http://www.internetsales20group.com
http://www.automotiveinternetsales20group.com
Dealer Principal, Paul Sansone Jr. Will Be a Speaker At The Internet Sales 20 Group in October 23-25
To sign up, goto www.internetsales20group.com
http://www.internetsales20group.com
http://www.automotiveinternetsales20group.com
Dealer Principal, Paul Sansone Jr. Will Be a Speaker At The Internet Sales 20 Group in October 23-25
To sign up, goto www.internetsales20group.com
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Sean V. Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy is a Speaker at the CRM Convention, he will be speaking on Tuesday the 11th on "Unlocking the Secrets of your CRM"
You could stop at booth #309 to visit him or Karen Bradley
Sean V. Bradley & Karen Bradley At the 2012 CRM Convention in Las Vegas
Sean V. Bradley Gives Some Powerful Tips For Success - Automotive Sales - Motivation - Leadership
Congratulations Nicole! You were responsible for MORE Internet Sales than some ENTIRE Internet Departments!
WOW!!! We are Proud of You!!!!
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http://www.internetsales20group.com
http://www.alanvinesautomotive.com
AUDUBON, N.J., Aug. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GSM of Alan Vines Automotive & AutoSuccess Magazine September Cover Story, Durran Cage Will be a Speaker at the Internet Sales 20 Group Workshop in Chicago, October 23-25th.
Sean V. Bradley, Creator and Moderator for the Internet Sales 20 Group, is quoted as saying, "It is an honor to have Durran Cage as Speaker at this year's Internet Sales 20 Group. Durran brings a unique perspective to our community. He started as a Chrysler OEM rep then he got recruited to a dealership as an Internet Director and he took that department from 25 units online to 95 units online. He did such an incredible job in the Internet Department that the Dealer Principal, Mr. Alan Vines promoted him to General Sales Manager of the entire dealership. I think Dealer Principals, GMs, GSMs, Internet and BDC Directors alike will get a tremendous amount of information and value from Durran's presentation."
The upcoming Internet Sales 20 Group will be held in beautiful downtown Chicago at the Hilton from October 23rd, 24th and 25th.
This is a major industry event with some of the most prestigious companies in the Automotive Sales industry sponsoring the event, such as:
Additional Speakers at the Internet Sales 20 Group are:
** The first 20 Dealerships to sign up before September 15th will receive a FREE consulting Package worth $1,500. Package includes:
** Once all of this data is complied from all 20 different dealerships we will then create a powerful "Internet Sales 20 Group Composite". (Which will be given to the entire 20 group at the workshop".
If you want to register for the Internet Sales 20 Group you can use this registration code DSIS20 to save $500 off Registration.
For more information on the upcoming Internet Sales 20 Group in Chicago, October 23rd, 24th and 25th please go to www.internetsales20group.com or call 267-319-6776.
Contact is Amanda Melendez
SOURCE Synergized Media
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1mccS)
GSM of Alan Vines Automotive & AutoSuccess Magazine September Cover Story, Durran Cage Will be a Speaker at the Internet Sales 20 Group in Chicago, October 23-25th
Discovering Your Value Proposition - "Why Us" - Your "Differentiator" - Automotive Marketing - Tracking optimization ROI...
What goes in that landing page optimization formula you say?
Motivation of user, force of the value proposition, incentive, friction, and anxiety.
He went on to say that the sales funnel we all know and love is actually upside down, “The value proposition is the fundamental force powering your prospects up the sales funnel,” he added.
This can be measured by four essential elements of offer:
Appeal- how much do I desire this offer?
Exclusivity- where else can I get this offer?
Credibility- can I trust your claims?
Clarity-what are you actually offering?
In order to express your value proposition on the Web, you must have congruence (having every element of your page state or support your proposition) and continuity (making sure that every step of the buying process states or supports the proposition).
I know I can’t say it as best as Dr. McGlaughlin can, so I found a video where he discusses the value proposition in better detail.
Got it? Good. Next was incentives. The object of incentives is to balance emotional forces from negative to positive. To determine your ideal incentive you must consider: marketing intuition, perceived value differential,and return on incentive. Here is another video in which Dr. McGlaughlin discusses these elements
Next Dr. McGlaughlin spoke about friction and anxiety. Friction, in marketing, is the psychological resistance to a given element in the sales process. Anxiety, in other words, is like concern, but it is just as lethal as friction. To get a better idea of these two elements, click here.
