From time to time, it’s good to get a strong dose of perspective or reality, depending who is describing reality. It’s easy to see why business owners, and especially car dealers, are so confused when it comes to doing anything, let alone well, in the digital/online space. Diluted solutions that favor data over results and backed more by marketing genius than true muscle are more common than wannabe starlets at Hugh Heffner’s gigs at the mansion.

Our reality comes in doses while checking out new markets, our client’s competitors, vendors’ pitch materials or the information the factory eCommerce rep brings around to dealers, from time to time.

The information age is lacking in one large area for businesses; in correct information! In a day where so called experts are giving misleading or incorrect directions, ad agencies are still F-bombing (oops, errant posts to) client social media accounts, SEO companies are still using offshore link/content farms and studies show, for some reason, that 2009 data still needs to be shared on stage as new, not enough people are calling folks out. No, those companies are still getting hired and you’re still using them!

Reality check is you have to consume large amounts of correct information at breakneck speed today to keep up. Mind you, we’re not talking about leading, just keeping up. And most dealers aren’t doing that.

Sure, everyone knows how to eat an elephant. Right? one bite at a time. But trying to take a sip of the digital waters, for most, has been like drinking from a fire hose or the bottom of a waterfall. A little overbearing! Car dealers…get out of your comfort zone and take a big gulp!!

As you prepare to start 2013, here are a few things to think about and maybe, just maybe, put to action:

• Your website should not be the same as your closest in-brand competitor. This is not a vendor thing; it’s a content thing.
• Your emails should not be the same as any local competitor. This is not a vendor thing; it’s a people thing.
• Your social network content should not be the same as any local competitor. This is not a vendor thing; it’s a smart thing.

In 2013, the manufacturers clearly want their stores to be as uniform as possible: experience, showroom, content, website/mobile, email and more. Fight it tooth and nail.  The majority of endorsed vendors are not there for you, they are there for them.  The norm sucks…so don’t settle for it.

The more consumers expect a unique experience, the more our industry fights it. Why? Because it’s not easy to do things that way; even though more of you are just giving in.

The smallest portion of the budgets in our industry, still, happens to be the digital ones. This is a top-down mentality, starting with the manufacturers. Oh, and don’t let the desire to govern response times and having your wrists slapped over a vehicle image with the wrong lug nuts stop you from having a kick ass digital presence and drive more customers to your front door. Do things right the first time and get wet. Get really, really, really, really wet from the digital hose. It’s the only way to lead.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results
 

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

From time to time, it’s good to get a strong dose of perspective or reality, depending who is describing reality. It’s easy to see why business owners, and especially car dealers, are so confused when it comes to doing anything, let alone well, in the digital/online space. Diluted solutions that favor data over results and backed more by marketing genius than true muscle are more common than wannabe starlets at Hugh Heffner’s gigs at the mansion.

Our reality comes in doses while checking out new markets, our client’s competitors, vendors’ pitch materials or the information the factory eCommerce rep brings around to dealers, from time to time.

The information age is lacking in one large area for businesses; in correct information! In a day where so called experts are giving misleading or incorrect directions, ad agencies are still F-bombing (oops, errant posts to) client social media accounts, SEO companies are still using offshore link/content farms and studies show, for some reason, that 2009 data still needs to be shared on stage as new, not enough people are calling folks out. No, those companies are still getting hired and you’re still using them!

Reality check is you have to consume large amounts of correct information at breakneck speed today to keep up. Mind you, we’re not talking about leading, just keeping up. And most dealers aren’t doing that.

Sure, everyone knows how to eat an elephant. Right? one bite at a time. But trying to take a sip of the digital waters, for most, has been like drinking from a fire hose or the bottom of a waterfall. A little overbearing! Car dealers…get out of your comfort zone and take a big gulp!!

As you prepare to start 2013, here are a few things to think about and maybe, just maybe, put to action:

• Your website should not be the same as your closest in-brand competitor. This is not a vendor thing; it’s a content thing.
• Your emails should not be the same as any local competitor. This is not a vendor thing; it’s a people thing.
• Your social network content should not be the same as any local competitor. This is not a vendor thing; it’s a smart thing.

