Troy Spring

How many times have you went to a website – any website – just to be hit by multiple ads asking you to subscribe to their newsletter or offering a coupon for a purchase, etc? My guess is that it happens quite often. Ever Google something just to come across a search result that is EXACTLY what you wanted just to click on it and find yourself teased behind a paywall? Yeah, we all have. 

Let me tell you a story. In the 1300’s, philosopher William of Ockham created a principle called Occam’s razor. [On an aside, this principle is still used today by detectives and others.] The entire principle gives the precedence of simplicity in two parts. First, at its basic, is that the simpler answer is probably the correct one and, second, that entities should not be multiplied by necessity.

In the business world, many companies defy these. They add widgets until there is no website left (other than widgets,) pop-ups that simply make consumers want to leave their website and/or so many calls-to-action that consumers get confused, don’t know what to do so rather than act, they don’t act at all. 

Imagine looking for something specific on Amazon – let’s say a TV. There are hundreds if not thousands of TVs on Amazon. How is a consumer supposed to know which to buy? By reviews? By rankings? OR, perhaps they leave Amazon and decide to go to their local Best Buy and see them for themselves?

In my last blog, “Are You Living In a Cave,” I told a story about a man in a cave that had never seen reality but only shadows on a wall. What I didn’t include is that the man in the cave, when presented with so much reality all at once, by his own choice, chose to go back into the cave to continue staring at the wall and having those shadows as his reality. Why? Because it was simple.

In many businesses, decision makers are seduced by the latest and greatest technology so much so that they stack technology upon technology to the point that, when a customer visits their website, they don’t even see the businesses’ website, only the plethora of technology popping up here and there and are presented with so many calls-to-action that they don’t know what to do when all that they wanted was information on a toaster. 

Our industry isn’t immune to this presentation or customer experience. Customers simply want information. Having a clean, well-optimized website that gives clear directions that lead a customer on a journey from the top to the bottom of the funnel will increase conversion rates, engagement, and sales. 

What irritates you when you look at a website? Chances are that they are the same things that irritate your customers. That’s because there isn’t a “fork in the road” with only two directions but that there is a road that leads 20-ways with no directions so, rather than continue on, the customer chooses to go back the way they came. 

Make sure that your website is clean, optimized, and offers the customer the paths that you want them to take. If you do that, you will see increased conversions… and won’t have to pay for them.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

Are you Living in a Cave?

A long time ago (514a-520a,) one of our greatest philosophers shared an allegory: The Allegory of the Cave. In that allegory, he shared a person’s perspective as it relates to education and the lack of it. The story goes like this: A man lives his entire life from childhood chained and can only see a blank wall within the cave. Behind him is a fire. Other people would stand between him and the fire with puppets or things from the outside world that would cast shadows on the cave wall. Those shadows were the only thing he knew. He believed the sounds he heard were coming from the shadows. While not representative of the real world, that was his reality. At some point, the man is freed and can venture out of the cave and experience the world as it really is. This is what Plato posed to Socrates, and it has turned into an allegory that has stood the test of time.

How does this relate to the automotive space we live in?

We live in a time in which technology is advancing exponentially faster than at any other time in our history. While customer expectations and the market have changed, many dealers are still stuck in chains looking at the wall in the back of the cave unaware of what’s going on in the real world. Some of these technologies increase the dealership’s efficiency, some assist in nurturing relationships with customers who did not buy a car, as well as those who did. If you name it, it exists: social media, the Metaverse, AI, machine learning, text messaging, removing friction from website visitors, providing data and attribution and more.

Much of the time, the reason dealerships don’t adopt some of these solutions is simple. It’s because they don’t understand it, just like the man staring at the blank cave wall. Enlightenment and true reality (business solutions) can only come when a person is set free and able to differentiate the shadows from reality. Once that happens, the man has two choices: embrace true reality or run back into the cave to continue staring at the blank wall because that’s what he’s familiar with.

“We’ve always done it this way.”

How many times have you heard (or said) that? Times have changed and we can no longer live in the past. We’re living in the future. Even since you’ve been reading this, you are living in the past and any of this that comes after, is the future.

I challenge all dealerships to have an open mind and explore new technology. You might be surprised how the shadows on the wall on the back of the cave turn into a realization that you’ve been missing out on reality.

No solution is right for every dealership. Every dealer has different needs based on their market, competition, and volume. Simply knowing what exists rather than deciding to continue to look at the shadows that you have always known. Knowing is the first step. Doing is the second.

Do you want to live in a cave believing the shadows on the wall are reality or open your eyes and discover what actually exists that can help your business? In no way am I advising that you run out and adopt every new technology. Only that knowledge is queen, but education is king.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

Recap: Used Vehicle Mastermind Exchange Sessions at Digital Dealer Las Vegas 2022

It’s always our pleasure to be involved in Digital Dealer. This time, I was joined by Tracy Myers, dealer principal of Frank Myers Auto Maxx in Winston Salem, NC. Throughout the four used vehicle mastermind sessions, dealers were able to dictate the topics that they wanted to discuss and get feedback from their peers. So, while Tracy and I were co-moderators, it was really
dealers running the sessions.

