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[The following is copied from my daily emails to my team, I was recommended to share them on AIS every day as well so I will begin doing so on a regular basis.]

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

Failure is a state of mind. It has been said that  failure is not falling down but refusing to get up. Thomas Edison tried 10,000 times before he was successful in creating the light bulb. He said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Each time we believe we have failed at something, it is simply another step to the process. Henry Ford said, "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely." Unfortunately, most people see opportunities as work. This causes them to not try. If you get frustrated and filled with self-doubt, think how different our lives would be if the inventors of the past had let previous failures stop them. 

There were several takeaways from Nielsen's recent mobile studysurrounding restaurants, travel, and the automotive industry, but the one that surprised me the most was that 43% of automotive searches on mobile devices were done to do price comparisons. The rise of mobile in our daily lives means that many of the activities that once tethered us to our desks at home or at work can now be done on the go, so I knew instinctively that the number of people comparing prices while out on the lot was probably high. I simply had no idea it was THAT high.

What does this mean for dealers? With around 20% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, the need to simplify the experience and increase the engagement is higher than ever. They aren't just using their mobile devices to get directions and a phone number. They're doing live research. It could be while they're watching television and using their mobile device as the second screen of interaction. It could be while they're chit-chatting with their spouse about that weird noise they heard in their engine on the way to the restaurant. Then, of course, it could be while they're at a dealership looking at vehicles, in which case the need for a dealership's mobile presence to offer price and vehicle details on inventory is paramount.

Mobile sites are not just a "checkbox" to be covered anymore. The times are behind us when the questions surrounding mobile being asked to a website vendor was, "do you have mobile sites included?" Today's savvy dealer (and business in general) must explore more deeply in order to make certain that the mobile sites are perfect. They should be responsive, have simple methods of communication with the dealership on every page, and present details about the vehicles including big pictures (that don't slow down the site) and further information.

The second most important statistic from the study:

Overall the study found that half of the mobile automotive search audience were doing longer term research but roughly half (49 percent) were “looking to make a purchase within the day.” However 36 percent of this group converted “within the hour.”

Here's an infographic from the study. The full study is available by registering.

http://www.internetsales20group.com

http://www.autoraptor.com/
Meet The Founder
"Car guy," Howard Leavitt, has spent over 40 years establishing a strong reputation as one of the brightest and most accomplished retail managers on the U.S. automotive scene. And as founder/inventor of AutoRaptor, he has leveraged his genius in developing the perfect showroom tool that not only aces traditional CRMs, but actually gets used.

Quick Interview With the Founder of AutoRaptor CRM, Howard Leavitt At the CRM Convention

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Automotive Internet Sales Interviews ADP About Their CRM Solution At The CRM Convention

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Automotive Internet Sales Interviews Dealer Socket CRM At The 2012 CRM Convention

There's a big, fat lie in the automotive industry that has been circulating for years. The idea that many hold onto is that conversion rate is the most important number when trying to determine the quality of a website. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Here's a fact - the worse your search marketing is, both for SEO and PPC, the higher your conversion rate is going to be. This cannot be disputed. If buyers are only able to find your dealership on search if they're typing in your name, that means that the only people visiting your website are already inclined to consider doing business with you. Searches for you by name will always yield the highest conversion rates from the visitors.

As your search marketing expands and you start bringing in people from a more diverse range of searches, the traffic goes up, the total number of leads go up, but the conversion rate drops. Total number of leads, however, go up. It's very simple once you understand the dynamic.

Let's say you're currently getting the majority of your search traffic from a variation of your name. Look at your analytics to see if this is the case. With the majority of your traffic coming from searches for your name, the math may look like this:

• Traffic from Search: 5,000
• Conversion Rate: 10%
• Total Leads: 500

• Traffic from Search: 6,000
• Conversion Rate: 9.2%
• Total Leads: 550

Your goal as a dealer is to sell more cars. It's mathematically inefficient to extend your search reach and as a result your conversion rate goes down. However, the number to focus upon for your website is total conversions. How many leads are you getting? How many sales are you generating from these leads? This is the bottom line that truly affects the success of your website and your business.

