Almost all automotive advertising agencies have learned to use today’s automotive advertising technologies to blur the line between the real and the virtual world as they help build virtual showrooms on the Internet Super Highway to supplement their auto dealer client’s real world brick and mortar facilities. However, a growing number of new automotive advertising vendors have entered the market to focus on old world telephone techniques that may have been overlooked in today’s Internet driven marketplace. Internal selling systems integrated with technology driven processes that link their virtual online showrooms with their brick and mortar facilities share a common element that has survived intact on the Internet Super Highway – human nature.

New customer interaction platforms offer a two way video online transaction platform that promises to push through the glass wall between salespeople and their online shoppers. The expectation is that developing online transaction tools will eliminate the need for online sales people to disengage from their initial customer interaction with an email to deliver information or even a telephone call to schedule an appointment. Nowadays educated consumer demands that all online communications, including telephone calls to gather information not provided on the websites, are transparent and relevant. Sales people still need to provide information about themselves and their dealership to differentiate them from competing online dealerships and information resources.

However there is a fine line between relationship based selling and self serving sales hype; that’s where new telephone support services using web based training, managing and monitoring can help. Automotive advertising agencies and their auto dealer clients understand the importance of maintaining telephone skills. All too often automotive advertising agencies neglect to look in the rear view mirror to apply yesterday’s best practices to today’s selling processes to build tomorrow’s opportunities.