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"Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will." - Nelson Mandela

"A fool and his money are soon parted." - Thomas Tusser

"The creditor hath a better memory than the debtor." - James Howell

When it comes to what you get for your dollars, the less digitally educated (always) receive less, only the digital versed (sometime) receive more. This is becoming more the point today as the public becomes more digitally harmonized but the vendors create one digital segmentation after the other.  This takes place, unfortunately, because it can, plain and simple. This post won't stop dealers from spending stupidly, however, let's take a look at what truly matters in today's online marketplace.

Honest truths:

1. Your website - If your website is not a mobile-first or at last fully responsive website, you have problems. Your vendor won't tell you that directly and Google has work-arounds, however to properly address your website traffic today, you MUST be on a new platform. If your website backend requires you to optimize for mobile separately or "push" pages to mobile, you DO NOT have an effective website. You don't, get it? OK, you still don't get it...
2. Local SEO/Local citations - If your local citations are not managed, at least the top 14 that MOZ reports on let alone the over-60 that you should have claimed, managed and up-to-date, you are missing phone calls, leads, visits and sales. Quit taking pitches from social media vendors that these are "review sites". many of them offer visitors the ability to post reviews, however they must be evaluated as listings, not review sites. And all of those sites (including Google My Business/Google+, Facebook, Youtube, Yelp, Bing, Factual and more) are pointing to places. They need to point to the SAME place: address, website URL, phone number and more (commonly referred to as NAP). And your site needs to have those same data points in the site and structured around your local community. STOP placing 8-15 city names on the top-level pages with the same keywords and metadata. This is called keyword stuffing and will get you ignored, more or less. It's irrelevant and, most importantly, considered black hat by the search engines. Also, if you have one location for sales, service and parts, you are creating confusion by adding microsites and other ways to "promote" all aspects of your business. If you have a separate service location with a different address and local phone number, add a unique URL, you are fine. If you don't, you are confusing your local citations. Third, if you are leveraging subdomains as many larger dealer groups do (locaation.dealershipgroupname.com) or your OEM site (DBANameorLocation.ManufacturerName.com) you are shooting yourself in the foot in so many ways. Yes, stores pull it off all of the time. Google has said not to do this, so it's your risk!
3. Paid Search/SEM/PPC Marketing - if your paid search vendor doesn't report directly into Google Analytics and/or allow access into their MCC/AdWords account, you are very, very, very likely being taken advantage of. Many lies are told around not revealing all AdWords (and Bing Ads as well as other advertising, let alone ad networks) data due to special bidding, patented algorithms, unique software and other "Google doesn't know what we do" explanations. READ: you're being ripped off. A company doing an amazing job for you will show you that your CPC is going down and relevancy/page rank and conversions are going up. Many SEM companies earn rebates on the amount they spend collectively plus performance and, quite frankly, that should be celebrated.  A handful of very well-known vendors hide this data due to the fact that they are making more money on dealerships telling you it's their secret sauce while simply taking money from you. Seeing only the session data but not the cost and click data inside Google Analytics means you are having the (true cost) wool pulled over your eyes. For thousands of dealers, this is to the tune of hundred and thousands of dollars, monthly.
4. Social Media - Get over it! If you are not in the paid social game, you are nearly invisible, not generating a good volume of leads and, likely, not building the SEO value that social can. There is nothing wrong with organic social....if you have an ACTIVE audience of at least hundreds if not over a thousand. The size of your total audience (Likes) is irrelevant. Understand? If you have 5,500 likes on your dealership page and your posts receive under 20-40 people engaged on each one with mostly likes (no comments or shares), you are mostly talking to yourself. There are opportunities for organic social media, however if you pay for an ad or dark post once a month or less, forget it. Things have moved! Also, if you're not uploading video directly to Facebook (versus embedding or linking a YouTube video), you're not getting the exposure you deserve. Wh? Because Facebook said so. And, for the most part, quit Boosting posts and get real with your intended audience. Did you know that you can generate leads on Facebook directly? Not an ad with a landing page on your site, leads on Facebook directly. IF not, ask your "social media" vendor why they didn't know yet...
5. Measurement - You wouldn't necessarily think that you must be versed in measurement if you have a good handle on the above and you completely trust your vendor(s) , and you'd be kidding yourself. If you are not spending at least a couple hours a month in addition to simply your website or marketing reports to review analytics and how ALL of your marketing affects traffic, leads, retention and consideration, you are lost.

