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Potratz was selected as a member of the inaugural Auto Remarketing Canada Power 100, an elite collection of the most influential companies in the used-car and remarketing business. The businesses selected as members of the Auto Remarketing Canada Power 100, will be featured in the fall issue of Auto Remarketing Canada Digital Magazine.

“We at Auto Remarketing Canada are very excited about the chance to highlight some of the remarketing industry’s biggest players in our upcoming inaugural Power 100 issue,” said Publisher Bill Zadeits. “These top companies make the remarketing industry what it is today”

Potratz, an automotive advertising agency located in Schenectady, New York, represents auto dealers across the Unites States and Canada. While the agency’s reputation is based in digital marketing, it’s philosophy is to help dealers connect with people.

 “We’re very aware of the temptation to depend on statistics and metrics to measure the success of a digital advertising campaign,” said Nan Mossey, Potratz’s director of digital marketing. “But the real measure of success is the number of cars sold. We help dealers to think like customers, and deliver what customers really want. It’s proven very successful.”

Potratz Partners Advertising is a full-service automotive advertising agency specializing in digital marketing. The agency was founded in 2003 by Paul Potratz in Schenectady, NY and received a Dealer Satisfaction Award from Driving Sales for Search and Behavioral Marketing every year since the award’s inception. Paul has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and CBS and has been a featured speaker for NADA, Driving Sales, Auto Dealer People, Dealer Elite, and Automotive Digital Marketing. You can see Paul every Tuesday on the Think Tank Tuesday series available on iTunes.

WTF (Writing This Friday) topic: Does low gross equal Customer Centric?

Recently I was engaged in a dialogue about what it means to be 'Customer Centric' and a 40+ year automotive veteran made the following comment: 

"If you're making gross profit, then you might not be customer centric. If you aren't completely transparent, down to disclosing your bare costs and negotiating the margin, you might not be customer centric."

Before I share my opinions with you I'm curious what the AIS minds would say about what it means to be 'Customer Centric'.

Does it mean being transparent to the point of disclosing bare bones?

If you had to define a 'Customer Centric' Dealership in a few sentences, what would you say? (BTW - Share responses by video too, it makes this way more fun).

Looking forward to the responses,

Mat Koenig
CEO
KonigCo & iCarMedia.com

1. Educate Yourself

Don’t wait for managers or anyone else to give you the sales education you need. Unfortunately, the automobile industry has been stuck for years in a, “Throw them in and see if they can swim mentality.” Some dealerships take new recruits to a meeting room and have them watch training tapes for a day and expect them to be trained. Neither of these options will increase your odds for success.

Begin a massive self-education program that will continue your whole career. Combine visual, auditory and experiential learning. Listen to sales and motivational material every day on the way to and from work. Read, watch DVDs and then put it all together by role-playing with a manager or fellow sales person. Education Creates Motivation - Motivation Breeds Perspiration - Perspiration Creates Elevation.

2. Avoid Cancer

Attitude is everything in sales and life. All companies are full of people with negative attitudes and limiting beliefs. These beliefs and attitudes begin to perpetuate into a culture that is counterproductive to all sales people and potentially deadly to the new sales person. You can insulate yourself from the cancerous attitudes by taking the following steps. 1. Avoid smoke-and-joke circles. There has never been a positive conversation in one of these pity party circles, and there never will. Avoid them like the plaque. 2. Utilize motivational material daily. Nobody can be fully self-motivated all the time. You need tools to assist you. CDs, DVDs, pictures, music, books, quotes, spiritual material, mentors and mastermind circles are all tools that you should use.

3. Utilize a Follow-Up System Religiously

Pick a manual or software system that you will use from day one. Every customer, every prospect, every time. When you start with an organized system, you will be focused on the fundamentals that will make you successful both short- and long-term. Collect as much data as you can on each prospect and customer and organize your follow-up by using post cards, letters, gifts, newsletters, e-mail auto-responders and sequential auto-responders. Persistent = consistent.

