The DrivingSales Executive Summit 2014 is less than 80 days away, and Vegas can be an overwhelming experience if you aren't prepared. [Tweet This]  After attending for the past several years, I wanted to share the best tips and tricks I have accumulated. Whether this is your first DSES or you are a Vogelheim Veteran, hopefully you can use this advice and benefit from my experiences.

Arrive Early

Fly in to Las Vegas before DSES begins on October 12. There is nothing worse than missing a portion of the conference because of a flight delay. Besides, you deserve a break. Take the weekend off and get your Vegas fix before the conference begins.

Leaving the Airport

You can choose a taxi or a bus; both are available outside baggage claim.  The taxi ride is worth it, as the bus can take over an hour by the time it drops everyone else off. 

When taking the taxi, Nevada state law requires the driver to ask, “Do you want to take the tunnel, or the freeway?”

Choose the freeway. The tunnel is a longer route and will ultimately cost you more, even if the driver says otherwise.

FREE Hotel Upgrades

Ever heard of the Vegas $20 Sandwich trick?

Tipping the hotel's front desk staff means the chance of landing a cheap room upgrade. Twenty bucks for a room upgrade is a no-brainer, right?

The so-called “$20 sandwich trick” or “credit card sandwich” is common across the U.S., but in Las Vegas – a city that runs on tips – it's universal.

When checking in, sandwich a $20 bill ($50 or $100 will have a greater effect) between your identification and credit card and ask the front desk clerk, “Are there any complimentary upgrades available?” Smile, be polite and cross your fingers. 

According to FrontDeskTip.com the Bellagio has an 80 percent upgrade rate, so your chances are pretty good. 

Stocking Your Hotel Room

The hotel mini-bar is heinously expensive, and you will find yourself famished when you finally crash at the end of the night. After check-in, head to the Walgreens just south of Planet Hollywood. It’s a hike, but worth it. Spending $20 in Walgreens will save you at least $100 in mini-bar fees. Grab snacks, chips, energy bars, Red Bull, Gatorade, Tylenol, and anything else you may need for your Vegas experience. You can also get an 18-pack of PBR for around $14 if that tickles your fancy.

If you are someone that likes a cold beverage, buy a Styrofoam cooler (approx. $4). Stock it up with ice from the hotel, and you can guarantee a cold drink in your room at all times. Or grab a collapsible cooler and pack it into your suitcase. In a pinch, you can always use your bathtub as well.

Portable Power

If you take away anything from this list, it should be this tip. Before heading to DSES, buy yourself portable power for your phones and tablets. You WILL run out of battery between taking notes, live tweeting, adding people to LinkedIn, and checking the baseball scores (Go Blue Jays!). 

I pack myself two units: a pocket-sized Powerocks Super Magicstick for my phone, and a HyperJuice Plug for my tablet. These will be life-savers, and may even make you some new friends.

WiFi

WiFi systems have user limits, so if there are 100 spots and 500 people you need to be creative. It’s no one’s fault; it just is a reality. WiFi alone for a conference organizer costs $10,000-plus, so be patient.

To increase your WiFi chances, get to the conference early and secure a spot. As long as your device is running, the signal slot should stick. Make sure to share a hotspot with the people at your table.

If you are stuck and can’t find a signal, the Bellagio has a separate signal outside of the conference rooms that you can pick up. It’s limited speed, but will do the job. 

Breakout Sessions – Be Selfish

If you are attending DSES as part of a group, you will likely hear “Let’s divide and conquer,” which is a great aspiration but unrealistic in execution. There is so much information to take in that when it comes time to “share notes” with your colleagues afterwards, you may only get one or two items from the other sessions.

Go to the breakouts that are of the most interest to you, and concern yourself with making the most of your summit. [Tweet This] If you take great notes, share those and hopefully your colleagues will too.

Meet as Many People as Possible

The first year I went to DSES I went alone, and I wish I’d made more of an effort to reach out and meet people. Make a point of sitting down with strangers for lunch, in a breakout or, if you are a smoker (the smoking patio is located on the Bellagio balcony just outside main hall), you can meet some amazing people. 

One of the few people I met in my first year was Brian Armstrong (@BryanCarGuy) and he single-handedly made my first experience tremendously more enjoyable. 

Bring a handful of business cards, or better yet, include your Twitter handle on your name badge!

If You Can’t Book into the Bellagio

My 2nd year at DSES I stayed at Aria. It wasn’t until the third day that I found the “secret shortcut” between the two hotels. If you walk through the Vdara (in the CityCenter complex) there is a walkway that directly connects with the Bellagio. It saves a quarter-mile of walking and easily 20–30 minutes. 

If you aren’t a fan of the “Vegas smoke smell,” the Vdara is a non-smoking building and is easily the best hotel deal on the strip.

Taking Notes

DSES provides faaar more information than you can mentally retain, so taking notes is crucial. My brain is mush by the end, and without my notes I would miss out on some fantastic nuggets.  Get yourself a tablet so that you can quickly type, but more importantly, take photos of slides.

For note software I am a big fan of Evernote. It’s free, easy to organize, adding pictures is super easy and it even has an audio recording feature.

Wear Comfortable Shoes

Walking from one end of the Bellagio to the other is half a mile. Everywhere in Vegas “looks” close, but you can easily pack in 6–10 miles of walking in a day. It’s a great excuse to grab a new pair of shoes from the outlets anyways.

Planning Dinner

Especially at the Bellagio, book your reservations at least two days in advance. Eating dinner at 11 p.m. after a full conference day is not pleasant. You can always cancel if need be.

If you can’t make it into one of the restaurants at the Bellagio, here are my favorite nearby establishments:

Rao’s – Upscale Italian. The meatballs have been compared to Jesus by Scott Stratten @unmarketing, and for the vegetarians, the beet salad is to die for. Located at Caesar’s Palace.

Five50 Pizza Bar – In my list of top five pizzas I’ve ever had in my life. You can grab a slice, or sit down for a whole pie. Located in the Aria next to the Sports Book.

China Poblano – Chinese-Mexican Fusion. Small portions, big flavour. Small spot hidden at the back of the Cosmopolitan.

Mon Ami Gabi – Casual French. Try to grab a seat on the patio so you can look over the Bellagio fountains. The goat cheese marinara dip alone is worth the trip.

Hidden Pizza – Legitimately hidden. If you have been out late doing nefarious things, this is the holy grail of destinations. Also on my top five pizzas in my life. Slices only. Basic, New York style, but perfect for late evenings. Hidden on the third floor of the Cosmopolitan.