Conversion rate is a great indicator that can help you make tweaks and adjustments to your current site, but look at your traffic trends when considering conversion rate fluctuations. Improved conversion rate can be good, but if it's associated with a drop in traffic, you should look at your search rankings and the keywords driving traffic to determine if there's an underlying negative that's making the numbers look good. Conversely, if your rate goes down, see if there's a correlating increase in traffic.

Get more leads that convert to more sales. That's the end goal. Don't get lost in the numbers that some are throwing out at you.

I want to let you in on a secret to The Secret. The shortcut to anything you want in your life is to BE and FEEL happy now. It is the fastest way to bring money and anything else you want into your life. Focus on radiating out into the Universe those feelings of joy and happiness. When you do that, you will attract back to you all things that bring you joy and happiness, which will not only include an abundance of money, but everything else you are wanting.

Time is one of the most valuable natural resources we have. It is also one of the most misused. Time management is a vital key to success. Think of how much time is wasted daily on complaining about things that are out of our control, arguing about things that have no value, and worrying about things that may never happen. The next time you feel yourself falling into one of these traps, try reading something motivational to boost your morale, take a moment to look at the big picture and see things from another perspective, or focus on the things within your control that can make life run smoother for you and others. 

Too often people are held back because of their fear. For some, it is a fear of failure. For others, it is fear of the unknown. Everyone struggles with different fears in all aspects of their lives. Don't let fear control the direction of your life. If you are an Internet Coordinator who is afraid of saying the wrong thing to set an appointment, you probably aren't setting as many appointments as you could. Embrace the tools you have been given. Learn your scripts and learn from the trainers & successful coordinators at your disposal. We have all been there in one way or another. 

I've learned that coincidences don't really happen. There's always a reason. As I worked on my story today regarding content, I stopped to check Facebook and found exactly what I needed, courtesy of Jeff Glackin.

What you say in all of the media types - television, radio, print, social media, search marketing, billboards, etc. - has an opportunity to reach people. Often I'm asked questions about spends and ROI.

• Will $10,000 spent on social media give the same or better yield than $10,000 spent on television?
  
  
• Should I sink everything into online marketing or keep my offline marketing going strong?
  
  
• Should I minimize my internet spend to just a website and classified ads and move the rest of my budget offline again?

This topic deserves much more research and examples than I can put together today, but it's important to get in the right frame of mind before exploring this topic more fully. To do this, I'll rely on a pretty good video on the topic. It's not a superb video but it evokes emotion and gets the basic point across.

Are you taking advantage of Social Media for Referrals?

Have you ever looked up your dealership at www.socialmention.com? If you have never done this, pause and take a moment to do so now. Now that you have looked up your dealership does it come up with having no strength, no results, or even worse no results showed at all for your dealership? Now ask yourself this question. How can I get my fans on Facebook, Twiiter, and Google+ to share my message and their experiences on their Social Media sites?

I am going to give you a few ideas to get you started and well on your way to pulling in referral business from customers Social Media sites.

Create cool content that your customers will want to share.

There are a plethora of website providers that dealers use to convey their inventory, service department, parts department, and body shop, but sometimes we fall into the category of having just one sales page or product information after another. If you look at your website and it falls into this category, then its time to look into developing some cool content that your customers will be interested in and want to share with their friends online. The following is two types of cool content that will drive an incredible amount of traffic and social mentions, which in-turn you can use to get referrals.

Inforgraphics: Infographics are simply the the presentation of statistics and information in a visually appealing manner, and any dealer has the ability to design one fairly quickly with the help of a such websites like www.piktochart.com. I guarantee your customers will find very interesting and will want to share them on their Social Media sites. Here is a good example of one that I designed last night that a dealer could use to pull in referrals.

 This is a simple infographic that I put together to show you how you could design one quickly and use to pull in referrals. I have seen others that do include more in depth information and this is a good example of what I am talking about.