In sales and marketing, you must always remember the order of importance of potential sales. Your current customers will always provide you the most return on investment. So often, new sales people are in a constant mad dash for new customers and forget to maximize the potential of the ones they just sold. It’s easier to maintain a good system that was created from the beginning than it is to start a new one later on.

4. Take Massive Action

It’s all about action management, not time management. You have 1,440 minutes in everyday. Success is determined by the actions you take in those minutes. Avoid the time trap of getting caught up in the stuff. Stuff are the things that are minor in nature that we spend most of our day in that create little results. Don’t major in the minor. Continually ask yourself if what you are doing will contribute to a sale either now or in the future. Keep the main thing, the main thing. Each day you must evaluate your actions and create a stop-doing list. After reviewing your day, determine what actions you should lessen or eliminate. Start your day with major actions so it sets a trend for the day. Jump in, don’t wade in.

5. Be Your Own Marketing Manager

Don’t expect any business or anyone to bring you customers. You must take the mindset from day one that you will provide 100 percent of your own customers and anything your company provides is extra. Start by creating your own brand. What will your slogan be that defines you? Utilize your picture, caricature and slogan on all marketing materials and business cards. Create your own Web site as a benefit to the customer that can be integrated with all marketing material.

Next, determine your ideal customer base that buys your product. You can purchase lists of people who drive your brand of product from one of many different list providers. Begin a multi-step marketing approach to these potential customers. Read as many books on copy writing as possible to learn the secrets of getting people to take action from your words. Educating yourself on marketing and copywriting will pay you more dividends than any other single thing you can do.

Sales people are made, not born. It’s the people who do the work, who learn to market themselves, follow-up, handle rejection, persist and maintain a winning attitude that win in the sales profession.

http://www.internetsales20group.com

General Sales Manager Gives Some Advice From His 18 Years In the Automotive Sales Industry.

JP Hocking, the General Sales Manager of Bill Dube Hyundai in Wilmington Massachusetts
was kind enough to sit with Automotive Internet Sales.com and give an interview. JP has been in the automotive sales industry for over 18 years and he shares some of his wisdom and experience with AIS.

Over the last 20 months I've become more in tune to what people are talking about publicly and most specifically that of my contemporaries. While I wish no ill will upon any human (or animal) there are a few things I just can’t wrap my head around. I’m genuinely confused and thought this an interesting topic mainly to see if I get any feedback that can make sense of it for me.

How does an individual with absolutely no experience in an industry earn a living by speaking with “authority” on topics within that industry? There are several of them out there, all making decent livings too, but what’s the sex appeal for people to listen, pay and follow? Now before my question is misunderstood, I’m not talking about individuals whose respective field and area of expertise actually compliment the industry (i.e. waste oil disposal service for a car dealer, parking lot lighting expert for a shopping center).

I’m talking about people that use examples from things they were told and not from having actually done them. It’s almost like a snake oil salesman from yesteryear but the only issue is these individuals today aren't even gifted orators. I liken it to me engaging the speaking circuit for heart surgeons and speaking (with absolute authority) on the best way to do a heart transplant… I've never actually done a heart transplant, nor have I attended medical school, but I’m an expert anyway just because I said so and I put on a suit. Really?

Now don’t get me wrong, most auto pros never built a car and couldn't find a class in college called “Car Sales 101” but a high school sales job that turns into a college sales job that turns into an automotive sales job that turns into well over a decade of automotive successes in every variable op capacity is very credible experience, especially when the tools and experiences one has developed has a direct and understandable application to the subject matter at hand. When somebody has extensive formal training and successful and proven real world experience that’s fine, even admirable; it’s when people wake up one day and decide they’re going to be a “guru” or an “expert” that’s confusing. How can this be?