Here are the top six issues that dealers wanted to discuss during these sessions:

1. The acquisition of used vehicle inventory and value or implementation of buying centers: This was (understandably) a huge topic for the dealers at Digital Dealer Las Vegas as it was at DD Tampa. Dealers shared strategies that have proven effective for them. It was much different, whether a dealership was rural or urban, but overall, dealers left with ideas they could try in their markets. Attendees wanted to discuss the pros and cons of having dedicated buying centers outside of their dealerships, covering costs, effectiveness, and
   desirability amongst consumers. Will consumers feel less intimidated selling their car from a “buying center” versus going to a dealership? That and investment were the top discussed items in this topic’s session.
2. What strategies can help you stand out to consumers on ads and their website: All the noise in the world, with many businesses bombarding consumers, made dealers ask their peers about strategies to stand out from the crowd. And once a consumer is on their website, they discussed why the conversion rate is higher and what they can do to increase that. Dealers seemed split on the ad part, with the advice mostly centered around compelling creative. As for the website part, many dealers felt that the less friction a website places through the many widgets and choices simply confuses consumers, which overwhelms them. The main takeaway was that introducing less friction by having less conversion choices helps dramatically increase conversion rates. A clean, easy-to-navigate one that guides a customer through the journey that the dealership wants them to take was the consistent advice given.
3. Hiring and retaining quality staff: This topic has always been a pain point for dealers. When discussing this topic, the main challenge that a dealership has is that they struggle with finding quality candidates (not just warm bodies) that will stay. There is a lot of
   investment in bringing on a new hire, so it is arduous for them to be on a never-ending hiring mission. Dealers shared the importance of having a company culture that elicits a work environment where employees want to be out of loyalty and contentment, not just simply because it brings a paycheck.
4. Concerns about Facebook’s ROI: While Facebook has performed well for dealers (especially in the Facebook Marketplace,) with Facebook taking away automated inventory feeds that forces dealers to create listings manually, many dealers wanted to talk about whether the time it takes to do this outweighs the benefits of sales from these – or not – and what, if any, strategies dealerships are using if they are or have they given up on inventory ads and, perhaps, simply gone to branding ads or have shifted their social marketing budgets elsewhere? There were a lot of different opinions and advice given on this segment with some dealers sharing that Facebook is still performing for them while other dealers had the opposite opinion. Needless to say, it was a very divisive topic.
5. TikTok: When this topic came around, there was a lot of information shared. Many dealers wanted to know if this popular platform was worth allocating marketing dollars to and, if so, why. A lot of the conversation centered around not only TikTok – as a platform – was even worth their time and, if so, how they could capitalize it in a way that makes sense. A lot of information was shared. Everything from basic, what TikTok is and how it can benefit me to strategies they can use as well as how to optimize strategies they have been using already on the platform. The bottom line was that TikTok isn’t going anywhere, so dealers should seriously consider how best they can use it in their markets.
6. Service Business Conquesting: This topic was something that, it seemed, many dealers didn’t understand the importance of or, if they did, didn’t know how to do. Most seemed to understand that independent repair facilities are doing a much better job at gaining regular maintenance service business (at the very least) away from their dealerships and were asking their peers for advice on how they can reduce that through conquesting strategies and/or educating the customer on the benefits of doing business with a dealership.

As usual, the exchange sessions at Digital Dealer were fun for me and Tracy to moderate; the sessions gave us insights into dealers’ concerns, and attendees liked them because they were getting advice from their peers on the topics they wanted to discuss. Tracy and I look forward to continuing opportunities to be a part of the forums that Digital Dealer allowed us to participate in!

-Originally published in the November/December 2022 issue of Dealer magazine

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

We all know that organic traffic converts into leads that end up in sales at higher percentages. It’s more relevant than ever, and it’s what has been missing all along.

Let me get right to it; as an industry, we have overlooked one of the greatest assets we have ever had our hands on and have done a very poor job of managing it. That asset is ALL of the FREE website traffic dealership’s websites currently get and what can be easily improved.

Why we missed it is pretty easy too. Google Analytics (GA), as we know it, is
compartmentalized and fairly linear. We look at organic traffic, direct hits, referrals, and Google Business Profiles, all separately. Not many dealerships (that I have met) truly lump these all together into the “asset” class of ALL FREE traffic. Once dealerships do this, it becomes much easier to see it as its own “class” of traffic and be able to look deeper.

The next thing many dealerships have missed for almost a decade (not all, but a high enough percentage for me to make a point here) is the true conversion rate of that traffic. The traffic’s conversion rates are also an asset class that needs to be managed and optimized.

Let me put it all together in a way that makes the argument why dealerships should all pay more attention to these assets. (Have I used the word “asset” enough to get you thinking?) The opposite of “free” is “paid.” I would guess that many dealerships jumped to paid traffic sources, including Google Ads, paid social media, third-party listing sites, lead generation companies, etc., before even exhausting (or even trying) all of the optimization opportunities to maximize their free traffic results.

