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Are you watching the Olympics?

Some very compelling story lines and great competitions. I'm always inspired by these athletes who have put in hours and hours to reach that level of excellence.

Sometimes when I watch with friends or family, I find myself distracted from the message by the comical comments people make concerning the appearance of the people. I think it must be natural. you've probably even done it.

"What's up with that dood's hair?"

"There's no way he was an Olympic athlete."

"Why does one eyebrow move up and not the other?"

"She look like she stank."

"Didn't she look in the mirror after she put THAT on?"

My take on this, and the sales message for us is that the PERSON behind the words-- their delivery and appearance-- makes a huge difference in how the message is interpreted.

I'm probably not going out on too much of a limb here by stating that you probably sell a pretty good product or service. But unless it sells itself, YOU play a major role in how it is perceived when you're on the phone talking about it. The better YOU are, the more you sell. The common sense and the obvious are tough to be improved upon.

Some people believe that communicating on the phone is a disadvantage because listeners can't see us. I believe that actually is an advantage... you don't need to worry about physical appearance. On the phone, it all relies on what they hear. That's why to be your best you need to work on it. Here are some ideas.

GET RID OF THE NONWORDS I find some people have this nasty habit to a very severe degree. When a listener counts how many times they hear "um" instead of focusing on the message you know there's a problem. The persuasive speakers, on the other hand, don't use these filler sounds, or at least their use is minimal.

Action Item: Susan Berkley, author of Voice Shaping, suggests that the first step to the cure is identifying the enemy. Record yourself and count how many fillers you use. Once you're aware of your most common non-words, consciously replace them with pauses.

You can also control the nonword habit by getting your spouse or friend or cubicle-neighbor to say "bingo" or some other code word every time you use a nonword. By the way, this also applies to habits such as "you know," "like," "I mean," and anything else you use way too often.

ENUNCIATE! A guest on The O'Reilly Factor mumbled so much I had to turn the volume WAY UP so I could try to make out what he said. If I didn't care about what he was saying, I wouldn't have worked so hard. And your listeners might not work that hard for you.

Action Item: Read this several times- "If, I, Place, an, invisible, comma, after, each, word, and, an, invisible, semicolon; after, some, words, my, speech, has, presence." This forces you to enunciate.

Action Item 2: Practice tongue twisters to articulate clearly. Recite this one now, several times while picking up speed each time: "Frank phoned four pharmaceutical factories feeling fresh and fulfilled."

GET UP TO SPEED The more persuasive of the talking heads during interviews make their talking points quickly and don't mince words. We all can learn from that. After all, why use 100 words when 50 could make the same point? And don't speak at 33 RPM's when your listeners are at 78. (You won't get that reference if you don't know what record players are.)

In the book, "Smart Speaking, " Laurie Schloff and Marcia Yudkin say that when you speak too slowly you could be perceived as boring, tried, or less intelligent than you actually are.

Action Item: Practice getting to your point more quickly. Ask yourself a question you get during calls. Use stopwatch and give yourself 45 seconds to answer. Then cut it to 30, then 20. Tape your response and refine your answer content and delivery.

FINISH WITH STRENGTH Professional speaker and presentation coach and trainer Marjorie Brody http://www.marjoriebrody.com/ cautions against letting your voice rise at the end of a sentence.

In her book, "Speaking your Way to the Top," she suggests recording yourself. If you notice your voice rising at the end of a sentence it sounds as though you are asking a question, are tentative, or are a junior-high girl. If you tend to swallow your last few words, that reduces the impact of what you're saying.

Action Item: Practice finishing sentences completely and drop your pitch slightly while keeping the volume strong.

The interest that others have in your message is largely controlled by YOU and your delivery. Strive to reach Olympic-level performance. When you do, you'll sell more cars, more profitably, more often.

Thank You

http://www.unlockyourcrm.com

Do You Want to Maximize Your Internet Leads? Automotive Internet Sales - CRM & BDC Data Mining is a HUGE way for your dealership to make a TON of revenue in both sales and fixed operations.

In the city I live in, there is a run down, nasty looking house taking up some prime commercial real-estate that I'm pretty sure every Realtor in town has taken a crack at trying to sell. Seriously! Every couple of months there is a new sign out front from some poor real-estate professional who gives the property a try. I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure this property has been on the market for quite a few years. 