Plan in Advance

DSES is intense. Your three days will be jam-packed with keynotes, breakouts, working lunches and dinners and general mingling. It’s almost guaranteed, unless you come a few days early or leave Vegas a few days later, that you won’t have time to gamble, shop, or reenact The Hangover. 

Before you arrive, plan as much of the conference as you can as time flies quickly. Pick your breakouts, meetings and dinner reservations in advance so that you can focus on the conference once you arrive. 

Shopping

If you do book the extra time, shopping in Vegas is for walks of all life. If you want to drop $15k on a Rolex, you can at Caesar’s. If you are like myself and are not rollin’ in dough, you can spend an afternoon at the North Outlets. A $20 cab ride away, there is a plethora of shops where you can moderately blow your hard-earned bonus dollars. Pre-plan your shopping excursion at premiumoutlets.com.

More important than regular shopping, @BrentWees is running a shopping trip to Chapel Hats at the Venetian. Tweet him for details.

Afterparty

My favourite way to cap off DSES is with a little karaoke courtesy of Joe Webb @zonewebb and Shaun Raines @shaunraines.  What better way to relax after a mind-bending conference than to float your brain in suds and belt out your best rendition of “Don’t Stop Believing”.   Be on the lookout for info leading up to the after-party.  It’s where all the cool kids hang out.  

Heading Home

If you are exhausted, your brain is fried from information, and your soul feels only slightly dirty, then you know you had a fantastic DSES experience. The flight home can feel like New Year’s Day: you are kind of sad, but excited to get things started. Thankfully McCarren’s Terminal 3 is a great airport terminal. There are plenty of places to eat and ponder on everything that happened over your three days at DSES. 

If, however, you do get stuck overnight, don’t worry. Just do what this guy did: http://youtu.be/uE1ChQ8527I

Execution

DSES is only valuable if you execute. When you get home, take all your notes and create an action plan. Take 5–10 items, order them in order of importance, impact, resources and time and create an action plan to get them completed in 3–6 months.

You may want to rush and get everything started, but trust me, planning out what you have learned at DSES is the key to executing.

Extra Reading: The Vegas 30

Scott Stratten @unmarketing (DSES 2012) has a FANTASTIC podcast called The Vegas 30 (thevegas30.com), dedicated to experiencing the best of Vegas for those who are “too old to stand in line for a club, but too young to retire for the bingo hall.”

To date, there are 14 podcasts, all worthy of downloading and perfect for the plane ride while you are heading to DSES. Some of the topics include:

• Tips on attending Vegas conferences and trade shows
• Is Freemont Street worth the time?
• Off-strip entertainment

Check out all the videos and podcasts at: http://www.thevegas30.com/

​

Extra Reading: Anthony Bourdain – Parts Unknown

If you are a fan of Mr. Bourdain, you will know that Vegas and him go together like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His travels in Las Vegas go from eating a hot dog in a gas station to eating the most expensive meal money can buy at one of Caesar’s villas. Definitely worth a watch:

http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-3/las-vegas/

What Have I Missed?

Tell me what I have missed in this list, what I am wrong about or what I’m SUPER-right about! Share your stories in the comments below.

Robert Karbaum arguably has the best name in the automotive industry. His combined experience over the past decade in E-Commerce and the automotive industry has allowed him to master the art of “AutoSpeak”; the ancient language that bridges the gap between internet geeks, the showroom floor and everything in-between. He manages the E-Commerce, Social and Digital Marketing operations at Weins Canada Inc. (formerly Don Valley North Automotive Group); a prestigious automotive group in Canada which includes the #1 volume Toyota and Lexus dealerships in the country. 

Catch him on Twitter (@karbaum) or DroppinBaums.com.

The DrivingSales Executive Summit 2014 is less than 80 days away, and Vegas can be an overwhelming experience if you aren't prepared. [Tweet This]  After attending for the past several years, I wanted to share the best tips and tricks I have accumulated. Whether this is your first DSES or you are a Vogelheim Veteran, hopefully you can use this advice and benefit from my experiences.

Arrive Early

Fly in to Las Vegas before DSES begins on October 12. There is nothing worse than missing a portion of the conference because of a flight delay. Besides, you deserve a break. Take the weekend off and get your Vegas fix before the conference begins.

Leaving the Airport

You can choose a taxi or a bus; both are available outside baggage claim.  The taxi ride is worth it, as the bus can take over an hour by the time it drops everyone else off. 

When taking the taxi, Nevada state law requires the driver to ask, “Do you want to take the tunnel, or the freeway?”

Choose the freeway. The tunnel is a longer route and will ultimately cost you more, even if the driver says otherwise.

FREE Hotel Upgrades

Ever heard of the Vegas $20 Sandwich trick?

Tipping the hotel's front desk staff means the chance of landing a cheap room upgrade. Twenty bucks for a room upgrade is a no-brainer, right?

The so-called “$20 sandwich trick” or “credit card sandwich” is common across the U.S., but in Las Vegas – a city that runs on tips – it's universal.

When checking in, sandwich a $20 bill ($50 or $100 will have a greater effect) between your identification and credit card and ask the front desk clerk, “Are there any complimentary upgrades available?” Smile, be polite and cross your fingers. 

According to FrontDeskTip.com the Bellagio has an 80 percent upgrade rate, so your chances are pretty good. 

Stocking Your Hotel Room

The hotel mini-bar is heinously expensive, and you will find yourself famished when you finally crash at the end of the night. After check-in, head to the Walgreens just south of Planet Hollywood. It’s a hike, but worth it. Spending $20 in Walgreens will save you at least $100 in mini-bar fees. Grab snacks, chips, energy bars, Red Bull, Gatorade, Tylenol, and anything else you may need for your Vegas experience. You can also get an 18-pack of PBR for around $14 if that tickles your fancy.

If you are someone that likes a cold beverage, buy a Styrofoam cooler (approx. $4). Stock it up with ice from the hotel, and you can guarantee a cold drink in your room at all times. Or grab a collapsible cooler and pack it into your suitcase. In a pinch, you can always use your bathtub as well.

Portable Power

If you take away anything from this list, it should be this tip. Before heading to DSES, buy yourself portable power for your phones and tablets. You WILL run out of battery between taking notes, live tweeting, adding people to LinkedIn, and checking the baseball scores (Go Blue Jays!). 