I am not arguing that “paid” doesn’t have its place like many SEO-only companies may advise. It has its place and, in many instances, has excellent value and return on investment (ROI). I am a huge fan of a well-run paid campaign with an eye on ROI. Recently, we saw 680 leads generated at $14 per lead with a $9,500 optimized campaign. If I were a dealership, I would spend that $9,500 every day of the week. That campaign helped the dealership break records in just about every category.

Back to FREE.

I’d ask dealerships to take a look at their conversion rates first. If website analytics aren’t set up to track true “conversational conversions,” then the first step is to ensure that they are. You have to measure properly to manage it properly.

Many dealerships reading this already have that handled, but again, if a dealership does not have its website tagged correctly, that’s the first thing it should do. The next thing dealerships need to know is the conversion rates on all free traffic sources. What percentage of the dealership’s overall traffic turns into a lead – and not just any lead – but one that can be tracked and is a “conversational conversion,” a phone call, a form lead (email), a chat lead (not initiation only), and/or a text conversation.

If that number is below 3.5% to – 4.5%, then the dealership has some work to do to maximize the value of that free traffic. As an example, a properly optimized website getting 10,000 free visits per month – that is set up to convert and generate true conversions (leads) at 4.5% or above from all of the free traffic sources – will yield 250 more leads ( FOR FREE ) than a site converting at 2 percent! So, again, that is 250 more leads!

Sounds easy, sounds obvious, and maybe even trivial. If you’re thinking: Yeah, duh, Troy, we get it; that’s just simple math and makes for a great article, I’d probably agree. However, I would ask any dealership to track these metrics and let me know the results because it will be very eye-opening once a dealership completes a basic audit.

By crunching all these numbers faster, dealerships can get a sense of all the free traffic coming to their website at all conversion levels. No matter how much dealerships are willing to invest in paid traffic, converting free traffic at the higher end of the benchmarks (at a minimum) is the desired goal. So, doing this is a great place to start.

And here is why:

Those 250 more leads should yield around 20 – 25 more sales. When dealerships do use paid solutions to grow their traffic even more, they should see a better ROI from those paid campaigns if their website is set up properly to convert ALL traffic into leads and sales.

Last, I’ll tell you another little trick dealerships can use to decipher the quality of their website traffic. If a dealership’s paid traffic is not converting at the “free traffic” levels (or even higher), then the dealership has a quality problem. This knowledge will allow dealerships to optimize their campaigns, audiences, and creative content to convert at the benchmark that dealerships should see from their free traffic.

In summary, dealerships should pay (more) attention to all their free traffic. Dealerships should pay (more) attention to their overall conversion rates and treat all FREE traffic like the asset it is. By doing so, dealerships will be able to do one of two things with a properly set up website and free traffic strategy:

1. Sell the same amount of cars with less ad spend.
2. Scale easier and sell more cars for the same ad spend.

Then, there is a third. Dealerships can scale their business easier to levels they didn’t think possible. With these strategies in place, dealerships can trust the conversions from their website more, thus spending with more confidence to scale.

That, in my book, is a ton of fun and a whole lot less stressful.

Originally Published in the Sept/Oct 2022 issue of Dealer magazine.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

At Digital Dealer Tampa, I had the pleasure of co-moderating multiple mastermind exchange sessions with various topics chosen by the dealers centering around used vehicles. For those that don’t know what a mastermind exchange session is, in these sessions, the dealers choose the topics and get advice and solutions from their peers. I was incredibly pleased to see packed rooms of dealers seeking advice on multiple topics.

Here are nine of the hot topics discussed during the exchange sessions at Digital Dealer:

