Dealer World

Zach Heller Joins Dealer World as Northeast Sales Manager

Everyone at Dealer World Is grateful for all our clients and business partners and we are thankful for everyone who chose us to help them and hope to continue those relationships for many years to come.

With that being said, here are thoughts that our team members are thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday.

Danielle: I am thankful for my loving family, good health, a happy home, a job that I love, plus all the amenities and luxuries we have in life that are sometimes taken for granted.  I am thankful.

Troy: I am thankful for my family, my friends, our staff, and dealer partners, that keep me pretty busy and being surrounded by good people!

Terene: I am thankful for the health and happiness of my family.

Cody: I am thankful for my family (which definitely includes the cats) and old video game hardware & software!

Ryan: I’m thankful for my family, friends, direct-port nitrous injection, four-core intercoolers, ball-bearing turbos and titanium valve springs.

Lisa: I am thankful for my friends and family, good food and vacations in sunny Florida. 🙂

Jacquelyn: I am thankful for my health, my family, and my cats. 💞

Kathy: Thankful for the gift of “time”…the time on this earth to spend with loved ones and doing the things I love.

Kaitlyn: I’m thankful for all of my friends and family

Arnold: I am thankful that I’m with a great company who is exponentially growing. It is a pleasure to be a part of – and watch – all the progress being made not just with clients but also within the industry. On a personal note, I am thankful for my wife, daughter and my German Shepherd (who is the best alarm system in the world.)

Matthew: Thankful for my wife, my son and the great family/friends we have around us. Thankful for the moments in each day and looking forward to some great blessings in 2023!

Gino: I am thankful for my family and the obstacles we’ve overcome this year!

Steven: I am thankful for a place to sleep, and food to eat!

Kevin: I am thankful for Family, Friends, and Football.

Christopher: I am thankful for my girlfriend, the gym and my continued journey to being my healthiest self, my family, and my dog. My dog is really cool.

Alan: I am thankful for my family, health, job, friends, Rangers Hockey and my Guitars!!!!

Sabrina: I’m thankful for family, friends, new traditions, and pumpkin pie.

Dave: I am thankful for my family and three dogs.

Gregory: I’m thankful for the position I’m currently in with my career that provides me with the flexibility to spend more time with family and friends.

Zach: I’m thankful for being alive, healthy, family, love, and being able to make my future successful. You may ask, “why alive?”. Google Gary V odds of being born. The future successful is because anything we set our minds to; we can make it happen.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Will: I’m thankful for my friends, family, and my pet snake 🐍

Michael: I am thankful for friends, family, food and being provided the opportunities to succeed.

Once again, we hope you enjoy the holiday with your families, eat a lot of good food, watch football (if you’re into that) and, in general, just be thankful for all of the gifts that life has brought your way. Thank you and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

You let Kwik-Fit eat the market and it costs them nothing.

Visiting Paul de Vries has a rich tradition of bringing American automotive speakers to the Netherlands. At this week’s #DCDW Event, it was Troy Spring, owner of a major marketing company, who came to teach the public an – at times painful – lesson in marketing. After two hours of listening, the only conclusion is that the vast majority of companies mishandle leads, both on ‘entry’ and ‘exit’. Except Kwik-Fit.

The American Troy Spring does not have the same dominant appearance as a Brian Benstock or the reputation and slick presentation of a Brian Pasch, the two most famous Americans introduced to the Netherlands by De Vries. Spring is a website builder and quite technically oriented. The first twenty minutes of his presentation was about ‘touching the consumer’s heart’. According to him, it is first about gaining trust, ‘calls to action’ only come much later in the process. The basics were explained on the basis of well-known examples such as Apple, Tesla, Amazon and the large CarMax in America. Not to copy, but to learn from. And to ensure that the conversion of ‘spontaneous’ visitors exceeds three percent.

“Don’t show all kinds of unnecessary information.”

