Do you want to be on the cutting edge or the bleeding edge? There is a fine line here and it all depends on how aggressive you want to be.  There have been a lot of new products out there in the automotive world that seem to be taking shape and showing success with the results.

The reason this is being brought up is a friend of mine outside of the automotive industry has opened a hair boutique.  She has sculpted her business different than any others and has taken a huge risk and it is paying off and she is seeing great success.  She is now frustrated that a previous employee is taking the same business model that she has and is starting to see results.  I let her know that she is a leader and an innovator and not to let that get her down.  She just has to keep on going and doing her thing and worry about her own success.  When you see others copy what you are doing, you know that you are doing the right things and having success.  

 Now we are seeing companies copy off each other in the industry with different product and services.  There are several gift card offer companies, several chat companies, and now website companies are starting to copy off each other with what they can and can’t do.  But there was always that first one that tested the waters and are seeing the most success.  The key is to stay innovative and not let your product or service get stale.

This comes down to the sales process as well within our stores.  What are you doing different than all of your competition to set yourself apart?  Is it the showroom sales process, the internet process, advertising? 

 With customers only visiting 2 stores if you are lucky, you have to stand out and be a leader.  The question is are you on the cutting edge or the bleeding edge?

Do you want to be on the cutting edge or the bleeding edge? There is a fine line here and it all depends on how aggressive you want to be.  There have been a lot of new products out there in the automotive world that seem to be taking shape and showing success with the results.

The reason this is being brought up is a friend of mine outside of the automotive industry has opened a hair boutique.  She has sculpted her business different than any others and has taken a huge risk and it is paying off and she is seeing great success.  She is now frustrated that a previous employee is taking the same business model that she has and is starting to see results.  I let her know that she is a leader and an innovator and not to let that get her down.  She just has to keep on going and doing her thing and worry about her own success.  When you see others copy what you are doing, you know that you are doing the right things and having success.  

 Now we are seeing companies copy off each other in the industry with different product and services.  There are several gift card offer companies, several chat companies, and now website companies are starting to copy off each other with what they can and can’t do.  But there was always that first one that tested the waters and are seeing the most success.  The key is to stay innovative and not let your product or service get stale.

This comes down to the sales process as well within our stores.  What are you doing different than all of your competition to set yourself apart?  Is it the showroom sales process, the internet process, advertising? 

 With customers only visiting 2 stores if you are lucky, you have to stand out and be a leader.  The question is are you on the cutting edge or the bleeding edge?

We all know that we have to have a handle on Social Media these days to watch what people are saying online about us as a business.  Yesterday, I did my 4square check in at a local establishment and pushed to twitter mentioning Ed, as he likes to frequent McDonalds on occasion on 4square.  Ed had responded where he was eating through twitter.  Within minutes, Chili's responded to Ed and myself. The one thing that took me back was that Ed didn't mention @Chili's; He just said that he was there.  Chili's engaged immediately with "Thanks for coming in! Hope you enjoy your lunch!"

One thing that we all as dealers can learn from this that we have to make sure that we all have alerts set up when 'your dealership' is mentioned.  There are several tools out there to do this.  When someone wants to rant about a bad, or good experience, we can engage sooner than later.

We all have to remember that being involved in social media is just that.  We have to be social and engage with the customer via these medias.  Customers like to be vocal and this is a place where they feel they can vent or praise someone to a large group of people. This is where our customers are and we have to be there as well and not just be posting links to inventory pages. (Yes, dealers are still doing this.) 

What have you done to stay engaged with the customer via Facebook and Twitter and what are your successes?

We all know that we have to have a handle on Social Media these days to watch what people are saying online about us as a business.  Yesterday, I did my 4square check in at a local establishment and pushed to twitter mentioning Ed, as he likes to frequent McDonalds on occasion on 4square.  Ed had responded where he was eating through twitter.  Within minutes, Chili's responded to Ed and myself. The one thing that took me back was that Ed didn't mention @Chili's; He just said that he was there.  Chili's engaged immediately with "Thanks for coming in! Hope you enjoy your lunch!"

One thing that we all as dealers can learn from this that we have to make sure that we all have alerts set up when 'your dealership' is mentioned.  There are several tools out there to do this.  When someone wants to rant about a bad, or good experience, we can engage sooner than later.

