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Hello! My name is Colton. Thanks for reading this blog! This is my story from high school, all the way up to where I'm at today. Enjoy!

So, I was sitting in Ms. Holt's Junior English class in 2010. We had a guest speaker from a local University come in and speak with us about our future. You got your typical answers from most of the students; "I want to go to a four year university and become a veterinarian," or "I want to go to school for 10 years, and become a doctor or a lawyer." When the representative came to me, I was not sure how to answer the question. I absolutely hated school, and there was no way in hell that I was going to go to college after I was finished with high school (if I made it through high school, that is). But, your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. pound it in your head that if you do not go to college after high school, you would not be successful. I had given a lot of thought into what I was going to do after high school. While still in high school, I was one of the kids that had to work to put gas in my car, and pay a few bills here and there. When I turned 16 years old, I had a vehicle given to me by some family, due to a family member passing away. I immediately began applying for jobs. I was so excited to do so, I could not wait to start making money for myself. My first job as a 16 year old was at a Sonic Drive in, flipping cheeseburgers. I thought it was going to be fun, but was I dead wrong. I hated, and dreaded going into work everyday after school, and on the weekends. I would occasionally call in just because I simply HATED going to work. Eventually, after calling in too many times, they fired me. I, then, had to make up some excuse to my mother as to why I got fired. She was furious, but simply stated that I had to get back out the next day and apply for more jobs. I went from fast food restaurant to fast food restaurant. I hated it every single day, I could not wait to get a little older so I could get a "real job". Upon graduating from high school (yes, I made it!), it was time to decide what I was going to do with myself. Do I go to college? Do I go to a technical school? Do I work for minimum wage? WHAT DO I DO? So, I decided to enroll in a local university. The first day of class wasn't too bad, but I had something else coming at me if I thought the entire school year was going to go that way. I lived about 30 minutes away from the campus that I was attending, so I was driving back and forth every day. This campus was also known as the local "party school", for it is one of the only wet campuses in the country. I had quite a few friends that were staying on campus, so, occasionally, I would stay there and party. OK, most of the time, I would stay there and party. Needless to say, I did not last long in the college student world. I attended school for about half of a semester and decided it was time to become a full-time BUM. I would stay at home ALL day long and play video games, get on facebook, etc. I would stay up until about 4am every morning playing video games online with my friends. After a few weeks of that, and partying with my friends that lived in the same town as me, I began dating this girl. I never would have thought that she would have had the impact on me that she now does. We dated for about a year and a half before we moved in with eachother. We then found out that she was pregnant (what a scare that was), but we lived through it! Months and months go by of working for a company by the name of Arc of the Ozarks. Basically, my job was to essentially "hang out" with individuals that had mental disabilities. It was a very rewarding job, but, did not pay the bills very well. I then went to work for a call center (not fun at all). While working at the call center, my girlfriend and I were in need of a new vehicle. She had bought a new car the previous year, and I was in dier need for one. So, we went to a few different dealerships and had NO luck whatsoever. We came to a dealership called Crossroads Chevrolet and Cadillac in Joplin, MO. While there, I realized I could not buy much (I was 20 with no credit history). I test drove a few vehicles, that were all older with about 80K miles (thats all I could get approved for). While negotiating, I was not impressed with the numbers I was presented with, at all. When I told the salesman that I could not do that, he went back to the sales desk. When he came back, he had a Manager with him. I was thinking to myself Great, now he's getting the manager involved to try and talk me into buying this thing. While the manager was speaking with me, he asked if I would like to work there. Of course, I hated my current job, but was not too sure about the way a car salesman got paid. So, I got all of the information that I needed from him about how the pay works. I told him I would call him back on the job offer, but not about the vehicle! I called him the next day and told that I would take the job, and he wanted me back the next day to fill out paperwork. I could not be happier about the decision I made that day. Since that day, I have sold about 16-20 cars (I worked about half of last month, and then this month). I have been inspired by sales managers, internet managers, veteran salesman, etc. I have set myself VERY high goals, and expectations. I plan on purchasing my own car within about 4-6 months of being in the business. I plan to purchase a home for myself, my fiance, and my daughter within about 8-10 months of being in the business. I also plan to be able to take two vacations per year, just to name a few of my personal, long-term goals. With that being said, this business has dramatically changed me, my family, my friends, and most of all, this business has changed my BANK STATEMENT.

That's my story, I hope you all enjoyed!