1. Used Vehicle Acquisition – Of course, we all know that this is a huge challenge right now, with auction prices soaring based on consumer demand. Dealers discussed multiple ways of acquiring vehicles off the street directly from consumers, like using sites such as caroffer.com and paying attention to popular consumer sales sites like eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and software solutions.
2. Digital Retailing & Value Beyond Conversions – In a group discussion, dealers
   discussed if/how they are using digital retailing tools on their websites and what they have experienced. The biggest takeaway was that offering digital retailing makes consumers feel like they have a choice on how to complete a transaction online. By making a customer feel in control of the process, customers have more options which will help with overall conversions.
3. Transportation – Dealers discussed with each other effective ways of going out of their PMA and selling cars on a national level. They discussed methods of completing paperwork, who is delivering that vehicle to the customer, and, if so, how to calculate transportation costs for a customer who is distant. For example, one dealer said they calculate at $1 per mile, and others said they have an online transportation calculator right on the vehicle’s VDP so customers can get transportation estimates on their own. Dealers shared a lot of varying opinions and options, but the bottom line was how they should make it simple for a customer to buy a vehicle from them regardless of where the customer lives.
4. Advanced AdWord Campaigns that Drive True ROI – There was discussion about whether independents should be investing in AdWords. The consensus was that AdWords was something that everyone should be using. Advice was given that dealers should be looking at cost-per-sale rather than other metrics such as cost-per-click, conversion rate, or cost-per-lead. There was an even deeper discussion on how to use AdWords to target low-funnel customers that would give them a more predictable ROI.
5. Website Optimization – Having a website that isn’t cluttered with every type of
   widget but instead focuses on aesthetics and performance was a hot topic.! Dealers discussed how industry leaders and disruptors are creating clean and user-friendly websites. By making it look and feel more relevant, consumers find an easier process and will also allow dealers to better track performance.
6. Fighting Disrupters – Disruptors told consumers what they wanted to hear with messaging like “Car buying shouldn’t suck!” These messages resonated with consumers that agreed that buying a car should be easier. Disruptors played on consumer emotions and made it seem like car buying should be easier. Dealers discussed how the way to fight back is to beat them at their own game! If a consumer has a choice between buying a vehicle they’ve never seen OR visiting a dealership 12 miles away – where they can see, drive, and kick tires, and, if all else is equal between what the disrupters offer and what dealerships do, consumers will pick the dealership! Ensuring that the customer has a better experience and telling your dealership’s story is imperative to accomplish this goal.
7. What Is and What Isn’t Working in Marketing – Dealers discussed multiple platforms like Facebook, TikTok, radio, television, direct mail, and AdWords, with the consensus being that effectiveness ultimately depends on each dealership’s market, budget, and the fact that everything is worth doing. But still, some will work better for some dealerships than others. The fact that there are so many options made this a popular conversation.
8. Dealing with Lease Terminations – The focus of this discussion was how there are some captive OEMs that don’t allow dealers to profit on the sale of a lease return. A dealer shared that his store is dealing with as many as 170 buy-outs per month, causing him to utilize his store’s human capital while losing money with no sales to recoup from them. Captive lenders and OEMs that don’t allow dealers to make any money combined with consumers who are frequently choosing to buy out their lease because there is no better option really handcuffs dealerships. Of all of the topics discussed, this was the most frustrating for them as nobody had an answer to this problem.
9. Inventory Management – This discussion centered around increasing turn rates and pricing more effectively compared to their market. There was a lot of engagement about ways to be more profitable and turn cars faster and more efficiently.

Join us for Digital Dealer Las Vegas

These were just some of the examples and topics discussed during the mastermind exchange sessions at Digital Dealer Tampa. Both Matthew and I want to thank the many dealers who chose to attend, participate and share their advice and knowledge with their peers! At the upcoming Digital Dealer Conference & Expo (Oct. 11-13, 2022, at The Mirage), Tracy Myers and I will facilitate more mastermind exchange sessions, and we hope to see you there!

Originally Published in the May/June issue of Dealer magazine.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

One of the most famous stories about the Wild West was the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. There have been books and even famous movies written about it. The tale of the Earps, Doc Holliday, Clairborne, the Clantons, and McLaury brothers will always live in our history. But, as much as we believe in that story, most of it isn’t true. In fact, a gun!ght with eight people lasted 30 seconds, and it didn’t take place in the O.K. Corral. Interesting fact, yes? Maybe there are parallels in the marketing world.

When your marketing manager or agency talks to you about clicks or traffic to the site and how everything looks “healthy,” I dare you to ask them if they know whether it sells more cars?

This article is to help you navigate vendors that are hiding behind numbers that you don’t understand entirely or glaze over when reviewing your digital advertising month – that is engaging, relevant, and easy for you to digest and to understand how it affects your sales and bottom line.

For example, who cares how many clicks a campaign gets if the clicks do not convert? And when I say convert, I do not mean a goal completion based on activity on the website (i.e., a scroll, time on site, or went to another page.) I mean, how many people converted to a lead.

That is called a “User Conversion Rate” and means that out of all your users on the website during the time period you are looking at, how many of them clicked to call, initiated a text, a chat conversation, filled out a form lead or go far enough down the DR tool to become a lead. The hardest lead to get is a true conversion on your site.

How many of those did that “Healthy” campaign that provided 598 clicks into your site yield?

Why is this not your typical conversation with an agency? I think it’s easier to play the “blame game” on the website for not converting. You see, a website provider does just that, provides a website. Some of them are terri!c at helping you optimize its lead performance, and others, well, not so much. It stands to reason why an agency can say, “We drove the traffic. It’s all here! 5,678 clicks into your site!” I can’t speak for why you’re not seeing more leads and sales. You will have to ask your website rep. I am, however, calling BS on that conversation.

Someone has to stand up and say, these two things go hand in hand. I think more agencies need to dig deeper and be more holistic and accountable as to whether the site converts. We have seen sites convert up to 8% of users to leads. That is incredible! A well-designed website optimized for customer engagement that is clean, easy to navigate, and provides a frictionless journey for a customer can see eight out of 100 visitors engaging. That means visitors who initiate a chat, fill out a trade-in or buy my car form, maybe a finance form, a check availability form, start a text thread, are inspired to hit the click to call button and start a conversation with you about buying a car, truck, or SUV. When it is working right, it is a beautiful thing.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Start tracking leads from your digital ads more than clicks.
2. Have a professional website optimization specialist set up your site to convert better.
3. Sit back and count the dollars as you talk to more leads (customers) because they did not just visit your site; they engaged with it.

While the Wild West isn’t the World Wide Web, it is still the Wild West (in a way). But you can win every shootout with a little help and a solid strategy – whether it happens at the O.K. Corral or otherwise.

