Great stuff! We have seen Paradigm shifts in the auto industry for years now and the question remains, "How well do you embrace change (and technology)? Thanks for the great article.

Brilliant Mark. Great word picture for what is going on currently and where it should be heading. Thanks for the article.

One might say that the existing automotive distribution system or channel will have to change dramatically for Google or Disney to bother with buying dealerships. However, dealerships may not be dealerships in the next 5 years. Then their involvement could be significant. There is nothing innovative in automotive marketing for G or D at present in automotive distribution but we perhaps should watch what Tesla is doing and how technology and data from Google and other big data companies is changing and is going to change the franchise model and how it operates.

Now, THIS should scare a bunch of dealerships! (were it true) Love this!

I think if either Google or Disney got into the game it would be subscription base autonomous vehicles. Both businesses excel in selling services, not products. For Disney, they could also input a "glitch" where you are locked in the vehicle as it drives directly to the nearest theme park.

Okay, so it took 15 years, but now everyone knows what that dude meant when he kept saying, "The Future is an Amusement Park". Disney and Google, what a sensational combination...

I agree with Duckhouser's comment that customers are looking for a relationship when purchasing anything. What brings someone back is the relationship with the staff and the business and if you can instill this into the culture of the business you can create that environment that people look forward to visiting again and again. Nothing is more powerful than a positive referral

Many dealers completed their Disney course, as well as many folks from GM. They learned how to get rave reviews from people who paid a LOT of money to stand in line for hours surrounded by screaming kids. To my knowledge, NO ONE from Disney attended auto retail training where they could learn how to sell cars to consumers, few of whom have "fast track" credit, many who have negative equity in their trade ins, who have to sign upwards of 46 documents, disclosures, disclaimers, etc., many of which are mandated by lenders and regulators, to get the deal done, while still achieving a 90 percent plus CSI score. Funny how people with NO auto retail experience have a better idea how to run our business than the people doing it. Disney needs to send THEIR people to auto dealerships.

Customers used to be looking for a relationship when buying large ticket items. These days, Millennials in particular don't care. They are ruthless. When they move out of their parent's basement we'll take them more seriously.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/millennial-male-not-who-you-think-he-152929

Dave thanks for your insights; as usual you are very observant and make some great points. Yes, many people outside the industry think they can do it better. Most of the time they are wrong (eg. the original AutoNation superstore concept). Then an outsider and retail team from Circuit City came along and started CarMax using a non-confrontational selling process. Their net income last year was $434.3 million and their total revenue was $10.9 billion. Pretty good for non-car experts. As for Millenials not caring about relationships, I do not believe that is true in most cases. Remember they grew up in an age where government politicians, companies and many people in leadership roles proved they could not be trusted; so naturally they are reticent when it comes to relationships. Car sales people are certainly on the list of people not to trust, and that is the reason why my premise of a company like Disney entering auto retailing becomes that more real. As for Disney's skill in navigating what it takes to put a “car deal together” remember they run television networks, amusement parks, animation studios, and numerous cable companies while employing 144,000 employees (2009 figure). I certainly think they have the expertise and can figure out how to handle negative equity on an auto buying transaction. Dealers and third party vendors have trained younger consumers that a lowest price is the best deal. Dealers that continue to pay lead providers promoting low prices hundreds of dollars for closed sales are short sighted and compromising long term viability for short term gain. And in many cases dealers are devaluing everything they have built that is truly important like their reputation in the community and the reputation and professionalism of their salespeople and managers. They have made their product just a commodity. It would not take long for a customer focused, financially disciplined, well-managed company to quickly get up to speed on running a customer friendly dealership that would be incredibly profitable. Virtually every dealer has the ability to improve their operations, but in this environment (making big $$$) most don't have the will to change anything. I wrote this article hoping that some dealers and OEMs would see the value in really improving their way of doing business and rebuilding the good reputation of auto retailing. The reality is, if we don't initiate the change, someone else will!

As a Millennial myself (top end) and spending the majority of my life around other Millennials I concur that I, nor anyone I know, cares much at all about a relationship when purchasing a product. If the product can be purchased in an efficient manner, and the cost/value is correct that is all that matters. So, if something can be purchased online, delivered to my home, and returned just as easily if need be, then I am sold. I don't care if it is from a faceless machine, or from my buddy the Car Salesperson. Now, if things are supper efficient, and there is a relationship that is a plus. But efficiency and price/value are paramount. Just my two cents on Millennials.

I would buy a car from Disney simply to say I bought a car from Disney. That's just my Disney freak side making an appearance though. They already have an automatic debit on my checking account for stock purchases every month. I wonder if I could buy a house from them? hmmm.. (Oh, and yes, you can buy a house from them. Just saying.)

