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In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Special Edition, Allyn Hane, Digital Marketing Director at Coastal States Automotive Group talks about creating your very own video strategy on Youtube. Allyn runs a successful Youtube channel called "The Lawn Care Nut". He gives us advise and techniques he personally used to grow his own channel. You have the opportunity to use or rent someone else's community or audience. With these tips you can build a Youtube channel from scratch. 

http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com/ 856-546-2440 

Dealer Synergy Presents Chris Herman, President of Herman Advertising, advising dealerships on balancing there marketing plans. While many ask the question whether dealerships should use conventional or digital marketing, Chris states every dealership has a different balance between the two. To learn the differences between digital or conventional marketing, you can follow Herman Advertising in the link below. 

For more information about Dealer Synergy, visit http://www.DealerSynergy.com/

If you are interested in working with Dealer Video Production, visit http://www.DealerVideoProduction.com/

Sign up now for the next Internet Sales 20 Group!

http://internetsales20group.com

To find out more about Herman Advertising, visit

http://www.hermanadvertising.com

If you have any questions, call or text Sean on his cell 267-319-6776

I recently added this into a forum post comment and realized that some more people might be wondering about this. Where is the best place to ask for a referral? It used to be simple, after they purchase - ask for a referral or maybe give them a call a few weeks later and ask. Definitely YES, those two options are prime time referral asking opportunities but now that we live in a digital era, there are A LOT more opportunities to connect and engage with your customer. Meaning there are a lot more opportunities to ask for a referral. 

I like to refer to all the best places to "ask for a referral" as touch points and I will preface this with my STRONG, STRONG opinion that a referral program is great, it's awesome, but without an offer of some kind.... some of these ideas can just fall flat... why? People are busy. The offer is the stickiness that you need to go above the competition and stay at the top of your customer's mind. PS: People prefer MOOLAH, according to a recent survey," 77% of Americans identify money as their reward of choice."

I know some dealers are hesitant/wary about the effective on ROI when combined with the reward amount but it's such an inaccurate/outdated way of thinking about it.  I love showing stats and blowing dealer's minds about ROI on referrals. Just look at PayPal: "By directly paying people to sign up and then paying them more to refer friends, we achieved extraordinary growth. This strategy cost us $20 per customer, but it also led to 7% daily growth, which meant that our base nearly doubled every 10 days." - Peter Thiel - Co-founder. And not only is it cost effective, it improves your overall branding and marketing efforts, according to MarketShare, "Word-of-mouth has been shown to improve marketing effectiveness by up to 54%."

My biggest tip to gain the most traction in the following scenarios is that you ensure your referral offer/request gets to your customers QUICKLY and it is EASY for them to refer. Below are a few top touch points for a dealership/salesperson, GM or really any employee to ask for a referral.

Top Touch Points:

The most common and effective touch is point is immediately after purchase, but as we all know, our salespeople are usually a little too stoked about closing the deal to handle this.. so here are some other just as effective and awesome places to ask for a referral or promote your referral program:

1. In-Store Marketing - while they wait for F&I create some flyers that highlight the referral program + $OFFER, your customer is at their most elated point right now, they just bought a car but now they're stuck waiting. They also know they've just spent a pretty penny and the option to help a friend and earn is extremely appealing at this point. We've had some customers submit 4+ referral leads while they've waited for F&I!
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3. F&I - your F&I manager is an ideal candidate to quickly explain the benefits of your referral program AKA earning money, while they are also discussing added benefits of new features AKA customer's spending money. a nice ying and yang for the customer to think about.
4.  
5. Automated Emails - if you have a follow up email to thank your customer for their purchase - add a referral button or banner that leads to a form to submit referrals. It's easy and efficient.  Your salesperson should also be following up with an email or call (mentioned below) but if they forget or won't, these automated emails and inclusive offers will ensure it gets to your customer!
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7. Salesperson Follow up - 1-2 weeks after purchase. A simple check in to see how the car is doing can lead to a LOT of useful information, like if anything is wrong and the salesperson can help remedy this -- Major brownie points and once resolved, it's the perfect time to ask.
8.  
9. REVIEWS! If you get a good review, comment back and give them a link to a landing page/form where they can submit referrals!  The lack of action on positive reviews sometimes saddens me, they are a GOLD MINE for referrals... and even the bad one's offer up so much learning experience --- a goodwill offer can help a ton here too.
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11. Social Media - It's where you have a lot of loyal fans (as long as you didn't pay for them J ) You can post about referral offers a TON here, it's something that actually won’t get old because you're offering up a reward. You can also tag your most loyal customers and invite them to join. Gamifying this is also really cool, whoever submits the most referrals this month gets 3 free oil changes. (it doesn't always have to be money offers, it's just what the people prefer.)
12.  
13. Your Website - PLEASE!!! do not stuff it into one of your million and billions of tabs and sub tabs. Nobody really looks in those. Make it a nice attractive button that highlights the offer amount "$100 Referral Credit" $100 Reward Credit". Something to catch their eye. 