I pack myself two units: a pocket-sized Powerocks Super Magicstick for my phone, and a HyperJuice Plug for my tablet. These will be life-savers, and may even make you some new friends.

WiFi

WiFi systems have user limits, so if there are 100 spots and 500 people you need to be creative. It’s no one’s fault; it just is a reality. WiFi alone for a conference organizer costs $10,000-plus, so be patient.

To increase your WiFi chances, get to the conference early and secure a spot. As long as your device is running, the signal slot should stick. Make sure to share a hotspot with the people at your table.

If you are stuck and can’t find a signal, the Bellagio has a separate signal outside of the conference rooms that you can pick up. It’s limited speed, but will do the job. 

Breakout Sessions – Be Selfish

If you are attending DSES as part of a group, you will likely hear “Let’s divide and conquer,” which is a great aspiration but unrealistic in execution. There is so much information to take in that when it comes time to “share notes” with your colleagues afterwards, you may only get one or two items from the other sessions.

Go to the breakouts that are of the most interest to you, and concern yourself with making the most of your summit. [Tweet This] If you take great notes, share those and hopefully your colleagues will too.

Meet as Many People as Possible

The first year I went to DSES I went alone, and I wish I’d made more of an effort to reach out and meet people. Make a point of sitting down with strangers for lunch, in a breakout or, if you are a smoker (the smoking patio is located on the Bellagio balcony just outside main hall), you can meet some amazing people. 

One of the few people I met in my first year was Brian Armstrong (@BryanCarGuy) and he single-handedly made my first experience tremendously more enjoyable. 

Bring a handful of business cards, or better yet, include your Twitter handle on your name badge!

If You Can’t Book into the Bellagio

My 2nd year at DSES I stayed at Aria. It wasn’t until the third day that I found the “secret shortcut” between the two hotels. If you walk through the Vdara (in the CityCenter complex) there is a walkway that directly connects with the Bellagio. It saves a quarter-mile of walking and easily 20–30 minutes. 

If you aren’t a fan of the “Vegas smoke smell,” the Vdara is a non-smoking building and is easily the best hotel deal on the strip.

Taking Notes

DSES provides faaar more information than you can mentally retain, so taking notes is crucial. My brain is mush by the end, and without my notes I would miss out on some fantastic nuggets.  Get yourself a tablet so that you can quickly type, but more importantly, take photos of slides.

For note software I am a big fan of Evernote. It’s free, easy to organize, adding pictures is super easy and it even has an audio recording feature.

Wear Comfortable Shoes

Walking from one end of the Bellagio to the other is half a mile. Everywhere in Vegas “looks” close, but you can easily pack in 6–10 miles of walking in a day. It’s a great excuse to grab a new pair of shoes from the outlets anyways.

Planning Dinner

Especially at the Bellagio, book your reservations at least two days in advance. Eating dinner at 11 p.m. after a full conference day is not pleasant. You can always cancel if need be.

If you can’t make it into one of the restaurants at the Bellagio, here are my favorite nearby establishments:

Rao’s – Upscale Italian. The meatballs have been compared to Jesus by Scott Stratten @unmarketing, and for the vegetarians, the beet salad is to die for. Located at Caesar’s Palace.

Five50 Pizza Bar – In my list of top five pizzas I’ve ever had in my life. You can grab a slice, or sit down for a whole pie. Located in the Aria next to the Sports Book.

China Poblano – Chinese-Mexican Fusion. Small portions, big flavour. Small spot hidden at the back of the Cosmopolitan.

Mon Ami Gabi – Casual French. Try to grab a seat on the patio so you can look over the Bellagio fountains. The goat cheese marinara dip alone is worth the trip.

Hidden Pizza – Legitimately hidden. If you have been out late doing nefarious things, this is the holy grail of destinations. Also on my top five pizzas in my life. Slices only. Basic, New York style, but perfect for late evenings. Hidden on the third floor of the Cosmopolitan.

Plan in Advance

DSES is intense. Your three days will be jam-packed with keynotes, breakouts, working lunches and dinners and general mingling. It’s almost guaranteed, unless you come a few days early or leave Vegas a few days later, that you won’t have time to gamble, shop, or reenact The Hangover. 

Before you arrive, plan as much of the conference as you can as time flies quickly. Pick your breakouts, meetings and dinner reservations in advance so that you can focus on the conference once you arrive. 

Shopping

If you do book the extra time, shopping in Vegas is for walks of all life. If you want to drop $15k on a Rolex, you can at Caesar’s. If you are like myself and are not rollin’ in dough, you can spend an afternoon at the North Outlets. A $20 cab ride away, there is a plethora of shops where you can moderately blow your hard-earned bonus dollars. Pre-plan your shopping excursion at premiumoutlets.com.

More important than regular shopping, @BrentWees is running a shopping trip to Chapel Hats at the Venetian. Tweet him for details.

Afterparty

My favourite way to cap off DSES is with a little karaoke courtesy of Joe Webb @zonewebb and Shaun Raines @shaunraines.  What better way to relax after a mind-bending conference than to float your brain in suds and belt out your best rendition of “Don’t Stop Believing”.   Be on the lookout for info leading up to the after-party.  It’s where all the cool kids hang out.  

Heading Home

If you are exhausted, your brain is fried from information, and your soul feels only slightly dirty, then you know you had a fantastic DSES experience. The flight home can feel like New Year’s Day: you are kind of sad, but excited to get things started. Thankfully McCarren’s Terminal 3 is a great airport terminal. There are plenty of places to eat and ponder on everything that happened over your three days at DSES. 

If, however, you do get stuck overnight, don’t worry. Just do what this guy did: http://youtu.be/uE1ChQ8527I

Execution

DSES is only valuable if you execute. When you get home, take all your notes and create an action plan. Take 5–10 items, order them in order of importance, impact, resources and time and create an action plan to get them completed in 3–6 months.

You may want to rush and get everything started, but trust me, planning out what you have learned at DSES is the key to executing.

Extra Reading: The Vegas 30

Scott Stratten @unmarketing (DSES 2012) has a FANTASTIC podcast called The Vegas 30 (thevegas30.com), dedicated to experiencing the best of Vegas for those who are “too old to stand in line for a club, but too young to retire for the bingo hall.”

