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Webinar: Ward’s eDealer 100

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Ward's Dealer Business Editorial
Director Cliff Banks will introduce you to successful dealers from the
Ward's e-Dealer 100, each of whom have implemented unique sales
strategies for driving sales.  The Ward's e-Dealer 100 is considered
the industry's benchmark for measuring top franchised new car
dealerships by Internet sales, and we've selected dealers from the list
to offer insights into the business practices that helped get them on
our ranking, and to describe how they'll keep sales rolling in during
an economic slump.

Our webinar discussion will offer real-world
examples and best practices to help you craft new strategies to ensure
you stay strong through this challenging sales climate.  You can't
afford to miss it!

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April 28, 2009 by Gary May 0
Cutting To Save Costs Can Cost You Greatly, So What’s Next?

It's so much a part of business today: cost cutting, staff reductions, marketing cancellations, disappearing perks. Even companies that are profitable and efficient are not exempt from the slashing and hacking (that makes sense, right? right?). Needed? Absolutely! Done right? No way! What can you honestly expect when you're name (and more) is not out there?

There's no point in kicking a dead horse: it's bad out there and those that watch conventional media just make it worse by believing what the masses do. But ignoring opportunities and not INVESTING in your future is just as bad as picking up a dime after stepping over a $100 bill. Cost cutting is not an exercise as many people profess, it's simply a knee-jerk activity. One in which you'll disappear. If you want to run through exercises and get wiser, more nimble and learn, then be smart!

Many activities related to online reputation, brand equity, lead generation, customer relation management and more are…wait for it…free! But alas, you must work at it (as discussed in today's Dealer.com 1st Party Lead Webinar, thank you Alex Snyder). Hearing "I can't afford to have my staff doing that online stuff" gives me more indigestion than eating that 72oz steak down at Big Texan!! Folks, what is your strategy? If you cut off blood and oxygen to the brain, what happens?

If you are part of the pointless cost cutting brigade today, how are you going to correctly ramp back up? What are your benchmarks? Consumer confidence, bank lending, 20% lift in units? Please! Strategy, planning, analytics, indicators and some intuition thrown in for good measure should do it along with a good long look at the competition.

If you don't have a game plan, how do you know when the 'cuts' are done? You can't, you don't and you won't. Be proactive. Be thoughtful. Be interactive. Most of all, be timely, accurate and relevant. People want to know you're around and in business.

You may have turned off the car wash and done away with the donuts and muffins but what do you still offer? Think about what's next and think about success (no matter how hard). There are some great opportunities out there just as long as you're willing to do them, putting your effort, thoughts and money behind them.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

April 28, 2009 by Gary May 0
Webinar: Industry experts REVEAL THE POWER of 1st Party Leads

 

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FREE WEBINAR

By now you understand the capabilities (and limitations) of 3rd
party leads. But have you heard of 1st party leads? Join our
interactive webinar and learn how generate the highest quality leads
directly from your website.

What You Will Learn:

1st party leads close at a higher rate with higher profits

Not all leads are created equally

How to harness the power of your website to generate higher quality leads

How to implement a first party lead strategy at your dealership

When:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT (11:00 AM – 12:30 PM PDT)

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April 27, 2009 by Gary May 0
Digital Dealer in 500 Words Or Less (It Should Be Way More…)

If you could find a fundamentally harder time to think about events, traveling, speakers and spending time (and money) in Las Vegas, it would be a stretch.  Fact is that you would be justified by not even thinking about anything but 'the next customer' right now.

For the 420 plus dealership staff that just spent the last three days at Digital Dealer: CONGRATULATIONS! The fact that you put your money where your mouth is about growing your business is a great step forward in addressing the market, getting a foot up on your competition and utilizing newer ways to connect with your customers.

Chances are you left with too many ideas and strategies to remember and that's great. Some of those ideas likely came directly from the speakers at the event. Now before you go rushing out signing up new vendors, canceling your existing ones, bringing in the flavor-of-the-week, well-polished messenger and other gotta-do-it-now activities, stop and think.