Last night, my wife and I were driving past the house and I couldn't help but think that it was the appearance of the property that was causing the lack of interest. Think about it, even though the for sale sign mentions the great "Commercial Property" potential, there has been no movement on it whatsoever.

The solution I came up with is simple. Tear the sucker down. Pull out the grass and weeds and promote the empty dirt lot. Right now, the house is causing a major distraction in the minds of potential buyers because they can't see their business operating in such a disgusting place. Tear the building down and clean up the property and I think you'd be surprised at how fast this thing will sell. 

So How Does This Relate To Automotive Sales?

It actually relates well to any form of sales, but since this is an automotive and RV community, let's talk vehicle sales. You see, there are a couple of fundamentals about appearance that every sales person looking to improve their game should be mindful of. Let's take a few minutes to break a couple of them down. 

Dress For Success

I'm sure you've heard this one before right? According to an article on usatoday.com; Gladys Edmunds shares an experience she had at a major mortgage firm where everyone from the receptionist to the executives had too casual of an appearance. 

If you're interested in boosting your sales, take some time to consider whether or not your appearance at work is too casual and what effect it has on your demeanor. I'm not suggesting that you need to wear an expensive three piece suit to work (unless that's you're thing), but what I will say is that dressing for success has a positive impact on how you conduct yourself and how others deal with you. I'd encourage you to test it out and see if you notice any positive impact on sales and personal productivity. 

We talk about this all the time. Vehicles are often the second largest investment that people will make in their life, so think about what kind of experience you are offering if your appearance is too casual. What kind of experience and professional would you want to deal with if you were expected to fork out thousands of your hard earned dollars?

Eliminate Distractions

The whole idea here is to eliminate anything and everything that will shift the focus of your customer away from the vehicle. I'm not going to waste any time beating around the bush, so I will just come out and say it. Do you stink? Let's face it, we've all been in a situation where we've had to talk to someone that smells foul. It's pretty awful isn't it? 

I was in a dealership not too long ago and had a conversation with one of the sales consultants who was A.) Wearing a Hawaiian T-shirt and B.) Had the worst body odor I've come across in a long time. Oh, where's your compassion Mike?!? This article is my compassion. If you or anyone you know has an issue with smelling like a dumpster fire, you pass along this article for them to read.

Think about it though, how can your customer possibly stay focuses on your presentation if throughout the entire visit, they are trying to discreetly hold their noses, hold their breath or fan the air around their face? They're distracted and don't want to be around you anymore.

On the flip side, and in defense of smelly people everywhere; this can also be said of sales people who take a shower in cologne or perfume.

Think about the house again for a second. The reason I'm sure that property hasn't sold is because nobody can envision what their building will look like there because every time they do, they see this nasty looking house that get's in their way. 

I think you get where I'm going with this - let's just say if you create distractions for your customers, they aren't able to fully focus on what you are presenting.

Conclusion

Your appearance definitely has an impact on your sales. Of course there are a variety of other things that may impact sales performance, but how you present yourself is the easiest to change because you can do it as early as your next shift. Give it a try and see what happens.

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Question: Have you had an experience where appearance (either yours or someone else's) has impacted you positively or negatively? Share your experience in the comments below!

Is It Time To Reevaluate Your Opinion About TrueCar?

I have seen many issues polarize dealers, and at times energize them during my 30 years in the car business. Very few issues have rallied so many people in the auto industry to cry out than the advent of TrueCar’s advertising campaign in the Fall of 2011.  In fact, since the creation of the two automotive professional networks I am involved with, AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com and DealerELITE.net, there has been no other issue that has attracted even a tenth of the visitors to these sites, or engagement in the form of comments and subsequent posts… From October 2011 through January 2012 the most popular subject matter on many online sites catering to people working in the car business was the thorough vilifying of TrueCar. 

Meanwhile, the outcry from dealers reached a crescendo of volume that was enough to get many State Dealer Associations and a handful of state regulators to “investigate” TrueCar for potential violation of everything from brokering without a license, to operating out of compliance with advertising regulations. 

