Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 10

DEALERSHIP MANAGEMENT

Continued from pg. 8

specifics, matters of
direct observation, known
facts, information base,
statistics, measurements,
numbers, results, findings,
circumstances, experiments, knowledge and/or
proof.
Note: data is the plural
form of the Latin datum,
although data is used conversationally to represent
both singular and plural
which is originally a Latin
noun meaning "something
given." Today, DATA is
used in English both as
a plural noun meaning
"facts or pieces of information" and as a singular
mass noun meaning "information;" Not much data
is available on the number
of customers we spoke
with last week.
Ok, so that was a lot of
stuff to consider and most
likely boring to some yet
when the question arises;
How do you make money
or save money by utilizing
data then becomes
an interesting topic for
consideration to most. I
feel it boils down to this
key phrase constructed
from the abovementioned
definitions above;

FACTUAL INFORMATION upon which conclu-

sions can be drawn.
Key word here obviously needs to be Factual.
Garbage in / garbage out
comes to mind. Once
it becomes factual our
leadership and vision has
to draw conclusions and
then ACT (very important notion) upon it. I see
two problems here; first,
factual does not mean "I
think we handled around
20 incoming telephone
inquiries yesterday and
10

MARCH 2018

sold a couple that came in
on an appointment." What
factual should consistently represent or imply is;
"We handled 23 incoming
telephone inquiries yesterday and converted 14 of
those into appointments
of which eight showed
and four of those were
turned into deliveries and
we are following up on
the six no-shows in an
attempt to reschedule an
appointment as well the
four who did not purchase
and we have a solid follow
up strategy regarding four
of the 23 inquiries that
held potential for a future
appointment."
The first statement has
no act or action process associated with it.
However, the second is in
possession of a rock-solid
business initiative which
provides clear and precise
information and how it
is being acted upon. We
could camp out here for a
couple of days discussing
methodologies of what
constitutes good follow-up
and phone skills because
we, in this industry, do
lose a lot of business due
to untrained employees
when it comes to phone
skills. And, yes it does
require a different selling
skill set and fundamental
processes.
Here is the formula for
data success: AD + T +
A = C or Accurate Data +
Thought + Action = CASH.
Accuracy and action
however are the key components for any success.
You can look at data all
day long and have nothing
to show for it unless you
develop a proactive action
plan towards using it. The

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

question is how to implement the action to put
things in motion? I have
found an answer towards
the end of this article.
So, back to the data
thing. I am asked most
frequently by dealer/principals; "where the heck do
I start with all this confusing data?" As any good
rocket scientist would tell
you, you start at the end.
What do you want to know
and about what? A really
good follow-up question
would be; why do you
want to know this and
how will you use it? But
the best question and one
that does not get asked
enough; what actions will
you commit to undertaking
once you find the answers? If you cannot specifically define what you
want to know and why,
and then commit to take
action, don't waste time
dabbling with your data.
As we all know that is
called analysis paralysis.
And that is exactly where
most people will hang out
day after day without any
planned initiative.
IMPORTANT SAFETY
TIP: The enemy of fact is

assumption.
Data does not work well
with big broad questions.
A broad non-specific and
bad data-driven question
could be how can I sell
more cars? Data works
very well with specific
questions such as what
type of consumers are
purchasing trucks or
specifically F-150s in the
three zip codes around
my dealership? This
is a good data-driven
question as is; does my
CSI rating vary depend-

ing upon the day of the
week or month? Like the
proverbial 10-day month
crunch where everyone
is out of their skin to get
deals booked. Or, what
were the top 10 selling
used vehicles by make,
model, year and sold price
we booked over the past
90 days? Good data can
help you make sound
buying decisions when
you consider taking in a
particular trade or going
to the auction. Of course,
one can argue that we
now have succumbed to
assumption in making decisions revolving around
what will sell in the future
but when you use the
factual side of information
for the primary inclinations
of what might be a good
course of action it is ok
and frankly the crystal ball
is still not working. Your
basic premise is based on
"factual" data and certainly helps in diminishment of
total guesswork.
Look to the next page
for a second to think about
the scenario described in
Chart 1. This is a pretty
impressive data information-gathering solution to
manage any business.
But hear this; this is exactly what big data looks
like and it is happening
right now in many vertical
markets and is soon to
approach the automotive
vertical. Better be ready
for it because this is the
future for the automotive
field.
If you shoot me an
email requesting "Big
Data" I would be happy to
send you my investigative
research so you can be
prepared to understand
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2018