Videos: Everyone knows how important video has become, so I don’t want to sound like a broken record. I do however want to ask you if you are developing videos that your customers want to share. People love viral videos, so you may want to think about a video that your sales staff can put together that show your customers that even though you’re a car dealership you can have fun too.  Here is a link to a good example of the good people down at Lost Pines Toyota having a good time with a customer who just bought anToyota Tundra. .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjlRts82rF8

Hold a social media contest.

Contests are another way to get people talking about your dealership. It can be something as simple as a weekly contest where a random Twitter user who tweets a particular dealership special to their followers can win a free product. You want to do a more elaborate contest using Facebook where fans can win a major prize by liking your page and sharing your content with their friends.

Whatever you decide to do for a contest, the key is to make sure that the prize will be relevant to your customers. Dealers are all the time giving away TV’s, but the real question is where your fans/followers will stick around after the contest ends.

If you want to increase referrals about your dealership and increase sales in the process, give away your own product! Think about it-if a dealership gives away a free year of service for example and they generate enough buzz with their social networks, then people who didn’t win the free year of service will be so curious about your dealership they will be more apt to come down to your dealership to see what all the buzz is about.

It’s all about planting the seed of “What if I was to win this? That sparks more talk and more sales!

You can increase mentions about your business through Foursquare.

Each and ever dealer has a physical location so why not take advantage of the Foursquare check-ins. As people check-in to your dealership, there is a good chance that they will be sharing your business with their friends on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously.

That kind of buzz can really draw in more new customers through your dealerships door, especially if you tie in some great discounts for the customers that check-in!

Always update your dealerships social profiles with live updates.

Do you ever wonder why more people talk about you on Facebook over Twitter? Is your Twitter feed just regurgitating your Facebook updates? That’s probably the reason why. Customers will follow your dealership on your social networks if you post unique and valuable updates. So if you want your customers to talk about your dealership on Twitter, then start tweeting unique messages. The same goes for Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest.

What can you update your social networks about that will get your customers engages? Again, just like content development, you have to think about your target audience and what they would be interested in. Don’t just update your networks with your latest cars or trucks-post updates about your industry. You can also get important feedback from your customers by asking them questions. You might ask them what they want to see from your dealership in regards to your posts.

Implement

Now it is your turn to re-evaluate the content that you are posting on your social networks. If your content is not creating mentions and pulling in referrals, maybe its time to change what you are doing and implement some of the points that I have mentioned today.

Jason Parman

Accountability:

First and foremost and good, functional BDC center should be able to provide your dealership with accountability. Being able to accurately track numbers and statistics though not the primary role, is an essential and vital role of your BDC. Your BDC department should be able to tell you which advertising source brings you the most sales and with this data allow the dealer formulate where they should budget their advertising spend. The BDC should always be tracking the total number of phone calls, total internet leads, how many leads each BDC Rep talked too, how many appointments set, how many of the appointments showed, and how many total ups where on the lot for that particular day, week, month. A good quality CRM tool can help to provide most of this data, but the BDC Center has the ball in their court. It is the job of the BDC Center to make sure all the data collected is completely accurate, so the dealer has a complete picture of what is going on in their dealership.

Provide Customer Feedback:

Your BDC Center should always be collecting feedback from sold and unsold leads. This information is extremely valuable and crucial, in which it can help your dealership identify specific pain points and problems which can be alleviated with this vital information.

Create and provide a valuable and consistent message, have an extensive and proven follow-up procedure, and make sure all data collected is accurate:

Your BDC Reps should have a consistent message across the board and the way they do this is by having an approved pitch that always builds value for your dealership. These reps do not and should not sound like robots from another planet. When talking to the customer they should always have vibrant tone and always be listening to the customers needs. When you first enter the car business the first is taught to you is to first sell yourself, sell your dealership, then sell the car. The same rule applies to your BDC Center, in which they should always be actively listening to the customer and building rapport with them. The only difference is that instead of selling the vehicle, they are selling the appointment.