As OEMs continue to take over marketing directly and through third party "consulting companies" that are taking millions of dollars of dealers' money monthly, any legitimate efforts that are being made on your behalf are being mitigated and, in many cases, competitive advantages are being shared with many. Now, we all know that most dealers can't duplicate (they'll do their best to follow the moves while inevitably missing important steps) proper marketing best practices, let alone all of the internal requirements, but realistically your advantages can be cut down significantly. This is also evident, for different reasons, to the point that many stores don't allow digital marketing staff to post on automotive blogs because they'll reveal their "secret sauce" (NOT!!). 

What's your next move? First, figure out who is taking you for a ride. This is most prevalent in search marketing, social media marketing, display advertising and website SEO . If you don't have an outside consultant or friendly dealer you can have an honest conversation with, chances are you won't ever know.  Yes, some vendors are honest about the work that is done for the fee you are paying. The rest, well...

BOOM! It happens and you're left without a net... Damaged image. Damaged perception. Damaged goods.

Unless you have a brand. Unless you've been under a rock or have been too 'busy', the amount of evidence, chatter, discussion and conference-data hinging about branding has been nearly deafening. And still, undeniably, the majority of dealers put all of it on the badge.

Write your excuses down and put them where the training materials are from your favorite industry speaker (likely in someone's office or under the desk in the tower, collecting dust). That's where theu. Belong.

Retailers with amazing brand, consistent engagement, a commitment to what they do for customers and how much they care for their own people know what to do and say when the shit hits the fan.

If you have little else aside from lip service and management doing things the way they always have, you're forced to depend on the badge. And folks, that's a crappy position to be in. Oh, it is completely preventable.

Brand, whether the store's or the salesperson's or the service tech's or the business manager's, is inextricably tied to the customer expeerience. Someone can sell a product for years and ultimately be invisible.

Whatever comes out of any manufacturer difficulty or trial can be mitigated by having a brand that is independent.  It's been proven over and over and over.

There will be those who come out if any challenging time better, more aware,ore prepared and more convinced. Will that be you after the smoke clears? Or will it be back to business (badge reliant) as usual?

Don't be badge-dependant, be self-dependant!  If you don't understand or believe that, it's time to do a little self-searching...and ask what your brand is.

Best Practices: Professional Insights, Powerful Results 

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

Anyone who regularly reads our blog knows a few things. One, we tell it like it is. Two, we educate from fact and passion, not from the heart of from the pocketbook. Three, we do and cover what nobody else does across the entire scope of services. Four, we affect a sliver of the industry through the automotive social sphere. While none of these aspects alone are uniquely significant, it becomes more so when you consider what dealers are receiving from “advisors” today.

Recently we had a high-line dealer visit that also included a regional sales director from the OEM, which is a rare pleasure. They wanted to review the new digital assessment package from their third-party partner. While we were extremely happy that the digital marketing consulting company that had previously provided in-field services for the OEM and their dealers was no longer doing so, and there was clearly an improvement in the standard deliverables, frustration quickly set in.

In reviewing the report, it was clear that it took into account items that didn’t properly set up dealer expectations, or take into account how search algorithms have changed, especially mobile, contained improper SEO evaluation components (named search, for example) and wasn’t thorough (had both scoring and consistency issues).

So while the report was an improvement over the third-party and OEM agenda-only approach previously employed to advising the dealers, it showed that we are still significant;y off the mark when it comes to assisting a dealer in doing a better job online. While we’ll assume that the vendor’s intentions are completely altruistic, we once again see the misguided and completely subjective plight we’re in considering there are no “digital standards”, no “consulting certifications” and certainly no “results-based comparisons”.

What we do have is more vanilla. Yes, the OEMs to a large extent need the data; yes, there’s a much better way to go about it. And the challenge is how can you do that, counting on one or two companies, without true A-B testing, in a cost-effective manner? You can’t and all that happens is the dealers can operate off slightly better input rather than consultants taking ideas and bringing them back to the third party and OEM. Everyone loses in that scenario.

