Look around, who’s your biggest (local) competition. If you’re like most of us, you know who they are, you constantly see their sales numbers and wonder  how can you beat them this month? What do they have that you don’t? You have the same cars, right? You have the same (more or less) finance programs? You have the same style dealership? If these answers are “yes,” it’s time you do something to differentiate yourself from the dealership down the street.  When the OEM’s consistently make every dealership “look” the same, what does it take to stand out in a sea of non descript buildings (& colored cars for the most part.)?

Do you have a mission statement? Is that mission statement displayed in your dealership? What about in your “virtual dealership?” What’s your virtual dealership? Your website! How many visits does your website get a week or a month?

I bet it’s more visitors than people who walk into your showroom. There’s really no need to advertise a lease special on a website. Sure, we all want to increase lease penetration, but is a banner on a website actually going to persuade customers to lease rather than purchase? Doubtful. What about a banner on your website that tells the story of Why your dealership is different. Maybe it’s your commitment to the community, maybe it’s your rewards program.

Your store also probably gets more internet leads than walk-in traffic, right? What about telling your customers about your commitment to community or rewards programs in your e-mails and voice mails to leads? Task your BDC (or Internet Manager/Director/Guru) in coming up with phone scripts and e-mail te

mplates that aren’t just ‘HEY I HAVE GREAT NEWS FOR YOU, CALL ME BACK!” or “HEY WE’LL GIVE YOU A GREAT DEAL WHEN YOU COME IN - WHEN CAN YOU COME IN?” In this day and age, those over-used phrases aren’t going to get customers to come in let alone call you back. Remember - people buy from people, and people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. About them. And about what’s important to them. People hear the same voice mails over & over & over & over & over & over and they get the same (or similar) e-mail templates over  & over & over & over & over. Do something to make yourself stand out!

Just remember - your dealership down the street could have the same commitment to community or rewards program, but if they don’t tell their virtual customers about these things their customers will never know.

Do you do anything now to help your customers and potential customers know you’re different? If so - what are they?

Look around, who’s your biggest (local) competition. If you’re like most of us, you know who they are, you constantly see their sales numbers and wonder  how can you beat them this month? What do they have that you don’t? You have the same cars, right? You have the same (more or less) finance programs? You have the same style dealership? If these answers are “yes,” it’s time you do something to differentiate yourself from the dealership down the street.  When the OEM’s consistently make every dealership “look” the same, what does it take to stand out in a sea of non descript buildings (& colored cars for the most part.)?

Do you have a mission statement? Is that mission statement displayed in your dealership? What about in your “virtual dealership?” What’s your virtual dealership? Your website! How many visits does your website get a week or a month?

I bet it’s more visitors than people who walk into your showroom. There’s really no need to advertise a lease special on a website. Sure, we all want to increase lease penetration, but is a banner on a website actually going to persuade customers to lease rather than purchase? Doubtful. What about a banner on your website that tells the story of Why your dealership is different. Maybe it’s your commitment to the community, maybe it’s your rewards program.

Your store also probably gets more internet leads than walk-in traffic, right? What about telling your customers about your commitment to community or rewards programs in your e-mails and voice mails to leads? Task your BDC (or Internet Manager/Director/Guru) in coming up with phone scripts and e-mail te

mplates that aren’t just ‘HEY I HAVE GREAT NEWS FOR YOU, CALL ME BACK!” or “HEY WE’LL GIVE YOU A GREAT DEAL WHEN YOU COME IN - WHEN CAN YOU COME IN?” In this day and age, those over-used phrases aren’t going to get customers to come in let alone call you back. Remember - people buy from people, and people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. About them. And about what’s important to them. People hear the same voice mails over & over & over & over & over & over and they get the same (or similar) e-mail templates over  & over & over & over & over. Do something to make yourself stand out!

Just remember - your dealership down the street could have the same commitment to community or rewards program, but if they don’t tell their virtual customers about these things their customers will never know.

Do you do anything now to help your customers and potential customers know you’re different? If so - what are they?

So wait - if you're already spending money on Facebook to Boost Posts, and there's an easy way to invite people who don't already like you page to like it? Let me tell you more...

I was reading a friend's blog that I typically keep an eye on, Ken Mueller is a local Social Media Marketer who is always on the cutting edge of what's going on. His most recent blog post talks about how to increase your Facebook "Likes" and I'm going to share what he found with you. 

He found that Liz Jostes of Eli Rose Social Media has discovered that if you boost a post & get a "handful" of "likes" on it. You can actually click on the actual likes of that page and then invite the people who liked a particular post to like your page. (I really don't mean for this to sound like a circular description).

Post --> Boost Post --. Handful of Likes On That Post --> Invite "Likers" To Like Your Page.

As we all know - it's not purely about the number of Likes your page has, but the interaction those likes provide with your content.  But if you target your boosts appropriately, then the likers should be within your target market!  Who doesn't want more Facebook "Likes," right? 

Now, Liz uses a "Like Contest" but you can use anything - see her video below. Be sure to watch it all!

Don't worry about spamming people & inviting them to like your page more than once, after you've invited them on one post, they'll show up as "Invited" on any other post they've liked.