A number of lessons should never be forgotten, says Spring. “A good website is built in such a way that you work with baby steps towards a conversion. First, the trust and heart of the consumer must be won, only then information is requested from the consumer. And only then do you show the stock.” And you show that stock in horizontal rows of three or four cars instead of one car by car. “Then you provide an immediate overview and the opportunity to make a choice. Model, price, and mileage is initially more than sufficient. And if a consumer clicks through on a car, there must be as large a picture of the car as possible. And a logical call to action, where everything is aimed at preventing any noise. Do not show all kinds of unnecessary information, that will only distract.”

On the conversion path

Whereas before the break those present saw how it should be done by means of examples, after the break they were told how not to do it on the basis of – according to Troy – random Dutch examples. The after-sales page of Louwman’s website contains too much SEO text and lacks a logical choice field. The Wassink Autogroep website reminded Spring of Nickelodeon, but much too insistently, because Wassink immediately wants all kinds of information from the customer. At Lieuwes Roden, the vehicle page was far too messy. He thought the mobile site of Van Poelgeest (and thus of more BMW dealers) was wonderful. “But it is the worst possible site imaginable from a sound perspective. In no way is the visitor taken on the ‘conversion path’.”

Incidentally, it immediately appeared that Spring had seen the old website, the Van Poelgeest site has now been renewed and much better, according to the American.

According to Spring, every company should have a conversion manager. “That is the great loss. Now there is a website builder and there are marketers. They do their thing, but nobody is responsible for what happens to all those visitors on the site (leads). The successful companies do have them, and that’s why those sites are all built in the same way.”

“If new sales go down later, the workshop will become very important.”

Spring also saw some bright spots in all the websites mentioned, but when it comes to aftersales and service, dealers and universal car companies score downright sadly, says Spring. Whatever combination of keywords he used, such as ‘tyres’, ‘oil’ or ‘service’ in combination with a city or brand, there is rarely a dealer or universal in the search results.

Always on display: Kwik-Fit.

That’s not just a lack of marketing effort, Spring noted. “It is a matter of having the website in order and making sure that your Google settings are correct. Kwik-Fit doesn’t even have to advertise now, just because they have their settings in order, they now run off with the leads. Free. And make no mistake: if things go a little less well in car sales, the workshop will become very important in order to make a profit. Just like now is the time to anticipate the rise of EVs. Why don’t I see a single car company in the tire commercials? They are also among EVs.”

Spring – who repeatedly stated that he did not intend to become active in the Netherlands – also explained how they set up lead management for their customers. “What we now see is that a lead is forgotten after a few days. That’s really not done. Every lead must come in a CRM package. Even if this person has bought or is going to buy a car elsewhere. Our funnel extends to ten years. The only action that needs to be taken is that a cold or lost lead is classified into sub-funnels, for example those for people who bought elsewhere, or people who declined a purchase or trade-in. We then have a separate program for all those ‘trays’ in which we approach the customer. Very friendly, never intrusive, and always with the option to end the conversation.”

“Many companies are now simply doing it all wrong.”

One of the best examples for Troy is approaching customers who bought elsewhere. “After three months, they receive a message in which the company wishes them success with their purchase, states that it hopes to be able to make an offer again one day and wishes the customer the best. Nothing else. Later again they receive such a message and then after a certain time we will inform them that we have a maintenance offer, or new stock. All messages that they often do not receive from their own dealer. In this way we are increasingly able to warm up leads that seemed lost, because there comes a moment when they are ready for interaction. So, we didn’t have to do more than determine the container in which the lead belongs.”

Spring is an optimistic person: but many companies are simply doing it all wrong. “While there were smart people walking around who can arrange it well. But soon it will be a crisis and then it will be too late. Then it turns out that you have lost the battle to the Kwik-Fits and other companies that do get it. But if you learn to play the game now, it will pay itself back twice during economically more difficult times.”

Translated from Dutch. A review originally published on Automotive Management regarding Troy Spring’s keynote sessions at DCDW November 2022 in the Netherlands.