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Broken Is As Broken Does…We’re So Frickin Broken!

Broken is the new status quo. Status quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regards to social or political issues. In the sociological sense, it generally applies to maintain or change existing social structure and values. The way things are done at dealerships has gone near-completely political and, oh my, are we broken!

Thoughts are always swirling is our minds here at IM@CS, and the current state of affairs something that we poke at a lot. It came around again last evening, looking at a page that someone had liked on Facebook. Going to the info tab on the FB page, we noticed that the company was “founded in October”. Excellent! Like us in September of 2007, a startup! Click the link to the website and the domain is not even registered, it’s available for sale. facepalm. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

Whether it’s many marketing or website or “digital consulting” companies now evergreen inside the OEMs, the state of broken that exists is staggering. Stupid is as stupid does, we know that from Forest Gump’s momma, so broken must be as broken does. And the industry accepts broken.  Enterprise website providers that aren’t completely responsive (or adaptive for that matter) fit hand-in-glove with marketing companies managing PPC campaigns that don’t perform while taking a management 20% fee (or higher)… Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Dealership executives have choices when it comes to what takes their time. We call it priority management. Many people at fly-by-night SEO and social media companies call it time management (that tickles us so much, we pee). Yes, there are many “subjects du jour” right now including customer experience and whether to go BDC or Internet department especially on the heels of the recent conferences. But one thing is clear, even considering how many are yelling about “owning the basics” and “doing what we’ve always done”: we are broken while many scream we’re great.

And it”s easy to blame the consultants and trainers who, quite frankly, spout off about expertise they don’t have and subjects they can’t actually tackle live in a business, but let’s hit on the responsibility that business owners and executives have. Are you in business or are you hoping to catch up still? Can’t wrestle that extra “marketing expense” out each month when it doesn’t get covered by the factory via co-op, so you decide instead to make the payment on speed boat number two?

We’re broken because we have dealerships that don’t own and manage their local citations, don’t expect everyone to use CRM and trust vendor promises over actual results.

Don’t be the company listing a website that’s not in existence. Don’t be the blind following the blind because it’s the path of least resistance. Don’t be broken and happy because you’re better off than 7 other broken dealerships in your market area report. It’s not easy and it takes more resources that you’ll likely be comfortable with. Don’t settle. No business that has ever been successful did.

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 30, 2015 by Gary May 0
Digital Signals: Hate The Player Or Hate The Game?

No matter how much it’s discussed, there are still massive
amounts of misinformation in addition to retail kick back in regard to social
media in general and what it does specifically for car dealerships. However the
simple question still remains the same: why?

It’s almost 2013 and some social signals are already making
a significant impact on local search queries and a couple networks are
absolutely affecting search engine optimization. Almost nobody at the OEM
level, not one of the existing enterprise social media providers and most
vendors have demonstrated proper use, understanding or leverage of social to
benefit you. It’s sad, however most dealers aid in this continuing and continue
to buy “services” from them…

If you’ve simply hired a social media company to “manage”
your social network content, you’ve likely made zero or near-zero impact on
local search as well as branding, defending SERP positions and a list of other
benefits. We see this continually via mediocre dealership Facebook pages,
auto-feed only Twitter accounts, automated blog posts copied onto hundreds, yes
hundreds, of other dealership blogs and copied Pinterest photos; the result? Complete
disconnect from people on their networks.

“But it’s not selling cars!” or “I don’t care about that
social garbage, that’s not what we do”, or “When it shows results, we’ll jump
on it properly” responses demonstrate that what’s happening in digital simply
hasn’t sunk in. Yes, there’s lots of talk, just very little good action, let
alone great. So are you going to hate the player or hate the game?

Most simply want to hate the game, not who’s doing it at the
dealership or outsourced to (aka the player). 
Some hate the player recognizing that the game is not to blame. However,
it’s neither. Our focus continues to go, inexplicitly, to BS “traditional”
marketing especially when there’s a sunny financial or industry volume
report.  There’s a near blanket of
ignorance put toward the largest, yes largest, shift in media consumption. And
we all do it. Well, over 90% of us.

