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Still Ignoring The “C Word” Will Cost You

The “C Word”. You know, that word. The one that makes dealership executives’ skin crawl, makes sales people laugh, has trainers’ mouths drool and absolutely keeps your store from its true potential. It even has female staffers cringing, question working at the dealership. Say it with me….CULTURE.

Ignored by only the bravest of souls who understand the kind of wrath and trial it brings. Changing culture takes balls. It takes work. It takes time. And it takes an unrelenting focus as well as undying commitment. We all know it, so why do so few do it? Weak leadership? Lazy management? Not necessarily. Mostly it’s due to the lack of understanding what the intermediate goals during and wins at the end of the effort are. You know…not starting with the end in mind.

Culture, by definition, is a way of life of a group of people–the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

In other words, you’ve built the existing culture and it’s continued nearly blindly. In order to change a culture, the industry has historically resorted to spiffing or spanking. That’s not truly leading a culture change, rather a practice of distraction. So we take adults who should otherwise be able to achieve a change and create a different focus. Then we shoot down the same adults when the incentive or punishment dissipates. Quit setting your business up for failure!

Culture change takes conviction and creating lots of buy-in. We do that a lot with lead management and sales coaching at IM@CS. Creating adoption breeds results. More than taking the same business rules and communication requirements from dealer to dealer, like most consultants and trainers do, it takes a focus on sustainable actions through owning efforts, responsibility and results at each individual business.

Instead of blaming incompatible software, say desking and CRM, for why salespeople don’t complete their logging and steps in tracking and following up with customers, create an environment where sales supports each other and daily reports reign. And back it up with at least one weekly sales meeting run completely out of CRM. Over-simplified? Possibly. Worthwhile? Absolutely.

Culture? It’s everything or it’s nothing. Yeah, that will reflect everywhere…

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

IM@CS Invited To Participate At Essential Upcoming Industry Events

Today it was confirmed that IM@CS' Gary May has been invited as a speaker at both the Innovative Dealer Summit in Denver March 30 and Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando April 16-18. Additionally, the opening session at the Orlando event will feature a CRM discussion panel moderated by Gary May. These events are great opportunities for progressive dealers that showcase some of the best talent in the industry and IM@CS is pleased to be involved.

March 30 in Denver, just prior to the opening of the Denver Auto Show, the Colorado Auto Dealers Association (CADA) will host the second Innovative Dealer Summit (#IDS) one-day event to showcase technology, process, compliance and strategy for its dealers. The initial event took place last August and it exceeded expectation for all in attendance. IM@CS' session will be about Marketing Integration.

Come April 16-18 in Orlando, PCG Digital Marketing's Automotive Marketing Boot Camp (#AMBC) will provide attendees with one of the most thorough and encompassing educational curriculums available featuring "bring your laptop" classes over the two and a half day agenda. IM@CS will present on Dealership Branding and moderate the panel discussion on dealership use of CRM systems. Dealers interested in attending the event can get an IM@CS discount by being a reader of our blog!

http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com/conference-news/archives/friends-of-imacs/

It is always a pleasure to meet the dealers that are making the most significant investments in their digital presence and results and these two events will be no exception. 2011 will be the starting block for a number of automotive retailers with their eyes set on growing their business and focusing on leading…

It All Comes Down To Counts And Figures

When you live for sales, one thing usually starts and ends the conversation: money. How you get there is important along with a number of other factors like goals and bonuses, perks, recognition and more. We surround ourselves with facts, data and figures: units, conversion, month-over-month, even comparing ourselves to in-brand, in-market competition.

What is it that drives the best? What is it that ultimately separates us from the stars and accolades? Why do some salespeople always seem to be 'lucky'? Most of the time it comes down to counts and figures, but not the ones you are thinking about, including ones already mentioned here. For the leaders, it comes down to counting on yourself and figuring out how to improve or stay ahead of the game.

Without learning, self-improvement and flat-out challenging yourself, the units or dollars becomes the only factor, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you count on customers just walking in the door more than you count on hitting your calls and emails to drive traffic, you might just count on a big goose egg.

Figuring on things just happening versus figuring on ways to better connect with customers, methods to keep better track of your prospects and ways to drive your business up may have you figuring on polishing your resume.

Doing what it takes to make every day great rather than taking each day as it comes is the path to a successful future. Those who count on themselves to be creative and agile will win. And the ones that figure out how to take each opportunity for everything it's worth will lead.

Figure out how and count on yourself to…

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results