Road to the Sale is More than Ten Steps--You Knew This, Right?

Yeah, you know the Road to the Sale (RTTS) like the back of your hand, right?  Do you also know the Road to the Sale From the Sale?  Or the Road to the Sale from the Unsold?

And do you train your staff on any of this?  Even if you like a shorter RTTS, take a look below and see what you are missing!

This post is short and sweet, because sometimes the best things are simple.  Good selling!

Keith Shetterly
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved
www.keithshetterly.com keithshetterly@gmail.com 

TEN STEPS ON THE ROAD TO THE SALE

1. Meet and Greet 

2. Interview 

3. Vehicle Selection 

4. Walk-Around 

5. Test Drive 

6. Trade Evaluation 

7. Present Numbers and Ask for the Sale 

8. Close 

9. F&I Turn 

10. Delivery and Service Drive Intro

FIVE MORE STEPS ON THE ROAD TO THE SALE FROM THE SALE

1. Ask for Referrals at Delivery 

2. Ask for Online Review at Delivery 

3. Make a Properly-Timed CSI Reminder Call (New Vehicle Sales Only) 

4. Follow-up at Six Weeks and Mine the Household 

5. Follow-up every six months AND Birthdays/Anniversaries and Mine the Household 

FIVE MORE STEPS ON THE ROAD TO THE SALE FROM THE UNSOLD

1. Follow-Up Objection-Isolating Call From Manager/3rd Party ASAP the Customer Leaves the Lot

2. Follow-Up BeBack Call Next Day From the Salesperson

3. Follow-Up Beback Call EVERY Friday From the Salesperson for a MONTH

4. Put Customer on Monthly eMail Newsletter

5. Follow-Up Beback call EVERY Mid-Month for Four Months

GM is "Dot Dumb" ...Again

There's a great article here called Doing It Wrong: 11 Boring Things GM Posted on Facebook.   I couldn't agree more with the article.  And, like the article itself, I have more to say than just comment on the "boring" Facebook page operation by GM, as well:  GM is stupid, or "dot dumb", for revoking their paid Facebook ads.

What is going on?  This is really "Old Media vs. New Media" and nothing new for GM's advertising, unfortunately.  I don't agree with the folks who claim Facebook cannot be monetized well--in fact, if I were running GM's online efforts, I would have wanted to WORK WITH Facebook to tune up their ad system!  The press from such an effort would have been very big.  And positive, even if the project itself didn't work (which I think it would).  We will sell 14 million vehicles this year, give or take, and spend (between the OEMs and dealers) $14 billion dollars in advertising!  That's $1,000 a vehicle.  And that's a lot of money to direct to the right places.

And yet Facebook--with a standing audience of many millions that includes both domestic GM customers and possible conquests (not to mention SERVICE customers)--is somehow not, in GM's eyes, worth working it out?  Evidently.  Well, whether you believe Facebook is the Next Online Ad Giant or you don't, GM's move to revoke $10 million of Facebook advertising (very important, though a drop in the bucket for both OEM car ads as well as Facebook income) is indicative of a systemic problem:  GM has never, ever really "gotten" the Internet.  From their matching funds efforts for digital ad strategies to their lead programs, they don't understand what it takes to really advertise vehicles much less sell vehicles leveraging the Internet.  And this was true before the bankruptcy and is true after.

Phrases like "Emperor's New Clothes" and "Calling Their Baby Ugly" come to mind, as clearly GM has an entrenched mindset that has continued to not "get" the Internet OR social media for years--and so I don't expect either to make a change at GM or make a friend from this article (and I do have friends who work at GM, by the way, and for the record as individuals they are very smart).  I'm just one guy who DOES get it writing a blog in an online community.

However, change is needed for GM.  And how long does it take for GM to really change?  Another decade will be equivalent to at least 50 "Internet Years".  How much must happen for GM to really change and not be "dot dumb"?  A bankruptcy couldn't even do it.

