Vampire and zombies are everywhere. It’s been a Summer and Fall full of supernatural events and television.. From True Blood to the Walking Dead, and to people showing zombie-like symptoms across the U.S., have you wondered if vampires and zombies lurked into your workplace?  Yes, I did write vampires and zombies. According to  Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work, workers can be categorized into 4 different identities when it comes to workplace culture: stars, potentials, vampires, and zombies.

• Stars are the employees we all love — the ones who do the perform well while adhering to company values and culture.
• High potentials are those whose behavior we value — who do things the right way but whose skills need further training. These potentials, with the right support and training, can become stars.
• Zombies fail on both counts. Their behavior doesn't align with the cultural aspirations of the organization and their performance is almost non-existent. They are basically rotting wood at your company.
• Vampire are the real threat. These vampire employees perform well but in a manner that is deceiving and conniving.  Because their work performance is strong, they gain power and influence. Over time, they also acquire followers: the zombies who share their different set of values and aspire to perform better.  Soon, there's a small army of vampires and zombies attacking the stars, high potentials, and leaders who are doing the right thing.

If you aren't into vampire and zombie terminology, you can always go by  Baron Von Hammerstein Equord's, a German Officer in the 1930’s, methodology:

"I divide officers into four classes -- the clever, the lazy, the stupid, and the industrious. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the high staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy is fit for the very highest commands. He has the temperament and the requisite nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be removed immediately."

What do you think? Is your dealership full of vampires and zombies or do you have stars and potentials on your team?

Vampire and zombies are everywhere. It’s been a Summer and Fall full of supernatural events and television.. From True Blood to the Walking Dead, and to people showing zombie-like symptoms across the U.S., have you wondered if vampires and zombies lurked into your workplace?  Yes, I did write vampires and zombies. According to  Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work, workers can be categorized into 4 different identities when it comes to workplace culture: stars, potentials, vampires, and zombies.

• Stars are the employees we all love — the ones who do the perform well while adhering to company values and culture.
• High potentials are those whose behavior we value — who do things the right way but whose skills need further training. These potentials, with the right support and training, can become stars.
• Zombies fail on both counts. Their behavior doesn't align with the cultural aspirations of the organization and their performance is almost non-existent. They are basically rotting wood at your company.
• Vampire are the real threat. These vampire employees perform well but in a manner that is deceiving and conniving.  Because their work performance is strong, they gain power and influence. Over time, they also acquire followers: the zombies who share their different set of values and aspire to perform better.  Soon, there's a small army of vampires and zombies attacking the stars, high potentials, and leaders who are doing the right thing.

If you aren't into vampire and zombie terminology, you can always go by  Baron Von Hammerstein Equord's, a German Officer in the 1930’s, methodology:

"I divide officers into four classes -- the clever, the lazy, the stupid, and the industrious. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the high staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy is fit for the very highest commands. He has the temperament and the requisite nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be removed immediately."

What do you think? Is your dealership full of vampires and zombies or do you have stars and potentials on your team?

There is more to email than just having great content, the perfect subject line, and having a perfect layout. What about spam filters? When it comes to your email being filtered, the Return Path Sender Reputation Report identified the following key factors ISPs consider:  IP Reputation, Infrastructure and Content.

Here is what  Tonya Mitchell Consultant, Deliverability Consulting at Return Path Sender had to say about it:

Filters “learn” information over time based on the spammy versus legitimate mail it has seen come through its system.  They also consider the feedback from the end users regarding whether or not messages have been marked as spam.  So while content filtering may only come into play 17% of the time, it’s still valuable to understand the various types of spam filters where your message could get caught.

There are three major levels of enterprise spam filtering:  hosted, gateway and desktop.   Hosted spam filters are companies that have developed a proprietary method of using content and reputation metrics to identify spam versus legitimate mail.  Since these spam filters have a large book of clients using their service, they have a broader scope of information to use in their decision making process to determine whether to deliver to the inbox, spam or quarantine folder, or to block it completely.  Hosted spam filters can include technology that is integrated by vendors directly into their own products.   Examples of hosted spam filters include Brightmail, Cloudmark, MessageLabs, and Postini.  According to Return Path Sender’s latest benchmark report, these hosted spam filters only delivered email to the inbox 86% of the time.  Some of these hosted spam filters are more difficult than others to pass through.  Postini is the most challenging filter with only 47.55% of emails being delivered as you can see in the table below.

Gateway spam filters are physical servers with software that are installed at the border of a company’s network.  All mail attempting to come into your company must pass through this “gate” before it can enter your system. This spam filter is learning what it deems as spam based on all the email coming into your company, thus having less email to learn from than the hosted spam filter.  Examples of a gateway spam filter include IronPort and Barracuda.

The desktop spam filter lives on the end users computer.  It is highly customizable by the individual so is often seen as one of the more difficult filters to pass through. An example of a desktop spam filter is Outlook.  Outlook uses Microsoft’s anti-spam filter SmartScreen, which also looks at reputation, to help filter email.  SmartScreen uses the feedback from Windows Live Hotmail users to help distinguish legitimate emails from spam.
While the triggers for each content spam filter can vary, the following are some best practices to help reduce your chances of getting caught in the various content spam filters:

Rule Out Reputation. Most of the filters mentioned above also measure IP reputation.  You should first verify that your issues aren’t due to IP reputation first before testing content:
Return Path Sender Score:  http://www.senderscore.org
Brightmail: http://ipremoval.sms.symantec.com/lookup/
Microsoft SmartScreen:  https://postmaster.live.com/snds/
Ironport: http://www.senderbase.org/
Barracuda:  http://www.barracudacentral.org/lookups
Postini:  http://www.google.com/postini/headeranalyzer/

Dealer Take Away

Test, test, test.  Once you identify that your content is being flagged by spam filters, you should continue testing to isolate what is causing the issues, such as subject lines, URLs/links, text and images.  Content testing can be a time consuming process as you’ll want to test the various message components separately until you identify what is passing and failing the spam filter.  Also, check to see if any of your URLs are on URL blacklists, like URIBL and SURBL.

Have a balance between text and images in your message. Don’t create a message with one large image as this is a spammer technique used in attempt to bypass spam filters.  Embedding large images in emails or using a lot of graphics can also slow the email servers’ ability to process mail.  As a result, content spam filters will often flag such emails and stop delivery.  Not to mention images are off by default at most ISPs so you won’t be getting your message across anyway.

Don’t use URL shorteners. A URL shortner is a tool that takes your full URL and creates a small version of it to place in content, like bit.ly and tinyurl for example.  Since URL shorteners are commonly used by phishers and spammers, they are usually blocked by content spam filters.

There is more to email than just having great content, the perfect subject line, and having a perfect layout. What about spam filters? When it comes to your email being filtered, the Return Path Sender Reputation Report identified the following key factors ISPs consider:  IP Reputation, Infrastructure and Content.

Here is what  Tonya Mitchell Consultant, Deliverability Consulting at Return Path Sender had to say about it:

Filters “learn” information over time based on the spammy versus legitimate mail it has seen come through its system.  They also consider the feedback from the end users regarding whether or not messages have been marked as spam.  So while content filtering may only come into play 17% of the time, it’s still valuable to understand the various types of spam filters where your message could get caught.

There are three major levels of enterprise spam filtering:  hosted, gateway and desktop.   Hosted spam filters are companies that have developed a proprietary method of using content and reputation metrics to identify spam versus legitimate mail.  Since these spam filters have a large book of clients using their service, they have a broader scope of information to use in their decision making process to determine whether to deliver to the inbox, spam or quarantine folder, or to block it completely.  Hosted spam filters can include technology that is integrated by vendors directly into their own products.   Examples of hosted spam filters include Brightmail, Cloudmark, MessageLabs, and Postini.  According to Return Path Sender’s latest benchmark report, these hosted spam filters only delivered email to the inbox 86% of the time.  Some of these hosted spam filters are more difficult than others to pass through.  Postini is the most challenging filter with only 47.55% of emails being delivered as you can see in the table below.

Gateway spam filters are physical servers with software that are installed at the border of a company’s network.  All mail attempting to come into your company must pass through this “gate” before it can enter your system. This spam filter is learning what it deems as spam based on all the email coming into your company, thus having less email to learn from than the hosted spam filter.  Examples of a gateway spam filter include IronPort and Barracuda.