What does this mean for you?
If your Website isn’t optimized properly, you're losing customers. Dr.McGlaughlin showed us case studies where there was a 200% increase in capturing lead information by simply adjusting elements of their website. Take a look at the links presented above to better optimize your website, you won't regret it.
With this information presented to me I had to take a 50 question test to get certified in landing page optimization. I passed, would you?
Source = http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1970539%3ABlogPost%3A411848&xgs=1
We recently conducted a survey in which we asked Internet department personnel to share some key metrics. In one question, we asked:
How much total gross does your Internet department generate for every $1,000 spent on Internet leads from all sources (SEM, independent and third-party leads, classified site subscriptions, etc.) ?
Of the 183 responses, the answers broke down:
3X or less: 33%
4X-6X: 18%
7X-10X or greater: 20%
Don’t Know: 29%
These answers reveal there is quite a large disparity between auto dealers’ return on investment (ROI) on Internet spending, as well as a surprisingly large percentage that don’t even know their ROI. So I wanted to know: what should a dealership target for a reasonable Internet marketing ROI?
One of the experts we consulted for measuring this metric was David Kain, President of Kain Automotive. He suggested that 5X ROI was the absolute minimum that a dealership should strive for, and ideally Internet departments should be seeing 7X ROI on their Internet spend.
But how do you calculate your ROI? Basically, ROI is what you get for what you spend. Here is a simple formula:
(Gross Profit – Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment = ROI
This formula represents three steps.
1) Marketing investment should be simple to figure out as it is the total cost of a campaign. For instance, if you spend $1,000 per month on a Pay-Per-Click campaign, $1,000 per month on independent leads and $1,000 per month on a subscription site, then your total marketing spend on Internet leads that month is $3,000. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to suggest here that the cost of overhead, while included in some ROI measurements, should not be included when figuring out ROI for Internet leads, regardless of source. So in this formula, don’t worry about including labor costs (for staff), web site maintenance costs, etc.
2) Gross profit is the next metric you’ll need to figure (my first GM used to say, “Volume is vanity. Gross is sanity.”). If you can pull the actual grosses on all Internet deals, that’s great. If not, take the number of sales and multiply it by your dealership’s average front and back combined gross profits. So if $3,000 in marketing spend delivers 10 sales at an average of $3000 combined gross, then your total Internet-related gross profit will be $30,000.
3) Next, you need to subtract the initial marketing investment ($3,000) from your gross profit ($30,000) for a total of $27,000.
4) Divide that number by your initial marketing investment ($27,000/$3,000) and in this scenario you end up with 9X ROI, an excellent result.
Why is it important to know your ROI? Any time you spend money on anything, whether on Internet leads or a marketing campaign, it is an investment. Like any investment, it should be measured, monitored and compared to other investments so you know where you should be spending your money.
Also, knowing the ROI for all your lead sources gives you leverage. How many Internet marketing budgets were slashed in 2009 and 2010? Perhaps some cuts were deserved, but do you know which ones? Cutting back on a lead source that returns a high ROI is only going to hurt the bottom line.
Of course, our question focused on the overall Internet marketing spend, not on the ROI of various lead sources. But applying this formula to your separate lead sources is highly recommended and gives a better measurement of success than just closing percentage or other metrics. After all, ROI is what goes to the bottom line.
I’d love to hear some feedback: how do you calculate your dealership’s ROI on your Internet leads spend? What do you consider a good ROI? In my next blog, I’m going to give some tips on how to drive your team to improve ROI.
Sean V. Bradley Training On Automotive Sales, Phone Process, Objections & Rebuttals - Strategy
A General Manager of a Toyota Dealership with 35 Years in the Automotive Sales Industry Talks About Internet Sales
2012http://www.autocon2012.com/cactussky/
Dealer Synergy & Cactus Sky Communications Create Scholarship Program For AutoCon 2012
AUDUBON, N.J., Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Dealer Synergy & Cactus Sky Communications have partnered with AutoCon to provide 50 Scholarships to dealership personnel so that they can attend the upcoming AutoConNational Training Event. AutoCon's goal is to provide dealerships with Digital Marketing Training, and they have assembled some of the industry's top experts for this event.