In 2013, the manufacturers clearly want their stores to be as uniform as possible: experience, showroom, content, website/mobile, email and more. Fight it tooth and nail.  The majority of endorsed vendors are not there for you, they are there for them.  The norm sucks…so don’t settle for it.

The more consumers expect a unique experience, the more our industry fights it. Why? Because it’s not easy to do things that way; even though more of you are just giving in.

The smallest portion of the budgets in our industry, still, happens to be the digital ones. This is a top-down mentality, starting with the manufacturers. Oh, and don’t let the desire to govern response times and having your wrists slapped over a vehicle image with the wrong lug nuts stop you from having a kick ass digital presence and drive more customers to your front door. Do things right the first time and get wet. Get really, really, really, really wet from the digital hose. It’s the only way to lead.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results
 

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

Leads. Leads. Leads. Lead? Nope, the customer that should be yours that will buy somewhere else. All the data (little data and it’s more well-known brothers medium data and big data) says the same thing: people that submit leads buy. And buy in a well-defined timeframe. And buy from…….well, it doesn’t matter. Most of the time it’s not you.

So what’s the deal? The deal is this: the more leads that are typically generated deliver fewer customers. Why? Because we can’t change an industry of salespeople, management, training and manuals before it wants to shed its rich history of stuffing customers into cars, only going for the low-hanging fruit and being “busy” which is a crock of bull. Between seemingly insurmountable amounts of information and customers buying, there is a brick wall. Yes, the one you keep hitting your heads against; the one that prevents us from being great and gaining attitudes that push us outside of our comfort zones.

Internet leads are gold. Back in the 1800’s California Gold Rush a lot of people went broke while a fair number made their riches. Fast forward to the last fifteen years and, likely for many of the same reasons, a few are making a killing while most are screaming “bad leads” rather than actually looking at what the heck is happening in their stores.

Between a dealership’s website and third parties, the average store can create enough business to sustain at least one person dedicated to managing “leads” or a floor of great communicators (which everyone says they are) sharing all of the business. The problem lies at the point where a response is sent. For the most part, dealerships respond with crap, period. Invite me into any dealership in the country, I’ll show you mediocre at best responses within the 30 days period prior and many of them.

So what needs to be done to eliminate losing someone at hello? Ready…here’s the rocket science:

• Read the lead, and most of the time the source lead, completely prior to sending a response. Then read it again. Then slow down and read it again.
• The response should include answers to every question or comment provided by the customer and validation for the customer
• The response should include a qualifying and/or a closing question every time. In every email. Every time. No matter what. Every time. And if you can’t think of one, write a couple and stick it to your monitor or keyboard (would you like assistance with anything else? or did you have any other questions right now?)
• Hit send after you’ve read the email thoroughly, ensuring that everything asked by the customer has been addressed, value or benefit has been identified, your complete contact information is included and that no significant amount of time has elapsed since receiving the information/email/response from the customer. Hold it!! Read it again and make sure it is understandable and completely addresses what the customer wants and needs without being a Steinbeck.

The reason that most dealerships don’t receive equitable responses from customers who submit online leads is….we send garbage! If it’s easier and more rewarding to buy a $25 item from Amazon than a $30,000 car from your store, shame on you!

Never send an email or pick up the phone (recorded phone calls demonstrate that we do just as s**tty of a job on the phone as emails) when (1) you don’t know what you are going to say, (2) don’t address the customer’s needs, (3) can’t properly invite them into the dealership and (4) talk/write more than asking questions.

Expectations around online experiences leading to purchase are increasing. So it doesn’t make sense to miss the mark, then defend yourself to your GM or GSM with anything other than “you know what, I don’t deserve to manage your leads”. And by the way, that’s not much of a defense, however at least it’s honest.

Remember that there is no such thing as a bad lead, just a crappy response. Yes, there are bogus leads but you’re old enough and smart enough to sell 20+ cars a month on 100 leads. Yes, you are. Go get ‘em tiger!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

Leads. Leads. Leads. Lead? Nope, the customer that should be yours that will buy somewhere else. All the data (little data and it’s more well-known brothers medium data and big data) says the same thing: people that submit leads buy. And buy in a well-defined timeframe. And buy from…….well, it doesn’t matter. Most of the time it’s not you.

So what’s the deal? The deal is this: the more leads that are typically generated deliver fewer customers. Why? Because we can’t change an industry of salespeople, management, training and manuals before it wants to shed its rich history of stuffing customers into cars, only going for the low-hanging fruit and being “busy” which is a crock of bull. Between seemingly insurmountable amounts of information and customers buying, there is a brick wall. Yes, the one you keep hitting your heads against; the one that prevents us from being great and gaining attitudes that push us outside of our comfort zones.

Internet leads are gold. Back in the 1800’s California Gold Rush a lot of people went broke while a fair number made their riches. Fast forward to the last fifteen years and, likely for many of the same reasons, a few are making a killing while most are screaming “bad leads” rather than actually looking at what the heck is happening in their stores.

Between a dealership’s website and third parties, the average store can create enough business to sustain at least one person dedicated to managing “leads” or a floor of great communicators (which everyone says they are) sharing all of the business. The problem lies at the point where a response is sent. For the most part, dealerships respond with crap, period. Invite me into any dealership in the country, I’ll show you mediocre at best responses within the 30 days period prior and many of them.

So what needs to be done to eliminate losing someone at hello? Ready…here’s the rocket science:

• Read the lead, and most of the time the source lead, completely prior to sending a response. Then read it again. Then slow down and read it again.
• The response should include answers to every question or comment provided by the customer and validation for the customer
• The response should include a qualifying and/or a closing question every time. In every email. Every time. No matter what. Every time. And if you can’t think of one, write a couple and stick it to your monitor or keyboard (would you like assistance with anything else? or did you have any other questions right now?)
• Hit send after you’ve read the email thoroughly, ensuring that everything asked by the customer has been addressed, value or benefit has been identified, your complete contact information is included and that no significant amount of time has elapsed since receiving the information/email/response from the customer. Hold it!! Read it again and make sure it is understandable and completely addresses what the customer wants and needs without being a Steinbeck.

The reason that most dealerships don’t receive equitable responses from customers who submit online leads is….we send garbage! If it’s easier and more rewarding to buy a $25 item from Amazon than a $30,000 car from your store, shame on you!

Never send an email or pick up the phone (recorded phone calls demonstrate that we do just as s**tty of a job on the phone as emails) when (1) you don’t know what you are going to say, (2) don’t address the customer’s needs, (3) can’t properly invite them into the dealership and (4) talk/write more than asking questions.

Expectations around online experiences leading to purchase are increasing. So it doesn’t make sense to miss the mark, then defend yourself to your GM or GSM with anything other than “you know what, I don’t deserve to manage your leads”. And by the way, that’s not much of a defense, however at least it’s honest.

Remember that there is no such thing as a bad lead, just a crappy response. Yes, there are bogus leads but you’re old enough and smart enough to sell 20+ cars a month on 100 leads. Yes, you are. Go get ‘em tiger!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

The 2012 DrivingSales Executive Summit has closed its doors with an amazing, energetic event to show. Congratulations to the entire (growing) DrivingSales team, you have left a higher bar to be measured against, once again. With nearly 1000 in attendance, primarily dealers, the vibe was strong around leading-edge strategies. And the expectations were high...

Opening in one of the Bellagio's main ballrooms, with the shortest intro of the four-year event by Jared Hamilton, emcee Charlie Vogelheim introduced Dennis Galbraith to talk about "big data" for dealerships, emphasizing the importance of executable data-based strategy, followed by Luke Wroblewski, renowned mobile expert. The information shared by the former Yahoo design guru wowed the crowd. While not industry-specific, the impact of traffic and studies was easily translatable to both OEM and dealership tactics. The big question was, why are we not better around mobile strategies? The opening reception definitely reflected the excitement for the event.

Florian Zettelmeyer opened up day two with a deeper drive into "Big Data" with a focus on national brands. Like Luke's presentation the evening before, the practical application into automotive was significant and it turned quite a few heads. Feedback from dealers was overwhelmingly positive, and interesting. So were some tweets: one suggested a drinking game each time "Big Data" was heard, the other coining "Big Data" as the.....well you'll have to find and read it.

Rand Fishkin was next and the SEO oracle delivered. Talking points included off-site, social signals, long-tail and other critical search components. The feedback from the session was that it was top-notch. The SEOmoz founder gave dealers (and many vendors) information points that area critical to success, especially given lots of "enterprise" information that is typically given to the industry.

