It's no secret that the core of online marketing is quality content.

Good content increases the time visitors spend on your pages, keeps them returning to your site, and engages your audience with your message.  Good content gets linked to, increasing your authority in the search engines and bringing you more traffic.  Good content gives you the ability to place valuable contextual links on your site, making your property more valuable to those sites you link to.  Consumers are hungry for information and they seek quality content, create quality content and your customers will find you.  Make no mistake; going forward your success online will be directly proportionate to your ability to create good content.

In the world of the social web (which is the world we live in if you haven't noticed) you don't have to work hard to find the best content.  You simply login to your favorite community and it finds you.  In the social web your job is to share the content that you like wi...

I wanted to extend a special invitation to all DrivingSales community members to come join us in Orlando for an action packed advanced marketing workshop. Our NADA Conference workshop is about the "Proper model for advanced dealership marketing."  This workshop is geared for Dealer Principles and GM's who are looking to really understand trends in the online market place and translate that knowledge into a working strategy for their dealership to get to the next level.

Inside the workshop we will cover:

How the web has evolved into a social ecosystem and the power (and pitfalls) that come with it.
We will discuss the business case for increasing traffic at your dealership while reducing your spend and lowering your ad costs PVR.
We will outline the strategies and tactics your dealership should be using to drive and measure online business in both Variable and Fixed ops.

Each participant should expect to leave pumped up but most importantly with a higher level of underst...

WOW! The video below is a sad but somewhat familiar occurrence in the auto industry.  It's video of a real sales meeting where the manager is insulting his people into motivation.  He tells his people they suck, failure is their fault and that he, the manager, refuses to be part of the problem.

Unknown to the manager, one of the sales people whips out his phone and records the incident, then posts it to YouTube for all to see. No doubt we will write about the social media implications to the dealership's brand, but for now I want to talk about the huge gap in management skills that are demonstrated in the video.



What do you expect?
We have all been in meetings similar to this.  Most of us promised that when we became managers we would do a better job.  Sadly, without being taught the skills of proper management many in the industry become a product of the environment and poor management perpetuates itself.

I will be the first to say a manager's job is to hold his/her...

Five Strategies for Social Media ROI
Social media is relatively new and critics often state it does not produce concrete measurable results and thus is not worth your time.  This is false.  Here are five concrete, value-boosting strategies that your store can use to benefit from social media.

Social CRM
Your dealership should already have a storewide Customer Relation Management system to help you track and transact with your customers.  Social CRM has a parallel goal to your CRM system, to maintain and strengthen ongoing relations with your customers.  However, Social CRM is much less focused on creating transactions, and much more focused on creating strengthening relationships.  These relationships are built and maintained through efficient conversations on social media sites.

High quality content that engages customers and creates ongoing dialogue is the key to social CRM.  When your customer has a question about a 60k mile service, the answer should be found on your ...

Why your Internet Sales Process matters more now than it ever has, and the 7 Process Points you must execute to be successful:

Advanced marketing tactics like SEO and Social Media Marketing are a big focus in the industry right now. These marketing tools are very successful at moving the bar forward and YES your dealership needs to be involved.  However, if you are growing your arsenal of marketing tools you are also being more wasteful if your process is not nailed down.  Your store should not be investing more marketing dollars unless your customer funnel is proven to convert the customers into deals.  As the economy rebounds and you look to grow your marketing it's a perfect time to do a dealership process check up.  How does your store stack up?

The Correct Internet Sales Process
A successful Internet sales process is not rocket science.  There are 7 things every process should accomplish.  By executing these seven points consistently and with your dealerships brand, y...

At about 5:30 am yesterday morning I was woken up by a twitter text from Jeff Kershner at DealerRefresh.  He told me about a contest he was running to help get dealers involved in using social media and asked if DrivingSales would participate.

Naturally we are game to support anything that helps the dealers get involved in social media.  (Plus I was half asleep and would have said yes to just about anything.  Looking back, buying two flip cams is a commitment I can handle!).   So here it is, DrivingSales is donating a couple extra flip cams to the cause so your chances of winning just doubled!

If you want one of the sickest ISM tools on the market, the Flip Cam MinoHD, here is what you have to do:

1.     Sign up on twitter and follow @dealerrefresh (jeff) and @drivingsales (me)

2.     At four random times during the digital dealer event we will Tweet our location.

3.     First person to come to us from the tweet gets the Flip Cam.
*fine print at the bot...

DrivingSales has been re engineered from the ground up to be faster, offer more features and help you easily find the profit building information you need to maximize your success.  I wanted to offer a quick tour of the new features so you can get the most from your experience in the community.  If you are not a member yet, join us by creating a profile here.

