kyhawk2

I just got a product yesterday and a domain.
Mobile Websites For Your Business
I am still trying to get the site right. The support is great.
I am wondering if anyone here has tried to work with car dealers.
I haven't contacted any yet.
Any ideas or feedback is appreciated. Please ignore my sorry logo.

seoing1

Its going to be alot easier to sell car dealers if you have quantifiable results to show them. In fact, if you have some proof that mobile is a positive ROI, any customer you pitch it to will want it.

Mobile cell phone database of 300 Million phone numbers. PM if you are interested. Have several happy customers and Joint Venture partners.

jasonl70

dealers are very ineterested in mobile sites.. to do it, you 'll have to have the technical skills/knowledge to be able to integrate with their existing systems for inventory feeds (and their existing website vendors who integrate with those feeds also offer mobile sites - so there's going to be competition against existing vendors they know/"like"/"trust").

You and I know that the main use will be for people interested in finding/scheduling service, directions to the dealership, etc, but having extensive industry experience I can tell you most dealers can't really think past pushing their inventory.

-Jason

rich100k

Nice site KyHawk but i don't think your charging enough in my opinion for your monthly service. What platform are you using. And why are you only gearing your service towards car dealerships.

Best of Luck

everge

Hi Kyhawk, your site looks good, looking at this niche as well but not really knowing what the best options are.

As Jason mentioned hard to intergrate with their current systems unless you have the experience technical knowledge to do so.

I was thinking more along the lines of SMS, this enables you to approach them to supply them with leads with either a SMS QR Codes on car windscreens for potential purchases to scan or have SMS Car to this number and get a URL sms to them to view a video of the vehicle.

They will then opt in and you will be able to supply the details to the car yard at a price. Either a monthly fee or on a per leads bases.

Just my thoughts at this point.

Social Guy

I think it is a good niche to go for! Car dealers are always looking for the best way to sell their cars..

You demo wit the qr code is not working by the way.

Integration with the "Auto trader" systems in this world will be the most important thing imho. If you can tackle this hurdle you have a good USP.

jasonl70

Here's how it works in this field:

there's a handfull of companies that provide dealers with their "online inventory solution".

These companies get a feed of vin numbers/prices from a dealerships internal accounting systems.

Dealers then log on to these companies sites to manage their inventory: edit prices, upload photos, add remarks, etc.

Then, these companies in turn create a new feed with all of this updated data, and send that feed to the dealer's website vendor, autotrader, etc.

kyhawk2: for the VAST majority of dealers, your prices are not only too low, there's no real difference between them. We're not talking broke ass wanna-be IM'ers here, where changing a price from $87 to $77 would make any difference. These are businesses that will easily spend 10-20k on a single marketing campaign, pay autotrader 3-6k a month, etc. On average, 1 car sale is worth $1,700 in profit (from the car (the "front end"), and from the financing of the car (the "back end")) - use that when figuring out your pricing strategy.

-Jason

kyhawk2

Thanks for all the help.
I am a little wary of working with real pro's who sell cars every day.
My selling skills are not so good.
The good news I did quick search and NONE of my local guys here have a mobile site.
This is an older wso btw, now closed.
http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...-48-hrs-7.html

Michael Bucker

My fellow warrior, I can definitely help you here. I am a national sales trainer for car dealers. I have worked with them for years and still train in dealership as well as doing seminars for them.

Do not worry about your selling skills you are in a field that is the most challenging for dealerships and is their biggest problem to date. You are the professional in this case not them.

At the beginning of each seminar and also the first day that I do any in house training I ask a simple question and make a list off of it. The question is, "What has changed in the car business that makes it different and harder to sell cars than it was 15 plus years ago?"

Every city every brand and every single situation the first item on the list is "the internet". This is an area where dealers suffer the most.

When approaching them, let them know you are a part of a network of business men that brain storm together giving business ideas "kind of like a 20 group" they will know that term.

In your group of people you have a friend named Michael Bucker who is a national sales trainer in car dealers. He mentioned to you one day that when he does his classes and seminars he asks, what are some of the issues that make it harder to sell cars today.

