Internet Sales 20 Group Chicago - Automotive Social Media Expert, JD Rucker of KPA Speaking on "Social Signals" from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.
Internet Sales 20 Group Chicago - Automotive Social Media Expert, JD Rucker of KPA Speaking on "Social Signals" from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.
“You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.”
― A. J. Kitt
Internet Sales 20 Group - Chicago - Department Staff & Human Resource Management - Ralph Paglia from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.
“Groceries, you need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you can't learn to master your thinking, you're in deep trouble forever.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
The difference between cheating and playing smart is often a very thin line. In social media, the line gets a little thicker.
This is an exercise that I wish I had time to perform more often. There’s probably a proper name for it somewhere in the social media blogosphere, but I simply call it “Profile Peeking”. When you work in a niche the way that 90% of my time is spent in the automotive industry, you have to connect with the right people. Networking at events, referrals, LinkedIn – all of these are valid methods of expanding your network. However, they can be slow and I don’t like to wait, so I often peek in on my competitors social media profiles to find more people with whom to connect.
This is very effective on the three majors right now – Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ – but it can be applied to almost all other social networks. I’ve used it on Pinterest a few times. The bottom line is this – check other people in your industry. Look at who they are following. Find people that you should be following and that you hope will follow you back. Interact with them when possible (if their privacy settings are conducive to it). Then, check out who they are following.
It’s a path that can engulf you for a time, but it’s well worth it. In the game of network expansion, it’s often easier to find than it is to be found. Until you get to the point that you’re a known entity in your industry, being aggressive and reaching out to influencers is the fastest path to an improved network. With a bigger network comes more reach. With more reach comes more business. It’s pretty simple.
The value of video testimonials is a strategy that every automotive dealership needs to have in place as a part of their social media online presence. Photo's are very important too however, the impact that your video will have on the consumer is much stronger with video.
With the average dealership selling 100 units a month imagine the impact that the dealership would have if a strategy was in place to get either a photo or a video of every sold customer, customers in service, customers in the bodyshop and customers in the parts department just to name a few. We know that most stores nationwide are not taking advantage of this opportunity to dominate the market with these videos which is great for the stores that do to steal market share from stores that are sleep at the wheel.
Now what is awesome about these videos is that one can take these videos and spread them like wildfire all over the Internet. There are multiple video sites that the dealership can use to upload these videos to and then use different titles for each site to dominate other dealerships. For instance, imagine if a consumer did a search on Google and typed Ford Mustang Manhattan, KS and your video shows up as the first result on the first page of natural Google for your dealership which is by the way over 50 miles away. The consumer that would have went to the local dealership has now clicked on your video which takes them to your social media site with links to your inventory and video testimonials of happy customers. Now who do you think that consumer is going to call?
It's great that most dealers are asleep at the wheel and still operate under the premise of if we build a dealership they will come. What this does is gives a competitive advantage to the dealership that understands this strategy and crushes the competition online.
What was yours like?
I started selling cars in the summer of 1974 at a single point Plymouth Dealership in Canton Ohio, Canton Plymouth. We advertised as the “World’s Largest Exclusive Plymouth Dealership”,which probably was true due to the fact there were at that time only about 40 other dealerships in the country that just sold Plymouths without the Chrysler line up as well.
My “training” pretty much consisted of trying to listen in to guys that were about 90 years old talking to customers,watching an 8 millimeter film by Vince Lombardi called “Make That Second Effort” and reading a book by Frank Bettger called “How I raised myself from a failure to a success in selling”.I was shown where the cars were,the keys and jumper cables.I also was told to “Close early,Close often,Can I help ya, would ya take,are you buying today and low ball them if they weren’t.
My first actual sale took place after making about 500 very cold phone calls out of the local phone book with a “pitch” that went like this ” Hello is this Mrs. Abbot? She says yes, I say “Your new Fury is ready for delivery is tomorrow morning or afternoon better for you to stop in and pick it up?” she would say,”I didn’t buy a Fury”…My reply “Oh,I’m sorry,well as long as I have you on the phone……..etc. Guess my manager wanted me to get over the fear of making phone calls,I was the youngest salesman on the floor by about 25 years it seemed.
