1) Great technology alone is not success; it is only part of sales process or marketing, or both.

2) Great marketing or great process is not success; each alone only prolongs less-than-best results.

3) Great sales processes + great marketing = great sales, which IS success!

1) Great technology alone is not success; it is only part of sales process or marketing, or both.

2) Great marketing or great process is not success; each alone only prolongs less-than-best results.

3) Great sales processes + great marketing = great sales, which IS success!

The OEMs and the vendor/consultant marketplace are more and more teaching dealers all about modern marketing, and I get why:  Generating good traffic these days requires lots more than a newspaper, radio, or TV ad.  We’re all being shopped on the Internet by customers, and we need to be there, and be there strong, in order to win sales.

And, so, if we train and execute our dealer marketing to be at Olympic levels across all our media, including the Internet, then we’ve greatly improved our business, right?

NO.

If your marketing generates $300 calls being bungled by your $8-an-hour receptionist, if your sales staff lot-quals and drops your ups without a T.O., if your sales managers lose deals over $150, if your finance managers hit good-credit customers too high . . . if any of these, and more, happen, your processes are losing you sales.  And the same is true in service, because how many appointments don’t get set because you rely on busy writers and low-paid receptionists to set them?  How many up-sells don’t happen because they aren’t even asked for?

As you attend conferences and bootcamp training this year (the more the better!), don’t just look for new “Olympic” marketing for your sales and service, look for tools and services to help you make more money from better processes.  There are a lot of “Internet Rainmakers” to help you, but do your processes allow a sales-destructive and uncontrolled race down the drain--or do your processes and tools channel all that water into a beautiful pool to get the most sales possible?

Because it’s no use being the “Olympic High Diver of Marketing” if you and your sales just get flushed!

P.S. I apologize for the, er, "graphic graphic", but it was so funny I couldn't resist!  :)

By Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com
www.keithshetterly.com
Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

The OEMs and the vendor/consultant marketplace are more and more teaching dealers all about modern marketing, and I get why:  Generating good traffic these days requires lots more than a newspaper, radio, or TV ad.  We’re all being shopped on the Internet by customers, and we need to be there, and be there strong, in order to win sales.

And, so, if we train and execute our dealer marketing to be at Olympic levels across all our media, including the Internet, then we’ve greatly improved our business, right?

NO.

If your marketing generates $300 calls being bungled by your $8-an-hour receptionist, if your sales staff lot-quals and drops your ups without a T.O., if your sales managers lose deals over $150, if your finance managers hit good-credit customers too high . . . if any of these, and more, happen, your processes are losing you sales.  And the same is true in service, because how many appointments don’t get set because you rely on busy writers and low-paid receptionists to set them?  How many up-sells don’t happen because they aren’t even asked for?

As you attend conferences and bootcamp training this year (the more the better!), don’t just look for new “Olympic” marketing for your sales and service, look for tools and services to help you make more money from better processes.  There are a lot of “Internet Rainmakers” to help you, but do your processes allow a sales-destructive and uncontrolled race down the drain--or do your processes and tools channel all that water into a beautiful pool to get the most sales possible?

Because it’s no use being the “Olympic High Diver of Marketing” if you and your sales just get flushed!

P.S. I apologize for the, er, "graphic graphic", but it was so funny I couldn't resist!  :)

By Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com
www.keithshetterly.com
Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

Extinction Event Sale!  Every Weekend in 2011!!  With some car dealers, that’s the business they are in, and they don’t even know it.  And they need to adapt to instead survive!  Here’s what I mean:

Extinction?  Scientists say the fossil record of bones indicates several sudden mass extinctions of life during the history of the earth, called "extinction events", possibly due to large meteor impacts.  Even if that’s eventually determined to be wrong, I believe we are poised at a real extinction event for dealers who do not get aboard the Internet.  2011 will be the beginning of that. 

And don’t think this is the “chicken little” cry you heard over ten years ago—it’s real, and you can see it today at our conferences:  Who is there talking about “starting the Internet” and who is doing business ON the Internet NOW?  Who is the dinosaur in threat of extinction and who is not?

