The debate rages on as to the effectiveness of Facebook marketing. While organic results within Facebook's feed might miss the mark from time to time, paid Facebook marketing can still bring highly targeted visitors, functioning as the awareness advertising of our time!

Facebook used to give plenty of credence to the organic posts from business pages. But since turning IPO, they need a source of income and a business can no longer get the same pull from just posting things. The posts need to be boosted to a targeted audience in order to have a wide enough reach to be an effective form of Facebook marketing. Without paid sponsorship, a business can expect only a small fraction of the people who "like" their page to see their posts.

That doesn't mean that a solid Facebook posting schedule shouldn't be followed within a business's Facebook marketing strategy. Without a lot of new content being created, the page will look empty, uncool and untrustworthy. A good rule of thumb is to watch for posts that seem to do well organically, and then boost those. Otherwise, save paid promotion for posts that really need to get out there, such as contests and special offers.

Facebook marketing isn't exactly rocket science, although it does benefit from an expert hand with regards to posting tons of relevant content and boosting the right items at the right times to the right audiences. What are your strategies for posting and promoting new content?

The inaugural Women in Automotive Convention will hit Downtown Orlando this fall. August 18 - 20, female automotive professionals will come together to learn the latest industry trends and network with one another. Currently, women account for 17 percent of employees in auto dealerships. The creators of the Women in Automotive Convention hope the workshop will help women will see the career possibilities available to them and facilitate cultural changes inside dealerships. 

Selling cars to women takes a confident equipped sales person with a high level of communication skills, personal engagement and EQ. Women visit 30% more dealerships and may take a longer time in the shopping funnel than men. Patience is another key aspect to making a sale. Understanding when to stop pitching ideas and pull back is extremely important. Going overboard can be perceived as annoying or assertive an end up being a deal-breaker.

Surefire Signs of Overselling
Here are some signs of overselling. These show shoppers may be changing their minds and no longer interested. Paying attention to these can help your sales team pull back when they start overselling without realizing it.

1. Shopper becomes Distracted - When customers get busy with their phones while having a conversation with their salesperson, this is an indication that Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram are winning. It shows the potential buyer is losing interest and could leave soon if their interests or needs are not piqued.

2. Unease in Body Language - Body language, like averting eye contact and fidgeting, can be signs that are not hard to miss. These body movements show that customers are tired of listening to the pitch. They may believe their salesperson is trying to assert his/her personal opinion on them regardless of understanding what it is they want. This can cause frustration.

3. Moving Away From Salesperson - When women shoppers begin to move away, it shows the salesperson might have overdone it. This is the time to stop focusing on techniques and check in by asking them questions on their interest.

Did You Know?

One of the main reasons women go to more dealerships is NOT price. Rather, it’s because they want to get their buying experience “right”. If that initial engagement doesn’t go as well as they want, they will leave your dealership and go elsewhere. The sale and residual revenue have been lost forever. What’s the cost of your cumulative lost sales due to poor first engagement?

Tips to Avoid Overselling
1. Understanding what women buyers want and need is the key. Instead of pitching ideas right from the beginning, provide a space for women to express themselves. Ask questions and then ask some more. This is the best way to learn what their car buying needs are. It also provides a great opening to get related, so there is a connection; women buy when there is trust and respect provided. Listen to them first and then pitch ideas.

2. Friendly sales people are easier to talk to and women feel more comfortable around them. They find friendly salespersons more likeable. Our research shows that likeability is one of the top factors that help close a deal.

Stop Making Excuses and Learn How to Conquer Your Slow-Month Fears

I recently talked with a friend having a slow month, and he began making excuses about the time of year and the weather. He was setting his team and himself up for failure. This week on Think TankTuesday:

• Learn how to conquer Slow-Month Fear
• Identify when you’re setting yourself up for failure
• What you’re doing that demotivates your team
• How you can turn a slow month into our best month

When visitors come to a dealership site, most dealers should want them to figure out how to navigate it quickly. Therefore, most websites have a navigation area ("menu bar") at the top or side of each page that stays the same and contains links to other areas of the site. Referred to by SEO experts as internal linking, this is incredibly relevant for SEO because every link in the top-level menu will rank better than pages further down in the navigational set up of the site.

To a search engine, top level menu links look like every page on a site is linking to the pages referenced. One way to take advantage of this is to cross reference important keywords with site categories and making sure that pages that need to be ranked highly in search engines are linked to in the main navigation of the site.

Another way to use site navigation properly is to identify what pages get the most traffic and making sure that they are easy to find via the menu. This will in turn show a lift on the already popular pages, driving up the SEO relevance even further.