Originally published in the March/April 2022 issue of Dealer magazine.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

Today, one of the hot buttons of any digital campaign is “conversion rate.” It makes total sense when it comes to the true attribution of a campaign. How many visitors to your site? How many people became a “lead” from those visits? Ask any (good) marketer today and they will tell you that a true conversion is a lead or a sale in the e-commerce world. In the industries I spend most of my time in, a conversion is a phone call, a text, a chat, or a lead form (e-mail) sent in. Going further down that rabbit hole, those numbers typically get transferred to another department. Meaning that the digital team hands off the “lead” to the appointment setting and/or sales dept. We call it a BDC in the automotive business. Then web visits head down the path of final attribution.

But how many buy and for how much gross profit? To me, that is the way it should be. It is the best measurable way for you to tell if your website is set up to “perform.” I mean, having a website is great, but if it has no visitors, that is tragic to your business. I think it is even worse if you drive traffic to your website and it does not convert.

There are only two reasons for that waste of visitors to happen. 1. The traffic sucks. They are not high-quality, relevant visitors coming with the intent to research your company and/or offers. 2. The traffic is not inspired to spend time on your site (TOS) and does the proverbial bounce or it simply is not set up properly to convert with the right calls to action (CTAs) designed to move the visitor from the website visit to lead or a sale.

Bottom line: If you do not have leads and/or sales, you have one of those two problems. It is that simple. The good news is it is not rocket science. Both of these issues can be optimized by someone who truly understands the travel path of a consumer.

Here are the answers as I see them… First, make sure you are pushing high-quality traffic to your website if you are using paid search strategies. Hold your team or agency accountable for the quality of the traffic, not just the amount of the traffic. Second, and really first, is to make sure that you have as many organic traffic strategies in play as possible. SEO, GMB, YouTube, etc. Wait for it… using even traditional media “offline” strategies to push direct hits. A direct hit, if you are not privy to this term, is a customer who did not search for you in a search bar, i.e. Google, or just click into your site originating from an ad from Facebook. No, this person just typed your URL in and went directly to your site because that is what they wanted to look up, YOU and YOUR BUSINESS!

All of this traffic should be high-quality so long as the content pushing the visits is consistent with the site and the offering that you have. 2. Be sure the site, landing pages, and conversion points you have are optimized for conversions. Be sure that you are operating in today’s relevant ways by using chat, text, and other conversion tools that will lead to higher conversion rates, i.e. for the auto industry, a compelling trade-in appraisal tool. Beyond that, allow me to get to DEALEROPS | Data & Analytics the origin of this blog post, the “First Conversion”.

Much of this is rudimentary, and anyone who truly gets it is saying, no kidding Troy, this is obvious.” But for those reading this that are not trained in on-site traffic, quality of traffic, TOS, CTA’s, Direct hits, etc, what I have written so far is a good entry point to understanding it all. Hopefully, it helps executive managers and owners alike that are reading this hold their teams and agencies a little accountable. Now for the fun… I subscribe to the theory that there is a “conversion,” you must pay attention before you worry about that CTA button, lead form, or chat function (never mind the click to call button). I call it the “First Conversion.” It is the conversion of the human mind to even consider your business and/or offering. The real professionals are doing it every day… and they are winning. At a minimum, they are winning the game of attraction. The business model behind some of the best marketers in the world can be debated, but my goodness, they understand the human mind.

Take the slogan “Car Buying Shouldn’t Suck.” That will do it; Four words that attack what a consumer feels, is worried about, and is an easy target to sway to another side. In this case, it is the side of the automotive disruptor Carvana. It is conversational in a way. The consumer thinks to themselves “You are dang right. It should not suck!” And there you have it, the conversion of the human mind to start an internal conversation with the business and is instantly converted to a potential consumer. How hard do you think it is once they are on the website scoping out this new (disruptive) business and their website that makes the consumer “feel” exactly like their marketing said it would. A clean, crisp, easy-to-navigate experience which essentially says in NEON and every word communicates, “THIS DOES NOT SUCK!” Or, in the case of CarMax, “THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!” The website is set up, written, strategized, optimized, and A/B tested to make a consumer feel exactly that way.

Think I am crazy? Go to www.carmax.com and when you get to the site truly pay attention to the first line, “30 day Money Back Guarantee,” and that’s if you like it enough after your no-obligation 24-hour test drive. The next thing you will notice, as you scroll down, is the ability to shop by cars that fit your budget. Is this not sounding quite a bit like “THE WAY IT SHOULD BE?” After all, you can shop, drive and buy with no pressure and with a guarantee.

You can shop for cars that you think you can afford, and it takes the pressure off of being on a car lot and wondering if the salesman is going to give you numbers you feel pressured into or are embarrassed to say, “Sorry, I can’t afford that,” in front of your spouse and kids.

It is not until you get down that far on the website and they know how you are starting to feel, do they throw their slogan at you: “Hey this is how it should be!” THE WAY IT SHOULD BE! And at this point, you think to yourself subliminally, yes, this is exactly how it should be. Folks, this is genius marketing at work.