I totally messed up the next 10-12 customers by saying or doing something stupid until…..Reverend Right[Not real name] walked in one morning.
The good Reverend Right was holding two things a Bible and some information on the 1974 Plymouth Valiant.At this point in both my selling life and personal life I was pretty much useless with anyone over the age of 40 and that mixed in with a man of God really had me trembling.
Reverend Right picked up on the fact that I was new to selling cars,mostly due to that also being part of my training,tell every customer you’re new for a couple of years,so he tried his very best to make this easy and clam me down.This transaction started at about maybe 10 in the morning as I recall,and just 7 short hours later the Reverend was driving home in his brand new 1974 Valiant.
I was pretty pumped up,I went into the sales office looking at the sales board,located my name at the very bottom and took the chalk into my hand and put up my first 1 next to my name.I didn’t really even care that the deal was a “mini” and my commission was $20 bucks,I was now officially a Professional Car Salesmen!
I know this blog is titled My First Sale and the First time in anything is pretty cool and memorable,probably shouldn’t go any further with that line of thinking ,but there is one other deal of the nearly 2000 cars I sold in my 5 years on the floor that I want to share with you all.
January 1979,my wife was pregnant with our second child [Erica] and by this time I had become a pretty good salesperson,sold a lot of cars and trucks and made a few dollars.As I recall is was early in the morning and I was always either on the phone,in service,on the lot or at the door.This morning I was walking the lot when a car pulled in and …… Nurse Hatchet[not real name] got out of her car,now I know if you have sold cars for any amount of time at all you come across a “difficult” client from time to time,I will put Nurse Hatchet up against any that you ever had,again a 7-8 hour ordeal,that got to the point of her and I just seeing who could be more nasty to one another.I would be “winning” for 30-45 minutes amazing her with my brilliant salesmanship[ total lies and baloney] but then she would make a comeback and take the lead for the next hour or so with what crooks sleazy car salesmen are and how could I sleep at night etc.
This literally went on for hours,she wouldn’t leave and even though my manager told me to kindly ask her to take her business elsewhere I was for sure going to SELL Nurse Hatchet a car.Car picked out,price settled on[another mini] she pulls out a check,pays for the car,I get it cleaned and as I hand her the keys she says’ You know young man you didn’t SELL me this car I bought it” I felt my face get red and said back to her “Well it was my pleasure and happy depreciation” and she left……..end of story?….ummmm no!
Let’s go back to my wife being full term with our second child,she goes into labor,I leave work,take her to the hospital we are in the delivery room and guess who walks in……yep! Nurse Hatchet,I nearly fell to my knees and babbled something like please this is my wife and my baby,I’m just a regular guy I sell cars to provide for my family and if I offended you ,I’m sorry and on and on….she was very cool,very calm,told me not to worry she was a PROFESSIONAL.
The delivery went fine mom and baby all good and the good Nurse upon leaving reminded me that now not only did she buy the car from me,I didn’t sell it to her I also didn’t delivery my child,she did!
Those are mine,if it was your first sale or a very unique one….keep it clean….please share it I’d love to hear them…memories are pretty cool in our business,let’s share some.
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Why do we need a goal? The answer to this question touches on the deepest, most basic need in humans: purpose. It is the why, the drive, and the reason for doing what you do. The purpose of having a goal is that it gives you a reason to keep playing the game of life. When you get down to the basics, it gives your life meaning. It is necessary if you want to keep moving forward. If you're not moving forward, you might as well pack it in and accept mediocrity.
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Henry Ford
People often ask me how I'm able to stay up on the millions of things that are happening in the world of automotive internet marketing on a daily basis. There are tons of blogs, social networks, and industry websites with enough posts to fill a full day if you plugged them all into an RSS reader. How does an automotive professional with limited time during the day stay ahead and not miss out on the important things?
It's one of the keys to success.
There are content producers galore in the industry. Everyone has an opinion on what to do with search, social, websites, analytics, CRM, classifieds, PPC, banner ads, and every other aspect of internet sales. Throw in the best practices and tips on how to actually work with customers and you have a huge mess. It's not that it's bad. It's that it needs to be curated.