One of the marquee events of the DSES was next...the Best Idea competition. It's best to watch the videos on DrivingSales TV since this post can't quite catch the passion that the dealers being to the table. Everything, at the end of the day, is about the dealer and the industry moves as the speed of retail. So go watch! After the first round of breakout sessions, it was back into the main ballroom for the Innovation Cup. This year cDemo came out on top. Next year those in the running are going to watch to polish up their presentation and explanation skills....

Cobalt was next with their presentation that was supposed to hit on research and, wait for it.... Data that the industry could use relevant to websites and traffic. Some of the points were relevant while many points were already part of existing marketing for most of the dealers in attendance. Then, the full-capacity crowd was rewarded with a gem of a presentation from Billy Beane. The Oakland A's General Manager, who doesn't make public speaking a regular practice, talked about how businesses must be smart, agile and customer-centric, plus saving some tongue-in-check monologue about Moneyball. The audience paid full attention to his ideas, quotes and stories.

Tuesday opened with Facebook and Google...and a heavy dose of anticipation. The two biggest subjects on the industry's mind, Google reviews and Facebook advertising, were not covered due to both companies request. Tom White did as good as possible a job without a full quiver of questions to ask, still leaving some important aspects to be covered by both the search and social giants.

Then one of the most highly anticipated sessions in the industry in 2012: Jared Hamilton hosted TrueCar's Scott Painter for a one-on-one Q&A. Whether Jared took it easy or was tough on who represented the industry's pariah about a year ago or not is of opinion, there were some great questions and responses with some in the crowd wondering what position TrueCar will play into 2013.

Jim Dance followed with a leadership focused presentation that should immediately impact dealership operation. Rich in examples and strategy, Jim did have a post-lunch audience (always tough) that revealed many taking notes. Packed afternoon breakouts brought the event to the evening's joint keynote with JD Power's Automotive Marketing Roundtable. Mini's marketing head Tom Salkowsky talked about their passionate customers and gave chimerical and video examples of just how dedicated Mini owners are.

Then, Scott Straten of "Unmarketing" fame stepped on stage and gave the packed ballroom plenty to laugh, cry and think about. Between chanting "stop it" in regard to mediocre marketing and technology use to bits of "Awesome", his words danced throughout the mix of dealers, OEMs, agencies, media and portals packed i for the following conference. Sick as a dog, Straten simply engaged the audience with the same style and techniques he begged attendees to use.

Amazing event. What will the DSES team due to make 2013 shine? We only have 12 months to find out...

Special announcements: Jared Hamilton introduced industry veteran Kevin Root as President/COO of DrivingSales and revealed that in April 2013, the DrivingSales Automotive Presidents Club featuring Seth Godin. For dealers who want to attend the New York event, go to www.drivingsalespresidentsclub.com

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

The 2012 DrivingSales Executive Summit has closed its doors with an amazing, energetic event to show. Congratulations to the entire (growing) DrivingSales team, you have left a higher bar to be measured against, once again. With nearly 1000 in attendance, primarily dealers, the vibe was strong around leading-edge strategies. And the expectations were high...

Opening in one of the Bellagio's main ballrooms, with the shortest intro of the four-year event by Jared Hamilton, emcee Charlie Vogelheim introduced Dennis Galbraith to talk about "big data" for dealerships, emphasizing the importance of executable data-based strategy, followed by Luke Wroblewski, renowned mobile expert. The information shared by the former Yahoo design guru wowed the crowd. While not industry-specific, the impact of traffic and studies was easily translatable to both OEM and dealership tactics. The big question was, why are we not better around mobile strategies? The opening reception definitely reflected the excitement for the event.

Florian Zettelmeyer opened up day two with a deeper drive into "Big Data" with a focus on national brands. Like Luke's presentation the evening before, the practical application into automotive was significant and it turned quite a few heads. Feedback from dealers was overwhelmingly positive, and interesting. So were some tweets: one suggested a drinking game each time "Big Data" was heard, the other coining "Big Data" as the.....well you'll have to find and read it.

