Route 9: the road to success  Feb 04, 2011 by Bill Fallon

Peter Maher, owner, chief cook and bottle washer, Mid-Hudson Subaru, and Charlie North, president, Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Charlie North did not build Route 9 in Dutchess County it dates to Colonial Days but he speaks of its role in commerce and of its potential with the passion of the engineers who first graded it.

Route 9 thrums with traffic on the coldest days of the year. And this is where the praiseworthiness comes in it thrums more and more all day long. In Houston, they say the smell of the oil refineries is the smell of prosperity. In Dutchess County, the bustle of traffic on Route 9 serves as the same reminder. Those big-rig airbrakes and those tooting horns are the sound of prosperity.

It's our Central Avenue,said Charlie North, president of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, now 1,982 members since consolidating with the former Greater Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce Jan 1. It is the Platinum Mile. With the exception of Downtown USA places like Rhinebeck, Hopewell, Pawling  it's where business is densest.?

The Route 9 corridor from just south of Interstate 84 to, and including, Hyde Park is like Santa Claus, North said. As much as the goods and services it bestows, Route 9 bestows secondary activity. Yes, you started out to buy tires, but lunch and two pairs of shoes factor in for convenience's sake. Families go to the mall to see Santa Claus, but end up in the toy store and the food court, North said.

Route 9 is wide and it possesses the magic word, already in place: infrastructure. The road is good,he said. We have water. We have sewer. They're already there.

North called Route 9 an under appreciated resource, saying, I don't believe people recognize the types of revenues that are spun off by businesses on Route 9. That's not to say the small businesses in villages do not play a strong role, but Route 9 is the central area.

The Route 9 goal is basic: A good mix of businesses. While keeping the welcome mat out for national chains and franchises, North would like to see more local shops on the corridor. He acknowledges, There's a high price to pay to be on Route 9. Location, location, location.

But North also cites homegrown successes, including Davis Furniture, which moved from Main Street in Poughkeepsie to the Route 9 and Vassar Road intersection last year. And certainly the many mini malls on Route 9 are filled with the stuff of small-time entrepreneurial dreams like delis and nail salons. Route 9 is the magnet that draws people throughout the county, North said. And Orange County. And Putnam County. Pawling might be a stretch and Rhinebeck might be a stretch, but not really in the scheme of things. It?s worth the trip.

The Santa Claus analogy extends to streets such as South Avenue in Wappingers Falls, where businesses tucked among Victorian mansions benefit from proximity to the river of traffic on Route 9 a block away, as do business on more bucolic Route 9D.

There will be new tenants in the old Circuit City site across from the Poughkeepsie Galleria. North said. That's a key location, across from the mall. Talk about exposure extraordinaire. That?s prime real estate. He cited another empty store that had sold computers and said, They're not vacancies. They're opportunities. They are investments waiting to give a large return.

The Circuit City building on 4.64 acres at 1910 South Road was recently sold by Mountainville-based Goddard Development Partners for about $3.7 million to Orthopedic Associates of Dutchess County. The medical offices are slated to open in 2012.

Said Goddard principal Adrian Goddard, Route 9 is a very powerful draw  Circuit City got that part right. It has an extraordinary traffic count. We like Route 9 quite a bit.

Also rigged and ready: I'd love to see the former Dutchess Mall site continue to grow where the Home Depot is, just below (Interstate) 84, said North.

Mid-Hudson Subaru owner Peter Maher sells 100 units a month at his 1715 Route 9 dealership in Wappingers Falls. We deliver to the Bronx, Albany, the Hudson Valley  it's a very central location. Mid-Hudson is the biggest Subaru dealer regionally, he said, and that's because of our location, without a doubt. We are consistently around a hundred units per month, give or take a few. Route 9 is full of opportunities. It?s the greatest place in the world. I wouldn't move this dealership anywhere.

Regarding the chamber consolidation, There were questions about how well this would work, said Maria Laudeman, who was with the Greater Southern Dutchess chamber for three years. Charlie is making sure everything's running smoothly.She called the new entity the best of both worlds,saying the Southern Dutchess voice was not being lost, but amplified with the new arrangement.

The chamber staffs are now combined, totaling 18, four of whom are associated with the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a separate corporation responsible for awarding college scholarships $32,000 last year and for raising that money.

The two chamber foundations remain separate for now. But, said North, We are running events together. The only thing that has not transpired is a change of the legal name.

It's the members who have gained, North said. Those who had paid dues to both chambers previously We had a lot of crossover members now pay only one chamber. And we've taken the best of both worlds the best of each chamber's events and put them out for the benefit of chamber members. In addition to that, we have a stronger lobbying voice. We're now a voice for 2,000, which has its advantages when lobbying for our members. We can become a stronger voice in government and a stronger voice in our communities.

We have very good representation in Albany, he said. And I think consolidation sends a very clear message that the business community means business.

North cited the ongoing social networking seminars the chamber is sponsoring as reflective of hands-on committee work. Facebook. Twitter. A blog. A lot of these small businesses do not have the wherewithal to pay a consultant to teach them about these things. It's our responsibility to go to the chamber members who know and have them share with the members who don't. And post-consolidation: A larger pool means larger resources. It means more knowledge. And it means more collaboration.

Importantly, said North, We maintain a good working relationship with all the volunteer-driven chambers to make sure we can be of help to their members: whether it's health insurance or something else. We're here to assist.