The desktop spam filter lives on the end users computer.  It is highly customizable by the individual so is often seen as one of the more difficult filters to pass through. An example of a desktop spam filter is Outlook.  Outlook uses Microsoft’s anti-spam filter SmartScreen, which also looks at reputation, to help filter email.  SmartScreen uses the feedback from Windows Live Hotmail users to help distinguish legitimate emails from spam.
While the triggers for each content spam filter can vary, the following are some best practices to help reduce your chances of getting caught in the various content spam filters:

Rule Out Reputation. Most of the filters mentioned above also measure IP reputation.  You should first verify that your issues aren’t due to IP reputation first before testing content:
Return Path Sender Score:  http://www.senderscore.org
Brightmail: http://ipremoval.sms.symantec.com/lookup/
Microsoft SmartScreen:  https://postmaster.live.com/snds/
Ironport: http://www.senderbase.org/
Barracuda:  http://www.barracudacentral.org/lookups
Postini:  http://www.google.com/postini/headeranalyzer/

Dealer Take Away

Test, test, test.  Once you identify that your content is being flagged by spam filters, you should continue testing to isolate what is causing the issues, such as subject lines, URLs/links, text and images.  Content testing can be a time consuming process as you’ll want to test the various message components separately until you identify what is passing and failing the spam filter.  Also, check to see if any of your URLs are on URL blacklists, like URIBL and SURBL.

Have a balance between text and images in your message. Don’t create a message with one large image as this is a spammer technique used in attempt to bypass spam filters.  Embedding large images in emails or using a lot of graphics can also slow the email servers’ ability to process mail.  As a result, content spam filters will often flag such emails and stop delivery.  Not to mention images are off by default at most ISPs so you won’t be getting your message across anyway.

Don’t use URL shorteners. A URL shortner is a tool that takes your full URL and creates a small version of it to place in content, like bit.ly and tinyurl for example.  Since URL shorteners are commonly used by phishers and spammers, they are usually blocked by content spam filters.

Car Dealers! Have you heard of the term, “Showrooming?” It’s basically a customer that comes into your dealership to look at vehicles while looking online on their smartphone at your competitor’s pricing. Annoying, right? So how do you combat these “show-roomers?”

One thing you can do is create a loyalty program. For loyalty programs to have the desired effect, you must consider these anti-showrooming strategies:

1. Your prices have to be in the same ballpark as those of your competitors.
2. Customers make every purchasing decision independently. You can't expect them to take long-term loyalty rewards into account as part of the buying decision unless those customers are explicitly prompted to do so.
3. Buying decisions often take place in a matter of seconds, which means that any anti-showrooming strategy needs to be executed in near real time to have any effect.

According to Marketingprofs.com  there are five tactics that are worth exploring when showrooming is a problem:

1. Closing the price gap. When customers in a loyalty program receive discounts, the distance between the in-store price and the competitor's online price diminishes. Dealers must find a way to communicate the "effective price" (the current price minus the points-based discount) quickly and clearly: for example, "With your Valued Customer discount, the effective price of this [item]  is $14,999!" Customers can't be expected to do the math themselves.
2. Bonus points. When showrooming is a problem with specific items, retailers can offer increased discounts or points on those items to further mitigate the price difference.
3. Free accessories. Dealers can offer free items that complement the purchase, such as a a bobble head for the car or some cool sunglasses to wear with the customer’s new ride. Often, such items have a perceived value that's significantly higher than their actual dollar value.
4. Bounceback offers. If a customer's behavior indicates the potential for a lost sale, dealers can transmit a bounceback offer, either with a discount or some other incentive. To be effective, however, the bounceback needs to happen in near real-time and it must relate very specifically to the customer's interests (Ex. free window tinting with vehicle purchase).
5. Pushed coupons. With today's technology, retailers can offer instant discounts and special cross-sell or up-sell opportunities; they can even reward customers simply for entering the store. The value of so-called push technology is that it gives customers a reason to make an in-store purchase. For example, ActivEngage, thanks to an integration with Hooklogic, offers ActivShow, which brings customers into your showroom by offering great incentives like a $25 prepaid MasterCard or $25 incentives to popular stores like Starbucks® or Target®.

