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 inquire further. Her explanation: “Look, I’m not happy about everything but I understand things happen and he has called everyday to offer shuttle service if I need it and keep me updated. Plus he always returns my calls! As long as he is there, I’ll never go anywhere else.”

No CRM or process can force it; this is a man who’s building for himself a career and a following.

By contrast, I’ve seen customers who were so happy with their experience that they sent in referrals who also bought cars. The salesman failed to follow-up on the $100 referral program check he had pitched to them at delivery. Even though the matter was eventually resolved to their satisfaction, the message from their salesperson had been received loud and clear.

Even if the news is unpleasant a swift delivery with a clear message will alleviate most hassles. “no there is no second set of keys” trumps “I don’t think there are but I’ll look and if they show up I’ll call” every time.

Communicate often, clearly and through the channel the customer is comfortable with. The payoff is huge.

What fail-safe's are in place at your Dealership? How often do you monitor or cross-check to measure that your expectation is being met? Pro-active will beat reactive every time!

Bryan Armstrong

@bryancarguy  

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 inquire further. Her explanation: “Look, I’m not happy about everything but I understand things happen and he has called everyday to offer shuttle service if I need it and keep me updated. Plus he always returns my calls! As long as he is there, I’ll never go anywhere else.”

No CRM or process can force it; this is a man who’s building for himself a career and a following.

By contrast, I’ve seen customers who were so happy with their experience that they sent in referrals who also bought cars. The salesman failed to follow-up on the $100 referral program check he had pitched to them at delivery. Even though the matter was eventually resolved to their satisfaction, the message from their salesperson had been received loud and clear.

Even if the news is unpleasant a swift delivery with a clear message will alleviate most hassles. “no there is no second set of keys” trumps “I don’t think there are but I’ll look and if they show up I’ll call” every time.

Communicate often, clearly and through the channel the customer is comfortable with. The payoff is huge.

What fail-safe's are in place at your Dealership? How often do you monitor or cross-check to measure that your expectation is being met? Pro-active will beat reactive every time!

Bryan Armstrong

@bryancarguy  

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 floor that we whip into a frenzy to secure the daily result needed for our monthly success. Sales people by and large are paid off of what they produce within certain chronological parameters and have little or no motivation to begin the touch-point process years ahead of any sales culmination. I suggest that the best way to overcome this prejudice is to share with your key personnel the vision we as management so viciously guard as “upper-level” information.

                As we move (hopefully) to a more transparent sales process, it only makes sense to do the same with our Management styles. Begin hosting Monthly and Quarterly review/planning sessions with all key dept. personnel and share with them the goals for the Store, the advertising calendar that will help achieve the goal and the costs and benefits both monetary and personally that said plan will provide to them. By getting your entire team behind a quarterly and yearly goal you will not only empower them with a sense of belonging  but also turn them into key advocates to the rest of your staff. By tying inclusion in this Visions Team to key performance criteria you can create and foster a Leader culture and Team vision while enforcing and rewarding personal accountability.

                Information is power but the hoarding of information is counter-productive to team building. We assign feature/benefit analysis to our clientele each day in motivating them towards a specific (buying) action. Doesn’t it make sense that doing the same with our teams could produce the same type of desired results?

                Key points covered should include:

• Potential Ad points – brainstorming will occur
• Costs vs. benefits of campaigns
• Staffing issues
• CSI trends
• Inventory allocations

If your lot tech understands the 3 month snapshot as well as the cars that need detailed today the buy-in achieved will produce more quantifiable results and foster a more productive work atmosphere. Goals set by the Store, to achieve personal level buy-in and make sense to the very people we depend on, must be clearer to all. Then and only then their daily achievements may begin to be the building blocks we see them as. Everyone needs to understand and feel included and empowered towards a Stores success not just accountable to the daily task list.

We gain power by giving it away and Leadership does not have to be limited to Title holders.

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 floor that we whip into a frenzy to secure the daily result needed for our monthly success. Sales people by and large are paid off of what they produce within certain chronological parameters and have little or no motivation to begin the touch-point process years ahead of any sales culmination. I suggest that the best way to overcome this prejudice is to share with your key personnel the vision we as management so viciously guard as “upper-level” information.

                As we move (hopefully) to a more transparent sales process, it only makes sense to do the same with our Management styles. Begin hosting Monthly and Quarterly review/planning sessions with all key dept. personnel and share with them the goals for the Store, the advertising calendar that will help achieve the goal and the costs and benefits both monetary and personally that said plan will provide to them. By getting your entire team behind a quarterly and yearly goal you will not only empower them with a sense of belonging  but also turn them into key advocates to the rest of your staff. By tying inclusion in this Visions Team to key performance criteria you can create and foster a Leader culture and Team vision while enforcing and rewarding personal accountability.

