http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com 856-546-2440
This week's episode is "Always be prospecting". VERY powerful but simple ideas on how to prospect and sell more cars, more often!
Sean V. Bradley recently attended a Jim Ziegler Sales Management Workshop and was reminded of this simple technique to increase sales IMMEDIATELY.
This is a great article I first read a few months ago about how LinkedIn is the best tool used by top sales reps to gain great leads.
I recently interviewed 54 top salespeople about how they use LinkedIn to research accounts, prospect for leads, and generate sales. All of the study participants sell technology-based products to the IT departments of mid to large size companies.
The study included three types of salespeople: 33% were inside salespeople who sell exclusively over the phone, 41% were outside field reps responsible for acquiring new accounts, and 26% were outside field reps who managed existing client account.
The results suggest there are four basic LinkedIn user classifications:
Enthusiasts: Twenty-five percent of the study participants would be classified as “Enthusiast” LinkedIn users. Enthusiasts have fully developed LinkedIn accounts and use LinkedIn continuously during the day. They believe it is an important tool for generating product interest and promoting their company to potential customers. Enthusiasts were more likely to be outside salespeople responsible for acquiring new accounts. The average Enthusiast has around 700 contacts, and one had over 1200. Half of Enthusiasts have paid for an upgraded LinkedIn subscription at their own expense.
Casual: Forty percent of participants would be classified as “Casual” LinkedIn users who access their account on a regular basis. They consider LinkedIn a useful tool to research and learn more about prospective clients. Casual users have about 250 contacts on average, and all use a free LinkedIn subscription.
Personal: Fifteen percent of participants would be classified as “Personal” LinkedIn users. Their LinkedIn accounts have ample information about their job history and past accomplishments. Their main purpose for having a LinkedIn account is for job-related networking and they rarely, if ever, use LinkedIn for work-related purposes. Personal users averaged around 300 contacts.
Non-Participants: Twenty percent of the salespeople were “Non-Participants.” Non-Participants don’t have a LinkedIn account or their profile contains very little personal information and fewer than 20 contacts. They don’t consider LinkedIn a priority and seldom log-in to their account. These people were more likely to be older than Enthusiasts, and the majority worked in the same position or at the same company for many years.
Here’s how data from the first two groups breaks down:
Contact Types
The composition of contacts varied greatly between Enthusiasts and Casuals. About 30% of Enthusiasts’ contacts were with existing clients, compared to only 5% for Casuals. Over 85% of Enthusiasts indicated they use their LinkedIn account to engage prospective customers during the sales process, while only 20% of Casuals did. Twenty percent of Enthusiasts contacts were prospective customers, on average, whereas it was less than 4% for Casuals. Partners (resellers, consultants, industry influencers, etc.) who affect customer purchasing decisions account for about 28% of contacts for Enthusiasts and roughly 17% of Casuals.
Customer Research
Every Enthusiast and nearly half of Casuals use LinkedIn to find out who they should contact in order to secure customer meetings. Over 90% of Enthusiasts and 65% of Casuals use LinkedIn prior to customer meetings to find out more about the people they will meet. Specifically, they are interested in where they have worked in the past and who they might know in common. Both groups also use LinkedIn extensively to verify a person’s title. About 55% of Enthusiasts and 10% of Casuals use LinkedIn to research their competition. In addition, Enthusiasts mentioned they will monitor a prospective customer’s connections to find out which competitors and salespeople are working on the account. Overall, LinkedIn was rated as a research tool (on a scale of one to five with five being highest) by Enthusiasts at 4.1 and 2.5 by Casuals.
Account Prospecting
Less than 15% of Enthusiasts and none of the Casuals ever reported making an unsolicited initial customer contact directly through a LinkedIn invitation. Nearly all salespeople commented they were fearful this would be perceived negatively by the prospective client. Instead, over 85% of Enthusiasts and 50% of Casuals indicated they would use LinkedIn to ensure they were contacting the right person but make first contact via email. The majority of both Enthusiasts and Casuals indicated their companies supplied better prospecting tools than LinkedIn. Overall, LinkedIn was rated as a prospecting tool by Enthusiasts at 3.8 and 2.1 by Casuals.
Use of Groups
On average, Enthusiasts belong to 12 groups and Casuals to four. Both Enthusiasts and Casuals indicated their main purposes for joining groups was to keep in touch with colleagues they worked with in the past, follow companies of interest, and to improve industry related knowledge or sales-skills. About 40% of Enthusiasts and less than 20% of Casuals responded that they belonged to groups that their prospective customers were part of. No one indicated they had generated an initial customer meeting based upon a group membership.