How can you book an airline ticket online after checking
Kayak or Travelocity, or buy a pair of boots you’ve never tried on before with
glowing reviews, or even do a stock trade on your phone, tablet or computer
followed by sharing your gain on Facebook and then turn around and ignore
what’s happening with the socialization of media and search?

Digital signals are unavoidable. More importantly,
everything we do affects how others consume products and media, let alone
search.

So hate the player if you want, or hate the game if you’ve
got a louder voice or bigger fist, but when you finally decide to pay
attention, make investments, educate staff properly and turn the tides in your
favor, don’t complain if it’s too late or that someone else is eating your
lunch. It’s already happening.

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

November 4, 2012 by Gary May 0
DrivingSales Executive Summit 2012: A To Unmarketing

The 2012 DrivingSales Executive Summit has closed its doors with an amazing, energetic event to show. Congratulations to the entire (growing) DrivingSales team, you have left a higher bar to be measured against, once again. With nearly 1000 in attendance, primarily dealers, the vibe was strong around leading-edge strategies. And the expectations were high…

Opening in one of the Bellagio's main ballrooms, with the shortest intro of the four-year event by Jared Hamilton, emcee Charlie Vogelheim introduced Dennis Galbraith to talk about "big data" for dealerships, emphasizing the importance of executable data-based strategy, followed by Luke Wroblewski, renowned mobile expert. The information shared by the former Yahoo design guru wowed the crowd. While not industry-specific, the impact of traffic and studies was easily translatable to both OEM and dealership tactics. The big question was, why are we not better around mobile strategies? The opening reception definitely reflected the excitement for the event.

Florian Zettelmeyer opened up day two with a deeper drive into "Big Data" with a focus on national brands. Like Luke's presentation the evening before, the practical application into automotive was significant and it turned quite a few heads. Feedback from dealers was overwhelmingly positive, and interesting. So were some tweets: one suggested a drinking game each time "Big Data" was heard, the other coining "Big Data" as the…..well you'll have to find and read it.

Rand Fishkin was next and the SEO oracle delivered. Talking points included off-site, social signals, long-tail and other critical search components. The feedback from the session was that it was top-notch. The SEOmoz founder gave dealers (and many vendors) information points that area critical to success, especially given lots of "enterprise" information that is typically given to the industry.

One of the marquee events of the DSES was next…the Best Idea competition. It's best to watch the videos on DrivingSales TV since this post can't quite catch the passion that the dealers being to the table. Everything, at the end of the day, is about the dealer and the industry moves as the speed of retail. So go watch! After the first round of breakout sessions, it was back into the main ballroom for the Innovation Cup. This year cDemo came out on top. Next year those in the running are going to watch to polish up their presentation and explanation skills….

Cobalt was next with their presentation that was supposed to hit on research and, wait for it…. Data that the industry could use relevant to websites and traffic. Some of the points were relevant while many points were already part of existing marketing for most of the dealers in attendance. Then, the full-capacity crowd was rewarded with a gem of a presentation from Billy Beane. The Oakland A's General Manager, who doesn't make public speaking a regular practice, talked about how businesses must be smart, agile and customer-centric, plus saving some tongue-in-check monologue about Moneyball. The audience paid full attention to his ideas, quotes and stories.

Tuesday opened with Facebook and Google…and a heavy dose of anticipation. The two biggest subjects on the industry's mind, Google reviews and Facebook advertising, were not covered due to both companies request. Tom White did as good as possible a job without a full quiver of questions to ask, still leaving some important aspects to be covered by both the search and social giants.

Then one of the most highly anticipated sessions in the industry in 2012: Jared Hamilton hosted TrueCar's Scott Painter for a one-on-one Q&A. Whether Jared took it easy or was tough on who represented the industry's pariah about a year ago or not is of opinion, there were some great questions and responses with some in the crowd wondering what position TrueCar will play into 2013.

Jim Dance followed with a leadership focused presentation that should immediately impact dealership operation. Rich in examples and strategy, Jim did have a post-lunch audience (always tough) that revealed many taking notes. Packed afternoon breakouts brought the event to the evening's joint keynote with JD Power's Automotive Marketing Roundtable. Mini's marketing head Tom Salkowsky talked about their passionate customers and gave chimerical and video examples of just how dedicated Mini owners are.