                Information is power but the hoarding of information is counter-productive to team building. We assign feature/benefit analysis to our clientele each day in motivating them towards a specific (buying) action. Doesn’t it make sense that doing the same with our teams could produce the same type of desired results?

                Key points covered should include:

• Potential Ad points – brainstorming will occur
• Costs vs. benefits of campaigns
• Staffing issues
• CSI trends
• Inventory allocations

If your lot tech understands the 3 month snapshot as well as the cars that need detailed today the buy-in achieved will produce more quantifiable results and foster a more productive work atmosphere. Goals set by the Store, to achieve personal level buy-in and make sense to the very people we depend on, must be clearer to all. Then and only then their daily achievements may begin to be the building blocks we see them as. Everyone needs to understand and feel included and empowered towards a Stores success not just accountable to the daily task list.

We gain power by giving it away and Leadership does not have to be limited to Title holders.

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 3^rd 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 ultimately takes up more key controllable real estate in the search results for a Dealers name.

While this is great in and of itself, what is truly amazing is the way it came about. As a Dealer Manager I struggle to find the best vendor products that will enable me to secure key results. This goal is often times contrary to those Vendors internal revenue-generating structure. For example, while DealerRater, AutoTrader, Cars.com are all  good Vendors, I’m unhappy that unless I sign for the top most package I will still have my Competitors encroaching on my SERP’s by means of banner ads and other potential brand leaks.

Rather than be put between a rock and a hard place, what if we all continued to look outside the Automotive vertical for solutions, contact those companies and share with them the insights needed to achieve a viable product that is within our own control? To take it a step further, we then share the information and results and collectively benefit from one another’s efforts. The end result is that we could control our own digital foot print to a greater degree and become even more independent.

Quit being a digital share cropper, leasing your own land and giving your hard-earned profits to the very people you’ve paid to enhance your impact, then turn around and monetize your name and hard fought results. It’s a slower process initially but at the end of the day, you can be the master of your own domain rather than being reliant on a 3^rd party and subject to their whims of change. 

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 3^rd 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 ultimately takes up more key controllable real estate in the search results for a Dealers name.

While this is great in and of itself, what is truly amazing is the way it came about. As a Dealer Manager I struggle to find the best vendor products that will enable me to secure key results. This goal is often times contrary to those Vendors internal revenue-generating structure. For example, while DealerRater, AutoTrader, Cars.com are all  good Vendors, I’m unhappy that unless I sign for the top most package I will still have my Competitors encroaching on my SERP’s by means of banner ads and other potential brand leaks.

Rather than be put between a rock and a hard place, what if we all continued to look outside the Automotive vertical for solutions, contact those companies and share with them the insights needed to achieve a viable product that is within our own control? To take it a step further, we then share the information and results and collectively benefit from one another’s efforts. The end result is that we could control our own digital foot print to a greater degree and become even more independent.

Quit being a digital share cropper, leasing your own land and giving your hard-earned profits to the very people you’ve paid to enhance your impact, then turn around and monetize your name and hard fought results. It’s a slower process initially but at the end of the day, you can be the master of your own domain rather than being reliant on a 3^rd party and subject to their whims of change. 

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 determination. There was no “pitching” of Products or Services and Dealers and Vendors alike were discussing ideas based on their MERIT alone. Strategies were shared and opinions ran strong and passionate and I remembered again of why I love what I do.

The real time twitter feed became an open forum wherein audience participation abounded and Speakers were commented on and rated by their peers IN REAL TIME. Vendors that are at odds and fierce competitors “on the street” sat at the same table and discussed strengths and weaknesses of their Platforms IN FRONT OF DEALERS!!! We hear the term “crowd-sourcing” bantered about, but with the live feed, twitter and input from different camps I have now seen it in action and come away with a clearer picture of what I hope to aspire to and a knowledge that I am not alone in that dream.

A few years ago, some friends of mine, Joe Webb and Bill Playford of DealerKnows, stated to me in a personal conversation, that they wanted to be “The Justice League” of the Dealer world when it came to Vendor Solutions/Consultants. DrivingSales has for these three days created an army of evangelists that will take the things learned and relationships built and enabled the seeds of such a vision to be spread far and wide.

I know I will be looking back through the #DSES hash tag on Twitter and watching these sessions as they become available on DrivingSales TV to further clarify and define the course in the weeks and year to come until the next one.

