In the Trenches

“There’s a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hands,”It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo. . . . I mean, couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here?” Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.)

That is like begging for food as you open a fresh pack of cigarettes It just does not appear to be genuine.

Sure the media is talking it up, in and out of the auto industry. Why? Because you are participating. It sells advertising and even worse it distracts you from looking for ways to better your business.

The big three did not get in the shape they are in overnight. Now with all of the press the begging is getting it cannot possibly help consumer confidence or lend any credence to their products. How reliable is the Chrysler “Lifetime Warranty” now? For that matter how about the 12 month / 12,000 mile adjustment warranties?

We can blame the press all we want, but the problem lies with the ones who choose to participate. The ones who are glued to all of the updates, from all sources, and the ones who fly in corporate jets.

I was not going to let that stop me from putting a copy in his hand on this day.  The boys and I visited the local big chain book retailer to pick up a copy and it reminded me why I prefer to shop online for certain things.  It also proved how much more efficient it is as a consumer to do so.

We trotted to the business book section and started scouring the books to find our coveted copy.  It appearded that there was no rhyme or reason to how the books were shelved and after 10 minutes we visited the kiosk to see if there was even a copy in the store.  Theirs was not self serve so we had to wait 3 or 4 more minutes for someone to come help us.

After giving the name of the book to the clerk and then having to spell both the authours name an the title to here  and being informed that there was 12 copies in the store in the business section I wanted to scream.  After explaining to her that we did not see it there and her insistence that it was the manager came to our rescue.  She informed her and us that it was on display by their coffee shop and went and grabbed us a copy. 

The price was around five dollars more than I could of bought it for online and the process took around 25 minutes longer even if I had to type my credit card number in at checkout, which I don’t.  This process explains why online book retailers are more successful than their brick and mortar counter parts.

To state the obvious that is why consumers visit dealers online before stepping into the showroom.  They want to make sure you have what they want before they waste their time visiting you.  They want what they are after even if that is now what they buy in the end.

It could be a specific used car or new car color trim selection.  It could be competent secondary financing to make up for their credit short falls.  It could be to just window shop to see what is available.  For what ever reason they want what they came for before they decide to engage you.

The longer you can hold them on your site giving them the information they want the more likely they are to reach out to you buy either submitting a lead or visiting your showroom.  Anything you can do to sell them on doing business with you while they are there will let them win and you win.

Make it easy for the consumer to get what they want should be your first goal.  Keeping them on your site longer, with an effective call to action is your second.  Here are some things that you may want to try to increase conversions.

• Turn the pop ups and pop unders off.  One website site I recently visited causes a pop under on every navigation from a single inventory item even back to the search feature.  A customer experiening this may leave and never come back.
• Make sure your cars are priced even if it is list price.  Think if you visited a store that did not display prices until you were ready to check out would you go there often?
• Keep all sections of your site updated.  If you have a specials page make sure something is there or turn it off.
• Give them more than one way to contact you.  Is your phone number on every page and each inventory item?
• Tell your story.  Let them know what makes you different from “Down the Road Motors”.
• Get rid of the auto played audio.  Let the customers decide if they want to hear about you virtual showroom.  If they are looking at work and that comes on they may bounce to never return.

These are just a few starting points to help your average time on site and conversion ratio.  I am sure some will disagree or even have more tips.  Please tell us about it in the comments.

How many times have you heard these words in a dealership?

These types of transactions are not a solution for the customer or the dealer long term and it wont be long before lenders realize this is just bad business for all parties concerned and change their lending guidelines.  A car or truck with a large rebate as a tool to move them and cover negative equity is soon to be part of the “good ole days”.

It is these type of transactions that inflated home values and brought around the inevitable market correction and now is the time for the automotive industry to wake up to the fact that this is not financially sound for any party.

Large rebates on vehicles held by the manufacturer can cripple cash flow for a dealer and cause them to pay interest on their own money.  Basically dealers are giving the manufactures loans and they are paying the interest for them, in their floor plan cost.

A customer who dumps a vehicle they are upside down in by using a large rebate has only gotten a shiny new ride with the same negative equity problem they had before thus removing them from the market for a longer protracted period of time.

The lender who makes a loan structured on invoice price before taking into account a rebate is way under collateralized and is making large personal loans disguised as secured loans.

Not a win for any of the participants.  If the customers and the dealers will not put an end to the madness chances are the lenders will be the first ones to do so, especially now that the federal government is getting into the banking business.