Many businesses think traditional media is dead and that everything has to be done digitally. But the second a consumer sees something (regardless of whether it is on TV, Facebook, Instagram, radio, etc), that is a little new, has a fresh twist on something that they wish was easier, better, different, more comfortable, has less pressure, or is more affordable, they will go to your website to check it out. If your website experience is everything you promised in your ads to make things “better,” that builds trust. Once the consumer trusts you, they will be far more likely to hit that “tell me more” button, chat button, click-to-call button, and yes, even enter their very sensitive information i.e. social security number into your lead forms. And there you have it, the “First Conversion” at work.

Convert the consumer into liking you, and BINGO, they will convert. It kind of reminds me of a lesson that we should all heed from the famous book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie. Give the person who is holding what you want, what they want first, and do it with a purity and honesty that is undeniable.

I don’t know about you, but I feel more businesses could learn a thing or two from that thought process. We tend to focus on our lead forms, pop-ups, etc. and expect that technology to provide us with the results we want. Sometimes people will just sit back and wonder why someone else, who seemingly doesn’t have any better technology, product, widget, website, or even location, is kicking their ass. When and if you ever have that thought, I’d ask you to consider: whether you have made the first conversion yet?

-Originally published in the Jan/Feb 2022 issue of Dealer magazine

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

Today, one of the hot buttons of any digital campaign is “conversion rate”. It makes total sense when it comes to the true attribution of a campaign. How many visitors to your site? How many people became a “lead” from those visits? Ask any (good) marketer today and they will tell you that a true conversion is a lead or a sale in the e-commerce world. In the industries I spend most of my time in, a conversion is a phone call, a text, a chat or a lead form (e-mail) sent in. To go further down that rabbit hole, those numbers typically get transferred to another department. Meaning that the digital team hands off the “lead” to the appointment setting and/or sales dept. We call it a BDC in the automotive business. Then web visits head down the path of final attribution. But how many buy and for how much gross profit?

To me, that is the way it should be. It is the best measurable way for you to tell if your website is set up to “perform”. I mean, having a website is great, but if it has no visitors, that is tragic to your business. I personally think it is even worse if you drive traffic to your website and it does not convert. There are only two reasons for that waste of visitors to happen.

1. The traffic sucks. They are not high quality relevant visitors coming with the intent to research your company and/or offers.
2. The traffic is not inspired to spend time on your site (TOS) and does the proverbial bounce or it simply is not set up properly to convert with the right calls to action (CTA’s) designed to move the visitor from the website visit to a lead or a sale.

Here are the answers as I see them…

1. Make sure you are pushing high-quality traffic to your website if you are using paid search strategies. Hold your team or agency accountable to the quality of the traffic, not just the amount of the traffic. Second, (and really first,) is to make sure that you have as many organic traffic strategies in play as possible. SEO, GMB, YouTube, etc. Wait for it… using even traditional media “offline” strategies to push direct hits. A direct hit, if you are not privy to this term, is a customer who did not search for you in a search bar, i.e. Google, or just click into your site originating from an ad from Facebook. No, this person just typed your URL in and went directly to your site because that is what they wanted to look up, YOU and YOUR BUSINESS! All of this traffic should be high-quality so long as the content pushing the visits is consistent with the site and the offering that you have.
2. Be sure the site, landing pages, and conversion points you have are optimized for conversions. Be sure that you are operating in today’s relevant ways by using chat, text messaging, and other conversion tools that will lead to higher conversion rates, i.e. for the auto industry, a compelling trade-in appraisal tool. Beyond that, allow me to get to the origin of this blog post, the “First Conversion.

Much of this is rudimentary, and anyone who truly gets it is saying “no shit” Troy, this is obvious. But for those reading this that are not trained on site traffic, quality of traffic, TOS, CTA’s, Direct hits, etc, what I have written so far is a good entry point to understanding it all. Hopefully it helps executive managers and owners alike that are reading this hold their teams and agencies a little accountable. Now for the fun….

I subscribe to the theory that there is a “conversion”, you must pay attention before you worry about that CTA button, lead form or chat function (never mind the click to call button.) I call it the “First Conversion.” It is the conversion of the human mind to even consider your business and/or offering. The real professionals are doing it every day… and they are winning. At minimum, they are winning the game of attraction. The business model behind some of the best marketers in the world can be debated, but my goodness, they understand the human mind.

Take the slogan “Car Buying Shouldn’t Suck.” That will do it. Four words that attack what a consumer feels, is worried about and is an easy target to sway to another side. In this case, it is the side of the automotive disruptor Carvana. It is conversational in a way. The consumer thinks to themselves “You are dang right. It should not suck!” And there you have it, the conversion of the human mind to start an internal conversation with the business and is instantly converted to a potential consumer.

How hard do you think it is once they are on the website scoping out this new (disruptive) business and their website that makes the consumer “feel” exactly like their marketing said it would. A clean, crisp, easy to navigate experience which basically says in NEON and every word communicates “THIS DOES NOT SUCK!” Or, in the case of Car Max, “THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!” The website is set up, written, and strategized, optimized, and A/B tested to make a consumer feel exactly that way.

