Jared Hamilton Blog
Total Posts: 156
JH
DrivingSales inc
Sep 9, 2010
Growing Your Dealership as the Economy Rebounds
Leading a dealership through a recession is nothing new to the veterans in the industry. Because the economy is cyclical, every so many years the market contracts and dealers have to manage the scaling back of their business to meet the realities of new market conditions. Fortunately recessions don’t last forever, so the market always rebounds, and as it does dealers reinvest and grow.
We are currently seeing signs of positive growth in many dealerships signaling the time to reinvest and grow is upon is. However, rebuilding from this recession will be different than any other and its not just because this was one of the worst downturns on record.
Typically, if you are cutting expenses to match market conditions you focus on variable expenses, as they tend to be the most manageable. When you reduce costs you start by cutting those items that are the least important to the store first and cutting the more important items later, only if necessary. Then, when it’s time to rebuild, you would normally reinvest in the exact opposite order that you cut, meaning you would add back the most important items first and the least important items last. Eventually you would have built the store back to the investment/expense structure you had before the recession.
That process will not work today.
Dealers must rebuild from this downturn differently because while we were hunkering down, fighting the storm, the media world dramatically changed. The markets that we used to connect with our customers are now very different places. If you try to rebuild back to where you were before, you would be optimized for a market that largely is different and you will hit an expansive plateau of diminishing profits and loss in market share.
Consumer behavior changed over the last few years and new media outlets such as search and social media are now the predominant media sources for consumers. The new markets require that you shift your focus to different areas as if you want to dominate in the years ahead.
Here are a few tips to focus on:
1. Employee Skills: As you hire more people consider new skills that are critical in today’s world. Computer skills, especially online communication and social networking, are essentials for everyone, not just your Internet manager. You do also need more Internet sales people than you had previously. There is no difference between the retail and Internet customer, thus everyone on your team should be capable of handling an “Internet” customer. Hire those with the skills to handle Internet business.
2. New job roles: The new media markets have created the need for whole new positions inside dealerships. Search and Social Media is all about content. Do you have a content writer on staff? You should. Who is the brand voice for your dealership that manages your social media activity? Many stores are wrongly trying to outsource all of their social media. This is not good unless you believe you should outsource your relations with your customer. Hire or promote someone in your organization to be your voice online. These are just two of maybe a half dozen different positions I see cropping up at progressive stores that are proving to make a big difference.
3. Marketing: Don’t just jump into the same spends with traditional media because it’s what you were doing before the recession. Traditional media is not bad; in fact it can be very effective. But today, traditional media is in the supporting role, and is best used to support your online efforts. Two or three years ago this was reversed and traditional media was the leading media opportunity. Online marketing yields a cost-per-sale much less than traditional media so be sure to buy as many $200 deals before you go buy the $700 deals from TV and radio. Play in today’s reality, don’t live in the past.
The bottom line is that the economy is rebuilding and there are huge opportunities for the progressive dealers right now. Look at things through a slightly different lens and you will see huge areas to do things slightly differently and achieve for immediate growth.Write your post here
2227
JH
DrivingSales inc
Sep 9, 2010
Growing Your Dealership as the Economy Rebounds
Leading a dealership through a recession is nothing new to the veterans in the industry. Because the economy is cyclical, every so many years the market contracts and dealers have to manage the scaling back of their business to meet the realities of new market conditions. Fortunately recessions don’t last forever, so the market always rebounds, and as it does dealers reinvest and grow.
We are currently seeing signs of positive growth in many dealerships signaling the time to reinvest and grow is upon is. However, rebuilding from this recession will be different than any other and its not just because this was one of the worst downturns on record.
Typically, if you are cutting expenses to match market conditions you focus on variable expenses, as they tend to be the most manageable. When you reduce costs you start by cutting those items that are the least important to the store first and cutting the more important items later, only if necessary. Then, when it’s time to rebuild, you would normally reinvest in the exact opposite order that you cut, meaning you would add back the most important items first and the least important items last. Eventually you would have built the store back to the investment/expense structure you had before the recession.
That process will not work today.
Dealers must rebuild from this downturn differently because while we were hunkering down, fighting the storm, the media world dramatically changed. The markets that we used to connect with our customers are now very different places. If you try to rebuild back to where you were before, you would be optimized for a market that largely is different and you will hit an expansive plateau of diminishing profits and loss in market share.
Consumer behavior changed over the last few years and new media outlets such as search and social media are now the predominant media sources for consumers. The new markets require that you shift your focus to different areas as if you want to dominate in the years ahead.
Here are a few tips to focus on:
1. Employee Skills: As you hire more people consider new skills that are critical in today’s world. Computer skills, especially online communication and social networking, are essentials for everyone, not just your Internet manager. You do also need more Internet sales people than you had previously. There is no difference between the retail and Internet customer, thus everyone on your team should be capable of handling an “Internet” customer. Hire those with the skills to handle Internet business.
2. New job roles: The new media markets have created the need for whole new positions inside dealerships. Search and Social Media is all about content. Do you have a content writer on staff? You should. Who is the brand voice for your dealership that manages your social media activity? Many stores are wrongly trying to outsource all of their social media. This is not good unless you believe you should outsource your relations with your customer. Hire or promote someone in your organization to be your voice online. These are just two of maybe a half dozen different positions I see cropping up at progressive stores that are proving to make a big difference.
3. Marketing: Don’t just jump into the same spends with traditional media because it’s what you were doing before the recession. Traditional media is not bad; in fact it can be very effective. But today, traditional media is in the supporting role, and is best used to support your online efforts. Two or three years ago this was reversed and traditional media was the leading media opportunity. Online marketing yields a cost-per-sale much less than traditional media so be sure to buy as many $200 deals before you go buy the $700 deals from TV and radio. Play in today’s reality, don’t live in the past.
The bottom line is that the economy is rebuilding and there are huge opportunities for the progressive dealers right now. Look at things through a slightly different lens and you will see huge areas to do things slightly differently and achieve for immediate growth.Write your post here
2227
No Comments
JH
DrivingSales inc
Jun 6, 2010
To combat what I feel is a growing problem on Facebook, I’m experimenting in a big way with my strategy.
I believe Facebook at its core is a personal tool, not a business one. Like many of you, I joined to connect with personal friends back before it was really the hot marketing play in our industry. I have been watching the company since it was a startup and early on I liked to play with it when it was open just to university students (admittedly I would get in under my brothers account just to understand it.) Today there is so much business talk on facebook I feel its squashing my personal space. I cant help but wonder if potential customers are getting turned off feeling the same way.
As one who likes to share auto industry information this has created somewhat of a personal dilemma. Half of my facebook friends are personal friends from home, people I went to school with or soccer mates who I played ball with for years. These people care about me, but not necessarily about the car business. The other half are people I know from our industry, or people I am just meeting through facebook that are in our industry. Im happy to share details of my personal life, such as kids birthdays, vacations and the like with everyone. Im a fairly open person and I think this allows people to have a glimpse into the full picture who I am, not just what they see or hear from me at conventions and such.
The problem is that as I am increasingly active in auto industry conversations and as I share more and more auto industry specific information on facebook, my personal friends are bombarded with info they don’t need or want. That could, in some peoples mind qualify me as a “spammer” in the social sense, and frankly I don’t want to be “one of those.”
Thus the dilemma…
There are two different sides of my life that collide on my facebook page and my friends caught in the middle. In other words, I don’t want to be a major contributor to the non-relevant business talk that is squashes my friends’ personal space. In fact, I usually find myself not participating from an industry perspective like I would want to just to protect my non-industry friends from a disproportionate amount of automotive banter.
My solution isn’t exactly pretty; I created a second facebook profile event though it’s against what facebook wants. There is “Jared Hamilton” the family man/entrepreneur that is in the car business and now there is “Jared at DrivingSales” the car business 3rd gen. dealer advocate/entrepreneur who is also a devout family man. Its not that I won’t share car business stuff out of my first account, or that I wont share family stuff out of my Jared at DrivingSales account, its just that now there are two profiles to match the two main roles I play in life.