Finally, one should examine exit pages and make sure that they are accessible in the menu as well. If clients are coming to a site looking for directions, phone numbers and/or a contact form, these should be easy to get to via the site navigation. This will help clients have a more intuitive visit on a site and increase chances they will return.

Site navigation seems to be used on every website, but many underestimate the user experience and SEO potential to be provided via internal linking. How are you all molding your site nav to best benefit SEO and user experience?

http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com 856-546-2440
Jim Ziegler's Secret Tips On Avoiding The #1 Mistake Car Salesman Make That Blows Deals & Lowers Gross

Dealer Synergys Video Production Team just completed James A. Zieglers BRAND NEW Training Curriculum for Bradley On Demand. Jim is going to have his complete training system available for you all very soon. Jim's "Alpha Dawg" Channel with cover Showroom Sales (Including the "road to the sale" of course), Sales Management and Full Blown F&I. Karen Uriarte-Bradley and I are very proud and excited to have Jim on Bradley on Demand!
For more information, go to www.BradleyOnDemand.com or call me on my cell 267-319-6776

http://www.InterneetSales20Group.com 267-319-6776

Jason Manos , General Manager of Toyota Manhattan Reviews The Internet Sales 20 Group in New York…

Jason says that when he was told from the VP Of Operations he had to go to a 3 day workshop, he was not to thrilled. Like all other General Managers, there is a lot going on in a dealership… not rot mention in New York City. But Jason goes on to say how he was BLOWN AWAY and Highly recommends the Internet Sales 20 Group for ANYONE but he also suggests that senior management and owners should definitely attend.

Toyota Manhattan is part of the BRAM Auto Group which generate over a Billion Dollars!

If you want any information for #IS20G, please call me on my persona cell phone # 267-319-6776

http://www.InternetSales20Group.com 856-546-2440

Dorothy has a tremendous amount of Automotive Sales, Management and Internet / BDC experience and knowledge.
I am honored to have such great feedback from her about the Internet Sales 20 Group as well as about the Dealer Synergy system that we just installed into her dealership, Honda Manhattan (BRAM Auto Group).

You lose sales when your customers don't think you do.

How You Can Start Caring Today?

Learn how your marketing needs to be consistent to make a sale. With every new offer, sale, and promotion, your marketing must feel the same throughout. Get all the details this week on Hard Facts.

Many dealership websites opt for the clean, professional look of stock photos. While this practice might work well for promotional materials, automotive dealers should try to use actual photos on VDPs (Vehicle Description Pages) whenever possible.

Inventory often needs to make it onto a dealership site before there is time for photos to be taken. In this case, many will choose a stock photo or a "coming soon"-type image rather than no photo at all. While this might be an acceptable temporary solution, a dealership should always attempt to get actual photos of their merchandise on their website for all VDPs.

The single biggest "selling" factor on the VDP is the initial photo that loads on the page. If this photo is a stock photo rather than an actual photo, the customer will only have a generic idea of what the vehicle may look like, rather than how it actually looks in terms of color, condition and features. When photos of the actual vehicle load, it significantly builds trust with shoppers. The dealership is showing that they have nothing to hide with respect to the vehicle's appearance. This is an important hurdle to cross, considering that trust is a major issue that dealerships may face with customers.

Not only should actual photos be used, there should be many photos showing various aspects of the vehicle - something stock photos tend not to do. For a list of standard photos, see here: http://zmotauto.com/wpz/inventory-photos-vdp-photo-ideas/

All in all, photos play a vital role in a vehicle sale that begins online. Are you all still using stock photos or do you have a system in place for keeping actual merchandise photos on site?

    So, what is the one thing that I could possibly impart to salespeople that would prove to be a game changer?  The good news is that I have the answer.  And just imagine, you happen to be reading the very article that changes everything.  You may want to take a moment just to revel in that fact.  Or maybe, you should start thinking about where you will frame and hang this masterpiece.  I certainly anticipate a flood of social media sharing that will rival the viral.  But along with the revelation comes the confession.  You see, for years I have been cheating.  I have been stacking the deck even prior to the customer arriving at the store.  It started years ago when one of the greatest sales trainers in the business said to me “son, you’re selling to a passing parade”.  In other words, you are selling one customer at a time and the next one hasn’t seen your show.  Needless to say, it did not take long for my dark side to take over.  Once I internalized this fact I began to stack the deck in my favor.  I began doing things like investing in training seminars, reading sales books, and even role playing.  My show was improving.  Soon, my sales process became second nature.  Although never perfected, it just got better and better.   The odds were shifting in my direction.   Imagine walking into the casino knowing the odds are in your favor.  Once I gained this unfair advantage I could not give it up.  I was so committed to this ace in the hole that no matter what a customer said I stuck to my proven process and led them fluidly to the next step.   The better that I executed unencumbered by the facts the more success I experienced.  And the best part was that my customers were simultaneously reaping the rewards.  As it turned out adhering to the process without exception proved to benefit the customer even more than me.  So, why the confession in this victimless crime?  Because, ultimately there was and continues to be collateral damage.  Without this unfair advantage salespeople either fail or just survive while way too often turning buyers in to shoppers and tainting their experience.  Finally, I can walk away with a clear conscience having exposed my devious activities publicly.  My name is Dave and I’m a closer!