Then, Scott Straten of "Unmarketing" fame stepped on stage and gave the packed ballroom plenty to laugh, cry and think about. Between chanting "stop it" in regard to mediocre marketing and technology use to bits of "Awesome", his words danced throughout the mix of dealers, OEMs, agencies, media and portals packed i for the following conference. Sick as a dog, Straten simply engaged the audience with the same style and techniques he begged attendees to use.

Amazing event. What will the DSES team due to make 2013 shine? We only have 12 months to find out…

Special announcements: Jared Hamilton introduced industry veteran Kevin Root as President/COO of DrivingSales and revealed that in April 2013, the DrivingSales Automotive Presidents Club featuring Seth Godin. For dealers who want to attend the New York event, go to www.drivingsalespresidentsclub.com

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 27, 2012 by Gary May 1
Wake Up! A Call To Arms…Legs, Hands, Feet, Real Products and Decisions

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There
are no shortcuts… Car dealers, when it comes to websites, SEO, reputation
management, SEM and social media stop simply buying services blind or going
co-op “approved” to save a buck. Stop buying enterprise solutions because it's
one check or everything comes on a "proprietary dashboard" and start
getting effective results with accountability. Start being your own dealership
online rather than being like all of the rest. The same is what enterprise
solutions get you. It doesn't work.

Some quick examples: Redundant SEO doesn't stand out and as
a matter of fact it’s penalized today by Google and Bing. Copied press releases
don't get clicked, read or acted upon. Facebook posts (even though, yes, Google
and Bing don't crawl them) that are identical to every one of your competitors don't
gain reach or go viral. And PPC ads that aren’t set up properly and don't have
unique content don't convert.

It is time to drop the vendors that are endorsed by your
brand/OEM that 450, 700 or 1,600 other stores are on; and time to invest
properly, get involved with what YOU put online under your name and get real
about understanding and results. And for business sake, reputation management
and social media are not things you just turn over and don’t watch and discuss,
period. Paying vendors to get reviews and paying someone to put up pictures of
goldfish in adjacent bowls starting at each other with "caption this"
was not acceptable in 2009, let alone 2012. And even if you're not up to speed
with what Google or Yelp are doing (and you need to be), don’t pay for reviews
from someone that’s not a salesperson, service writer or other employee. Your
reputation is your responsibility, not a vendor’s for a couple thousand dollars
a month.

Your OEM-certified vendors don’t understand social media and
for most brand headquarters, the people making the decision don’t know much
more when they sign the purchase orders or endorsements. Most eCommerce heads
had stints in other areas of their brand operations and have no experience or
understanding.  It’s time you knew that because
you are trusting your largest traffic generator, which most dealers flinch at
spending $1,000-1,500 a month for…let alone more appropriate, higher costs, to a
decision someone made based on a relationship, a pitch and/or promises of non-dealer-centric
benefits.

Take ownership and yes, you can and must do and be
responsible for every single thing that has your name on it: advertising,
fliers, sell sheets, hang tags, pictures, video, templates and online
marketing…all the way down to your business cards. If you aren’t on your way,
or at least starting, down your digital comprehension and betterment it is only
a matter of time before you are absolutely, positively passed up.

You will hear this from very few people and places because
it flies in the face of convention. And it disagrees with what you hear in ads
and presentations. And it is an about face from what nearly all of the OEMs
want and believe. And because it’s hard to beat the 800 pound gorilla (vendors);
the gorilla that has no idea what any part of the funnel in their traffic
report is, how to properly maintain website optimization, how to set up a
legitimate Facebook or Google Plus page and just can’t get its hands around how
to actually answer a lead.