To date, there are 14 podcasts, all worthy of downloading and perfect for the plane ride while you are heading to DSES. Some of the topics include:

• Tips on attending Vegas conferences and trade shows
• Is Freemont Street worth the time?
• Off-strip entertainment

Check out all the videos and podcasts at: http://www.thevegas30.com/

​

Extra Reading: Anthony Bourdain – Parts Unknown

If you are a fan of Mr. Bourdain, you will know that Vegas and him go together like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His travels in Las Vegas go from eating a hot dog in a gas station to eating the most expensive meal money can buy at one of Caesar’s villas. Definitely worth a watch:

http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-3/las-vegas/

What Have I Missed?

Tell me what I have missed in this list, what I am wrong about or what I’m SUPER-right about! Share your stories in the comments below.

Robert Karbaum arguably has the best name in the automotive industry. His combined experience over the past decade in E-Commerce and the automotive industry has allowed him to master the art of “AutoSpeak”; the ancient language that bridges the gap between internet geeks, the showroom floor and everything in-between. He manages the E-Commerce, Social and Digital Marketing operations at Weins Canada Inc. (formerly Don Valley North Automotive Group); a prestigious automotive group in Canada which includes the #1 volume Toyota and Lexus dealerships in the country. 

Catch him on Twitter (@karbaum) or DroppinBaums.com.

Keeping up-to-date with changes to Google’s business platform is a full-time occupation. Every time you turn around, Google has either radically updated or completely changed their services. Just in the last short while we have gone through Google Places, Google+, Google+ Local and now Google My Business. Each step along the way, things got more confusing, as both Google Places and Google+ operated quasi-independently. However, with the launch of Google My Business, it appears they have finally fixed this (monumentally frustrating) problem and amalgamated everything into one system.

So as Google begins to market this product and buzz hits the Internet, I wanted to summarize why you should care (or not care) about the new updates and how they will (or won’t) affect your dealership.

For Veteran Users:

If you are a longtime Google Business/Places/+ Local user you will be overjoyed that you no longer have to manage two competing Business Services lists. And, that’s about it.

Existing veteran users will log in and say, “This is all the same. What am I missing?”

They would be right. Those already accustomed to trekking their way through the murky waters of Google+ Local will see basically the same thing. The ONLY difference I can discern is that it is easier to manage your online reviews. Previously, you had to sneak in through the back door to respond to your Google+ reviews. Now, they have moved the door to the front of the building with a big neon sign.

Should You Care?

Not really, other than knowing Google Places is now gone you may continue about your day and wait until Google changes this platform again. Call this a mulligan of sorts. 

For Basic Users:

If you have gotten to the point where you have registered your business with Google and maybe uploaded a photo or two, these changes will affect you more significantly.   

The new platform is a lot more user-friendly. Everything is split between six categories: My Business, Reviews, Business Insights, AdWords Express, Google+ and YouTube. Here is where to start.

First, if you haven’t already, claim your connected Google+, Google Analytics and YouTube accounts. These are intrinsically tied to your Google My Business profile and are crucially important towards your Organic Search Rankings.

My Business

The core of the system where you can update your business information including website, location, phone numbers, photos, categories, description and hours of operation. When you first jump in, you may want to comb through this to ensure all the information is correct. Having a customer show up at 7 a.m. after driving for 3 hours for a test drive appointment is a heatscore you want to avoid. Trust me, I’ve been down this road before :P.

Furthermore, what you enter into your My Business section will be spread across all accounts including AdWords. It will also affect how your business is viewed on Google.

Reviews

Google now has quick access into your Reviews Management, where you can not only view all the reviews posted about your dealership, but reply, flag and analyze your reviews. With its Review Analytics feature, at a glance you can see how many reviews your dealership has received from ALL review sources. That’s right, all of your Dealer Rater reviews now have made their way into Google’s algorithms. You can separate by source or time period, and as an added bonus, Google provides direct links to each and every review. 

Business Insights

Insights is comparable to a bolt-on air intake for your Google Analytics. It affects change on its own, but it is part of a larger system. The main purpose of Insights is to give you a snapshot of your Dealership’s Google+ Organic Performance.

Business Insights is split into three subsections:

• Visibility: Where you can see the number of views, clicks, and can then discern your conversion ratio.
• Engagement: Where you can see the Reach and Actions of your Google+ activity on an item-by-item basis.
• Audience: Where you can see the metrics of your Followers such as increase/decrease numbers, and demographics.

All of this information is great, if you have a very active Google+ profile. (Hint, you should have a very active Google+ profile.) The fact that Google is tracking your Google+ reach is an indication that they are watching, and expecting you to participate in their little “+game.”

AdWords Express

Part of the magic surrounding Google’s world dominance is how they encourage the average user to advertise on their network by educating them on how to do so. However, AdWords Express (previously Google Boost) was designed to make it infinitely easier for Google to take your money.  
Basically, you choose what site you want to promote, and how much you want to promote it for monthly and voila!

On the other side of the coin, Express also significantly limits the amount of data you can view as well, so you definitely get what you pay for. It’s akin to advertising in the local newspaper. It’s not a lot of effort, and you kind of know it’s working, but that’s about it.

Google+

If you are still new to Google+, you are beginning to fall behind the average. Most progressive dealers are at least aware, if not posting social updates and delivery photos on the regular.

Instead of rehashing the obvious, Mashable has a great article you can read: “The Beginner’s Guide to Google+”

For the basic Google+ user, as I mentioned above, part of the My Google Business platform is Google+ Insights. If you haven’t already, focus on expanding your Google+ connection network, and then work on delivering captivating content to those connections. It’s not as easy as it sounds, so here are a few tricks to get you started:

How to get quick Followers on Google+

• Search out and add other OEM-related dealerships, OEMs themselves, vendors and consultants to your circles. Most will add you back.
• Include links to “Follow” your Google+ profile on e-marketing and website content
• Reach out and add local businesses, and share as much content as you can. The savvy ones will happily do the same in return.
• Entrepreneur has a great article to dig a little deeper: “21 Simple Ways to Get More Followers for your Google+ Business Page”

YouTube

This is where things can get tricky. When Google chose to merge YouTube and Google+, there wasn't an easy way to keep an existing account and transfer it. In some cases (like mine) it was impossible. One of our dealer pages had over 250,000 views that had to be abandoned in order to link with Google+. We looked at every possible angle and eventually bit the bullet.

You may find that you have to do the same thing if you click through the YouTube link and it asks you to create a new account.

However, on the positive side, when everything is connected, your stats cross platforms and from the Google My Business dashboard you can see how everything is trending. Most importantly, the more you intertwine your business with Google, the more prominence you will receive within its search rankings. I've witnessed it firsthand each time I follow Google down its rabbit hole.