Existing Client Communication
Seventy percent of Enthusiasts and 18% of Casuals reported they had used LinkedIn to keep existing customers informed about their company’s offerings. Those who did used LinkedIn to send short messages that contained links to press releases, white papers, analyst reports, product announcements, and company produced videos. However, both groups overwhelmingly preferred to use e-mail to stay in touch with existing clients. LinkedIn was rated as an existing client communication by Enthusiasts at 2.1 and 1.5 by Casuals.
LinkedIn Generated Revenue
Over 40 percent of Enthusiasts indicated they have successfully generated revenue based upon LinkedIn-related efforts. Conversely, less than 20 percent of Casuals successfully generated revenue directly attribute to LinkedIn.
Overall, 18% of all survey respondents indicated they have generated additional sales as a direct result of their LinkedIn activities. However, this number is deceiving. In order to truly measure LinkedIn’s effectiveness you must take into account how many salespeople are Enthusiasts, Casuals, Personals, or Non-Participants.
SOURCE: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/04/top-salespeople-use-linked/
http://www.dealersynergy.com 856-546-2440
http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com
The Evolution and Natural Selection of Automotive Sales - WEBINAR - Advanced Showroom Sales
Advanced Showroom Sales / Car Sales Training - How To Sell 30+ Units Per Month
Sean V. Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy just conducted a POWERFUL 1 hour webinar on "How To Sell More Cars"
It may not come as a surprise, but paying extra bucks to “go green” in a hybrid car may pay off in self-esteem and image for older drivers, as well as give a healthy boost to the environment, according to a Baylor University study.
This may help fuel cynics' view that people are far from green when they park a hybrid in front of their 3,000-5,000 square-foot home with an Olympic pool and Lexus SUV in the garage. But at least the trend has money moving through the economy...
PRESS RELEASE:
Newswise — Paying extra bucks to “go green” in a hybrid car may pay off in self-esteem and image for older drivers, as well as give a healthy boost to the environment, according to a Baylor University study.
The finding is significant because some segments of the older-consumer population control a considerable share of the discretionary income in the United States, and the population size of the “mature market” is growing rapidly, researchers said.
The study is published in the journal Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing and Service Industries.
“If I want to pay $5 for a ‘green’ detergent or sponge, I’ll know that I’m helping the environment. But those things aren’t highly visible. Other people aren’t going to notice,” said Jay Yoo, Ph.D., an assistant professor of family and consumer sciences in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences.
Researchers analyzed a national cross-sectional survey of 314 consumers age 60 and older who had bought hybrid cars. The study showed that their satisfaction was influenced by social values — including pride and prestige — as well as quality and price, not only in vehicle purchase but in future savings on gasoline expenses.
Those three variables — social value, price and quality — are significant in building senior citizens’ customer loyalty as shown by repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth, Yoo said.
Emotional values — such as excitement – did not significantly influence their purchase intention or satisfaction, according to the study.
“The findings suggest that elderly consumers are concerned about how they appear to others when driving a hybrid car,” the researchers wrote. “They believe that driving a hybrid car builds a positive self-image of the people who drive them.”
“This knowledge can help as a marketing tool,” Yoo said. “Hybrid cars have increased in visibility because of their environmental consciousness. So people may be willing to pay an extra $5,000 or so in order to think, ‘I’m great, and this is good for the environment.’” Previous research has shown that older consumers are more inclined to behave in a pro-environment way than younger people are, he said.
Other researchers were Won-Moo Hur of the School of Business Administration in Pukyong National University in Busan, South Korea; and Jin Hur of the Yonsei School of Business, Yonsei University, in Seoul, South Korea.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom LaPointe CarChat24 Interactive Media Manager / Industry Analyst
www.carchat24.com/ 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Hosted or In-House Options – FREE web chat software 727-638-0195
Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with more than 15 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He has been a performance leader in everything from sales and service, to web development and viral marketing.
Stop Stressing Credits, Focus On Selling Cars
I am seeing a disturbing trend happening in our industry. A lot of dealers are focusing way too much on getting credits from 3rd party providers instead of focusing that energy on selling cars. Now, before you react. Please read the rest of this article.
