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...and we make too much moneymarshBuice 24

invest in educationBrianPasch 32

making dreams come truehow Personal Pain and gain can sell you on achieving your objectives

mattBaker 18

susanGivens 08 dealer increases car sales By 48 Percent with online inventory advertising strategies

how a ‘true leader’ adds uPerikStuttz 16

search engine saturation Begins with the right weBsite Platform

markSpringer 22

to yelP – or not to yelPyelp can be a headache for dealers – tips to get a successful review Presence there

merlaTurner 20

contrarian selling aPProachesmarkTewart 42

susanGivens 34 the Phone – your Biggest Profit leakor greatest asset

an interview with PhilNightingale

rhondaSavage 36 working with family memBers:it’s not Personal, it’s Just Business

seanv.Bradley 26 how to win the game of google

JohnBrentlinger 38 dang it, the Buck has to stoP somewhere, sometime

BryanAnderson 28 four keys to winning video strategy

davidWojcik 40 is your social media marketing strategy social?

PogoParr 30 increase your ProfitaBility with a modern call tracking system

scottJoseph 10 how to increase the value of your customers

dalePollak 43 do size and shaPe matter?

http://www.autosuccessonline.com

http://www.autosuccesspodcast.com






http://www.smaalliance.com

marketing solutionSusanGivens

08 autosuccessonline.com

dealer increases carsales By 48 Percentwith online inventoryadvertising strategies

NO TRANSACTION FEES EVER.

$300 MILLION WORTH OF INVENTORY.

8 6 6 . 5 2 0 . 0 9 8 36 6 . 5 2 0 . 0 9 8 388dealerslink.com

deal direct.™

the largest dealer direct trading group in the u.s.

rectdeal dir ™

deal smart.

“In today’s market, it is crucial to have as many avenues as possible to buy and sell inventory. Since we

have over 500 used vehicles in stock, Dealerslink® allows me to work directly with other dealers trading FRONTLINE inventory without any transaction fees!

I highly recommend this service!” Hunter Hollibaugh - Dave Smith Motors, Kellogg, ID

“Worlds Largest Dodge Dealer”

While strategic online inventory marketing is a new arena for many dealers, some in-the-know dealers are already seeing noticeable results. Rairdon Auto Group in Washington is up 48 percent in new and used car sales since kicking-off a online inventory strategy in the spring of 2010.

With more than 90 percent of consumers using the Internet to research and purchase new or used vehicles, it is essential for dealers to have a robust online inventory advertising strategy to connect with in-market shoppers.

Dealers are faced with a tsunami of marketing information that attempts to leverage digital marketing, social media, geo-targeted applications and online reviews to help increase their market share. One priority, however, remains constant: Sell more cars and retain gross. This objective creates a need for placing dealer inventory in front of as many consumers as possible to leverage their online advertising.

Most single-car dealership Websites are not powerful enough to compete with larger, national inventory marketing Websites, which

have more cars, larger marketing budgets and more search authority. Dealers realize they need to partner with inventory advertising Websites in order to reach more in-market shoppers.

Rairdon Auto Group works with a national membership-based online inventory advertising platform that combines the power of a national marketing Website with hundreds of local and regional inventory advertising Websites. Through this platform, Rairdon has access to inventory syndication tools that allows them to integrate their car inventory on blogs, press releases, microsites and social media portals. They receive unlimited leads and can leverage the network to publish and syndicate their inventory, promotions, sales and community activism to the most relevant automotive and social media Websites in their market.

Rairdon also has their inventory integrated in a custom tab on Facebook, increasing the opportunity for followers to shop, and has also increased their connection with local car buyers.

“Dealers in our network are not restricted to

having their cars only appear on the national Website, but they can place their inventory on regional and local Websites that are indexed by the most popular search engines like Google and that provides maximum visibility for their inventory,” said Brian Pasch, owner of the www.AutomotiveAdvertisingNetwork.com (AAN), the online advertising network that Rairdon Auto Group uses.

“Dealers in the network appear on top of the search engines organically when in-market consumers search for popular terms so their traffic and sales increase dramatically,” added Sean Wolfington, co-owner of the Automotive Advertising Network.

At the recent NADA 2011 in San Francisco, DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Award Winners were announced and AAN received the third-highest number of votes.

“We would like to congratulate today’s award winners. They have achieved what we consider to be the highest possible accolade: the satisfaction of their dealer customers,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “The DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards are simply a reflection of the excellent results these solution-providers have generated for dealers across the nation, and we are proud to recognize their accomplishments.”

Susan Givens is the publisher of AutoSuccess. She can be contacted at 877.818.6620, or by e-mail at [email protected].

http://www.dealerslink.com



http://www.autobase.net


marketing solutionScottJoseph

how to increasethe value of your customers

Social media, e-mail, direct mail, texting, telemarketing, mass media, Websites, micro-sites…. There are a lot of different ways to communicate with customers. There are more options today, in fact, than ever before. So, the real question that has to be asked is, “What is the overall goal of all this communication?”

For me, it’s simple: I want to increase the overall value of a customer, which in the end produces a much higher return on investment.

Today, things should be more efficient, effective and selective. Are they?

Today, you run the real risk of alienating or accomplishing the polar opposite of what you really want. Over-communicating, or saturating your customers with information that is irrelevant to them, will cause them to become callous to everything you send them. Everyone knows the statistic that a mere five percent increase in customer retention can result in a 75 percent increase in customer value. The problem is most people haven’t figured out how to improve their retention by five percent.

The relevance of your communication is a key ingredient to any loyalty or retention marketing program you have. Trying to be everything to everybody will have a negative impact. Think of it this way:• Increased relevance creates increased

engagement from the customer.• Increased engagement creates increased

satisfaction with you and your company.• Increased satisfaction creates increased

behavior (and isn’t this what we need our marketing to do?).

• Increased behavior creates increased value.• Increased value creates increased ROI.

The exact opposite happens when your message is irrelevant. Marketing should not be about “getting your name out there.” It should improve the relationship you have with each and every customer. When this is done, your marketing will start to lead the customer’s behavior.

So how do you do this? It all starts with the data. Make no mistake about it; the most important asset you have is your customer database. The more information you retain and collect, the stronger your marketing efforts can become. Good data is only half the battle, though. You have to have a reliable data analytic team or partner with the skill set to create profiles specific to each customer; that way, you only send information that is timely and relevant to their needs.

A reliable data analytic team should be able to provide opportunities to:• Increase customer activity and spend during

the customer’s lifecycle• Retain more customers• Prevent, or at least reduce, defection• Win back customers• Increase your profitability

Data analytics has never been more important. In the April 2010 issue of AutoSuccess Magazine, our lead analyst, Sowmya Iyer, authored a great article entitled, “‘Target Audience,’ ‘Narrow Down’ and ‘Right List’ are the Most Overused Phrases in E-mail and Direct Mail Today: How You Can Really Move the Needle with Your Direct Marketing.” I recommend reading it or requesting a copy. You can also read Sowmya’s article on the J&L Blog at http://blog.jandlmarketing.com/.

Scott Joseph is the president of J&L Marketing, Inc. He can be contacted at 888.835.1689, or by e-mail [email protected].

http://www.hio.com



http://www.activengage.com/mobile

autosuccess: tell us a little about yourself and the dealership,and mel hambelton ford’s initial “go big” plan.Phil nightingale: Mel Hambelton Ford has been in business for 27 years, with our current facility being home since June 2002. I was initially hired as a service director in June of 2008, quickly being promoted to general manager the following year. As the general manager, I noticed that there were a lot of easy fixes; however, initially I would have to make some tough decisions to reach my long-term goal of being a market leader. Luckily, I had a great foundation on which to achieve our dealership’s long-term goals, as the facility is large enough to allow us to sell and service a larger number of the vehicles in our market. I never had a doubt that Mel Hambelton Ford would be a market leader; my main concern was how we got it done.

My first job was to get the right people in place who could actually affect change, so I started recruiting immediately and, as a matter of fact, I now have the most tenure of any manager in the store. My goal was to get the right mix of managers who conducted business the Mel Hambelton Way. We really felt as if we could make a change in the entire buying experience for our customers by focusing on their needs and simply putting the fun back into the entire vehicle-buying process.

When I first joined the Mel Hambelton team, our CSI was definitely sub-par and I recognized that for us to reach our goals, we needed to address this immediately. The good news is that raising CSI is easy as long as you do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. I saw this and understood how important CSI is to the growth of any dealership, regardless of brand or location. My initial approach was to attract the right type of employees who would relate to customers the “Mel Hambelton Way” — which is simply with honesty and respect. I also knew that if I could not measure the results and have early indications that there was a potential CSI issue, I would be fighting an uphill battle. While conducting my technology

audit, I was looking for a partner who had great CSI tools to assist our efforts and help me develop a customer resolution system that would show results early on. We now survey all of our sales and service clients to determine how to do our jobs better.

as: Beyond your team, what are you doing to bring so many more car buyers to mel hambelton ford?Pn: As I was developing my business plan, I understood it was not only important to build the Mel Hambelton brand; it was just as important to actually be part of our community and help show people that we are not simply here to sell cars, but through sponsorships and charity, we are willing to give back. I have tried to stay active in community events and

we currently sponsor local sport teams, host benefit concerts and even have a company helicopter that is used in all sorts of ways. Our most recent involvement helped us gain national attention and a way to give back in a big way through the ABC Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Although I understood how important it is to make a change in the front end of our store — using technology to help indicate which of our customers are ready to purchase either new or additional vehicles and using a combination of targeted marketing, Web presence and reputation management on the social networks — my background as a service manager helped me realize the importance of taking care of people when they show up in our Service Department. It is my belief that a poorly-run Service Department can lose customers; but handling customers properly from their first service forward will certainly earn you repeat business. As I studied our local market, I noticed that some dealerships are so focused on sales they seem to forget how important service is to a customer’s overall satisfaction with a dealership. I have made it clear to the entire Mel Hambelton team that our mission statement includes 100-percent satisfaction in the Service Department and, with the buy-in of my staff, this has definitely made a difference in our overall strategy to increase sales. At Mel Hambelton Ford, we do not just sell a car; we build lifetime relationships.

as: can you give us some numbersto show where you were and where you are now?Pn: Great question — I am happy to say our plan to “go big” is working, as we have seen our vehicle sales increase from an average of 125 units per month to an average of 250 over

el Hambelton Ford in Wichita, Kansas, developed a plan to increase sales, service and customer retention in a short period of time. The vision was simple: “go big” with people, processes, marketing and technology. This plan was put in place to

take them to the next level, and judging by the increase in sales, service and overall customer satisfaction, it worked. Mel Hambelton Ford has done more than execute a technology audit; they have also done an exceptional job at giving back to the community. We recently sat down with General Manager Phil Nightingale and spoke with him about the dealership’s new business plan,

customer satisfaction and future growth potential.

the last year, and we are just starting. February was a banner month for us — we sold 293 units. Our service is also continuing to grow; if you can’t tell by now, I am a “fixed ops” kind of guy, and we have seen a 20 percent growth in repair orders year over year.

as: what do you attribute that success to?Pn: Honestly, hard work by the entire staff and realizing that focusing all of our efforts in the same direction can make an immediate difference. We have become very proficient at executing our new business plan and so far it has all worked perfectly.

as: you have mentioned how important it was to do a technology audit at your dealership; can you explain what that is and share your end results?

Pn: In today’s competitive environment, I quickly realized that having the right technology can make a difference and having the wrong technology can actually have a negative impact on your profits — if only through cost savings alone. We started by researching what most successful dealerships were doing today by reading articles in magazines such as yours and contacting dealers to ask them what they were doing right. As a matter of fact, we read an article in AutoSuccess about a dealer who saved $15,000 per month while improving his technology and processes that led to an immediate difference in his sales, service and overall profit. I immediately called this dealer and asked what process his dealership developed in order to make this decision. He told me how he developed and completed a technology audit while sharing his vendor surveys, comparison worksheets and results.

