Dealers:  How Do You Sell Cars Online?
Did you build a Superhighway or just Pave the Cow Paths?

The complete expression as I originally heard it was “When Building a Superhighway you should NOT just pave the Cow Paths.”

Personally I love one line expressions like that since they stick with me and cause me to challenge the things around me that I used to not even notice.  Sort of like the fish who doesn’t know what she doesn’t know when she exclaims “What water?” 

The full Cow Path story goes something like this:

“Back in the days before automobiles, most transportation was based upon a system of paths through the surrounding terrain that were created by the movement of animal livestock.  As society moved from an agricultural to an industrialized basis, these cow paths were no longer an efficient means to transport the prevalent goods of the day.

It would have been entirely inappropriate and inefficient to just pave over the cow paths.  Instead an entirely new transportation system was planned – bridges, ramps, roads, superhighways along major city to city routes and so on.  In other words, a series of superhighways was built.

Hence the expression… when building a superhighway you should NOT just pave the cow paths.”

So what does this mean to you and your Internet execution? 

First of all, I’ll apologize if I have to refer to how cars are sold via traditional media and in the showroom as cow paths, but in the words of Shaun Raines, founder of Dealer Advisor “by hanging on to that nostalgic view of the past, dealers and manufacturers are putting their very survival at risk.”  Perhaps a bit overstated, but if 80%+ of consumers are on the Internet and you are not efficient, effective nor profitable at what you are doing there, then...

Recognizing that the Internet is an entirely new medium (superhighway) unlike anything that has ever come before it (cow paths) and that in overwhelmingly numbers consumers use the Internet when purchasing a vehicle, challenge yourself to answer these questions:

·         Why are car buying consumers on the Internet?

o   The answers may surprise you.  Price is only part of the answer and not the #1 factor.  Actually there is research (and our experience supports it) that the majority of consumers will pay a modest premium ($100-$500) for a better online buying experience.  Anyway, according to Sean Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy, the top 5 reasons in order of importance to consumers are:

§  Availability

§  Price

§  Convenience

§  A different way to do business (i.e.  don’t like car sales process)

§  Research

o   How well does your execution address each of these needs?

·         Before the Internet, how did you attract consumers to shop and buy from you?

o   Traditional media (newspapers), traditional advertising messages ($299/mo, $0 down, only 3 in stock) and expensive dealerships are cow paths.

o   The Internet fundamentally changes the concept of location.

o   The Internet arms the consumer with unprecedented information and control.

o   Could this be why traditional managers and dealerships are worried about the impact of the Internet and are frustrated with their showroom business?

o   What can you do about this?

·         When designing and implementing your Internet strategy, did you pave the cow paths?  Did you:

o   Build a website that encourages consumers to call or email for price?

o   Promotes a “low price” message or a better experience message?

o   How well is your brand communicated through this new medium?

o   How well did you implement reasons online consumers should buy from you?

o   What message do you use to attract online consumers to your dealership?

o   How different / better does your dealership look to online consumers?

o   Do you have the same template website that every dealer of your franchise has?

·         Online consumers really don’t care about things they can get from any dealer of your franchise.  Messages like we care more, mission statements, conveniently located, ACE trained technicians, factory original parts, typical service hours and so on really don’t cut it.  Give them things they do care about and that support what you want them to do.  How about:

o   An Internet appointment gift pack.  For online consumers who come in to the dealership for a complimentary consultation, a complimentary car wash and vacuum on their trade in, binding trade appraisal and equity analysis, a free safety inspection (what the heck, you want to know anyway), a coupon for $x off of a meal at a nice restaurant in your city, some dealership key chains and other small trinkets you can arrange and present nicely.

o   Make this whole bundle a low cost, impressive looking, high impact presentation and put these gift bags out on a table for EVERY consumer to see with a hanging icon over the table that says Internet Appointment Gifts.

o   Make a section on your website to assist out of town visitors planning a trip to your store to make an event / mini-vacation out of it.  Point out major points of interest.  Arrange special discounts with local hotels, etc.

o   Communicate a choice of a 10% discount card on all service and parts purchased from your dealership or an extra $500 towards their trade in of the vehicle they are now purchasing if they purchase from you again.

o   What else can you do that really doesn’t cost you very much, that you would do anyway but that the online consumer really cares about?

·         It was within this context (the need for a superhighway vs. a paved cow path) that the Ai-Dealer shopping cart based ecommerce model was designed.  I am not here to convince you of anything.  I am a CPA and in general we’re just not that charismatic.  I encourage you to form your own opinion as to its resonance with consumers and as part of a dealership superhighway implementation.  Consider: 

o   As Ai-Dealer has the only such system on the market and provides 30-50 mile franchise territories to our dealers…Add “The ONLY complete online shopping experience” to your marketing and advertising… create conquest selling opportunities

o   Provide a better experience others in your market can not provide = hold more gross profit

o   Raise your website’s conversion rates since the shopping cart gets consumer emails from those who refuse to submit leads… again more selling opportunities

o   If you don’t have this, you will be competing with shopping cart based ecommerce.

If your Internet execution feels very much like your showroom execution (“Hey, I’ve got your lead.  Come on in to the showroom!”), then you’ve paved the cow path.  That is NOT a better buying experience and is NOT what today’s online consumers are looking for and you look just like every other dealership.

If you feel frustrated, exasperated, burnt out or tormented with the efforts and expense of what you do today relative to the results (volume, sales commissions and net profits), then I would suggest that perhaps you are fighting an environment that is bigger than you.  You likely have paved a cow path.

I had a new experience this week.  I had a couple of non-client dealers and Internet Managers angry with me, but I guess I’m going to get more of that now that Ai-Dealer is growing.  Each had a group of stores and in both cases one of their shopping cart based ecommerce franchise territories had already been signed up for by another dealer.  While Ai-Dealer is only providing such franchise-exclusive territories until a certain critical mass is achieved (believing that there should be some grandfathered in benefit for early adoption), the question I was left wondering about was “As a dealer or manufacturer, if you are not equipped to travel on the Internet Superhighway, are you going to be roadkill if you bring your old transportation methods (inquire online, then come on in to the showroom) onto the Superhighway?”

Or maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe shopping cart based ecommerce won't catch on in automotive as it has in every other industry.

At least it is something to think about if you are like me and enjoy working on your business and not just in it.