle, at the time they are on the specific publishers website, and live in the geographic area, when their ad is being displayed. Propel Display buys an audience segment, that lives in the targeted area, is in the market to buy a vehicle, delivers the ad on any site they visit and not dependent on that user going to that specific publisher website, while they are actively engaged with real time offerings related to the consumer and deliver ad above the fold where you know it will be seen and not lost in a rotation. All at less expensive rates. Buying direct cost the advertiser more premium CPMs with less quality targeting capabilities. Traditional Online Display through the ad networks is similar to TV, Radio and Billboards in that it can influence a persons behavior upon viewing, which does not require clicking to happen, but it is not wasted on channel surfers. In addition to the value of the view: increasing direct site visitors, searches for the company, and foot traffic to the property online display does offer the ability to measure performs of creative and A/B split test results and optimize for the highest performing creative and sites allowing the campaign to continue to improve month over month, year over year with attention to detail and target smaller geo-graphic areas than TV and Radio which are typically constrained to the DMA as a whole where many like dealerships exists and that their advertising will often only help their competitors rather than themselves.

12 4.1 THE INBOUNDS, con t. The Questions How do your competitors measure results for you and what are their success metrics. How focused of an area are you able to target down to with that media. Make a pie chart of your spend, can you imagine what you would get online and the results we would be able to deliver if you spent a TV budget online. Based on what we discussed today is their anything that would prevent you from wanting to move forward with us? Reverse close auto dealers love to say no. Can them to say no or force them to raise a reservation so you can combat it their on spot. Ask for the follow up meeting before you leave to present with a clear plan and proposal.