I did not want to make a decision based on someone else’s recommendation alone, as I knew that different products could impact dealerships in different ways, so we began our own technology audit with our long-term goals in mind. I would recommend that all dealerships go through an exercise similar to this because it is definitely an eye opener and, in a lot of ways, you quickly discover you don’t know what you don’t know. I learned that technology had come a long way and it can really let a dealership accomplish a lot of daily tasks that in the past you would have had to hire a team of people to accomplish.

We decided to send our audit team to several shows including Digital Dealer and NADA to see technology presentations and bring back recommendations of technologies that

we wanted to take a deeper look at. We then scheduled demos with all of the “best of the best” technology providers that could assist us with CRM, ILM, inventory, market pricing tools, survey tools and Websites to see who was the best fit.

In the end, we chose the same vendor (VinSolutions) as the dealer I originally called from your magazine, as they had created an all-in-one solution that offered, by far, the best technology in most of the categories that were important to us, at the best price. I am now the dealer who has upgraded my dealership technologies while at the same time saving money as I replaced 10 vendors with one.

as: so, after your plan was in place and your technology auditwas complete, what did you do that had the biggest impact? Pn: I would say it was the ability to finally see all of my dealership and customer information in one place that helped me make advertising decisions the right way. We have always been told that most dealerships know that 50 percent of our advertising campaigns work but most dealerships have no idea which 50 percent it is. When we combined our technology, using a more holistic approach, we were able to see results and discovered that the “pray and spray” advertising model is really a thing of the past and the future is all about targeted marketing efforts combined with the ability to track results down to Website visits, sales and RO’s. We found out that we could launch better campaigns at less cost and increase sales and service to our customers.

as: Paying less in advertising while making greater profits willconfuse most readers as it seems impossible — can you explain?Pn: Sure. When we finally got to see all of our legacy customer information – after we had the data cleaned and increased our customer e-mails by 35 percent – in a system that allowed us to run data queries which aligned customers in different advertising categories, we were able to target campaigns that included relevant information to their needs today. We all know that when you receive a marketing piece that actually addresses your needs, you are far more likely to take action. An example of this is that instead of sending something as simple as an oil change coupon to all of our customers, we were actually able to see which customers had come in for regular service and sent them a coupon for tire rotation — if they had never done that within our Service Department. If we had a customer who had never had an oil change in our Service Department, we sent them a discount offer. When you really look at the data that you have spent years collecting, you can easily see which campaign will give you the biggest bang for your buck. The surprise was that, in most cases, it is less expensive to target campaigns than any other method as you can replace mail with e-mail.

as: that sounds like a lot of work and decision making;explain how you handle this process. Pn: That is a very good question, as I had the same question myself when I started my technology audit and launched my business plan. Luckily, our CRM system indicates which ad campaigns we should run and the associated budget, and then automatically — at both the customer and campaign level — shows measurable results. There are some campaigns that always make sense, such as communicating with customers who have declined service, were unsold or have scheduled appointments; so, we set our system to automatically fulfill these with no user interaction at all. One campaign everyone should run is to customers we know are in a positive equity position. The technology we have in place now indicates which customers are in positive equity by running their current vehicle against Black Book and NADA books, and automatically cues them up for us to market to the right way. To answer your question: This is an example of how the latest and greatest technology can help a dealership get more done with fewer people.

as: are you saying that you can get more done with fewer employees? Pn: Although that is a true statement, as a good technology partner allows you to accomplish more with fewer people by adding solid follow-up processes with no user interaction, at the end of the day, I am a realist and understand that our business will always come down to people and processes. Good technology lets your staff focus on taking care of the customers rather than manually completing daily tasks, and the end result of people concentrating on what they do best are happy customers and larger profits. At the end of the day, nobody knows our local economy, customers and community like we do, so we will always be hands on.

As a matter of fact, we looked at our long-term goals and determined that additional resources


needed to be focused on positions filled by the right people to aid us with our in-house marketing efforts. We now have created a team to oversee our marketing campaigns as they pertain to radio, television, digital and newspapers. We have built our own studio where we can cut our own radio spots and digital work for our store.

In short, upgrading our technology helped us anchor our overall business plan and allowed us to focus our attention on hiring employees we know will make a difference.

as: while implementing your business plan and new technology at the same time, how do you find time to actually run the day-to-day operations?Pn: The business plan and the technology upgrade are actually tied together; so with VinSolutions as our partner, most of the things that would normally take the most time are now fully automated. I already explained how the marketing was automated, but so are the Website, SEO, inventory marketing, management and sales processes. We even have additional options like factory rebates, CSI and customer proposals running on auto pilot. I made sure that the partner I picked had the “best in class” reporting functionality so that I could get all of the information that was pertinent to my growth strategy sent to me via e-mail every day. The system does things that we tried to do in the past but never had time to do. For example, if we reduce the price of a vehicle, our potential buyers automatically get sent notification indicating the price reduction via an e-mail that also contains a full vehicle brochure, as well as additional vehicles they might like. If the customer re-engages through e-mail, we set an appointment; if they do not, our system automatically schedules a call for the next day. When a customer arrives at the store, our sales reps can quickly gather information and enter it into the VinSolutions system with little effort. This information, coupled with the previous customer information already stored in the system, has helped us shorten the time it takes to process a vehicle transaction, making our customer’s buying experience better and improving our overall CSI. The addition of “best in class” technology has actually freed up my time to focus on customer and personnel management — allowing me to accelerate our long-term growth plans even faster.

as: tell us what you do to re-engage customers who leavethe store in an “unsold” status?Pn: We have set up custom follow-up processes to better communicate with unsold customers in a way that gets them to come back and talk about what made them hesitant to begin with. I learned from my technology audit that 99 percent of the battle is to gather the customer information in the first place, so we easily scan customers’ information into our CRM and always make sure to get e-mail addresses. When a customer leaves the store in an unsold status, we have automated a process to send a survey via e-mail asking about their experience at our dealership and what kept them from purchasing. If they fill this survey out via e-mail, we re-engage them using this information to get them to agree to a return visit. If the e-mail survey is not filled out, our CRM tool prompts our team to make a call to the customer where we fill out the very same survey within the system and reset the appointment on the phone. As we send out the appointment verification e-mail, we add an electronic vehicle brochure with addition options and make it easy for the customer to gather the information they seek. When the customer clicks on the brochure, they are directed to our Website where we can track both their site visit and behavior patterns, which are saved to their CRM record, allowing us to better tailor our return visit sales presentation.

Our all-in-one system also easily notifies our staff of their follow-up routine for a particular day and not only tells our staff who to call, but provides call scripts for each particular task. Since our phone system is also integrated with our new technology, it makes it easy for management to track all activities and assure that they are being completed in a timely manner.

as: you mentioned you now make higher profits; how is that being accomplished?Pn: This is all a function of creating a system that our entire staff follows every time a customer enters the showroom. We now use a desking and proposal system that is automated with our inventory and DMS which allows us to instantly match up a customer with the right vehicle and present it in such a way that leads to higher profits. Our system easily provides custom customer proposals that not only show up to nine payment options, but compare them to leases and flex buys, as well.

Our desking system also has built-in banking information, credit scores, a trade evaluation tool and indicates a customer’s total value to the dealership — which increases the speed of the customer’s decision, making process leading to higher profits.

The nice thing is; since we are now saving all deals in our CRM, we will be able to view this historical information when negotiating future transactions with them. Isn’t technology great? as: any advice for other dealers who might be on the cusp of deciding to make a big change themselves?Pn: Sure. I would give the same advice I got: Develop a rock-solid business plan, speak with successful dealers and conduct a thorough technology audit so that you, too, can learn that sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. Also, never forget — nothing replaces keeping focused on your goals and working hard to achieve them. And last, but not least, go big.

Phil Nightingale is the general manager of Mel Hambelton Ford in Wichita, Kansas. For more information about his dealership, visit www.mhford.com.

For more information about VinSolutions, contact the CSO, Sean Stapleton. He can be contacted at 866.854.7024, or by e-mail at [email protected].

http://www.mhford.com




leadership solutionErikStuttz

When you reflect back throughout your career, I’m sure a few people come to mind who led you and made a genuine impact on your life. Many of the dealership management teams we work with throughout the country have had incredible results when they set out to clearly define their roles towards becoming True Leaders. A simple definition of “leadership” is that it is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Put even more simply, the leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He or she is the person in the group who possesses the combination of personality and skills that makes others want to follow his or her direction. Here is how many of the dealerships we work with have defined a True Leader: A natural, well-known progression of leadership can be commonly referred to as a “manager.” However, it is less about the title and more about the strategy. A mediocre manager

knows their people. A good manager knows their product. An excellent manager knows their people, product and process so well that they could – at any given moment, time or circumstance – take the place of their employees humbly and perfectly because they never live above their position or role within the company or organization.

Scott Adams once said, “I’m slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can’t motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles.” This means that when any manager comes to work every day, they come wearing their “Solutions” t-shirt instead of their “Problems” t-shirt. They spend their time working to make clear the path of their people and ensure that both the front end and the back end of the business run like a well-oiled machine. The best managers on the planet work diligently to ensure that they are hands on and are never “above” their people. They also spend their time building up their team members

so that, if for any reason, the manager should be absent or called to another area in the business, their people are more than capable of overseeing and managing, even temporarily, the roles and responsibilities of their manager. When a business can operate as well or better in the absence of its management, those managers have done their job and led their people in such a way that instructs, forms and inspires them to produce and fulfill their roles on an excellent level.

Secondly, we see a need for coaching within the structure of a business or organization. A good coach can sometimes seem overly demanding or overly direct in

their speech and nature. What is important to understand, however, is their critical mission to move their team from a position of “what needs to be done” to achieving their goals and tasks. Without this role, even athletic teams could not compete well.

Coaches also recognize the importance of developing a team dynamic in which its players fulfill their roles and responsibilities with the right attitude and contribute to – not contaminate – other members on the team.

A coach shares clearly the definition of accountability:1. They explain what they want accomplished.2. They are clear on why they expect results,

thus showing respect to those they lead. 3. A coach leads and shows or shares how they

wish everything to be executed.4. A coach has each team member demonstrate

his or her responsibilities once trained. 5. A coach inspects and expects each team

member to execute 100 percent what is required of them.

An important note, it’s not what the coach knows on game day…it’s what the player knows on game day!

Lastly, it is critical to take time and “mentor” those they lead by building a relationship and bonding with their people! Not just asking each day, “What are you doing?” but asking also, “How are you doing?” “How can I help you?” “How is your family?” A mentor leads by having a genuine concern for the people they are responsible for.

Here is the equation by which our dealerships define the term “True Leader”: MANAGER + COACH + MENTOR = TRUE LEADER

The best, most innovative dealerships in the country find it takes a balanced focus on managing, coaching and mentoring to become a True Leader.

For every strong leader, we recommend their focus be first on being effective managers, second on coaching their people to ensure results and third that they spend some quality time as a mentor to gain relationships with those they serve.

The effects of a True Leader without a doubt are measurable. But more importantly, the reward of being a True Leader is memorable.

Erik Stuttz is the founder of Automotive Legends Group USA. He can be contacted at 866.386.0661, or by e-mail [email protected].

how a ‘true leader’ adds uP

*Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine, April 2010

Find out how many customers we have in your area.Visit connect.carsdirect.com or call (800) 331-3380

CarsDirect is the #1 New VehicleLead Provider in the industry*

Experience, expertise, exceptional results.

http://www.connect.carsdirect.com



http://www.dealerfire.com


sales & training solutionMattBaker

making dreamscome truehow Personal Pain and gain can sell you on achieving your objectives

If you’ve followed my articles much over the last few months, you’ve probably noticed that many of them focus on presenting or perfecting various sales techniques. This month’s article, however, is going to be a bit different. While sharpening your sales skill is still an important aspect of being “successful,” it won’t mean much unless you define what “success” is.

What does “defining success” mean? It means taking the time to realize what you truly want to achieve, establishing a compelling reason why you want to achieve it, and developing a plan to get yourself where you want to be. For those of you who think this is “just another goal setting article,” take note: There is more to planning for achievement than just stating goals.

the consequence of Poor objectivesChances are you’ve been told how to set goals; probably to the point where the phrase “goal setting” may seem a bit cliché. Believe it or not, you’re not alone. I’ve met many who have gone through traditional goal setting routines, only to wonder why the goals they set were rarely achieved. More often than not, the lack-luster results they experienced were not a product of laziness, but rather a result of poor goal setting. In turn, poorly set goals can affect overall personal performance as well as that of your team or your dealership entirely.

Take for instance a sales manager who has set a goal to improve his sales team’s skill. He regularly reads articles on various sales techniques, and schedules team meetings each week to train his sales team on them. A few months pass by and he sees little improvement in sales volume or profitability. Why? The answer to this scenario is likely two fold: • The sales manager hasn’t fully established

exactly why improving the skill level of his team is important to him or his staff.

• The salespeople who work for the manager don’t have a compelling reason to want to learn what their manager is teaching.

What should this sales manager do? He and his sales team must develop a more precise list of objectives. Stating things like, “make more money” or “buy a new car” won’t cut it here.

The manager needs to make sure he and his salespeople understand why these achievements are so important. Taking the time to write down their objectives will help them narrow down vagueness, and establish a more-defined process for accomplishment. Those who choose to skip the “write-it-out” step often tend to focus too heavily on generalized goals. If your objectives are general, the best you can hope for are average results. Making goals specific and establishing strong, compelling reasons why you must achieve them will greatly increase your chances of accomplishment.

from Pain to gain:the rocking chair methodWell-defined objectives can help you grow your career, improve your financial stability, give you all the possessions you desire, and ultimately transform your life. But how do you determine exactly what your well-defined objectives should be?

Start by physically listing out your objectives in three categories: all things you hope to achieve in personal development, all things you hope to possess, and all of the financial aspects you hope to attain. Be sure to include a timeline for when you plan to achieve each objective (i.e. six months, one year, 10 years, etc.). Then select your top-three written objectives per category that you want to accomplish within one year.

After you’ve selected the top objectives you hope to achieve, it’s time to determine how willing you are to work toward them. Make sure to list all of the compelling reasons why you must have what you want. The more specific the reasons, the more real it will feel and the more driven you will become. Focus on your potential gain.

In last month’s AutoSuccess article, we explored the affects of pain and gain on decision making. The pain vs. gain principle plays a very important role here, as well. Look at goal setting as a way for you to sell your capabilities to yourself. Our decision to work toward our objectives is highly influenced by our need to avoid future pain and achieve

future gain. How do we determine what that pain or gain might be? By taking the Rocking Chair Test.

The Rocking Chair test is an exercise that challenges commitment to your objectives through imaginary scenarios. To conduct the test, pretend you are much older, sitting in a rocking chair, looking back on your life. For each of the top objectives you identified, consider what your life would look like should you not achieve what you want. Warning: This will hurt. But the pain you experience will be the driving force in encouraging you to take the extra steps you need to take.

In a sense, you are using pain and gain to sell yourself on the idea of working towards achievement of your objectives. By understanding the problems that may arise from not obtaining what you want, you will be more likely to work towards eliminating future pain by making your objectives reality.

Putting this to work for youWorking toward established objectives can seem like a difficult task without the right guidance. There are a number of unique ways to better define what you want achieve, and ensure your objectives (or that of your team) are in front of mind every day. Activities like Dream Boards help to give your objectives a sense of reality through posters that illustrate what you hope to achieve. When executed correctly, Dream Boards are a powerful daily reminder of what you’re working towards when showing up to work every day.

To learn more specific ways to take part in or conduct an effective goal-setting workshop, request G&A’s Guide to Improving Sales Talent: Goal-Setting by e-mailing me with the subject line OBJECTIVES. This guide will include instructions on creating Dream Boards, as well as worksheets and thought-provoking exercises to help you and your team establish well-defined and attainable objectives.

Matt Baker is the vice president of sales for G&A Marketing. He can be contacted at 866.618.8248, or by e-mail [email protected].

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marketing solutionMerlaTurner


One of the most common questions I get from dealers regarding online reviews is whether or not to gather reviews on Yelp.com. I’ve found that there are definite do’s and don’ts — and that auto dealers face serious backlash if they don’t gather reviews the right way on Yelp.

why does yelp matter?• More than 45 million people visited Yelp

in the past 30 days, making it the most frequently used online review site today.

• Yelpers have written more than 15 million local reviews, which get pulled right into Google Places listings. That means that many of the reviews written on Yelp about your dealership will, of course, appear on Google as well.

• Because of the special nature of the Yelp community (explained below), Yelpers uniquely trust and turn to Yelp reviews, so pound-for-pound a review on Yelp can have more impact than so many other review sites.

• Yelp has expanded coast-to-coast, and is now covering many/most major markets.

warning: dealership Backlash!Yelp does not function like the majority of review sites across the Internet. Their site is driven by passionate reviewers called “Yelpers.” Yelpers write reviews on all types of local businesses, and the more high quality and useful the reviews they contribute are, the more esteemed they are by the Yelp community — with people eventually achieving an “elite” reviewer status.

Because Yelp is driven by its user community, when a dealership has customers write a review without being an established Yelper, the community often thinks that the dealership

is posting fake reviews. So, it’s absolutely critical that dealerships don’t just send any old customer to review on Yelp.

Furthermore, the Yelp community is unique in that it flags (through a review filter) reviews written by users who have posted no other reviews at the site. These are called “Drive Bys” or “501s” (from, 5-star review, 0 friends on Yelp, 1 review written). When a business has several reviews flagged as 501s or drive-bys, Yelp often simply removes the reviews. Sometimes the reviews show back up again, and other times they’re gone forever. We have heard from so many dealers, “I gathered a dozen reviews at Yelp and they just disappeared!” And it’s not just the time and energy wasted; when other Yelpers start posting about how these are suspicious or fake reviews, it can do more harm than having no reviews at the site.

what’s a dealer to do?Since there is so much traffic on Yelp (and passionate, engaged Yelpers tend to really trust the reviews there), and those reviews are getting pulled into Google Places listings, dealers want to make sure they have positive reviews on the site. But the review-gathering process differs:tip 1: Add a sentence on your follow-up review-gathering e-mail/template that reads, “Are you an established Yelper? If so, please Yelp about us!” It’s typically not even necessary to drive the general customer to your Yelp listing, because if someone is an established Yelper, they’ll know exactly how to find your listing.

tip 2: Ask your customers in person if they “Yelp.” If they know what Yelping is, ask them to write a review. If they don’t, do not send

them to Yelp to write a review for your dealership.

By having only established Yelpers review your dealership, the reviews will not be flagged for removal. You will have fewer reviews than you may at other targeted review sites/directories, but the reviews you do receive will have much more impact.

actions dealers can take:•There are limitations to how much businesses can optimize their Yelp page, but make sure your listing is updated with all the proper contact and dealership information.•Assess how many reviews you have on Yelp compared to other dealers/your direct competitors in your local market. By doing so, you determine how many

positive reviews you need to shine on the site.• Set a firm goal at the dealership (and

share with your sales and service staff) the necessity to gather X amount of reviews on Yelp — but only through established Yelpers.

• Put a process in place that identifies happy sales, service and parts customers who are already “Yelpers,” and ask them to share their experience at the dealership on Yelp.

• Test out Yelp’s advertising options. I get it — if we signed up every single provider that was just a few hundred bucks a month, we would be broke! But, the dealership results that Yelp recently shared with me seemed pretty cut and dry: Advertising can give you a built-out listing, and because few dealers do it compared with many other retail categories, you can stand out with either no or few competitors on the most visited review site in the U.S. An enhanced dealer listing on Yelp costs roughly $300/month, and has several benefits, including a photo slideshow, removal of competitors’ ads (banner and local ads) and special offers and announcements.

I’m in no way promoting that dealers spend money on Yelp, or that you even have to do so to see benefits. However, given Yelp’s popularity, I would take the time to make sure my reputation on their site was authentically positive and then test out whether or not an enhanced listing increased my phone calls and Website traffic. other questions:Q. If I advertise on Yelp, will they remove my negative reviews?a. According to Yelp, paid advertising can never change or re-order their reviews.

Q. I have asked customers to write reviews on Yelp, and now they are missing! Why?a. Remember the “501” Issue — Yelp has an automated filter/algorithm that suppresses reviews they deem “suspicious.” It’s doesn’t seem either consistent or fair, but that’s the way it is.

So…the answer to the question, “To Yelp, or not to Yelp?” Yelp! Reviews on Yelp really HELP! But be sure to follow the right process.

For a free report on how your dealership stacks up at online reviews sites like Yelp today, contact me with the information below.

Merla Turner is the director of dealer training at eXteresAUTO. She can be contactedat 866.520.3851, or by e-mail [email protected].

to yelP –or not to yelPyelp can be a headache for dealers – tips on getting a successfulreview Presence there



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marketing solutionMarkSpringer


search engine saturation Begins with the right weBsite Platform

Several years ago — before the brutal economic downturn — we all were warned to get ready, that change was coming. Exiting is a generation of ownership with old-school strategies of “how to get folks on the lot,” now with one foot into retirement or in the process of handing over the creative direction inside the dealership to a younger generation. Entering are owner’s sons and daughters, managers and even salespeople who seemingly are more apt to find efficient and cost-effective ways to accomplish the same strategies as their predecessors, but for a fraction of the cost. This paradigm shift from the old to the new at one time seemed to be just a matter of time — something we seemed to have plenty of. I don’t think any of us thought we would be facing the type of challenges this business has seen at the dealer level. The same paradigm shift which has occurred on the dealer side of the sales desk has occurred on the consumer side, as well. Younger consumers using technology to consume, or at least to get to the point of consumption, have forced the hand of the dealer to either adapt — or cease to exist. so how? where do we start? It’s more important than ever for dealers to be able to control their own visibility online, and SEO (search engine optimization) is the tool that dealers must master. Let’s define this. According to Wikipedia, SEO is “the process of improving the visibility of a Website or a Web page in search engines via the ‘natural’ or un-paid (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results.” Don’t make the mistake of thinking this statement applies to just your dealer Website. This statement covers any Website or Web page on the Internet on which your business is listed. This includes micro-sites, blogs, social sites like Facebook and Twitter, business listing pages, inventory portals, online marketplaces and many others. ok, But what’s a good first step? Dealers who commit to higher-level SEO work need to consider many things. By far, the most important element in the panorama of automotive sales is the dealer Website platform;

specifically, its ability to provide the necessary foundation for this type of SEO work. Today’s dealers must do an honest, in-depth evaluation of their Website platform to see if it truly is set up to accomplish their goals in the search engines. Do this now and do this before any resources are spent to garner Website traffic in other ways. I could not possibly explain all of the reasons why in this article, so suffice it to say that good SEO can be likened to compound interest, in that it continues to pay you dividends for your initial efforts. start with a Phased approach Don’t make the mistake that most make with SEO. It’s not like licking your finger to determine wind direction on the golf course. Find sweet spots in the search engines by doing research with the intent to exploit them. This is where the Website platform is vital. With research completed, sweet spots identified and your SEO assets prepared for development or install, take a close look at the following to see if you have the needed access to control the critical assets within your Website from the control panel, which include:• Page Titles• META Descriptions• META Keywords• H Tags (Heading Tags)• Keyword Density in Page Copy• Link Optimization• Footer Text when Applicable• Dynamic Inventory SEO• Long-Tailed Inventory Re-Directs for Sold Cars

Website platforms built for SEO will not only allow full access to these assets on every page, but they will actually dynamically produce effective SEO assets out of the box. It is vital to your success (and frustration level) to be able to access these areas of your Website without having to jump through hoops (or spend money for every change) to do so. Why? Because research drives good SEO, and performance data drives the changes and adjustments that must be made to control your presence in search.

then what? The next step to creating an effective SEO strategy that ultimately results in saturating (or even dominating) search engines is to look at your performance data and see how your initial research and efforts paid off. Did you move up in your targeted search markets? Are you saturated on the first page of the major engines in your geographic and brand markets? Are you able to clearly identify the areas in which your initial efforts were not able to penetrate so you can plan for the next phase — a more precision-focused level of SEO to fill in the gaps left open by the initial “broad stroke” efforts? Are you able to monetize the traffic increases and ensure that you are capturing these new-found visitors to your Web assets? Oh, yes! These are all things that “SEO ready” Website platforms should have included as standard equipment. Look for a suite of SEO tools to launch and manage your strategy from:• Analytics• Webmaster Tools• Heat Maps and Page Overlays• Goal or Conversion Tracking• Creative Site Mapping Controls conclusion Having access to these assets and tools inside the Website platform so that you can track and react to your site’s SEO performance ultimately will have a direct impact on your results on the lot, and at the bank. If your Website platform either restricts access to these assets and tools, or does not have the architecture necessary to establish a highly visible, trustworthy relationship with the search engines, it is past time to find one that does. To receive a comprehensive list of tips on how to evaluate your Website platform for SEO, or to schedule your free Website and SEO evaluation, e-mail or call me with the information below.

