Herb Chambers Sells 600 Vehicles Online
Leads the Country in Online Automotive Sales Strategy!
The following is a summary of a case study on Herb Chambers.
Herb Chambers sells approximately 600 units per month from their Internet department alone. Digital marketing strategy generates the majority of their phone traffic to their dealership. Herb Chambers drives more revenue to the service and parts department through eMarketing.
1. The strategy:
Herb Chambers began by getting together with their leadership team to create an eCRM business plan that outlined their goals and strategy. This strategy boot camp was facilitated by their digital marketing vendor, and it helped them create a detailed blueprint and action plan that outlined everything they needed to do to reach their goals. Some parts of the strategy they created and what you may want to customize for your dealership are listed.
2. Technology:
Herb Chambers implemented a complete digital marketing system which included a custom website that promotes all of their profit centers and drives more foot, phone and Internet traffic. The system includes a prospect management tool that automates a lot of the email activity so their team has more time to use the phone and to sell cars. The most important dynamic technology they use are the multi-media buzzmails that help drive traffic through bulk email marketing and selling new prospects and by automating the follow-up of their customers throughout their ownership cycle. Lastly, they have offices equipped with a PC, printer and digital camera for taking pictures of inventory.
3. They purchased website addresses (URL/ISP):
They purchased the URLs and purchased all of the names they thought customers might type into their browser to find them.
4. Marketing their website:
Herb Chambers conducts bulk multi-media email campaigns, and they are ahead of their competitors on the search engines. They also add their URL to all traditional media. They put it everywhere their name is, including their current documents, TV, radio, print ads, dealership collateral material, business cards, repair orders, license plate brackets, billboards, etc.
5. Referral service:
Herb Chambers goal was to reduce their expenses for third party lead providers and increase their leads/ sales from their own site which costs less and have a higher closing percentage. They eliminated the providers that were not effective and replaced them by increasing their leads from their own site. In the end, they have more leads and sales and the majority are from their site, so they cost a lot less and the closing percentage is three times higher.
6. People:
Herb Chambers has dedicated Internet sales people at every dealership who sell the appointment and vehicle. They recruited people with previous automotive sales experience and with great phone and follow-up skills. They are on the same pay plan as the other traditional sales people.
7. Process:
Herb Chambers defined their Internet process for handling opportunities by mapping out their process for turning leads into appointments and sales. They are selling approximately 600 additional units per month at a higher gross profit than some of their showrooms because they do not sell price, they build value in the dealership, people and product, and, at the same time, they highlight the advantages
of doing business with them rather than the competition.
8. Pricing:
Herb Chambers realizes that selling cars on the Internet is not about giving cars away. “The mistake some dealers make is that they sell the price rather than building value…in the end, if we do not ask for a fair profit it is impossible to get one,” said Jay Gubala. “We put together a pricing philosophy that is competitive but that also preserves our gross profit.”
9. Training:
They partnered with a company that initially trained everyone in the department on the phone, follow-up and sales skills they needed to increase appointments, sales, gross profit, CSI and loyalty. “The key to the training was to develop their skill and confi dence and this is accomplished through repetitive practice, videos and hands on experience.” In addition, Herb Chambers has a very successful nine-day training program for new hires.
10. Measure/manage:
“You cannot manage what you cannot measure. We measure everything and hold regular meetings to discuss our progress and ways to improve. Reports give us the information we need, the number of leads by source, response rate and time, appointment percentage, show percentage, closing percentage, cost per lead, cost per sale, etc,” said Gubala.
After reading that It’s obvious why Herb Chambers continues to lead the automotive industry in innovation, sales, and customer service! The Herb Chambers group stay educated and up to date on ways to improve sales, service and the overall customer experience !
Herb Chambers continues to find more ways to engage car shoppers; be they well schooled, casual or simply window shopping. The amount of care every visitor recieves online or in the showroom is unequaled in the automotive or for that matter any industry!
If you haven’t seen Herbs hilarious, informative and well produced vids – CLICK HERE to view all the Herb Chambers vids!
Herb Chambers is customercentric!
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