Yes, more money is being spent. And with that, more errors are being made. Stupid, unseen errors. How do you tell a dealer that 25-50% of their SEM spend is for terms they shouldn’t be buying, cities that are 500-1,500 miles away, with action-killing text and that 47% of their traffic is on mobile but 70% of their budget is going to desktop? Or that their website’s key pages have the same content as 100 other sites and incorrectly link to non-existent pages on their site? Or that their social media is a complete disaster that is not being seen, read or acted upon? OK, “tell them” you say. And then they bury their heads again or plead the “have to use what my OEM says to” line of garbage. No you don’t.

Stop getting vanilla. When the market drops again, and it WILL, there will be a larger dividing line digitally between dealerships. You can’t take an OEM digital assessment report, unfortunately still, and build better value, own more spots in SERP, turn your social media and social marketing around or answer your leads any better. You actually need to spend money doing that, using different vendors than everyone is using and learn how to understand this our evolving, digital world.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Resultsz

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

The "C Word". You know, that word. The one that makes dealership executives' skin crawl, makes sales people laugh, has trainers' mouths drool and absolutely keeps your store from its true potential. It even has female staffers cringing, question working at the dealership. Say it with me....CULTURE.

Ignored by only the bravest of souls who understand the kind of wrath and trial it brings. Changing culture takes balls. It takes work. It takes time. And it takes an unrelenting focus as well as undying commitment. We all know it, so why do so few do it? Weak leadership? Lazy management? Not necessarily. Mostly it's due to the lack of understanding what the intermediate goals during and wins at the end of the effort are. You know...not starting with the end in mind.

Culture, by definition, is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

In other words, you've built the existing culture and it's continued nearly blindly. In order to change a culture, the industry has historically resorted to spiffing or spanking. That's not truly leading a culture change, rather a practice of distraction. So we take adults who should otherwise be able to achieve a change and create a different focus. Then we shoot down the same adults when the incentive or punishment dissipates. Quit setting your business up for failure!

Culture change takes conviction and creating lots of buy-in. We do that a lot with lead management and sales coaching at IM@CS. Creating adoption breeds results. More than taking the same business rules and communication requirements from dealer to dealer, like most consultants and trainers do, it takes a focus on sustainable actions through owning efforts, responsibility and results at each individual business.

Instead of blaming incompatible software, say desking and CRM, for why salespeople don't complete their logging and steps in tracking and following up with customers, create an environment where sales supports each other and daily reports reign. And back it up with at least one weekly sales meeting run completely out of CRM. Over-simplified? Possibly. Worthwhile? Absolutely.

Culture? It's everything or it's nothing. Yeah, that will reflect everywhere...

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results
 

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

“If digital were that easy, everyone would be doing it” said no automotive OEM executive, ever. But somehow, over the past few years, it seems as though they did. Meaning, for the most part, they don’t do anything digitally and yet…they expect their franchises to through some very forceful measures.

The dealers don’t win. The consumers don’t win. The car companies win. Concessions. That’s all. And not the kind that sell more cars. No, car sales are not up due to websites, erosion of gross or 84 month leases. Car sales are up because of demand, available loans and because, yes, the cars (all of them) are being made better today than ever. Oh, and of course, because your website company says their marketing rocks and they deliver the most low-funnel consumers to your doorstep (yeah, those reports make us puke, too).

Homogenization has never been greater at a time when nearly every smart person in marketing (automotive and non) says to create differentiation in every aspect of your business. Yet your OEM digital representative, who was in sales operations three years ago and brand communications a year ago, comes in and says that you have to/should use website provider A or B (that doesn’t have a fully responsive mobile platform, let alone one site), CRM vendor C2, search marketing partner D5B and consulting company WTF (who’s consultant was born the same year your rep graduated Northwood and worked at a Verizon store last).

If you’re smart and digitally savvy, you’ll run as fast as you can the other way. Why? Because selfishly, every digital know-it-all can do a better job? No. Because, unless you have a well under-performing store that you can plug any brainless automotive digital veteran into, buy more leads and sell more cars, they’re after your data, customers, results and ideas through managed programs. Yes it’s absolutely essential to have every retailer represented well digitally, however if a dealer wants to think that digital is a fad and not put resources into the top consideration generator, let them do so. It’s natural selection in business folks, let ’em sink.