I know what you are thinking, “This is exactly what facebook lists are for.” That’s true, but Ive opted not to go that route mostly because I think I want more separation between these two roles that I play than just grouping things according to lists. It may be out of fear of not understanding facebooks privacy settings. (ive got a good grip on it but it changes so often its hard to trust or keep up with.) Or It may be I think it’s a pain in the butt to use the complex settings correctly. Either way, I just feel more comfortable with two profiles.
So, through the foreseeable future I’m going to maintain two facebook profiles as somewhat of an experiment. I want to see if it helps me be a better friend to both my automotive friends, by being more active in sharing and participating in automotive content, and to my personal friends, by not bombarding them with automotive content. Perhaps this separation will be better for everyone, perhaps it wont. There is also a third option: facebook could boot me off for not following their guidelines… I guess we will have to wait and see.
6044
No Comments
JH
DrivingSales inc
Jun 6, 2010
To combat what I feel is a growing problem on Facebook, I’m experimenting in a big way with my strategy.
I believe Facebook at its core is a personal tool, not a business one. Like many of you, I joined to connect with personal friends back before it was really the hot marketing play in our industry. I have been watching the company since it was a startup and early on I liked to play with it when it was open just to university students (admittedly I would get in under my brothers account just to understand it.) Today there is so much business talk on facebook I feel its squashing my personal space. I cant help but wonder if potential customers are getting turned off feeling the same way.
As one who likes to share auto industry information this has created somewhat of a personal dilemma. Half of my facebook friends are personal friends from home, people I went to school with or soccer mates who I played ball with for years. These people care about me, but not necessarily about the car business. The other half are people I know from our industry, or people I am just meeting through facebook that are in our industry. Im happy to share details of my personal life, such as kids birthdays, vacations and the like with everyone. Im a fairly open person and I think this allows people to have a glimpse into the full picture who I am, not just what they see or hear from me at conventions and such.
The problem is that as I am increasingly active in auto industry conversations and as I share more and more auto industry specific information on facebook, my personal friends are bombarded with info they don’t need or want. That could, in some peoples mind qualify me as a “spammer” in the social sense, and frankly I don’t want to be “one of those.”
Thus the dilemma…
There are two different sides of my life that collide on my facebook page and my friends caught in the middle. In other words, I don’t want to be a major contributor to the non-relevant business talk that is squashes my friends’ personal space. In fact, I usually find myself not participating from an industry perspective like I would want to just to protect my non-industry friends from a disproportionate amount of automotive banter.
My solution isn’t exactly pretty; I created a second facebook profile event though it’s against what facebook wants. There is “Jared Hamilton” the family man/entrepreneur that is in the car business and now there is “Jared at DrivingSales” the car business 3rd gen. dealer advocate/entrepreneur who is also a devout family man. Its not that I won’t share car business stuff out of my first account, or that I wont share family stuff out of my Jared at DrivingSales account, its just that now there are two profiles to match the two main roles I play in life.
I know what you are thinking, “This is exactly what facebook lists are for.” That’s true, but Ive opted not to go that route mostly because I think I want more separation between these two roles that I play than just grouping things according to lists. It may be out of fear of not understanding facebooks privacy settings. (ive got a good grip on it but it changes so often its hard to trust or keep up with.) Or It may be I think it’s a pain in the butt to use the complex settings correctly. Either way, I just feel more comfortable with two profiles.
So, through the foreseeable future I’m going to maintain two facebook profiles as somewhat of an experiment. I want to see if it helps me be a better friend to both my automotive friends, by being more active in sharing and participating in automotive content, and to my personal friends, by not bombarding them with automotive content. Perhaps this separation will be better for everyone, perhaps it wont. There is also a third option: facebook could boot me off for not following their guidelines… I guess we will have to wait and see.
6044
No Comments
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