Consolidation may not be for everyone, but North said: I believe it is the responsibility of regional chambers to consolidate and collaborate.

BB: Patrick, start by telling us how you ended up at Mid-Hudson Subaru.

I was working as a salesperson at a dealership in Albany while living near Rhinebeck. Commuting 170 miles round-trip made for some very long days. Naturally, I started to think about finding something a little closer to home and to my family. Well, at my son's 9th birthday party, one of the kids started peppering my wife with questions about my three Subaru's in the garage: Is this one a turbo? What year is that one? Etc. When she asked him how he knows so much about Subaru, he told her that his dad owns a dealership - it was Peter Maher's son. So my wife encouraged me to call Peter and, as it turned out, he was looking for an internet manager. We sat together and we seemed to have the same general philosophy on the business and on the internet's role in the business. So, we decided to try it out.

BB: Well, I'd say that it has worked out nicely. Regarding this shared philosophy - how would you describe it, especially in relation to closing internet leads?

Well, the idea is that the internet is a different animal but shoppers want it to feel as normal as possible - as much like walking into a showroom as possible. The internet is a faceless and anonymous medium so the goal is to personalize it. Beyond that, people just want good service and to be answered quickly with the information that they ask for. Time and time again, I have customers tell me "you got back to me so quickly and gave me the information I asked for." That's more than half the battle. I've experienced that if you answer a lead within an hour of receiving it, you are two or three-times as likely to get the sale.

BB: The proof is in the numbers. Since you arrived, Mid-Hudson has been closing 12% of their internet leads over 90-days, for 10-15 sales per month. How high do you think those number can go?

I want to see us closing at least 20% of our internet leads for at least 20 sales a month.

BB: That would be fine with me. Now, tell us a little bit about the process you use in cultivating so many sales from the internet leads that you receive. 

Well, first and foremost, its crucial to respond quickly and to give the customer the precise information that they requested. Then, it becomes all about follow-up. Its truly a 90-day cycle. The first stage is hot and heavy for a day or two while information is being exchanged and familiarity is being built. Then if a sale isn't immediately happening, you allow things to settle in and follow-up a few days later and then a few weeks later. It's really a lot like dating. You can't push too hard, allow things to evolve naturally, but don't let them forget that they want a Subaru. 

It isn't an automated program that we use. I'm just constantly jogging through the names and emails to remind myself of each conversation and to remind myself of when and how I need to follow-up.  Every lead is different  and you need to try to focus on the customer behind that lead.  If I've been chasing someone on a new car for a month and its not going anywhere or I sense that price is the sticking point, then I'll hit them with a link to a nice used Subaru as a low-cost alternative.

You also need a strong website. Dealer.com does a great job with the templates but you have to go beyond that.Truly excelling in the digital space requires someone who can spend time putting personalized stuff up there. That's also a difference maker. There is nothing worse than looking at Subaru sites that have nothing on the staff page - no pictures, no bios, nothing. When we look at our web stats we find that the staff page is visited quite frequently. We have such a good blend of people here, we need to show them off. 

BB: That's another good example of your goal to personalizing an otherwise anonymous medium.

Absolutely. Another example is that I include in our emails a link to a youtube video of me in the showroom. Of course, not everyone opens it, but there are times when people come in to the store for the first time, walk right up to me without an introduction and say "Hello Patrick, I'm here to see that car we've been emailing about." Again, people like to know who they are dealing with.

BB: Does it surprise you that some dealers still do not have full-time employees dedicated to developing their digital business? Some dealerships still don't believe that there is enough work and enough potential business to necessitate a full-time internet position.

Believe me, it's a full-time job, especially if you are dedicated to getting back to customers as quickly as possible. I have the leads sent to my phone, so its really an around-the-clock, 7-days-a-week job. For example, Wednesday is my day off and a few weeks ago I received a lead at 3:30 on Wednesday morning. I responded to it at 6:30am when I woke up, the customer was in the store at 10:30am working with another salesperson and ended up buying their car by noon.

BB: Impressive. I also should mention that, as of 6/23, you are on the top of the board at Mid-Hudson, meaning that you have sold the most new units at the store this month. 

Yes, that is true, so far. I expect to sell close to 20 this month. All of them from internet leads. Now, some of these sales are from leads submitted in March so they will be reflected in my March close rate, not June.  But it's really not all that surprising if you think about who the Subaru customer is. They're naturally inclined to start their shopping on the internet. It's their mindset: very educated, very comfortable with the internet, very resourceful. Why schlep around to five dealers when they can get the same information from their living room with a few clicks? 

BB: Finally, tell us about what you are doing to market Mid-Hudson Subaru via social media.

While we have a blog and we are also on twitter, its mostly facebook that we use. We don't use it as a selling medium but as an information medium. With social media, its crucial that you are dedicated to it and that you to put interesting content up there. I post a lot of photography? fun things like the bumper-stickers that people come into our service dept with. Any interesting, Subaru-related content I can find, I put on facebook. It covers all the traditional Subaru issues: pets, education, social and environmental concerns, the rally/WRX stuff, community events that we host or sponsor, etc. Our goal is to build a community. We advertise on facebook to everyone within 50 miles of the dealership. 

BB: Alright, thanks for your time Patrick.