Amazingly enough, despite all the name calling and personal bashing that executives at TrueCar received, not a single “cease and desist” letter was sent, or lawsuit was filed by TrueCar against those of us who pushed our criticism of TrueCar beyond the boundaries of civilized and professional discussion or debate.  In hindsight, I am very surprised that TrueCar took such a beating without resorting to legal measures against some of the worst name callers and accusers, including yours truly!

After receiving several phone calls and speaking with Scott Painter in December 2011 I put off visiting TrueCar’s headquarters at their invitation until just a few weeks ago.  My first encounter with TrueCar executives on a face to face basis was in March 2012, at the Automotive Leadership Roundtable in Miami, FL.  Bernie Brenner from TrueCar’s board came over to my table and asked me if I would sit with the TrueCar team during the lunch session and discuss changes they were making to their business model.  Curiosity piqued, I accepted.  Looking back on that lunch, I gave the TrueCar executive team a fairly strong rebuttal… I was polite, but explained my objections to their business model as inserting an unnecessary dealer expense.  Mike Timmons, Bernie Brenner and a couple other TrueCar executives were polite, rational in their explanations and determined to convince me that they had seen many of the problems with their pricing models and were making changes so that TrueCar would make sense for dealers as a means of acquiring incremental business at about half of what the NADA average cost of advertising is Per Vehicle Retailed (PVR).  At the time I remained resolute in my stated opinion that TrueCar was a bad deal for car dealers.  However, I will admit that maintaining that opinion in the light of new information, changes TrueCar was making and the logic around their affinity model was already starting to erode the certainty I had in my position on TrueCar… Not that I was admitting any of that at the time!

The next time I saw any TrueCar executives was at Digital Dealer 12 in Orlando last April… Bernie Brenner approached me and asked me to bring any dealers who were avid TrueCar haters to him so he could meet them and listen to their grievances.   Seemed like an odd request, but he was sincere and the entire TrueCar team was looking for people with negative perceptions of their company so they could show them all the aspects of their business model that had been changed, so that with new information these dealers might reevaluate their perception of the benefits of doing business with TrueCar.

What I have since learned is that from the beginning of January through May of 2012, TrueCar experienced a large number of dealers cancelling their TrueCar agreements and dropping out of the TrueCar program.  This, combined with various state legislative issues is what prompted TrueCar to make so many dramatic changes to the way they do business.  They simply had to change in order to move forward.  Something that more people in the car business ought to consider!

When I accepted TrueCar’s invitation to visit their headquarters in Santa Monica, CA the timing was perfect… I arrived the day before a “all hands on deck” meeting where every TrueCar employee who works out of the headquarters was traveling in to attend.  During my visit and tour I was able to spend more than an hour of quality time in detailed conversation with Scott Painter.  Mike Timmons arrived a couple hours after I did and took me on a tour to meet various team leaders and department heads in the two building that TrueCar operates out of.  I met many people and watched a team of TrueCar employees working directly with dealers all over the country, helping them to put deals together and sell cars.  The people I met were intelligent, well spoken and knew what their part of the TrueCar mission was, and how it tied into selling cars.  What I found was hardly a bastion of evil, nor were there any indicators that they were trying to eliminate car dealers or harm anyone working in a dealership.  Like many companies I have visited, such as Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book, Dealix, AutoUSA, Cobalt, Reynolds, ADP and others, what I found at TrueCar was over 250 people who are educated and intelligent going about their specific duties and focused on generating more car sales for their participating dealers. 

So, what about all these so called “changes” that TrueCar has made since the end of 2011? Let’s take a look at ten of them, why TrueCar made the changes and their intended impact.

10 Key TrueCar Changes – January to April 2012

In late 2011, TrueCar started receiving significant feedback – much of it critical – from the automotive retailing industry including dealers, dealer associations, manufacturers and industry consultants.  In the first half of 2012, TrueCar made substantial changes to address industry concerns.  By no means is TrueCar finished with implementing changes and revisions, but they do feel they have taken the necessary actions to ensure TrueCar is acting as a key auto industry partner.  Listed below are 10 key recent changes:

1. Changed Website Experience Nationwide and Billing Model in Certain States to Address Regulatory Compliance Concerns

What TrueCar Heard:  Through trade publications, dealer association communications and social media sites, there was a lot of attention on whether TrueCar’s novel business model complied with the existing regulatory framework in certain states.