In closing, what prompted me to finally ask this question is one of my contemporaries actually said this to a very successful sales manager friend of mine: “Here’s the best way to work a deal…” and then went into a nonsensical dissertation about foolishness. I actually felt bad for the guy because he really didn't understand what he was saying. I’d like to make all the “experts” out there a deal; I won’t give advice on heart surgery if you stop pretending to be an automotive authority.

 Chris Vitale is Vice President of Sales at iMagicLab. He has over 15 years of in dealership experience and is quick to call it like he sees it. If you want a no holds barred look into ​effective CRM deployment and use follow Chris @thecrmgod on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+.

1. Manage things and lead people.

Processes should be defined and managed daily. People should be lead by example daily. Management by strict control inhibits star performers and eliminates creativity of intelligent people. Feelings of manipulation are caused by strict control. Control, manipulation, and disrespect keep many dealerships from moving to another level of performance.

2. Speed of the boss = speed of the team.

If the boss has a sense of urgency, the team will, too. The leader sets the tone. Great leaders create an attitude and atmosphere of winning. The leader sets the stage for the proper belief systems necessary to succeed.

3. Coach people more than you manage deals.

If you spend your time coaching people through training, one-on-ones and positive feedback, your people will become less addicted to you. Spend 80% of your day with your team and your customers. The rest can wait.

4. Create a .Stop Doing List..

To find out what to do, you must also define what not to do. What are you doing everyday that you should either, stop doing, delegate, or do less of, or at a different time?

5. Practice the 4 D.s of action management.

Dump it, Defer it, Delegate it, or Do it. With proper action management, you will spend less time in crisis and emergency mode.

6. Recruiting is an ongoing process.

Determine an ongoing action plan for recruiting. What channels will you use to recruit and how much time each week to do it. What automated systems can you set up through web sites, job boards, college placement centers, military posts, etc. can you set up to increase potential candidates? Don’t wait until you need people to dig through the drawer to find the help wanted ad that everyone else uses.

7. Set clear expectations.

People need and desire clear expectations of their job functions, behavior, and performance. The days of hiring people and showing them the inventory, their desk, and telling them to get busy are over. For a greater chance of success, people cannot succeed without written and communicated expectations.

8. People don’t change that much, so stop trying.

Do not try to put in what God left out. When a person has reached adulthood, they primarily tend to repeat the patterns either they have created or that are based upon their nature. Grow a person’s strengths, and stop trying to fix their weaknesses.

9. Educate and motivate daily.

Good people want continuing education. Educate and motivate every day. Educating daily creates results; periodical training never does. If you have people rejecting education, then you must reject them. Would a great coach allow certain players to not practice because they didn’t want to?

10. Listen, listen, listen.

Nothing inspires people more than when they feel a manager will actually listen. People need to be respected and heard. A manager’s best customers are the people they coach.

11. Get out from behind the desk.

Lead the team. People want to know that their leader is one of them. Desks can become huge barriers to communicating.

12. Don’t forget emotions.

Behind all goals, dreams, achievements, and failures are emotions. Learn to tap into each team member’s pleasure and pain motivators to better guide them. Coach each team member with this in mind – thoughts become words, words become actions, actions create habits, habits create results, and they are all seeking emotions.

Great leadership is essential in creating great teams. Expect more of yourself and your team will follow. The leader is the final reason for success or failure.

http://www.internetbattleplan.com 

Jim Ziegler's Internet Battle Plan XIV - Las Vegas - August 13th, 14th & 15th 

There are 3 types of personalities, and your personality could be affecting your income. Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday now to find out which of the 3 personalities you have, and how you can make it work for your team to boost your sales.

http://www.internetsales20group.com
http://www.dealersynergy.com

Automotive Sales / Car Sales Objections & Rebuttals "Do You Have That Car In Stock"?

The worlds of automotive social media and automotive search marketing are converging. We've known this for a while and I've been preparing for the collision in order to help our clients make the most out of the changes. The only thing I wasn't expecting was how tremendously complex it all was going to be.