Should You Care?

Yes. Everything you need to do is more or less in one easy-to-use space, so there is no excuse not to get your dealership hooked up to the Google matrix. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me, or just comment below!

For the Basic, BASIC Users:

If you are an owner, dealer principal, or general manager and you KNOW you are "deep in the weeds" on this one, do yourself a favour and hire an E-Comm manager/director.  Even if you are a tiny little store in Akron, Ohio, you will need someone in-house that understands all this "techy stuff". At the end of the day, bringing in a young tech "kid" and teaching him/her the "car game" will cost you monumentally less than handing over wads of cash to a third party time and time again.  Yes, vendors and consultants can be a valued assset but don't look to them to control your entire operation.  After all, would you have a vendor/consultant sell on your showroom floor? Or service your customer's vehicles in the shop?

Should You Care?

Yes. A thousand times, yes. The automotive industry is past the point of "changing" – it's changed, and will continue to change at a faster pace each day. If you are just jumping into the waters, you need to catch up real fast. Hook your fishing line to a killer whale and hold on tight. You'll be all right.

Do You, the Reader, Care?

What are your thoughts on the new Google My Business?

What did I miss?

What are you going to do next?

Let's get the comments going! 

Robert Karbaum arguably has the best name in the automotive industry. His combined experience over the past decade in E-Commerce and the automotive industry has allowed him to master the art of “AutoSpeak”; the ancient language that bridges the gap between internet geeks, the showroom floor and everything in-between. He manages the E-Commerce, Social and Digital Marketing operations at Weins Canada Inc. (formerly Don Valley North Automotive Group); a prestigious automotive group in Canada which includes the #1 volume Toyota and Lexus dealerships in the country. 

Catch him on Twitter (@karbaum) or DroppinBaums.com.

Keeping up-to-date with changes to Google’s business platform is a full-time occupation. Every time you turn around, Google has either radically updated or completely changed their services. Just in the last short while we have gone through Google Places, Google+, Google+ Local and now Google My Business. Each step along the way, things got more confusing, as both Google Places and Google+ operated quasi-independently. However, with the launch of Google My Business, it appears they have finally fixed this (monumentally frustrating) problem and amalgamated everything into one system.

So as Google begins to market this product and buzz hits the Internet, I wanted to summarize why you should care (or not care) about the new updates and how they will (or won’t) affect your dealership.

For Veteran Users:

If you are a longtime Google Business/Places/+ Local user you will be overjoyed that you no longer have to manage two competing Business Services lists. And, that’s about it.

Existing veteran users will log in and say, “This is all the same. What am I missing?”

They would be right. Those already accustomed to trekking their way through the murky waters of Google+ Local will see basically the same thing. The ONLY difference I can discern is that it is easier to manage your online reviews. Previously, you had to sneak in through the back door to respond to your Google+ reviews. Now, they have moved the door to the front of the building with a big neon sign.

Should You Care?

Not really, other than knowing Google Places is now gone you may continue about your day and wait until Google changes this platform again. Call this a mulligan of sorts. 

For Basic Users:

If you have gotten to the point where you have registered your business with Google and maybe uploaded a photo or two, these changes will affect you more significantly.   

The new platform is a lot more user-friendly. Everything is split between six categories: My Business, Reviews, Business Insights, AdWords Express, Google+ and YouTube. Here is where to start.

First, if you haven’t already, claim your connected Google+, Google Analytics and YouTube accounts. These are intrinsically tied to your Google My Business profile and are crucially important towards your Organic Search Rankings.

My Business

The core of the system where you can update your business information including website, location, phone numbers, photos, categories, description and hours of operation. When you first jump in, you may want to comb through this to ensure all the information is correct. Having a customer show up at 7 a.m. after driving for 3 hours for a test drive appointment is a heatscore you want to avoid. Trust me, I’ve been down this road before :P.

Furthermore, what you enter into your My Business section will be spread across all accounts including AdWords. It will also affect how your business is viewed on Google.

Reviews

Google now has quick access into your Reviews Management, where you can not only view all the reviews posted about your dealership, but reply, flag and analyze your reviews. With its Review Analytics feature, at a glance you can see how many reviews your dealership has received from ALL review sources. That’s right, all of your Dealer Rater reviews now have made their way into Google’s algorithms. You can separate by source or time period, and as an added bonus, Google provides direct links to each and every review. 

Business Insights

Insights is comparable to a bolt-on air intake for your Google Analytics. It affects change on its own, but it is part of a larger system. The main purpose of Insights is to give you a snapshot of your Dealership’s Google+ Organic Performance.

Business Insights is split into three subsections:

• Visibility: Where you can see the number of views, clicks, and can then discern your conversion ratio.
• Engagement: Where you can see the Reach and Actions of your Google+ activity on an item-by-item basis.
• Audience: Where you can see the metrics of your Followers such as increase/decrease numbers, and demographics.

All of this information is great, if you have a very active Google+ profile. (Hint, you should have a very active Google+ profile.) The fact that Google is tracking your Google+ reach is an indication that they are watching, and expecting you to participate in their little “+game.”

AdWords Express

Part of the magic surrounding Google’s world dominance is how they encourage the average user to advertise on their network by educating them on how to do so. However, AdWords Express (previously Google Boost) was designed to make it infinitely easier for Google to take your money.  
Basically, you choose what site you want to promote, and how much you want to promote it for monthly and voila!

On the other side of the coin, Express also significantly limits the amount of data you can view as well, so you definitely get what you pay for. It’s akin to advertising in the local newspaper. It’s not a lot of effort, and you kind of know it’s working, but that’s about it.

Google+

If you are still new to Google+, you are beginning to fall behind the average. Most progressive dealers are at least aware, if not posting social updates and delivery photos on the regular.

Instead of rehashing the obvious, Mashable has a great article you can read: “The Beginner’s Guide to Google+”

For the basic Google+ user, as I mentioned above, part of the My Google Business platform is Google+ Insights. If you haven’t already, focus on expanding your Google+ connection network, and then work on delivering captivating content to those connections. It’s not as easy as it sounds, so here are a few tricks to get you started:

How to get quick Followers on Google+

• Search out and add other OEM-related dealerships, OEMs themselves, vendors and consultants to your circles. Most will add you back.
• Include links to “Follow” your Google+ profile on e-marketing and website content
• Reach out and add local businesses, and share as much content as you can. The savvy ones will happily do the same in return.
• Entrepreneur has a great article to dig a little deeper: “21 Simple Ways to Get More Followers for your Google+ Business Page”

YouTube

This is where things can get tricky. When Google chose to merge YouTube and Google+, there wasn't an easy way to keep an existing account and transfer it. In some cases (like mine) it was impossible. One of our dealer pages had over 250,000 views that had to be abandoned in order to link with Google+. We looked at every possible angle and eventually bit the bullet.