How does everything work with your direction, intentions, brand, budget and goals? Was there a Dealership Goal Setting 101 session? Shoot, I missed that one! Also I couldn't find the 'Connecting and staying in touch' networking event (although you do have a partial list of attendees). You most likely had more than enough time to talk with session speakers in the 10 minutes you had before the next session… If you paid to come to the event, you should have gotten everything you needed out of it. So check before you spend (yes, there were completely qualified, hard-working vendors speaking on stage but many biased as well, just to be straight).

There are likely multiple suppliers for the solution(s) that you're thinking about but chances are you didn't hear from their competition on stage (credit to the always honest Dennis Galbraith of Cars.com who pulls no punches, mentions their competition and tells people it doesn't matter who you're going to hire as long as you know what you need).

Mike Roscoe has put on a number of events that our industry needs…to this point. It's time to get all of your thoughts back to the team that runs the conference to make sure that the value stays in. With all of the attention on the OEMs and suppliers, dealers are not getting their fair support. In my mind, everyone that paid the money to expo in Las Vegas wants and needs dealers to be successful (and make a few bucks).

Now is the time to take our industry where it needs to go. We can't wait. We can't accept things as they are. We can't put our heads in the sand and cross our fingers that it will be better in 2-5 years. Take the bull by the horns or we'll be simply left with bulls–t. I'm proud to have the involvement with Digital Dealer, many of the associated companies and the great folks that attended.

Let's make sure that we can keep getting together a few times a year…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Power Results

April 22, 2009 by Gary May 0
Because it’s whatcha whatcha whatcha want!

Let's face it: everything that happens is due to your choices. Your job. Your successes. Your failures. Your knowledge. Your doubt. Your leadership. Your mindset. Your resistance. Nothing defines us more than…us. Performance is an indicator of readiness, focus and opportunity.

So why is it that the more things change, the more people want to stay the same? Dealers want more from less but will still buy things that absolutely make no sense. General managers say that they only want their people to sell but expect the factory to feed them. Salespeople say they want more customers but don't do the activities to back it up.

What is it exactly that you want? What is it that floats your boat? If you want to rise in the morning and achieve mediocrity, you should do it somewhere that people don't expect much. Greater things are expected in our industry and that should not change. Leaders are not born; they're made, built and modeled. If what you want is to excel, be the best at what you do. If you're going to succeed, do what successful people do!

Unfortunately we're in a 'wait and see' world. In one of my other businesses, it's always interesting talking with people about creating income. They're worried about the economy, their job, money, savings, college for kids, investments, etc. Ask someone if they're open to making more money and invariably you'll hear 'yes' immediately. Tell them there is actual work involved and listen to how they're too busy, their pet died a couple months ago, their uncle is coming into town in 14 weeks and other excuses that will not only blow your mind but show the lack of desire or drive!

Know goals…gets results. No goals…gets results. What you want has do be matched by what you'll do to achieve it. Make it your business to believe, visualize, announce and then get your results.

SO…what'cha what'cha what'cha want?

p.s. Sorry! It is 'stolen' but I couldn't avoid that title. Full credit to the Beastie Boys and so appropriate here… In the event that you actually do something new, please comment and let us know how you're getting what you want…and more power to you!

April 15, 2009 by Gary May 0
How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers – Free Marketing Webinar

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Businesses now have the power to leverage the Internet — search
engines, blogs, social media — to reach customers more effectively.
This includes connecting with customers where they hang out online and
engaging in conversations about the topics most important to them.
Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is all about joining the
ongoing conversations our customers and prospects are already having
and not trying to control them. It's realizing that people like doing
business with people they like and love doing business with people they
trust. 

This free webinar will cover:
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  • How to use social media to connect with customers online
  • Creating content to attract more customers to your business
  • Tools to help you manage and measure your social media efforts

Date: Tues. April 14, 2009

Time: 2PM ET (GMT -5)

Duration: 1 Hour

Who should attend?

Marketing professionals and business owners. No technical experience required.

Speaker:

Special guest presenter: Brent Leary, co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials and recognized expert in the field of social CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

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April 9, 2009 by Gary May 0
What Are You Paying Attention To? You…Or The Customer?