What do you think of these tactics? Do you have any strategies in combating showrooming?

Car Dealers! Have you heard of the term, “Showrooming?” It’s basically a customer that comes into your dealership to look at vehicles while looking online on their smartphone at your competitor’s pricing. Annoying, right? So how do you combat these “show-roomers?”

One thing you can do is create a loyalty program. For loyalty programs to have the desired effect, you must consider these anti-showrooming strategies:

1. Your prices have to be in the same ballpark as those of your competitors.
2. Customers make every purchasing decision independently. You can't expect them to take long-term loyalty rewards into account as part of the buying decision unless those customers are explicitly prompted to do so.
3. Buying decisions often take place in a matter of seconds, which means that any anti-showrooming strategy needs to be executed in near real time to have any effect.

According to Marketingprofs.com  there are five tactics that are worth exploring when showrooming is a problem:

1. Closing the price gap. When customers in a loyalty program receive discounts, the distance between the in-store price and the competitor's online price diminishes. Dealers must find a way to communicate the "effective price" (the current price minus the points-based discount) quickly and clearly: for example, "With your Valued Customer discount, the effective price of this [item]  is $14,999!" Customers can't be expected to do the math themselves.
2. Bonus points. When showrooming is a problem with specific items, retailers can offer increased discounts or points on those items to further mitigate the price difference.
3. Free accessories. Dealers can offer free items that complement the purchase, such as a a bobble head for the car or some cool sunglasses to wear with the customer’s new ride. Often, such items have a perceived value that's significantly higher than their actual dollar value.
4. Bounceback offers. If a customer's behavior indicates the potential for a lost sale, dealers can transmit a bounceback offer, either with a discount or some other incentive. To be effective, however, the bounceback needs to happen in near real-time and it must relate very specifically to the customer's interests (Ex. free window tinting with vehicle purchase).
5. Pushed coupons. With today's technology, retailers can offer instant discounts and special cross-sell or up-sell opportunities; they can even reward customers simply for entering the store. The value of so-called push technology is that it gives customers a reason to make an in-store purchase. For example, ActivEngage, thanks to an integration with Hooklogic, offers ActivShow, which brings customers into your showroom by offering great incentives like a $25 prepaid MasterCard or $25 incentives to popular stores like Starbucks® or Target®.

What do you think of these tactics? Do you have any strategies in combating showrooming?

How many brains do you have? Trick question, I know. Your biology teacher said you have one. However, according to Dr. Mark Goulston your brain has three layers that evolved over millions of years. There’s the reptile layer, the mammal layer, and the primate layer.  Let's take a deeper look into these layers and ways you can tap into these parts of the brain in your sales presentation, customer service, or just everyday life.

Reptilian Brain: This is the most basic of the layers. It taps into your natural instinct of “Fight or flight.” Here, the brain acts and reacts without a lot of thinking going on. Your body is hard-wired to react to stress in ways meant to protect you against threats from predators and other aggressors. It can also leave you frozen in a crisis like the unfortunate deer in the headlights.

Mammal Brain: This is your inner drama queen. This layer of your brain takes hold of the powerful emotions in your life---love, joy, anger, jealousy, grief...

Primate Brain: This is where your logic comes in. Here your brain weighs a situation logically, rationally, and generates a plan of action. This part of the brain collect data from the lower parts of the brain, analyzes it and makes practical decisions.

How is this information useful to you? Simple: you cannot get your message through any other layer but the Primate brain. If you notice someone is reacting illogically or emotionally to your statements stop all together.  You’ll be wasting your time. In this instant you need to talk a person up to the rational primate brain.  You need to understand what the person is going through and try to mirror them. Effectively mirroring a person will create one of the most potent tools you’ll have in getting through to someone.

Like what you've read? There are more tips on marketing, social media, and the automotive industry here!

How many brains do you have? Trick question, I know. Your biology teacher said you have one. However, according to Dr. Mark Goulston your brain has three layers that evolved over millions of years. There’s the reptile layer, the mammal layer, and the primate layer.  Let's take a deeper look into these layers and ways you can tap into these parts of the brain in your sales presentation, customer service, or just everyday life.