Is this bad for the future of the car business?  Not at all.  It will cause a distress for the short term and stop the shell games and the industry will win when the dust settles.

Today’s traditional media is online.  Radio, cable tv, direct mail and print are antiquated forms forms of marketing.  To call those forms of advertising “traditional marketing” is like telling your kid to go to the record store to get a needle to play the new 45 you just bought.

Dictionary defines traditional as:

tra⋅di⋅tion⋅al   [truh-dish-uh-nl]  – adjective

1.     of or pertaining to tradition.

tra⋅di⋅tion  [truh-dish-uhn]  –noun

1.     the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.
2.     something that is handed down: the traditions of the Eskimos.
3.     a long-established or inherited way of thinking or acting: The rebellious students wanted to break with tradition.
4.     a continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices.
5.     a customary or characteristic method or manner: The winner took a victory lap in the usual track tradition.

Sure if you are in a conversation with a third generation dealer those forms of advertising may be considered “traditional” according to the definition.  Traditional could also mean generations of bad habits like smoking and overeating.  Not real good examples to follow.

However the second part of the phrase “marketing” is defined as:

mar⋅ket⋅ing /ˈ[mahr-ki-ting] –noun

1.     the act of buying or selling in a market.
2.     the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

What resonates the loudest in the definition of marketing is “the transfer of goods from .. seller to consumer.”  Antiquated marketing does not accomplish that, traditional marketing does. 

So to use the definitions to define “traditional marketing” I would say “A continuing pattern of practices to transfer goods from seller or buyer.”  I don’t think antiquated mediums suffice to fill those shoes.

It is the buyers tradition of research to acquire goods and services you must market in their form of tradition.  With over 70% of buyers researching vehicles online before making a purchase decision it should tell dealers and consultants that the “tradition” for the buyer is to start online.  Even if they do not make their final purchase there.

If customers by habit use a medium to collect information before signing on the dotted line, they have created the tradition that you must embrace.  They don’t care about your traditions or habits they only care about theirs. 

You market to people by reaching them, you need to go to where they are.  No amount of money is going to get them to listen to your radio ad when they are using their iPod and Sirrus, they won’t watch your commercial if they TiVo or DVR and when was the last time you really read a paper front to back or sorted through sales slicks in your mail box.

Just as we have become immune from advertising so have our customers.  I guess the weekly print ad is still an effective closing tool for sales people and weak managers and provides them with a tool to discourage other forms of marketing because they do not want to be responsible for encouraging something different than the status quo.

Today’s consumers traditionally go online, most car dealers traditionally spend money marketing in the wrong places.  Be an innovator if you are not to late and own a market area before your competition wakes up by using traditional marketing, let them keep wasting their money.

Customers are changing their traditions we must change our vocabulary.

When they think of social media and networking it is mostly myspace and facebook and the problems they have experienced with them.  Mainly by employees downloading software that chokes machines so they can add zwinky’s to their myspace profiles or spending to much time using these networks and not working or they feel that it has no practical application to business and these types of activities are for children.

Online social interactions go way deeper than that even though both of the sites mentioned can be used to generate business and stay in touch with past customers.  As part of my affiliation with DrivingSales I try to stay on the cutting edge of how dealers can benefit by using social media.

The main goal at Drivingsales.com is for dealers and vendors to interact with each other, share best practices and discuss and rate strategies.  Through this process the cream is rising to the top and dealers are becoming more aware of the valid uses of social interactions.

One of the best examples is Eric Miltsch of Auction Direct USA.  He is an avid user of many of the social media platforms, most notably his used car blog, twitter and a site he built called TweetandGreet.  Through his social media presence for him and the company he works for he was featured on the Dell.com blog.  It is this type of publicity and free exposure you cannot buy at any price. 

It provides more benefits than can possibly be expressed in a simple post here.  The main ones are immediate traffic and exposure, long term SEO benefit and possibly a level of search engine reputation management, chances are these guys will never need it they are getting it right.

While the core of what we do at drivingsales is strictly automotive but other one of our member who works for Carter West Public Relations had one of her blog post picked up by a reporter with US News and World Report.  Imagine how much cred she can display when dealing with future PR clients when she can show them she was quoted there.

