Permission Based Marketing

Ok all this is an interview from NADA with Chuck Parker. Would love the feedback




Larry Bruce - AIMData
Vice President

Navigating Permission-Based Marketing

Interview with Larry Bruce

Would you update the marketplace on the areas where AIMData is focusing on right now?

The biggest challenge we're facing as a dealer body right now is that we've had a lot of good times. The smartest dealer I ever worked for used to say, "bad habits are created in good times; good habits are created in bad times." We've created a lot of bad habits in recent years; including not maintaining our customer base. AIMData was founded to get back that customer information, and manage it, because data drives everything you do. It doesn't matter what channel you deliver the message in, it matters if the customer wants to hear it, and believes it is relevant to them. Otherwise, you're just wasting money.
When I sold cars back in the 80s, we used to always hear, "Take control of your customer." Today, I wonder if we ever really had control of them. Customers today have total control over the messages they receive. It's all about permission-based marketing. A dealer has to be cognizant of how he contacts a customer, what to say, and how often. Customers are giving you the privilege of talking to them. If you're not aware, and you abuse the privilege, you're not going to get that opportunity anymore.

How is CRM being used by dealers and are they grabbing onto it?

Customer Relationship Management, CRM, was always about the Service department, it was never about Sales. Now the trend is moving into CEM, Customer Experience Management, which is the idea that what sets dealers apart is not your inventory, but the experience the customer has with your store -- in both the Sales and Service departments. That experience is determined by how you capture, manage, maintain and utilize customer information to provide a personalized level of service. Dealers have all kinds of resources to communicate with their customers -- email, text messages, and broadcast campaigns and even standard US mail. All of these channels are viable, but depend on who your customer is and how they prefer to receive information. You have to manage your customer experience based on the way they're looking at it, not the way you're looking at it. It's no longer about the dealer, it's about the customer.

Can you give us your assessment of what you're seeing right now in the marketplace?

The marketplace is going through the same thing that all businesses are going through right now: a market correction. We were over-dealered, period. Everybody knows we had more dealers than we needed. The market backed up from 18 million new cars sold, to arguably 12 or 13 million. We're not going to see 18 million again for quite some time. If you're a dealer today who uses mass media, but believe that 80% of your customers are searching the web before they buy, why are you still in mass media? If you're still doing TV, radio, and newspaper, then you're not going to be with us very much longer. You've got to skip the middle man. Get on the web, if that's where you think customers are going to be -- that's the bottom line. You're going to have to get one-to-one with these customers and make them understand why they should buy from you, because there's really not a whole lot of customer loyalty out there anymore. The Internet has kind of done that to us. Don't be mad about it, just work with it, and work around it.

What is the most critical thing a dealer ought to be doing in the next 90 days?

Get your existing customer base shored up. What’s in your DMS is only a portion of a much larger database. Data drives everything you do if you can turn it into information. Anyone can get a great deal of data, but it takes somebody with expertise to activate it and then use it to take action. And you've got to get that done. You've got to get one-to-one and know who your customers are and what they're doing at your dealership. Ironically, about 50% of a dealer's customers generate lots of Service business, but haven't bought a car from them in 10 years. About 27% have bought a car from the dealership, but won't service it there. And 23% are Sales and Service customers. Those are the customers you need to target -- and those are the types of customers you want to attract because they provide the largest percentage of gross profit and return on your advertising investment. AIMData has the technology to segment your data, identify your best customers, and target your advertising to them and others like them.