Think I am crazy? Go to www.carmax.com and, when you get to the site, truly pay attention to the first line, “30 day Money Back Guarantee,” and that’s if you like it enough after your no-obligation 24-hour test drive. The next thing you will notice, as you scroll down, is the ability to shop by cars that fit your budget. Is this not sounding quite a bit like “THE WAY IT SHOULD BE?” After all, you can shop, drive and buy with no pressure and with a guarantee. You can shop for cars that you think you can afford, and it takes the pressure off of being on a car lot and wondering if the salesman is going to give you numbers you feel pressured into or are embarrassed to say “Sorry, I can’t afford that” in front of your spouse and kids.

It is not until you get down that far on the website and they know how you are starting to feel, do they actually throw their slogan at you: “Hey this is how it should be!”

THE WAY IT SHOULD BE! And at this point you think to yourself subliminally, yes, this is exactly how it should be. Folks, this is genius marketing at work.

Many businesses think traditional media is dead and that everything has to be done digitally. But the second a consumer sees something ( regardless of whether it is on TV, Facebook, Radio, or Instagram, etc), that is a little new, has a fresh twist on something that they wish was easier, better, different, more comfortable, has less pressure, or is more affordable, they will go to your website to check it out. If your website experience is everything you promised in your ads to make things “better,” that builds trust. Once the consumer trusts you, they will be far more likely to hit that “tell me more” button,. chat Button, click-to call button, and yes, even enter their very sensitive information i.e. Social Security number into your lead forms.

And there you have it, the “First Conversion” at work. Convert the consumer into liking you, and BINGO, they will convert. It kind of reminds me of a lesson that we should all heed from the famous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Give the person who is holding what you want, what they want first and do it with a purity and honesty that is undeniable.

I don’t know about you, but I feel more businesses could learn a thing or two from that thought process. We tend to focus on our lead forms, pop ups, etc. etc. and expect that technology to provide us with the results we want. Sometimes people will just sit back and wonder why someone else, who seemingly doesn’t have any better technology, product, widget, website or even location, is kicking their ass. When and if you ever have that thought, I’d ask you to consider whether you have made the first conversion yet?

– Originally published in the September/October 2021 edition of Dealer magazine.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

“While everyone ran in panic, Roselle remained totally focused on her job.”

Sometimes life gets hectic. We try to focus on and accomplish too many things at the same time. We have deadlines to meet, customers vying for our attention, fires to put out and countless voicemails and emails to respond to. In a world where employers consider multi-tasking a desirable trait, we’re taught from a very young age that this is a necessary skill. Sometimes, by focusing on too many things at once, we end up not focusing on anything at all.

A customer’s experience in your dealership is completely dependent on your focus. They can’t multitask their way to a solution. Only you have that. I realize that on a busy weekend at a dealership there are times when you’re being pulled in multiple directions. To a customer, however, they are the sun that everything revolves around.

“While debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm.”

The most successful business people know that you must treat each customer as if they are your only one. Customers intuitively know when chaos is present – whether by observation or intuition. No matter how busy you are, by stopping and giving a customer… any customer… your undivided attention, not only will you be more effective in resolving their problem but you will also instill in them a feeling of gratitude and, if you’re lucky, loyalty.

“We were forced to stop often and we took those opportunities to encourage each other with a quiet word, a joke, or a gentle pat on the back.”

Don’t forget that you have a team. Teamwork is crucial in these moments of chaos. The ultimate goal is to provide a solution that is satisfactory to the customer. Maybe you aren’t the right person to efficiently guide the customer down the path to a resolution. In these times, what typically happens is that you’re forced to get someone else involved. A great team knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Each member knows the best player for every situation and gets them involved immediately.

“…we must choose to trust those leaders who must also work hard to earn our trust through wise and timely decision making.”

As a manager, sometimes you are the one being asked to resolve problems. You are the ones being asked to multi-task. You are the one who is focusing on so many things at once that you lose focus. Your team looks to you to guide them in these moments of chaos. You must be able to focus on the single most important task you have: the customer standing in front of you. If you’re trying to desk and close deals while answering the phone and helping customers, you’ll accomplish a little bit of everything but a lot of nothing. Be a leader who shows customers that they are the most important task at that moment and follow through with that promise. Not only will you end up with a happy customer, you will also become a role model for the future managers on your team.

“Don’t stop until the work is over; sometimes being a hero is just doing your job.”

Be a hero to your customers and your team. That’s what great leaders are. Every one of us has someone in our lives that we consider our mentor in life. Be that mentor to your team and guide them through the chaos by remaining calm despite it. Teach them that the customer in front of you is the only one that matters. Reinforce it by following your own advice. They will notice and they will buy in.

These lessons originated from an unlikely source. Roselle, you see, is a dog. Her owner is blind. He also happened to work in the World Trade Center and was on the 78th floor when planes flew into the building. There were an estimated 17,400 people in the Twin Towers when this horrible event occurred. Not only did Roselle guide her owner down 1,463 flights of stairs to safety but she was also “giving doggie kisses to each and every firefighter who climbed past us up the stairs.”

“While debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm.”

