Supervised Integration

Post by Paul Rogers

Another Internet department structure model is what we refer to as Supervised Integration. This is a little like a combination of the Beginning-to-End and Appointment Setter models.
For this one, the Internet Manager who is in charge of monitoring and updating the web site also takes on the task of the initial response to incoming emails and phone calls. This keeps the response time low. They decide then, based on what they know about the customer from the information in the lead and what they know about the work load of their salespeople, to whom they should assign that lead for short and long-term follow-up.
This system works well when the dealership has some established salespeople that want Internet leads. In fact, this is the secret to making this system work. You should only allow a select group of salespeople to handle Internet leads – those who like them and are willing to do the long-term effort required for Internet success. It’s very common to have salespeople that would like to have the additional income, but they either:
A. Hate working with the ‘informed buyer’ because of the perception that grosses will be low, or
B. Lack the willingness to follow-up long enough to effectively close these leads. They tend to be interested in the quick and easy sales.
The benefits of the Supervised Integration structure are that you don’t need to support two different methods of selling. It also tends to improve the purchase experience of all of your customers – walk-in, repeats and online.
The difficulty of this structure is that the activities of the salespeople receiving leads need to be continuously monitored. Because the walk-in traffic always takes a priority, sometimes salespeople place Internet lead follow-up on the ‘back burner’. If a salesperson falls behind on their follow-up with incoming Internet leads, they should be denied additional leads until they can catch up and maintain their lead management.
We are frequently asked which structure works the best – B2E, Appointment Setter or Supervised Integration. The answer is that they ALL work – you must determine which one works best for your sales force, your clients and your philosophy of selling.

Appointment Setters

Post by Paul Rogers

This Internet department structure model is most common within Toyota in the Northeastern part of the US (the Boston and New York Regions). The Appointment Setter model entails hiring people to make all of the initial responses, and sometimes the ongoing follow-up, to incoming Internet leads and phone calls. It has several advantages – and a few disadvantages, as well.
Everyone agrees that hiring, training and keeping an excellent automotive salesperson is a very difficult task. And then when you find someone that can close a sale effectively, to ask them to be great on the phone, on email and to stick with an incoming Internet lead until the customer is ready to buy (90 days) is extremely difficult. So, why not hire someone for the specific skills that you need? Hire and train people that are great with follow-up but don’t need to be able to close – then keep your closers busy with appointments!

One of the exceptional benefits of this process revolves around response time. In the B2E model, no one is responding to incoming leads when your salespeople are busy selling cars. Since the Appointment Setter is almost always right in front of the computer and the telephone, response time should be much lower, on average. And one of the constants for Internet in automotive sales seems to be that “Response Time = Closing Ratio” (meaning the lower your response time is; the higher your closing ratio is).
However, there are two caveats to the Appointment Setter model. First, there MUST be some continuity from the Appointment Setter’s conversations with the buyer and the salesperson that will be selling the car. The Appointment Setter needs to make notes about the client and pass that information along to the salesperson before they show up. The client does NOT want to feel like everything they said in email or on the phone went to ‘deaf ears’ and they have to start over from scratch! If that happens, what was their benefit in going online in the first place?
Second, the Leadership Team of the dealership needs to watch expenses carefully – specifically the compensation. With the Appointment Setter model you will, in essence, be paying two people to sell one car. Improved closing ratio and higher volume can take care of this issue, but it needs to be watched carefully.
We would recommend the Appointment Setter model specifically if your dealership has an established sales force, with tenured salespeople and little turnover. It may not work as well if you have a lot of new salespeople with little product knowledge, experience or closing skills.

B2E – It’s Common – Is It Right for You?

By far, the most common structure used in Internet departments across most of the U.S. is the ‘Beginning-to-End’ (B2E) structure. This means that incoming Internet leads and phone calls are assigned to a specific Internet salesperson and it is their responsibility to follow that customer through to a sale. A few dealerships go so far as to have the Internet salesperson provide the financing assistance as well.

This structure has many advantages and a few disadvantages.
The advantages are:
A) The customer deals with only one person – providing a consistency of the relationship
B) Easier accountability for dealership management – what we call ‘one throat to choke’ J – managers can use the Internet Lead Management System (ILMS) to monitor and manage the Internet salesperson’s activities
C) In most cases, a dealership receives enough leads to be able to have ‘full time’ Internet salespeople – they don’t need to take floor ‘ups’ to augment their income.

The disadvantages include:
A) Problems with response time – when the Internet salespeople are busy selling a car to a customer, who is answering incoming leads?
B) Number of Internet salespeople – because a B2E salesperson should only handle 65-90 leads per month, a high volume dealership could need 10 or 12 of them
C) Turnover can be a problem – especially when a smaller dealership attempts to have only one dedicated Internet salesperson. If they get promoted or leave, then the dealership has to start over from scratch with someone new.

If you choose to use the B2E structure, we recommend that you follow these guidelines:
A) Limit the number of leads per salesperson to a manageable level – 65 – 90 new, unique leads per month, depending on the salesperson’s experience, prowess with the ILMS, volume of repeat and referral customers, etc.
B) Receive or purchase at least 150 new, unique leads per month so that you can afford to have ate least two full-time Internet salespeople at all times.
C) Delegate authority to your Internet salespeople to maintain the web site, quote selling prices and maintain specials and coupons, etc.