Filters: We have added filters (in the left column) so you can organize the steady flow of content by dealership department and action.  For example, you can view best practices relating to "Growing Sales" in the "Used Car" department, "Cutting Costs" in "Fixed Operations" or an unlimited number of options.  Simply click the departments and actions you wish to view.

Content Creation: Creating and sharing content is the foundation to social media and communities like DrivingSales.  We have added a "Create Some Buzz" box in the top right corner of every page to allow for one click content sharing.  Ask a question in the ...

Today, the Internet Sales Manager is one of the most important and emerging positions in your dealership.  Here is some direction to creating a pay plan that will fairly compensate an ISM and insure the success of your dealership’s web efforts.


1. The pay plan should focus the ISM on their responsibilities:
The objective of your pay plan is to align your employees’ job with your dealership objectives, so the employee is compensated for achieving what the store needs in way that generates fair pay in your market.  Thus, the very first step to creating your pay plan is to review your written job description to see the expectations you are asking the ISM to meet.  If you, like most people, do not have a written job description then your fist step is to create one.  Here are the most popular “Roles” ISMs have in dealerships. 

Various ISM roles:
Sales ISM: This ISM is directly responsible to take customers through your process and ...

The Chrysler Bankruptcy is pushing private creditors into a head on collision with the government and the government backed companies. What plays out in New York's bankruptcy court will largly determine the direction General Motors, and our industry heads.  Will the government keep the playing field level and let the markets rebuild themselves naturally from here, or force their hand to achieve some predefined objective?
President Obama delivered a great speech when he announced that Chrysler would seek Chapter 11 protection.  Despite announcing some really bad news, he kept things very positive and encouraged the public to buy American.  The largest problem facing Chrysler has been, and still is, a steep decline in consumer confidence. The president should be commended for attacking that head on.  However, he ripped a small group of Chrysler creditors for not settling their debt according to the government’s recommendation and thus laying balme on them for f...

Preparing for a Chrysler or GM bankruptcy is an ugly thought that nobody wants to discuss.  However, if you are prepared for such an incident you could save your store hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If your manufacturer does file BK, your dealership will be hit in two main ways.  First, consumer confidence will fall, making the bankrupt franchise’s products harder to sell and sending ripples through the retail and wholesale markets.  Second, your dealership's cash flow will be significantly altered in the form of holdback, incentive, warranty and other payments that are owed your store.
Here are some tips I recommend to shield your dealership form the worst.
Manage your cash position daily

Typically a weekly cash meeting is sufficient, but today as a GM you must be looking at the appropriate schedules daily to insure the dealership has as much cash in the system as possible.
A cash meeting is a time when the department heads get together with the GM or Pr...

This past week I took a couple days off the hustle of office life and traveled back to sunny Florida to attend ward’s Spring Training event in Tampa.  For all those who didn’t attend, I figure Id share a few words and let you know what you missed.

First, I’m a firm believer in industry events.  One problem quite prevalent in the car business is that we tend to have a fairly insular view of our positions within the industry.  As a whole, we do not look outside our companies, let alone our industry, near enough for inspiration and solutions to our issues.   I view Professional events as one way to remedy this problem (participating in a network like DrivingSales is another).  The events allow us to take a step away from the grind, re-evaluate our position, strategy and be inspired for the return.  However, too often these events become such a busy hub for business dev that they turn into a blur of a few days where your feet throb ...

Welcome friends and family of the deceased.

We are gathered here today to honor the life and mourn the passing of the infamous “4-square.”  The 4-square was born at the dawn of the auto industry when vehicle margins were thick, consumers were uneducated and invoice data was guarded with upmost secrecy.  In recent years, with transparency increasing, the four square has been on life support plagued with “old-schooler’s disease, but the time has come to bid farewell. Our beloved 4-square is survived by market based pricing, transparent information exchanges and multi choice menu styled write-ups.  Unless you want to die of old school-ers disease too, I suggest you move on and find a new way of negotiating.

 
How do you negotiate?

Like many of you, my first sales manager was a master negotiator who indoctrinated me on “4-Square” negotiating.  He would role-play tactics to avoid price and “hit, hit, commit” ...