The Twitter hashtag #automarketing is the easiest way to do it. Sure, there's going to be poor content that makes its way into the hashtag. That's inevitable. Many use it as a marketing tool to get their message out regardless of quality. However, the majority of what gets into the hashtag and stays at the top is high-quality.
Here's how it works. People read the blogs, social networks, and industry websites. They find content they like. They share this content on social networks like Twitter. Those who are very active on the internet side of the industry realize that certain hashtags like #AutoMarketing and #CarDealers get fed into Twitter chatter monitor widgets everywhere on the web. Thus, they put in the hashtag whenever they find something of interest.
The more that people curate and share the best content, the more powerful the hashtag becomes. It's not just the industry sites that get posted. Marketing sites that have content pertinent to car dealers often find their content shared with the hashtag as well.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, this is one of the easiest ways to do it. Just do a search in Twitter for "#AutoMarketing" and you'll find content that curators have enjoyed. You can become a curator yourself by adding it to tweets of important industry posts. The more people that do it, the better the hashtag can become.
We need curation. You can save time by taking advantage of it. You can help by participating.
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Prospecting For Automotive Sales Professionals With Fran Taylor At The Internet Sales 20 Group from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.
Assume there are no universal mistakes. Life with a capital "L" has given you all the ingredients you need to bake a perfect cake. It comes pre-loaded with all the supplies necessary for you to create a masterpiece or a pile of trash that your dog won't even eat. The deciding factor - the art and the artist...YOU. Make a conscious decision about what you will do with what you have been given. Make your life a masterpiece and share it with the world.
http://www.franklincoveydealersynergy.com
Karen Bradley, President of Dealer Synergy Training On The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People At An Internet Sales 20 Group in 2009
Next to computers, tablets, and smartphones, our cars are often the most technologically-challenging item that we deal with on a daily basis. Every model year brings out new gadgets and gizmos that are designed to enhance, adapt, and often-times engage with other technologies that we carry with us. Tablets are used as owners' manuals. MP3 players have become our stereos. Speakers and mics interact with our phones for hands-free driving. These are the common examples. Today's cars can do so much more.
The advertising on the OEM level often focuses on technology. Why do so few dealers do the same? It's not that they need to advertise the latest advancements to SYNC or show off the technology in any way. That's the manufacturers' job. They can, however, demonstrate that they have both an expertise in making these technologies work for their customers as well as an eager willingness to make it happen.
Many dealers do this. Few market it properly. Many of the car ads we see on television or the internet still focus on sales, price-beating, and gimmicks. What if (and think about it for more than a second) instead of promoting their dealership the same way every other dealership does, they took the path of focusing on their expertise and customer service. What if they weren't just there to sell you a vehicle. What if they were there to help you make it fit in with your technological existence?
It's an idea that was sparked by a friend, Jeff Cryder at Lebanon Ford, about a year ago but that didn't manifest itself in its current form until tonight. I was debating with a friend about his iPhone 5 versus my Galaxy SIII. His "winning" argument that obliterated any chance of convincing him that my phone was better than his: the Genius Bar.
Price is a losing battle in the automotive industry. Most dealers will be within dollars of each other when negotiated down to the bottom line on identical cars. The focus on "we treat you right" is still a powerful message but doesn't quite have the zing that it once did; the number of scandalous car dealers with poor practices has diminished dramatically in recent years and the majority do what they can to treat their customers with respect.
Technology. Expertise. A willingness to help customers get "plugged in" to their cars and take advantage of the tremendous technologies available to us - these are the things that might just work from a marketing perspective. It would be a welcome change from a television advertising perspective. It would be a differentiator at the website level. On social media, it could shine. Now, apply this to both the sales and service departments and I think you might have something.
Would it work? Is it worth trying?
* * *
"Car Technology" image courtesy of Shutterstock.
This is Part 5 in a 5 part series. Please read the previous posts first or none of this will really make any sense.
Fast forward to today and many of the promises are still on hold. Facebook has emerged as the primary network, something that most who were watching believed would happen, just not to the degree that it has. Despite the broken promises of social media curing all challenges, it is finally, in 2013, ready to become the hub through which the real world and the online word can meet and grow as a result. Some people knew from the start the lesson that is becoming crystal clear today - social media can connect people to businesses, but it's much more effective at connecting people with other people.