For the last month, we've been pushing hard to help educate and assist dealers on both fronts, but social media has been my primary focus. Most know that I spent the early part of my career focused almost solely on search but the transition from search to social has been happening for a couple of years now. Today, I'm happy to say that the transition is complete and I'll be discussing more about the merging disciplines over the coming months.

To those who inquired, who were checking to make sure I hadn't fallen off the face of the earth, thank you for your concern and all is well. In fact, it's all very well. I'm continuing to explore new and innovative techniques that dealers can use to enhance their social media presence.

This leads me to the point of this post. I'm looking for participants, those willing to engage in case studies and discussions about the merging search and social marketing future that we all face. It can be dealers or vendors - I'm not picky. I just want to get some people together to bounce off ideas over email, at the upcoming conferences, on Google Hangouts - anything that works to make the industry better at the two most important components of marketing for 2014. If you're interested, contact me or leave a comment below.

The goal is to put out the best educational content available on the subjects. I'm not being completely altruistic with this - the more I learn, the better I can make our products. I've spent the last six years honing my skills in a bubble. Now it's time to take what I've learned and enhance it with what you all know. I look forward to seeing this move forward.

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - Automotive Sales / Car Sales Objections & Rebuttals

http://www.internetsales20group.com 

AutoSuccess Cover Story, Chris Carlson Will be A Speaker At Internet Sales 20 Group 

When I was an Eight year old boy I sold Papers door to door

Like all sales professionals I had a quota to make for each month

One sales call I made was at a ladies dress shop. Eight year old boys do not go in dress shops! BUT it was an established customer and they bought FIVE papers at least each time .

So Every month the dreaded dress shop sales call happened and my reward, 25 cents ! Back then it bought a hamburger and a Coke!

So do the hard part of your job and the rest comes easy!

http://www.internetsales20group.com

New Automotive Sales Consultant Inspired By "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" Book Creates His Mission Statement...

Joseph Argento Just took the leap of faith and started a career in the Automotive Sales industry, but before he did he went through a rigorous training curriculum. Part of his education was the reading of Dr. Stephen Covey's "7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" Book. Joe was so inspired by the book, he not only created an amazing Mission Statement, he also then created this video in it to the industry.

I know a rising start when I see one. This kid is one to keep your eye on-

Day in and day out your BDC department turnover ratio should be well over 150% if you’re trying to maximize ROI without increasing your monthly nut. Your seats need to turn over three times a day!!

It's how you man (and woman) those seats and how the turnover is calculated that will add directly to your bottom line. You need product specialists talking to your potential customers and following up with sold customers. Who does the customer have the strongest relationship with – the person they agree to spend money with, that’s who.

Operate with "Universal Soldiers"

Put a revolving door on your BDC and have your salespeople filling those seats on a daily basis. They don't need to be there all day. They need to be setting appointments with fresh leads and following up with their sold and unsold customers. If they are good enough to put on the point to sell cars for you they better be good enough to talk on the phone and email your customers. If they can't do that, you don't have a process problem, you have a hiring problem.

Give customers a single point of reference and let your sales people work the customer cradle to grave. Dealers and OEM's spend thousands of dollars supporting sales staff but adding personnel to do the work you are paying the sales people to already do creates an expense that you can never out run. It's the law of diminishing return.

For Example:

8 BDC reps x $30,000 per year plus a $60,000 manager = $300,000 in salary expense. In order to break even on salary expense alone a dealer would have to sell an additional 150 cars at a $2,000 average gross just to break even, not including return on capital expense, additional sales commissions,  benefits, or employer matching. If you were able to realize an additional 300 cars per year from adding a dedicated BDC your expenses would increase geometrically just in added bonuses and increased cost of goods sold in the form of sales commissions.