What TrueCar Did:  Completely overhauled its website experience to address state-specific concerns related to advertising regulations.  Among other changes, dealers no longer communicate price offers relative to invoice through the TrueCar website experience.  Additionally, “bait and switch” concerns have been addressed through website features expressly clarifying that TrueCar users who use our website to explore the new car market are configuring “virtual vehicles” – not vehicles that are actually in inventory at our participating dealers.  TrueCar has also implemented a subscription-based billing model in certain states.  30 of the 50 states continue with TrueCar’s pay for performance model, while 19 other states have variations designed to comply with that state’s laws.  Lousiana remains a state not served by TrueCar.

2. Overhauled Display of Information on TrueCar Price Curves and Dealer Portal to Address Dealer Concerns

What TrueCar Heard:  Though not our intent, TrueCar heard loud and clear from dealers that the TrueCar price curves and Dealer Portal did not provide the most contextualized, relevant, and informative display of information to assist consumers and dealers.  

What TrueCar Did:  TrueCar’s continued success depends on providing services that result in a better car buying experience for dealers and consumers.   TrueCar changed the TrueCar price curves in January to provide more robust, comprehensive data that allows consumers to understand what constitutes a “fair” price in the current market.  They also switched from providing “network-pricing” information in the Dealer Portal (which focused on the pricing of other TrueCar dealers) to providing “market-based” pricing information driven by recent transactions in the dealer’s local market area (not just transactions by TrueCar dealers).

3. Reduced DMS Data Received From Dealers

What We Heard:  A small number of industry consultants used social media sites to spread misinformation that participating dealers’ sales matching data is used to create the TrueCar price curves and/or that TrueCar actively markets to customers found in the dealers’ DMS.  To be clear, these are both myths. 

What TrueCar Did:  TrueCar only requires dealers to provide customer contact information (name, address, phone, email for buyer and co-buyer) and basic vehicle information (VIN, make/model/trim, year, new/used, stock number, sale date) in order to perform the sales matching, billing (in states with performance-based billing models), dealer scoring and analytics and reporting aspects of their business.  TrueCar does not directly access dealer DMS systems and we never have.   All data extraction and compilation is handled by respected third-party vendors, Digital Motorworks (DMi) and Netlink.   All dealers also have the option to “push” their sales matching data via FTP to TrueCar’s third-party vendors; the data received by TrueCar is the same whether the dealer chooses automated or manual sales data reporting.  To address concerns that TrueCar was receiving extraneous data from its third-party vendors, TrueCar worked with both Digital Motorworks and Netlink in February to remove all unused fields from the data feeds sent to TrueCar, reducing the fields to just those listed above.

4. Rolled Out More “Dealer-Friendly” Dealer Agreement, Including Indemnification

What TrueCar Heard:  Some dealers told TrueCar that the dealer agreement needed to be more fair.

What TrueCar Did:  In February, they rolled out a new dealer agreement, the key aspects of which include:  (i) dealers can cancel at any time for any or no reason; (ii) more clarity and control on how dealers provide sales reporting data to TrueCar; (iii) confirmation that the dealers’ sales reporting data is NOT used to create TrueCar price curves; and (iv) confirmation that dealers’ sales reporting data is NOT used to send marketing-related communications to customers.  In April, we added a limited indemnification provision to the new dealer agreement.  The decision to indemnify dealers is another manifestation of TrueCar’s commitment to their dealer partners and underscores that they are fully invested in standing behind the valuable services that TrueCar provides.

5. Launched TrueCar National Dealer Council

What TrueCar Heard:  Many dealers, dealer associations and manufacturers expressed concern that TrueCar was making major product, process and policy changes without incorporating feedback from dealers.

What TrueCar Did:  In April, 2012 TrueCar launched a National Dealer Council with 20 Members representing 24 states, 35 unique makes and 281 franchises.  The purpose of the Council is to ensure TrueCar is actively listening to dealers, and the Council is chaired by Gary Marcotte (former SVP Marketing & Strategy at AutoNation).  The inaugural full-day Council meeting in April was excellent, with great feedback from the Council Members.  Going forward, the Council will meet periodically with TrueCar senior executives to provide guidance on how TrueCar can improve the services it provides to dealers.