Being made to look like every dealership with the same banners, offers, landing pages, newsletters, paid marketing and social media is a slow, miserable existence. An import dealer shared today that during his recent brand marketing meeting, an OEM digital overlord told him that he should have the ability to turn off all of the factory marketing if he had his own. Unfortunately, his website company (OEM-endorsed) didn’t allow him to and the third-party, in-the-way-of-your-results consulting firm didn’t have an answer on if he could or not. (the OEM guy did take notes and will report back!)

Another dealer chatted with us about not having proper used car data on their OEM-endorsed websites for their group. You think that the car company loses any sleep over used car anything, let alone mis-equipped listings potentially losing thousands of dollars?

It’s time to take your marketing over if you want to. Yes, it’ll take time, money, measurement (you don’t understand now), resources, patience and a die-hard willingness to learn, changing your dealership culture. And it has to start with the dealer and general management. Not for a dashboard or an award, not for a magazine cover shot or being called up at a conference. And quit talking about visits or sessions, that’s so 2008. Nothing cooler than telling your dealer “we had 1,000 people on the lot and in showroom, sat down with 28 and sold 4!”. By the way that’s what your website says.

All of this is because if something doesn’t sell or service a car, or get someone back to your dealership, it’s not worth buying or using. And nobody, not one person, after working with hundreds of dealers, on OEM programs, at 20 Groups, conferences and webinars, producing second-to-none content, social and SEO, can convince us that standardizing marketing and solutions across thousands of retail points across North America can do anything other than paint the industry with a bland brush.

You don’t deserve that and your customers don’t deserve that. Will Rogers once said “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging”. Unfortunately these OEM digital programs have created a Crab Mentality by literally not letting those that choose to get ahead. Good intentions, poor execution.

You can do much better. We hope.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

You can read more IM@CS posts on DrivingSales or on our site

We’ll let you in on a little secret. For years, decades really, you’ve been able to throw some words and photos onto recycled trees, shoot a check out for $5,000 a week and create a line so long out your front door you were laughing. And now you have a virtual ad up every day for one quarter that price (or less for most dealers) and bang your head against a wall.

You might even think that your last print ad actually did better than any other source in recent memory.

The only rules that changed when you relied on print was if your rep would “take care of you”, a competitor would drop out of the paper for a week, you had a better lost leader than the closest same-brand store or if you included dealer cash or bought down rate and nobody else did that weekend.

Nowadays how you show up, where you show up, when you show up doesn’t make sense to you and don’t have anyone even get you started on pricing as gross erodes, software tells you how to optimize your lot and competitors you’ve never heard of are showing up in your pump-in, pump-out report.

You would gladly spend $30,000 a month to see your latest promotion, however if another rep or consultant walks in with a haphazardly assembled SEO report telling you that their services are needed immediately for $2,000 a month you’ll give them the Axel Foley treatment in Beverly Hills Cop.

And now you’re told that your current website provider platform isn’t up to snuff (what is a subdomain or a second “site”??), your paid ads don’t convert, leads are down and your cost per sale is up. You’re pissed. And mostly because you don’t understand what to do and how to do it or how to get your vendor(s) to do it, not because your most important advertising source can’t work.

It’s your smallest investment (you’ll spend more in coffee services, porters and trips to 7-11 for Red Bull for your staff to start logging their ups and follows ups in CRM).

Studies don’t matter. Analytics don’t matter. Lead ROI doesn’t matter. Not until all of the basics are covered. Not until you have an understanding of your $700-$3,000 per month spend. It’s never been a pay-for-it-and-leave-it even though every vendor tells you it is.

Websites are one of your three greatest investments and the least expensive (the other two are your staff and your CRM). Don’t ignore it and them blame anyone else. You shouldn’t spend money for anything you don’t understand. Don’t be the one who knows more about what clubs Jordan was using last weekend, yet nothing about the platform your website runs on or that you need to deliver four sizes of your latest ads instead of one. Don’t get pissed off at one of your smallest line items, get smart and get results.
 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

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

Not paying attention to mobile, tech and search is about to get more annoying…and costly!