Reptilian Brain: This is the most basic of the layers. It taps into your natural instinct of “Fight or flight.” Here, the brain acts and reacts without a lot of thinking going on. Your body is hard-wired to react to stress in ways meant to protect you against threats from predators and other aggressors. It can also leave you frozen in a crisis like the unfortunate deer in the headlights.

Mammal Brain: This is your inner drama queen. This layer of your brain takes hold of the powerful emotions in your life---love, joy, anger, jealousy, grief...

Primate Brain: This is where your logic comes in. Here your brain weighs a situation logically, rationally, and generates a plan of action. This part of the brain collect data from the lower parts of the brain, analyzes it and makes practical decisions.

How is this information useful to you? Simple: you cannot get your message through any other layer but the Primate brain. If you notice someone is reacting illogically or emotionally to your statements stop all together.  You’ll be wasting your time. In this instant you need to talk a person up to the rational primate brain.  You need to understand what the person is going through and try to mirror them. Effectively mirroring a person will create one of the most potent tools you’ll have in getting through to someone.

Like what you've read? There are more tips on marketing, social media, and the automotive industry here!

Does your dealer live chat provide the ability to chat in different languages? Can you speak at least two different  languages? It is no surprise that due to globalization and the Internet, human beings are more interconnected than ever. It is simply not just a perk or advantage that you know another language, it is becoming a must!

At ActivEngage we provide dealer live chat that translates into 16 different languages, from Arabic, to Catanese, and French. It doesn’t stop there either, 37% of our employees are proficient in at least two different languages with Spanish being one of them.  Why is this important? Spanish is the country’s unofficial second language. With more than 40 million Hispanics in the US today and an estimated annual growth rate of 4.65, the Latino community will add 1.7 million people to its population every year. In addition, being bilingual has its advantages:

• Being able to learn new words easily
• Being able to use information in new ways
• Coming up with solutions to problems
• Good listening skills
• Connecting with others easily and quickly

Probably, one of the most important aspects of being bilingual is that we are better at multitasking. As Ellen Bialystok a cognitive neuroscientist states, “There’s a system in your brain, the executive control system. It’s a general manager. Its job is to keep you focused on what is relevant, while ignoring distractions. It’s what makes it possible for you to hold two different things in your mind at one time and switch between them.”

Why partner with a dealer live chat provider that doesn’t offer the ability to translate a conversation into different languages or outsource to a dealer live chat provider that doesn’t meet the demographics you need in order to communicate with your site visitors without a translator? You wouldn’t refuse to hire a salesperson that’s fluent in Spanish if you live in an area where a majority of Hispanics reside, would you? Then why is it not the same case with your dealer live chat? Partner with a dealer live chat company that can meet your dealership’s needs and expectations.

Does your dealer live chat provide the ability to chat in different languages? Can you speak at least two different  languages? It is no surprise that due to globalization and the Internet, human beings are more interconnected than ever. It is simply not just a perk or advantage that you know another language, it is becoming a must!

At ActivEngage we provide dealer live chat that translates into 16 different languages, from Arabic, to Catanese, and French. It doesn’t stop there either, 37% of our employees are proficient in at least two different languages with Spanish being one of them.  Why is this important? Spanish is the country’s unofficial second language. With more than 40 million Hispanics in the US today and an estimated annual growth rate of 4.65, the Latino community will add 1.7 million people to its population every year. In addition, being bilingual has its advantages:

• Being able to learn new words easily
• Being able to use information in new ways
• Coming up with solutions to problems
• Good listening skills
• Connecting with others easily and quickly

Probably, one of the most important aspects of being bilingual is that we are better at multitasking. As Ellen Bialystok a cognitive neuroscientist states, “There’s a system in your brain, the executive control system. It’s a general manager. Its job is to keep you focused on what is relevant, while ignoring distractions. It’s what makes it possible for you to hold two different things in your mind at one time and switch between them.”

Why partner with a dealer live chat provider that doesn’t offer the ability to translate a conversation into different languages or outsource to a dealer live chat provider that doesn’t meet the demographics you need in order to communicate with your site visitors without a translator? You wouldn’t refuse to hire a salesperson that’s fluent in Spanish if you live in an area where a majority of Hispanics reside, would you? Then why is it not the same case with your dealer live chat? Partner with a dealer live chat company that can meet your dealership’s needs and expectations.