We’ve all heard the expression “inspect what you expect” and granted there is great power, insight and learning to be had by monitoring your processes through thorough reporting. However, when is the last time you inspected the data from which those reports are compiled?   The power of inspection lies primarily on the focus those actions will receive because everyone knows they are being monitored. This very knowledge however can backfire when your basing the reports on false data. For example, we know there is a direct correlation between closing percentages and response times. There is also not a manager worth their salt that does not keep a keen eye on this metric. When was the last time you took the extra step and looked at the quality of those responses? Better yet, have you ever picked up the phone and simply asked the consumer “I know you just spoke with my I-Net manager, but I wanted to personally thank you for giving us this opportunity. H...

Chicken Little created a crisis that was, though real in his mind, totally false. However, it spurred others into frivolous action in a well-known Fairy Tale. In the next few weeks and Months many Dealership personnel will confront the same thing as they interact with Vendors at the Dealership, in on-line forums and at Conferences.    And thus my friends will begin the Zero Moment of Bullsh**. We get it every day in our inboxes “we have done a quick study of your website and found several areas you should be concerned with”, “Google 3.4 will make your website invisible unless you ACT NOW”, “Get our Free whitepaper on why you need our service and a free 30 Day trial”… and on and on it goes. “Create a Crisis Marketing" is not new. Bomb shelter Companies made millions during the red-scare era, and look at the health supplement market! That’s NOT to say there was never a possibility of being attacked as a Co...

Almost a year ago, I gave a presentation on Digital Marketing and stressed the importance of sites like Foursquare, Yelp and urged all to re-evaluate their push-style Marketing techniques on Facebook. Now, not to toot my own horn (*beep, beep*) you see Siri looking to Yelp for answers, Foursquare becoming ever more relevant and within the next 30 days every Brands FB page will be forced into the new timeline format. Now would be a great time to look at the photos (which dominate the timeline format) that you’ve posted since you began Facebook. Will it be a conglomeration of puppy photos and best caption contests? Will it be a successive progression of Inventory you don’t even have? Worse yet, will it end up that your “friends and fans” see the inane plethora of your weekly ad claiming one sale after another? How effective will the next ad be when everyone can scroll back and see that it’s the “same old same old” that’s you’ve re...

In the Feb. 6th edition of Automotive News they quoted me as not using 3rd Party leads and said I had instead committed those resources to developing my own leads (I think we all know that 3rd Party lead quantity and quality has declined).   In my opinion most of the traffic they get, by rights, should be mine anyway. However, they siphon it off by providing the research portals consumers are looking for, capture their info and sell you that “tire-clicker” as a hot prospect.        So this is ONE of the free (if you don’t account for the time) methods I have used: Wordpress. That’s right the simple, free version of Wordpress.com. My site is http://volkswagenutah.wordpress.com and currently gets about 200 visitors a day. I refrain from promotional posts (there are a few) but each of the Tabs is a stand-alone site as well that I can optimize for the targeted keywords I desire and drive encroachers off my Google re...

All across the Country, in fact probably in Dealerships everywhere, a similar scene has played itself out today: Call every un-sold Customer we’ve had all Month, bump all Trades to get a New retail unit, take that loser deal because we need those last few cars, get an update on every non-funded deal, call emergency C.I.T. meetings, whip the B.D.C. into a frenzy…. So after this madness and mayhem of erasing Thousands of Dollars of profits in an attempt to get deals funded and volume up, the same vow will be made tomorrow: “We need to stay on top of this stuff throughout the Month so we don’t have this B.S. next Month.” Didn’t you say that LAST Month, and the Month before? If this in no way pertains to you, great, but I’ll bet we can all see something that is applicable. The false sense of Urgency created at the end of each Month is born of the very real desperation created by a failure to inspect your processes every day. The end ...

A while ago I was privileged to be involved in a podcast Larry Bruce  had organized. On the call were some of what I consider to be the best of the best in our industry. (I was there to observe and learn.) During the conversation Larry said something to me that resonated, “I’d like to find the person who came up with the term Desk Manager and punch em in the face.” Of course we all laughed, but then a week or so later Jeff Kershner sends me an e-mail of the top posts of 2011 on his site DealerRefresh. By the way my favorite was titled Are Your Employees “Coin-Operated”? And if you haven’t read it yet you should…after this. The point here is that our industry has become one where in large part a title is just part of an en-TITLE-ment attitude. Once our Title is defined as managing a desk we can easily forget that it’s the Salespeople that keep the need for that desk to exist alive.   So if you’re going to ride i...