Dave Cribbs @deskingdeals

But Do You Consider Yourself Charming?

How do you increase sales as a salesperson? If you're in sales, you better be charming. On this week's Think Tank Tuesday, learn the four steps you need to follow in order to be interpreted as personable, instead of creepy.

• Understand what being charming truly means!
• How to start building connections that lead to sales
• How to make more people know who you are and where you're at
• What action can completely ruin your chance to make a sale

While most dealerships have a website, and some are mobile-enabled, many have not been optimized to provide the fastest delivery of content. Whether it's a slow loading picture or a bad piece of flash animation, site speed is still an issue for a lot of automotive dealer websites.

Even a small delay in site speed with regards to load times will dramatically decrease customer satisfaction, page views and conversions. Most people expect a site to load in just a couple of seconds, and many will abandon a site if it takes too long to load. Businesses like Amazon and Walmart have taken steps to remedy slow site speed and have noticed lifts in conversions.

Some quick ways to improve site speed include reducing the number of elements on a page, using CSS instead of images when possible, combining several stylesheets into a single file, and reducing the amount of scripts running. Similarly, cleaning up extra spaces, line breaks and indentation in the code can shave some load time. Optimizing images for different page widths can help make site speed better by loading a smaller image on smaller devices. Moving inline CSS to a stylesheet may also help improve site speed when practical. Finally, plugins and redirects can make a website slower, so minimizing their use can give it a bit of a boost.

These aren't the only methods that can improve a website's speed, however they are typically the easiest to implement. Are your sites as fast as they should be? What are some things you all are doing to improve site speed?

There are over a million instructional videos online, and 70% of them contain "How To..." in the title. This week, Samantha explains why its so important to have instructional "How-To" videos on your website.

Also take the "How-To" Challenge! Submit 5 of your "How-To" Videos and submit them on this week's Hard Facts to get a free prize package from POTRATZ!

Looking to get into the Internet market? Colton Davis from Hometown Automotive Group said IS20G 7 was the place to be to stack your arsenal.

The 2015 woman is extremely different from the 1950s woman. Today, women run households, hold full-time jobs, and are able to make executive decisions. While women are actively integrating into nearly every industry, there is an evident lack of women in the automotive industry.

Just 20 percent of dealership employees are women. Additionally, women occupy merely seven percent of front line management, sales, and service advisor positions.

The separation between women and the car industry is also apparent when it comes to purchasing cars. Women are often hesitant to come into a dealership and make a purchase without having a male present.

This is very alarming, especially since up to 80 percent of all automobile buying decisions in the United States are influences by women, 65 percent of service work is ordered by women, and women spend $200 billion a year on vehicle purchases and services.

In an effort to fix the disconnect between women and the automotive world, some dealerships are tailoring their services to cater to female buyers. Dealerships are staffed with female personnel, who are more familiar with this particular customer base.

To learn more about women in the automotive industry and the dealerships that cater to them, visit womensellingcarstowomen.com

Social media is quickly becoming part of everyday life, even in business. Businesses are now using social media to attract potential customers, engage with current customers, and promote new products. Automotive professionals are even integrating social media into their day-to-day practices.

A recent study shows that 78% of salespeople, who use social media to sell their products, outsell their peers who do not actively use social media in their sales process.

Social media and email marketing makes it easy for dealership's to reach a target audience. General managers are no longer left hoping their print advertisements fall into the right hands. If they have deals that are specifically for first-time buyers who are looking to buy a four door sedan, there are tools on social media and other blog forums that will allow dealership's to reach this particular group.

I recently visited Copenhagen, Denmark to speak to Danish dealers on how they can sell more. This week on Think Tank Tuesday, watch the entire presentation!

• Over an hour of exclusive strategies and dealer questions!
• Learn from the experience of Danish car dealers.
• Create strategies for every step of the sales process.