If you create a process where every sales person works every lead from start to finish and help them increase their bottom line you will accomplish several things:

·Sales people will take ownership of the process

·You’ll return more using less without increasing overhead or potential liability

·Develop more loyal customers and let them identify with your employees

The investment then would be in training and helping your most important employees to do their jobs better, which in turn will help you attract and retain talent and cut down turnover on the front end.

It really boils down to your philosophy. You can outsource BDC, have professional greeters, product specialists, closers, F&I managers, delivery specialist and outsourced customer follow up or you can let your front line really represent you and your store. The choice is yours…

 

 Chris Vitale is Vice President of Sales at iMagicLab.  He has over 15 years of successful in dealership experience and is quick to call it like he sees it.  If you want a no holds barred look into ​effective CRM deployment and use follow Chris @thecrmgod on Twitter. 

http://www.dealersynergy.com

Ken Pollock Auto Group was tired of traditional and digital means to recruit. They NEEDED Good people and FAST, so they had Dealer Synergy create a TV commercial to use broadcast and cable to generate a lot of resumes.

If you are struggling to find the right people for your team, I suggest that you consider using broadcast television as a resource to drive lots and lots of resumes!

I hear this question frequently from our clients and prospects; “How do we get rid of outrageous reviews that are lies, slander, defamation, or out of bounds with the guidelines of Yelp?” Answer? Submit a request for removal especially if the review isn’t compliant with the Yelp guidelines.

At least a third of the dealers I speak with come across bitter with just one mention of Yelp.  Some of them might be throwing down their own gavel as Yelp is back on court over alleged extortion and review manipulating. Angry Business Owners Appeal Yelp Ruling Over Alleged Extortion  

Yelp says “Inappropriate content: Colorful language and imagery is fine, but there's no need for threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry.”

What is even more disturbing is when you engage a disgruntled Yelper (could be a competitor smearing) to resolve the issue and all you get is another visceral low blow or flat out silence. Reacting with an attack against the offender is natural, but I would advise dealers to step back, stop defending it, and consider a request for removal rather than engaging in a nasty verbal salsa with a bitter enemy. Search engines love the dirt and the more you respond to belligerence, the higher the debate will rank for your dealership name.

One of our clients once asked, “Can you help me get a Yelp review removed?” He shared his feelings of defeat; “The owner of the dealership has been personally attacked and it’s destroying our reputation and we’re losing business.”

I told him the review was ludicrous; falling within Yelp’s inappropriate content guideline and he didn’t have to tolerate it. Here’s the Yelp review that was on the web for only a month and did significant brand damage.

The Consumer Yelp Review

The removal submission to Yelp from our client

The "review" that XXX has left our dealership is not only extremely far from an accurate account of her attempted transaction, but is a blatantly published defamation of our dealership’s character and slander. We are a locally owned business for over 30 years and our owner, XXX, is a former recipient of the "XXXX" award. For "XXX" to name my salesperson and call him a "Racist Idiot" is nothing short of slander and is an embarrassment to my salesperson and his family and to YELP for allowing such verbal abuse to occur on your site. [Dealer Name] works extremely hard in encouraging our customers to leave reviews on sites such as YELP because of the relevancy and authenticity of your reviews. However, this particular review is neither authentic or relevant and most of all it is defamation and slander. XXX other reviews also need looked at. They are also racially motivated and distasteful. We ask that you please remove this immediately.

Response from Yelp within 24 hours

Hi,

We have removed the review by XXXXX because it falls outside our Content Guidelines. Please keep in mind that if the user chooses to edit their review so that it falls within our guidelines, we will allow it to remain on the site.

Regards,
XXXX
Yelp User Support
San Francisco, California

Yelp Official Blog | http://officialblog.yelp.com
Yelp Frequently Asked Questions | http://www.yelp.com/faq
Yelp for Business Owners | https://biz.yelp.com

A huge victory for our client considering Yelp is not easily swayed in favor of the dealer. With dealers becoming more and more aware that Yelp dominates the mobile experience for iPhone users, now is the time to make the move to get content removed. If you’re not challenging defamatory reviews and instead, engaging in war, that’s like throwing cotton balls at a moving train.