Which is sad.  I'm a long-time GM vehicle buyer, by the way.  A true fan of the product.  Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of us:  Most of the "unaffiliated" vehicle buyers are on Facebook.  And they're under 35.  And maybe under 40.

And, as the most-marketed-to age group in history, they are not stupid.  They are "dot smart".

Maybe GM Marketing/Advertising should hire a few of them.

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved, www.KeithShetterly.com
keithshetterly@gmail.com 

Why Facebook is the Most Important Digital Ad Spend for Dealers to Make

Using Facebook only for fan pages for your customers and spending all your digital ad spend with Google is incorrect.  Facebook is where your customers are for many hours per day, and--despite Google's additional audience from Google+'s much-smaller social media presence--advertising on Facebook can be more effective than Google.  And it should be the strongest addition to your digital ad spend.

Why?

The first key point is understanding that Facebook is where people are connecting with each other, where people are chronicling their lives and the lives of friends and family.  Nothing like Facebook has existed before—and so digital advertising on Facebook keys in on important purchase factors far earlier in the buying cycle than Google.  And far more effectively, and thus less obtrusively, because Facebook advertising follows the flow of people’s lives, rather than sitting sidesaddle on those lives as Google does.

Sidesaddle?  Yes.  Specifically, Google is ready when targets email folks using Google Gmail about their possible car purchase, or when they have reached a decision to investigate via search results.  Essentially, with Google your targets are further down the sales funnel BUT are not involved in the funnel.  They simply reach for it when they are ready and reach only for Google’s funnel, which is large . . . but nowhere near as large as Facebook’s.  And nowhere near a part of their very lives—really, for Facebook digital advertising, the sales funnel for targets is always ready and already there:  In fact, in the case of Facebook digital ad spend, Facebook IS the sales funnel!

As well, the target group in Facebook is larger, first by the fact that Facebook is huge and users can be on any email system, not just Google’s, but can still communicate via Facebook email and timeline events to all their friends in Facebook. And they therefore do so in a cross-platform manner--and nearly constantly, if the truth be known, so that content can always guide Facebook's advertising.  

Therefore, while your targets are organizing and notating on events, on friend’s and family’s Facebook walls, fan pages, and of course using a very, very strong gaming component, you can advertise based on their activities.  And not be riding your on isolated decisions for a later Google email or search.  In Facebook digital advertising, you as the advertiser are *participating* in your target’s lives, needs, wants in ways Google nor anyone else can match.  The strength and impact of that is enormous.

Oh, yes, don't forget:  What about mobile?  Facebook dominates as an app on mobile phones.  And your targets who are on phones seeing mobile ads are IN MARKET like no other source in history.  Who do you want to be with on Mobile?  Your dance card had better include Facebook.  See what is happening with mobile ads on Facebook here and here.

How does this apply to dealerships?  It’s huge.  Long before someone decides to search for a car, or even emails a friend about a car, on Facebook they have liked their friend’s car purchase and new-car pictures, talked about the two highest-performing life events for car purchases (new child and house closing), etc.  And, like Google, Facebook watches content to alert for advertising, but, unlike Google—nay, a universe BEYOND Google—Facebook ads are presented at the earliest and strongest discussion touch points for the target consumers.  They are part of the “stream of life” and flow along to actual purchase in a natural way.  In the most influential ways.  And in ways Google may never achieve, even with Google+.

Do you want the strongest results from your digital ad spend?  Then be a part of your prospects' and customer’s lives in Facebook’s digital advertising.  Available data strongly shows Facebook digital advertising as more effective than Google’s and that it it is also very valuable for sales (both vehicle and service) to your current owners!

And I’m not saying abandon Google!  Not yet, anyway, and not soon, as search is still very, very important and likely will remain so.  However, Facebook digital advertising puts you in the position of being known and experienced by your targets long before they do any Google search.  Do you want to be the partner along the life they know in Facebook or the one they search for in Google?  Don’t you want to be both?  