6. Initiated Dealer Associations Outreach

What TrueCar Learned:  TrueCar had not historically communicated with state and large metro dealer associations and paid a price for not directly engaging this important constituency.

What TrueCar Did:  In March, TrueCar hired Pat Watson, VP of Industry Relations, to directly communicate and work collaboratively with dealer associations on how to help our mutual partners – dealers.  Pat is the former CEO of the South Carolina Automobile Dealers Association, where he worked for 38 years.

7. Started Participating In Key Industry Conferences

What TrueCar Learned:  Prior to 2012, TrueCar did not have an active presence at key industry conferences, which was perceived by some as an indication that TrueCar did not care to engage directly with the industry.

What TrueCar Did:  In 2012, TrueCar has sponsored and actively participated at key industry conferences, including Automotive Leadership Roundtable in March and Digital Dealer 12 in April, and the upcoming AutoCon 2012 in September.  TrueCar will continue to have an active presence at future conferences, including Digital Dealer 13, Driving Sales, J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable, various 20 Groups, trade associations and dealer group events.

8. Improved TrueCar’s Social Media Response and Presence

What TrueCar Learned:  Social media can be a powerful medium for individuals in the automotive retail industry to share opinions and shape stories.

What TrueCar Did:  Mike Timmons, EVP of TrueCar and an auto retailing veteran (VP Operations AutoNation; independent auto dealer; new car sales and management) has taken ownership of monitoring and responding as appropriate to social media related to TrueCar and industry-related issues. Additionally, Mike has directly reached out to key TrueCar detractors to understand and address their concerns, as well as to correct any misinformation, and he will continue to do so.  In the future, TrueCar will be taking a more proactive approach to leverage social media to showcase our product and company changes.

9. Increased Communication With Manufacturers

Before:  Previously, TrueCar’s communication with manufacturers was sporadic and reactionary, sometimes leading to significant misconceptions.

What TrueCar Did:  In the past four months, Larry Dominique, EVP Data Solutions, with over 27 years of OEM experience (former VP Advanced and Product Planning and Strategy, Nissan, plus stints at GM and Chrysler), has met with key decision makers from 20 manufacturers to listen to their concerns and inform them as to what TrueCar is all about.  Going forward, TrueCar will continue to directly engage with manufacturers to discuss ways that TrueCar can improve the services it provides to dealers.

10. Added More Dealer Support

What TrueCar Heard:  Dealers have told us they want more face time and support from TrueCar dealer-facing personnel.

What TrueCar Did:  In the first four months of 2012, they added 13 new employees to the TrueCar Dealer Development Team, including Ken Potter (VP Dealer Development; former VP & GM of Internet Brands / CarsDirect; former GM of two dealerships), Amir Rizkalla (Director Account Management; formerly of Fisker Automotive and Toyota), two Area Sales Managers and four Account Managers.   TrueCar is currently looking to hire 9 additional dealer-facing employees in the next 60 days, including six more Area Sales Managers (Philadelphia, Charlotte, Atlanta, Seattle, Des Moines, and St. Louis) as well as two more Account Managers, to ensure that we continue to provide dealers with the support they want and need.

After traveling to TrueCar headquarters on a Monday in July and then visiting Southern California dealers, I returned home to Phoenix on Tuesday evening.  Later that week I had an appointment with the owners and management team at Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix.  This is the same Courtesy Chevrolet that I worked at from 2005 to 2007, and I have a close bond with the leadership team there… During my visit, which was to convince them to attend AutoCon 2012, I mentioned visiting TrueCar headquarters earlier in the week.  The response I received from the owner and several managers was “we really like the TrueCar program, they have gotten a lot better about invoicing us and the business we get from them seems to be purely incremental… deals we would not otherwise have made.” These statements and the discussions I had with the team at Courtesy, as well as all the information I had witnessed firsthand during my meetings at TrueCar, and from the conversations I had with at least a dozen TrueCar employees lead me to a conclusion I feel very certain about.  It would be foolish for any dealer to ignore the changes that TrueCar has made and not reevaluate whether to do business with TrueCar based on the new information available and the changes TrueCar has made to the way they do business.

