What do I know that can help you?

I’ve been working in this “man’s world”, the car business, since 1995.  Thirteen years of highs and lows.  I started out overseeing the advertising for a fourteen franchise dealer group in The Dalles – it was called Thomas Motors then.  Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Lincoln, Mecury,  Cadillac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac, Subaru, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge.  That was equivalent to jumping into the deep end of the automotive sales pool.  I learned all about each of the factory/dealer relationships, how they differed from domestic to foreign, what thought processes were involved in marketing the various makes and models, what actually worked at motivating buyers.

I was an Internet sales person, a Finance Manager, a Fleet Manager, a jill of all trades.

Our Internet business was booming back then.  We owned all of the Autobytel territory for all of our fourteen franchises for Oregon and Washington.  We were selling 80% of our cars to people who we never met.  People who worked at Microsoft, Boeing, Intel, Nike.  Those were the people who figured out how to use their computers to cut their time and cash investments when it was time to buy the new family car.  We were order takers then.  Those people knew what they wanted and knew what they wanted to pay.  It was easy.  We had a corner on the market.  People laughed at my dealer.  Until they saw his face on the cover of Automotive News.  And Dealer magazine.  And in the New York Times.  It was fun.  A real blast.

We wanted to teach other dealers how to do what we were doing.  We moved our operations to downtown Portland and became dot-commers.  We took pay cuts and worked fourteen hours a day in a pressure cooker environment.  We signed up hundreds of dealers.  We talked to thousands of car customers.  We sold cars to people across the United States without ever meeting them.  We didn’t get our funding.  We ran out of money.  We went out of business overnight.  With dealers waiting for us to help them.

I went to work for a big multi-franchise metro dealership.  Chrysler, Jeep, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Kia, Chevrolet, Ford, Isuzu, Daewoo.  We could have taken the lead but I worked with non-believers.  I learned a lot about people who prefer to do the same thing every day, day in and day out, and complain about how bad business is, rather than open their minds and change their ways and capitalize on competitor’s weakness.

I went to work for the biggest pre-owned Internet retailer in the Pacific Northwest.  80% of their 250+ car sales a month come from Internet customers.  Most of thos people have bad credit.  I knew they were on to something when I heard their GM speak at an Internet Automotive conference in Vegas.  My new car dealer group wouldn’t even post prices for used cars on the Internet – they were afraid consumers would know too much.  I knew I had to go work with people who had it figured out.

And they did have it figured out.  From how many people it took to man the phones, to spending the money on the technology to improve record keeping and follow up, to training and re-training and then training some more.  I learned a lot from some of the best appointment setters and sales managers I’ve worked with.  Counting the hundreds of dealers I was involved with in the dot com experience.  These guys know what they’re doing.  If I hadn’t gotten pregnant, I’d probably still be there.

But I’m not.  I’m at a Ford Lincoln Mercury Mazda store in Bend Oregon.  I am the Customer Care Center Manager.  I oversee our Internet department and work with the retail sales department on long term follow-up and customer retention processes.

I have a beautiful two year old daughter who I am raising alone.  If it weren’t for her, I’d be writing a book or on the road training other people to do what I know how to do. 

My point in beginning this blog is to share some of what I know, and to be a reference point for people who have questions.  Buying a car is something the average person does five times in their life.  I’ve experienced it thousands of times.  I know things that can help you.

Happy Summer!