What time is it? Really, what time is it? It’s not hammer time or time to get ill, although you may after reading this. It is time to consider where you SEE what time it is. For a lot of people in automotive (read: dealer principals, general managers, general sales managers), it’s usually a nice watch. And guess what? Within months, a lot of those people will be migrating to “smart” watches. Lots and lots of people will.

What does this mean for you? Well, truth is we don’t exactly know yet however know this…you’re about to get more annoyed from a cost and tech perspective. And to think, you were finally getting comfortable with spending money on SEO for your antiquated website 5 years after you should have been spending the money to DOMINATE your market and you just felt like looking into geo-fencing, although you still don’t get it.

Tech, and smart watches specifically, is going to continue the drumbeat of change and focus. Not to say everyone is going to buy a $10,000+ gold-plated Apple watch,. No. More people will be buying the Android watch that’s $499 at Costco right now!

Very few of you are going to think “great! A service app on someone’s wrist with integrated push notifications…I’m in!” Most of you are going to ask “what person would even want their smart phone that close to them?” or “Why do I need to pay attention now, until it’s more common?” or, the worst, “what spend any money on that?”

This is the real question you need to ask yourself, “will my platform, apps and communication be ready for this switch and what is a reasonable cost to be ready?” and for most of you, the answer is no. Look at your email templates and ask yourself are they mobile-ready today. (hint: most dealers have large/wide headers with links, some kind of framing, large/heavy graphics, video and other assets as part of your (non-relevant) emails you send to customers. Newsflash, you’re killing yourself and, if you have an OEM-pushed consultant coming in to your dealership, you’re even more in trouble. You’re not ready!

Tech, search and communication are changing at the speed of the consumer, and you have yet another wrinkle in your plan to do the same thing you were doing before you read this, so keep doing what you’re doing. Yes, car sales are up so dealers can make a lot of mistakes and still make money. The about-to-happen explosion of smart watches represent another example of how overwhelmingly wrong automotive retail marketing is. Now go put your Fitbit on your wrist that tracks you via GPS and uploads to your Strava account and do that run you were planning,. Nothing to see here, everything is fine...

Best Practices: Professional iInsight, Powerful Results

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

Expose your business. Better yet, expose yourself!!

It’s not about who bares it all. No, the game is about who gets the exposure at the right time. And most of the time, we perform poorly.

Marketers have been talking for decades about exposure, impressions, brand recall and market share. And while nobody (at least here) needs to be convinced that exposure should be primarily online, we’ve once again been shown that the conversation shouldn’t be about advertising.  Yes folks, exposure leads to conversation. All kinds of exposure… ;)

So what does the color of a dress have to do with car sales? Both a whole lot, and absolutely nothing. Within a short while of the “dress” explosion last week, automotive b-to-b social media was abuzz with puns,  memes and conversations.  Some of those actually made it to the retail channel. No OEM or retailer had an “Oreo” moment due to what color a dress was. And it was all an experiment anyway.

Marketers are being shown up, at an alarming rate, by the media of individuals. And we are still concerned with the “right” newspaper ad for the weekend? Millions of people joined an online conversation about screen resolution and perception, yet nobody sold a car from it.

And there could have been some massive fun, too. “Buy a new (fill in car brand) and receive a (fill in department store) gift certificate toward any color dress you want” could have shown up on websites, email blasts and social media within minutes. No, it was all about the weekend ad, which gorilla looks good on the roof, or what new incentives will be, or pouring over month-end reports, instead of selling more cars through created connections.

What’s more disarming than making someone laugh? What’s more unexpected than having someone think they just had the least “automotive” experience they’ve ever had?

Exactly how to make a popular culture phenomenon part of your marketing is not the point here, realizing that you have the opportunity to capitalize on more of these types of occurrences is.  Ad agencies and media companies aren’t the ones who do this on the fly. We are.