That's the key to success in 2013. The sooner that businesses realize that they can and must let their humanity shine on social media, the better their social media strategy will be. Done right, social media can become the venue through which nearly every aspect of business can flow.
It can become the hub. I'll go over how in a bit, but first let's talk about why.
When I asked a dealership if they would be willing to offer a $5 discount on service to anyone who mentioned on Facebook that they were getting their oil changed or brakes done or whatever at the dealership and were pleased with the experience, she said she would not. When worded differently, it made more sense to her.
"Would you pay a happy service customer $5 to tell five of their friends that they had a good experience getting their service done there and you could verify that they did just that, would you?"
That's the minimum that can happen when people talk about your business on social media. The average Facebook user has 140 friends. Over 70% of these friends are within driving distance. Of those, 47% check their Facebook at least once a day and a post by an active Facebook user will reach 42% of those people. That means 19 local friends saw that Jimbob enjoyed his service and received a $5 discount for telling everyone about it.
Let's take a step further while staying in automotive. If Supreme Honda's Facebook page tells people that they have great deals, nobody will believe it. If Jimbob bought a car at Supreme Honda, felt he received a great deal, and was treated with respect, his friends and family will believe it when he posts that on Facebook. It will register with them. The brand. The name. The fact that Jimbob had a great experience. All of these things leave an imprint on the minds of his friends and family. If they're in the market to buy a Honda or a used car today, they'll likely check out Supreme Honda immediately. If they enter the market in six months, they will be more inclined to check out Supreme Honda whether they remember what made them check it out or not. It's basic psychology, but it works.
All of this is easy to understand once you're seeing it from the right perspective. The challenge is having the willingness to commit with such a murky arena. Social media has not proven itself to a good chunk of businesses and dealers in particular. This is our fault. It's the fault of the vendors out there selling products that didn't work or never achieved the goals. This is changing. In 2013, it must change. There's too much being left on the table. One of my goals in writing this fifth installment was to find real-world examples of car dealers that were truly successful at using social media the right way. I assumed that I would surely find a few. After looking at 229 dealership Facebook pages (yes, I counted them up in my history), I realized that I was mistaken. Nobody is doing it right as far as I'm concerned.
This will change.
This isn't a tip. It's not a collection of techniques, tricks, or best practices that a dealership can plug into their current social media strategy and expect success. It's a commitment. It's a paradigm shift. It's about understanding that when you center the online portion of your business around social media and enhance it with offline activities, that you can build a self-perpetuating marketing, branding, and communication system.
This cannot be stressed enough - if you want to be truly successful with social media, you will latch onto an individual at the dealership, preferably the owner or general manager, who can act as the representative of the dealership in all online activities. That doesn't mean that this person has to do all of the work. It means that they have to represent the communication centerpiece for social media, reputation management, and engagement activities such as charitable efforts. The majority of the most successful dealerships around the country have already done this with their advertising. Many do this at the dealership itself, having the "power personality" touch many of the deals and talk to a lot of the customers. This needs to translate over to social media as well.
You're building a local celebrity. You're branding the way that people crave in today's uber-social world, with real people and actual communication back and forth. It's where social media's power is derived. It's where the dealership's next level of success can be achieved.
Once this commitment is made and the power personality is selected, it's time to get them out to the social world. They should (through a representative managing the accounts) touch as many people as possible. They should be on videos, at events, participating in discussions, replying to reviews, and expressing opinions that align with the dealership but that add humanity to the way the dealership is perceived. People want to talk to other people. They want to interact with people who have power. They want to be heard, to be made to feel special, and to know that their actions are reaching the highest levels.
At this point, it's time for discussion. I have ideas about how this can best be accomplished, but upon learning that finding real life examples was a challenge, I decided to hold my specific recommendations for now and let the conversation center around the concept itself. What can dealerships do to truly become successful on social media through these power accounts? How can someone be truly elevated to the point that they are online and offline celebrities in the local area? What are some ways that this can be leveraged?