You may find that you have to do the same thing if you click through the YouTube link and it asks you to create a new account.

However, on the positive side, when everything is connected, your stats cross platforms and from the Google My Business dashboard you can see how everything is trending. Most importantly, the more you intertwine your business with Google, the more prominence you will receive within its search rankings. I've witnessed it firsthand each time I follow Google down its rabbit hole.

Should You Care?

Yes. Everything you need to do is more or less in one easy-to-use space, so there is no excuse not to get your dealership hooked up to the Google matrix. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me, or just comment below!

For the Basic, BASIC Users:

If you are an owner, dealer principal, or general manager and you KNOW you are "deep in the weeds" on this one, do yourself a favour and hire an E-Comm manager/director.  Even if you are a tiny little store in Akron, Ohio, you will need someone in-house that understands all this "techy stuff". At the end of the day, bringing in a young tech "kid" and teaching him/her the "car game" will cost you monumentally less than handing over wads of cash to a third party time and time again.  Yes, vendors and consultants can be a valued assset but don't look to them to control your entire operation.  After all, would you have a vendor/consultant sell on your showroom floor? Or service your customer's vehicles in the shop?

Should You Care?

Yes. A thousand times, yes. The automotive industry is past the point of "changing" – it's changed, and will continue to change at a faster pace each day. If you are just jumping into the waters, you need to catch up real fast. Hook your fishing line to a killer whale and hold on tight. You'll be all right.

Do You, the Reader, Care?

What are your thoughts on the new Google My Business?

What did I miss?

What are you going to do next?

Let's get the comments going! 

Robert Karbaum arguably has the best name in the automotive industry. His combined experience over the past decade in E-Commerce and the automotive industry has allowed him to master the art of “AutoSpeak”; the ancient language that bridges the gap between internet geeks, the showroom floor and everything in-between. He manages the E-Commerce, Social and Digital Marketing operations at Weins Canada Inc. (formerly Don Valley North Automotive Group); a prestigious automotive group in Canada which includes the #1 volume Toyota and Lexus dealerships in the country. 

Catch him on Twitter (@karbaum) or DroppinBaums.com.

LinkedIn is rapidly becoming the Facebook of the white-collar worker and you can benefit IF you use it to your advantage. When LinkedIn first began it was comparable to a large conference not serving alcohol; most people just stuck to themselves in the corner and handed out business cards under the table. The Consultants saw this opportunity and used it as a platform to share how “awesome” they were. LinkedIn fought back with groups, Celebrity Influencers, and Pulse to try and keep the content streamlined towards business. It worked, kind of.

Today, the majority of the content you find will either be:

• motivational quotes
• people liking each other’s new profile photo
• job postings
• the same news story shared by 15 percent of your list
• and of course the consultants, still showing off their awesomeness

However, this content makeup isn’t a bad thing; at least there are no baby photos yet! Even though the content is changing, the legitimacy of LinkedIn remains. This means, the more people who use it as their dominant social stream, the more you can do as a salesperson to turn it into your personal CRM.

Now, let me apologize to GMs, DPs and sales managers, as this information will likely go against everything you are trying to do. For the rest, here is why LinkedIn is the best sales CRM:

First Steps

If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, wake up. Whatever hang-ups you have about being social online are irrelevant. As of May 1, 2014, there are over 300 million members on LinkedIn, 100 million in the US alone. Every second, two new members are added [i], putting you further behind the curve. Unless you’re a C-suite executive, sooner or later you will lose out for not participating if you haven’t already. 

Your Online Professional Profile

Trust is an essential component of the sales equation; customers are very hesitant to open their wallet when there is a feeling of uncertainty. Building trust also takes time – time you should be spending on building value in the product and your brand. Like with a referral, the ideal situation is to have a trustworthy persona established before you even meet a customer for the first time. One vital first step on your way to being trustworthy is to manage your reputation online. This isn’t just for businesses, but salespeople as well. Whenever I meet a new person the first thing I do is search for them online. Your customers are doing the same, whether you know it or not. Having zero presence is certainly not a positive thing; it puts you in the “faceless” category where all the “bad salespeople” exist. 

LinkedIn not only allows you to showcase your professional achievements, but it also acts as a perceived independent third-party advisory to your character. If you are open and honest online, it lends to the belief you are the same in real life, say in a negotiation situation, for example. Even without recommendations, endorsements or shared connections (more on that later), having a profile shows a customer you are accessible, accountable, and most importantly, trustworthy.

Once you have a profile up and running, during your meet-and-greet it should become habitual that you ask if you can connect with your customers on LinkedIn. Remember, over 100 million people in the US have LinkedIn, so roughly one of two people over the age of 18 have it. Best practice is to have the customer add your profile, so when you leave your office to check availability, the first thing they will do is stalk your profile and hopefully add you. Secondly, if they are busy looking you up, they won’t be price-shopping your competitors. :)

Third, it begins to build trust from a third-party source, fortifying the impression you have given off during the greeting process. If they don’t add you right away, you have another opportunity before the customer leaves, or when they purchase the vehicle. You may be surprised that a customer may be more willing to add you on LinkedIn than to give out their email address. The average person is more vain than you think; everyone wants to hit that 500+ followers mark.

The more customers you have in your wheelhouse, the more beneficial the other aspects of the LinkedIn CRM will be.

Recommendations

Online reviews are all the rage right now, and business rely on them more than ever. More often than not however, the reviews benefit the store more than they do the salesperson. Yes, services like Dealer Rater offer individual salesperson reviews, but what would happen if you ever switched jobs? Building your personal reputation on the back of a dealership is like building a house on an iceberg; it may seem sturdy now but if it ever melts you lose everything (more on that later).

Don’t get me wrong, reviews with the dealership are also essential for yourself as a salesperson, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Using LinkedIn’s Recommendations allows you to diversify your testimonial portfolio while increasing the trust level of your profile. Any recommendations you receive are connected to someone else’s profile, with a picture, i.e., a tangible, real-life person that was so thrilled with your performance they attached themselves to you. Reviews like this far outweigh anything written by a faceless “John S.” Most customers will believe LinkedIn recommendations more feverously than photocopied pages in a “Why buy here” book because there is accountability of a third-party source.    