On this week's Think Tank Tuesday:

• Find out what tool your website is missing
• Learn how to engage and reengage shoppers
• Determine shopper behavior
  

Facebook announced recently they are changing their spam algorithm. 

 This is great for the "consumer" but could get tricky for business owners. I've always hated when people "baited" for likes, comments or shares by adding the tagline - "Like if you Agree" or "Share if you Love your Honda," but all of the research I've done has shown that posts that use those bait lines get 4x more engagement then  posts that don't.  WAIT! Before you run to change your social media strategy, you should probably know the new algorithm is designed to mark posts using "engagement baiting" as spam! 

What does that mean?  If Facebook deems your post as spam, they'll remove it from your audience's news feed, in short they won't be seen... and if your post isn't going to be seen, is it worth posting at all?

So how do you circumnavigate this algorithm change, but still get people to engage with your post?  Create engagement worthy posts!  What are engagement worthy posts? That's a topic for another day, come back soon!  

http://www.internetsales20group.com 856-546-2440
#Selfie - Internet Sales 20 Group - Atlantic City, NJ - Subi Ghosh & Dealer Synergy

http://www.internetsales20group.com 856-546-2440

Make Money Mondays with Sean V. Bradley - Special Edition with Robert Wiesman

Did you know that last year, women purchased an estimated 27 million vehicles? That is the equivalent of 75,000 cars a day at new and used car dealerships. Women are now the fastest growing segment of vehicle buyers and car dealerships are taking notice. To that end, there is much more flexibility when buying a car more than ever!

It seems that women are still more reluctant than men when it comes to the advantages of leasing a car. With the car industry back on its feet after the recession, leasing is at a high of 28% of all new car purchases.

This educational article from Women-Drivers.com offers insights into some “traditional” objections as well as provides a more updated, informed perspective on leasing and its benefits for anyone considering going to the dealership soon. (And, for those that believe ‘buying a car outright’ is the only way to go, consider that over one-third of car purchases today are leased for 72 months. Just because you buy a car does not mean you own your car. You only “own” your car, when the title is in your hand, i.e. the loan is paid off.)

Marlena McCoy, Sales Manager at Moon Honda, a Women-Drivers.com Certified Women-Friendly Dealer, shares her thoughts about leasing “Leasing is just another way to pay for a car, a less expensive way. With little or no money down, you can have an affordable payment, a warranty, free inspections, free car washes, and so much more! Why not pay less and get more.”

Below are the most common objections:

1) “The idea of ownership is important to me.”
Cars depreciate and then have service repairs and costs. Most women who lease don’t pay for brakes or tires because they don’t keep the car long enough to wear them out. If you finance a car for five years or more, it will most certainly need tires and brakes plus other repairs; budget $1,000 a year on maintenance.

2) “I have little or no ownership equity in the leased car.”
The trade-off for a lower or manageable monthly lease payment is that there is no trade-in value. It is fairly common that the market value of a vehicle at lease-end is higher than the purchase option price specified in the lease contract — which means there is some equity trade value there.

3)”I don’t understand how leases work, and I’m afraid of getting ripped off.”
Dealerships – and their sales advisors – are conscientious and will take the time and effort to help you understand the leasing process and the intricacies of the contract.

These contracts can be complex and difficult to understand, so a dealership’s F&I manager should encourage customers to take their time and read the fine print. Leasing is not as complicated as it was years ago nor is it limited to just luxury brands.

4) “I don’t understand the leasing lingo. I don’t know what cap cost is or what comparison pricing means.”
Again, dealers will explain exactly what these terms mean – and in ways you will understand. Dealers who skim over these terms do a real disservice to a buyer and compromise any future dealings they may have with the dealership.

5) “I don’t want to be making car payments forever. I’d rather pay the car off early and have several years without a car payment.”
While you may not have a payment anymore, you will still be spending more in repairs to keep an older car on the road, with fewer safety features than newer cars, and more likely to break down. Your dealer can show how a lease provides a safe, more reliable car at all times, not just when the car is new, and a car protected by manufacturer warranty and with few repair bills.

6) “My car payments will be higher.”
Not true. Depending on a number of factors, monthly lease payments are considerably lower than a purchase loan for the same car and same term today.