Rand Fishkin was next and the SEO oracle delivered. Talking points included off-site, social signals, long-tail and other critical search components. The feedback from the session was that it was top-notch. The SEOmoz founder gave dealers (and many vendors) information points that area critical to success, especially given lots of "enterprise" information that is typically given to the industry.

One of the marquee events of the DSES was next...the Best Idea competition. It's best to watch the videos on DrivingSales TV since this post can't quite catch the passion that the dealers being to the table. Everything, at the end of the day, is about the dealer and the industry moves as the speed of retail. So go watch! After the first round of breakout sessions, it was back into the main ballroom for the Innovation Cup. This year cDemo came out on top. Next year those in the running are going to watch to polish up their presentation and explanation skills....

Cobalt was next with their presentation that was supposed to hit on research and, wait for it.... Data that the industry could use relevant to websites and traffic. Some of the points were relevant while many points were already part of existing marketing for most of the dealers in attendance. Then, the full-capacity crowd was rewarded with a gem of a presentation from Billy Beane. The Oakland A's General Manager, who doesn't make public speaking a regular practice, talked about how businesses must be smart, agile and customer-centric, plus saving some tongue-in-check monologue about Moneyball. The audience paid full attention to his ideas, quotes and stories.

Tuesday opened with Facebook and Google...and a heavy dose of anticipation. The two biggest subjects on the industry's mind, Google reviews and Facebook advertising, were not covered due to both companies request. Tom White did as good as possible a job without a full quiver of questions to ask, still leaving some important aspects to be covered by both the search and social giants.

Then one of the most highly anticipated sessions in the industry in 2012: Jared Hamilton hosted TrueCar's Scott Painter for a one-on-one Q&A. Whether Jared took it easy or was tough on who represented the industry's pariah about a year ago or not is of opinion, there were some great questions and responses with some in the crowd wondering what position TrueCar will play into 2013.

Jim Dance followed with a leadership focused presentation that should immediately impact dealership operation. Rich in examples and strategy, Jim did have a post-lunch audience (always tough) that revealed many taking notes. Packed afternoon breakouts brought the event to the evening's joint keynote with JD Power's Automotive Marketing Roundtable. Mini's marketing head Tom Salkowsky talked about their passionate customers and gave chimerical and video examples of just how dedicated Mini owners are.

Then, Scott Straten of "Unmarketing" fame stepped on stage and gave the packed ballroom plenty to laugh, cry and think about. Between chanting "stop it" in regard to mediocre marketing and technology use to bits of "Awesome", his words danced throughout the mix of dealers, OEMs, agencies, media and portals packed i for the following conference. Sick as a dog, Straten simply engaged the audience with the same style and techniques he begged attendees to use.

Amazing event. What will the DSES team due to make 2013 shine? We only have 12 months to find out...

Special announcements: Jared Hamilton introduced industry veteran Kevin Root as President/COO of DrivingSales and revealed that in April 2013, the DrivingSales Automotive Presidents Club featuring Seth Godin. For dealers who want to attend the New York event, go to www.drivingsalespresidentsclub.com

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There are no shortcuts... Car dealers, when it comes to websites, SEO, reputation management, SEM and social media stop simply buying services blind or going co-op “approved” to save a buck. Stop buying enterprise solutions because it's one check or everything comes on a "proprietary dashboard" and start getting effective results with accountability. Start being your own dealership online rather than being like all of the rest. The same is what enterprise solutions get you. It doesn't work.

Some quick examples: Redundant SEO doesn't stand out and as a matter of fact it’s penalized today by Google and Bing. Copied press releases don't get clicked, read or acted upon. Facebook posts (even though, yes, Google and Bing don't crawl them) that are identical to every one of your competitors don't gain reach or go viral. And PPC ads that aren’t set up properly and don't have unique content don't convert.

It is time to drop the vendors that are endorsed by your brand/OEM that 450, 700 or 1,600 other stores are on; and time to invest properly, get involved with what YOU put online under your name and get real about understanding and results. And for business sake, reputation management and social media are not things you just turn over and don’t watch and discuss, period. Paying vendors to get reviews and paying someone to put up pictures of goldfish in adjacent bowls starting at each other with "caption this" was not acceptable in 2009, let alone 2012. And even if you're not up to speed with what Google or Yelp are doing (and you need to be), don’t pay for reviews from someone that’s not a salesperson, service writer or other employee. Your reputation is your responsibility, not a vendor’s for a couple thousand dollars a month.