Mark Springer is the president and COOof BluSolutions Dealer Websites & Automotive SEO. He can be contactedat 866.835.0921, or by e-mail [email protected].

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leadership solutionMarshBuice

...and we make too much money

I don’t think I can stomach reading another article or blog post of how untrustworthy the automobile business is. The Internet and “consumer interest” magazines are littered with information of the “inside secrets” of dealerships, or “how to negotiate your best deal.” What consumers do not realize is we read those articles, too, and I actually get quite a laugh. This is a myth-based business that the public really doesn’t know much about. People think you can walk in with a suitcase full of cash, make a ridiculous offer on a vehicle and the dealer will take it. Contrary to public opinion, the eight- to 13-percent profit margin is very small when compared to other retail businesses.

The true kings of margin are furniture, jewelry and owning a concession stand. Yes, that snow cone that is quenching your sun-drenched thirst only has as much as a 97 percent profit margin. Clothing has one of the biggest profit margins in the retail industry. Coach leather goods boast of a 78 percent profit margin while Polo, Crocs and True Religion hang around the 55 percent margin. That No. 6 supersized value meal from McDonald’s has a 39 percent margin. We all go to Wal-Mart to save a buck or two and, believe it or not, they make a profit. The Walton family did not earn billionaire status by selling goods at a loss — they earned it by expertly creating a perception of being the low-price leader. The truth of the matter is they come in slightly less than the industry average of 24.8 percent (versus 25.3 percent). By coming in one-half percent less than the industry, customers perceive that they

are getting the best deal possible. When is the last time you told the cashier to call the store manager and tell him that you would pay cash for the entire cart if they will throw in a box of Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch? Heck, even the online auction eBay makes a 32.9 percent profit margin representing goods for other people. Now that’s the American dream.

Who really is making the money? I have yet to read a smear campaign of how to negotiate your best deal on a Polo shirt, True Religion Jeans or a pair of lime green Crocs. Customers excuse the profit margin on other products because the perceived loss is less (i.e. “It was only $9.95!”).

Unfortunately, a few bad dealers have shoved all of us “car salesmen” into the rip-off pool. There are many good dealers out there who really provide a service to their customers. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of dealers who take advantage of their customers. You read that right; the dictionary defines “advantage” one way, “to be of service; benefit; to prove beneficial to.” So yes, great dealerships take advantage of their customers by providing benefits. They take advantage of them so well that they have made a career on them coming

back to become taken advantage of again and again. What’s more, they send their closest friends, family members and anyone else to get taken advantage of. Good dealers provide customers with dependable transportation and give them superior service after the sale.

Don’t you think it is time we stop defending ourselves for making a profit? As a sales professional, you provide a service and deserve to make a fair profit. Half of your commission is made when you sell the vehicle; the other half is made by providing them superior service for as long as they own your product (a $2,000 profit spread over five years is only $33 per month —about the same price of a security monitoring service ).

I challenge you to negotiate from a position of strength by explaining the level of service you provide for them. Rest easy at night knowing that one out of every 10 jobs in America depends on the industry that you proudly represent.

Marsh Buice is the sales manager of Mark Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep. He can becontacted at 866.535.5006, or by e-mailat [email protected].

“The true kings of margin are furniture, jewelry and owning a concession stand. Yes, that snow cone that is quenching your sun-drenched thirst only has as much as a

97 percent profit margin.”

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marketing solutionSeanV.Bradley


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Google is the “Holy Grail” in marketing, advertising, communication, information and research. Basically, Google — if mastered properly — can bring you and your dealership a lot of money. It’s like the game Monopoly, where a skilled player can win all the money. But just like in Monopoly, you’ve got to learn the strategies.

I’m not talking about simply understanding the algorithm of Google and trying to appease the Google “algorithm” gods — because we know that they are ever changing. Understanding algorithms is important, but not the only thing.

OK, so you understand what Google wants and how to get your Website on the first page of search results. So what? It is not enough. That’s like saying owning Baltic and Mediterranean are enough to win in Monopoly. It’s just not enough.

The goal of Monopoly is simple: You want to acquire as many properties as possible. Why? Because the more properties you own, the better chances are that other players will land on your properties and pay you more rent. Another way of looking at Monopoly, however, is that the more properties you own, the fewer properties your competition owns. Strategically, it’s not just about acquiring all the properties to enable you to collect all the rent money — it’s also about neutralizing your competition from creating a monopoly against you.

The best strategy to dominate Google is “Googolopoly.” Think of Google as your own personal Monopoly board. Think about how you feel every time you bring out that Monopoly board in real life. It doesn’t matter what version of Monopoly we are playing — regular, platinum or PlayStation 3. Your instincts come out like a shark with chum in the water. You want to crush Monopoly! Don’t deny it; embrace it. It’s OK. Something comes over you and you just have to have everything on that board. Your only mission is acquisition and to make everyone you are playing against bankrupt. Remember that feeling, embrace that

feeling and, with the same fervor, dominate Google. Win the game of Googolopoly!

the rules of engagement:• Only .5 percent of people go past the first

page on Google, so you have to dominate the first page.

• You want to show up numerous times on the first page of Google. It is not enough to have your dealership’s main Website show up on the first page. You need to have the following index and show up on the first page simultaneously:

• Your dealership’s main Website• Your OEM Website• Your Facebook page• Your Twitter page• Your YouTube Chanel• Your Flickr Chanel• Your MySpace page• Your NING Site (your dealership’s very

own social community site)• Your Tumblr site• Your dealership’s Blog (you can use

WordPress for this)• Any and all other social media sites —

as long as you have a unique URL for each social media site, it can and will get indexed

• All of your individual Videos — each video can be individually indexed because each video has its own URL (There are dealers that have several different videos that index on the first page of Google on one search return. How? If you have multiple videos and you upload them to different video search engines, you can and will have multiple indexes on the first page of Google.)

• Reviews, customer testimonials, press releases, news posts, etc.

• Remember that there are multiple types of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM):• Google Places (for local search) – this

is the revamp of Google Places, and is very big

• Real time search – Google has integrated with both Twitter and Facebook, as well as other sources for news, press releases, blogs etc… for up-to-date content

• Social search is still in the beta stage, but it is taking information from social networks and communities

• “Organic” or traditional Top-10 list on Google’s first page

• “Pay Per Click” via Google Ad Words

Bottom line is that if you are not all over the first page of Google, you are seriously missing the boat. Any dealership can dominate the game of “Googolopoly.” This strategy is not just for big stores or dealer groups. Just as a little kid can whoop your butt in Monopoly, a small “Mom and Pop” dealership that knows what to do can whoop a big dealership competitor or even a dealer group that has a lot more money to spend on advertising and marketing.

remember:• 88 to 98 percent of Americans go online

before they step foot into the dealership.• The average buying cycle is around 45

days.• You have the highest closing ratio and

highest gross profit from leads created via the search engines and leads that you drive organically.

• Do not keep squandering money in your advertising budget to antiquated mediums that don’t give you the return that other, newer mediums can.

• There is a better strategy: Dominate with Googolopoly and win the Google Game.

If you have any questions about this article, or would like examples or assistance on how to create a free “Googolopoly” strategy for your dealership, please call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to assist you.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 866.648.7400, or by e-mail [email protected].

how to win the game of google

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Today’s customers are more mobile than ever. They are also more distracted by apps, games and constant communication via social networking. Because of this, the days of focusing your marketing efforts on static advertising — such as newspaper ads and billboards — are gone. We live in a digital world and your ability to adapt by using cutting-edge technology within your CRM will directly impact your success. One technology worth your attention is the use of video. Using video can be a great alternative to traditional marketing strategies. By using video, you can create a personable message to your customers, immediately setting you apart from your competition and helping to drive more traffic to your showroom and service drive. To generate the greatest customer response, consider these four simple guidelines when producing video:

QualityIf video is to become a long-standing avenue for brand messaging, having quality tools is

important. While a “homemade” look and feel will work for certain types of video, they probably aren’t appropriate for business messages (your phone won’t cut it — sorry). Quality video isn’t complete without quality audio, so strong audio recording is a must. If the point is to grab the attention of your audience, grainy video and muffled audio will do little to keep their attention. Quality is imperative. lengthDepending on the message for a specific piece, length will most certainly vary, but keep in mind that your audience has a limited attention span. Because of this keeping your standard video to 90 seconds or less will provide maximum viewing potential. Granted, a service walkthrough may require time, but your aim should be under the 90-second mark. hostingEnsuring that video is stored and maintained properly will make viewing a piece of cake for your customers. Reliable hosting of your video is also a must. Storage can be done in-house or

through the use an outlet such as YouTube, but other content delivery services are available that provide in-depth viewing statistics and assist with options such as syndication, geo-targeting and keyword tags.

messagingThe actual message of your video, of course, depends on the desired outcome. Video can be used in a multitude of ways within a dealership. In my experience, dealers benefit from a blend of educational pieces (highlighting the vehicle of interest, service drive, etc.), advertorial pieces (Why buy here; GM follow-up, etc.), and even something with a little more personal touch (community involvement, happy birthday wish, etc.). The sky truly is the limit with the number of ways you can incorporate video into your marketing strategy. Whatever you do with video, messaging customers with this medium is best handled through your CRM if you want to drive the most business. Utilizing everything a true CRM has to offer will drive customer engagement, which will inevitably increase sales and service retention. Implementing video into your already-existing CRM marketing strategy is like moving from a sub-compact in rush hour traffic to a race car on an open highway. Try it out.

Bryan Anderson is the founder of Autobase. He can be contacted at 866.667.9659, or by e-mail at [email protected].

marketing solutionBryanAnderson

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marketing solutionPogoParr


It’s hard to imagine any modern dealership operating without some form of call tracking and recording. Basically, call tracking relies upon the placement of a unique telephone number in each source of marketing to be tracked. Calls to these numbers are instantly routed to the appropriate store. Each conversation is recorded. Reports identify the telephone number of each caller, the day, time and duration of each call, along with the name of the ad source responsible for each call.

modern call trackingsaves dealerships moneyFor more than 15 years, call tracking systems have been helping dealers eliminate ineffective forms of marketing and negotiate fair advertising rates with publications. Such systems can pay for themselves just by demonstrating which advertising works and which does not — but a few modern call tracking systems go much, much further.

A modern call tracking system can ensure that every marketing dollar is invested wisely, every call-handler is well trained and every lead is handled effectively.

Here are some of the questions a call tracking analysis can answer for you:1. How many marketing leads do you need to

support your sales objectives?2. Are you utilizing the most effective media

— and paying a fair price?3. How many of the calls you track are really

sales or service opportunities?4. How effectively do your employees convert

your leads to appointments?5. When you train your people, how much

does their performance improve?