Remember that I was an Internet Director (5+ years) before I started my company. Now for almost 10 years now I have been building Internet Sales departments and Business Development Centers. I say this just to show that I am not “pro vendor or anti-dealer”. I am a Car-Guy and all I care about is selling cars. And it seems that there is a trend with Dealers that are so focused on getting credits with leads. Some dealers spend so much time trying to track down credits it diminishes the amount of time following up with actual prospects. I am NOT suggesting that you should not be compensated for leads that are invalid or duplicates. I am just expressing my concern with Dealers that spend so much time focusing on trying to get credit for leads. Actually grinding their reps for more credit(s). I have clients that do it sometimes for sport. I said clients, so I know it’s a fact. Some dealers demand credits because they know that most lead source providers will concede rather than argue with a dealer or possibly lose a client over something as silly as a credit. There are dealers that sometimes not choose a particular lead source provider because of their “Lead Credit Policy”, or worse even cancel a 3rd party lead source provider or aggregator because they didn’t get a credit or the amount of credit back they thought they were owed.
This blows my mind because the average cost per lead in the United States is only $20 (give or take a couple of dollars). The upside is off the charts. If a dealer buys 100 leads at $2,000 and sells 10 percent (10 units) with an average Front and Back, total gross of $2,000 per copy. That is $20,000 Gross. The Return On Investment (ROI) is SICK!! We are talking about a Net profit of $18,000 from 1 lead source provider. Especially when you compare it to traditional advertising. NADA says that the average cost per sale in advertising is $640+ per car. In the model I just mentioned, 10 units sold out of 100 leads at $2,000 per copy means that the 3rd party lead source provider model is ONLY $200 per car sold. That is less than 1/3 of what the AVERAGE dealership in this country sells cars for.
Here is the problem; most dealers forget that leads are NOT magical beans or silver bullets. They forget that they have to work at these leads. And when I say “work”, I mean WORK and work them hard. Dealers need to have the following:
Bottom line is that 3rd party providers have tremendous value. To realize that true value, dealers need to be prepared for these leads and have a proactive mindset that leads are gateways to opportunities to sell an automobile. Its not a guarantee, only an opportunity to do business. It is up to us how we maximize that opportunity.
If you have any questions about this article or if you would like me to review your Dealership’s Internet or BDC lead follow up process. Please email me at sean@dealersynergy.com or call me on my cell at 267-319-6776.
I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming www.internetsales20group.com that AutoUSA is a Platinum Sponsor in Los Angeles, November 12-14
http://www.internetsales20group.com http://www.dealersynergy.com
Sean V. Bradley & Internet Director, Matthew Sears Discuss Autotrader & Conventional Marketing / Advertising...
Automotive Internet Sales recently had Internet Sales Director, Matthew Sears at corporate headquarters in New Jersey. We sat down with Matt and answered some of his questions about "Traditional" Marketing and Advertising. Sean talked about the importance of Internet advertising. When 92-99% of prospects are going online BEFORE they step foot into the dealership... It becomes a no-brainer and combine that with the fact that Internet advertising is LESS than $200 per car, where as traditional is over $600 per car in advertising as per NADA.
For more information and training videos, goto http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Autotrader Account Executive Gives Secrets, Tips & Advice On How To Maximize Autotrader For Your Dealership
Secrets, Tips & Advice On How To Maximize Autotrader For Your Dealership - Automotive Internet Sales...
Joe Cala is a Top Autotrader Account Executive and an 11 year Automotive Sales Veteran.
Before joining Autotrader.com Joe was the Internet Director of a Penske Dealership (Gateway Toyota). Joe delivered 150+ Internet Deals per month!
Joe gives some POWERFUL advice on how to maximize Autotrader for your dealership!
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Why Aren't Car Dealerships Selling Cars? - Automotive Sales - Car Sales
|
www.internetsales20group.com">http://www.www.internetsales20group.com
Automotive Vendors, Cars.com, Car Gurus And Autotrader Are Discussed - Car Dealers BEWARE!