Makes sense... Look at Warren Buffet. He is going to combine the data he has from home buyers (Berkshire Hathaway Realty) and combine that with automotive. Powerful data, indeed! Berkshire Hathaway completes Van Tuyl acquisition http://www.autonews.com/article/20150310/RETAIL07/150319987/berkshire-hathaway-completes-van-tuyl-acquisition

Amazing LIFE lessons here. Many of them I follow close to my heart! Especially the "You have to fail to succeed concept" Thanks Mark for posting such an inspiring article!

Very good article. I totally agree that engaging customers is so important. It's just like when you are selling the car in person, you must ask questions to figure out what is important to the customer so that you can show them benefits that they actually care about. The same goes for online content. Very well said that engagement is king.

Nice post, Mark. One request: never post that doll Tweet anywhere in public again. It cannot be unseen.

Totally agree Mark. It's often that businesses post or tweet...STUFF. Then you see the businesses that GET IT, they post VALUE. Thats where my eyeballs go!!

Perfect...Could not agree with you more. With the amount of "noise" out there, customers appreciate and will reward the business that takes their time to provide valuable information regarding a product or service.

What you are saying basically is "Say something, when you actually have something to say." The on going and ever changing story of your business should easily bubble to the top when the lid gets removed. What I mean by that is, open the content creation door to everyone. Everyone should have an opportunity to share in the responsibility of marketing the organization. But what you need is a process in place to limit their liability. I wouldn't just hand out the password to the main twitter acct or give admin rights to everyone on facebook. I will however, create a contributor account for them, I will give them limited access to see the things that they wanted to take a part in and nothing more. If you create the environment that allows for stories to be told then everyone becomes a story teller. Which is an exceptional problem to have.

Chris K. my comments do not address the dealer process only the quality of the content. Every organization needs to have people and process to insure that quality content is shared and that someone is responsible for vetting the content. Dealers have wonderful stories to tell they just need to share them at the right time on the right venue.

Well said, Mark. I'm not a fan of the term "engagement" because it is so overused, and no one wants to talk about what successful engagement looks like. We see this consistently with social media. There are no shortage of Guru's shouting this from their soap boxes, then when you look at their client's results, there is no engagement to be found. Content is still King. But if we're going to recognize this is the foundation of an online marketing strategy then how do you want your "king" to represent your business? After all crappy content will work to distinguish a business just as well as quality, the question is what message does one want to send about their brand? Engagement is simply the "reputation" of your content. Its the feedback of content marketing well done or a lack thereof on the lack thereof! Mark I think we're on the same page, I just think words are important. My fear is that people without a deep understanding of what content marketing is all about will see "engagement" and tune out because its quickly becoming a meaningless overused buzzword.

Thoughtful piece, Mark. Thanks.

Tim, you and I have been in this business a long time and we know it really is simple to succeed. When you do what's right, take care of your people and your customers, and are a good neighbor offline and online you will succeed. The marketing, content, and messaging is just an extension of that core culture. Your company and the services you offer help those good dealers "who get it" be more approachable on the web. Keep up the good work with your clients and making them good neighbors. All the best.

Exactly! Right on Mark! There is a secondary piece to your puzzle though. It is the responsibility of vendor's who wish to claim expertise in these areas to provide not only sound rhetoric, but sound products and services to deliver the quality we're both talking about here. Certainly, you can't manage what you can't measure and its on the dealer to hold vendors accountable. But there is far too much crap content being sold as a service by vendors to dealers who are actually looking to accomplish the kind of quality and bring the value you cite. Sadly what they end up getting is crap. We need to teach dealers how to actually identify what real engagement looks like so that dealers will know the difference.

So many Dealers have such great community involvement and not enough people know about it. It's videos and ads like this that give "Car Sales" the reputation they deserve. This is AWESOME! Way to go!

Thanks for sharing this video! One of my all-time favorites for sure. We made a little behind-the-scenes look at the filming of that video, if you'd like to see more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l95O1EToFYU

Wonderful. Part of the problem with perception is that the giving is done from the heart and often anonymously as a result. I know when I have given in the past, in some cases I didn't even want to recipient to know where it came from. It is nice to see examples like this that are a small representation of a far greater silent majority.

Sleaze and stupidity are good words for this type of activity.

There is not looking at the paperwork, which is what all of my customers do because they trust me and then, really not looking at any of the paperwork. People never read the backside of a finance contract, but they certainly see or look at the description on the top page, you know the very first page that says what you are buying? I'm thinking this is a made up story. I always start by stating what they are buying, then the price, then any options or taxes, the total, interest rate, payments, etc. How can a car be delivered without stating the basics, forget the government BS and the backside legaleize. Did this guy just say, please sign here ! without a word about the transaction. Must be a Florida Thing. "Just Sign Here Folks and you can drive away!" This guy should put on a magic show!