We all have to remember that being involved in social media is just that.  We have to be social and engage with the customer via these medias.  Customers like to be vocal and this is a place where they feel they can vent or praise someone to a large group of people. This is where our customers are and we have to be there as well and not just be posting links to inventory pages. (Yes, dealers are still doing this.) 

What have you done to stay engaged with the customer via Facebook and Twitter and what are your successes?

As I look at the calendar, I can’t believe that October is right around the corner.  Where has this year gone?  It has been the year of mobile, social, and Google Plus and Local.  Now that we are going into the 4^th quarter already, are you getting your strategies together for 2013?  Yes, I said 2013.  It is right around the corner.  Have you seen the growth that you wanted to see this year?  Are your profits down or up?  Where are you at and where do you want to be?  Now is the time to start strategizing for 2013 and an incredible year.

On big thing that I see is salespeople need to get more social.  There are several in the industry that are doing it right, but so many do it wrong.  We all know what the social impact has been in the automotive industry has been. We see dealerships having their "like" pages on Facebook, YouTube channels, twitter accounts, blogs, and the list goes on and on.  Now we are facing another giant that has been a sleeper for the last several year, MySpace. Just one more that dealers may have to deal with.

We all have these tools at our fingertips, but are we using them to the fullest potential?  One thing that I have noticed is that there aren't many salespeople taking advantage of these avenues to their fullest capacity. It is free and I love free! I have a feeling that a lot of people just don't know how to utilize them effectively. I see a few, but they are few and far between.

Youtube- One great example is Elise Kephart from Sunset Honda in CA.  She utilizes her YouTube channel like no one in the industry. She has branded herself as the YouTube diva and deserves every bit of it.  (On a side note, PLEASE DO NOT submit an inquiry on a vehicle with her as she takes her job very seriously and takes a lot of time to produce individual videos for each inquiry.)

Facebook is a very powerful tool for salespeople. I feel that it can be more powerful than a standard dealership page.  When building your relationship with your customer, be their friend. After the sale, become friends on Facebook, or better yet, set up a like page for yourself and have them "like" you. The impact that you can have just by posting a picture of them and tagging them in it is unbelievable. I have seen over 30 comments on one photo and it ended up generating 2 referral sales for that salesperson on one picture just by doing something out of the norm.

I have yet to come across one blog that is strictly for a salesperson.  If you have one, please share below.

LinkedIn is another avenue that salespeople can capitalize on.  There, you can get recommendations from your customers and show your resume to your customers and how successful you have been in the automotive industry.

So, how are you going to make your 2013 the best year ever in the car business?  Get social and do it 100% of the time.  It will pay off.  You have to make yourself stand out more so than ever.  When I mystery shop, I see the same thing time and time again.  Be different and think outside the box and like a shopper.  Start your commitments now.  It takes 30+ days to create a habit.  Do it early and often and set yourself up for an incredible 2013.

As I look at the calendar, I can’t believe that October is right around the corner.  Where has this year gone?  It has been the year of mobile, social, and Google Plus and Local.  Now that we are going into the 4^th quarter already, are you getting your strategies together for 2013?  Yes, I said 2013.  It is right around the corner.  Have you seen the growth that you wanted to see this year?  Are your profits down or up?  Where are you at and where do you want to be?  Now is the time to start strategizing for 2013 and an incredible year.

On big thing that I see is salespeople need to get more social.  There are several in the industry that are doing it right, but so many do it wrong.  We all know what the social impact has been in the automotive industry has been. We see dealerships having their "like" pages on Facebook, YouTube channels, twitter accounts, blogs, and the list goes on and on.  Now we are facing another giant that has been a sleeper for the last several year, MySpace. Just one more that dealers may have to deal with.

We all have these tools at our fingertips, but are we using them to the fullest potential?  One thing that I have noticed is that there aren't many salespeople taking advantage of these avenues to their fullest capacity. It is free and I love free! I have a feeling that a lot of people just don't know how to utilize them effectively. I see a few, but they are few and far between.

Youtube- One great example is Elise Kephart from Sunset Honda in CA.  She utilizes her YouTube channel like no one in the industry. She has branded herself as the YouTube diva and deserves every bit of it.  (On a side note, PLEASE DO NOT submit an inquiry on a vehicle with her as she takes her job very seriously and takes a lot of time to produce individual videos for each inquiry.)

