Hi. My name is Mike and I found this site using google. I wanted to find a message board dedicated to professionals in the industry to take part in discussions and help me in my day to day duties.

I've just started looking around for ways to maximize my sales using the internet. As a lot of people in the car biz, we are very slow. This break has given me time to research some on how to increase my sales so this is really my first stop so far. I'll be reviewing the information on this board and trying to get some ideas. In the meantime, feel free to comment or drop suggestions.

I'll give a description of my department.

I'm the Internet Manager(cradle to grave). I was only on the floor a few months before being offered the job. They had no one and it was the Internet dept. was running, but not to it's max obviously. I guess I do most other managers do: manage online inventory, pricing, website design, lead management, handle incoming leads, work them, sell them, etc.

The GM sees me in this position temporarily as he would like me to progress to GSM, and finally GM. That sounds like great news but I have a lot of work I'd like to do here and a lot of progress I want to see before turning this job over.

On that note, I don't know where to start really. We currently use Cars.com and Autotrader.com but the GM is constantly complaining about the rate increase, and with good reason it seems. Dealer Specialties takes the pictures and adds the used cars to our online inventory. We don't use any lead services. No ebay. No craiglist(I'd like to get in on this and plan on setting it up tomorrow). And we have no CRM. That should change when our contract with David Lewis runs out. We're looking at ADP's CRM.

Any opinions on Cars.com or Autotrader? Worth the cost? Any viable alternatives out there?

How about Dealer Specialties? Alternatives?

As you can see, I've got questions so any of you can answer any of them while I'm searching too, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for looking!

__________________
Mike
Internet Manager
www.ECNissan.com

Always a tough decision for AutoTrader renewal. Despite the dealer complaints about price, they have replaced the Newspaper for advertising. (I just saw an article where Gannet publishing's profits are down 36% today.) Dealers would save themselves a ton of money with a quarter page ad in the paper that simple says "www.ecnissan.com see our entire inventory sale priced online". The question is not do we get rid of AT but how do we afford to live with them, i.e. at what level do you need to participate. Cars.com is good if it is tied to the local paper but I have found that they are lagging in where they are not tied to the newspaper. There are always alternatives to Dealer Specialties in a market but being from PA I couldn't tell you what is available in your area. AutoUplink is making a lot of noise these days around here-you might see if they have someone in your area. You may want to look into HomeNet for your inventory pull from your DMS-they offer an upload to Craigslist I believe. I wish you luck in your new position-hope the info helps.

Thanks!

I have found that I actually sell more cars from Cars.com than AT. And they have increased their prices as well.

I've got an old school GM who is newspaper, billboard, tv oriented. I push when and where I can for him to consider putting more into the net side.

Dealer Specialties is "ok" at best. I'm relatively satisfied with the inventory management but see room for improvement. I should light a fire under them but I can't reach them on phone. They haven't returned a call or replied to my emails. I can't use Craigslist until they set it up for me.

I'll look into the other service you mentioned.

Again, thanks for the comments.

__________________
Mike
Internet Manager
www.ECNissan.com