JOLIET, Ill. -

The Digital Age is upon us, but some dealerships are still struggling to “digitize” their stores. Old habits die hard, says Chris Hill, e-commerce director at Bill Jacobs Auto Group.

In a recent Contact at Once Auto Dealer Chat Video, Hill discussed methods to help shift your sales teams' perspective to a “digital first” mindset.

Hill says the “old-school” mindset is still prevalent, and digitization is not a reality for all dealerships.

To start the change, Hill says dealerships should find one or two people who are more tech-savvy and line them up with digital leads to get a Web-based sales program started.

Then, you start feeding these few salespeople Internet leads.

“I could take seven or eight car sales guy off the floor and start feeding him Internet leads and give them a little bit of training, and then he’ll start selling eight or nine more cars a month,” Hill explained.

Then, your “old grinders” are going to see this success, Hill added.

Hill also focused on the prevalence of these leads.

“You get Internet leads all day; there are a lot of chances to do business. These aren’t cold calls; these are people that want to buy your product. It’s just the question of whether you are going to close them, or if someone else is going to,” he warned.

Hill explained that once you get the program off the ground, the result is “infectious.”

“You have started to begin instilling value in the program; make it easy and achievable, and then only hand out the leads to those people that want to go the extra mile for the customer. And eventually, your whole dealership will be begging to be on that team,” Hill concluded.

See the original video from Contact at Once dealership chat solution here.

Sarah Rubenoff can be reached at srubenoff@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter