Managing Online Inventory and Photos
How to Choose the Right Vendor
If you advertise your vehicles on online automotive shopping
sites such as Cars.com, chances are you understand the importance of ensuring
your listings are accurate, fully merchandised and up to date. But how do you
manage that process? While many stores choose to go it alone, others prefer to
keep their staff focused on selling and turn tasks such as photographing the
vehicles and updating inventory over to an outside company. Given the
importance of these functions to your online success, there is a lot to
consider before turning over the keys to a third party. Read more to find out
what you need to know when choosing an inventory management or photography partner
for your dealership.
Online advertising destinations such as Cars.com offer free online tools that allow you to manage every
aspect of your listings, but using them takes both time and effort. Working
with a third-party photo, data and inventory management service provider
automates most of the required steps and frees you to focus on other
priorities. For example, you can give more attention to writing sell copy that
captures what is unique about each of your cars and promotes the value of
buying from your store. You also will be available to respond promptly to
customer inquiries and aggressively follow up with prospects.
But how do you know when to turn to outside for help,
and how do you then choose the right partner to handle these services for your
dealership? To offer you practical advice, we recently spoke with
representatives from two leading vendors: Glen Garvin, general manager of
Dealer Specialties, and Mo Radji, senior business development consultant at CDMData.
"What we're basically going to provide the dealership
with is the heavy lifting in terms of helping their customers understand what
their inventory currently is, what's in those cars and what those cars look
like," Radji said. "Maintaining accurate inventory is incredibly
important as more customers use the internet as an ultimate decision-making
medium to connect with dealerships. When the process becomes too much to
handle, it makes sense to bring in a service company."
Once you decide to bring in a partner, both Garvin and Radji
suggest that you interview prospective providers with a series of questions:
- How consistent are you and your staff?
- When will you be at my store?
- What is your process that is going to produce my desired results?
- Who are your references?
When the answers align with your objectives, they said,
chances are you've found the right match.
While some stores may require daily visits to keep pace with
their business, Garvin said that most stores ask for two visits per week.
Tuesday and Friday, Radji said, are the days most often requested by dealers.
"Fridays because you want to get your cars ready for the weekend; Tuesdays
because you probably got a lot of fresh inventory from the weekend."
How much of the process the company takes on, though, varies
by dealership. Leading providers typically offer a range of options:
- Full-service model: The vendor takes the photographs of the
vehicles and provides the software that integrates your dealer management
system (DMS) with your automotive shopping site(s). Once you've entered the
sell copy for a vehicle, the listing is automatically uploaded to the listing
service. When you indicate in your DMS that the car is sold, it’s removed.
- In-house model: The vendor provides the software that integrates
your DMS with your automotive shopping site(s). You can then use your digital
camera or one supplied by the company to photograph your listings, add sell
copy and upload the data to your automotive shopping site(s). As with the
full-service model, the car is removed from third-party sites when it is marked
as sold in your DMS.
- Hybrid model: Similar to the full-service model, this arrangement
gives you the added flexibility of being able to add new listings between
visits by your representative.
Picture Perfect
Perhaps the most tangible service companies such as CDMData
and Dealer Specialties provide is taking the pictures for your listings. Both
Garvin and Radji recommend you include a minimum of nine photos with each used
car and several pictures with your new-car inventory. They also suggest you:
- Stage vehicles, if practical, so you can present them in their
best light, away from other cars.
- Photograph each car from the same initial angle, giving your listings
a visual consistency that appeals to shoppers.
"It might be the most important thing a customer's
thinking about," Radji said. "When shoppers go online, they have an
idea in their head of what they want that car to look like. It's up to the
dealer and the provider to provide as accurate a visual description of that car
as possible."
These core pictures should simulate the walk-around process
a customer would follow at your dealership: A front left and right
three-quarter angle; a rear left and right three-quarter angle; head-on photos
of the car's front and rear; two interior shots; and a picture of the odometer.