Researched and written by Ralph Paglia

Source - http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1970539%3ABlogPost%3A405579&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

https://www.youtube.com/seanvbradleytv

http://www.autocon2012.com 

This is going to be a GREAT event... so if you can make it to Las Vegas in September, you should really check this event out-

Having looked back over nearly two decades of automotive advertising from newspapers to niche auto and RV magazines, I find it interesting that nothing has changed. The methodology and strategy has had no improvements which begs to ask: are the results getting any better or are they continuing to diminish?

One of the reasons I believe the strategy used for traditional advertising isn't performing as well as it used to is because, for the most part, ads haven't changed or evolved to meet modern consumer demands and expectations. Consumer expectations are continually evolving and it's vital for any dealership to take some time to figure out with laser accuracy what group of people each ad is meant to target and work to unveil their emotional needs.

An example would be to say that week one's ad will focus on attracting single mothers with small children or young families. In this instance, plastering a hundred different vehicles on a page doesn't really speak to these groups of people. Running an ad, however, that focuses on a common vehicle that these consumers would purchase (a mini-van or compact SUV), as well as the safety features of that vehicle pulls on the heart strings of the consumer and attracts them into coming up with reasons to purchase.

Picture, price, picture, price, picture, price just doesn't work any more - and let's face it, when it did; those ads were only targeting a measly 2 - 5% of in-market consumers. 

By focusing on consumer expectations, determining what target market you will try and reach with each ad, and determining the best way to uncover the consumers emotional needs, you'll pump some life back into your traditional marketing efforts and start tracking a positive return on your advertising investment.

What say you?

http://www.alanvinesautomotive.com 

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

Durran Cage went from a Chrysler OEM Rep to an Internet Sales Manager... He was delivering 25-27 units per month. They brought in Dealer Synergy and we helped them get to:

• 95 Units Per Month!
• 2.3 Million Dollars Gross Profit from Their Annual ONLINE SALES! 
• Durran Cage, Internet Sales Director gets promoted to GSM of the Dealership!! 

This is such an incredible success story and it couldn't have happened to a better person, a better department or a better dealership.

So, from everyone here at AIS... CONGRATULATIONS!!!

http://www.automotiveinternetsales.com 

Automotive Dealer Principals & General Managers BEWARE of Internet Sales or BDC Department!

"automotive sales" "internet sales" bdc "phone sales" "call center" "dealership department" "dealer principal" "general manager" gm manager management beware "be careful" "car sales" "auto sales" prospects leads opportunities ups

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

Answering An Internet Sales Coordinator (Appointment Setter)'s Questions on How To Be Prepared For the Sales Call or Internet Lead...

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

Great Example of a Dealership's Customer Reviews / Testimonial 30 sec Commercial / Video Clip - Social Media - Automotive Internet Sales

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

Automotive Social Media - Automotive Digital Marketing - Car Dealerships Social Media - How To?

This past Monday and Tuesday Sean Bradley from Dealer Synergy was in town speaking with Durran (GSM) and I (Internet Director). During one of our interviews Sean asked me to explain my relationship with Durran. I started working for Alan Vines Automotive at the age of 18 as the "photographer" and moved my way to Assistant Internet Director and now Internet Director, always following in the path of Durran Cage. Durran has always focused on rather than just training me on processes and the ins and outs of the dealership, to build myself as a leader through character. Now that I am the Internet Director I am constantly asking Durran for advice on how to be the best. His answer every time -- "what are you doing to better yourself as a person and better those who work under you?" This has always spoken volumes to me as I push forward as an Internet Director. I will try to expound upon the small things he did in another blog.

Another key I have found is to build your dealership's character within the community, asking the question "what separates my dealership from others besides pricing and inventory?" For example we recently sponsored a group in the nationally recognized Relay For Life. Rather than putting ourselves into Relay For Life, which can take up massive amounts of time, we sponsored a group already in the event. Our Relay For Life is massive within the community. By sponsoring a group we had our dealership name on every t-shirt they gave out and had a truck parked at the tent. As a person with a close family member dealing with cancer this not only meant a good amount to me, but it showed the community we care.