Sorry, but I have to RANT a bit.  I just read an article by a VC who totally misunderstands the issues our industry is facing. As usual, I experienced the run of emotions when I read the post, but ended up somewhat fired up.  People just dont get it.
I do typically start out intrigued when I see successful business people criticize our industry and offer solutions. I believe we would be wise to look for outside influence in these times of reinvention. Then I chuckle a bit because these brilliant people are often in left field as to our industry's struggles.  This particular article argues the wrong reasons why Steve jobs could be the savior of the industry.  I contemplate the proposed solutions, fear sets in, then anger becasue this type of ignorance could really do some great damage.  There is a good chance congressional leaders and the Obama task force think the same way, or be influenced by these other wise successful people, but in the end i...

Social Media Marketing is a great way for companies to engage and energize their audience.  Dealerships and other companies are moving to these mediums to extend their marketing.  While the benifits can be big, there are some very common mistakes that businesses so regularly made it’s almost embarrassing to admit.  Commiting these errors could cause a disaster for your brand that will take a while to repair.
Here are some mistakes to avoid:
Mistake # 1.   Interrupting and shouting.
Social Media Marketing is about connecting and creating conversations around your brand or areas of expertise.  However, marketing professionals have been trained to grab the attention of the consumer and insert their message inside the short moment that they have captured. This does not work on social mediums.   I liken this to sitting around the coffee table talking with friends and interruping with your company's call to action at every pause in conversatio...

At the conclusion of the convention, a few friends and I were having lunch and discussing the show highlights. We talked about the important stuff, like the coolest new product release; and we talked about the not so important stuff, like the parties.  That conversation led to the creation of the first annual DrivingSales “Attendee Choice Awards”  where we will nominate, and let the users add their own thoughts, to the most memorable moments of the Convention.


The awards are 100% scientifically false.  There is no rhyme or reason here, just fun memories. Add your own, disagree with ours or just simply smile as you read the list: (Naturally you know this is simply a bunch of opinion, and is in NO WAY affiliated with the convnetion or the people who put it on.)

Here it goes:

Best face-off between two vendors:  vAuto v.s. First Look  - They were literally 10 feet across the walkway, you could stand at one booth and hear the other&...

 President Bush and President Clinton both spoke today as part of the “main event” for the convention.  Personally I was unable to attend, which was the only disappointment for me this entire convention.  From what I heard President HW Bush was hilarious. President Clinton then got up and said something to the effect of, “I couldn’t get away telling the jokes he can.  Could you imagine if I said some of the things he did??”  Meaning Bush must have said something good… and I missed it.

I didn’t realize how good of a relationship these two prior presidents have, I guess they work together quite a bit.  It’s a rather elite club, to be one of 44 men in history to hold the post of  “The worlds most powerful person.”  It’s also a good example to those of us in the car business about sportsmanship.  As President Bush said about President Clinton, “He beat me like a drum, bu...

As those of you hear can attest, yesterday was another rock solid day of networking and getting things done, not to mention the party scene really picked up last night with some solid events!
I spoke again yesterday, went over my time allotment because we had lots of good questions.
Met some DrivingSales community members, it was great to shake everyone’s hand and get your impressions, feedback and support for some future items.  Steve, we will all be in touch soon!  Thanks!
While on the floor for a few hours I spent some time with the boys from eBay Motors.  Those of you who know Clayton know is he is always a hoot to be around, I’m stoked because he has promised some participation and knowledge from his world at eBay to help the dealers here on DrivingSales... stay tuned.  For those of you who don’t know him, he is a great speaker and knows his stuff.  He is heading up 100 workshops this year in cities across the country.  Ill be att...

Its the morning of Day 2 of the convention, I actually begin my next workshop in just a few minutes but wanted to update everyone on how the first day was...  BUSY!
The day flew by, Bart and I started the day wandering the floor with Rafi Hamid and saying hello to friends.  The big buzz of the morning was that JM Solutions sold off AAX and affiliated companies .  I dont know the details of the transaction, but rumor had it the JM employees found out on the way here.  The booths are seperate, but there is a sign up notifying people of the purchase.
Another interesting note, the vAuto booth and First Look booth are all of 10 feet away from each other on the floor.  Its funny standing at the vAuto booth listening to First Look Demoing their pricing tool.  Market based pricing is hot and your store needs to be invovled. If you have experience with either (or a competitor's product) lets us know your review of them in the Vendor Rating System.  Note...