You know what? I can't blame you!  Now days it so easy to just think about yourself and your needs when a customer comes through the door toward you. Things are so slow on the showroom floor, you might have to role play with a set of 22" chromes (but they might not talk back) or do a walk around with the receptionist! No matter what, you can't stop focusing on what is truly most important.

The customer, how you treat them, what they expect, what they're prepared for and everything to do with that is what everything comes down to. Things may seem different, but don't lose your perspective! What you're paying attention to and how you represent yourself and your dealership is so critical…

If you're a pit bull dressed in Armani, you may get a sale but the next one will wait until after the 5 o'clock news has stopped talking about the attack (so to speak, of course). By the same token, don't wait for your general manager to come up to you to check your pulse.

Stay locked on your customer and really pay attention to them: their needs, their actions, their demeanor, their family, their surroundings and, yes, their engagement with you. Figure out how to influence them by paying close attention to these things and more. Half-baked salespeople get half-baked results, period.

In all fairness to the sales staffs, what is management paying attention to? What is it about your motivations that steers your team's results certain ways? Here in the Southern California area, one of the luxury brands' SUVs (which launched within the last month) was being sold at MSRP for, unfortunately, just a few days.

Then someone (alas, it always starts with someone) had to take the price down to between invoice and $500 over. On a brand new car. That people will pay window for. That people have waited for. In a market and industry where profit must be king today (behind paying attention to clients). Even without a unit to sell!

And for what? For leadership? To force other dealers? For the brief satisfaction? It's mind boggling how counter-productive dealers can be…and then complain to anyone who will listen about how bad things are. What are you paying attention to? Whatever it is, it's not beyond your nose.

In this teetering-on-the-edge-before-the-next-round-of-bad-news world, start paying attention to and doing the things that will get you the results you want, that continue to pay you, that build a volume of completely satisfied clients and ultimately keep you and your customers happy.

And it shouldn't be too hard since the next dealer is probably doing the same thing that caused them to lose the last customer!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Power Results

April 5, 2009 by Gary May 0
If Opposites Attract, Why Didn’t I Sell 30 Cars Last Month?

Let's face it, if the simple fact was that opposites attract, every dealership would sell out of cars…every month. Actually, that's not quite true. Opposites do attract, but we're talking about much more serious issues than simply attraction. Why in the world would someone want to buy from you?

First, there's the typical stuff: Are you prepared? Do you have the same opening and closing process that you use every day? Do you know/walk your inventory daily? Do you know your ad cars? Are you qualifying your customer correctly?

Now, and possibly more important, there's the newer stuff: Do you know your website? Do you know your competition's? How many leads can you handle correctly (and not just call or email once)? How often do you network (and not just online)? How is your follow up, really? Does management have your back or are you just off the back?

When you look at things realistically, you've never sold a car in your life. Not trying for semantics here, just a honest look under the hood. Ever had a green pea outsell you? Of course! Today it's much more about everything but the sale. Don't pull the wool over your own eyes.

When recommending new technology, companies or services to dealer clients, I continue to hear the same excuse as to why they won't use/buy/check out something that will be a complete benefit: "my people are just here to sell!" And there's the problem folks (or at least the biggest after credit and flooring/financing issues).

The more you act like you did when the gravy poured, the more you'll struggle. The more you treat customers like suckers, the more your showroom will chirp with the sound of crickets. However, the more you do things the you've ignored, the more you understand how to use technology, the more you keep up-to-date and trained, the more you listen to your prospects and clients, the more success you will experience.

The world's most expensive, luxurious, technological, streamlined, incredibly fast vehicle can't do crap if it's out of gas. The most beautiful facility with gleaming service bays, hi-tech lounge, ready-to-go espresso machine and great looking receptionist can't generate a dime without the right resources.

By the same token, quit expecting better results without doing the things that have to be done: having the right associates, educating them, using technology correctly, having the best vendors and support and 'filling up the tank to full'.

Start attracting business and maintaining it instead of…the opposite.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Power Results

April 2, 2009 by Gary May 1