Back of shirt - 

Think you know all there is to know about Pinterest? Think again. Here are Five things that perhaps you may not know about the Pin-loving social network:

1) Pinterest is the Third Most Popular Social Network

• Of course, we can classify a website's popularity in many different ways. However, since launching in 2010 and gaining a head full of steam this year, Pinterest has cemented itself as the 3rd most popular social networking site, just behind Facebook & Twitter
• In March, they received 104 MILLION visitors. (I'll let that sink in.....) 
• That is immense growth for a site that is barely two years old. 

2) It's not Just Women....

• Once Pinterest gained traction earlier this year, a narrative grew around the social networking site claiming it was just for women. But, a closer look indicates otherwise. 
• The percentage breakdown is this 65% women/35% men. While this isn't necessarily a balanced scale, it does indicate that the website isn't just used by one specific gender/group of people. 

3) You're spending more time on Pinterest than...

• Believe it or not, users are spending more time on Pinterest than they are on Facebook. A recent study found that the average Facebook user spends approximately 12 minutes on Facebook, keeping an eye on what their "Friends" are doing, while Pinterest users are spending 16 minutes on the site.
• For some perspective, the average YouTube user spends 16.5 minutes. 

4) Silicon Valley?

• While most tech startups seem to originate in the depths of Silicon Valley and some in New York City, Pinterest started in the Midwest. It goes to show you: a great idea can take you anywhere, regardless of its latitude!

5) Self Promotion is indeed allowed

• When Pinterest was first unleashed into the virtual world, it was simple: pin a few recipes, a few photos to a board, and interact with others. 
• However, now the folks over at Pinterest (as of March), have allowed self-promotion for businesses. 

Are you a Pinterest addict? 

http://www.seanvbradley.com
http://www.dealersynergy.com

Master Your Craft

Do you want to be successful in Automotive Sales? Do you want to sell 30, 40+ units per month? Do you want to make $120,000 - $200,000+ selling cars? Well you can! All you have to do is MASTER YOUR CRAFT.

The key to being successful in this business is mastering your craft, being the absolute best you can possibly be. But why is it that EVERYONE wants to sell lots of cars and make lots of money and only a small percentage ever achieve that level? Same reason why there are so many people that want to be professional athletes and why there are only the few elite professional athletes making small fortunes while the rest of the population watches them on television or pretends to be them on Xbox 360.

Do you think Michael Jordan said to his coaches and managers “Uh, I am Michael Jordan… I don’t need to go to practice”! No way… he practiced harder than everyone else because he was Michael Jordan. That is why he has 6 NBA rings… and his own sneaker!

Tiger Woods says that he hits 1,000 practice balls for every 1 real shot in a live round.  There is a difference between hitting a golf ball 144 yards versus 144 and a half yards. One puts you next to the hole and one puts you a foot and a half away from the hole.  You want to be as accurate as possible, as close to perfection as you can possibly get.

Anderson Silva, Undefeated Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) constantly studies his own performance as well as his future opponents performance by dissecting video footage of past fights. Literally spending hours and hours reviewing video footage of angles, punches, kicks. Looking for patterns, opportunities, weakness etc…

Success is a few simple disciplines practiced everyday repeatedly. So if you would like to master your craft you must develop the following three disciplines: Dedication, Desire, and Diligence.

The definition of Dedication is the quality of being dedicated or committed, i.e. Devoting oneself, time, and/or efforts to a particular task or purpose; The definition of Desire is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen; and The definition of Diligence is a carful and persistent work or effort.

So how does this all correlate to the subject at hand, Mastering Your Craft. Simply put, if you want to BE the best, then you have to BE the best. Will Durant, a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Success is earned, not given people; No one is entitled to greatness; everyone in the past, everyone in the NOW, and everyone in the future will have or has had to have an outrageous amount of dedication in their specific field of expertise, an extraordinary burning desire to win, and must diligently execute their detailed plans toward their idea of success.

I want to give you some bullet points of things that you should focus on mastering if you want to truly be that absolute best automotive sales professional:

• Communication(s) – As a sales professional, you need to be an effective communicator. You need to be able to clearly articulate your message and you have to do so with passion and style.

How can you master this skill?