Handling internet leads successfully usually requires moving the lead from the web, to the phone, to the store.  Phone skills are very important since that is how you build raport and a relationship to bring the customer to the dealership.

I heard this simple question from a rep of mine a while back and it  works GREAT to open up the conversation to set an appointment. Adapt this to your personality and it will engage your guest in a trial close and let you know where you stand.  Remember, the road to any successful sale is to build value, build a relationship and overcome any objections.
Wording:

After responding to the vehicle inquiry, get the guest on the phone confirm that you have the correct vehicle.  Then simply ask them, “Are you the type of customer that would like to test drive the vehicle before making a selection or will you just handle everything over the web?”
The vast majority of customers will answer that they would like to &ldquo...

The Internet has transformed from a static network of electronic brochures, where sites published information for users to consume, to a network of dynamic platforms, where users share and publish information for others to see.  Wikipedia has over taken Encyclopedia Britannica.  Google has overtaken the yellow pages and the masses are publishing more information on blogs than professional journalists are on syndicated news portals. (This is really nothing new to most DrivingSales participants, as you are a perfect example of the transition web from just reading information to publishing and sharing your knowledge on a platform like DrivingSales.com)

What effect will this transformation have on your dealership?  Does your dealership’s web strategy need to evolve inside this environment?  What are the most prominent tools and technology your dealerships need to leverage to succeed?
Today, I believe the most important technologies dealers need to be familiar...

This is not 1996 anymore. It's 2009 and we have some exciting trends taking place in our industry; its time to come out of the cave and participate in these exciting opportunities!  

 
What’s Out: Internet Departments

What’s In: Teaching your entire staff, desk included, how to handle Internet shoppers

The Internet is NOT a niche market anymore.  Since over 80% of your customers are using the web to purchase cars, shouldn't at least that much of your staff be prepared to handle the demand? 

 
What’s Out: CRM as a technology

What’s In: CRM as a management tool for your entire dealership

In today’s market follow up is imperative, especially with Internet marketing.  We reach consumers much earlier in the buying cycle, requiring much more robust follow up. 
(Check out CRM vendor ratings right here.)

 
What’s Out: Traditional marketing to drive customers to your store

What&rsqu...

Merry Christmas to the thousands of DrivingSales community members who frequent the community and participate. We wish you all the very best this holiday season!  Ill share my 2 most memorable Christmas in the Car Business.  (Feel free to add your own if you so desire.)

Most memorable Christmas #1:

When I was 10 or so years old, on Christmas day, my father told us kids that he had some work to do and needed to go into the dealership for a few hours.  He offered to bring us, and said since it was Christmas he thought we could have some fun playing in the Jeeps.  We all went down to his Jeep dealership, my 2 brothers, my sister and even some cousins, and to our surprise as we got there he said, “it looks like Santa visited the dealership.”  Inside the showroom, decked out with the real Jeep Wranglers was a Power Wheels Wrangler for each of the younger boys (I was the oldest by 4-5 years)  The Power Wheels were in between the real ones on ...

For those of you who do not know what the "job bank" program for the UAW is let me give you a crash course:
After heavy layoffs of union workers in the 1970’s, and the threat of automation cutting more factory jobs, the UAW and the big 3 negotiated an agreement.  It was clear that the big 3 would (and should) continue building automated factories where robots completed much of the labor to increase quality and decrease costs; as a result fewer factory workers were needed.  As automation increased, so would the layoffs.  Rather than reward the Big 3 for the ingenuity, and despite the quality enhancements and the cost savings, the UAW demanded that the factory workers still get paid even if they didn’t have a job.  The result of the union negotiation was the "Job Bank."
The job bank is an account, funded by the Big 3 that pays factory workers up to 95% of their prior wages if they have been laid off due to restructuring or automation...

Split deals can be a headache for Management and a downer for the department.  They affect more than the two or three sales people involved, because the team tends to pick sides with their friends and the “ill-will” spreads like a contagious cancer around the showroom floor.
The saying, ‘the best offence starts off with a solid defense” definitely applies here.  Set ground-rules and insure everyone, including management, plays by them; your team will be much better off.
Your CRM tool is one of, if not THE most important piece of technology since it holds the keys to your success, your customers.  Regarding split deals, your CRM tool can take on added value as the end all answer to many of your stores in house disputes.
I feel strongly that “process” is key to one’s success.  Mediocre sales people perform above average if they execute a process well and good sales people will be unstoppable.  As a manager define and A...