Welcome to being back in business for yourself and with the
right frame of mind. Yes, that means the herd you leave just may be heading the
wrong way…

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Resutls

October 18, 2012 by Gary May 1
Gary May and Joe Webb Create “A DSES Digest” Session For 2012 Las Vegas Conference

To better assist dealers attending the 2012 edition of the DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) automotive conference both at the event as well as afterward, Joe Webb (DealerKnows Consulting) and Gary May (Interactive Marketing and Consulting Services) have teamed up to create a new session at the top-ranked event October 21-23 taking place at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday, October 23 Webb and May will conduct a breakout session at 3:55p for the indsutry's most progressive dealers allowing them to best utilize both the new strategies learned at DSES as well as those not capitalized on presently at their dealerships. The forty-five minute session, just before the closing shared keynote by Scott Straten (Unmarketing) for DSES and the J.D. Power Automotive Marketing Roundtable (AMR), focuses on execution, deployment and accountability around digital marketing strategies.

"We want to do something completely different. We want to have them open both their minds and laptops or tablets to get the ball rolling before they get back to their stores. This new breakout will set a precedent and deliver a greater value to DrivingSales Executive Summit participants. And yes, there will be comedy", said Joe Webb in response to having the new format chosen for the 2012 DSES.

"Joe Webb and I share perspectives, operational approaches and a constant drive for accountability that will benefit the dealers. We wanted to offer a change in the way that attendees typically leave the conferences and then first start to formulate their plan(s) by having the foundation for execution happen at the event. We're excited to move the needle for those that are ready at DSES", stated Gary May upon selection by the conference's dealer advisory board.

For dealers not yet registered for the leaing digital automotive conference, the can visit http://www.dses.com and use discount code IMACS12. The discounted book of rooms at Bellagio Hotel and Casino are sold out and the event is expected to reach 750 attendee capacity prior to the October 21 opening.

**DSES UPDATE**

Salt Lake City, UT (PRWEB) October 02, 2012

DrivingSales today announced that Scott Painter, Chairman and CEO of TrueCar, Inc., will take center stage for a one-on-one interview with DrivingSales CEO Jared Hamilton at the 4th annual DrivingSales Executive Summit(DSES). The DSES, which is the most authoritative profit-building event for innovative dealers, is the only auto conference Painter appears at this fall, and he joins an exciting keynote line-up that includes Billy Beane of ‘Moneyball’ fame, SEO ‘superstar’ Rand Fishkin, mobile experience expert Luke Wroblewski, renowned leadership trainer Jim Dance, prominent Northwestern University marketing professor Florian Zettelmeyer and an exclusive presentation from Facebook and Google.

Painter’s interview with Hamilton takes place on the main stage of the DrivingSales Executive Summit at the Bellagio Las Vegas on Monday, October 22nd at 2:00 pm PT. The question and answer session will cover Painter’s role with, and contributions to, TrueCar, including where the company has been, where it's going and what Painter sees in the future for the auto industry. Painter will also take questions submitted prior to the event by the DrivingSales community.

“We are excited that Scott is joining us for the summit, his efforts have truly aimed to push the boundaries of our industry. All Scott’s auto-related businesses in some way have melded technology, data and car-selling – a theme that we are zeroing in on at this year’s summit,” said Hamilton. “We look forward to a provocative, stimulating and illuminating session with Scott, one that will be of great interest not only to our dealer attendees and community, but also to the industry at large.”

 

October 3, 2012 by Gary May 0
If You’re Going To Do It, Do It Right…

The special time of the year is nearly upon us, again. From September through February: conferences, expos and 20 Groups with the veritable sales crunch of "you have to get this or you'll be left in the dust!" pitches. You can feel dealers' and general managers' certain body parts tightening up now (not that they aren't pitched every day of every week of every month or every year already).

With very little assistance, which is by choice, direction or information, vendors are chosen and deals are signed. Does that mean dealerships make decisions without "data"? Not necessarily. However decisions made with vendors' own calculators (remember when lead estimating in your market at certain NADA website booths was the fix of the day?????), skewed analytics/search results and by recommendations (you know, what works for a dealer with half the competition and market size one of their 20 Group buddies has should work the same for someone else in a major metro with twice the stores and massive gross degradation?).