Furthermore, recommendations solidify many of the other aspects of the LinkedIn CRM system; best practice is to ask for a LinkedIn Recommendation from every customer you sell a vehicle to. Wayne Gretzky said it best: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Keep Your Contacts

As I alluded to earlier, for a salesperson the number one issue with a dealership’s CRM is that if you were to ever leave, your contacts stay with the company. Your (hopefully) hundreds, if not thousands of customers are locked away while you get shipped off the island. 

Keeping a separate copy of your customers in your permanent possession allows you the freedom to travel, if you so wish. The days of the loyal customers following the salesperson are quickly fading away; it is up to the salesperson to maintain contact and not wait for the customer to come to you.

Referrals

The “Introduction” system built into LinkedIn was originally designed for those in the job search, but it is far more effective in generating your own referrals. The larger you grow your network, the more potential customers you are able to reach out to in the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. For example, my connections put me within arm’s reach of over 10 million professionals on LinkedIn.

Now, if you have made an excellent connection with a customer, especially if they have written you a LinkedIn recommendation, they will have no problem bridging the connection. The end result is a potentially infinite wheelhouse of referrals at your fingertips. Can your dealership CRM do this for you?

Customer History + Keep In Touch

An integral part of any CRM is to keep track of communications with current and potential customers. LinkedIn provides the same functionality; for every connection you are able to keep notes on their Contact and Relationship, information all kept within your profile.

The system allows you to create notes, set reminders, create custom tags, note how you met, and most importantly, if you tie it into your other systems (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Outlook, etc.), it will also keep a chronological history of all your interactions.

You can then view all of this information in an expanded view of all your connections within the Keep in Touch section where you can sort by Contact Info, Last Conversation, Tag, Company, Location, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless, and quite frankly has practically the same functionality as any dealership CRM out there.

As an example you could use “Keep in Touch” to sort by Last Conversation and reconnect with those whom you haven’t spoken to in the longest period. Or, as another example, you can sort by Company when you hear of a public acquisition, and target all the employees who likely have received a cash buyout. The ones you don’t have direct connections with, you can use Introductions to get them into your wheelhouse as well.

Updates

Several times a week I get an email from LinkedIn telling me who got a new job, or who is celebrating a work anniversary. It also updates me of who has new connections, and who has been looking at my profile. To the untrained eye, this information may seem trivial, but with the LinkedIn CRM you can use this information to sell more cars.

For example, when someone gets a shiny new promotion or job, what is one of the first things they do? Upgrade their vehicle! It’s very easy to congratulate them on their accomplishment, and soft sell them on your services. If you get a conversation started, you can also ask if anyone they know is looking for a vehicle. Prospecting has never been this easy!

Same goes for a work anniversary. If someone is celebrating their 20th year at Company X, or celebrating their 50th birthday, likely they are feeling the need for a “change.” What is a great way to spice up your life? That’s right, a new car!

The LinkedIn CRM does a fantastic job of notifying you of your contact’s big life changes, and allows you to step in and prospect new sales and new referrals. It’s almost criminal if you are not doing this already! :P

Build Your Personal Brand

Once you have accumulated a healthy contact base, built trust with recommendations and are prospecting regularly, the last piece of the LinkedIn CRM is to build your personal brand with content. Just as a good dealership does with their webpage, you can do the same with the LinkedIn CRM.

Whether you create the content yourself (ideal) or are sharing great content from DrivingSales, your gentle touch (shhhh…buy a car) is spreading itself across all your connections. Every time someone interacts with that content, it spreads to their connections (shhhh…buy a car). The more interactions, the more prominence it is given on the site (shhhh…buy a car). The more prominent content, the more your profile is advertised across your 10,000,000+ connections and sooner than later, you get a message saying, “Hey, I have some questions about buying a car. Billy said I should message you.” 

You could share news about the latest concept vehicle, or create a FAQ article about how to keep your car door locks from freezing. As long as you are sharing relevant, high-quality content, your reach will continue to grow. Again, yet another thing your dealer CRM can’t do for you.

Apologies

Again, to the DPs, GMs, and SMs, I apologize for sharing this information, but think of the positive. If your salespeople are prospecting customers and selling more vehicles, how much is there really to be worried about? At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: to sell more cars and make more money.  

Have you tried using LinkedIn as a CRM? What experiences have you had? Are you going to try it? Share your answers in the comments:

LinkedIn is rapidly becoming the Facebook of the white-collar worker and you can benefit IF you use it to your advantage. When LinkedIn first began it was comparable to a large conference not serving alcohol; most people just stuck to themselves in the corner and handed out business cards under the table. The Consultants saw this opportunity and used it as a platform to share how “awesome” they were. LinkedIn fought back with groups, Celebrity Influencers, and Pulse to try and keep the content streamlined towards business. It worked, kind of.

Today, the majority of the content you find will either be:

• motivational quotes
• people liking each other’s new profile photo
• job postings
• the same news story shared by 15 percent of your list
• and of course the consultants, still showing off their awesomeness

However, this content makeup isn’t a bad thing; at least there are no baby photos yet! Even though the content is changing, the legitimacy of LinkedIn remains. This means, the more people who use it as their dominant social stream, the more you can do as a salesperson to turn it into your personal CRM.

Now, let me apologize to GMs, DPs and sales managers, as this information will likely go against everything you are trying to do. For the rest, here is why LinkedIn is the best sales CRM:

First Steps

If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, wake up. Whatever hang-ups you have about being social online are irrelevant. As of May 1, 2014, there are over 300 million members on LinkedIn, 100 million in the US alone. Every second, two new members are added [i], putting you further behind the curve. Unless you’re a C-suite executive, sooner or later you will lose out for not participating if you haven’t already. 

Your Online Professional Profile

Trust is an essential component of the sales equation; customers are very hesitant to open their wallet when there is a feeling of uncertainty. Building trust also takes time – time you should be spending on building value in the product and your brand. Like with a referral, the ideal situation is to have a trustworthy persona established before you even meet a customer for the first time. One vital first step on your way to being trustworthy is to manage your reputation online. This isn’t just for businesses, but salespeople as well. Whenever I meet a new person the first thing I do is search for them online. Your customers are doing the same, whether you know it or not. Having zero presence is certainly not a positive thing; it puts you in the “faceless” category where all the “bad salespeople” exist. 