If you're working with a shopping site such as Cars.com that allows you to
include up to 32 pictures, Garvin and Radji suggest that you also highlight
unique and interesting features.
"Bring back the emotion," Garvin said. "The
more emotion you can bring back into the process, the more likely you are to
get people excited about the vehicle and earn a higher gross."
Some service providers suggest you include your store's
phone number and website address as a "digital stamp" on each
picture, a practice that Garvin and Radji do not endorse. They instead
recommend using your store's logo because it will build and reinforce your
brand without creating confusion for your customers or affecting your ability
to track traffic. For example, shopping sites such as Cars.com include a free
toll-free phone number with your advertising package. If you use your store's
direct phone number or the toll-free number provided by another shopping site
in your digital stamp, you cannot identify which advertising source (e.g., your
website, the telephone book or the third-party site) connected you with the
prospect. Also, customers may not know which number to dial – the one in your
ad or the one embedded in the picture – and simply move on to the next listing.
Similarly, many listings sites feature a direct link to your store's website
within the listing. If you add your URL to your vehicle, you lose the ability to
identify which company delivers results and the highest return on investment.
Remember to Do Your Part
To create a connection between shoppers and the cars they're
considering, be sure to write compelling sell copy for each listing. These
seller's notes should look beyond the information provided by the vehicle
identification number decoder to highlight the car's condition and special
features. Phrases to include range from "one owner" to
"nonsmoker," "upgraded sound system," "bought and
serviced here" and "vehicle inspected by our ASE-certified
technicians." Chances are that you or someone at your store knows this car
better than anyone else, so investing the time to personalize your listings
will help you to minimize days to turn and maximize your gross.
No Contract Required
Many of the leading photo, data and inventory management
service providers do not require their customers to sign a long-term agreement.
In fact, Garvin and Radji said both of their companies operate on a
month-to-month basis.
"We're as good as our last day," Garvin said.
"It's the same with your salespeople: We've got to be delivering for you
every day."
Although a contract may not be necessary, Garvin recommends working
only with a vendor that employs people with clean driving records and maintains
the proper insurance. You want to be sure you are protected, he said, in the
event of an accident while vehicles are being moved to be photographed.
The Final Analysis
In selecting a vendor, you want to choose one that can both
meet your current needs and anticipate future trends in the industry. Video demonstrations, for example, are
increasingly utilized with online listings because they allow you to
merchandise both your store and the vehicle itself. A service provider taking a
consultative business approach will bring these new techniques to your
attention.
"You want a provider that's going to be able to help
you connect the dots so you can be more successful," Garvin said, "It's
one thing just to show up to take photos and collect data – and that's an
important thing to get right – but beyond that, what are they bringing to the
table?"
Get the Most Out of Your Relationship
To get your program off on the right foot and ensure
results, Dennis Galbraith, vice president of dealer products and operations at
Cars.com, recommends that you hold your service provider accountable across
four metrics that will drive your online success.
- Accuracy: Are the correct
pictures and sell copy being used with each of your listings? Are new
vehicles promptly added to your third-party site(s) and are sold vehicles
promptly removed?
- Completeness: Do your listings
include all the information needed to win the sale? Gaps in your
merchandising are more likely to send customers to your competitors rather
than to your store to get the missing information.
- Freshness: The pictures in
your listings may need to be updated, particularly as a vehicle ages. A
picture of a car with snow in the background is OK in February but works
against you in August.
- Quality: Are the pictures that
appear with your listings good, crisp photos? If you want to create an
emotional connection between the prospect and the car, be sure to use
high-quality pictures that emphasize its special features.
Galbraith also suggests that someone at your store be
assigned to monitor your vendor and provide regular reports on the provider's
performance. "Keep a close eye early on in the relationship," he
said. "Show the company what is expected and what is not acceptable. Set
the stage. Get started on the right foot.
"You get what you pay for," Galbraith said,
"if you insist on it."
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