Dealer Marketing Magazine July 2006

1. Dealer Marketing Center Page 1 of 1
The Secret To Selling 386 Extra Cars In One Month
7/1/2006 - Ralph Paglia
At Courtesy Chevrolet, we used our Business Development Center (BDC) and the Internet
to produce 386 extra sales in April of 2006. The cornerstone of incremental sales is our digital
marketing system, which drives Internet leads and over half our phone traffic to the dealership. Our
BDC staff uses the Web as an incredible marketing medium and as a result we’re increasing sales,
F&I, service and parts business for a lot less money. Not only have sales and profits gone up, our
marketing cost per sale has dropped by over $200 per vehicle retailed. As a result, we are the
number one total sales volume Chevrolet dealership in America and we no longer spend enormous
amounts of money on traditional advertising like newspaper, television, and radio.
Secret #1:
The right system Courtesy Chevrolet gets results with a system that includes two high-end custom
Websites, both feeding prospects into a CRM tool that automates most of the store’s email activity.
Our two Websites, www.Chevrolet-USA.com and www.CourtesyFleet.com increase leads by more
than 500 percent. The system also includes email and search engine marketing tools to create traffic
and a CRM tool to manage our Internet, phone, and showroom opportunities. Together, it helps us
find more quality traffic and turn a higher percentage into leads and sales.
Over the past year, we went from 80 incremental eBusiness -related sales to more than 300 additional
sales per month consistently. April was a new record at 386 and May is tracking to break 400. Our
CRM tool uses automation for many follow up tasks which frees up the BDC team to do what they do
best -- use the phone to set showroom appointments.
Secr et #2:
The right people and tools Courtesy Chevrolet’s BDC success came quickly, yet we get calls from
dealers who try and fail to generate incremental sales. Why are we successful? We found the secret
to success is to get the right people.
The right people for the BDC are those with excellent phone skills and a passion for customer
satisfaction. The right tools will automate much of the follow-up process and provide the reports to
manage and measure results. Installing a successful BDC is not a simple task, but when a properly
designed BDC helps generate additional gross profits of more than $600,000 per month, it ’s worth the
investment.
Right system + right people + right tools = results I share these results with you, not to impress you
but to impress upon you that there’s money to be made with the right system, people and tools.
Here ’s a sample of what we’ve achieved: - 386 extra cars sold and $703,292 incremental revenue in
one month - Courtesy Chevrolet is the number one Chevy dealer in the USA - Courtesy Chevrolet
was named among the Top 10 eDealers of the Year - Courtesy Chevrolet signed with BZResults.com
for Internet Sales Process, Websites, BDC and CRM tools and training - The Internet cost per sale at
Courtesy is $200 less than any other type of marketing or advertising
Ralph Paglia is the CRM/eBusiness director at Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix, AZ. He can be
reached at 602-279-3232.
Dealer Marketing Center
http://www.dealermarkclicks.com/
http://www.dealermarkclicks.com/asp/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=946&print=yes 7/25/2006