What generates results are a combination of relevant data, unbiased information, support, updates and consistency. However what we still see dominating today are dealers using:

Websites:

  • Without any SEO (and sometimes even basic optimization), micro-sites/landing pages and SEM with no/poor call-to-action, heavily redundant non-inventory based content (which Google LOVES! right?!) and the like…

CRM:

  • The "take it as it came out of the box" processes and templates that can't get a call back from a desperate buyer, no management notifications set up, and people with access sending out marketing messages to dealerships' database that are not proper, timely or accurate…

Social media:

  • Left up to companies setting up personal profiles on Facebook, Google Plus, Foursquare, etc. for businesses and/or…
  • Duplicating content on hundreds of dealership social networks and/or…
  • Solely following industry people's accounts and them fanning/following back and/or…
  • Simply buying audiences gaining thousands of eyeballs while most of the paid followers are in different countries (or simply spam accounts)…

…and the list just goes on and on and on. 

If you want to sell cars, you have to do it right. Meet and greet, the walk, the drive, the pencil, the close (yes, the road to the sale to many) that can't exist without process, checklists, audits and accountability. Yet most dealerships' entire digital presence has none of those!!

What we need to do is do things right. Businesses are responsible for everything they do. It's 2012. If you don't understand websites and SEO, get someone that does in your store. Don't think social media is right for your point? Ask your customers where they want you to be and then get someone that does it in your store. And get advice before you hire your person/people or bring on the vendor! You must own every part of your marketing today and not turn a blind eye. And no, it's not too much to do or to get someone in the store or close to you to provide reporting that is not from a vendor's proprietary dashboard (read: manipulation) that can't be validated by another unbiased source.

There are no excuses for businesses today to not know how to do things right and expect results. Sending texts from employees phones without permission based marketing and legal/opt-out included? Having a website for a 150+ unit store that has 800 inbound links and no +1's? Promoting a blog that has the same content as every other (fill in your brand) store within a 1,000 mile radius? It's NOT fine. It's NOT ok. Get real.

Act as if you're a customer to your own business! What are the chances you'd return to your own website if the home page never changed? Would you buy concert tickets from a site that never featured your favorite artists? Would you Like United Airlines on Facebook if every other post from them was two sea lions fighting or two mimes fighting with an intro of "caption this"? would you follow Morton's Steakhouse on Twitter if EVERY post was simply a push from their Facebook account and no interaction with diners? Would you continue to read Marriott's blog if all it contained was posts about awards they were winning from magazines rather than updates on their resort locations that you wanted to travel to? Look it's really simple, it's just not easy.

Own your marketing. The pisser is you've been hearing this for over five years now from a number of sources in the industry including this one. Quit cutting corners and believing everything that the large enterprise-level providers are feeding you. How can one provider claim to be the #1 vendor in an industry and charge half of what everyone else does? It doesn't work that way! You know that…

Look at it this way. McDonald's (as good as some of you may think they are) is not number one in hamburgers. They are number one in volume! Do they serve the best burger? No! Their burger is not the best…and neither is your website/CRM/Social Media if you don't know better.

If you're going to do it, do it right!

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

August 23, 2012 by Gary May 1
DrivingSales Executive Summit 2011: The Big Bang (And Oh, What Comes Next?)

Wow. What happened last week was amazing. Nearly every session at this year's DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) rang the bell. From the opening comments on Sunday to the closing minutes Tuesday, nearly everything seemed to gel with a couple standing ovations to boot. This, ladies and gentlemen, is engagement, learning and a focus on the dealer at its best.

Day one featured returning emcee Charlie Vogelheim introducing DrivingSales' own Jared Hamilton followed Paul Potratz, JD Rucker and Jason Falls as the opening keynotes. Having outside-the-industry, topic-rich speakers has been a hallmark since the opening of the DrivingSales Executive Summit in 2009 and this year simply added to the validity of such influencers.

