courtesy chevrolet and ralph paglia automotive digital marketing success story

8/8/2019 Courtesy Chevrolet and Ralph Paglia Automotive Digital Marketing Success Story

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Case Study:

Courtesy Uses eCommerce and eCRM to Build the #1 CHEVY DEALER IN U.S.

2007 eDealer of the Year and the nationsleading volume sales Chevrolet Dealer

is selling an additional 380+ vehicles per

month and lowering marketing costs per sale

down to $300-$350 per unit! Howd they do

it? By developing a successful Business De-

velopment Center and leveraging the inter-

net as a marketing tool to promote all of their

profit centers within the dealership, Courtesy

Chevrolet is raising the bar for dealers across

the country and the world.

Back in 1955, on what used to be the outskirts

of Phoenix, Edward Fitzgerald together withpartner R. Mitchel McLure, created a dealer-

ship that was destined to become one of the

largest automobile franchises in the United

States. It all began with two dreamers who

shared one vision, an old farm house which

served as the showroom and office, and a tiny

shed out back that doubled as a makeshift

garage and make-ready area. In spite of such

a modest beginning, Courtesy Chevrolet is

now leveraging the power of the internet to

dominate the market in the Valley of the Sun,

and hasb r o a d -

ened the

horizon by rising to the top as the #1 tsales volume Chevrolet Dealer in the nat

Dealer Operator, William Gruwell, has b

a partner in the business since 1981. U

the passing of Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Gruw

became a partner with Mrs. Fitzgerald,

today they employ over four hundred s

members, all of who have helped to bu

Courtesy Chevrolet into the icon of succ

that it is today. Apparently the acorn(s) did

fall far from the tree. Gruwells sons, M

and Scott, have inherited their fathers p

sion for the industry, have worked in saand are now Used and New Vehicle S

Directors, respectively.

Get a FREE 180Second Tour atBZRESULTS.COM

or Call 866.348.1910


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At the core of their growth and contin-ued success, is their thriving Business

Development Center under the direc-

tion of Ralph Paglia. With over 25 years

of experience in the retail automotive

industry, Paglia literally escalated his

career from sales consultant to Dealer

Principal in a short time.

In 1998 he began serving the Auto In-

dustry as a Management Consultant. By

the end of 2002, Ralph was performing

the role of senior consultant and OEM

Consulting Services Manager for the

CRM Services consulting and trainingdivision of a major automotive technol-

ogy company. The most recent years

have led Paglia to leverage his expertise

and skills around process implementa-

tion planning for Courtesy Chevrolet.

Paglia is passionate about implement-

ing business process innovations that

leverage information technology and

web services to drive results and deal-

ership profit growth. And grow they

did, Were using our Business Devel-

opment Center and the Internet to sellup to 384 additional vehicles a month!

The cornerstone of our BDC is our digi-

tal marketing system that generates in-

cremental sales and drives over half of

the phone traffic to the dealership. In

a short amount of time, the BDC staff

has learned to use the web as an incred-

ible marketing medium, and as a resultwere using the system to increase sales,

F&I, service and parts business for a

lot less money than traditional advertis-

ing media. As a result, our cost per sale

ranges from $300 to $350 which is a lot

less than our t raditional advertising, ex-

plains Paglia.

The Gruwells realize that the scope of

CRM has evolved into more than just

an encounter on the showroom floor,

and they know the importance of utiliz-

ing innovative technology, and having

the right people and the right processesin place. eBusiness Director, Paglia,

shares the following insight to the suc-

cess at Courtesy:

THE VISION

Why did your dealership initially

establish a Business Develop-

ment Center?

William Gruwell knew that Internet mar-

keting was the way of the future. All of

the traditional forms of advertising werebecoming less effective, and he realized

that the internet had unparalleled poten-

tial for building value in products and the

dealership. His vision was broad enough

to incorporate old school wisdom with

the marketing power of the internet to

enable Courtesy Chevrolet to reach new

heights. Today the BDC and Internet

Sales Departments are the nucleus of the

dealerships overall sales operations.

How did your dealership get started?

While investigating and evaluating the

technology and the market, we found a

company that had excellent automobile

credentials, cutting edge technology, and

the tools and training that we needed.

BZ Results helped Courtesy develop a

new customized Business Plan that in-

cluded an innovative marketing strategy

with clear objectives and processes. We

built a new website, put the right people

in place, and implemented new process-

es.

THE TECHNOLOGY

What sets your website apar t from

the competition?

An effective website will drive more

traffic to the telephones and showroom

floor. Our online Virtual Dealership has

great features that attract and hold our

customers attention. We have a lot more

interactive links like Virtual Test Drives

to engage customers with an intense

multimedia experience that highlightsthe advantages of the vehicle they are

inquiring about, as well as money saving

online coupons that lead the customer

into action. Customers can research in-

formation and product reviews, check in-

ventory, gather trade information, com-

plete credit applications, watch tutorials,

and view media enriched presentations

on Why Buy from Courtesy and our

GM Certified Pre-Owned Program.

All of this has proven to successfully

drive traffi

c, build value in our productsand our dealership, and convert a higher

percentage of our unique visitors into

leads. In summary, HouseofCourtesy.

com is dynamic, yet easy to use, and ef-

fective in generating sales and creating

loyal customers.