You should have a proven and tested follow-up process in place, which includes multiple points of contact with the customer. These points of contact can be by phone, e-mail, text messages, social media, and chat. The follow-up process can be one that your dealership has used in the past or one that has been implemented by a BDC trainer, but make sure it works and make sure the process keeps building value in your dealership.

Last but certainly not least, make sure the data that is collected from each lead is accurate and as detailed as possible. Your BDC Center should be collecting at least two numbers, their address, their e-mail and social media connections like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are valuable assets to your BDC Center, because after the sale you can implement a Social Media referral program that allows your BDC Center to capture even more leads for your dealership.

Take Advantage of Every Opportunity:

Your BDC department should always take advantage of the business that your dealership has already developed. What I mean by this is that the BDC Center should always be in contact with the customers who have vehicles that are already paid off or customers whom vehicles have accumulated positive equity, they should always be using past customers for referral campaigns through social media, they should be revisiting the leads that somehow got cold and never showed, and last but not least calling those customers that came in that never bought to continue to build value in your dealership and possible get them back in and save a deal.

Continue to Develop New Business:

This is a very important aspect of a BDC Center that sometimes falls to the wayside. A good BDC Center should never just sit around and hoping for the phone to ring or for an e-mail to come in. A good BDC Center should always be coming up with new and insightful ideas to draw in customers from all of your media outlets. The scope of the Automotive Industry is always changing, that is a given, so you should make sure you have a BDC Director and or Manager that is coming to you on a regular basis with new and inventive ideas. If for some reason they are not, simply set down and have a quick chat with them. Maybe, for some reason, they have developed great idea and they are afraid or maybe they are not even expecting you to want these new ideas. Make sure you are conveying to them that you are always looking for new ideas to increase business. You may have a valuable resource in that BDC Director that you have yet to un-tap. 

A few months ago I wrote a post titled, "How Important Is Price Really?" in which I discuss how there is too much emphasis on price when it comes to vehicle/dealership advertising. If you haven't already done so, I would suggest you take a minute to read through that post as this one will really be a continuation of the topic.

This article will touch on a simple marketing strategy that you can start implementing today in order to drive more qualified traffic to your business and start selling more vehicles, service and F&I. It's one of the most vital and fundamental marketing practices that, from my observation, is grossly overlooked. 

Take a look at this dealership ad that I pulled from an AutoTrader style magazine. Look familiar?

What about this one from the newspaper? Is it similar to what you're current advertising looks like?

If so, are you able to identify what's wrong with these ads? If you guessed that they haven't identified a specific demographic, you win the prize. Picture/price, picture/price, picture/price does not drive qualified traffic. In fact, when all of your advertising revolves around price, you are only speaking to between 2-5% percent of in-market consumers which is just not large enough of a power base to grow your profits the way you'd like to see them grow. If you and every dealership in your area are advertising with nothing but picture and price, you are waging an intense battle in an effort to conquer a very small percentage of people. 

So what can you start doing today that will increase your dealership show rate through advertising?

A friend of mine once said (in speaking of firearms), "Nobody ever sees where you aim, they only see what you hit!" To take that a step further, if you don't even set your targets, how will you know where to you can improve your shooting?

Step 1: Set Your Targets

Take a moment to look back over your previous customer list in order to identify a common theme among them. It could be age, gender, most common vehicle purchased etc. This data can play a vital role in setting your targets because it can tell you about the demographics that you cater your products and services to.

Step 2: Use the trash can

If you're in the process of assembling an ad to hand to your local newspaper or niche magazine and it's going to be another one of those picture and price ads, crumple it up and throw it in the recycling! You're better off to do that now before what you actually throw in the garbage are your advertising dollars.

Step 3: Speak to your Target Demographic

Based on the data that you have acquired from looking at your past customer portfolio, take a moment to determine what the common interests and concerns are (generally speaking) for that demographic. Once you have that figured out, start assembling your ad with special offers, promotions and vehicles that they would be interested in.