How many leads does your store need in order to sell one vehicle? Some dealerships are more efficient than others, but many sell one vehicle for every three prospects that show up on the lot. To get those three prospects to the dealership, they may need to set five appointments. To set those five appointments, they may need 25 leads. If these numbers described the efficiency of your store and it was your goal to sell 100 cars per month, this

formula suggests you would need 2,500 leads to do so.

Once your call tracking system has measured the actual lead-conversion efficiency of your own dealership, it is simple arithmetic to determine whether you are generating enough leads to meet your sales goals. It is important to measure actual prospects, not simply the number of calls. Your tracking system needs to be able to distinguish potential buyers from vendors, competitors, job seekers, repeat callers, wrong-number calls, etc. It is important to make sure you utilize a system that can separate prospects from non-prospects, as this is the only way you can get an accurate cost-per-lead for each of your marketing sources and an accurate conversion ratio for each of your call handlers.

modern call trackingmakes dealerships moneyA modern call tracking system gathers and analyzes this data for you. Because the data can impact on your marketing, operations, sales and training, it is helpful to choose a call tracking system that provides you with expert analysts who can consult with you on a regular basis and share industry statistics and best practices with you.

modern call trackingretains employeesWhether you have a “BDC” or not, every dealership needs an effective telephone skills training program. Measuring and improving call-handling and appointment-setting skills is another important part of a modern call tracking system. Your system should be able to provide you with a monthly “report card,” showing how well your call handlers establish rapport, gather and exchange information and drive to the appointment. The best systems will also include a learning management system that can assign and deliver training and track every employee’s progress.

The modern call tracking system closes the loop from lead generation to lead conversion and from sales training to on-the-job performance. When dealers use the data from their call tracking system effectively, they

increase their leads per marketing dollar, improve their appointments per lead and they sell more vehicles. When they provide effective training, dealers improve retention of their salespeople. modern call tracking saves dealsA modern call tracking and call recording system can also save the deals that might otherwise fall apart. It gives dealers a second chance to save sales opportunities that may have been lost or mishandled. This is an incredibly valuable service. Here is how it works:

As soon as each call is terminated, its recording is forwarded to a speech analytics software program or a live analyst for review. Calls that are not sales or service opportunities are classified as non-prospects and are filtered out of further processing. Calls from actual prospects are then reviewed for content. If it is determined that the call ended without an appointment set, an e-mail notification is sent to the dealership; typically to the sales manager or general manager. This notification indicates the name and phone number of the caller, the nature of the inquiry and the reason for the alert.

This kind of alert may be triggered by a number of events. A caller might hang up after being left too long on hold. A salesperson might respond to an enquiry about a specific vehicle by stating “that one’s sold,” instead of trying to find another vehicle of interest to the caller. The call handler may have lacked some product or inventory knowledge the manager has that could save the deal.

If you don’t use call tracking, you have been giving your competitors an unfair advantage. If you do track calls, but you are lacking the features I’ve just described, it’s time for you to shop around. You’ll probably find that a modern call tracking system doesn’t cost any more – it just delivers more!

Pogo Parr is the vice president of salesfor CallSource. He can be contactedat 866.690.2139, or by e-mail [email protected].

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2010

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marketing solutionBrianPasch


The framework for selling cars and engaging consumers has undergone tremendous change in the last 15 years. Dealer principals have fallen behind in understanding and leveraging advances in digital marketing to extend their brand visibility online. Their ability to train and mentor their executive team on these new communication channels is extremely limited by their own lack of understanding.

For the first time, dealer principals cannot inspect all areas of business operations. This is a byproduct of the weaknesses in our educational system for car dealers; it has not responded fast enough to keep up with changing technology.

Social media has once again changed the way car dealers communicate with local consumers. Never forget that dealer principals are entrepreneurs. If social media can amplify their brand message and sell more cars, they would back it. Dealers are looking for solid answers so that they can use their years of experience to evaluate the ROI.

For the most part, dealers, general managers, and even eCommerce directors just don’t have the skills to decide what is a “shiny object” and what is the new paradigm for business. The ability to make clear decisions will come through investments in education, which balances dealer’s current dependence on vendor product marketing. It is important for automotive professionals to see the importance in education for all of their employees.

That is why it is crucial for dealers to invest in a solid education program for 2011 and the years to come. Dealers need to work hand in hand with vendors to bring their traditional message into the new age of marketing.

make dealership education a PriorityCreate a Budget — What does your 2011 budget for staff education look like? Add up all your marketing and advertising dollars over the course of a year. How does your education budget stack up against that investment? A recent survey found that an astounding 59 percent of dealers had no budget allocated

towards education and skills enhancement for their employees.

Invest in your staff’s education by creating a budget that will feed into quarterly training for your dealership. This important slice of your budget will give your staff the chance to get the valuable hands-on tactical training they need to stay a step ahead of the competition. Every piece of your business, from automotive SEO to phone handling, can benefit from a training budget.

Get Involved — In the automotive industry, car dealers can be spending $3,000, $5,000 or $10,000 a month of Google Adwords, but not know how to inspect their campaign setups. Dealers hire companies to drive traffic to their Websites but have not created the processes to benchmark and measure those efforts. As dealers engage in social media, have their staff been educated and advised on the best practices for success? Well-educated dealerships learn how to measure and inspect their vendor platforms and strategies.

By getting involved from the start, you’ll be able to create the proper processes that allow you to inspect all work done for your dealership. Don’t let your dealership fall vulnerable by piling on key aspects of your business on one employee. Educate yourself and every member of the staff on each role of the business. Not only will your involvement make your business more successful, but you will strengthen the communication lines across each department.

Don’t Fall Behind — There are educational opportunities in the automotive industry every quarter, so there is no excuse for falling behind the group by not committing to the industry’s top conferences, workshops and events. Don’t know where to begin? Look for key automotive professionals online through industry blogs and forums. Lean on others in the industry to help guide you on which training classes and events offer the best resources for your specific dealership.

Leadership starts at the top of the organization,

and dealer principals and general managers who don’t keep up with the changes in automotive marketing communication channels will not be able to lead their organizations in an increasingly competitive industry. Your ability to network and pinpoint valuable training events and classes will help you lead your team to success.

Look to the Future — How are dealers attracting the next generation of sales and marketing leaders to operate car dealerships across the nation? How will the training of these new leaders impact a dealer’s ability to compete in the future?

Plan for your dealership’s future by investing in the next generation of automotive professionals, more specifically the rapidly changing field of digital marketing.

We surveyed a group of dealers only to reveal that 58 percent of respondents felt that the existing dealership staff did not have the time and skills necessary to sustain a competitive digital marketing strategy. Yet, 40 percent of dealers surveyed said that they had considered starting an internship program at their dealership to boost the skills needed to compete as part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. An internship program is a great way to start investing in your dealership’s future by educating the next generation of automotive professionals.

The automotive industry is changing, but there’s a bright future for dealers who are ready to adapt and bring their marketing message to the next level. Dealers who fail to recognize the importance of training will find themselves vulnerable up against their competitors, while dealers who invest in education will find a tremendous ROI and stay two steps ahead of the game.

Brian Pasch, is CEO of PCG DigitalMarketing and the founder of the Automotive Internship Program. He can be contactedat 866.849.1560, or by e-mail [email protected].

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marketing solutionSusanGivens


One of the largest profit leaks in a dealership is the phone system. Dealers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on advertising to get their phones to ring, yet many fail to invest in a call tracking process to effectively monitor this markedly greatest asset.

The phone is the primary method of customer contact before, during and after the sale and most dealers will readily admit that their phones are not handled the way they would like. Countless sales are lost, customers are mishandled and CSI issues go unresolved. This industry-wide problem has some surprisingly poor statistics, with 19 percent of new car sales calls never reaching a sales representative, six percent of new car sales calls hanging up while on hold and 13 percent of new car sales calls are sent to voice mail — and six percent of those callers elect to leave no message.

With most sales calls costing a minimum of $150 to generate, dealers cannot afford to let these calls slip through the cracks. Only 24 percent of all sales calls, however, result

in an appointment — not a favorable return on investment. Further studies show that 16 percent of all sales agents fail to properly identify themselves and 45 percent of all sales agents fail to get contact information from a caller, which is a complete loss for the dealership.

Aware that the phone is a blind spot where customers and profits are lost in every department, every hour of every business day, many dealers require their managers to single-handedly listen to all in-bound calls. This, however, is not practical during peak sales periods. Dealers really need to invest in a system or process that ensures every call is handled properly.

Capital Honda, located in Okemas, MI, began using a call-monitoring service last year that provides 24/7 call monitoring and provides real-time alerts directly to its management team so that any mishandled call can be followed-up with immediately. In addition to alerts, Capital Honda also gets unlimited

toll-free numbers, ad-tracking, and daily and weekly reports that not only help them monitor customer calls, but also help them track what advertising is generating the most buzz.

“The alerts help me save deals and the ad tracking reports help me spend my marketing money smarter,” said Anthony Gomez, Owner of Capital Honda.

An average of 28 percent of all connected calls are “off-lined” for a call back, and as many as 32 percent of all appointments set without a firm appointment time; that’s a lot of uncertainty that will likely end up on the back burner and then lost. However, with a system that

provides daily monitoring reports, a dealer will be able to ensure that these types of calls are followed-up on quickly to confirm that the call turns into a firm appointment and, hopefully, a sale. The call-monitoring service that Capital Honda uses provides daily reports by 8:30 a.m. each morning, so Gomez can review the previous days calls over a 20-minute cup of coffee, find out what deals need attention and remedy any customer concerns right away.

“Capital Honda does an incredible job responding to customer concerns within minutes of receiving real-time text alerts,” said Chip King, President of CallRevu.com the call-monitoring company that Capital Honda uses. “Their team has saved many a deal with quick reaction time.”

The telephone is naturally an industry-wide sales tool and can be a dealer’s greatest asset if managed properly. Implementing a call-monitoring system enables a dealership to take control of incoming phone calls. Having a highly trained staff available 24/7 to listen, categorize, transcribe and summarize all phone calls and provide a detailed report every morning will allow a dealership to manage all aspects of their phone traffic. More than four times as many customers call a dealership than walk-in, so it is imperative that dealers actively listen, monitor and measure all their call activity to improve customer retention, manage CSI and increase profits.

Susan Givens is the publisher of AutoSuccess. She can be contacted at 877.818.6620, or by e-mail at [email protected].

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“This industry-wide problem has some surprisingly poor statistics, with 19 percent of new car sales calls never reaching a sales representative, six percent of new car sales calls hanging up while on hold and 13 percent of new car sales calls are sent to voice mail — and six percent of those callers elect to leave no message.”


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78021_AT_AT1-515.inddBeth Powell / Krystal Carter2-17-2011 1:29 PM bpowell_G5_06681

ClientJob #Prefi xTrimBleedLiveLine ScreenProduct CodeUnitCaption

AUTOTRADER.COM11-02050-024780218.375” x 10.75”8.875” x 11.25”7.875” x 10.5”300 dpi006 - TRADE ADVERTISINGMagazineTrade-in Marketplace...

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Prepared by:Southfi eld, MI • 248.354.9700

Hodge, BrentDiCicco, JaclynCooke, MarkHutson, BryanWise, KrystalDeighan, MarielleNone1

ApprovalsFonts:Adobe Garamond (Regular, Bold), News Gothic BT (Bold Extra Condensed, Condensed), Hel-vetica (Medium)

Link Name: AT_10_043_RM_4Cswop.tif (CMYK; 1710 ppi; 17.53%), AT_08_WWFY_pos_4C.eps, AT_09_Ult_com_Orange_4C.eps

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leadership solutionRhondaSavage


working withfamily memBers:it’s not Personal, it’s Just Business

If you’ve ever been in business with a family member, you know there are several advantages, but even the most dedicated, hard-working family member can experience or create tension, stress and conflict in the company.

What are the qualities that facilitate successful family working relationships in businesses such as dealerships? If you are in business with or thinking about working with family members, being aware of the following issues can prevent them from becoming problems in your business.

loyalty leading to micromanagement Often, family members are more dedicated to the success of their business than other staff members. The old saying, “blood is thicker than water” is true, and yet too much caring can cause conflict.