Success Story

BDC, 1,523Other; 57 New Car

Internet; 1,442

eFrinanc SalesTeam; 360

Used CarInternet; 694

eBusiness Sales by Team(4076 Units Sold in 2006)


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What methods do you use to attractpeople to your Virtual Dealership?To attract todays shoppers, a dealer needs tobe visible on the internet. To ensure top place-ment on the most popular search engines, weuse a customized combination of advancedSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) andSearch Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies tomaximize our exposure on the internet and in-crease traffic to our site. Before implementingour digital marketing campaign, Courtesyspresence on the internet was virtually non-ex-istent. With our overall Search Engine strat-egy, we dominate both the organic and the PayPer Click (PPC) areas attracting both thosewho choose to use alternative sites and thosewho want to go directly to our site. Anotherawesome method for increasing traffic to ourVirtual Dealership is through email market-ing campaigns. We have been gathering email

addresses from prospects and customers in allareas of the dealership for quite some time andhave built a large data base of email addressesfrom which we can target specific campaignsusing BuzzTrak, our CRM tool.

THE TOOLS

What is it that you like about BuzzTrak,the Virtual BDC Manager?BuzzTrak is central to our BDC success, andwe use its powerful innovative features tomanage all of our eBusiness and CRM cus-tomers. The system is fully integrated withour AdTracker and Virtual Phone Manager,so all of our internet and phone leads are

automatically imported into the tool. WithBuzzTrak we are able to customize and sendout media-enriched bulk email campaignsthat are like mini commercials. Besides thefact that we can reach thousands of customerswith the click of a button at virtually no cost,the measurability of the effectiveness of ourcampaigns has proven to be crucial to our con-tinued success. The custom email campaignsare great for seasonal specials, and targetingspecific types of buyers like fleet businesses,credit challenged customers, or lease/financerenewal prospects at no extra cost. Our leadmanagement tool allows us to make sure thatall of our leads are processed and followed upin the most effective manner. We are able

to provide our customers with timely personalresponses that build the value of our people,products, and our dealership. The innovativetechnology of our BuzzTrak CRM tool helpsus to build trusting and lasting relationshipswith our prospects and existing customers.

How do you generate leads, andwhy?www.HouseofCourtesy.com is our primary

source of quality leads, and has become a Re-gional Buying Service for our area. We focusmainly on bulk email campaigns and searchmarketing to maximize our exposure on theinternet. Using deep links to specific contentwithin our BZ Results web site, along withour revolutionary Digital Marketing strategy,we have cut down on costly and less effectivethird party lead providers. Our world-classwebsite is capable of converting up to 20% ofthe visitors into leads, which produces a high-

er ROI on the leads generated from our sitebecause these leads have proven to deliver the

best closing ratio and a higher gross profit.

THE PROCESS

What are your processes for handlingthe increase in leads and the conver-sion into appointments and sales?We handle all of our leads through our BDCand eBusiness Sales Department. This strat-egy has helped us to focus on the right people,tools, and processes to convert leads into sales.

We have clearly defi

ned processes from set-ting appointments to post-sale follow-up.

In a Nutshell

Courtesy Chevrolet is the #1 Total Sales Volume Chevrolet Dealer in the U.S!

Courtesy Chevrolet uses their BDC and eBusiness Teams to sell 380+additional cars in one month!

Courtesy Chevrolet uses HouseofCourtesy.com to promote all profitcenters (New,Used,F&I,Parts&Service) with the dealership!

Courtesy Chevrolet was named one of the Top 10 eCRM Dealers of theYear for 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007!

Courtesy Chevrolet uses award-winning HouseofCourtesy.com to es-tablish a Regional Internet Buying Service that generates the highestquality leads at the lowest cost per sale of $300-$350 per unit!

Courtesy Chevrolet partners with BZ Results for their advanced Market-ing Strategy, Website, BDC, and CRM Tools and Training.

Courtesy Chevrolet uses HouseofCourtesy.com to promote all profit cen-ters (New,Used,F&I,Parts&Service) with the dealership! William Gruwell


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Our provider has made it easy for our custom-

ers to submit leads from our Virtual Dealer-

ship in a number of places, so once we get the

lead, we make sure to give the customer the

info they are looking for while building valuein our dealership. Another key process is the

constant tracking and measurement of metrics

with our automated analysis reports.

Knowing where the strengths and weakness

are is crucial in order to refine processes and

improve results.

THE PEOPLE

How important is it to have the rightpeople in place?Having the right people in place is crucial to

the success of any dealership. Step One for

Courtesys success involved hiring the righttechnical partner to lay a foundation upon

which to build our strategy. Our technology

partner understands innovation, but more im-

portantly they understand the automobile busi-

ness and how to help us sell more cars and in-

crease profits. After the initial planning stages

of meeting with management teams to outline

a detailed strategy, we began to staff the BDC

and eBusiness Sales Department with highly-

trained, internet-savvy automotive sales pro-fessionals who are passionate about what they

do in order to maintain the high standards

Mr. Gruwell has set for our dealership. Each

person is trained extensively on phone and in-

ternet scripts and skills to begin building trust

with the customers from the initial contact.

THE RESULTS

What is your formula for achieving re-sults and continued success?The answer has to be the implementation of

interactive integrated marketing using the phe-

nomenal innovation of the internet, in otherwordsthe potent combination of technology

and CRM. Our results speak for themselves.

Since implementing our advanced digital mar-

keting strategy, BDC, eBusiness Sales Teams

and our Virtual Dealership, we have increased

the traffic to our website by over 12,000 unique

visitors each month, we are converting up to

20% of those visitors into leads, we are selling

up to 380 additional vehicles per month while

building value in all of our profit centers withinthe dealershipand all at reduced marketing

and advertising costs!

Paglia affirms Courtesys success by point-

ing out William Gruwells pledge to his loyal

family of customers which is to build a rela-

tionship that is built upon professional service,

trust, and integrity, while providing the very

latest in automotive design and technology.

HouseofCourtesy.com Sells 380+ Vehicles

Our BZ website helped us sell 380+ vehiclesout of our BDC/Internet department- Ralph Paglia

courtesy chevrolet and ralph paglia automotive digital marketing success story

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