7) “I’m worried about any early termination costs. What if I lose my job?”
To break a car lease means breaking a contract, can result in tremendous fees, as well as negatively impact one’s credit rating. Dealers can help customers find other buyers to assume the remainder of their lease, which would take them off the hook, while gaining a powerfully loyal customer. Such transfers are now made possible by companies like Swapalease.com or Leasetrader.com who help car lease owners find people interested in taking over the payments. The fees for both buyer and seller are reasonable, and save the seller from the early termination costs which could amount to thousands of dollars.

8) “I am concerned with excessive mileage charges.”
If a car buyer exceeds the mileage allowance in her lease contract, she will be charged for the extra miles at a specified per-mile rate, usually $0.20 per mile. Your dealer can help you reduce your exposure if you “buy” the extra miles you expect to drive at the time of lease signing. If you choose this option, you will be refunded for any unused miles.

9) “I am worried about excessive wear-and-tear charges, especially with the children and multiple drivers.”
If a buyer returns a leased vehicle at lease-end with dents or scratches, she will be charged. Dealers can explain what is “excessive” so that she knows to get the car repaired before she returns and avoid being charged. Also, it is best to clean the car or have it detailed for the best evaluation.

McCoy further explains,” You may have never leased before, you may not understand leasing, or you might just say that you would never lease a car. No one likes to go car shopping. No one likes to deal with the “typical car salesman”. I am not that “typical salesman”. I treat customers the way I would want to be treated — really. It’s important to be completely informed on all aspects of the car transaction – and that most definitely includes leasing!”

We've set up  "Super-Early-Bird" pricing to attend the next HUGE Internet Sales 20 Group (IS20G) in Boston this September! The pricing ends mid-May ... So run over, sign up, and prepare for a Bigger, Better Boston IS20G!  Click the runner and check out the event page for more details!

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/internet-sales-20-group-is20g-boston-ma-tickets-11285560415?aff=es2&rank=1#
MSADA & Toyota Are Aligning For Internet Sales 20 Group 6 In Boston - September 22 -24 - Automotive Sales Training

The following Blog post is in addition to this Video by Sean V. Bradley, I hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxHltQCOlz4

Everyone is an up part 2/ How and where to prospect via the telephone.

    If you've been in sales for any length of time you have probably been told at some point to "get on the phone and make some appointments" by a sales manager. You know you have to do it, you want to do it, but you might not know where to start, you might be scared to do it, or you might work really hard at it but you haven't had any success at it. It doesn't matter if you are selling cars, houses or furniture- the phone sales process I am going to tell you about is the same for any business, use it effectively daily and watch your sales go up.

    First off you need to know a little bit about why the phone is so important to your sales. People that you contact off the phone, manage to bring in to your store on an appointment and show up are more than twice as likely to buy from you compared to walk in traffic*. So how do you get started? You are going to need to be organized, work effectively and stick to it no matter what, every day.

    1: Build a database of clients. All businesses keep a database of their sold clients (you should too by the way). Every morning before you start your day come in a bit early and start researching clients. A CRM** system can be searched just like Google. Refine your search by state/province, city, new/used clients. Use key words to further refine the search. For example " Jeep Wrangler", when the wranglers go on sale  type " Wrangler" into the search field and get a list hundreds of names long, call the people on the list and tell them that the wranglers they were interested in are now on sale and get them to come in. CRM tells me a clients name, contact information and what type of vehicle they are interested in. It tells me their current vehicle, current payment, interest rate etc. CRM is a gold mine and it is the best place to look for prospects. This is where you start!

     2: Have a hook for every call. What is a hook? A hook is the reason why you are calling that particular client. It is what entices them to come in and see you, so it needs to be clearly defined, it needs to be advantageous for your client and it needs to be real. Here are some hooks you can use, remember these are all straight out of CRM and they are real, strong reasons for clients to come in to see you:

A.) You are paying too much interest right now, what if I could get you a newer vehicle than you have now and lower your interest payment, could you make it in today (tomorrow, Saturday)? This is a super strong hook and you can use it on anyone who is paying non-prime interest rates. For example, CRM says client is paying 18% and owns a truck, Chrysler has a program on new trucks with subsidized financing for non-prime buyers at 6.49%. Boom! Strong reason to come in and buy.

B.) Are you still in the market for a new "blank"? Great! The owner is offering invoice pricing on the vehicle till the end of this month or until we sell out of stock, are you free today? Great hook to use on a client who walked without buying because of price. Now the vehicle they want is cheaper! I wouldn't tell them how much or they won't come in. Just tell them it will be on the invoice for them to see when they arrive.