The Internet is not something you write a check to someone about and say “Handle it!”  It’s as fundamental to a dealership’s business now as any advertising and sales effort has ever been.  As fundamental as the need for air.  It cannot be ignored by any modern dealership, and it cannot be misunderstood by any modern dealership.  At least, not dealerships that are ready for in 2011 for the fullest impact of the Internet on their business that they have ever seen.

Who will survive the Internet meteor?  Who will succumb and be extinct?  Really, which do you want to be?  The survivors, of course.

How to survive?  Get your website, online inventory, social media, online reputation, mobile website, and SEO/PPC modernized and in place.  Get rid of as much newspaper as you can stand.  For any direct mail, do targeted direct mail to the right customers ONLY.  Get email blasts going for sales and service.  Install the best CRM/Internet Lead Manager (CRM/ILM) that you can.  Film and host short video testimonials from happy customers, as well as videos of your cars for sale.  Focus on your fixed ops Internet presence, allowing customers to get online for appointments, status, and sales/offers.  And learn to answer the PHONE the right way:  Stop answering phone calls that cost you $2-300 to get with an $8-an-hour receptionist who answers/routes wrong, and if your sales staff is answering the sales calls then train them AND hold them accountable.  And just give up that blue inflatable gorilla on your roof for good.

Otherwise, you’ll soon join the fossil record of dinosaur bones in the transportation retail business that already includes those who couldn’t understand the change that the telephone brought.  Or print advertising.  Or that the automobile was taking the place of the horse!

Bones are like that:  Some scientist may dig them up and study them one day.  Who knows.  However, for now in 2011 it’s not too late to survive the Internet meteor.  I have one word to help you with that:

Hurry!

By Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com
www.keithshetterly.com
Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

Extinction Event Sale!  Every Weekend in 2011!!  With some car dealers, that’s the business they are in, and they don’t even know it.  And they need to adapt to instead survive!  Here’s what I mean:

Extinction?  Scientists say the fossil record of bones indicates several sudden mass extinctions of life during the history of the earth, called "extinction events", possibly due to large meteor impacts.  Even if that’s eventually determined to be wrong, I believe we are poised at a real extinction event for dealers who do not get aboard the Internet.  2011 will be the beginning of that. 

And don’t think this is the “chicken little” cry you heard over ten years ago—it’s real, and you can see it today at our conferences:  Who is there talking about “starting the Internet” and who is doing business ON the Internet NOW?  Who is the dinosaur in threat of extinction and who is not?

The Internet is not something you write a check to someone about and say “Handle it!”  It’s as fundamental to a dealership’s business now as any advertising and sales effort has ever been.  As fundamental as the need for air.  It cannot be ignored by any modern dealership, and it cannot be misunderstood by any modern dealership.  At least, not dealerships that are ready for in 2011 for the fullest impact of the Internet on their business that they have ever seen.

Who will survive the Internet meteor?  Who will succumb and be extinct?  Really, which do you want to be?  The survivors, of course.

How to survive?  Get your website, online inventory, social media, online reputation, mobile website, and SEO/PPC modernized and in place.  Get rid of as much newspaper as you can stand.  For any direct mail, do targeted direct mail to the right customers ONLY.  Get email blasts going for sales and service.  Install the best CRM/Internet Lead Manager (CRM/ILM) that you can.  Film and host short video testimonials from happy customers, as well as videos of your cars for sale.  Focus on your fixed ops Internet presence, allowing customers to get online for appointments, status, and sales/offers.  And learn to answer the PHONE the right way:  Stop answering phone calls that cost you $2-300 to get with an $8-an-hour receptionist who answers/routes wrong, and if your sales staff is answering the sales calls then train them AND hold them accountable.  And just give up that blue inflatable gorilla on your roof for good.

Otherwise, you’ll soon join the fossil record of dinosaur bones in the transportation retail business that already includes those who couldn’t understand the change that the telephone brought.  Or print advertising.  Or that the automobile was taking the place of the horse!

Bones are like that:  Some scientist may dig them up and study them one day.  Who knows.  However, for now in 2011 it’s not too late to survive the Internet meteor.  I have one word to help you with that:

Hurry!

By Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com
www.keithshetterly.com
Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved