1. 1. The Hidden Online Car Selling Phenomenon by Ralph Paglia on the Dot Com Insider. Editor's CornerRalph Paglia currently serves a CRM Program Consultant assigned to work with major Car Companies On The Road Forumin North America. In this capacity, Ralph draws upon over 20 years of experience working inWith Ralph Industry Insider Automotive Retail and then working with hundreds of dealers during consulting engagements where his by Events Calendarmission is to find ways to use the Internet and Information Technology to sell more cars and make more Ralph Pagliamoney. Resources Head to HeadThe Hidden Online Car Selling PhenomenonBy Ralph PagliaSince the title of this column has something about "on the road", we will start by outlining the travels that brought me the insight to write this particular article. We left Albuquerque on Tuesday morning and headed up to Detroit to work on developing an Internet Sales initiative On Wednesday evening we left Detroit to head over to New York to work with another OEM client on finding ways to sell more (specifically) used cars by leveraging the Internet Spent the weekend in NYC because going home to Albuquerque didn't make much sense when we had to be in Philadelphia on Monday and Tuesday to work with a team crafting a complete set of Web Brand Management strategies But, the real treat came when we flew to Chicago on Tuesday evening for the Wednesday launch of a new series of seminars centered around eBay Motors. The eBay Motors' seminars are designed to show dealers and ISM's how to use eBay Motors to sell more cars. Since we had spent the last Thursday and Friday working with a very sharp team of experienced used car marketing gurus on using the Internet to accelerate used car sales, the eBay Motors seminar fit right into the "finding a way to make it happen" mindset I was inAlthough I had worked since day one on the eBay project, helping to define the seminar objectives and designing the way we worked with eBay Motors, it was not until I sat in that Chicago Hotel conference center and listened to dealers tell their stories and discuss ways to become even more successful, that I really began to grasp the magnitude of this phenomenon. I listened to dealer after dealer talking about selling so many cars through eBay Motors that they had begun to reduce other types of advertising and promoting their used cars! What a great problem to have Traditional advertising had become less effective because you can sell so many cars on eBay Motors.The turn-out in Chicago was a lot more than we expected. There were about 65 dealers in the room, a bunch of trade suppliers, the eBay Motors team, and my colleague from Reynolds Consulting Services (Larry Kraus), who was facilitating the seminar. The material covered was a real eye opener For me, it did not take long to see that eBay Motors offers an incredibly powerful sales channel that thousands of dealers are becoming very successful in using to grow their sales volume. I spoke with dealer after dealer at the seminar, each selling between 5 to 100 vehicles per month using eBay Motors.The national numbers are almost mind boggling. eBay Motors has surpassed every online lead source in producing actual sold units in less than two years. There are nearly eight million car buyers visiting eBay Motors every month This is 3.3 million more visitors more than the No. 2 ranked site. http://www.dotcominsider.com/hiddenonlineralph1.html (1 of 3) [4/30/2003 11:08:37 AM]
2. 2. The Hidden Online Car Selling Phenomenon by Ralph Paglia on the Dot Com Insider.After working for over 8 years on finding ways to sell more cars using the Internet, learning about what dealers are doing with eBay Motors has been an epiphany. Of all the vehicles listed by dealers on eBay each month, the majority of them result in a sale The most successful dealers have developed detailed processes regarding how they list their vehicles, along with multiple pricing strategies. Several dealers spoke about how some buyers bypass the online sales completion process and go directly to the dealer to buy the car. This means that eBay Motors has the best sales ratio of any form of online car selling Interestingly, the dealers who were at the Chicago seminar were there to learn how to become better at the process of selecting vehicles and listing them. The Chart below illustrates the Total Used Car market in the USA,and who is selling them 26%Private Sales36%Independent38%New Car Dealers We should point out that the vast majority of the vehicles listed for sale on eBay Motors are from dealers (not private parties). As we studied the processes that successful eBay Motors dealers are using, we soon realized that if an Internet Manager applied these same processes to their own web sites, and the listing of their vehicles on other sites, they would increase their leads and sales closing ratios. For years, we have struggled to get dealers to take a decent photo of the used car they are putting on their web site. Which has helped create the success of Dealer Specialties, AutoUplinkUSA, Rolling Monroney, and CARad Successful eBay Motors dealers take OVER 12 photos, many of them showing close-ups of the car's features and accessories. Heck, if we put that many good photos of our used cars on our dealer web sites, we'd sell more used cars!The "selling stories" that eBay Motors dealers craft and post on their vehicle listings would, without a doubt, help sell more cars through dealer web sites and other online marketing channels as well. Over and over, we saw that these mega-successful eBay Motors dealers were executing marketing processes that would improve results from all online sources of vehicle inventory listings.If you are an ISM who is responsible for your dealership's web site, it is important to understand that as we look at the WebTrends Site Traffic Analysis reports for hundreds of Automark dealers throughout the country, the number one, most visited part of each dealer's web site is their inventory sections. Three years ago, the biggest draw for customers was always the New Vehicle Inventory Today, we are seeing more and more site reports that show the Used Vehicle Inventory drawing more visitors than New. Meanwhile, somewhere in the USA, every two minutes a dealer gets paid in full for the car they listed online at eBay Motors.This much I can guarantee every Internet Manager reading this article; if you attend one of the eBay Motors seminars, and apply the vehicle inventory listing practices taught there to all your online vehicle inventory, especially your Automark web site, you will sell more cars. Plus, there were several Internet Managers at the eBay Motors seminar in Chicago that use eBay Motors to sell an additional 5 to 10 units per month The smart ones put the "spiff" units on eBay and collect the $500 bonus Times 5.If you would like to attend one of the eBay Motors online selling seminars, you can enroll online at: http://pages.ebay.com/ebaymotors/services/motors-university.htmlHere's some of the upcoming cities and dates for eBay Motors Seminars:PhoenixTuesdayMarch 18 Pasadena, CA TuesdayApril 1 HoustonFriday April 11 Dallas/Fort WorthTuesdayApril 15 DetroitThursday April 24 Columbus Friday May 2 Cincinnati Friday May 9 http://www.dotcominsider.com/hiddenonlineralph1.html (2 of 3) [4/30/2003 11:08:37 AM]
3. 3. The Hidden Online Car Selling Phenomenon by Ralph Paglia on the Dot Com Insider.MiamiWednesdayMay 21 Tampa/St. Pete Friday May 23 Austin/San Antonio Friday August 1 Philadelphia Friday August 15 Dallas/Fort WorthFriday August 22 AtlantaFriday November 7 Baltimore/D.C. Friday November 14 Besides learning how to sell more cars and make more money, eBay Motors hands out some very nice materials, tools and manuals.In addition to the eBay Motors seminars, Reynolds Consulting Services now offers a new in-dealership training and consulting program based on the proven success of our Technology Assisted Selling (TAS) formula. By working directly with the Automark Web Services Team, eBay Motors, MSN Autos, KBB Classifieds, Yahoo! Autos, and CarsDirect.com we have been able to develop a consulting process that helps dealers define their Web Brand Management Strategy with a sharp focus on dramatically increasing their sales of used and Certified Pre- Owned vehicles. As an ISM, when your dealer commits to an Integrated Marketing Program, not only will your lead volume rise, so will the quality of those leads We have seen several dealership installations where we had to make adjustments because the ISM's were getting too many incoming phone calls from car buyers in response to their initial personalized email response.Happy selling, and when thinking about how you respond to leads, remember this: "What you send the potential buyer is as important as when you send it"Ralph Paglia Reynolds Transformation Solutions mail@ralphpaglia.com Cell: 505-301-6369http://www.dotcominsider.com/hiddenonlineralph1.html (3 of 3) [4/30/2003 11:08:37 AM]