C.) Are you still driving a 2010 "blank"? Is it in good shape? Perfect! I have a young client that wants a new one of those but can't get financed on it. Would you consider trading yours in for a new one if I could keep you in a similar payment? Can you bring the vehicle in tomorrow morning so we can get it inspected?   Every owner would trade in a vehicle they love for a newer version if the conditions were right, so this call is super easy to make. Make sure you have a similar vehicle to the one they own before you make this call.

D.) How are you liking your 2010 " blank "? Did you know the 2014 has more horsepower, better fuel economy and tows more? Would you be willing to trade in your 2010 if I could get you a similar payment? I use this one on service clients. I can look in CRM and see which clients are coming in for service the next day, and why. If they are in a good position to trade in and keep their payment the same I give them a call the night before they come in for service and let them know they can upgrade for less this month because of; manufacturer loyalty programs, finance pull ahead, etc. Everyone wants a newer better version of their car/truck you just have to present a deal in the right way so they see advantage in upgrading.

    3.) Keep track of all your calls: Create a notebook, excel spreadsheet, etc. that you can use and fill in everyday. You need to call clients at different hours and sometimes as much as 5 times before you get a hold of them on the phone, so be prepared to leave a strong voicemail message or send a text that will entice them to call you back! Call the client over and over, nicely and professionally until you get them on the phone. Remember, you are saving them money and getting them the vehicle they really want, so it's okay to call them repeatedly.

     4.) Sell the appointment not the car: Don't talk price, payments or trade value on the phone unless you absolutely have to! Be truthful but say as little as possible. Your only goal is to sell the client on coming in using one of the hooks above. That's it!

     5.) Confirm the appointment using your managers: Everyone likes to feel that they're important to your business. Coach your clients that a sales manager will call them a day before their appointment. This accomplishes two things: It flushes out people that may waste your time; it sets the tone for a serious business discussion to take place in the client's mind, the sales manager himself called me, so it must be good!

       Finally, keep at it! Nothing great and worth having is easily done, but once you get the ball rolling and you are booking 3-4 appointments for yourself a day I will guarantee that your sales will increase. Keep taking ups, keep answering the phone, but book yourself 4 appointments per day no matter what and get your money right!

Sincerely,

Eduardo Aragon, Sales Consultant, Okanagan Dodge, Kelowna, B.C., Canada

* Check out the Mind Map here and see the stats on selling cars by appointment prospecting   https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/yourphotos?pid=5992537944900930466&oid=115827040417935774939

From today forward we have 7 total selling days left. Push hard all the way through till the end. Revisit customers that came in and didn't buy. Relook at their trades. Check all other possibilities. What if they were on another vehicle? What about longer term? Used? Certified? New? Lease? One Pay Lease? More Down? Co-Signer? Turn up the heat! T.O everybody. Stay focused. Be happy. 

Why Work Harder For Less?

On this week's Think Tank Tuesday:
  ✓ Learn how to identify your clients
  ✓ Find out what you need to be spending time on
  ✓ Determine key mistakes in your sales process

I really don't know who I'm going to offend on this one. We've been researching so many vendors over the last couple of months that work with chat, lead-gen widgets, and website platforms themselves that we haven't taken the time to explore PPC vendors. Maybe that's why I was blindsided to find out that there are at least two vendors out there charging 20% and one that we found who is charging 25%.

Is it me or is this insane? We'll put aside the 25% vendor for now. I'm hopeful that it's some sort of accounting mistake or something. Focusing on the 20% charge, it really bugs me that this may be more common than I ever knew. I've always hung around the organic side of search, so PPC hasn't been a focus. With that said, I've managed dozens of PPC campaigns over the years and I could never imagine charging anything other than a flat fee.

To me (and again, I might be on the wrong side of this argument and would be very open to some education on this one), if a dealership is spending $10,000 per month on their PPC, $2,000 of it going to management seems high. If the software is driving the bidding and the feeds are generating the dynamic ads, wouldn't it seem that very little manual effort and development costs are going into the service on a monthly basis?

I've always been a fan of flat fee PPC management because of transparency. I want to be able to recommend to a dealer that they raise their budget without them wondering if I'm just trying to make more money and I want to be able to recommend that they reduce their budget without reducing my service fee. To me, adjusting a budget is a matter of changing a number or two in the backend and I cannot justify charging hundreds of dollars more per month for clicking a few buttons.