LinkedIn not only allows you to showcase your professional achievements, but it also acts as a perceived independent third-party advisory to your character. If you are open and honest online, it lends to the belief you are the same in real life, say in a negotiation situation, for example. Even without recommendations, endorsements or shared connections (more on that later), having a profile shows a customer you are accessible, accountable, and most importantly, trustworthy.

Once you have a profile up and running, during your meet-and-greet it should become habitual that you ask if you can connect with your customers on LinkedIn. Remember, over 100 million people in the US have LinkedIn, so roughly one of two people over the age of 18 have it. Best practice is to have the customer add your profile, so when you leave your office to check availability, the first thing they will do is stalk your profile and hopefully add you. Secondly, if they are busy looking you up, they won’t be price-shopping your competitors. :)

Third, it begins to build trust from a third-party source, fortifying the impression you have given off during the greeting process. If they don’t add you right away, you have another opportunity before the customer leaves, or when they purchase the vehicle. You may be surprised that a customer may be more willing to add you on LinkedIn than to give out their email address. The average person is more vain than you think; everyone wants to hit that 500+ followers mark.

The more customers you have in your wheelhouse, the more beneficial the other aspects of the LinkedIn CRM will be.

Recommendations

Online reviews are all the rage right now, and business rely on them more than ever. More often than not however, the reviews benefit the store more than they do the salesperson. Yes, services like Dealer Rater offer individual salesperson reviews, but what would happen if you ever switched jobs? Building your personal reputation on the back of a dealership is like building a house on an iceberg; it may seem sturdy now but if it ever melts you lose everything (more on that later).

Don’t get me wrong, reviews with the dealership are also essential for yourself as a salesperson, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Using LinkedIn’s Recommendations allows you to diversify your testimonial portfolio while increasing the trust level of your profile. Any recommendations you receive are connected to someone else’s profile, with a picture, i.e., a tangible, real-life person that was so thrilled with your performance they attached themselves to you. Reviews like this far outweigh anything written by a faceless “John S.” Most customers will believe LinkedIn recommendations more feverously than photocopied pages in a “Why buy here” book because there is accountability of a third-party source.    

Furthermore, recommendations solidify many of the other aspects of the LinkedIn CRM system; best practice is to ask for a LinkedIn Recommendation from every customer you sell a vehicle to. Wayne Gretzky said it best: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Keep Your Contacts

As I alluded to earlier, for a salesperson the number one issue with a dealership’s CRM is that if you were to ever leave, your contacts stay with the company. Your (hopefully) hundreds, if not thousands of customers are locked away while you get shipped off the island. 

Keeping a separate copy of your customers in your permanent possession allows you the freedom to travel, if you so wish. The days of the loyal customers following the salesperson are quickly fading away; it is up to the salesperson to maintain contact and not wait for the customer to come to you.

Referrals

The “Introduction” system built into LinkedIn was originally designed for those in the job search, but it is far more effective in generating your own referrals. The larger you grow your network, the more potential customers you are able to reach out to in the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. For example, my connections put me within arm’s reach of over 10 million professionals on LinkedIn.

Now, if you have made an excellent connection with a customer, especially if they have written you a LinkedIn recommendation, they will have no problem bridging the connection. The end result is a potentially infinite wheelhouse of referrals at your fingertips. Can your dealership CRM do this for you?

Customer History + Keep In Touch

An integral part of any CRM is to keep track of communications with current and potential customers. LinkedIn provides the same functionality; for every connection you are able to keep notes on their Contact and Relationship, information all kept within your profile.

The system allows you to create notes, set reminders, create custom tags, note how you met, and most importantly, if you tie it into your other systems (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Outlook, etc.), it will also keep a chronological history of all your interactions.

You can then view all of this information in an expanded view of all your connections within the Keep in Touch section where you can sort by Contact Info, Last Conversation, Tag, Company, Location, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless, and quite frankly has practically the same functionality as any dealership CRM out there.

As an example you could use “Keep in Touch” to sort by Last Conversation and reconnect with those whom you haven’t spoken to in the longest period. Or, as another example, you can sort by Company when you hear of a public acquisition, and target all the employees who likely have received a cash buyout. The ones you don’t have direct connections with, you can use Introductions to get them into your wheelhouse as well.

Updates

Several times a week I get an email from LinkedIn telling me who got a new job, or who is celebrating a work anniversary. It also updates me of who has new connections, and who has been looking at my profile. To the untrained eye, this information may seem trivial, but with the LinkedIn CRM you can use this information to sell more cars.

For example, when someone gets a shiny new promotion or job, what is one of the first things they do? Upgrade their vehicle! It’s very easy to congratulate them on their accomplishment, and soft sell them on your services. If you get a conversation started, you can also ask if anyone they know is looking for a vehicle. Prospecting has never been this easy!

Same goes for a work anniversary. If someone is celebrating their 20th year at Company X, or celebrating their 50th birthday, likely they are feeling the need for a “change.” What is a great way to spice up your life? That’s right, a new car!

The LinkedIn CRM does a fantastic job of notifying you of your contact’s big life changes, and allows you to step in and prospect new sales and new referrals. It’s almost criminal if you are not doing this already! :P

Build Your Personal Brand

Once you have accumulated a healthy contact base, built trust with recommendations and are prospecting regularly, the last piece of the LinkedIn CRM is to build your personal brand with content. Just as a good dealership does with their webpage, you can do the same with the LinkedIn CRM.

Whether you create the content yourself (ideal) or are sharing great content from DrivingSales, your gentle touch (shhhh…buy a car) is spreading itself across all your connections. Every time someone interacts with that content, it spreads to their connections (shhhh…buy a car). The more interactions, the more prominence it is given on the site (shhhh…buy a car). The more prominent content, the more your profile is advertised across your 10,000,000+ connections and sooner than later, you get a message saying, “Hey, I have some questions about buying a car. Billy said I should message you.” 

You could share news about the latest concept vehicle, or create a FAQ article about how to keep your car door locks from freezing. As long as you are sharing relevant, high-quality content, your reach will continue to grow. Again, yet another thing your dealer CRM can’t do for you.

Apologies

Again, to the DPs, GMs, and SMs, I apologize for sharing this information, but think of the positive. If your salespeople are prospecting customers and selling more vehicles, how much is there really to be worried about? At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: to sell more cars and make more money.  

Have you tried using LinkedIn as a CRM? What experiences have you had? Are you going to try it? Share your answers in the comments: