Nobody starts out their business or career and says, “I want to strive to be a mediocre success.”  The initial goal sets a target for a higher level of achievement, profitability, and implementation of some great marketing tactics to connect with and build an audience of loyal followers. 

When a business is in its early stages the founders are looking for ways to stand out and make a difference in the market. They push the envelope and try new and exciting things; mainly because they have little to lose at that point.   As a company grows, becomes profitable, and creates a corporate hierarchy ; the creativity, the ingenuity, and the appetite for risk starts to fade. 

Think about break out businesses.  Look at Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tesla, or Oculus Rift.  How many of these were created by large entrenched corporations?  NONE!   It was the true entrepreneur(s) who said, “Hey what if we . . . . ,“  and then they went and did it. 

Today most dealers are at a point where they are playing it safe.  Owners, managers and employees seem satisfied with just doing enough to get by. Yes some customers leave happy or satisfied . . . but most are not excited.   The customer experience was okay, but not stellar.  Some of this can be attributed to the markets where dealers operate. 

A majority of dealerships (about 11,800 rooftops) sell 62 new units a month or less.  8,300 dealers sell 33 new units or less per month (NADA 2015 Data).  Clearly many of these dealers don’t have a large advertising budget and rely on the standard (mediocre resources) of the OEM and their co-op approved vendors who lock down software and only allow what the OEM wants. 

OEM rules mean many dealer websites look like every other dealer website; in other words- mediocre. I am not saying this is bad or good, only that the OEM and dealer have chosen a mediocre marketing solution.  If every dealer website looks the same then prospects and customers think every dealer is the same; and it’s hard to argue with that logic.  The better dealers don’t stand out in the market.

Here are a few ways to tell if a dealership is mediocre:

1. The dealership uses the OEM website with little or no modification and looks like every other website from the same OEM.
2. The dealership doesn’t use localized or promotional URL’s and landing pages to create, market, and track various programs or coupon offerings.
3. The website About Us page talks about vehicles, includes a lot of local cities, but little or no information about the background of the business, their people, or place in the community.
4. The website inventory has a “Call for Internet Price” or just a “Call for Price” button
5. No staff page on the website, or if there is a staff page there are missing photos or those annoying silhouettes that just say to the visitor, “this person is not important enough to warrant a photo.”
6. If one of the first questions a dealer/manager asks a prospective vendor is “Can I co-op your fees with my OEM?” When price trumps value to the business you insure mediocre results.
7. If the dealership does not use their CRM software consistently every day and make sure every manager does too.Lack of following a process dooms you to mediocrity.
8. If all the testimonials on a website are positive. No one is perfect and if you only show perfect reviews you have just confirmed you cannot be trusted to be open and honest. Good dealers don’t hide behind manipulated reviews.
9. If the manager/owner wants information on a product or service and asks the vendor to call back early next week, instead of setting a specific day and time for a phone appointment.Would you drop in on your lawyer or doctor without an appointment?  Setting and keeping appointments shows a level of professionalism not found in mediocre dealers. Doesn’t a dealership strive to set appointments for their prospects?
10. When the Owner/GM doesn’t create an environment where all employees are comfortable bringing new ideas on generating more business to them each week.An incentive for ideas that get better than average results should be implemented to encourage more ideas.  

Being a smaller volume dealer puts additional pressure on management to watch the pennies and also time constraints on what they have the resources to accomplish in a day.  When you are too busy running your business you don’t have time to grow your business.  Dealer principals and their General Managers who want to break out from mediocrity need to carve out time each week to focus on how to stand out in the market, grow community support, and how best to drive more traffic to their showroom. If their best suggestions are direct mail and inflatable gorillas, they need to bring in a marketing catalyst (outside person) to put some new life back into the store.

There are resources available that are very cost effective and it’s not a question of can you afford a virtual VP of Marketing; it’s a question of can you afford not to hire someone to help with marketing.  This is not an expense; it’s an investment in future growth. And it will put the dealership on a path to rise above mediocrity.

Dealers need to look into marketing and advertising co-ops that provide big city promotional ideas, and local dealers can pick and choose from a menu of services and budgets for top tier marketing and engagement promotional activities.  This gives a dealer the opportunity to break from mediocre marketing programs and often budgets can be $5,000 a month or less.