Day two started with a social media study by Dealer.com's Kevin Root and Matt Murray, then featured Aaron Strout on location-based marketing which presented some still very-new ideas to the crowd of over 400 attendees*. Four sessions of breakouts followed, covering a range of in-the-moment subjects, in addition to the Dealership Best Idea presentations. In between, two powerful events happened: a new Digital Marketing Dilemma "battle" format that had people buzzing into the evening and beyond day three, along with the DSES-exclusive Innovation Cup Vendor presentations. After the cup participants used up their allotted time, all attention was on the evening keynote Gary Vaynerchuk. He stole the show, got the more-than-typically-timid audience leaning forward and received what was described by nearly everyone as a one-of-a-kind, never before seen standing ovation. And a resounding ovation it was, not a "my gosh that was a boring presentation but at least it closed the day" kind of applause with people standing. Gary Vee rocked the house and converted the few not-yet-socially-commited dealerships on the spot. He followed that with a signing for his "The Thank You Economy" book.

Day three opened with Google and closed with the cup. And in between we heard from Zappos' Rob Siefker and what could arguably be the automotive industry's "Big 5" CEOs representing Dealer.com, Cars.com, ADP, DealerTrack and AutoTrader.com talking about what's coming in 2012. Many viewers not only enjoyed the big-company heads, they were comparing notes about who hit the ball the furthest (Mark Bonfigli of Dealer.com provided the second standing -albeit provoked- ovation of DSES).

Even with heads-up prep prior to DSES by the DrivingSales team, the Google session seemed to miss what most of the dealers there wanted to hear including answers to, among other things, Google Places questions. So there is room to improve in 2012 as well as grow. And by all signs, DSES may be getting quite a bit better and bigger in the coming year.

Kudos to those that made the draw in the breakout sessions including Jeff Cryder, Joe Webb, Tracy Myers, Cory Mosley, Marc McGurren, Brian Pasch and Dennis Galbraith.

The most heartfelt appreciation and thanks to Jared Hamilton and the entire unsung DrivingSales Executive Summit team. They put together the finest event for North America's most progressive dealerships out of a passion for what makes the industry tick. It was also a bit of a compliment to many of the DSES speakers as they were also invited to participate across town at the JD Power & Associates Internet Roundtable. You know who you are and the fact that what you contribute makes a difference to the industry. It was a pleasure to spent some incredible time with you at Bellagio over three days in October 2011.

Until next year…be well, be listening, be teaching, be growing and be yourselves!

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

*Being as how DSES is the only automotive conference streamed live as it happens, we may not know the total amount of attendees above the 400+ in attendance, but it's easy to say the impact went well beyond the walls of the Bellagio Hotel conference center. Dealers everywhere were affected by the 2011 DSES. DrivingSales and DSTV proved once again that you need to serve dealers in the ways that you are founded on. Education goes everywhere…socially.

October 17, 2011 by Gary May 0
Making A Laughing Stock Out Of Social “Media”

Being involved in helping build awareness via social networks for dealers over the past three plus years, there has been a lot to see. And wonder about. From using APIs, feeds, republishing other content without attribution, ghost writing, "social" content farms, 50 plus network claims and more, it's a real "Wild Wild West" in what can loosely be called social media.

More often than not, the authentic part of brand building and gaining a following of targeted prospects, customers and partners is overshadowed by the "numbers game". Having not participated in the rat race, a few companies have catered to dealers from a more genuine and pervasive angle. In our case, even in working with some of the most reputable dealers in the US and Canada, our focus hasn't changed.

Just like with traditional or measured media, you can always pull an extra customer or two from outside your PMA/AOI because they saw your ad, lost leader, teaser, direct mail from a purchased list and the like. But the effort usually takes a financial investment, as well as a dedicated staff to take a couple hundred extra shopper calls from 50-200+ miles outside your selling market, that exceeds not only the return but takes un-calculated hours of effort. Again, you can likely sell one, two or even three. But at what cost?

Shiny object syndrome. Your choice: make it part of your business, or do like most dealers do with anything besides a warm body walking into the dealership. Isn't it so much easier when you can just throw hundreds to thousands of dollars at it to have it "done" by someone else, software, a new staff person, an existing staff person not doing their current job effectively or outsource it. Welcome to cardealerville, where more often than not (because there are some dealers and stores that simply kick a**), it's easier to just make it by rather than listen, learn, commit, apply, measure, adjust, remeasure, ask questions and do it forever.