He told me that in every case the first thing that comes out of the mouths of the dealerships is "the internet" it has affected dealerships more than any other issue outside economy changes.

So what you decided to do is see what you can do to help dealerships with your knowledge in this field. What most businesses are learning is that most of America is going to smart phones and they are only going to websites that they can easily access on their phones.

Thus, you decided the best way to help is to provide that service for dealerships. "I help dealerships with the big problem of the internet and getting their sites to a mobile ap so they arent losing all those prospects."

I have three simple packages to look at for you. Is the internet an issue for you like it is most dealers? Do you have a mobile ap?

The answers will be usually be yes to the first and no to the second.

Say I understand, here are my three packages. Which would suit your needs best? Always have three options.

How to book a Seminar

All my secrets

midasman09

Hey KY....Car Dealers are TOUGH to sell....PLUS, everyone and their brother are trying to sell them....PLUS, implementing the site with the MANY changes takes LOTS of your TIME.

Why not consider offering something that's UNIQUE and DIFFERENT and NOT much work!

What would that be, Don?

1) Make a Mobile Directory for Car Dealers in your area. Just basic info about what Make Vehicles they have....special services....a Link to their existing website. A 1 or 2 pager.

Now....HERE'S what will GRAB THEIR ATTENTION AND MOTIVATE THEM TO BE INTERESTED IN....WHAT YOU ARE OFFERING.

2) Offer a "Radio-ADvertising" program where you get a local Radio Station to make 30 second ads telling listeners about your "Mobile AUTO Directory"! The Station RUNS these Ads in "Off-Times" and "Fill-In" spots!

The Station will also CHANGE the ads every 2 wks!

You pay the Radio Station $100 a month for each Car Dealer.

For this exposure...you charge each Dealer $100 a Week for 13 weeks ($1300)

10 Dealers is $13,000 for 3 months. Your payment to the Radio Station is
10 x $300 = $3,000

You NET $10,000 every 3 mos!

Then....go to another town and set up another 10 dealers.

The Radio Station Ads are sending listeners TO your Mobile Site. You don't have to "lift a finger" other than contacting your 10 dealers every 3 mos.

You could also do this with a local TV Station. Raise the Rates to $200/wk....$2,600 every 3 mos....depending on what the TV Station charges....which should NOT be their "Regular Rates".

You are bringing in the Radio or TV Station as "affiliates". Do NOT tell the stations what you are charging the Dealers.

I did something similar about 10yrs ago....where the stations were advertising a regular website Directory.

Take a look at www.MinnesotaCars.com This guy started in one small area of Minn (Southern) and is now in FIVE STATES with HUNDREDS of Dealers.

Don Alm

Steve Faber

I agree, the pricing is way too low here. Think about the long term viability of your business model. You are goiong to need hundreds of dealer accounts in order to have a viable, sustainable business.

Think about the logistics of not only selling to that many dealers, but post sale support. You should be charging at least 10 - 20 times what you are currently asking.

Three problems with that pricing strategy:
You can't support your own business
Dealers won't take you seriously
You errode the market's value / pricing perception making it much more difficult for the entire industry.

Switch to a value based pricing model, where you price your service on the value it creates for the buyer, not the cost to the seller / producer.

jasonl70

Steve is right.. Not only is my family in the car business, I have previosuly been the internet marketing director for dealerships, as well as a vendor to dealers for websites, IM consulting/management, etc.. If you come in too low, MANY dealers will view your offer and business with suspicion.

This is one of the biggest problems I've seen with aspiring "off line'rs" over the years - an inability come to terms with value-based pricing. To many people can't flip their mindset away from "i'm selling X hours of work for Y dollars".

competing on price is a losing game..

-Jason

xlfutur1

Lots of car dealers now have Youtube channels, facebook feeds, and twitter feeds for their new car listings. Save your money and head over to mobile.conduit.com and build a quick mobile site for free that incorporates everything a car dealer would need in a mobile site.

The only leg work you will need to do is find the dealership's youtube, twitter and facebook feeds. Include a map, click to call, etc. and you should have a nice product to sell them.