As I monitor all inbound and outbound communication of Dealerships watching for signs of impending C.S.I. issues, new or missed sales and retention opportunities and, I am simply amazed at the amount of time, effort, energy and money that is expended by the Sales dept. to remedy issues. By contrast, Service rarely has these problems, but when they do, it’s from the same root cause. That’s right, the “C” word… Communication… or shall I say the lack thereof.   Recently I listened to a customer whose car had been in the shop for 2 days longer than anticipated, the wrong parts had shown up and it was going to be even longer as one needed component was back ordered. When asked about her experience she proclaimed “Your Service guy is a God!” (Keep in mind this was not a warranty issue, she was not in a loaner car and she was footing the bill herself). This response was so far away from what I had expected that I had to inqu...

In every Dealership or business organization I have ever had the fortune to be involved with, I have been privy to the inner workings and directional planning of its success. The only reason I bring this up is that I don’t believe it’s a widespread phenomenon. Whether it is in their advertising platforms or business models CEO’s and G.M.’s will often map out plans weeks, months or even years ahead with key stepping stones toward growing the business. Yet day after day we require our people to focus blindly on the minutiae i.e. some sort of daily task list or the handful of hot new leads or recently sold prospects.                Personally it’s easy for me to make that one Management CSI call because from a 30,000 ft. perspective I know how it fits into the plan as a whole. At the same time, it can seem a fight to have every task (read opportunity) completed by a sales/service flo...

Last month I was honored to be named one of the 5 finalists at Driving Sales Executive Summit in the most innovative Dealer competition. Many of you may know that the idea I presented was for a new review platform called the Power Pen now being marketed by Punchline Advertising. I was honored to be named the 3rd place winner, but I feel that the focus was placed on the product rather than the concept I was trying to convey. Finding a small local company that was providing a similar service to the medical profession and working with them to, in essence, create a new market segment product that better fit our needs was the true innovation idea. The product is secondary. We as Dealers have neither the time nor the funds to create every solution we may need and so we rely on existing companies to achieve the results. The Power Pen is an amazing new tool that allows Dealers to gather verified reviews from customers in the store and have them posted to an independent site which...

I would be hard pressed to describe the events of the day, but if I don’t take a moment now, this feeling of absolute euphoria I feel may escape me as tomorrow prepare to travel and return to the day to day operations of my Store. You see, for the last two days I have been rubbing elbows and interacting with the most brilliant and innovative minds from a variety of Industries and I am literally “in the ether” (You know, that state of enamor that we all try to elicit from our clientele? ) As I listen to impassioned people sharing ideas on Culture shifts, Marketing trends and truly connecting with customers in ways heretofore undreamed of in the Automotive Vertical, I have hope: Hope for a better Culture, better Sales and more importantly, of erasing the stigma that so many of even our BEST customers have long held of an Industry I love. It didn’t matter if ideas conflicted; all were presented, cases stated and the audience left to make their own determ...

Sometime ago I wrote a piece on “Big Pimpin”, to sum it up it encouraged those of us in automotive to not rely too heavily on 3rd party inventory posting sites. This past week there has been a huge buzz about the new timeline format that Facebook is rolling out by month end. Whether you love it or hate it is not what this is about; personally I don’t mind it. I don’t use my Facebook page for any “marketing” type purpose and in the new timeline it’s kind of fun to scroll back through my “life” and see and compare my mindset and moods from 3 months or 3 years ago. It is more difficult to see all my friends status updates amongst my own clutter but I’m sure I’ll adapt. The biggest portion of the new Facebook look and the available real-estate of the page is given over to photo’s. For those dealers who have uploaded every weekly ad they’ve ever run the net effect is their page is going to look like Sesame S...

I’ve written 3 different blogs this week and every time I’ve come to post, something has happened that has made me stop and think that this is the topic I should write on, not just once, but on 3 successive days! So whatever the fates want, they apparently know manipulation. Recently I purchased a new VW Golf T.D.I. I love it. It is a great vehicle and gets far better mileage than the Prius I traded in. This is especially true when you factor in that my wife will actually drive it as opposed to her absolute refusal to even ride in the “grandpa car” (Hey! Gold is a good color!). The point of this is I opened up a letter from the factory that thanked me for my purchase and …you ready?... found included a $5 Starbucks card in appreciation for my taking the time to fill out the survey regarding New Car quality I would soon receive. I got it the next day. I received an e-mail from Cobalt proclaiming all the advancements they’ve made since...

