Car Dealers:  Sell More Cars With What You Already Have By Avoiding The Seven Sins In Your Online Execution

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know how difficult the automotive market is right now.  Yesterday, I came across this brilliant article on the application of Dante's 7 sins to website interactivity and it made me think "I run into this stuff every day when reviewing dealer's websites."

As I've said before, I write these newsletters for a multitude of purposes:

• To help dealers with their online execution
• Yes I do focus on the why's and how's of maximizing results of true ecommerce, but that after all is what my company does
• To give back to the industry I love so much and the many fine individuals with whom I have the pleasure of calling friends

So with that in mind, this article is a goodwill gesture to reward Ai-Dealer's newsletter readership by helping you get more sales out of what you already have in these tough times.

Below is a summary of the 7 sins concepts applied to your website.  Commit these online sins and you are most definitely costing your dealership and your brand sales (what follows is paraphrased from the original article and applied to dealership websites).

1. Gluttony.  "Gluttony is the overindulgence of anything to the point of waste." 
• In the online context, what does that mean?  Does your website feature too much content?  A cluttered design?  Too many links?  A litany or disorganized mess of attention grabbing objects?  Does it look like it was designed by committee?
• What to do.  Users arrive with specific purposes at your website.  Accordingly, every page on your site should have a goal and that is to quickly and clearly satisfy the user's purpose and make them want to proceed to what you want them to do next.  Take a new car buyer, a used car buyer, a service customer and a parts customer.  Start at your home page and see your website as your customers see it.  Customers do not read.  They glance and skim at best, clicking on the first thing that looks remotely related to their purpose.  Confuse them or make them read too deep or push too hard too soon for their personal info and click they're gone.  Another wasted selling opportunity.
2. Envy.  "Envy is wanting what others have."
• In your online execution, what constitutes envy?  While I encourage trying new things and studying what others do, I have always found that imitation without understanding is dangerous.  You can't buy success online.  Online success is a journey not a destination.  Opinions have no place in online execution.  In his best-selling book, Built to Last, James Collins spoke about how the most successful organizations are like hedgehogs.  They know how to roll up in a protective ball to weather outside storms, they know their strengths and weaknesses, what they are good at and not, they continually monitor what is going on around them, and they aren't afraid to take a risk or invest aggressively in new ventures that are consistent with where they know they need to go.
• What to do.  For your online execution and website, focus on your consumers' needs.  Get rid of all happy talk and pushy salesperson language.  Keep your experience clean and clear.  Show, don't tell.  Attract with honey ("we are easy to deal with," "shop and buy online," "no pressure," "convenient," etc.) not vinegar ("watch our commercials," "here is no meaningful information to your shopping purpose, now tell me who you are so we can stalk you," etc.).  There are dealers I know who sell 50% of their vehicles due to their Internet efforts.  Envy them enough to study what they do.
3. Lust.  "An inordinate desire to have something."
• On a dealership website?  Don't try to make a dealership website sexy.  It is just distracting.  What do I mean by that?  Don't try too hard to get my attention, definitely don't use too much flash, don't overuse or improperly use technologies video, blogs, forums, popup coupons, etc.
• What to do.  Keep it simple.  Keep it relevant.  Present it only in the context to my purpose as the visitor on your site.  It is not about you unless I want to know about you, but I expect to find personal philosophy, guiding principles and actual people if I look at those pages.  Attractive and relevant is desirable.  In the context of web design, less is more and clarity is appreciated.  Deception is punished.
4. Pride.  "The excessive love of oneself."
• Unless I ask you, my online purpose has nothing to do with you.  Did you know that a picture of an Internet Salesperson or your dealer proudly smiling on the home page lowers conversion effectiveness of a dealership's website dramatically?  Online consumers are on your website because your brand and your dealership have entered their consideration set for their purpose... not yours.  As in sales, very little you say about you is going to help the sale.
• What to do.  Shut up, get out of the way, design your online experience around them and their needs.  However, a dealership website is still about sales.  If you want to maximize conversion effectiveness, only in the context of you helping them with their purpose ask them to engage with you.  Do it comfortably.  Anticipate their objections and reasons to be reluctant to do so.  Proactively present comforting statements at just those times to reinforce the action you want them to take.