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Jim Ziegler and Tim Martell Talk Cars.com Controversy | Wikimotive Podcasts #1
Jim Ziegler and Tim Martell discuss the Cars.com controversy. When a consumer submits a lead on a paying dealer's inventory, is it wrong for cars.com to feed the consumer the competition's inventory too?
facebook.com/jamesaziegler
facebook.com/wikimotive
twitter.com/wikimotive
Citations:
http://www.carpricesecrets.com
http://www.whypaysticker.com
http://www.carsguru.com
Confessions Of An Ex-Cars.com Employee - "Cars.com Takes Dealers' Money & Then Slams Them Behind Their Back"
As a former cars.com employee, here are three of the Santa Monica sites (not sure if they have more now). NOTE: The Santa Monica sites used to power the NewLeadsPlus pay-per-lead program but I'm not sure if they feed the numbers into the Cars.com numbers now when they report leads or VDPs. I was told by a Cars.com employee at one point, that they included the numbers from these sites in their new car lead reporting numbers which brings me to the point I have always said:
Advertisers who say "we aren't about leads" are being condescending to Dealers. EVERY AD is designed for one thing if I am giving you money: To give me more customers to speak to so I can try to sell them. Whether you call those customers "customers" or "opportunities", at the end of the day these are leads. Advertisers stopped focusing on leads and started focusing on VDPs when their lead volumes went in the toilet.
Here are excerpts from the 3 Santa Monica Sites so that Dealers can see for themselves how they are portrayed to the consumer...a.k.a. the potential lead. (Wonder why consumers think ill of Dealers in spite of all the hard work Dealers have done to improve their reputations? Maybe it's because the people you are paying encourage that thought process so that the consumer will trust them before trusting you!) Don't believe it? Read on.
(NOTE THE LOOK OF THE EVIL SALESMAN)
Excerpts from the landing page:
The old fashioned way (basically, this is their representation of the Dealer experience)
1. You can't leave. You're pressured to buy the car today, without the chance to comparison shop.
2. Endless negotiation. You're stuck for hours going head-to-head with a salesman.
3. You're overwhelmed by numbers. APRs, fees, payment schedules—you have to sign right away and there's no time to think.
Your inventory is powering this site from the place that supposedly treats you as important. Really? How can anyone do this in good conscience!
Site excerpts
1. "Did you know every New Car has a secret price?"
2. "It's the price you'll never see published in the paper."
3. "Discover the dealer's secret price."
It get's better in the description area when you scroll down:
"Most dealers work hard to offer the public competitive prices. These incentives can grab your attention, but they can also obscure the actual terms you're getting on your purchase."
"Your current car's value can be used to lower the price on your new car. However, most people underestimate their used car's value when going to a dealership. How can you maximize your value?"
They start with many sentences that sound dealer friendly and then WHACH...they remind the customer that even though many dealers are nice, they could get screwed over by some so better just submit a lead because you can't really know which dealers are trustworthy. Read it yourself gang, don't just take my word for it.
Does that sound like the type of actions taken by a site advocating or even supporting dealers? NO - and your inventory is used to power this site too!
This is the only site that actually bears the Cars.com branding and doesn't appear to have anti-dealer language. Interesting that they only put their branding on the site that doesn't make the dealer look like a crook. I wonder why?
The real question is how many of these non-dealer friendly sites are they powering with YOUR INVENTORY? And of their 'partners' like Autotegrity.com, how many partners does Autotegrity share your inventory with...and how many do their partners share with...etc?
Source:
I truly belive in all my heart that CARS.COM is trying to do the right thing!!
THANK YOU to all of the dealers, Trainers/Consultants/Advocates, especially Jim Ziegler and Sean V. Bradley that made noise about this new program that was launched.
As of today here is a message from them :
http://dealeradvantage.cars.com/da/2013/05/moving-forward-testing-new-ways-to-drive-exposure/
He did also refer to a 23 minute video from Brian Pasch FOR the idea, which I have personally NOT watched. I think overall, this "test" was a good and bad one.
Good - we are engaging customers more and following up, and anything that does slip through the cracks on the dealership level, we can find out if the customer is still on the market with another automated email process. This does increase value to Cars.com to me as a dealership....ONLY if we fix the BAD!
BAD - ...which really should be "horrible"! Bottom line, a company we are paying for a car buyer...is now turning that buyer into a shopper with other suggestions. They are also providing financing options and other 3rd party validations, and that part is OUR JOB as the dealership to do!
**(Please refer to Robert Wiesman article EXACTLY about that written a few days ago!)
We can ALL work together (aka Synergize!!) to make this a HUGE WIN/WIN/WIN situation for us as the dealership, Cars.com as a trusted vendor and advertiser, AND the customer looking for the best deal!
Andy Fedo
Director of Internet Sales, Lithia Nissan Hyundai of Fresno
http://www.automotiveinternetsales.com 267-319-6776
Here is the thread on the Cars.com situation...
Automotive Internet Sales Reviews Jim Ziegler's Concerns About Cars.com & Brian Pasch's Response...
The subject of http://www.cars.com has been getting pretty heated lately. It has achieved over 6,000 views on the local blogs like:
http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/double-cross-or-not-a-double-cross?xg_source=activity
Brian Pasch, CEO of http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com/company/meet-our-team/brian-pasch/ has come out and said that Jim Ziegler is wrong and he thinks that Cars.com is NOT doing anything wrong. As a matter of fact, Brian has created a blog post
That basically says that Jim has it all wrong...
I shot this video to explain why I support Jim Ziegler's point of view on the Cars.com situation.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call me or email me-
http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com
This is one of the modules on my NEW "Video On Demand", Training, Tracking Testing Platform...
This is ONLY a sample! Please call me if you would like a FREE Test Drive!!
Or go to http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com
I absolutely love the video below. It isn't that it's so useful that people will love it; as used car buying tips go, it's rather light on real zingers or anything outside of common knowledge. It isn't the production quality; this is a well-made video, but nothing outstanding compared to other motion graphics.
The thing that makes this video stand out is that it's a branding and marketing machine that will keep on giving for years to come. First, it's very sharable. It's not quite good enough to be a viral video, but it will do its job and get some views. Second, it's a search engine golden ticket. It will be visible on searches for terms like "buying a used car" and "used car buying tips" and will stay visible for a long time.
Finally, it's a strong branding message that has very little to do with the brand itself. It's loosely related, of course, but the relationship is not a part of the story. The company will reap the benefits of being found by new people for a long time.
Here's the video itself:
Do Hyundai Cars Suck? Is Hyundai A "Throw Away Car"? Robert Wiesman Answers Your Question(s)...
Can you imagine? Instead of working 60 plus hours per week, you show up at 9 AM on Monday and weekend is just four hours away! What would you do with all the free time? I would probably play enough golf to be on the PGA tour, lift weights and work out everyday, and then on Saturday, maybe go to Home Depot, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath & Beyond, I don’t know.
For those of you who haven’t read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, you’ll be really disappointed to know that I am not starting a revolt to reduce dealership hours from 9AM-9PM Monday through Saturday to 1 4-hour workday. However, I am confident that I will save you a ton of time and be able to help you make more money.
Let’s get started..
Prior to reading the 4-hour workweek I was super guilty of this. By checking your email every minute you can’t get anything done. What happens is you start to work on something important like an email blast, website analytics, advertising, etc. Then you get an email from your factory rep with daily sales update, while checking this email you get a SPAM email that you have to unsubscribe from, and then you get a bill emailed to you that you print out to authorize payment for and before you know it it’s been a half an hour and you completely forgot about your email blast.
Instead of checking your email every 5 minutes, set 2 times per day that you check email say 12 PM and 5 PM. I’m sure it’s your habit to check their email the first thing you get into work each day, but you must break this habit! Henry Evans in the book The Hour a Day Entrepreneur uses a sports analogy, rather than start the day on the defensive responding to emails you want to start the day on the offensive. Making stuff happen, making profit happen.
It is a difficult habit to break, but you must keep Outlook closed and even turn off the email notifications on your iPhone. Some of you might have managers or the owners above you whose emails you feel obligated to quickly respond to, however if you explain to these individuals that you are only checking your emails at 12 PM and 5 PM each day in an effort to increase efficiency and for them to call you with anything urgent. You will find that responses to most of their emails can wait and that they will call you if they truly have something urgent.
Poker is a passionate hobby of mine and I play in the WSOP main event most summers, but the majority of my play used to be online before it got shut down in the US. When playing online poker I had 3 22” monitors set up playing 12 tables
simultaneously (there are people who play many more tables than this!). While it was fun and exciting to play so many tables, I found that my win rate was much lower than if I played only 3 or 4 tables. The reason… playing less tables I was able to focus more on maximizing as much profit from the hands I was ahead in and minimize loss in the hands I was behind in.
The same principles can be applied in the dealership. At one point, I would have my email, Facebook, Twitter, CRM, website editor, vAuto and instant messenger all open at the same time. Why? Because it was awesome and made me feel really important to have so many windows open. Naturally all of this leads to little focus and a lot of distraction. Now, I’ll try to keep only the things open I need, for the most part this is just one program. However, there are times where I’ll need multiple things open like if I’m desking deals for instance that I may need multiple things open.
In terms of getting things done. I set 12 month, 6 month, and 1 month goals and funnel each of these goals to specific daily to dos. I use Evernote the night before to prioritize the entire next day to do list. As I mentioned you want to head into work on the offensive making stuff happen. On a given day the priority might be a customer we are real close with closing, sometimes it’s working on the CRM action plan, writing a press release, sales training, etc. However, they are prioritized and align with my goals, instead of someone’s email.
Prior to reading the 4-Hour Workweek there were countless things that I would do on a weekly basis and the entire time while doing them I would be thinking someone else really could be doing this for me. The reason I didn’t, I was too lazy to teach someone else how to do it. I am sure there are countless things that you could have someone else do as well. A few things that come to mind are reporting sales, sales logs, and dealer trades but I am sure there are countless other things that you can have someone else do for you as well.
Below is a great chart that is included in the 4-Hour Work Week on finding stuff to outsource to a personal assistant. I have found that there are enough people in the dealership to keep busy that a personal assistant isn’t necessary. Finance Managers are great people to utilize because they are detail oriented and while they aren’t selling products you might utilize their skills rather than have them checking Facebook while they are waiting for another deal. Other people that come to mind are secretaries or warranty administrators. I would recommend not having sales people doing stuff like this because there are a lot of sales people who will make these things a higher priority than selling cars.
Another thing that is mentioned in the 4-Hour Workweek that is a big time saver is empowering your employees. Now, truthfully I’ve yet to implement the majority of the stuff I am suggesting so these are merely ideas. However, Tim Ferriss shares about how he would get 200+ emails per day from the customer service side of his business about different customer complaints and how each should be handled. He would spend 9-5 replying to each email about how to handle the situation. Ultimately he empowered his customer service to fix any customer problem under $100 without contacting him and this instantly reduced his emails from 200 per day into fewer than 20 per week.
In the New Gold Standard is explained how the Ritz-Carlton empowers each employee up to $2,000 per day to take care of any customer issues and also to exceed their expectations. Naturally this empowerment must been managed, but both Tim’s company and the Ritz-Carlton note that such empowerment has had little to no effect on the bottom-line. Yet, the quick resolution of problems has undoubtedly increased customer happiness. Even if such empowerment does minimally affect the bottom-line, the freedom from constant interruption this provides you and your managers makes it well worth it.
Dealership specific example of how this could be effectively implemented would be to provide a structure for internet pricing for BDC or Internet Sales Reps so they don’t have to check with a Sales Manager for every price. Also for Service Advisors to take care of any problems and unhappiness on the service drive.
In Dan Kennedy’s book No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs Dan talks about one of the of the biggest threats to your time and energy, time vampires. Time vampires can come in the form of coworkers, vendors, and even customers who have no regard for your productivity and are constantly interrupting you with meaningless questions, stories, or gossip. Some time vampires he talks about in the book are Mr. Have-You-Got-A-Minute, Mr. Trivia, and Mr. Soap Opera. These people need no description, you know who I’m talking about.
A couple of things to drive a stake into the time vampires is to end the open door policy! If you are working on something and can’t be interrupted put your phone on do not disturb and put a big sign outside your office to not come in for a set period of time. I tend to bounce around from dealership to dealership and therefore don’t have an office so when I sit down to get work done I put on headphones. When people see me banging on my keyboard and working diligently with my headphones on they know it better be good to interrupt me.
The last time vampire is Mr. Meeting.
I have gone full circle on meetings. I used to be a Mr. Meeting. I thought that the old school car guys were crazy because they never seem to ever have meetings. However, after reading the 4-Hour Workweek and some of the other books I’ve mentioned I have realized that there can’t be anything less productive than a meeting. I used to take every meeting asked for by AutoTrader, Cars.com, CARFAX, and if you are vendor reading this and I forgot your company I apologize but the good news is I probably had a meeting with your company too.
So don’t let the vendors talk you into going over your account performance because this is simply an opportunity for them to upsell you on a higher version of their product or waste your time. Meetings should only be used to solve a pre- defined problem and must have a set agenda. So if you are having a problem or want to know about a higher version of the product, you set up the meeting with them.
Side note: one meeting I do recommend having is a morning meeting, most call it a save a deal meeting. I think it is so important that i will go over it in another blog post.
Questions:
Have you read the 4-Hour Workweek and if so what did you get from it?
Are you applying any 4 Hour Workweek rules at your dealership or to your personal process?
Source - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/hour-hour-work-week-dealership/#more-8007