This may seem a bit odd, but I want to address FEAR. Most of us won’t acknowledge the word or the concept. After all we are in the Auto Industry, we fear nothing, right? HA! I have seen fear: of the unknown, of changing market conditions, of new advertising methods and of embracing change. G.M.’s and Owners refusing to acknowledge that the consumers are often times more informed than even our sales staff and wallowing toward obscurity hoping things will “come back”. Unfortunately, just enough fresh traffic still comes in and an occasional high-gross deal is used to justify that somehow those antiquated tactics will still work. “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” ~Japanese Proverb~ My wife’s Grandmother has had two dreams as long as I’ve known her: To own a Red Ford Mustang convertible To walk the beach in Hawaii The only problem is she had a debilitating fear of flying. She started working on it 8 years ago: Wat...

Every Month it seems that all across the Nation in Dealerships everywhere two things happen nearly simultaneously: Salesmen breathe a collective sigh of relief from the huge end-of-Month push and start trying to calculate their paychecks and bonus amounts. Managers try and keep people focused on getting the new Month started and familiarize everyone with the new advertising and incentives. In short, there is discordance and a lull in urgency. Since most consumers begin their research Months in advance, those that didn’t take advantage of that “Month End” deal yesterday still need to be followed up with today. “How do I keep my Store oblivious to the Calendar?” becomes the question. Though we may never totally eliminate this issue, one of the ways to lessen its impact on your Store’s performance is to change your Month end pay dates.  Almost every Store I’ve ever been in has some type of Team or rotating personnel sched...

It’s all in the sprinkles                 I have an obsession with coffee. I’m not talking I like it nor need it to get going in the morning but a full-fledged love of the drink. While at home and at most restaurants I prefer to drink it black but I will have it with cream and sweetened in one way and one way only: a venti latte vanilla breve with 5 shots, no foam and a sprinkle of nutmeg. This concoction of my own careful creative process has been my mainstay at many a Starbucks or up until recently a shop called Beans n Brews. They know me by name and I can even call ahead and simply say, “It’s Bryan, could you make my coffee?” and it would be ready. At just over $8 for this indulgence, I want it perfect.   So it is with much sadness and a sense of longing that I drive by my previously beloved haunt every morning without stopping. Though I am normally (surprise) no...

We all have them, the inevitable “lost” customer. Whether it is the dreaded “bought elsewhere” or even more horrifying “purchased same Brand, different Dealer”, much can be learned from taking the time to get to know WHERE and WHY your potential Customer chose to not do business with you. That’s right, I said YOU. If you’re not taking it personal, you should. Today I want to touch briefly on just one of the myriad of reasons I’ve uncovered this last week in attempting to contact all customers who gave us the opportunity, but ultimately met their needs elsewhere. GAMES!   Most of you know I’m not talking Parker Bros. here. I mean back and forth, 3-card Monty, hide the profit, pack the payment, under-allow the trade, less than full disclosure, it’s still the 80’s, my customer can’t do math time wasters. I’ll put myself out there with an example. I spoke with a customer who said they boug...

               I heard a quote from a Dealer friend of mine the other day which struck me as sad “I spend $100,000 a month on advertising and only half of it works, the problem is I don’t know which half.” The funny thing is in many dealerships the G.M. or Dealer Principal may control or outsource the majority of the ad budget, yet the only Department held accountable to any sort of ROI standard is inevitably the internet. Why should this be? Agencies and Reps. spend huge amounts of time and money investing in building relationships with Senior Management, and are seldom held accountable to the produced results. Perhaps his is because it would reflect on them or on the Owner/GM negatively, because they can claim vague traceability or because the vendor in question once had a glorious track record of produced results.              &nbs...

                 One of the greatest perks of contributing here on DrivingSales as a Community Editor is the opportunity to, on occasion, review products or companies for my fellow Dealers. When the opportunity arose to speak with C.E.O Jim Landy of CarFinanceCapital I jumped at the opportunity. Their board is a veritable who’s who of finance and having utilized Triad extensively in the past I wanted to see what lesson’s had been learned and get a feel for the direction and mission of the new company.     Utah, like many states has been hit by the decline of consumer credit scores and it is often an arduous task to find funding for good people whom have extenuating circumstances. Even banks that claim to serve this growing niche do so with huge acquisition fees and reduced L.T.V. advances. Captive lenders, for many, have stepped up if it’s for their product (either ...