Salespeople (and managers) are so focused on the “script”, the “road to the sale”, the “processes” and the such, we take so much of the human element out of making car buying fun.. 2009 was the first time we had a client sell a car specifically (and nearly solely) through social media. Stop thinking about what to say and simply start the conversation. Even if you don’t have a dress on…

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

DrivingSales Executive Summit 2014 is officially in the books. It was a sold out event once again that enveloped the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas for the better part of three days. Planned was a (digital) star-studded keynote speaker list plus some of the finest breakout speakers, many dealers, for those in attendance. Here's some highlights form the event from IM@CS' perspective:

Day One

Just as last year, there was a Canadian Breakout Session housing some of the top companies from our neighbors to the north along with some powerful presenters including Grant Gooley and Jeremy Wyant. Jay Radke and Brent Wees definitely brought the "eh" for a second time. Rumor is that next year will be bigger and better (and DSES will NOT be during Canadian Thanksgiving!).

After Emcee Charlie Vogelheim’s grandiose welcome of the attendees, DrivingSales' founder Jared Hamilton managed a uniquely powerful opening recognizing a few members of the car dealer community from stage for thie personal triumphs and celebrations. Most poignant was a heartfelt message and standing ovation for Courtney Cox Cole of Hare Chevrolet. Just completing her last round of chemotherapy a few days prior to the opening of DSES, her presence was missed however her spirit was felt.

The first keynote was Florian Zettelmeyer of The Kellogg School of Management hitting hard on data, telling dealership attendees to get smart on analytics. Well, it was more like "become data scientists", however put the message was clear. This year's Best Idea Contest followed and the audience was treated to some unique ways of approaching the "digital sprawl" that's occurring for dealerships (winner was a repeat of last year, Robert Karbaum). Add to that Mr. Vogelheim’s “costume” unveil, a cowboy shirt that was a present from CADA’s Tim Jackson.

Breakouts began and the session IM@CS attended was with Shaun Raines and Tom White Jr. As expected they hit their stride quickly offering specific actions to dealers that want to build a unique brand, market awareness and make customers the center of their world. Word back from other sessions was positive.

The Fireside Chat that followed had good information however it lacked some of the powerful punch from previous events (DSES and Presidents Club) that had the audience leaning forward or nodding/shaking heads in agreement/dischord. Jared guided Cars.com's Mitch Golub and DealerSocket's Jonathan Ord through a bevy of industry-directional questions and statements.

Day one's evening keynote was Brian Solis, who essentially is Altimeter Group's head analyst focusing on disruptive technology. As expected he brought insight, candor and a new perspectives to the majority-dealer audience, bringing up challenges and opportunities that the industry is facing now and in the near term. He touched on customer experience, the mobile audience, disruption occurring now that is effecting vehicle sales (Tesla and Uber were examples). He signed books immediately after as the reception began.

Day Two

Mike Hudson from eMarketer, a nicely-paced review of where the target is moving with consumers in regard to mobile, engagement, disruptive tech and how the sales funnel has move. Like Solis the evening before, he warned dealers and OEMs to stay up with consumer demand for information and provide only value-based experiences.

Breakouts followed and included such speakers as Bobbie Herron and Brian Armstrong in a joint session on utilizing a BDC or not and Jeff Kershner discussing the mobile-based shift for today’s showrooms. Then Jared hosted a fireside chat with two top executives from the newly-formed CDK Global (previously The Cobalt Group). The keynote before lunch featured Adam Justis of Adobe talking about how dealership marketing must be customer-centric and fully integrated, further pushing the “customer experience” drumbeat for the weekend.

After lunch it was Innovation Cup time and this year’s finalists covered a broad range of dealer services. Not all new however all had a updated take on what is essentially consumer engagement via their technology (NewCarIQ ended up with the win).

Then, it was time for speed listening with Jared Hamilton. His keynote this year, “Competing on Customer Experience”, was another blistering wordfest of reality and must-do strategy, followed by a first-of-its-kind video compilation of customer feedback on car buying experiences. The full study isn’t due until next year, however the teaser included a handful of truthful, hard-hitting testimonials that dealers must listen to.

Afternoon breakouts ensued, showcasing among others Eric Miltsch of Command Z Marketing on wearable tech, Megan Barto of Ciocca Honda & Hyundai on dealership culture, Mike Martinez of DMEautomtoive on putting mobile as your top strategy, Mario Clementoni of NADA on best practices and Joe Chura of Dealer Inspire on website/lead optimization. Chura gave out some valuable “freebies”, third party tips, software/programs and offers that included one from Google not previously known.