Social networks. Facebook. It's a numbers game. Right? Yes, but only to a degree. While there are ways to grow a true, engaged following from email blasts to events, promotions to ads, signage to signature lines, an overnight success is as close to real and authentic as Simon Cowell keepng his opinion to himself or Donald Trump's hair staying in place without adhesive.

If you can add 2,100 fans in 48 hours and 1,100 of them in 11 hours, during the last few days of the month, claiming to do it with two salespeople walking around a (popular) mall armed only with iPads and their charm, there's a brand new Lexus LFA for sale at my house for $3.95 tax included.

Not to say that it can't be done. For Coca Cola. For United Airlines. For Zappos. For Lady Gaga. For a car dealer? Here's a reality check. The average percentage of people that you can stop, in a mall, during their shopping, fully engage, a get to do something you've asked them to do (as in "Like" a Facebook page) which requires about 2-4 minutes per person considering logging in, going to the page, liking it and logging out, is about 20%. If you're great. So, if you've added over 2,000 Likes, you would need over 10,000 people "walking by" you. Asking to Like a car dealership's Facebook page. At month end. Of a Holiday weekend. In a down economy. Need we go on?

Dealers. Heck, any business that reads our posts. This blog has been, is now, and will always be driven by the passon that our company has to education, improvement, information and moving the industry forward. Not hearsay. Not ego. Not reputation. Not prominence. Not sales (unless you're talking about a sales increase for the businesses reading our blog).

With less than 1% of franchise dealership employees getting a digital education at events, less than 5% participating in any level of OEM or third-party endorsed education, the attraction of paying $100 for 1,000 Facebook Likes can be too easy. Using automation and $50 a month to get thousands of Twitter followers can also be the same kind of aphrodisiac. Zero to hero is usually filled with as much satisfaction as a no-calorie candy bar. It may sound great, but selling high-line cars to a growing "Fan" base from South East Asia or South America is……………..well, let's not go there. Some of the OEMs actually read this. Wouldn't want anyone to get in hot water.

So just enjoy the teeming hordes of Likes you Real Ameican Genius of the Facebook Page. You deserve a nice cold one. Shower, that is.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results.

May 31, 2011 by Gary May 4
Don’t Let Social Media Get In The Way Of Your Success With It

We're bringing a petition to DrivingSales Executive Summit, JD Power Internet Roundtable, SEMA and NADA. But you can be first to sign it here and now. The law we're hoping to get passed in the retail automotive industry is "stop calling it social media and start calling it die without it". It's not something you try, experiment with, make efforts toward or the like. At least no more than you do with sales, service, F&I and your P&L. Do more. And stop thinking so much you can't do much.

Sick and tired of consumer communication and engagement, as well as fundamental business improvement, being hawked, pitched and sold by fly-by-night companies (as well as legitimate ones) with getcha-while-you're-looking tactics, it's time to discuss, use and improve platforms no differently than you would want a CRM or website technology used and improved.

Simple question: Do you want to stay in business? Your answer has to be all the way in yes or all of the way out no. There is no in between. Many (not all) companies that have tried to be somewhere in between over the past few years show up today as the many For Lease or Going Out Of Business signs on your daily drive. Don't think for a second that we're saying that had those businesses been in social media that they'd be vibrant and profitable today. Not at all.

But to sit and wait, guess and judge, delay and save or flat out refuse social media as part of your business strategy every day is the fastest path to demise today. Period. Remember that no one aspect of your business is a silver bullet. At the same time remember you can save yourself to death no differently than you can spend yourself to death. You're not "in" Twitter and Facebook. You're (hopefully) in business using a database/contact management system, a series of processes to sell, track and report, and a solid foundation of online media to showcase your business.

Saying "I'll try Facebook for 6 months and see if it works" is the same exact thing as saying "I'll try selling our services for 6 months and see if it works" or "I'll maintain my storefront for 6 months and see how that goes". If you want to see how things go, get committed or get out. If you truly aren't prepared for success in your own business, do it for someone else and leave the tools that professionals use to…a professional.