With so much hupla over potential for a government bailout pundits and politicians are quick to point an ignorant finger at the many wrong reasons that placed us in this mess to begin with. Few if any, are discussing the historic facts at the core of the domestic automakers current crisis.  The industry was set up right, but has been locked in and unable, not just unwilling, to change their now antiquated business model & structure.
The domestic automakers were born in the very early 1900’s, they weren’t started IN the industrial age, the WERE the industrial age.  These companies grew rapidly into becoming the economic engine that fueled America’s great growth.  To serve the population dealerships were needed in every community for sales and service.  This industry revolutionized the economic world as well as the social world.  Cars made travel affordable and efficient, keeping people connected and making the world a smaller place much li...

I hated spoon deals.
Spoon deals can do some great… and really crappy things inside a sales department.  Sales people rightfully love to be handed a done deal; it basically means free money!  There is a downside to these deals though, they can promote laziness, unnecessarily increase expenses and can start bad feelings inside the department as managers tend to pick favorites because of friendships and then unfairly distribute the free deals.
Here is one way we found to keep the positive and rid ourselves of the negative effects of spoon deals.
Get all your managers to together and determine qualifications that they feel a sales person must have before they turn a family member to them.  This may include things like being knowledgeable with the product, be good with people etc.  Find ways to make these qualifications measurable such as pass off the product tests, have a minimum CSI score of X etc.
With a complete list of measurable qualifiers we went to th...

Life would be very tough without my blackberry.  Of the hundred or so legitimate emails I get a day, being connected and capable of a quick response at all times has dramatically improved my effectiveness.  Its no wonder that smart phones have become a necessity for all walks of executives.
Is it strange then, that the President of the United States, perhaps the most powerful executive of all, cannot use his blackberry to keep up?  Through the campaign trail, I was embarrassed for McCain’s lack of commitment to technology.  He at times seemed proud that he didn’t read emails and often pronounced his lack of tech usage having aids print emails fro him to read.  (Remember the Sales Mangers that continued print leads and only use the paper printouts despite having great CRM/ILM tools available.?  Yikes.) Obama’s campaign, on the other hand, greatly increased his advantage by aggressively pursuing a successful online strategy.
Well, the new...

Recently General Motors announced it’s running dangerously low on cash and could run out in the next couple months with out the governments help.  They need 11-14 billion in cash reserves to run the daily operations of their giant company and are expected to end this year with 12.5 billion available.  This is a thin margin to be running a company on of this size; especially this is a difficult market to be forecasting in.  

What is the 11-14 billion for?  It’s the cash needed to run the company on a daily basis, akin to the working capital a dealer needs to made debt payments, pay off trades as they come in, discount for rebates and wait 30-60 days for the OEMs to reimburse them and to make payroll while waiting for car deals to be funded.  If this money runs out, there will not be enough to make their payments to their creditors, including potentially employees.  They will be forced to seek bankruptcy protection so they can try and renegoti...

A description of the typical gen Y buyer today.  (no this isnt really me, im older than 26... just wrote this to illustrate a point.)
I am an “Internet Buyer.” I am not a super mooch of a customer just looking for the lowest price.  I am not an anal-retentive computer science nerd using mosaic to buy my car because that’s what the elite of the web do.  No, those days and shoppers are long gone.
I’m no longer a 14-year-old boy playing around on his dad’s laptop, who decided to send a lead to see what happens. That was me 12 years ago when the web was just starting to take traction in the auto industry.  Today I am a normal 26-year-old college grad buying my second car. I don’t look at the Internet as a fad or me as part of a specialty market.  No, the Internet isn’t even a “way of life,” it’s just part of me and there is very little separation between my life and the web.
I was writing emails, surfin...

Does this sound familiar? As an ISM have you work a lead, set an appointment and then it appears the guest didn’t show as promised… then hours later you see their name on the deal board next to another sales persons name?  You approach the sales person and get the response, “They didn’t ask for you, how am I suppose to know they were an Internet customer?  I’m not giving you half a deal now since I’ve done all the work, all you did was send them an email.”

Lets face it, this happens. A lot.
The tensions between Internet departments and retail floors are real.  ISMs feel skated by their retail counterparts and the retail sales person doesn’t believe that an ISM deserves part of the deal “for just sending an email.”
With over 80% of the population using the web to help their purchase experience, these disagreements are not going away.  What ends up happening is you dampen employee moral with the bickeri...