What Are The 3 Questions Every GM Should Ask Their Marketing Manager?
Picture this … your sales staff is stressed, scrolling through the CRM, in search of a hot lead.
Monthly incentives are posted on social media, inventory pricing is updated and you’re moving inventory.
But … what the hell has your Marketing Manager been doing?
As the general manager of a dealership, you should be meeting with your marketing manager at least once a week and gets answers to the following 3 questions.
Where Is My Budget Going (And Why)?
As a GM you should know where your advertising budget is going.
You cannot afford to put your head in the sand and set monthly budgets to third-party vendors (AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc.) on auto-pilot.
Your marketing manager runs the advertising budget, but you own it.
Sit down with your marketing department and review where your money is going.
If you do not recognize the name of a vendor, cancel them today!
Where Are My Leads & Deals Coming From?
Do you get more Car Gurus leads but close more deals thanks to Cars.com?
Who’s got this answer? Your Marketing Department.
Your marketing manager should provide a report on how many leads you are getting from each vendor, total cost per vendor, number of leads & cost per closed lead.
(The most successful dealerships are tracking these numbers daily in a shared excel or dashboard.)
If your average closing cost for Car Gurus is higher than Cars.com, it’s time to shift your marketing budget and stop wasting money!
What Is My Cost Per Sale?
As the GM, you live and die by your monthly sales objectives.
And your marketing department should be doing the same thing!
Your advertising budget should be spent on vendors with a consistent return on investment (ROI).
Not only do you need to move inventory, you have to be cost-effective!
Your marketing department should be reviewing current spend and daily sales to calculate your cost per sale (CPS).
If CPS is higher than projected, marketing needs to make adjustments mid-month.
And if they don’t ….. maybe it’s time to start looking for a new marketing manager!
Don’t have a full-time marketing person?
Did you know that Overnight Dealer has a monthly Source Report?
In addition to following up with your overnight leads (which make up 35% of your total leads), Overnight Dealer provides a report of where your best leads are coming from!
Learn more about our Source Report!