Facebook is a very powerful tool for salespeople. I feel that it can be more powerful than a standard dealership page.  When building your relationship with your customer, be their friend. After the sale, become friends on Facebook, or better yet, set up a like page for yourself and have them "like" you. The impact that you can have just by posting a picture of them and tagging them in it is unbelievable. I have seen over 30 comments on one photo and it ended up generating 2 referral sales for that salesperson on one picture just by doing something out of the norm.

I have yet to come across one blog that is strictly for a salesperson.  If you have one, please share below.

LinkedIn is another avenue that salespeople can capitalize on.  There, you can get recommendations from your customers and show your resume to your customers and how successful you have been in the automotive industry.

So, how are you going to make your 2013 the best year ever in the car business?  Get social and do it 100% of the time.  It will pay off.  You have to make yourself stand out more so than ever.  When I mystery shop, I see the same thing time and time again.  Be different and think outside the box and like a shopper.  Start your commitments now.  It takes 30+ days to create a habit.  Do it early and often and set yourself up for an incredible 2013.

Wednesday night, I had the honor of taking a red eye from Silicon Valley to the east coast.  I got to talking to a couple that was sitting next to me while we were ready to back away from the gate. She just happen to work for Google in the G+ Local project.  My eyes kind of lit up.  I was sitting next to someone that is one of the leads at Google for 5 hours on G+ Local.  With all of the changes over the last few months, I knew I had my chance to really try to get some behind the scenes thinking on the change.

I expressed my concerns that we all as dealers have with G+ Local, missing reviews, the requiring of having a G+ account to write a review, and the whole Zaget platform.  As I mentioned all of the above items, she shook her head in agreement and just said we know and there are some changes coming.

Google wants this to really succeed across the board. They are taking the feedback and trying to make the issues that we are all having she had to be very vague with me, but it gave me hope that there is an end in sight and a plan in place.  I asked her as far as timing, and just just said very soon.

Missing reviews: They know the issue and are working on getting that data back. There is hope for those that lost a ton of reviews. I asked why it happened, but unfortunately she couldn't give an answer on that.

Requiring of G+ to write a review:  Things are in process to make it available to post a review without a G+ account. It will show as anonymous, but they will be able to do it.  This was a large win for me.  Since the change over, I think that we have had less than 10 reviews come in. 

I know that this is shorter than my normal posts, but thought I would like to pass along my hope to you.

Wednesday night, I had the honor of taking a red eye from Silicon Valley to the east coast.  I got to talking to a couple that was sitting next to me while we were ready to back away from the gate. She just happen to work for Google in the G+ Local project.  My eyes kind of lit up.  I was sitting next to someone that is one of the leads at Google for 5 hours on G+ Local.  With all of the changes over the last few months, I knew I had my chance to really try to get some behind the scenes thinking on the change.

I expressed my concerns that we all as dealers have with G+ Local, missing reviews, the requiring of having a G+ account to write a review, and the whole Zaget platform.  As I mentioned all of the above items, she shook her head in agreement and just said we know and there are some changes coming.

Google wants this to really succeed across the board. They are taking the feedback and trying to make the issues that we are all having she had to be very vague with me, but it gave me hope that there is an end in sight and a plan in place.  I asked her as far as timing, and just just said very soon.

Missing reviews: They know the issue and are working on getting that data back. There is hope for those that lost a ton of reviews. I asked why it happened, but unfortunately she couldn't give an answer on that.

Requiring of G+ to write a review:  Things are in process to make it available to post a review without a G+ account. It will show as anonymous, but they will be able to do it.  This was a large win for me.  Since the change over, I think that we have had less than 10 reviews come in. 

I know that this is shorter than my normal posts, but thought I would like to pass along my hope to you.

I had the opportunity to take part in a Focus Group for Autotrader that was facilitated by Morepace.  It consisted of 7 dealers from across the country and the topic was some new products that Autotrader is considering bringing to the marketplace.  The session lasted about an hour and a half and was interesting at best.

The first of the products introduced to us was called Deal Builder.  Deal Builder was a two part product that Autotrader is considering.  The first part consists of payments within the SRP and the VDP.  With their partnership with DealerTrack, they are able to pull rates and residuals through the banks that you as the dealer use.  There were a lot of mixed emotions with this product within the group.  With the product, you can select what vehicles you want to have payments and you set the backend reserve for the Finance office.  One of the big concerns was that we are so focused on inventory turn and pricing vehicles within the market and margins have come down over the years as so many dealers have taken the vAuto philosophy to heart and working their departments with that philosophy.  With adding financing payments and quoting rates within the VDP, it may cause a race to the bottom for financing rates.  This product is being looked at for both new and used vehicles.

I am thinking that they want to create more leads with this product with the DealerTrack credit application.  I brought up the concern of having the payments there and also the advertising that is on everyone’s VDP for a consumer to set up financing within Autotrader.   

On the plus side, for those dealers that use DealerTrack, it will tie right into your current backend for DealerTrack and will eliminate multiple inputting of information for a customer.  It will also generate a lead within the CRM that you are using. 

The second and third parts of the new products on the table are a part within Trade-In Marketplace.  This was a touchy subject with all of the dealers in the “room” as a most of them saw TIM as a product that is “oversold” within the market place.  The first part of the product was some new reporting that can be shared with a customer.  It is basically taking what we have with vAuto, PureCars, and other like products and putting all of the information out there for the consumer.  No one was too thrilled with this at all since a lot of us had some bad tastes in our mouths from the current product.

The second part of the product is a big improvement in my eyes.  They are considering taking away the ‘firm’ figure that the customer is getting and giving a range.  I consider it to be a lot like BlackBook Online and just take basic information from the customer on the vehicle and gives a range like BlackBook.  I think this is a huge enhancement as a lot of customers would get that ‘firm’ figure from TIM, and not be happy with it and contact with the customer from the dealership was low.  With having a range, it will only encourage a customer to come to the dealership and get a firm trade-in figure.  This is something that will be on the dealers’ website.  The one thing that I think that Autotrader will have a hard time with is staying competitive with the pricing to BlackBook, PureCars, etc. 

This is just a quick overview of everything that was discussed.  I will try to answer any questions that you all may have.

I had the opportunity to take part in a Focus Group for Autotrader that was facilitated by Morepace.  It consisted of 7 dealers from across the country and the topic was some new products that Autotrader is considering bringing to the marketplace.  The session lasted about an hour and a half and was interesting at best.

The first of the products introduced to us was called Deal Builder.  Deal Builder was a two part product that Autotrader is considering.  The first part consists of payments within the SRP and the VDP.  With their partnership with DealerTrack, they are able to pull rates and residuals through the banks that you as the dealer use.  There were a lot of mixed emotions with this product within the group.  With the product, you can select what vehicles you want to have payments and you set the backend reserve for the Finance office.  One of the big concerns was that we are so focused on inventory turn and pricing vehicles within the market and margins have come down over the years as so many dealers have taken the vAuto philosophy to heart and working their departments with that philosophy.  With adding financing payments and quoting rates within the VDP, it may cause a race to the bottom for financing rates.  This product is being looked at for both new and used vehicles.

I am thinking that they want to create more leads with this product with the DealerTrack credit application.  I brought up the concern of having the payments there and also the advertising that is on everyone’s VDP for a consumer to set up financing within Autotrader.   

On the plus side, for those dealers that use DealerTrack, it will tie right into your current backend for DealerTrack and will eliminate multiple inputting of information for a customer.  It will also generate a lead within the CRM that you are using. 

The second and third parts of the new products on the table are a part within Trade-In Marketplace.  This was a touchy subject with all of the dealers in the “room” as a most of them saw TIM as a product that is “oversold” within the market place.  The first part of the product was some new reporting that can be shared with a customer.  It is basically taking what we have with vAuto, PureCars, and other like products and putting all of the information out there for the consumer.  No one was too thrilled with this at all since a lot of us had some bad tastes in our mouths from the current product.

The second part of the product is a big improvement in my eyes.  They are considering taking away the ‘firm’ figure that the customer is getting and giving a range.  I consider it to be a lot like BlackBook Online and just take basic information from the customer on the vehicle and gives a range like BlackBook.  I think this is a huge enhancement as a lot of customers would get that ‘firm’ figure from TIM, and not be happy with it and contact with the customer from the dealership was low.  With having a range, it will only encourage a customer to come to the dealership and get a firm trade-in figure.  This is something that will be on the dealers’ website.  The one thing that I think that Autotrader will have a hard time with is staying competitive with the pricing to BlackBook, PureCars, etc. 

This is just a quick overview of everything that was discussed.  I will try to answer any questions that you all may have.