Now, as I said before - the number of actual "Likes" isn't entirely reflective of how well (or poorly) your dealership's Facebook Page is doing but having more relevant likes is a way to target more people in your market.

Hope this tip helps everyone! What do you think? What are your results?

So wait - if you're already spending money on Facebook to Boost Posts, and there's an easy way to invite people who don't already like you page to like it? Let me tell you more...

I was reading a friend's blog that I typically keep an eye on, Ken Mueller is a local Social Media Marketer who is always on the cutting edge of what's going on. His most recent blog post talks about how to increase your Facebook "Likes" and I'm going to share what he found with you. 

He found that Liz Jostes of Eli Rose Social Media has discovered that if you boost a post & get a "handful" of "likes" on it. You can actually click on the actual likes of that page and then invite the people who liked a particular post to like your page. (I really don't mean for this to sound like a circular description).

Post --> Boost Post --. Handful of Likes On That Post --> Invite "Likers" To Like Your Page.

As we all know - it's not purely about the number of Likes your page has, but the interaction those likes provide with your content.  But if you target your boosts appropriately, then the likers should be within your target market!  Who doesn't want more Facebook "Likes," right? 

Now, Liz uses a "Like Contest" but you can use anything - see her video below. Be sure to watch it all!

Don't worry about spamming people & inviting them to like your page more than once, after you've invited them on one post, they'll show up as "Invited" on any other post they've liked.

Now, as I said before - the number of actual "Likes" isn't entirely reflective of how well (or poorly) your dealership's Facebook Page is doing but having more relevant likes is a way to target more people in your market.

Hope this tip helps everyone! What do you think? What are your results?

There's been some confusion regarding the Google "My Business App" on the Apple App store recently - (sorry Android users - I don't know if you had the same issues us iPhone users did).  But the "Google My Business App" was mysteriously missing. 

Now - I already had this on my phone (I had downloaded it when the ever cutting-edge Daniel Fontaine had posted it on Google Plus. I got to talking about the app to a friend, and tried to pull it up in the app store to send them the link as "They couldn't find it."

"How silly are they?" I thought as I searched the App Store for it --- nope -- nothing -- no dice -- nada.  It had disappeared! I couldn't even pull up the page and yet, I had it on my phone. And it worked just fine on my phone.

Then today - I checked my updates and there it was! The released it back onto the App Store - and the best part is - you can now reply to reviews on it! And from what I've been told - will also receive a push notification when you receive a review on one of the businesses linked to your account.  Another part is it shows what days of the week your business receives the most phone calls (based on the number of clicks on your business's phone number from a local search result).  Of course there's the usual views/clicks and driving directions requested.

Am I crazy, or is this amazing news?  I have so many software programs that I use daily for work - that I have to be logged into constantly (CRM, DMS, Trade-In Appraising Tool, DealerTrack, HootSuite, OEM backend, etc etc), staying logged into (or even remembering to check) my store's Google Places/My Business account for reviews was sometimes the furthest thing from my mind! I'm glad the new update will have push notifications.

Have you downloaded it to your phone yet? If so - what do you think of it?

There's been some confusion regarding the Google "My Business App" on the Apple App store recently - (sorry Android users - I don't know if you had the same issues us iPhone users did).  But the "Google My Business App" was mysteriously missing. 

Now - I already had this on my phone (I had downloaded it when the ever cutting-edge Daniel Fontaine had posted it on Google Plus. I got to talking about the app to a friend, and tried to pull it up in the app store to send them the link as "They couldn't find it."

"How silly are they?" I thought as I searched the App Store for it --- nope -- nothing -- no dice -- nada.  It had disappeared! I couldn't even pull up the page and yet, I had it on my phone. And it worked just fine on my phone.

Then today - I checked my updates and there it was! The released it back onto the App Store - and the best part is - you can now reply to reviews on it! And from what I've been told - will also receive a push notification when you receive a review on one of the businesses linked to your account.  Another part is it shows what days of the week your business receives the most phone calls (based on the number of clicks on your business's phone number from a local search result).  Of course there's the usual views/clicks and driving directions requested.

Am I crazy, or is this amazing news?  I have so many software programs that I use daily for work - that I have to be logged into constantly (CRM, DMS, Trade-In Appraising Tool, DealerTrack, HootSuite, OEM backend, etc etc), staying logged into (or even remembering to check) my store's Google Places/My Business account for reviews was sometimes the furthest thing from my mind! I'm glad the new update will have push notifications.

Have you downloaded it to your phone yet? If so - what do you think of it?

When you hire a new sales professional, they have a TON of tests to go through. HR tests, product knowledge tests, they even have tests on their tests! They have so much to learn and of course want to learn it as quickly as possible.  Because -- if they're taking tests, they're not selling. And if they're not selling, they're probably not making [much] money.

But do they retain everything?  Probably not. Especially not right away.  But instead of trying to impress their customers by letting them think the green pea knows everything --- they should be concentrating what they do know & also admitting what they don't know.