Blogs, Wikis, Display advertising/SEM, Review sites/reputation management, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Places and more are tools to be a more effective, yes effective, business. Not a trend-setter, not a groupie, not one of the cool places to hang or any other way of minimizing your way to profit. Can your business survive without being on Facebook? Chances are yes if at least for a short time. Can you survive without the fundamentals that have social media thriving and being "buzz" in mainstream media? Not for one New York minute, to steal a great song title from Don Henley.

So please don't let social media get in the way of your success with it, knowing you'll not experience success without it. Even if you don't set up that Twitter page you've been hemming and hawing about for a year… Oh, and one more thing. If you're a car dealership, don't pay $4,000 plus a month for social media services. That is unless you're getting a cut of the profit.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 17, 2010 by Gary May 1
The More Things Stay The Same, The More They Stay The Same

We're considering making a big alarm clock. No, a BIG %^&*#$@ alarm clock. That way instead of waking up 10-100 dealers at a time, we can wake up 10,000. And folks, we all should know how big that clock has to be. 14 years of the automotive Internet, over 6 years for most OEM website programs and CRMs, over 3 years of SEO chatter, social media, landing pages, microsites, email marketing and nearly 2 years of mobile, geo-location, widgets and integration. What do we have to show for it? The alarm clock is not big enough.

Two percent leadership and a bunch of blank stares. The season of automotive industry digital marketing events is upon us. It's time to move the needle. Even before massive fees, niclkle-and-diming- new widget this and new fandagled that. And it's not "back to basics" or "blocking and tackling". If you want to stick to blocking, the customers are going to be walking. The alarm clock is not big enough.

Many folks talk about how the people that have been moving the industry's training and messaging programs are right there in the comfort zone, what they like, the heart of the 20 Group, the flame to the cigar so-to-speak. Many dealers around the country are still FourSquaring and we're not talking about the social media game. Many dealers don't have photos up on inventory for a week or two (or longer) after receiving the units. Many dealers don't know the first thing about where, what, how and why there are reviews on the web (or, in some cases, all over it) about the poor experiences at their dealership. The alarm clock is not big enough.

We're talking about dealers having to buy leads since their own inventory doesn't display correctly, generating their own leads. We're talking about the leads that are received not being handled right nearly 70% of the time. We're talking about dealers struggling with finding the right people to handle the leads right, yet hiring the wrong people in the first place. The alarm clock is not big enough.

Consider the volume of content that is available to every dealership with an Internet connection*. Consider the wealth of knowledge that exists at the other end of the phone at nearly any time. Consider the amount of information available in one day with the right person. Consider how much consumers, us, are changing the rules. The alarm clock is not big enough.

*Blocking computers from accessing most of the web? Does the industry emply adults? The alarm clock is not anywhere close to big enough for people with that much control. My fricking gosh, lighten up.

Think about how much less the franchise matters today and how much more the dealer brand matters. Think about how your HTML website* won't load on a cell phone nicely but your United, Delta and American boarding passes do. Think about how much more you want your customers to spend at your store but they don't even open your emails (because hopefully you're actually looking at that). The alarm clock is not big enough.

*And the fact that your website company is using Flash-laden pages, can't deploy a PHP-coded application and won't be able to resize and deploy a widget or give real analytics? No alarm clock can wake that up.

Really, the more things stay the same, the more they stay the same. It's not that we believe there are people intentionally not doing what they should to move the industry forward or that they can't do it. No. It's that whatever has been done has honestly moved the ball forward about a yard but it's 4th down and 28 yards to go. This round of events in Las Vegas needs to get as much fire about them as profits because of them.

Not the same data. Not the same repackaged presentation. Not even the same presenter. Not the same expectation. Not the same end game. Not the same focus. Not the same anything. We all know dealers that are afraid today. Isn't fear supposed to promote change?

Here's a challenge: Every speaker. Every presenter. Every vendor. Follow up your sessions with a call or onlne meeting within two weeks of the event for everyone that wants it. And promote it. For Free. Answer every question. Refer other companies if you don't offer something that's being asked for. Give something away at your session. Really give it away. No strings attached.

Maybe it's a start. Maybe it's about time. Maybe it's about the dealer. Maybe it's about selling and servicing cars. What do you think?

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 6, 2010 by Gary May 0