If you’re wondering if filtered reviews on your Yelp listing are unjust and ludicrous, check out The Definitive Guide To Avoid the Yelp Review Filter

Yelp can help you submit your removal request

Jerry Hart
President
eReputationBUILDER

Is your website constantly asking for or taking information from visitors? By providing information to visitors rather than requesting information from them, you can expect to see a rise in conversions and a decrease in bounce rates. Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday and find out how to rethink your web strategy.

While I’m definitely open to anybody that can help me do my job better, I do have a certain pet peeve about those individuals that have NEVER done it themselves. Isn’t the sports analogy “armchair quarterback” and the travel analogy “backseat driver?”

There are a lot of people that think I call this out so much because so many of my contemporaries have no retail automotive experience whatsoever and that is partially true. Well, it’s absolutely true. But… I’ve always been this way. Even more so at the dealership. I remember sitting through my first sales training class and leaving with a bunch of notes that were weaker than circus lemonade. After class I asked the presenter at which stores he’s worked, what positions he’s held, etc. I give the guy credit for being honest and not throwing anything at me when I started laughing in his face at his answer, “I’ve never been in the car business.” Motivational coach my arse, my mortgage motivates me, my car payments motivate me, having money in my pocket motivates me!

So for the first 4 years of my retail career I was under the perception that nobody could offer practical and real world teachings from first had experience outside of my boss, who was the greatest. That is until I met Mike Cotrufo and Mike Perruzzi. I was a Finance Manager with an MBA, a chip on my shoulder and ready to mix it up with anybody, anywhere, anytime (including a pro-football player in my GM’s office).

Mike Cotrufo was, and is, an F&I services company rep and he literally got through my thick skull and taught me a menu presentation process that not only was efficient but actually raised my PVR. When I give him my normal “oh yeah buddy, but can you do it” he got in my face and told me to stand up. He started spinning paper right there before my eyes. I immediately felt admiration, respect and fear. I was scared because I was kind of cocky to him and he obviously was the real deal. I would never have the understanding of finance products and how to properly and effectively present them without Mike Cotrufo. Not to mention the fact he took time with me, delivered contracts to the store on Saturdays because I didn’t realize I was running low and always took my calls which were usually rants (more often back then).

Mike Perruzzi was, and is, a captive lender rep and not only got me through my first funding delay but also taught me how to look at a deal as a bank does. He explained PTI, DTI, advance, the effect certain products would have on those and most importantly, much like Cotrufo, got in my face and told me to get up. He jumped in my chair and immediately established himself as a man not to be trifled with. Not only has he done it but he’s been doing since before I knew what MSRP meant.

I’m giving these two gentlemen credit as professionals, for having patience and as good friends but most importantly because they’re what I’ve always wanted for myself. This is over 10 years ago and I still remember exactly how relieved I was when a vendor with actual first hand and relevant knowledge helped me to become better. That’s the piece so many on this side are missing today. It’s not their fault, they didn’t have the good fortune I did to meet a Mike Cotrufo and a Mike Perruzzi. Not to mention the fact that both of these gentlemen are amazing at their respective fields I absolutely credit them with pieces of my own fundamental understanding of the retail automotive industry. They made me better at what I was doing. I was therefore performing at a higher level. Without that firsthand and practical knowledge I wouldn’t have the knowledge I have and they wouldn’t be as effective as they are. So there’s the history behind the reality of why I feel so strongly about vendors having real world knowledge!

Chris Vitale is Vice President of Sales at iMagicLab. He has over 15 years of in dealership experience and is quick to call it like he sees it. If you want a no holds barred look into effective CRM deployment and use, follow Chris @thecrmgod on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.