No consumer is going to expect a Sales Professional to know every single answer to every single question.  Especially when the consumers ask the technical questions “What’s the compression ratio on this car?” Really - who knows that, and moreover, the consumer is probably only asking that question to test the Sales Professional.  But what’s the correct answer to the questions?

“I don’t know off the top of my head, but I can find out for you.”

Wow.  Did that just happen? The salesperson did 3 things there.
1.) They admitted they didn’t know something about their product.
2.) They assured the customer they would find out the answer.
3.) They built INSTANT TRUST with the customer.  
Rewind - “How did they build trust?”

If they’re going to tell the truth and admit they don’t know the answer to a customer’s possibly “insignificant” question about a car — then they’ll tell the truth throughout the process!  This is important for the most veteran sales professional to learn as well - just because they’ve been selling for 10+ years, doesn’t mean they know everything about every single car!

VOILA! Isn’t part of what we do building trust and rapport with the customer?  Yep (at least I hope it is - if not, please stop and reexamine your business model).  

Do you teach your sales professionals that saying “I don’t know, but I can find out.”  Is acceptable and important?

When you hire a new sales professional, they have a TON of tests to go through. HR tests, product knowledge tests, they even have tests on their tests! They have so much to learn and of course want to learn it as quickly as possible.  Because -- if they're taking tests, they're not selling. And if they're not selling, they're probably not making [much] money.

But do they retain everything?  Probably not. Especially not right away.  But instead of trying to impress their customers by letting them think the green pea knows everything --- they should be concentrating what they do know & also admitting what they don't know.

No consumer is going to expect a Sales Professional to know every single answer to every single question.  Especially when the consumers ask the technical questions “What’s the compression ratio on this car?” Really - who knows that, and moreover, the consumer is probably only asking that question to test the Sales Professional.  But what’s the correct answer to the questions?

“I don’t know off the top of my head, but I can find out for you.”

Wow.  Did that just happen? The salesperson did 3 things there.
1.) They admitted they didn’t know something about their product.
2.) They assured the customer they would find out the answer.
3.) They built INSTANT TRUST with the customer.  
Rewind - “How did they build trust?”

If they’re going to tell the truth and admit they don’t know the answer to a customer’s possibly “insignificant” question about a car — then they’ll tell the truth throughout the process!  This is important for the most veteran sales professional to learn as well - just because they’ve been selling for 10+ years, doesn’t mean they know everything about every single car!

VOILA! Isn’t part of what we do building trust and rapport with the customer?  Yep (at least I hope it is - if not, please stop and reexamine your business model).  

Do you teach your sales professionals that saying “I don’t know, but I can find out.”  Is acceptable and important?

We’ve heard it time & time again, “People Buy From People.”  Being in this automotive-digital-marketing-world, I spend some of my day looking at other dealer’s websites, mystery shopping, looking for ideas, and just generally scoping out the competition.  One thing I’ve noticed is that quite a few of them are lacking an “Our-Team” page.  

The “Our-Team” page was the 12th most visited page on our website in July & the 8th most visited in June! Average time on page? 2 minutes & 50 seconds! It was also the 5th highest entrance page (Behind homepage, new inventory, used inventory & service). 

The reason for this is the amount of text on the page provides a high SEO value for the website. 

On our page, we have everyone, including office staff, technicians, and our recon staff’s pictures up.  Dealers who have just their “sales” team on the “our-team” page - are they the only members of your team who count? I doubt it.  

Don’t put stock photos up - if you’re going to have an “Our Team” page do it right! Put nice, pictures up. Not goofy ones, make it interesting! People like to go to the “Our-Team” page to see the faces of the dealership. We even have a group picture at the top of our “Our Team” page.  

It really doesn’t take that long to do & unless you have exceptionally high turn over (in that case, you probably have larger issues to iron out), it doesn’t take much maintenance either! 

What do you think? Does your dealership have an updated “Our Team” page? 

We’ve heard it time & time again, “People Buy From People.”  Being in this automotive-digital-marketing-world, I spend some of my day looking at other dealer’s websites, mystery shopping, looking for ideas, and just generally scoping out the competition.  One thing I’ve noticed is that quite a few of them are lacking an “Our-Team” page.  

The “Our-Team” page was the 12th most visited page on our website in July & the 8th most visited in June! Average time on page? 2 minutes & 50 seconds! It was also the 5th highest entrance page (Behind homepage, new inventory, used inventory & service). 

The reason for this is the amount of text on the page provides a high SEO value for the website. 

On our page, we have everyone, including office staff, technicians, and our recon staff’s pictures up.  Dealers who have just their “sales” team on the “our-team” page - are they the only members of your team who count? I doubt it.  

Don’t put stock photos up - if you’re going to have an “Our Team” page do it right! Put nice, pictures up. Not goofy ones, make it interesting! People like to go to the “Our-Team” page to see the faces of the dealership. We even have a group picture at the top of our “Our Team” page.  

It really doesn’t take that long to do & unless you have exceptionally high turn over (in that case, you probably have larger issues to iron out), it doesn’t take much maintenance either! 

What do you think? Does your dealership have an updated “Our Team” page?