This week I had two experiences that I have to share as I believe they have relevance to our industry. I ordered food from a pizza joint and got a massage…stay with me. #1- I generally go to an amazing Spa called Sanctuary Day Spa. They have three locations and offer a full line Spa experience as well as a gym in at least one location. My favorite Spa is located inside Southtowne Mall. From the time you enter the unprepossessing entrance, you are transported into another world far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The atmosphere is serene and the staff is friendly and extremely competent. I have never received poor service nor regretted any of the fees I have paid. #2- I ordered from Domino’s Pizza. In both instances I began my transaction on-line. #1-In going to the Spa’s website, though I am familiar with their locale and a loyal customer, I browsed the menu of services and since it was Sunday morning and many businesses are closed or have...

It’s that time of year again. The political season is upon us. The ads and hype begin to fill every space, timeline, blog post and feed. All seem to tout themselves as the party of choice and that their Agenda is the only one that makes sense for your personal and professional prosperity. The mudslinging threatens and the overwhelming message begins to take shape “If you’re not with us then you’re against us”.  It is obvious that pressures begin to mount to take sides early. More importantly in the economic reality that has begun to take shape in 2011, that of gradual recovery in our Industry yet with the threat of doom seeming to loom (for many of us are just beginning to recover from the last four years) the available funds are limited and we as Dealers are hard pressed to determine exactly where our expenditures would be best served. Many will be forced to declare early where they are running and because of their party affiliation, be ostracize...

I love Google Analytics. The information theat can be gleaned when properly implemented is nothing short of amazing. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I received the following newsletter yesterday. In case you did not receive it, I thought I'd share it here. Enjoy!     Google Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter 2011, Volume 1, July 2011       1. Introduction Welcome to the first volume of the Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter! This month, we are replacing the standard "benchmarking" report in your Google Analytics account with data shared in this newsletter.  We are using this newsletter as an experiment to surface more useful or interesting data to Analytics users.  Data contained here comes from all websites which have opted-in anonymous data sharing with Google Analytics.  Only those website administrators which have enabled this anonymous data sharing will receive this "benchmarking" newsletter. ...

Are you harvesting potential or digging in the silo?     I have some good friends and know a few vendors that “take it personal”. That being said, as Dealers look toward gaining market share and capturing clientele, there seems to be an almost pervasive and dangerous trend in our industry. I’m talking about the detachment of Dealership personnel from the public image, identity and very persona of the Dealership. We see more and more of our advertising and public facing identities put in the hands of vendors and 3rd parties. Now I’m not suggesting here that mutually beneficial relationships cannot occur or that there are not benefits to having a well-branded corporate identity. But to what extent are the very people who comprise your operation involved? After all, when customers contact the store they may receive a very different experience than what is purported in the blogs and newspaper ads. The best vendors out there bring fresh id...

This is probably more of a discussion, but... There seems to be quite a few different Management sets in the Auto Industry, but most can be traced to something along the lines of a G.M. under which report a Parts/Service Director, G.S.M., F&I, Desk Managers, Team Managers, Salesmen and Lot-techs. Of course this is not a complete list, but most of you are familiar with what I’m speaking of and if not, look around your own Dealership, it’s probably there as well. While this model has served well in the past and set up the G.M. to be an isolation point, I believe it is archaic and cumbersome for communication. I would propose that the most forward facing member of your team should be in the lead. In other words: G.M. E-Commerce Director- Manages all aspects of training and media ensuring our virtual Dealership translates real-world results Service and Parts Director- Daily operations of Fixed-ops Finance Director- C.I.T. and all finance related quest...

First off, it is no accident that I am writing this review, I volunteered immediately upon hearing that Cobalt had released a new Dealer-friendly platform. You see, I had never been a Cobalt fan. I have been saddled with them as a sole provider due to O.E.M. mandates and had more than one unpleasant conversation with their tech support and/or my “Dealer Advocate” and never thought either group lived up to their title.                 Therefore, it was with a healthy dose of skepticism and almost malicious glee that I went into this demo. I emerged on the far side of our scheduled 20 minutes a full 46 minutes later if not an evangelist than at the very least excited and hopeful. The new platform and User Interface with analytics is nothing short of the largest 180 degree turn around I’ve ever been privy to see with any company. The website editing tool is real time, easy to use and...