Closing our day two was a second-time speaker that couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. Rand Fishkin of MOZ (formerly SEOmoz) dove right into what must-use best practices need to be deployed today for SEO to stick. Raising the bar he set two years ago, his presentation dealt with can-do/don’t-do advice and the Q&A addressed misinformation/misconceptions that many dealers hear regularly through auto industry sources.

Day Three

Charlie and Jared started the morning with the winners of the Innovation Cup then immediately into the 4^th Annual Digital Media Debate hosted by Joe Webb of DealerKnows Consulting. A slightly different format than previous years, two retail executives, two consultants and two vendors addressed topics ranging from Adaptive vs Responsive websites to relying on third party leads, conglomerate vendors versus specialized suppliers and one-price stores versus traditional.

The last round of breakouts showcased Christian Salazar of DealerFire on how consumers are finding your website and content, Aaron Wirtz from Subaru of Wichita recapping how the store addressed their potentially damaging PR debacle and turned it into a complete positive (that ended up going viral) and David Kain of Kain Automotive talking about how to make memorable connections with your customers that last.

Closing the 2014 DSES event was Bryan Eisenberg of Eisenberg Holdings. His presentation, bookending Florian’s from Sunday, was an appropriate ending note on the customer experience “Cool-Aid”. Hitting right on topic after topic regarding analytics, measurement, impending trends in consumer shopping and more, Mr. Eisenberg pulled no punches in telling dealers how they need to change their marketing practices to match the consumer path.

Charlie then reintroduced Jared for the shortest closing remarks of the six years DSES has been produced for the industry’s leading dealerships. It was a fitting end to what surely was the most information-filled conference of the year.

Kudos to the DrivingSales team!

Best Practcies: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Lo·gis·tics  ləˈjistiks,lō-/  noun

    1. The detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies.

We are in the game of logistics. Like it or not car dealerships, at a minimum, are hubs of logistic activities: connections to the factory and engineers, DMS uploads, inventory pushes and pulls, secure financial documents and transactions, lead migration, email and phone connections, server backups, marketing company, sales rep and little league treasure troves...it's dizzying.

Add to that the total of resources: staff, hardware, all the moving parts. And you want to put a 300-pound inflatable on top to make it look like a scene from a Chevy Chase Vacation movie. *burp*

A whole, as they say, is the sum of its parts. However some of those parts are more evident to the people you’re trying to attract: consumers. More important than ever is the media, availability/speed of information and communication we deliver to the public.

So riddle me this Batman: the most important part of your website is the:

1. Template and main pages you reviewed two years ago with your website vendor that you get a PDF “report” from once a month and a visit with once a quarter, when they sell you more stuff.
2. Inventory being online that you assume is feeding correctly with the automated “cheese” seller notes, not so robust VIN explosion/features and being syndicated to portals you’ve never heard f (although they’re fully disclosed in the document you’ve never read).
3. SEO you’ve never checked on provided by the website or aftermarket company (that is ABSOLUTELY using spun content)…oh wait. What’s SEO? Yeah.
4. About us video made a while ago showing some staff you still have employed inside the dealership before the new fascia when up

The answer is none of the above. Just like your dealership it’s the experience. Yes, it has to have what people expect however when’s the last time you met a customer, truly, that knew exactly what to expect. And that is, literally, exactly.

If you’ve not stopped, in a long time, and done a real deep-dive into analytics, feedback from customers and staff, taken more than a gander at your competition (which is everyone), looked and reassessed everything that has your name/brand on it and taken stock of actionable goals and roadmaps, you’re gliding on the rise in sales that’s taken place over the past couple of years now and are, still, not ready for what comes next. Get real about what you’re avoiding.

At the center of everything is a person, with a real need for attention, consideration, information, service, answers and solutions. We are in the logistics business.

Consider this again before you chat with your coworkers about Sunday’s games tomorrow with finite details and stats about passing yards, rushing yards, total years, carries, receptions, turnovers, time of possession, sacks, half sacks, quarter sacks and hurries…and then realize that’s the same level of passion we must exhibit and deliver on for every one of the people that give you the honor of walking through your front door.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results