Dealer Synergy and Cactus Sky will provide 50 Scholarships covering the Registration Fee for the event of $895 for a total of $44,750 in Scholarships. The goal of the Scholarship is to provide an opportunity for a dealership staff member that normally would not be able to attend the event to receive this valuable training.
With over 30% of vehicle sales coming from the Internet, Dealer Synergy and Cactus Sky recognize the need for ongoing training for all the members of the Internet Team, and these scholarships will allow more training and growth in the retail automotive industry.
Sean V. Bradley and Peter Martin decided that one of the best ways to demonstrate their commitment to the betterment of the industry was to commit the funds necessary to support independent dealer focused educational events such as AutoCon 2012.
Automotive Media Partners, LLC and First Class Educators are proud to announce the creation of a scholarship program sponsored by Dealer Synergy & Cactus Sky for the full AutoCon conference registration fee.
Dealer Synergy & Cactus Sky's sponsorship program will provide 50 fully funded AutoCon Registration Scholarships. Fifty automotive professionals will receive the educational, networking, inspiration and innovation benefits from attending the AutoConnections Conference and Exposition. The recipients only have to cover their out of pocket expenses for travel, meals.
Individuals that are interested in applying for a scholarship to the 2012 AutoCon Conference need to go to www.autocon2012.com/CactusSky/ and fill out the quick application.
For more information on Dealer Synergy, please visit http://www.dealersynergy.com
For more information of Cactus Sky, please visit www.cactussky.com
For more information on Automotive Internet Sales, please visit www.automotiveinternetsales.com
Contact is Sean V. Bradley - You can reach him at 267-319-6776
I just came across this article from Tim Martell and it blew me away on how ferocious a situation can become... Here is Tim's post:
Social media represents a new dawn for the marketing industry. The level of interaction it enables between business and consumer is nothing short of revolutionary. Most would agree that this is a step forward; more communication is always preferable to less. However, it is not an avenue of communication that businesses can control, or even truly mediate. Social mediacreates a dangerous duality, in that it can make or break a business with equal aptitude.
Two brothers have started a boycott against their sister’s former employer, Clay Nissan of Norwood. Their sister, Jill Colter, has stage 4 brain cancer and they claim that she was wrongfully terminated by the dealership. Both sides have taken to social media to garner support, and now the issue is heading to court.
Jill took a two month leave of absence to recuperate from intensive whole brain radiation treatment. Once she returned to work, Jill felt she was completely capable of performing her duties and arrived on time or early every day. Just three weeks after her return, she was terminated. When she inquired about the reason, she was informed, “We are going in a different direction.”
Massachusetts has an At-Will Employment rule. This is defined as an employment relationship in which either party can break the relationship with no liability. However, there is also the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act, which protects people’s right to take unpaid, job protected leave for as long as 12 weeks. To terminate someone’s employment as a result of illness covered under the FMLA can be regarded as discrimination.
Was Jill a victim of discrimination? Her family certainly thinks so. Her brothers, Jon and Adam Colter, started a Facebook page calling for the boycott of Clay Nissan of Norwood. The story went viral and exploded across the web. Their Facebook page’s about section states: “www.facebook.com/boycottclaynissan went live about five weeks ago. Since then we have received about 15,000 supporters. Private messages are in the hundreds.”
Once Clay Nissan got wind of the boycott page, they released this official statement: “With regard to the campaign against Clay Nissan of Norwood, we understand this is an emotional topic further fueled by misinformation and efforts to block communication from the Clay family. We encourage you to visit ClayFamilyCares.com to learn the truth about our actions. In short, we were aware of the employee’s illness prior to hiring her, and after learning of her firing we invited her back to work at our dealerships.”
According to the Boycott Clay Nissan Facebook page, this statement is far too little, and way too late. The Colters maintain that they received no such offer until the boycott was in effect for over three days, which was initiated about two weeks after Jill was let go. “This is Clay doing damage control, public relation, and spin and more spin,” wrote Adam Colter.
This is not the first time that a Clay dealership has engaged in questionable behavior toward its employees. Clay Nissan’s parent company, Clay Family Dealerships, Inc. was investigated for knowingly failing to pay owed overtime wages to employees. That investigation ended with Clay paying nearly $280,000 in back wages, restitutions and fees.
At this point in time, both sides have retained legal representation. The Colters are suing Clay for wrongful termination of Jill, claiming they violated the FMLA. At the same time, Clay is counter-suing the Colter brothers for defamation brought about by the boycott, with an emphasis on the content of the Facebook page.