One business owner employed his mother. The owner had established his vision and goals, but he had trouble developing a consistent, fair style of leadership. His mother, in her eagerness to help him succeed, was openly voicing her concerns and opinions during business hours and outside the office.

She felt the office staff wasn’t diligent enough in collecting money at the time of service and inconsistent in their processing methods. She felt they weren’t doing a good job and needed more attention to detail. The boss had difficulty enforcing his policies because of the conflicting views between his mother and the other team members. His mother became a micromanager, telling everyone how they should be doing their jobs, in detail. She meant well and only wanted to help the business succeed, but her micromanaging drove the morale of the business down.

taking work homeOne business owner enjoys working with his wife. His wife, however, was concerned that the team members weren’t held accountable for their work.

Because the owner is sensitive to conflict, he avoids team meetings, coaching and performance reviews. His wife is quite verbal during the off hours about her feelings, which causes him discomfort, as he’s sensitive to criticism; this creates tension in their personal relationship. It’s important, especially for couples to separate their work life and personal life. Bringing personal issues into the workplace and visa versa can create tension and an uncomfortable environment for all employees.

hiring someone you can’t fireBusiness owners can be hesitant to talk to a family member about a problem within the office because of how it might impact them on the personal/home front. They may walk on eggshells at work, worried about how the family member might respond if they were treated the same as other employees.

To be successful as a team member, family members need to know their role in the business. Being a family member and an employee can put anyone in a difficult position. Other employees, no matter how hard the family member works, may look at them differently. Because of this, your family member employee will always need to hold him or herself at the same — or even higher — level of accountability as the other employees.

unfair PaySome business owners try to help their family out by paying more than the average wage for that employment category, which can impact the total payroll overhead. It is unfair to neglect the rest of the team’s income because you want to give special treatment to a family member. You’ll see resentment and unhappiness build if this is the case. Remember, when morale goes down, productivity goes down.

In addition to pay, gender difference or age differences may feel intensified with your family employees. Recognize that some conflict develops due to these differences, and work at learning about better communication and leadership.

what are the traits of a greatfamily team member?If you happen to be an employee in your family member’s dealership, there are several things you can do to avoid the above issues, including:• Be early• Be dependable• Pay attention to your work responsibilities;

be accountable.• Follow through• Be friendly and have fun• Be encouraging. Use the words

“Absolutely!” and “Certainly!” • Be a mentor• Take an active role in learning about the

business; be excited about your industry• Always speak positively about the owner and

the business, both in and out of the office• Offer advice when asked or ask first before

discussing a concern

If you find your employees don’t get along, you’ll need to facilitate the discussion. There are two questions that you can ask yourself that will help take the emotional side of the problem out of the equation:1. Is “whatever is happening” in the best

interest of the customer care?2. Is “whatever is happening” in the best

interest of the business as a healthy business?

a successful family BusinessThe key to a successful employee/family relationship is that everyone in the office is treated the same. You need the same level (or higher) of accountability, timeliness and dedication to customer service from all of your employees, especially family members to be successful. Specifically outlining each employee’s role and keeping personal issues out of the workplace will ensure a positive work environment for you and your family member.

Rhonda Savage is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker on leadership, women’s issues and communication. She can be contactedat 866.887.5808, or by e-mail [email protected].

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leadership solutionJohnBrentlinger


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I am beginning to sound like a broken iTune, but most salespeople and most managers at most dealerships still don’t have a clue about selling a car. This is not rocket science. In a business that is more than one hundred years old, it just seems silly that the industry is still plagued by the same old problems. Could it be that we are still offering the same old solutions? Customers still walk into dealerships every day of the week, wanting a car, needing a car and most have the budget figured out. Yet the majority of them leave without buying. Why? It has to be something that we are doing or not doing. There are only three basics you need to know these days to sell a car. There are only three basics that you need to know to sell anything, actually, but I repeat myself (and if you’re still stuck in the time warp that says selling cars is different than selling anything else, put another log on the fire, warm up the cave and look out for the saber-tooth tigers). One, you need to listen to the customer. All you have to do is let the customer talk. They know what they want. They know what they need. They know how much they have to spend. Is that clear enough? Need more clarity? Only they know what they want. Only they know what they need. Only they know how much they have to spend. This is like going to the bathroom — no one else can do it for them, no matter how hard they try. Let the customer talk. The worst form of rude behavior in a car salesperson is that the customer usually can’t get a word in edgewise. Customers do not like to be interrupted when they are talking. Listen to the customer. Let them talk. Do not interrupt them. No “Yeah, buts….” No “Oh, but have you seen....” No “But wait, there’s more....” No stupid lines like, “Is there something I haven’t told you that is keeping you from...blah, blah, blah.” The first thing you need to know to sell a car

is to let the customer talk. No interrupting, no contradicting, no critizing. None. Ever. Chris Farley said it best, “The first step in selling is learning to shut your pie hole.” Two, you need to keep the customer talking. There is no rule that says when they pause to take a breath, it is your turn to talk. Shut up. When they want you to talk, they will ask you a question. Until they do, just give them the floor. They are in charge. The salesperson and the manager are not in charge, no matter how much they want to be, or think they are, or have been taught that they are — they are not. The customer, the person with the wants, the needs and the budget, the ones with the money — they are in charge. If you could just remember that, you would double sales. But, that would involve actually living according to reality, and that would take some self control, and some discipline — and for most salespeople, most managers and most dealerships, that is just too simple, too easy, too soft. The goofiest guys on the planet are the managers who say, “I don’t care that they didn’t get the sale. They closed and they closed and they kept trying until the customer walked out.” That is so sweet; don’t let the sabertooth tiger bite you on the way back to your cave. Keep the customer talking. Listen, pay attention and take notes. Don’t act interested — be interested in them as people, because that is what they are. Before they are customers they are people with wants and needs and doubts and fears, so treat them like people, before you assume they are your customer. Three, let the customer sell themselves. Customers are not stupid. They do not need to be sold. I really don’t care about the nefarious line, stated by most managers, “Well, y’know, back when I was selling y’know, I had people tell me all the time y’know (blah, blah, blah) that when they came in, they weren’t going to buy a car that day, but y’know because I kept

closing them — blah, blah, blah.” Customers are not stupid. They do not need someone to twist their arm to get them to buy what they want, need and have the budget to pay for. As a salesperson, and as a manager, you don’t need any closes, especially the “new closes.” You don’t need pressure, you don’t need force, and you don’t need punishment, for the salespeople or the customer. All you need is love, love, love. Love is all you need. People skills, kindness, helpfulness, listening, waiting, shutting up…. You know, I just had an epiphany: the reason most salespeople don’t sell enough, and the reason most managers don’t help their salespeople sell enough, is that they have no real love for the people they are dealing with. If you want to help the customer, not just “sell a car,” if you really want to help the customer, not just “do the deal,” if you really want to help the customer get what they want, what they need and in the price range they can afford, you have to first love them. And if you don’t do that — or can’t do that — you shouldn’t be working with people, customers or salespeople. That is where the problem begins: seeing people as objects to help you hit your goals. Scary version? They’re already onto you, your customers and your salespeople — they already know how you really feel. You don’t need more product knowledge. You don’t need a better walk-around. You don’t need better skills with the social media. All you need to do is learn to love people. Start at home. Let them talk, keep them talking, let them sell themselves.

John Brentlinger is a sales and management trainer, executive coach and author. He can be contacted at 866.859.6504, or by e-mail at [email protected].

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marketing solutionDavidWojcik

is your socialmedia marketingstrategy social?

You will probably agree with me that the Internet is not going away, but rather evolving every day. Not only is the Internet itself changing, but it is changing the way that we do business and communicate with our clients, as well as our staff, teammates and colleagues. It is a new communication method for business.

How are you communicating? Are you social? Do you view social media and social media marketing as a necessary evil that you need to deal with, or do you embrace it?

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of “social” is: “marked by or passed in pleasant companionship with friends or associates.” With this in mind, the most important ingredient in social media presence is people. How do you as an organization attract these people?

There are many ways, but certainly blasting them with constant ads and marketing messages is not very social. In fact, people abhor it. Remember what Zig Ziglar says: “When you exercise your freedom to express yourself at the lowest level, you ultimately condemn yourself to live at that level.”

Why do you think the popularity of the DVR and TiVo has grown so much? So people do not have to watch the commercials! It’s the same reason as why satellite radio is growing in popularity year after year. No matter how good your message may be, if you have no audience, what’s the point?

For any organization to have successful social media marketing, it needs to create content that attracts the attention of their audience and encourages them to share it with their social network. To ensure this, the content must be relevant to the customer and have a perceived value or benefit.

The first thing that needs to be addressed is who is your audience? Who are you communication with? Mark Zuckerberg, the

founder of Facebook, absolutely had the right idea. Keep it “cool,” keep it “social” and build up the amount of members before trying to monetize or fill it with commercials. I think we would all agree that he definitely had the right idea. His site is ranked second on the ALEXA ranking in Websites viewed daily in the U.S., and it is worth more than $500 billion.

Secondly, are you treating social media as just another platform to plaster your inventory and your advertisements, or as a way of communication with the public?

Most dealerships, dealer groups and managers are only focused on the business today, this week and this month. Few have a real game plan on where they are going to be next month, next year or 10 years from now. I was taught as a soldier in the U.S. Army — as well as a salesperson, and manager in the car business — to be proactive, and not reactive. A social media presence alone or a good social media marketing strategy may not equate to selling a lot of cars right away, but not having one will certainly negatively impact your business in the not-so-distant future. You need to be where the people are.

According to the ALEXA Top 10 Ranking Websites, four of the top 10 sites in the U.S. are social networking sites:2. Facebook 4. YouTube 7. Blogger.com 8. Twitter (LinkedIn is not far behind at No. 12)

Successful organizations have already incorporated social media into their digital marketing strategy. They utilize social media for brand building, reputation management, prospecting and customer retention. It is OK to send marketing or promotional messages through this medium; however, if that is all that you do, your message will be invisible. As evidence, I site one of the 20th century’s greatest communicators, Dale Carnegie. He

said, “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion.”

Social media marketing benefits organizations by creating additional avenues for customer support, to gain new customers, retain the customers you already have, recruit new employees and manage your reputation online. It’s a great place to advertise the fact that your organization helps and donates to charities, for instance.

As if that was not worth it by itself, social networking also increases your organization’s search engine ranking (SER) and search engine optimization (SEO). Both Google and Bing use social networking indicators in their ranking algorithms. This can be a double-edge sword for some, as you are all probably familiar with the saying “A happy customer tells one friend; an unhappy customer tells everybody.” This can easily be overcome by engaging your happy customers, who by far outweigh the few that are dissatisfied.

Now, knowing all of this, where do you start? “Begin with the end in mind,” says Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. We still have to advertise, but it also means we must have a long-term brand strategy where we are cool!

1. Identify your audience2. Attract your audience3. Communicate with your audience4. Be social and be cool!

People like to do business with people that they like and with people that they trust, like a friend!

David Wojcik is the vice president of operations at SMA Alliance. He can be contacted at 866.834.8209, or by e-mail [email protected].



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sales & training solutionMarkTewart

contrarian selling aPProaches

Contrary: Opposed, opposite in nature, altogether different.

Several Indian tribes had warrior societies called Contraries or Contrary Warriors. The contraries were different in nature as well as actions, and were thought to be wise men. While being in the automobile business my entire adult life, I have observed and been a student of some of the more successful dealers in the business and have found that a lot of those dealers take a contrarian approach to their business. Following the masses seldom leads to riches.

For many years, automobile dealers have been selling vehicles with practically the same techniques. A particular sales approach may have been observed and then passed from one dealer to another. Managers taught the salespeople the techniques, and when some of those salespeople became managers, they taught their salespeople what they had been taught. Thus, we have a never-ending cycle of teaching techniques and approaches that may now be outdated in today’s marketplace.

There are as many personal computers being sold in one day in the United States as there

were total in existence 15 years ago. When you combine the proliferation of computers with the availability of the Internet and the explosion of information available today, you get a more-educated and sophisticated customer than ever before. Although the consumers may have changed in the last 15 years, for the most part our selling techniques have not. As I train and work with dealerships across the country, I see a willingness to change and to be unique in the marketplace. Every aspect of the traditional selling approach must be scrutinized and possibly changed.

Let’s look at just one specific area – the “Meet and Greet.” Proxemics is the relationship of physical distance among people. In other words, we all have comfort zones. For many years, we have taught salespeople to walk up to a customer and extend our hand for the greeting and give our names and ask for the customer’s name. However, consumers are telling us in surveys that they don’t want to be jumped on upon entering the dealership. The question is, “How do we greet customers promptly without them feeling like they’re being attacked?” When approaching customers, salespeople should stay in the “social zone,” which is about three to five

feet away from the customer. Also, we know that upon being greeted, customers reply “I’m just looking” almost one hundred percent of the time. To make the customer feel more at ease, just use their usual response in your greeting. Example: “Hi folks. Are you just beginning to look and shop around today?” Ask questions to start taking control of the process and get the customer talking to gain rapport. I would suggest waiting a minute or two before shaking hands and exchanging names, if possible. I can guarantee that when a salesperson exchanges names while shaking hands in the beginning of the greeting, that as soon as they drop your hands from the handshake, the names drop to the floor and the salesperson will not remember the names of their customers 10 seconds after they have gotten them. While I am in dealerships working, I observe traditional greetings and can say that the customer looks uncomfortable with the process almost every time.

Every step of our sales process must be reviewed in the manner similar to what we have just done. Lemmings are animals that follow the one in front of them, even if it is off a cliff and to their death. As smart business people, we have to be willing to be more contrarian and less like lemmings.

Mark Tewart is the president of Tewart Enterprises, and the author of the best seller, How To Be A Sales Superstar. He can be contacted at 866.429.6844, or by e-mail at [email protected].

marketing solutionDalePollak

http://www.321consultants.com



marketing solutionDalePollak

do size andshaPe matter?

Today, retail automobile dealers are considered to be successful if they achieve a two percent net-to-sales return. Compared to general business net returns of 15 to 20 percent, the automobile dealer’s return is staggeringly low. In addition, automobile dealerships require an extraordinary amount of investment capital. After the recent economic downturn, dealerships now have to invest even more capital to address deferred maintenance, repair and corporate compliance requirements. Therefore, it is time to re-examine traditional assumptions about dealership shape and size.

Traditional dealerships are generally configured on many acres of prime high-visibility real estate. These parcels typically house new and used car sales, mechanical and parts, office administration and sometimes collision repair. The question is whether this type of configuration makes economic sense. In light of low expected financial returns both today and tomorrow, the conclusion is that they do not.

Consider a case for an alternative configuration of shape and size. First, prime high-visibility real estate is expensive, both in acquisition and taxation. In fact, dealerships do not need the same amount of acreage because they should never again have to carry the inventory stock of overproducing manufacturers. Further, new and used car sales today are driven less by physical traffic and more by Internet visibility.

In addition, present and future margins cannot

justify the cost of performing mechanical or collision repairs on the most expensive real estate in the community. While it’s a nice convenience to have sales and service operations located together, it is not necessary or economically prudent. Parts and mechanical service can be performed at significantly reduced costs when located on less-expensive and lower-taxed property. Such property only needs to be convenient, accessible, safe and clean. Perhaps in the future, similarly minded dealers may establish service parks as they’ve done in the past with dealership malls. Separating sales from mechanical operations also allows a dealer the ability to achieve several other advantages.

With the proper shape, dealerships can successfully achieve new and used car sales dominance at a much-lower fixed cost. This can be achieved by locating new and used car sales operations near busy retail shopping areas but on much lower-cost property. The property size needs to be only a small fraction of its traditional counterpart. The size might be as little as one to 1.5 acres; the difference is however, that instead of a structure expanding horizontally, it takes a vertical shape. Occupying the ground floor of the property is a highly finished showroom that meets all corporate compliance requirements. On top of the showroom is an open-air parking deck structure for customer parking and new and used car display. Unlike the high-cost prime real estate dirt, the air above the showroom is

free from both acquisition cost and taxation. Further, the open-air parking deck structure provides dealers with low-cost construction and maintenance, and is completely free from heating and air conditioning. With proper lighting, such structures are ideal for vehicle storage and display.

Even though this new configuration makes much more financial sense, most American dealers are saddled with their present high-cost property configuration. Without question, dealers will need help in making a transition to more efficient, lower-cost land and facilities. Assistance and incentives could come from both the manufacturers and municipalities. Both of these entities have a common interest in the long-term viability of the dealer. Instead of providing assistance and incentives for reinvesting in inefficient legacy facilities, the manufacturer can and should work in partnership with local municipalities and dealers to create incentive packages which allows dealers to make this more efficient and prudent transition in both facility shape and size. So, to answer the question of whether shape and size matter, the answer for the American automobile dealer is unequivocally “yes.”

Dale Pollak is the founder of vAuto and a best-selling author. He can be contactedat 866.867.9620, or by e-mail [email protected].

http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com


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Paragon Honda and Acura grew from #17 to the #1 New & Certifi ed Pre-Owned Hon-da & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in a short 6 month period during one of the most chal-lenging periods in the history of the auto-motive industry by redefi ning their market-ing, sales and service strategies. “Overall, it was our best year in business despite being one of the worst years in the industry,” said Brian Benstock, GM and partner of Paragon Honda and Acura, and their new strategies laid the foundation that continues to breed success and phenomenal results.

Paragon took a close look at the marketing practices they had in place and found that they were using multiple vendors to execute their advertising and it was confusing for their customers because the TV and radio commercials had one message, direct mail

Paragon Honda & Acura Soar to #1 New & Certi ed Pre-Owned Honda & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in Short 6 Month Period

had another, and email communications had another, yet none of the messaging was consistent with what was on their web site or the merchandising materials in the dealer-ship.

“In the past we worked with 12 diff erent companies to execute every part of our strat-egy, but the vendors didn’t work together so the campaigns were not integrated. It was confusing for our customers,” said Benstock. “We wanted a more cohesive message and once we took steps to consolidate our ven-dors our advertising strategy improved dra-matically. We hired one company to develop and implement one integrated marketing strategy that is completely connected and consistent.”

Paragon carefully assessed who they were

targeting. “We had always spent more mon-ey on mass marketing through TV, radio and print, but market research showed that over 90% of our business came from less than 10% of the city, so we began targeting our marketing to the consumers that live in those areas and that are in the market to buy or service their vehicle in the near future,” explained Benstock. Paragon con-ducted extensive market research to identify consumers that have the highest statistical probability of doing business with their deal-erships now and in the future. “We use the manufacturer’s research, Polk Market data and the dealer’s historic sales and service trends to identify which customers to tar-get,” explained Sean Wolfi ngton, Owner of www.Tier10Marketing.com, the marketing company Paragon hired to help them revise their strategy.

In a Nutshell


Success Storyular search engines and social networks and sends them unlimited leads for a nominal fl at membership fee. AutoTrader and Cars.com are more expensive but oft en generate more leads.

With the majority of consumers using search engines to fi nd their next new ve-hicle, Paragon uses organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) and targeted pay-per-click search marketing campaigns to attract in-market consumers who are shopping for Acuras and Hondas to their website and dealership. As a result, Paragon appears on top of the search engines for the most popu-lar search phrases in their market “New York Honda” and “New York Acura”.

Paragon tracks what consumers are search-ing for on Google and they implement search strategies to appear on top of the results for popular search phrases. For ex-ample, during cash for clunkers Paragon generated over 5,000 leads in less than a month through Paragon’s website, www.CashForClunkersNY.com, which was the #1 result when customers typed in “NY Cash for Clunkers”. When Toyota’s recall was an-nounced, Paragon received leads from the Automotive Advertising Network who op-timized a website called www.ToyotaRecall.org, which appears on top of the results when consumers search for information about Toyota’s Recall. “Th e Automotive Ad-vertising Network also provides thousands of inbound links to Paragon’s website, which increases search authority and position on the search engines,” explained Brian Pasch, founder of the Automotive Advertising Net-work that Paragon uses.

Traditionally, television advertising has worked well for dealers because consumers experience the sight, sound and motion that other mediums don’t deliver. And now Para-gon is using video to promote their dealer-ship but they are optimizing the videos to appear on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases their consum-ers use to fi nd an Acura or Honda. “We hired

a VSEO company, to produce and position hundreds of positive videos about our deal-ership on top of the search. Th ey also post comparison videos for consumers who are searching for competitive brands like Toyota and Nissan, so they can see the advantages of the Honda and visit our website to get an instant price quote,” said Benstock. “Google gives advantage to video results over text re-sults and consumers like video more than text,” said Karry Moore, Owner of www.Car-Mercial.com, the company Paragon uses for their VSEO strategy. Paragon also commu-nicates with all in-market Honda and Acura consumers by sending custom off ers based on their vehicle, miles and position in their ownership cycle. Paragon sends custom campaigns via mail and email to promote all their profi t centers, New, Used, Finance, Service and Parts. “We dial into Paragon’s DMS to target in-equity customers and we use variable print technology to send a cus-tom message to each consumer that shows them how they can get a newer vehicle for a lower payment,” said Budd Blackburn, own-er of www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com the targeted marketing company that Paragon uses. “We also include off ers that promote the service the customer needs, extended service agreements and accessories.”

To further integrate their messaging, Para-gon Honda and Acura make it obvious that something is going on at the dealership even if consumers don’t know about their sale, by the merchandising that quickly reminds them they’re lucky to have stopped by at the right time. “We want our customers to see a consistent message through our advertising and our in-store posters, tri-folds, balloons, hang tags and brochures,” said Benstock.

Just as important as communicating an eff ec-tive and cohesive message to new customers, Paragon works hard to implement a detailed loyalty strategy to bring back customers for service and to resell their customer base more oft en. “We have a 360° customer com-munication process from the moment a customer buys to the time they renew into a new vehicle and everything in between,” said

Benstock. Paragon uses email, phone, voicemails and direct mail to communicate with their cus-tomers when they need service, accessories, an extended warranty or a new vehicle.

Paragon Honda and Acura are the #1 Certi-fi ed Pre-Owned in the world. Actually, Paragon Honda sells more than twice the certifi ed pre-owned vehicles of the 2nd place Honda Certifi ed retailer and broke Honda and Acura’s all-time record by selling over 300 Certifi ed Hondas and over 100 certifi ed Acuras in one month. “We source most of our certifi ed vehicles from trade-ins because we have increased our new vehicle sales to customers who trade-in 2 and 3 year old vehicles as a result of our targeted market-ing,” said Benstock. “We give every customer an autobiography that includes the vehicle’s history, lemon check, service history, and pricing infor-mation on competitive vehicles so our custom-ers have a lot of confi dence when they buy a Cer-tifi ed pre-owned vehicle from our dealership,” explained Benstock.

To make sure that everything they put into place is working Paragon tracks their advertising, em-ployees, and how their customers are treated by listening to every call that comes into their dealership. “We use a company called www.Call-Revu.com to monitor all our calls 24/7 and they send real-time alerts to our managers when a customer is mishandled on the phone,” said Ben-stock. “Our managers save a lot of deals because they contact customers immediately before it’s too late.”

Red Tag Event

Paragon Honda and Acura grew from #17 to the #1 New & Certi ed Pre-Owned Honda & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in a short 6 month period during one of the most challenging periods in the history of the automotive industry by rede ning their marketing, sales and service strategies that promotes all their pro t centers.

Paragon Honda & Acura use www.Tier10Marketing.com to deliver a cohesive marketing message across all marketing mediums to promote all their pro t centers in sales and service.

Paragon only works with lead providers like www.AutoTrader.com, www.Cars.com and www.AutomotiveAdvertisingNetwork.com that generate a good return and have a lower cost per sale compared to our other 3rd party lead providers.

Paragon target-markets to quality single-owner trade-ins for their Certi ed Pre-Owned program.

Paragon uses www.Car-mercial.com for Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) to optimize videos to appear on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases their consumers use to nd an Acura or Honda.

Paragon works with www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com to target in-market customers and prospects who have the highest statistical probability of doing business with your dealership today and for the long term.

Paragon uses www.CallRevu.com to monitor all customer phone calls to ensure sales and service calls are being handled properly – and act quickly when CSI concerns arise.

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Success Story Success Story

In a Nutshell

In a Nutshell


Traditional advertising on TV, radio and print is expensive in New York, like other major metro markets so Paragon shift ed their traditional ad budget toward more targeted marketing eff orts that generate better returns. “Th is saved us a substantial amount of money that we used to waste on people who were either not in the market for what we sell or who were not in our geographical market and therefore had a low probability of coming in for sales or service,” said Benstock.

However, since Latinos make up half of Para-gon’s market, Paragon does leverage some good buys on Spanish radio, as well as, print ads in the New York Times where they in-clude QR technology, a barcode that links consumers’ mobile phones to Paragon’s web-site where they can learn more about the off er and contact the dealership. “We recently did a radio buy that promoted a fi lm premiere we sponsored in Queens,” said Benstock. “We invited people to visit our website and Facebook pages to enter to win tickets to the premier and provided additional entries for people who shared the promotion with oth-

ers on Facebook and twitter.”

Online and social media marketing is also a large part of Paragon’s strategy. With over 90% of Honda consumers using the web to shop, Paragon has an in-depth strategy for search engine optimization and marketing, email marketing, banner ads on popular websites like Facebook, social media market-ing, online reputation management and mo-bile marketing. “We have a lot of friends and followers on the top social media platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Bebo,” said Benstock. “As a result of our digi-tal marketing campaigns, we increased the size of our database by approximately 50,000 in the last 6 months and we are sending out professionally designed emails that have credible themes and clear off ers that generate leads from consumers who will buy and oth-ers who need service.”

All of Paragon’s digital marketing eff orts drive consumers to campaign micro sites where the message, off ers, look and feel are consistent with every other part of the cam-

paign. Th e campaign micro site is designed to convert the maximum number of visitors into email, phone and showroom leads. Some examples of their micro sites are www.Para-gonHondaInfo.com and www.ParagonEx-pressService.com.

“Our best source of leads are our own websites because the closing ratios and average gross profi ts are much higher than the typical lead providers, as most 3rd party lead generators sell the same lead to multiple dealers,” said Benstock. “We only work with lead providers that generate a good return and have a lower cost per sale compared to our other market-ing. We use www.AutoTrader.com, www.Cars.com and www.AutomotiveAdvertising-Network.com because all three of them de-liver exclusive leads which means they don’t resell the same leads to all of our competitors.”

AutoTrader and Cars.com have long done a good job with pre-owned and they give deal-ers exposure to clients they may not otherwise reach. Th e Automotive Advertising Network promotes Paragon’s vehicles on the most pop-








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•Paragon Promotional Materials

Success Story Success Story

In a Nutshell

In a Nutshell


Traditional advertising on TV, radio and print is expensive in New York, like other major metro markets so Paragon shift ed their traditional ad budget toward more targeted marketing eff orts that generate better returns. “Th is saved us a substantial amount of money that we used to waste on people who were either not in the market for what we sell or who were not in our geographical market and therefore had a low probability of coming in for sales or service,” said Benstock.

However, since Latinos make up half of Para-gon’s market, Paragon does leverage some good buys on Spanish radio, as well as, print ads in the New York Times where they in-clude QR technology, a barcode that links consumers’ mobile phones to Paragon’s web-site where they can learn more about the off er and contact the dealership. “We recently did a radio buy that promoted a fi lm premiere we sponsored in Queens,” said Benstock. “We invited people to visit our website and Facebook pages to enter to win tickets to the premier and provided additional entries for people who shared the promotion with oth-

ers on Facebook and twitter.”

Online and social media marketing is also a large part of Paragon’s strategy. With over 90% of Honda consumers using the web to shop, Paragon has an in-depth strategy for search engine optimization and marketing, email marketing, banner ads on popular websites like Facebook, social media market-ing, online reputation management and mo-bile marketing. “We have a lot of friends and followers on the top social media platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Bebo,” said Benstock. “As a result of our digi-tal marketing campaigns, we increased the size of our database by approximately 50,000 in the last 6 months and we are sending out professionally designed emails that have credible themes and clear off ers that generate leads from consumers who will buy and oth-ers who need service.”

All of Paragon’s digital marketing eff orts drive consumers to campaign micro sites where the message, off ers, look and feel are consistent with every other part of the cam-

paign. Th e campaign micro site is designed to convert the maximum number of visitors into email, phone and showroom leads. Some examples of their micro sites are www.Para-gonHondaInfo.com and www.ParagonEx-pressService.com.

“Our best source of leads are our own websites because the closing ratios and average gross profi ts are much higher than the typical lead providers, as most 3rd party lead generators sell the same lead to multiple dealers,” said Benstock. “We only work with lead providers that generate a good return and have a lower cost per sale compared to our other market-ing. We use www.AutoTrader.com, www.Cars.com and www.AutomotiveAdvertising-Network.com because all three of them de-liver exclusive leads which means they don’t resell the same leads to all of our competitors.”

AutoTrader and Cars.com have long done a good job with pre-owned and they give deal-ers exposure to clients they may not otherwise reach. Th e Automotive Advertising Network promotes Paragon’s vehicles on the most pop-








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•

•

•

•

•

•Paragon Promotional Materials

Paragon Honda and Acura grew from #17 to the #1 New & Certifi ed Pre-Owned Hon-da & Acura Dealer in the U.S. in a short 6 month period during one of the most chal-lenging periods in the history of the auto-motive industry by redefi ning their market-ing, sales and service strategies. “Overall, it was our best year in business despite being one of the worst years in the industry,” said Brian Benstock, GM and partner of Paragon Honda and Acura, and their new strategies laid the foundation that continues to breed success and phenomenal results.

Paragon took a close look at the marketing practices they had in place and found that they were using multiple vendors to execute their advertising and it was confusing for their customers because the TV and radio commercials had one message, direct mail


had another, and email communications had another, yet none of the messaging was consistent with what was on their web site or the merchandising materials in the dealer-ship.

“In the past we worked with 12 diff erent companies to execute every part of our strat-egy, but the vendors didn’t work together so the campaigns were not integrated. It was confusing for our customers,” said Benstock. “We wanted a more cohesive message and once we took steps to consolidate our ven-dors our advertising strategy improved dra-matically. We hired one company to develop and implement one integrated marketing strategy that is completely connected and consistent.”

Paragon carefully assessed who they were

targeting. “We had always spent more mon-ey on mass marketing through TV, radio and print, but market research showed that over 90% of our business came from less than 10% of the city, so we began targeting our marketing to the consumers that live in those areas and that are in the market to buy or service their vehicle in the near future,” explained Benstock. Paragon con-ducted extensive market research to identify consumers that have the highest statistical probability of doing business with their deal-erships now and in the future. “We use the manufacturer’s research, Polk Market data and the dealer’s historic sales and service trends to identify which customers to tar-get,” explained Sean Wolfi ngton, Owner of www.Tier10Marketing.com, the marketing company Paragon hired to help them revise their strategy.

In a Nutshell


Success Storyular search engines and social networks and sends them unlimited leads for a nominal fl at membership fee. AutoTrader and Cars.com are more expensive but oft en generate more leads.

With the majority of consumers using search engines to fi nd their next new ve-hicle, Paragon uses organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) and targeted pay-per-click search marketing campaigns to attract in-market consumers who are shopping for Acuras and Hondas to their website and dealership. As a result, Paragon appears on top of the search engines for the most popu-lar search phrases in their market “New York Honda” and “New York Acura”.

Paragon tracks what consumers are search-ing for on Google and they implement search strategies to appear on top of the results for popular search phrases. For ex-ample, during cash for clunkers Paragon generated over 5,000 leads in less than a month through Paragon’s website, www.CashForClunkersNY.com, which was the #1 result when customers typed in “NY Cash for Clunkers”. When Toyota’s recall was an-nounced, Paragon received leads from the Automotive Advertising Network who op-timized a website called www.ToyotaRecall.org, which appears on top of the results when consumers search for information about Toyota’s Recall. “Th e Automotive Ad-vertising Network also provides thousands of inbound links to Paragon’s website, which increases search authority and position on the search engines,” explained Brian Pasch, founder of the Automotive Advertising Net-work that Paragon uses.

Traditionally, television advertising has worked well for dealers because consumers experience the sight, sound and motion that other mediums don’t deliver. And now Para-gon is using video to promote their dealer-ship but they are optimizing the videos to appear on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases their consum-ers use to fi nd an Acura or Honda. “We hired

a VSEO company, to produce and position hundreds of positive videos about our deal-ership on top of the search. Th ey also post comparison videos for consumers who are searching for competitive brands like Toyota and Nissan, so they can see the advantages of the Honda and visit our website to get an instant price quote,” said Benstock. “Google gives advantage to video results over text re-sults and consumers like video more than text,” said Karry Moore, Owner of www.Car-Mercial.com, the company Paragon uses for their VSEO strategy. Paragon also commu-nicates with all in-market Honda and Acura consumers by sending custom off ers based on their vehicle, miles and position in their ownership cycle. Paragon sends custom campaigns via mail and email to promote all their profi t centers, New, Used, Finance, Service and Parts. “We dial into Paragon’s DMS to target in-equity customers and we use variable print technology to send a cus-tom message to each consumer that shows them how they can get a newer vehicle for a lower payment,” said Budd Blackburn, own-er of www.TeamVelocityMarketing.com the targeted marketing company that Paragon uses. “We also include off ers that promote the service the customer needs, extended service agreements and accessories.”

To further integrate their messaging, Para-gon Honda and Acura make it obvious that something is going on at the dealership even if consumers don’t know about their sale, by the merchandising that quickly reminds them they’re lucky to have stopped by at the right time. “We want our customers to see a consistent message through our advertising and our in-store posters, tri-folds, balloons, hang tags and brochures,” said Benstock.

Just as important as communicating an eff ec-tive and cohesive message to new customers, Paragon works hard to implement a detailed loyalty strategy to bring back customers for service and to resell their customer base more oft en. “We have a 360° customer com-munication process from the moment a customer buys to the time they renew into a new vehicle and everything in between,” said

Benstock. Paragon uses email, phone, voicemails and direct mail to communicate with their cus-tomers when they need service, accessories, an extended warranty or a new vehicle.

Paragon Honda and Acura are the #1 Certi-fi ed Pre-Owned in the world. Actually, Paragon Honda sells more than twice the certifi ed pre-owned vehicles of the 2nd place Honda Certifi ed retailer and broke Honda and Acura’s all-time record by selling over 300 Certifi ed Hondas and over 100 certifi ed Acuras in one month. “We source most of our certifi ed vehicles from trade-ins because we have increased our new vehicle sales to customers who trade-in 2 and 3 year old vehicles as a result of our targeted market-ing,” said Benstock. “We give every customer an autobiography that includes the vehicle’s history, lemon check, service history, and pricing infor-mation on competitive vehicles so our custom-ers have a lot of confi dence when they buy a Cer-tifi ed pre-owned vehicle from our dealership,” explained Benstock.

To make sure that everything they put into place is working Paragon tracks their advertising, em-ployees, and how their customers are treated by listening to every call that comes into their dealership. “We use a company called www.Call-Revu.com to monitor all our calls 24/7 and they send real-time alerts to our managers when a customer is mishandled on the phone,” said Ben-stock. “Our managers save a lot of deals because they contact customers immediately before it’s too late.”

Red Tag Event








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Date post:	13-Sep-2014
Category:	News & Politics
View:	916 times
Download:	1 times

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