5. Sloth.  "Laziness, sluggishness and I'll add indifference to the list."
• How can a dealership website and an Internet process be slothful?  Does your website take a long time to load?  Does the design of your site include rich applications that result in a slow, frustrating experience?  Do you take a long time to get back to Internet inquiries?  Do you answer them thoroughly and completely or just pick up the phone and call to try to get them to come in to your dealership?
• What to do.  Use services on your website which genuinely engage the consumer.  If they are like the shopping cart and represent a competitive advantage relevant to the consumer's purpose, advertise them.  Treat every response to every lead seriously.  If the consumer says don't call, don't call.  If asked for a price, provide one... but do so in a manner to engage not become an unpaid price quoting service.  Set and meet your customer's expectations.  Use an ILM/ CRM tool to manage this.  Use an autoresponder to acknowledge their submission, provide your contact details and let them know what to expect next.  If you have an online engagement tool like a shopping cart, embed a link to it along with a comfortable message in your auto-response.
6. Anger.  "Extreme hostility, indignation, or exasperation."
• Low response rates and a lack of engagement are NOT your consumers' problem.  Do you have any Internet consumer haters in your dealership?  Anyone who is hoping the whole Internet thing goes away so consumers have to go back to the good old days where full color newspaper ads with a stinker price on an aged unit brought people into the dealership to get more information?
• What to do.  At all costs make sure you have processes and programs in place so you don't end up reading about yourself in the news like this or this.  That's a bad day and if it happens and you let it persist, it is your fault.  Embracing the mindset that the Internet is both the now and increasingly so, the future of the car business is a necessity.  As of July 2007, CapGemini determined that 1 in-market consumer in 5 would buy their next car online if they could... and that was up from 2% when they last studied it in 2002.  75-80% of in-market consumers use the Internet for their vehicle shopping and what they experience there entirely shapes with whom they choose to do business and what brands they favor.
7. Greed.  Despite what Gordon Gekko famously said in the movie Wall Street, "Greed is not good.  Greed is not right.  And greed will not save this great corporation we call America."  That is actually still pretty funny and has always been a personal favorite, but it is not true.  Look at the sub-prime mess around us right now.  History has a funny way of repeating itself.
• Is your website greedy?  Do you ask for too much information from your consumers too soon?  Do you "Propose Marriage On The First Date?"  Do you want to make sure no one fills out a particular form on your website?  If so ask them for the VIN of their current vehicle (i.e. most dealership part request forms).  Do you think consumers want to give you their name, phone number and email address after looking at a picture of a car along with generic VIN information so you can conveniently call them to arrange for them to come in to the dealership for a sales consultation?  Do you think that is online shopping?  Would that be in line with your desire as a consumer?  What do you think is happening with those consumers who are not getting their needs met?
• What to do.  Ask for only as much information as you need and only when it is in alignment with the consumer's purpose.  Does your website have features that would allow recognize a repeat consumer or existing customer of your dealership?  What a great way to drive conversion... for your convenience, create an account (which is your email address, name and phone number of course) to save what you've done and return any time.  How can you attract and engage in-market consumers to your website?  With what message?  How can you make them want to tell you who they are and do what you want them to do (engage into the sales process with you)?

The path to heaven.  I'll quote here directly from the original article:

Most companies that step back and honestly evaluate their websites quickly discover that they are bigger sinners than they had realized... Whether you are a religious person or not, walking the righteous road and avoiding these deadly -- yet common -- sins will ultimately lead to website design salvation.

And I'll add this... if you follow these guidelines, you will also get increased sales results from what you already have even in these difficult times.

As a special offer to those loyal readers who have made it this far, Ai-Dealer will include a no-charge website review as part of any new shopping cart sign ups between now and the end of calendar 2008.  The review will not include a vendor website change suggestion.  We never do that unless asked.  We will give you our best, no obligation advice on design and user interactivity that we feel could be hindering the sales effectiveness of your website.  Follow up and the decision to act is yours.

Good selling.

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