Here's the math:

• 20% service fee
• $10,000 per month initial budget
• Dealer wants to raise to a $12,000 per month budget
• Vendor clicks a few buttons, adjust some daily budgets
• Additional monthly cost for clicking those buttons: $400/month
• Yes, that's $4,800 a year for 5-10 minutes of effort

I'll say it again. I'm willing to hear why I'm wrong. I'd love to see the additional monthly effort that goes into a bigger budget. If that's not the case, I'm open to hearing why the cost is justified. If there are vendors out there charging a lower percentage or a flat fee that dealers (or vendors) are willing to recommend, I'd love to hear about those as well.

Someone, please set me straight on this issue. It's bugging me.

Apple’s recent announcement of CarPlay which will integrate the iPhone, Apple maps and Siri into the car dashboard, is a move meant to compete directly with Google’s Open Automotive Alliance (OAA), and Microsoft’s Sync platform. This means big changes are in store for how shoppers driving, commuting and traveling by car will find and learn about your business.

The fast moving map space plus local-search is attractive areas for innovation for software developers. One of the more interesting innovators taking advantage of the mobile trend is YILLIO which takes maps and local search to the next step by offering a patented ‘route-based’ search.

Launched in January, users using YILLIO are able to search for businesses, information and value along their entire route, may it be 10 miles ahead or 150 miles ahead. See our article: Don’t Just Go…… YiLLiO!

What’s cool for your biz is it aims to give users the right information; at the right time, by looking at signals such as where the user is located, their daily habits, their preferences, where they’re going (via their routes), and what they want to do when they get there.

See YILLIO’s user experience video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2igf9WOazo

For brick-and-mortar businesses, YILLIO’s innovation improves marketing relevancy and efficiency. See the short video which explains YILLIO’s route-based search and marketing platform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJ4UE7b7AM

Take a few minutes to add your dealership on the YILLIO map to reach mobile shoppers, everyday commuters, and travelers – for Free!

Is route-based marketing and advertising the next mobile innovation? We think there is value in this for you.

http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com 856-546-2440
Make Money Mondays with Sean V. Bradley - "Everyone's an Up" - Automotive Sales - Car Sales

The CEO of Dealer Synergy Sean V. Bradley was recently published in the nation's largest public speaking magazine "Speaker." This huge honor was bestowed upon him based not only on his public speaking skills, but also because of his immense knowledge on the Googleopoly!

"The phenomenon of Googleopoly is dominating the first page of search results on Google, utilizing organic results, Google+ results and local business results. If you are a business owner, trainer, consultant or speaker, you need to have an online presence to be found. But if you are not showing up in the list of top 10 results on Google, then you are technically invisible online. Almost 100 percent (99.5 percent to be exact) of people do not click past the first page of Google results. That means regardless of how good you are or how amazing your company is, it’s almost as if your company does not exist at all."

You can read the full article here;

Creating a Googleopoly

Science rules in digital marketing.

Social media is a place of vanity. Those of us who use social media often get to see flattering images of just about everything - people, places, food, cars, whatever. Have you ever seen a picture of a friend posted as their new profile picture and thought, "Wow, that's a good picture of them."

One might believe that the same holds true for automotive ads. On websites, it has been widely accepted that real pictures of inventory work better than stock photos, but on social media we have access to the gorgeous pictures that are supplied by the OEMs. Will pretty advertising pictures outperform pictures of live inventory on ads that are sending traffic to the vehicle details pages and search results pages?

We have done a ton of A/B testing over the past few months and we have pretty compelling data, but I want to get the opinion of the community here before posting those results. What do you think?

Here are some of the criteria for a test we ran for a Hyundai client:

• All ad copy had the same titles, status text, and link description
• The ads linked to the search results page for new Hyundai vehicles
• They were targeted at intenders - people within driving distance to the dealership who had indicated they intend to buy a new Hyundai in the next 180 days
• The only difference was the image

We ran two concurrent campaigns for 1 month. One had beautiful images pulled from the OEM. The other had live inventory images. Here are samples with the branding omitted:

Which type do you think got more clicks to the dealer's website?

With May right around the corner, what is your dealership doing to make sure that you're targeting these 1.5 million potential shoppers? Learn who this audience is and how to target them with innovative strategies across multiple platforms.

Get the Hard Facts from Samantha Cunningham at POTRATZ, and learn what your brand should be doing to capture new shoppers.