Source : http://www.drivingsales.com/kristen-tepper/blog/when-and-where-should-you-be-asking-for-referrals-here-are-your-top-7-spots?utm_campaign=CUNL&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=35183361&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_gYbnkYh53LztIhwz_IkoF59qN7NHEXBN7NBp1GUgeSdIxYyNP4W-y_B_bdgFLYL3DiNrCb3idG9d-iHHAzuGv6YZjwA&_hsmi=35183361

Dealership Family Values

General sales manager offers three tips for treating employees like family — without all the drama.

In our business, employees are like family. We enjoy victories and suffer defeats together. We celebrate new additions and grieve when loved ones are lost. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together, and we talk about our personal lives, our hopes, our dreams. Even when we’re not at work, social media and text messages ensure we are always connected.

Many dealers take tremendous pride in the fact that they have a high percentage of long-term employees. In those stores, the family dynamic is even more apparent. But as much as the dealership is like a second home, it is still a business. People get hired and then quit or get fired or laid off, sometimes without warning.

With all that in mind, let’s discuss some ways to stay close — but not too close — to our dealership families.

1. Watch the Level of Personal Talk.

We all have our kid issues, spouse issues and housing issues, and they are bound to reveal themselves at work. It’s only natural to want to lend a sympathetic ear and share advice. But as writer and radio personality Earl Nightingale once said, “You are what you think about.” The more focus you put on discussing personal problems, the less likely you are to have a successful, productive day.

This is not to say that you should cut people off mid-sentence. The next time an employee unloads on you, be sympathetic, find a positive note, and walk away. You want to be known as a good listener, but you’re not a therapist, and you cannot afford to spend your work hours trying to solve other people’s problems.

2. Build a Team, Not a Family.

Getting people together outside the store for fun and food is a great way to build comradery. Whether it’s an after-work drink, a baseball game or a company picnic, treat your staff to a good time, and remember: the more the merrier. The bigger the group, the fewer chances for deep, personal conversations. Whenever possible, ask everyone to bring their real families. 

3. Make Social Media and Texting a Safe Zone.

Most of us have a large Facebook group, and most dealers encourage activity that generates “likes” for the company pages. But employees must be told, in no uncertain terms, that they must post responsibly to protect the dealership’s reputation, even when they’re off the clock.

We all know how much easier it is to send a text message than it is to make a phone call. If your employees want to text each other at all hours, there isn’t much you can do about it. But you don’t have to participate. The next time you get a drunk text or any other after-hours message, just ignore it.

A dealership family is not unlike any other family. There are ups and downs and even the occasional drama. It is OK to laugh, joke, cry and even vent. Just remember that our income is based solely on productivity and profitability. So enjoy those relationships but keep them professional and positive. Got a problem? Go sell something.

Jason Heard is the general manager at Lee's Summit (Mo.) Honda. He is a 20-year industry veteran with extensive sales and sales management experience. 

Source: http://www.autodealermonthly.com/channel/the-showroom/article/story/2016/09/dealership-family-values.aspx?utm_campaign=topnews-20161001&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Enewsletter 

In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Special Edition, Kerri Wise, VP of Marketing at TrueCar talks about creating unique processes for each individual lead. You need to take time to pay attention to the customer and find ways to connect with them. Every customer expects customization, and it is your job to adapt to every lead to help you close more sales.

In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Dealer Synergy's President, Sean V. Bradley gives us advise on streamline your workflow. You need to keep it simple and focus on the basics. It is not about being fancy or knowing everything, it's about showing up with the desire and hunger to be successful.

In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Dealer Synergy's President, Sean V. Bradley gives us advise on getting better on a personal level. You want to focus on how you are going to get better, not on how you will sell more cars. Mastering your craft is the most important thing you can do to help you grow as an Automotive professional.

In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Dealer Synergy's President, Sean V. Bradley gets passionate about using your CRM the correct way! Most BDCs are set up wrong which means you are not utilizing all of your leads! Separate your CRM into 6 different categories...watch this week's video to find out what those 6 are.