In the midst of all of this chaos, Roselle focused on a single task. She led her owner outside and, despite the chaos and falling debris, found the nearest subway station and led her owner underground.

Roselle was honored as the American Hero Dog of the Year. While she isn’t with us anymore physically, her memory and lessons stay with us to this day. Roselle wasn’t just any dog. Roselle was a highly trained guide dog that had a single job to do for a single customer – her owner. Had she not been trained; she couldn’t accomplish this task with the laser focus that she must have had to navigate down one of only three stairwells along with 17,000 other people for 78 floors to achieve her goal.

“Sometimes the way is hard, but if we work together, we will make it down the stairs.”

Never forget.

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.

New Dealer Funnel Comprehensive Text Messaging Solution For Auto Dealers, Engages Customers & Increases Sales

Created by two automotive industry veterans, Dealer Funnel has proven to increase sales through a combination of social media ads and text messaging.

Sanford, FL – June 2, 2021 – Dealer Funnel, a technology solutions provider for automotive dealers, today announced the launch of an online tool that links all aspects of a car buyer’s shopping journey, handling customer engagement from social media ads via text messaging in real-time, all the way through short and long term follow up.

Pilot dealers using the solution have enjoyed social media lead closing rates as high as 11%.

Co-created by:

• Geoffrey Wise, President of Xcel Media Group
• Troy Spring, CEO of Dealer World

Dealer Funnel delivers precise messaging tailored for the dealership from a single dashboard and rectifies common pain points for auto dealers by enabling them to immediately engage with customers and then continue to follow up, both short and long term, through a series of funnels, a plug-and-play method, and marketing automation.

The Dealer Funnel platform can be tailored to the exact needs of a dealership, regardless of size. It comes in a stand-alone software solution, all of the way up to a fully managed solution, where incoming leads resulting from social media ads are responded to immediately by a team of seasoned automotive professionals.

The tool can also be used to put leads into the funnel and follow up with customers who end up purchasing the vehicle elsewhere, attempting to capture their service business. Through extended beta testing and software refinements pilot dealers have seen social media leads close at 9-11%, with one client generating 1,000 leads from a $10,000 ad spend resulting in 38 sales in one month.

According to co-founder Geoffrey Wise, he, and Troy Spring created Dealer Funnel because they saw many dealers wasting thousands of dollars on ineffective advertising who did not have consistent long-term follow-up solutions in place to re-engage leads, regardless of the initial opportunity. “Having worked with many dealerships, I’ve seen that customer engagement on incoming leads is in the range of about 2-3%. Salespeople and Business Development reps are attempting to catch the low-hanging fruit and quickly forget about the other 97%. Many dealers simply cannot count on their salespeople or Business Development reps to complete all follow-up tasks on every customer. They rely on emails that are frequently never seen. Or they get deleted by customers, or simply end up in a spam folder. We knew a solution was needed, so we created one,” said Wise.

Dealer Funnel’s technology benefits dealers in the following ways:

• Increases customer engagement on social media platforms and other mediums consumers are actively using.
• Helps gain more opportunities to engage with customers for less advertising expense.
• Increases lead generation through powerful ads that convert. Enables real-time conversations with car buyers and captures the buyer’s information.
• Provides smart and powerful follow-up funnels for both short and long-term follow-up via marketing automation.

The platform is designed to be a custom fit for any dealership.

Dealers can be entirely involved in the process or allow Dealer Funnel’s dedicated BDC of highly trained automotive industry professionals to engage with customers. “Far too often dealers spend upwards of $30 per lead from third parties that may contain no, little, or erroneous contact information. With 34 years of auto industry experience, I realized that a solution was needed to connect with buyers on their terms, in the medium they prefer – namely, text messaging. By leveraging Facebook’s 228 million user audience in a targeted and strategic way, dealers can know the car buyer engaging with them is real and stop wasting their staff’s time attempting to contact shoppers that never respond,” said Troy Spring, Dealer Funnel co-founder. “It’s not just the combination of Facebook ads and texting that makes a difference. If a dealer cannot create ads that are noticeable and compelling, the results will suffer. I have always judged the performance of an account by the ROI.

The Dealer Funnel platform truly optimizes the leads’ ROI, both long and short term. More importantly, we believe that it increases ROI in ways we have not yet seen any other combination of platform and staff do in this market.”

For additional information and to schedule a demonstration call (800) 675-4522, or visit www.dealerfunnel.com

About Dealer Funnel

Based in Sanford, FL, Dealer Funnel is the first online tool that links all aspects of a car buyer’s shopping journey, handling customer engagement from social media ads via text messaging in real-time, all the way through short and long term follow up. The tool can also be used to put leads into the funnel and follow up with customers who end up purchasing the vehicle elsewhere to attempt to capture their service business. It delivers precise messaging tailored for the dealership through a simple process from a single dashboard.

By nurturing leads – whether over a day or as long as five years or more – Dealer Funnel’s software platform provides the engagement and follow-up that a dealership needs to increase sales and revenue in both the immediate and long-term future.

Media Contact:

Matthew Kelly

Director of Business Operations
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 484-894-8112

Troy Spring

Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.