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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

Dealership Reset: It’s Halftime, You Got Game?

There's not too many times during the year that we call a time out. Well, there's usually one. Here's the dealership reset:

Accountability: How are you against your goals?

It's not just units, gross and ROs. It's about cost, effectiveness and no-bullshit reviews. Someone's feet not being held to the fire? Now's the time or else don't expect anything different come December.

Assessment: Who is helping you, who is not?

In meeting after meeting, the question should be the same for dealers to suppliers: "what have you done in the past 30 days to improve my business?". If they can't answer and back it up, you're wasting money.

Education: It's not just for sales meetings anymore

It's incredible when the entire sales staff can chirp back specs on the car they just received product training on that morning from a sales manager or the factory rep. It's another thing when a salesperson helps everyone learn something about their CRM they didn't know or shares a closing technique that got them to 25 units for 3 months running. When you stop learning, you start dying. When you refuse to learn, you need to pack your bags.

Impression: None, fleeting, building, lasting or wow?

Impressions have nothing to do with CPMs or 4-color versus black and white, although every newspaper sales rep that calls on your store will have a fit defending themselves. Impressions are all about what people think and feel about you and your business. And while it has a little something to do with the "silver bullet" that nearly everyone is talking about lately (yes, all of the experts are talking…all few of them), impressions are a lot more under your control once you realize that management actually influences nearly everything that happens at your dealership.

Half way through the year is more than enough time to evaluate a new program, see the leads you were supposed to get, increase your SEO results (if not dominate in many markets), build substantial results from email marketing, and a whole  laundry list of other improvements. If you are not getting the results, cut bait. If you are, see how you can get more.

Everyone needs to do the reset. In a meeting with a dealer last week, it was dismaying to see things that weren't acceptable even five years ago still prevalent today. Apologies for using some cliches but they're so appropriate:

  • You must inspect in order to expect
  • Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM)
  • Leaders are readers
  • The hardest thing to change is the 6 inches between your ears
  • It's not how hard you work, it's what you do with your time
  • Dreams come a size too big, they allow us to grow
  • Track, target, trim and train
  • An idiot with a plan is better than a genius without one

The tragedy in life is not missing your goals, it's not starting with any. And that's even more the case when you don't check yourself before you wreck yourself. It's time to do your reset. You'll thank us later…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

It’s Time To Do A Few Things Well

Most people that read this blog that are in automotive retail probably have one thing in common: they can do one thing really well. Sales, finance, management, etc you're likely not fresh in your position or field. You've been trained, taught, updated and (even if not very effective) sent to seminars, events and trade shows. People looking for more information, especially in this format, are those that want to learn…to be better, earn more or lead their field.

So, it's time for you and your colleagues. Time to do a few things. This is not a way to say that you're only doing one thing. Rather that the automotive retail, and even most of the headquarters, needs to venture outside of the comfort zone in regards to being more effective, using multifaceted strategies and new technology to deliver better results.

There is raging debate on what works and doesn't tied into whether or not fads and technology work: social media versus the tickler file, direct mail versus ads, text marketing versus a note, text codes/integrated mobile marketing versus billboards, Internet departments versus the floor, CRM versus the 3 by 5 and the salesperson's memory. Folks, what are afraid of? What investment is not worth it if customers will consume it? And why is the debate still going on at all? If it works for you, do it.

Oh, and then there's the budget and resource excuse. It used to be that the argument was simply "if I drop my newspaper and TV ads, traffic will stop". We all know today, without question, that's not the truth. Period. Now days it's "I can't staff competent people to handle live chat", or "how can I have someone post on social media ll day and still sell the cars they're supposed to?".

That's not the point. It's simple: do the same things, get the same results. Stop thinking of a technology, solution or new mouse trap as a stand alone aspect of your business! Everything creates either consideration or traffic that should convert. You might think about things this way:

1. Your website is the center of the universe. All traffic should ultimately go there. Leads convert there or because of the information gained there. While not the most dynamic part of your marketing, it is one of most easily tracked, can be modified nearly on the fly, enjoys the benefits of multiple sources and provides seamless integration. Oh, and you own it (or if you don't, you now know you should!)

