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There's no single path leading to a career in automotive sales, and Ashley Antonio is living proof. She went straight from Colgate University to selling cars at Paragon Acura in the borough of Queens . This was a leap from one elite institution to another, for Paragon is a big player in the New York metropolitan area (its Honda store is the #1 "Certified Used" Honda dealership in the country). Not long afterwards, she found herself working as an Internet manager, then managing a floor sales team, and then running Paragon's BDC. Today she's the Director of Marketing and Purchasing for both Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura.

We recently spoke with Ashley, wanting to pick her brain and learn what she's learned in the five intense years she's spent mastering Internet marketing at Paragon.

Dealix Dealer Newsletter (DDN): Ashley, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. How do you explain the success you've achieved, given the fact that you didn't have a background in the automotive business?

Ashley Antonio (AA): Well, I had the good fortune to go to work for a very strong dealership that had already made a lot of progress in the area of Internet marketing. But I had some advantages of my own. I wasn't a child when the Internet first went mainstream, but I was a teenager, and so it's a phenomenon that I essentially grew up with. Eventually this will be true of all dealers, but for now the younger generation has an edge in this regard.

Also, I like to think that I'm demonstrating the strength of a liberal arts education. More practical areas of study can sometimes encourage simplistic thinking. To get the most out of Internet marketing, you have to see it in all its complexity and understand that no single thing is going to make that much of a difference if the parts don't fit together. This is true of a regular brick-and-mortar business, of course. But the Internet is new for so many dealers, and it's changing so quickly. It can be hard to keep an eye on the big picture while working out the details.

DDN: What would you say was your biggest misconception when you were just starting out?

AA: It took me a little while to realize that selling a car entailed more than simply making the fact of the car's availability known on our website. I know that sounds silly, but Honda and Acura are exceptionally strong brands in the NYC area, and I was too quick to believe that quality sells itself. In reality, we have to put a huge amount of effort into our online merchandising, so that we're showing the right cars at the right time to the right people. Pricing is extremely important, too. I'm not talking about being the lowest price, necessarily, but we work hard to be very precise about our pricing. We track the pricing of our competitors, and we've learned a lot about what kind of price difference matters and what kind doesn't.

DDN: Do you find that there are any particular pressures involved in selling cars in the NYC market?

AA: We have to get by with a lot less real estate than dealerships in the suburbs or out in the country. There are all sorts of good reasons for not wanting inventory to sit, but some dealers never have to worry about the fact that a car is taking up a parking space that could be occupied by a stronger seller. This is one pressure that has made us so good at online merchandising - because the job we do there has an enormous impact on how quickly a car sells. Don't get me wrong - you still have to make good decisions on the purchasing side. But that's a lot easier to do when you have confidence in your website.

DDN: Paragon's used car business is especially successful. Does the Internet play a big role here?

AA: Absolutely. It's all about information, and there's no such thing as too much. If you're posting used cars on your website without mileage or pricing or good photos - and I mean more than one or two - you're wasting your time, and you're squandering the savings and higher profits that Internet merchandising and marketing make possible. There's no such thing as posting too much information. Some dealers think that a buyer will call if they want to know more, but the fact is that it takes a lot of information to bring a buyer to the point of making contact. Buyers shop a number of different dealer websites, and the dealers that offer the most information up front - including photos of flaws - will win buyers' trust and business in the end.

DDN: What's your take on buying third-party leads?

AA: Our philosophy is to acquire as many quality leads as our process and personnel can handle. As long as the quality is there, the source is relatively unimportant. And so we buy leads from third parties, we obtain them from Honda, and we take a number of approaches - including search engine marketing, print, and radio - to drive used car buyers to our own website. Personally, I think dealers spend too much time debating the strengths and weaknesses of these various lead sources. If you have a strong Internet sales process, you can close sales at above-average rates, regardless of whether the leads are self-generated, come from a third party, or are provided by your manufacturer.

DDN: One last question, Ashley. Are you up to anything new at Paragon? What's the latest way you're trying to connect with Internet car buyers?

AA: We've been paying a lot of attention to the fact that people are using mobile devices more and more to do all the things they used to do sitting at their desk. We're working on a version of our website that will work seamlessly with cell phones and handhelds, and we're already able to use text messaging to let service customers know when their cars are ready. Mobile Internet usage is growing quickly, and we're working hard to keep pace with it.

DDN: We really appreciate your sharing your insights with us. Best of luck to you this year!