App29

If the mobile collateral enhances or offers value, or should I say receives a benefit from it than sure. Mobile is about convenience, as the Dead Kennedy's quoted, "Give me convenience or give me death!" We had an auto dealer client build an app on our platform (Jim Marsh Automotive, Las Vegas, NV). As it turned out, mobile users enjoyed the convenience. Inventory in the palm of your hand is convenient. Setting up an appointment for service...again, is convenient.

The key is affordability, and that translates into return on investment (ROI). We build apps for $31 per/mo + a one time setup fee of $199 for our whole-sellers. They turn around and sell it for $499 or more on the upfront. we have found that $499 is a respectable price as viewed by our target.

Michael Bucker

You are getting many objections above. I have people in the business all the time who tell me its a tough sale or impossible. Those people don't sell to dealerships but I do. So again if you want it you can have it take my advice above if its really something you want to do.

Let say for sake of argument it is a tough sale. Find a way to make that sale and you will be doing what everyon else is not doing because its "tought".

I am told all the time by dealers that I will get less than half of their sales people to sign up for my classes and definatley not the veteran sales staff. I have a 95 percent closing ratio when they allow me to pitch to their staff. In every single case to date the mangers told me I'd get less than half and I sign up 95 perecent plus everytime. The veterans end up being my biggest fans.

Dealers are like any sale it is a numbers game. All you need to do with dealership is show the value. The value need to be worth 10 times what they are spending. I can help with that. Does it take work? Yes. But what doesn't. So not to knock anyone else but you have a choice here. You can go with the advice of someone who gets dealership to pay him money for his services or those who don't. .

I know I'm being forward, but as a trainer that trains sales people it always has bothered me when someone says "its hard". The hard sales are the ones you want because no one else gets them and they often are your best clents in the end.

How to book a Seminar

All my secrets

NewParadigm

partner up with other sales people already calling on dealers. Give them a commission. Such as extended warranty co's.

hvalentino

guys is there any white label for mobile website builder? thank yoU!

TrumpiaTim

FYI, most dealerships generate revenue not from the cars they sell but rather there maintenance dept.

Daniel LaRusso

Do you think there would be any benefit to changing the pricing model to remove the risk from the dealer, and bump up your potential earnings? What I'm thinking about is, rather than do a flat up-front fee, get some skin in the game, and do all that stuff you mentioned for free for the car lot, and they pay you a $75 - $100 commission on each car when it's sold. That way, you become their internet marketing department or consultant, and you can do other things like post their cars to craigslist and do their mobile marketing.

I'm especially interested in hearing Michael Bucker's comments.

It is unwise to trust all you read on the internet.
- Benjamin Franklin

toddfromboston

@Michael Bucker I will use your advice during my next round of prospecting. I was in the automotive industry for several years but my thing was service (technician), not sales. Regardless, every dealer, new or old, successful or failing needs two things. 1) loyal customers who come back to buy more often. 2) New customers that become the loyal clientele mentioned in #1.

I know the services I offer can help dealerships, its just a matter of getting past the gate keeper and in front of a decision maker or the person under the decision maker. Any suggestions on this?

Thank you again for your advice!

Rock n Roll is BACK!

Best piece of advice I've ever received... "Listen, just shut the F*#^ up and listen!" (Because there's always going to be people who have been doing what you do/ want to do for much longer. Shut up, listen to them and learn from them)

indiantopworrior

teach how u did

linkmetro

kyhawk2,

First I check if they on page 1 on goog. If not and no mobile version of they site find, I do a mock up and just walk in to talk w/the person who's in charge. I ask if he can get on the Net, show they are not on 1st page, also a show them the mock up I made. So far 2 out of 11 place I do work and maybe more later. Not easy, take lot's of time and talk and talk...

shoopt

Hey kyhawk2
The first thing that you must keep in mind is that car dealers are not much into technology. So you have to present them how they will be benefited by having a mobile website or and app for their business. Since a large population of US is carrying a smart phone show them how can they target those users by having presence over mobile platform. If you are good at convincing then you will get the business easily.

I am Daniel Jones, working in a Mobile Application Development Company as a Mobile App Developer. I enjoys exploring apps on iOS, blackberry, android and other mobile platforms.

eternalsongbird

You just need to raise an awareness, then your method is awesome.