2. Invasive marketing is meant to drive specific contact or leads but rarely meant to drive traffic to the website (which should change): direct mail, outbound calls, inserts and other forms of non-requested contact. Still works but typically not tailored correctly for higher conversion. If dealers started using their data correctly, ROI would increase (or start actually). Upside is that the receiver is not expected to do anything other than look or open their mail or drive by something while the downside is that tracking is poor and is not on the consumers terms.

3. Passive marketing is meant to involve your customers with your brand and includes events, ride-and-drives, social media, giveaways and more. Benefits are that it can be tracked more accurately than any other off-site media, costs are typically lower than (if not practically dirt cheap) traditional marketing, engages consumers at their want/need/desire level and offers great sharing and word-of-mouth.

Two and three are supposed to make one work better, consistently. It's incredible to think of someone that controls the marketing spend at a dealership or group using invasive marketing as the majority of their focus while the same person doesn't use the media they buy when they consume content! Put even more appropriately, why do you market or advertise expecting it to work when you've not successfully asked or tracked how your customers engaged, used and responded to your marketing? The first dealer that says they source successfully over 50% of the time, your staff is…well…not being honest.

It's our job to know what our customers want, not what we want them to want. If you're a top producer at your dealership, how can you deliver more? The answer isn't that you can't. Or that there's not enough time in the day. Or that you're waiting for the new model because nobody wants to buy what's being replaced. It's time to do a few more things well.

Are we recommending that you get into a fist fight with your GM about opening up the firewall that your IT director clamped down so tight you can't get an email out to your mother? No. What we are recommending is that you find the time and ways to make your time and results more effective and productive.

These things don't happen by themselves. We need to push ourselves into uncomfortable territory for a while and commit to seeing the results through.And don't lay down because your factory rep doesn't understand how your CRM works or what a tweet is or that you can actually talk with people on Facebook.

Do one new thing…then do two things…and they will come! Yes, silly, the customers.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Tear It Apart and Rebuild It…Better

Most of us who have spent any amount of time in sales realize that our
database/contact/Rolodex carries an incredible amount of value, in many
cases more than our skills or abilities. With the prevalence of CRM and
other database software, many believe that the job is done. Nothing can
be further than the truth.

Today it's more important than ever to continually tear down the client
database and make sure it delivers the most value and revenue possible.
Auto retailers are notoriously bad in this area and, quite honestly,
deserve the reputation. When we send the same newsletter, flier, direct
mail, etc to every customer/prospect, what type of message are we
delivering?

Better put, consider John Doe who's shopping for a Heeker Shnazer Beta
1. He sends two leads directly to two Heeker Shnazer dealers and also
requests quotes from dealers through CarsStink.com and
DontBuyACarHere.com which send the leads to three more Heeker Shnazer
dealers. When he doesn't buy for a few weeks, every dealer sends him
virtually the same eNewsletter linked to the same site with the same
content! It's great to be fast, respond, ask questions and try to get
the appointment but what are we really doing to connect with our guests?

If you are not segmenting your database and your customers, specifying
your content and setting expectations, someone else will. Or worse yet,
the lacking experience continues to validate consumers' opinion of car
dealers.

So, what does it take?
1. Start understanding why your 'ups' are in the market and actually put that info in your CRM
A. Empty nesters
B. Soccer mom
C. Petmobile
D. Weekend driver
2. Create a field so you can segment your database based on those categories
3. Set certain fields in your CRM that must be completed
A. email and/or text (customers cell & service carrier allow you to text message for free)
B. Reason in market
C. Follow up parameters
D. What they do (work, leisure, family, etc)

Remember, contextually relevant content will bring a person back. If
they don't open your first three emails/eNewsletters, they most likely
won't open one 36 months from now (if they don't unsubscribe in the
first place) when they're in market again. Don't blame your email
marketing company, you're the one that bought the same service your
competitor did. Remember: YOU are the marketer. Not the brand you sell.

Don't waste all of the data that you get when you're qualifying,
walking and delivering your customers or store it in the computer
behind your eyes. Work your database, update your database, market your
database and use your database effectively.

If you regularly check and rebuild your database, it will pay you back
handsomely. Do it yourself so you are not depending on something or
someone else to do it, which is the road to failure. Once you start
being really relevant, you won't believe where all the customers came
from.

Be smart, be efficient, be relevant, be timely, be smart…be successful.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results