Thank you Jared and your hard working Team at DrivingSales.com for continuing to push the bar and set a higher standard for learning and interacting at Automotive Conferences. It may be altruistic and naïve, but I hope to be able to carry this passion with me to sustain me till next year’s Event.

I will be implementing take-a-ways from here and giving feedback in this Community and would encourage all those in attendance now, observing from afar or directed to this post by some well-intentioned friend to do the same and make plans now to attend next year’s event. This is not an Automotive Conference in the Traditional definition of the word as much as it is a trek to the Holy Grail. Come and renew, rejuvenate, be enlightened and re-define our role in the Business world. If you don’t, in the words of Gary Vaynerchuck you’ll be “going out of business within 15 years, and if 15 years is all you need, then fine”.

Personally, I too want to leave behind a legacy and know that I left an imprint of good upon the world through selling cars. After all, being a "car guy" (or gal) is, in my estimation, an opportunity to serve others and thereby better myself.

Bryan Armstrong

@bryancarguy

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 determination. There was no “pitching” of Products or Services and Dealers and Vendors alike were discussing ideas based on their MERIT alone. Strategies were shared and opinions ran strong and passionate and I remembered again of why I love what I do.

The real time twitter feed became an open forum wherein audience participation abounded and Speakers were commented on and rated by their peers IN REAL TIME. Vendors that are at odds and fierce competitors “on the street” sat at the same table and discussed strengths and weaknesses of their Platforms IN FRONT OF DEALERS!!! We hear the term “crowd-sourcing” bantered about, but with the live feed, twitter and input from different camps I have now seen it in action and come away with a clearer picture of what I hope to aspire to and a knowledge that I am not alone in that dream.

A few years ago, some friends of mine, Joe Webb and Bill Playford of DealerKnows, stated to me in a personal conversation, that they wanted to be “The Justice League” of the Dealer world when it came to Vendor Solutions/Consultants. DrivingSales has for these three days created an army of evangelists that will take the things learned and relationships built and enabled the seeds of such a vision to be spread far and wide.

I know I will be looking back through the #DSES hash tag on Twitter and watching these sessions as they become available on DrivingSales TV to further clarify and define the course in the weeks and year to come until the next one.

Thank you Jared and your hard working Team at DrivingSales.com for continuing to push the bar and set a higher standard for learning and interacting at Automotive Conferences. It may be altruistic and naïve, but I hope to be able to carry this passion with me to sustain me till next year’s Event.

I will be implementing take-a-ways from here and giving feedback in this Community and would encourage all those in attendance now, observing from afar or directed to this post by some well-intentioned friend to do the same and make plans now to attend next year’s event. This is not an Automotive Conference in the Traditional definition of the word as much as it is a trek to the Holy Grail. Come and renew, rejuvenate, be enlightened and re-define our role in the Business world. If you don’t, in the words of Gary Vaynerchuck you’ll be “going out of business within 15 years, and if 15 years is all you need, then fine”.

Personally, I too want to leave behind a legacy and know that I left an imprint of good upon the world through selling cars. After all, being a "car guy" (or gal) is, in my estimation, an opportunity to serve others and thereby better myself.

Bryan Armstrong

@bryancarguy

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 3^rd 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 Street threw up. Every brightly colored “special” that was previously pushed down the page will now appear in all its gory...I mean “Glory”. If that was your strategy, congrats, you’ve just spent years creating an online advertising section, a brightly colored collage of offers that will show your true intent to all your followers and fans.

Of course if you’ve refrained from confusing Social Media with Digital Marketing, you’ll be fine.

                My point here is this: build a house not a trailer (I mean “mobile home” just to stay politically correct). With a house you own the lot and whatever you build on it. A mobile home may be nice, but you are always going to be beholden to the lot owner and you have limited say as to how they monetize their property. You’re just a tenant.

Bryan Armstrong

@bryancarguy

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 3^rd 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 Street threw up. Every brightly colored “special” that was previously pushed down the page will now appear in all its gory...I mean “Glory”. If that was your strategy, congrats, you’ve just spent years creating an online advertising section, a brightly colored collage of offers that will show your true intent to all your followers and fans.

Of course if you’ve refrained from confusing Social Media with Digital Marketing, you’ll be fine.

                My point here is this: build a house not a trailer (I mean “mobile home” just to stay politically correct). With a house you own the lot and whatever you build on it. A mobile home may be nice, but you are always going to be beholden to the lot owner and you have limited say as to how they monetize their property. You’re just a tenant.

Bryan Armstrong

@bryancarguy