Judging by the timeline and statements made on both sides, it is difficult to say who is telling the truth. The only thing we can be sure of is who is talking louder, and that is unequivocally the Colters. Their Facebook page is currently over 25,000 strong, including thousands of comments across hundreds of posts. Clay is trying to reach out via their ClayFamilyCares website and issued statements, but they are finding it difficult to compete with the wildfire spread of internet vitriol.
That may be part of the problem; the fact that Clay is trying to compete at all. Jon Colter has said that initially all they wanted was an apology but the dealership was unwilling to comply. Instead, the dealership has attempted to defend itself at every turn; as though any amount of PR could turn back the tides. The simple fact is, right or wrong, Clay has already lost in the court of public opinion; at some point, all that is left is to apologize and move on.
That is what can make this kind of social media campaign so dangerous to businesses; companies can lose a war that they are only peripherally aware they are fighting. Every day more people are seeing the Boycott Clay Nissan Facebook page. When they view the page, they are seeing the story as presented by the Colters. Clay can issue statements but each and every piece of information is filtered and posted by the Colters. The brothers also have complete control over comments on the page, meaning the Clay family cannot even defend themselves on the page that they are being attacked on. Is it fair? No. Are the Colters telling the truth? Evidence suggests they are, but in the end, it doesn’t matter.
In the world of social media, when a person fights a business, the roles are already cast. Despite any efforts to the contrary, despite who is truly right or wrong, the faceless corporation will be viewed as the villain. It is the innate characteristic of consumers to band together against a business who is being accused of a wrongdoing. We have all been there; when you hear a story of some big-box store screwing someone, how often do you even attempt to see things from the company’s point of view? It’s not often, and frankly, you shouldn’t have to try.
It is the onus of any business to maintain its own image in the eyes of the public.
This is what Clay Nissan, and the entire Clay family, needs to accept. They can go through the defamation lawsuit, and, as Jon Colter says, “They’re suing us, but it could be two to four years before the site is taken down, and by then, it will be at half a million.” The damage has been done. It was done the second that Facebook page went viral.
It’s unfortunate for Clay, but it provides an excellent example for other dealerships. Social media is no longer a supplementary part of your main marketing strategy. It deserves and demands constant investment to keep your business spotless in the eyes of your customers. When it comes to Clay and the Colters, we don’t know who is in the right and we’ll reiterate: it doesn’t matter!
If Clay had someone competent in charge of managing their social media presence, they would have known about this boycott page the second it went up. Once they knew about it, they could have apologized and moved the entire discussion out of the public eye before it caught fire.
Instead, they have a boycott, a lawsuit, and an ugly blemish on their company’s reputation. But hey, at least things posted on the internet aren’t there forever…right?
Take a look at some of these links to see the magnitude of the situation.
Dealers... be careful-
http://www.facebook.com/boycottclaynissan
http://www.change.org/petitions/help-protest-company-that-fired-a-woman-without-cause-who-is-fighting-stage-4-melanoma
http://www.google.com/#http://www.google.com/blank.html
The "Boycott Clay Nissan" Campaign is Crushing The Boston Nissan Dealership via Social Media. If you GOOGLE "Clay Nissan Boycott", its pretty surreal...
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Man Bites Dog? A Way to Fight the Deleted Google Reviews Dilemma
No different than numerous dealers, a client of mine, 25-year dealer Mohammad Ahmed―president of Northend Motors in Canton, Mass., in the Boston area―had numerbous positive reviews, all collected legitimately through very satisfied customers, stripped from his Google Places listing. Before this action, his dealership rated a score of 28 out of 30, which by Google standards is defined as “Extraordinary to Perfection.”
Removing his 145 legitimate positive reviews is one thing, but Google chose to leave six negativereviews and three negative scores without reviews―he has collected one positive review since. His dealership score has fallen to a 5, which is defined as “Poor to Fair” by Google.
According to articles posted by industry experts online, 70 percent of customers are using online reviews as part of their consideration as to where to buy. The results of Google’s actions have had a devastating effect on Northend Motors, even though they have hundreds of other reviews posted on CitySearch, Dealer Rater, InsiderPages and Yahoo.
Mohammad is not alone! Many other dealers all over the country have noticed the same thing.