• I suggest mastering the “Science of Communication”… Knowing that 55% of communication is visual perception and body language, 38% is tone and inflection and only 7% is the actual words that you use. You can study this online, you can take a course, you can go to a “communication” workshop or seminar.
• You can join http://www.toastmasters.org which is an organization that is dedicated to helping develop communication and leadership skills for professionals. It is like a “gym” for speakers / communicators.
• Video Record (or audio) yourself with prospects in the showroom or on the phone or in the BDC. Record yourself engaging a prospect, working a deal, dealing with objections / rebuttals etc… Then REVIEW the Video / Audio footage. Study it, be critical of what you sound like, what your body language is, what your prospects sound like, what their body language is. Try to identify loss opportunity, identify areas that you can improve and or utilize a different strategy or approach in a particular situation.

• Product Knowledge–
  • You should truly be a master of your product(s).  At the very least you should be certified through your OEM as a sales consultant but… Most OEMs have advanced training and certification. I suggest you look into what curriculum, what training, what OEM resources you can utilize to enhance your product knowledge.
  • Most OEMs have “Product Launches” or Special Seminars / Workshops on new or enhanced models within their line up. You should ask your management team to send you to any and all OEM opportunities that come along.
  • Study, Study, Study your product. Take all vehicles on test drives, get familiar with them. Not just conceptually but literally know your vehicles inside an out.
  • Competition Knowledge… Do NOT just study YOUR brand. You need to know EVERYTHING about your competition. For example if you are a Ford Sales Consultant and you sell a ton of Ford F-150s then you need to know EVERYHTHING about the Chevy Silverado and WHY your F-150 is BETTER than the Silverado etc…

• Mastering Objections and Rebuttals
  • Stop playing checkers… Start playing Chess. Document all of the “expectations” and “objections” you come across on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
  • Identify the TOP 10 objections and or expectations and then create at least 5 POWERFUL responses for them. If you need help, get with other sales consultants, your closers, your managers, the owner whoever!
  • Go online and search for the best objections and rebuttals. There are free sites out there like www.automotiveinternetsales.com  that offer a tremendous amount of free information, word tracks, scripts, objections / rebuttals etc… use them!
  • Practice them everyday… role play with your co-workers, with a friend, your spouse.
  • Record them (video and or audio). Upload them to your ipod or burn them to a cd. Play them on the way to work and the way home, at the gym at night, when you sleep.

• Self Education –
  • Read as much as you can about EVERYTHING related to your career as you can. If you don’t like reading, then buy the audio CDs. Here are some suggestions:
    • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
    • The Secret
    • From Good To Great
    • The Purple Cow
    • Who Moved My Cheese
    • Execution
  • Read Automotive Trade Magazines (Like AutoSuccess)
  • Subscribe to FREE newsletters
  • Subscribe to ALL your automotive vendors newsletters, blogs, email lists like:
    • Autobytel
    • AutoUSA
    • Autotrader
    • Cars.com
    • Carsdirect
    • Dealix
    • Edmunds.com
    • Your Dealership Website Providers
  • Automotive Social Networking Communities like:
    • www.automotiveinternetsales.com
    • www.dealerelite.net
    • www.drivingsales.com
    • www.soshable.com
  • Search Engines…
    • You can and should be Googling or YouTubing Everything that is related to your profession.

This is only a small list of things that you need to master to truly be the best at what you do. If you would like me to give you a more detailed list or some free strategies or ideas please feel free to email me or call me. It would be my pleasure to help you-

My previous blog post, Google's New Car Lead Program: The Basics, I discussed Google Cars, which is Google's New Car Lead program that they will be rolling out in the coming months. It's currently in Beta testing. Once again, Google has made a huge splash with the inclusion of LiveChat, powered by ActiveEngage, into Adwords. 

Here's how it works:

As we all know, each time we enter something into Google (Chevrolet, Toyota, VW, etc..), at the top of the search results, there is the adwords sponsored result. With this new addition of LiveChat engagement, you'll see the words LIVE CHAT next to the URL. Once you click on that, a dialog box will pop up (See below)

As you can see above, it's all very neat and clean, easy to navigate. Once you enter your name & Start Chat, you'll be in a chat with a representative from that brand and prompted to enter your Zip Code, so the consumer will be able to find the dealership in their city/town. 

Have you been following Google's steady migration into the automotive world? As I mentioned before, they announced a New Car Lead program last month, and now this inclusion of LiveChat into Adwords. What do you think of Google's dive into the Automotive sales world? What are the benefits that you see? 

*Original Photo from Brian Pasch