Here is a recopy of the article I wrote that is published in the most recent edition of the Dealership Innovation Guide.  Let me know what you think...                   It’s no secret, nor should it come as any surprise to anyone reading this that on-line reviews are having a much larger impact on consumer’s purchasing decisions. If I look to my own life, I use them in everything I do, from downloading a new app for my phone to choosing lodging accommodations or simply where to eat.                     On the sales side of any given dealership more often than not, operators are expending more and more of their resources; both money and time, in an effort to get their consumers to respond to and answer positively the manufacturer survey. Multiple phone calls, e-mails and letters are scheduled to...

I’m not sure if this could even be entitled a best practice, a sales tip or a marketing piece for it is written with none of those things in mind. What it is is a reminder that above all else we change live; our own, our customers, our fellow employees and our communities. Perhaps that is to altruistic for some, but in my world it is a reality and a responsibility I feel profoundly.                   Throughout my career I have had many great mentors, both those that inspired me to become as they were and deterred me from ever wanting to be so jaded. Because of the influence of these people I have continually strove to learn more, become better and mentor others. The income level I’ve been able to earn has allowed me to donate generously to causes I support, to adopt a child, to have succored and helped 23 foster children to date and re-unite with parents all but one.    &nb...

As I travel, I use a variety of airlines depending more on their ease of use and adaptability to my schedule than on the fares offered, which are usually quite competitive across the board. However, whenever possible, I choose Delta. The reason is simple, I receive perks. Nothing to great, I have yet to redeem any sky miles for a free ticket or avail myself of the club benefits, but I enjoy being recognized as a loyal customer and fast tracked to the front of the line. These simple things often get me to spend more when faced with nearly equal products.                 To draw an obvious but worthwhile comparison, are your appointments to your Sales Department any different? Whether it be an in-bound fresh phone up or a lease-end call, almost all phone scripts are designed to sell value in the processes we offer. Some even go as far as to coach at the end of the call to say “If something comes up and y...

On any championship team, in any given sport, there are the stars. We all know who they are, the quarterbacks, three-point shooters, home run hitters that get the glory spotlight. So are the demographics of most dealerships made in the same way, the “top dog” sales guys that are catered to, the GM that basks in his own brilliance, the desk manager who brags that he has the highest per car or the finance guy with the most gross.                 While these personalities are embedded in nearly every dealership, might I suggest that it is detrimental to become one of them or allow them to flourish? The damage done to the others around them far outweighs any benefit they bring. How many of your “10 car” guys would be 14 car guys if they didn’t live under the shadow of “Mr. Superstar?” How many deals are missed because no salesman wants to bring a “skinny” dea...

It’s Tuesday and for those of you who subscribe to my posts here or follow me on twitter: @bryancarguy, you probably know that this is my favorite day to post new content. Additionally, not all Tuesdays are created equal, I tend to alternate outlining a best practice or a more technical/process driven post every other week and on the “odd” week, like today, I tend to be more opinionated, musing and observational. Today is that day and quite frankly, I enjoy these the most. So bear with me and please read on and tell me what you think,                 I have in the past vilified some vendors while extolling the virtues of other’s and though I will continue to try and bring to you products and services that are worthy of consideration while pushing others to step up their game, I have perhaps laid to much blame on the wrong doorstep.         &nb...

I believe that most Dealers offer some semblance of rudimentary training when it comes to the Sales Floor on proper “Steps to the Sale” as well as a list of best practices that can be endlessly debated. However in the average Service Drive, how much training is given outside of how to generate an R.O., close a ticket or dispatch a job to the correct level tech? Since happy customers on the drive equal a higher profit and higher retention, I want to share with you the basics “Steps to the Service Drive Sale” that I implemented at a Group where I was the Corporate Trainer. Perhaps my biggest shock, as many of you will recognize that these are VERY BASIC sale techniques, is that Service Advisors dislike being called SALESMEN. “We are ADVISORS” came the hot retort. However, in the first Month of implementation Customer Pay rose 27% Y: Y and C.S.I. also rose. Needless to say, they quickly adopted and expanded this rudimentary list to embrace a tru...