For example, if you find that the majority of your sales over the passed few months (or year) have been to retired couples, start promoting seniors discounts or military vet discounts. 

In the other hand, if you identify that majority of your customers are young families or single mothers, start advertising vehicles that have excellent safety ratings, low finance rates and promotions that reward people that have children. 

The point is that you must get creative with your advertising, and you must start a dialogue between you and your target customers through your advertising.

Food for thought

Take a moment to think about all of the various promotions that your dealership offers. Do you have any for Veterans, Seniors, Students or other groups of people? If so, pat yourself on the back - lay off the picture/price and start advertising your promotions to those people.

If you don't have any of those promotions or special programs, start putting them together. Determine what you will offer to the various groups of people so that you can start having "dialed-in" conversations with the market.

In this way, you will drive more qualified traffic to your dealership without have to participate in the in-effective picture/price battle with which you are currently engaged.

What do you think? Kindly leave your comments, questions, or feedback below.

Choosing to have a positive attitude is one of the most important things you can do for yourself each day. I realize that some days it is easier said than done. If we make a conscious choice each day, several times a day if necessary, it will have an impact on every interaction we have. Our attitude can influence the attitudes and experience of others. Likewise, be aware that other peoples' attitudes can influence you. Try to surround yourself with positive people. Negative people can bring your spirit down. Positive people help lift your spirit and encourage you to be better than you ever dreamed. Below is the full quote by Charles Swindoll. Please share this and take it to heart.

One of the most important components of a successful dealership Facebook page is pictures of happy customers. More dealers are doing it every day and they are seeing the results in improved engagement through likes, shares, and comments.

However, the increasing trend is also making it harder to stand out. With more of these pictures hitting Facebook on a regular basis, it's important to try to make your pictures more interesting than the happy-customer-pictures of the dealership down the block. It's easy once you know some of the types of photos that you should take and avoid the "guy and girl in front of the vehicle they just bought" pictures.

Last month, we covered the 5 Facebook Customer Photo Types That Aren't Totally Boring. In it, we gave examples from one dealership Facebook page that is doing it right. As we mentioned:

The problem is that the pictures of happy customers are often about as boring as a picture can be. There's a customer standing in front of their new car. Sure, they look happy, but is it going to get anyone's attention? Is it going to get comments from local prospects, even the friends of the person who is in the picture?

Check out those 5 image types on Dealer Bar.

One of the biggest misunderstandings surrounding social media is that it's a distant cousin of search engine marketing or that it's goals are similar to other forms of internet marketing. This isn't quite true. There are definitely tie-ins; social media can help improve search rankings, it is a valid follow-up component to email marketing, and it can be used as a direct lead generator for certain products and services. However, real success on social media often comes down to knowing the frame of mind of the people on it and realizing that the messaging style is much more akin to television advertising than any of the traditional online marketing formats.

Think about it like this: when someone wants to buy a car, they go to the search engines. They might go to AutoTrader or Craigslist. They may just go straight to a dealership website. They don't think, "Let's turn on the television and hope we see an ad."

They also don't think, "Hmm, I need to get a new car. Let's see what Facebook has to say about that."

Just as dealers have learned that television advertising works even if you can't demonstrate a clear ROI, they're learning that social media marketing and advertising work as well. When people are in television or social media mode, they are in an entertainment frame of mind. They are not fearful. They are not worried. They are not concentrating. They are open to what the two different mediums are about to show them. Nobody wants to see commercials, but they watch them anyway if only passively. Nobody wants to see marketing messages on Facebook, but they see them anyway even if they don't like or comment on them.

Television and social media both help to keep the business branding and messaging in mind, even if it only registers at a subconscious level. If they are in the market for a vehicle at the time, they might react. If they aren't, that's okay. The brand is being presented. When it comes time to buy a car, their subconscious has an opportunity to move them towards the familiar. Both television and social media help businesses become part of the "subconscious familiar" brands when the time comes to act.

Here's a video I made several months ago that discusses the concept.

Good Evening all:

I have spoken to many business owners from small independent companies to multi million dollar companies in the past 2 weeks only to hear the same issue. They see there companies being larger, better and more profitable yet they can not seem to be able to figure out how to create the formula or process that will yield them their results. Here are the answers I have heard from Owners/Ceo's/GM's.

I have given them the marketing and traffic to make us money

I have offered Bonus pay for certain goals

I have given them Ipads, Company cars, Paid time off

I have offered to listen to there concerns and fold to there needs whether I approve or not

Its funny as no matter how big or small the business the problem remains the same,  We all want to be more profitable as owners, although when you have created such a profitable environment for your staff already. What's there motivation to help you? Do you fire people, do you start off with all new staff, do you press them to the point of frustration with write ups and threats, Or do you find away to take a good staff and make it GREAT!

In this day and age I have always lead by example, created game plans, and role playing techniques that make learning fun. Most of the time your staffs not trying to be lazy, they do not know how to follow up, they do not know how to build confidence in there selling ability as when they lose a sale, its not that they are TRULY content with what they make financially. Its they do not have the answers and PRIDE hasn't allowed them to be a better employee. You as owners haven't created the structure and process driven training and continuous educational DAILY programs to grow your own company. Wars aren't won with the country with the most soldiers, its won by the better trained and educated countries with half the warriors.

As business owners you need to REALIZE that the biggest way to waste company hard earned revenue is to have continuous turn over. Hiring and firing employees cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in unemployment,training,learning curve etcc.. Also it creates a unhealthy atmosphere as your company moral will disappear. Have you noticed when you fire 1 employee that has been with your company for over 3 years that you usually lose 2 more with more to follow. Mind you once the public realizes every time they call for one person they have built a repore with is "No Longer With The Company" this creates a uncertainty with the consumer. 

What I have patented is the ability to educate and teach techniques that will benefit the company financially. I have created training techniques, and role playing techniques that will create the employee's you have been dreaming of, and that is a confident sales associate that has found something within themselves and thats PRIDE. Pride has held them back and pride is whats gonna make them the employees we want.

Its my passion and what I have vested 20+yrs of my life in and thats the ability to bring the best out of ANY employee. I personally have only FIRED 10 people in my career, and it wasnt for there inability to sell, it was for demons and self destructive behavior outside of work. If you want to build/develop and grow your company in 2013, I suggest you invest in Management that has the ability to lead by example, Teach/Train and mentor your teams, not once a week, once a month but EVERY SINGLE DAY!  Mercedes Rich has done this for over 45 companies in the past 20 years and let me tell you I love what I do. To learn more about how I can help you create the game plan for success, please feel free to contact me.

richardbrowneconsulting@gmail.com

Mercedes Rich "The Best Or Nothing"

It isn't uncommon for a page to be created on Facebook, only to be abandoned. Many dealers started off with multiple pages and then consolidated to one. Others had an internet manager who has since left the dealership and they didn't even know there was an additional Facebook page out there.

Find them. Destroy them. They can do damage to your reputation.

As you can see in the image above, this is a dealership page created at the same time as the dealer's primary page. They made a page for sales and a page for service, but unfortunately the service page didn't get much attention. They had one post in 2012 and a couple of posts in 2011, and that's it...

...except for the negative comment at the top of the wall.

This isn't even the worse case scenario. It's easy for a page to be "hijacked" by spammers or competitors who post bad things. There was a relatively-infamous instance a couple of years ago where a dormant page was loaded up with porn.

Don't take the chance. Only bite off what you can chew at the dealership. There are definitely multi-page strategies that work, but they require a commitment. If you cannot make the commitment to manage and monitor more than one, don't build it. If there are dormant pages for your dealership out there, find a way to get control of them and either remove them completely, start managing them, or make them hidden from the public (just in case you want to revive them later).

Don't leave them hanging. You can end up with a bad representation of your dealership without ever knowing about it.