How can you possibly fight a company like Google―which is so big and all-encompassing―where you have no real customer service contact and their own sales and engineering sides do not even communicate on their changed algorithm issues? E-mails sure aren’t going to do any good.
My brainstorm today was for Mohammad to do what so many consumers seem to do when they have a problem with their car … contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. It may have worked. If you, too, have had a problem, I suggest you take similar action immediately!
The following is directly from Mohammad:
“I called FTC, (877) 382-4357, and also used FTC.gov and IC3.gov (Internet company complaints). I have not filed a complaint in writing yet because the person I spoke to on the phone took the complaint over the phone. My complaint number is 39764404. After I explained in five minutes what Google had done throughout the country to good businesses, she was very receptive and (she) also said this doesn't help the consumer because they are only seeing the bad reviews. ‘They should see both, only then a consumer can make an educated decision.’ She recommended that we should have every business that we know and dealership that we know file a complaint and that will speed up this process because this is unfair to business and to consumers.”
Mohammad also reached out to his attorney general. He was less successful there since Massachusetts only takes complaints from individuals—not businesses. However, they thanked him and gave him a feeling that even though they don’t take complaints from businesses, if they received enough calls they would take their own action. Each state has its own position, so don’t rely solely on Massachusetts’ stance.
If you are a dealer or dealership employee, this is where you come in. Have you checked your Google reviews? If you haven’t, you should. Nearly every client I have has found their positive reviews have disappeared. A prominent dealer and client of mine in central Kansas had hundreds of reviews and ascore of 29 disappear, leaving but four negative reviews that averaged five-and-half-months old. They now have nine reviews (five new) and no score. Any doubt how that impacts a business?
I am not an attorney, but my opinion is what Google has done reeks of a deceptive trade practice (treble damages), and I think it could well cross the line of libel.
If you have the same problem, I urge you to call the FTC using the number Mohammad provided. He said you are welcome to reference his case number. I would also recommend you contact your state attorney general’s office.
Very few dealers, no matter their size, can have an immediate impact with a company the size of Google. The federal and state governments can. Google just paid a $22 million fine recently (I know, a drop in the bucket for them), and they will have to answer to the FTC.
It is their business, and they can cause changes like this at will, unless it materially misrepresents what your customers previously posted. Removing your positive reviews and leaving negative ones does just that. You may never get your positive reviews back, but just as the woman at the FTC said, leaving the old negative reviews just isn’t right. Hopefully, they will relent and repost the positive reviews; but if not, with enough of a voice against them, I would think they will quickly remove the old reviews as well.
Thanks for your ears today. Good selling, and for once, maybe the FTC can be viewed as a friend of the dealership as opposed to the bad guys. Go do your part!
Best regards,
GG
Greg Goebel, CEO
Auto Dealer Monthly, LLC
Sean V. Bradley is LIVE training a dealership on Automotive Internet Sales.
Understanding The Automotive Internet Sales Prospect & Profile - The Online Shopper / Buyer
Do You Have Fake Twitter Followers?
Status People, a social media company, created a new social tool that apparently is able to spot out both "fake" followers as well as "inactive" followers.
They stated the reason for creating the tool in their blog:
The number of people buying fake followers on Twitter to look more legitmate is a growing problem. Essentially people are trying to game the system and convince people they have social legitimacy when they don't. They are Fakers and they are undermining Twitter.
Of course any third party app always has its complications, but our social team thought this one was pretty cool.
What are your results?
Despite social media’s rapid ascent to its current status as the “must-have” channel for all marketers, the most effective marketing tool for business may still be email marketing. A well planned and executed email campaign has the ability to produce higher rates of engagement and user action than a similar social campaign. Not bad for a channel that’s been around since before Mark Zuckerberg was even born.
However, email can be a difficult medium to master for many marketers. From subject lines to send times, there are hundreds of variables that affect the success or failure of a given email campaign. In a recent Pardot survey, respondents reported using email marketing for a number of different purposes as well. With so many elements to consider, email can be overwhelming for many marketers. It’s for this reason that we have created the infographic below to help marketers design successful campaigns quickly, by focusing on the steps that matter the most.
Source - http://www.pardot.com/infographic/6-steps-effective-email-marketing-infographic
http://www.internetsales20group.com
$500 Discount Code For Upcoming Internet Sales 20 Group in Chicago - www.internetsales20group.com "DSIS20"