The industry is finally starting to grasp how important the benefits of these little things are.  Dealers and their employees can leverage this if they will take the time to get involved.  It may be as simple as setting up their dealership blog and profiles and the different sites and continually chipping away at their online engagement until they figure out what works and what does not for their organizations.

Customers do not care how long you have been in business. How many times have you heard a new broom sweeps good? There is a certain amount of stodginess that comes with being the old faithful, a certain amount being the man and a lot of complacency by having the status of the landmark.

Think of businesses we have seen rise and fall because of their unwillingness to adapt.

Remember when AOL was the internet?
Remember when you waited in anticipation for the Holiday Sears catalog?
How many vacant Blockbusters Stores in your area?

And now the big three are holding on by a thread.

Think about companies that are almost nothing more than a memory today because or their unwillingness to change or take a risk into uncharted waters before you deny a new idea or fail to try to embrace new things. If you are the one lobbying for it remember many times it is easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Right now we have some very talented people providing us with blogs, forum discussions and strategies.  Personally I have been in contact with just about all of them via the telephone or email.  Everyone of them are willing to help dealers and vendors with issues they may face or they would not be here contributing. 

The site and traffic here is growing by leaps and bounds and it due to the great contributions by the members who take time to interact with the community.  Sure we have had some issues with our software and scripts and we are working daily to enhance your experience with the brain trust that is being formed here.

As a member you need to leverage the power of the combined knowledge.  Use your discussion board to ask a question or get opinions.  Share a strategy that has worked for you to sell more cars or help your dealer clients.  Want some free exposure request a blog at DrivingSales, by sending an email to contactus@drivingsales.com.  Have you found a nugget that has helped you or a strategy that you would like to try?  Comment on it or rate it.  Be a taker until you are comfortable with contributing, but get your name out there and participate.

Social Networking in the automobile industry is starting to take roots and will propel the industry into the 21st century. Social networking is nothing new to anyone that has had an internet connection for more than 30 days almost all of our online activities incorporate some level of networking.

The core of any business is to attract more customers, while social networking by design is to start conversations. Using social networking to grow your business can come in many different forms.

• Attracting customers - Making New Connections.
• Retaining Customers - Find out what they really think about you and providing support.
• Exchanging Ideas with Others - Find out what others are doing to build their business and letting others know what you are doing to build yours.

One of the things that web 2.0 has brought to the world is transparency. It is not just a buzz word anymore. The exchange of information in our world today moves faster than it ever has and it will continue to pick up momentum. How that information about you and your business moves is your choice. People are going to spread the word about your company whether you want them to or not. Good or bad, you need to become part of the conversation to help maximize how others perceive your company online.

Industry leaders are learning to build their brand using social networking by allowing their people to connect with others and placing brand awareness where it belongs, in the minds and hands of the ones that represent them on a day to day basis with the people that use their products. It allows them to become the hunted not the hunter and capitalize on the Law of Attraction, while improving their competence at marketing themselves and their company’s corporate brand.

Social Networking takes on many forms. Most people think myspace, facebook and linkedin, all valuable tools, on the surface when the topic of social networking comes up and they do provide a level of connection. However, there are many other ways to network online. Blogs, your website, review sites and industry specific networks just to name a few. These resources also will contribute to your Search Engine Reputation Management and off site Search Engine Optimization for your corporate website in addition to engaging others.

When you start to build your online networking brand you need to be very cautious on how you present yourself to these communities. Use your own picture, use a phone number where people can reach you directly and be respectful in your communications. Remember this, if you would not want your mother to see what you have said you are probably better off not putting something out there that someone else’s mother may see.

Having a space to call your on is as important as belonging in a space bigger than yourself and contributing, helping and seeking knowledge to build your business. This can be accomplished through the use of blogs, building your profiles at various networking sites and utilizing different forms of user generated content. This can be an arduous process, but the best analogy to use when starting on this journey is to remember “You can eat an elephant one bite at a time.”

Friendships and customers can be built through online interactions and your contributions to a community. Once you become an active participant in these types of communities you will be amazed at the number contacts you will receive, from people wanting your advice, giving you advice and seeking out your services. If you participate without the dollar signs as your motivation you be amazed at the real return on investment realized for your time.

The best way to build brand awareness online is through your people. The best way to keep your clients happy is to encourage the conversation. The best way to learn what others are doing to improve their business is a free flow exchange of ideas. The best way to learn online networking is to join the party!

Get involved and build your brand.

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