Let's talk.
“Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”
Michael Caine
There are two truly valid ways to post on social media. It depends on the personality, goals, and bandwidth available within your business. Both have pros and cons. Both have chances of success and failure.
This is Part III of the series on timing. Please read Part I and Part II first.
It's a little surprising that more businesses haven't adopted this style. It's likely that a "guru" or two has spread the word that you can't only focus on business if you want to be successful on social media. This simply isn't true.
The business-only personality type will do just as the name says: stick to business. They should post infrequently, perhaps 2-4 times a week, and support their posts with ads on Facebook. Twitter, Google+, and the other social networks cannot benefit from ad support and are likely only seen occasionally in feeds and mostly as a destination, i.e. when someone visits the business website and then follows links to Twitter, Pinterest, G+, etc.
This is effective in one scenario and safe in another scenario. In the scenario where a business has established a strong fan base of customers, prospects, and industry people, the business-only personality can be extremely effective. It doesn't flood people's news feeds with daily posts that can often encourage them to unlike, remove from the news feed, or report as spam. Because there is a reduced chance of getting an EdgeRank boost (though a case could be made that it can actually improve the chances, but that's for a different debate), it is basically a requirement to support the posts through Facebook ads. As long as the content is useful, not spammy, and relevant to fans, a sustained Sponsored Stories strategy can work very nicely.
Fan growth is often slowed as a result of this type of strategy, but there's an upside. If a business is using their page for a particular business-related focus such as a car dealership that posts social-media-only service specials weekly, the quality of the fans can be stronger.
The other scenario where this strategy works well is for the "safe" social media business type. Those who are either not bought into social media as a marketing tool or who do not have the time or resources to manage it properly can use this personality type to keep a strong presence without putting much effort into it. It's not a growth strategy. It's a "checkbox" strategy. The good part is that it's safe. As long as the page doesn't go dormant, those who are somehow able to stumble upon the accounts will not be turned off by what they find.
This is much more common by businesses that are trying to use social media for branding, marketing, and communication. It's also the more botched approach. If there's only one piece of advice that businesses get from this article, it's that you don't have to rely on internet memes and cat pictures to be engaging. If you're a car dealership, you should be posting about cars. Period. Pictures of cars, stories about cars, useful information about cars... stay within the industry. There are plenty of engaging pictures, interesting pieces of information, and personal business anecdotal stories that can be told to stay focused on your industry without being "all business".
For local businesses, there's another realm that help them to stay on topic without diving into memes to stay interesting: the local area itself. A Seattle business can occasionally post images of the Space Needle, for example. Nothing wrong with that to "mix it up" but don't rely on these types of posts. Stay relevant as much as possible.
The engaging personality type on social media strives to be a part of the conversations within their market. They post daily, often more than once a day, and do so in order to get more people to like and interact with their content. This style relies on the interesting aspects of their business to feed content to their social profiles in order to set up the "money posts" that they put up from time to time. The money posts are those ones with practical business applications whether it's to directly promote and event or to highlight a benefit of their business.
By engaging with the various communities, they are increasing the exposure of their money posts. On Facebook, for example, the goal is to play the EdgeRank game. In other words, be as interesting as possible throughout the week in order to make certain that the important posts get maximum exposure. On Facebook and Google+, a business can increase the exposure of their money posts by posting content ahead of it that their fans like, comment about, and share.
This is viewed by many as the free technique. In other words, if you go with this strategy, the need for Facebook ads is alleviated. That's not true. The Facebook advertising strategy for the engagement personality is different from the strategy for the business-only personality, but that doesn't mean that you don't have to spend any money at all. The way that Facebook pages appear (or don't appear) in fans' news feeds makes advertising a necessity regardless of personality type. The difference is in how much and how often.
Now that we have an understanding of the personality types, how does this affect scheduling?
Business-Only:
http://www.socialdealer.com
http://www.internetsales20group.com
SOCIALDEALER, a leading social media management company that helps automotive dealers create, manage and monitor their social activities through one centralized web platform, today announced Phil Penton, President of SOCIALDEALER, has been interviewed by AutomotiveInternetSales.com