It is kind of mind boggling that the customer didn't look at the paperwork as they were signing it. It is a bigger shame that this salesperson and sales manager let the customer think it was a 2014. That is very deceptive. I'm guessing if they took this to court, the customer will win this fight with a good attorney.

That dealer doesn't seem very concerned with repeat business. While it's true that it wasn't too bright on the customer's part to not read a contract, they did do something right:they they left a review, which will haunt the dealer when individuals (and potential customers) like Mark find it so easily online.

Just a thought. Did you interview the dealership to get their side if the story?

Of course, the actual reply online speaks for itself: Business Response On behalf of everyone at ABC Motors, we would like to extend our most sincere apologies for your experience. We strive for 100% customer satisfaction and we're sorry to hear that your recent visit did not meet your expectations. Your feedback will help us ensure that this experience doesn't happen again and we would like the opportunity to resolve this matter to your satisfaction. Please contact Jane Doe at 555-555-1212 so we can discuss options with you.

I have been involved in at least a hundred deals in which we arranged credit union financing, and I always called in the insurance as a service and to ensure the lender was protected in case it slipped the buyer's mind. The ONE THING I did NOT read here is that the buyer was TOLD it was a 2014. OF COURSE it is possible that the customer was intentionally misled, but a good friend hangs his hat on his best selling performance, in which his (very happy) customers asked, "what did we buy, again?". So buyers aren't always listening to the conversation in their excitement or apprehension. An error was made on both sides. Hopefully the dealership takes reasonable action to rectify the situation. The true measure of customer service is not being perfect, but HOW YOU RESPOND when a mistake is made...

Out of curiosity, WHY are we hiding the dealer name, if this actually happened?

Why hide the name of the dealer? I have learned over the years that most auto dealers do a good job of taking care of customers, and a few bad reviews are not a reason to "call-out" a dealer. For every negative review there are 50 happy customers so I saw no need to name this dealership. Did I contact the dealer to get their side of the story? No, the Internet doesn't work that way. Consumers will read reviews and choose to accept what they want to accept. It is incumbent on the dealer to make sure their customers share their experiences in a forum where the dealer can respond. In this case the dealer is using "canned" responses for virtually every negative review they get. (See Josh's post above).Dealers using these "blanket responses" do more harm to their reputation by showing the customer wasn't worth a personal response. If the post was not accurate, the dealer should have "delicately" posted a response to clarify what happened. We all know some customers have buyers remorse, are forgetful, and sometimes are just plain stupid. In our industry we need to constantly have a CYA process.

A Google search for the phrase: " They arranged the car insurance for me through my agent I thought they were being nice" only found this post on Driving Sales and not on any dealer review sites? When Sleaze Meets Stupidity | Mark Dubis | DrivingSales www.drivingsales.com/permalink/205380/‎ 22 hours ago - They arranged the car insurance for me through my agent I thought they were being nice but did they do it to keep me from seeing the car was a .

Hello Jay Prassel: I did a google search for a different phrase in his comments " When I called the Salesman, he said you signed the paper work! It’s my fault I just signed the papers where they told me to I did not read them. " and it DID bring me to a dealer site in Fort Myers, FL. So, I'm thinking he did complain. I have no way of knowing if they mislead him or what but it does appear to have happened there.

Thanks Mike for validating the posting of the review for Jay Prassel. Just curious Jay, why you thought this was a bogus posting? I like to think I'm a straight shooter, and that's why I adopted the Cowboy Code for our company's policy. http://ilovemycustomer.com/the-code/

@Mark, sorry, I did not mean to insinuate that you made up the post, but after reading it again, I understand. I shouldn't respond or post while getting on a plane. Thanks to Mike for finding it. Mark corrected the spelling of "arrange" to the correct verb of "arranged", which is why my Google search failed. Since I moved to Florida 18 months ago, I am stunned and disappointed by what I see for advertising by dealers along with some poor business practices. Just wait until the FTC and CFPB make a visit here. Some interesting articles: http://www.dealerbusinessjournal.com/articleview.php?id=422-83284 http://oncars.blogspot.com/2014/01/car-dealers-of-south-fla-beware-ftc-is.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPY-s_cjL7o Thanks to Mark and your efforts to help dealers.

If it's anything like what I am seeing here locally, I don't think folks are looking at this clearly enough. Of course the thought is, "can I make a sale" doing this. But it seems to me that we aren't considering whether we want to be of service socially, and build a long term relationship. As long as we think in terms of instant gratification, we will never move past where we are. I think we cloud our own judgement by not sitting down and talking this out rationally with the whole team. To me it's no different than that salesperson who tells me, "I sent out those Christmas cards one time and nothing happened, so I don't do that anymore".