Your OEM-certified vendors don’t understand social media and for most brand headquarters, the people making the decision don’t know much more when they sign the purchase orders or endorsements. Most eCommerce heads had stints in other areas of their brand operations and have no experience or understanding.  It’s time you knew that because you are trusting your largest traffic generator, which most dealers flinch at spending $1,000-1,500 a month for…let alone more appropriate, higher costs, to a decision someone made based on a relationship, a pitch and/or promises of non-dealer-centric benefits.

Take ownership and yes, you can and must do and be responsible for every single thing that has your name on it: advertising, fliers, sell sheets, hang tags, pictures, video, templates and online marketing...all the way down to your business cards. If you aren’t on your way, or at least starting, down your digital comprehension and betterment it is only a matter of time before you are absolutely, positively passed up.

You will hear this from very few people and places because it flies in the face of convention. And it disagrees with what you hear in ads and presentations. And it is an about face from what nearly all of the OEMs want and believe. And because it’s hard to beat the 800 pound gorilla (vendors); the gorilla that has no idea what any part of the funnel in their traffic report is, how to properly maintain website optimization, how to set up a legitimate Facebook or Google Plus page and just can’t get its hands around how to actually answer a lead.

Welcome to being back in business for yourself and with the right frame of mind. Yes, that means the herd you leave just may be heading the wrong way…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Resutls

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There are no shortcuts... Car dealers, when it comes to websites, SEO, reputation management, SEM and social media stop simply buying services blind or going co-op “approved” to save a buck. Stop buying enterprise solutions because it's one check or everything comes on a "proprietary dashboard" and start getting effective results with accountability. Start being your own dealership online rather than being like all of the rest. The same is what enterprise solutions get you. It doesn't work.

Some quick examples: Redundant SEO doesn't stand out and as a matter of fact it’s penalized today by Google and Bing. Copied press releases don't get clicked, read or acted upon. Facebook posts (even though, yes, Google and Bing don't crawl them) that are identical to every one of your competitors don't gain reach or go viral. And PPC ads that aren’t set up properly and don't have unique content don't convert.

It is time to drop the vendors that are endorsed by your brand/OEM that 450, 700 or 1,600 other stores are on; and time to invest properly, get involved with what YOU put online under your name and get real about understanding and results. And for business sake, reputation management and social media are not things you just turn over and don’t watch and discuss, period. Paying vendors to get reviews and paying someone to put up pictures of goldfish in adjacent bowls starting at each other with "caption this" was not acceptable in 2009, let alone 2012. And even if you're not up to speed with what Google or Yelp are doing (and you need to be), don’t pay for reviews from someone that’s not a salesperson, service writer or other employee. Your reputation is your responsibility, not a vendor’s for a couple thousand dollars a month.

Your OEM-certified vendors don’t understand social media and for most brand headquarters, the people making the decision don’t know much more when they sign the purchase orders or endorsements. Most eCommerce heads had stints in other areas of their brand operations and have no experience or understanding.  It’s time you knew that because you are trusting your largest traffic generator, which most dealers flinch at spending $1,000-1,500 a month for…let alone more appropriate, higher costs, to a decision someone made based on a relationship, a pitch and/or promises of non-dealer-centric benefits.

Take ownership and yes, you can and must do and be responsible for every single thing that has your name on it: advertising, fliers, sell sheets, hang tags, pictures, video, templates and online marketing...all the way down to your business cards. If you aren’t on your way, or at least starting, down your digital comprehension and betterment it is only a matter of time before you are absolutely, positively passed up.

You will hear this from very few people and places because it flies in the face of convention. And it disagrees with what you hear in ads and presentations. And it is an about face from what nearly all of the OEMs want and believe. And because it’s hard to beat the 800 pound gorilla (vendors); the gorilla that has no idea what any part of the funnel in their traffic report is, how to properly maintain website optimization, how to set up a legitimate Facebook or Google Plus page and just can’t get its hands around how to actually answer a lead.

Welcome to being back in business for yourself and with the right frame of mind. Yes, that means the herd you leave just may be heading the wrong way…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Resutls

You can read more IM@CS posts here on DrivingSales.com or on our blog