Sure you do!  Now go get those Facebook ads started!

keithshetterly@gmail.com by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012www.keithshetterly.com All Rights Reservedkeithshetterly@gmail.com

The Bus Roll (humor)

If you've known me long enough, you know I like sushi.  Well, I am hereby describing a new sushi roll today:  "The Bus Roll"!

For some people, they don't deserve it but get it anyway; for others, it appears to make a great and deserving gift.  And I’m sure that many of us have received it from others, deserved or not.  I know I have--that seems very common!

What’s in "The Bus Roll"?  Well--whether you give one or you get one--the ingredients are whatever it takes, of course!  :)

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved www.keithshetterly.com
keithshetterly@gmail.com

Look for the YES!

Look for the "Yes!"--as "No" Can Find You Without Any Help!

Do you too often find yourself locking on to what is wrong about something rather than what is right?  Both wrong and right are good to consider, certainly--however, what are you looking for?  A way to say "yes", or really a way to say "no"?

Looking for the "no" is, first, fear-driven.  From relationships to home-buying to weight loss, we often fear change and run for comfort, and we think saying "no" means we don't have to change.  We can stay the same, and we tell ourselves that we'll certainly change later if only we can find the "right" person, item, or program we want.  Really, however, none of these are the reason we stopped--we ran to "no" because we were more comfortable holding back and longing for the "right" item rather than risking to really achieve it, more comfortable living in a dreamland than trying to live our dream.

And it's not all in our control, nor should it be.  Life-changing events can certainly be accidental or random:  You might find oil on some property, inherit some wealth, or find love in the drive-thru, but those are stories of just a few people.  The rest of us see those happy people and think that couldn't be us, even if we worked on success.  And worked very hard.  But why?  Because we think luck is needed, and we say we aren't lucky.  Or we don't have time, we don't know the right people, we aren't ready for the risk.  We find the "no" without even asking the question.  Without any consideration of a path that can really get us what we want.

Well, if you achieved the love of your life, you would have to risk the heartbreak of your life, correct?  If you achieved the job of your life, you would have to leave the safe-but-limited position you have now, right?  If you achieved improvement in your health, you would have to abandon those comfortable habits and face some pain of self-denial, don't you see?

But all that is hard.  And risky.  And so we settle for the "no", and in fact we seek it.  Because we think that "no" is easy and risk-free, and it means we can continue doing what we do without change.  This is a foolish proposition, however, because change is inevitable .  For everyone, everywhere.  Staying in place in anything eventually invites rust and decay, and that is just another type of change:  comfortable change, gradual change, and certainly useless change.  Which is another word for rot.  Or roadkill.

So, choose instead to think differently!  Since change is inevitable, anyway, no matter what we do, why not build your change on the "yes" rather than on the "no"?  Risk achievement rather than accept decay? 

That's right:   Look for the "Yes!"--as "No" Can Find You Without Any Help!  You want to find "Yes", right?

YES!

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2005, 2012

keithshetterly@gmail.com www.keithshetterly.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Why Our Process Fails for the Modern Vehicle Shopper

You Are Your OWN Lottery!

You Are Your OWN Lottery!  What will you do to win it?

Will you call more customers to generate more sales?  Will you learn and practice more great sales techniques?  Will you make a plan for your future to bring you closer to financial independence—and as fast as possible?  Will you spend time on the weekends to expand your thinking of what you are able to do? 

Will you modernize and step UP to success rather than safely step sideways?

Let’s look at the math:  The last great lottery for over $500million had about a one-in-200million chance to succeed.

At about 17,000 franchise dealerships, do you think we could find 5 strong professionals each?  Make the number 5 x 17,000, or 85,000?  Let’s make it 100,000 just to be sure.  Okay, you want 200,000?  No problem.

That makes the odds for your personal lottery about one-in-200,000.  That’s ONE THOUSAND TIMES MORE LIKELY than the last Megamillions Lottery!!  One in 200,000.

These people all stepped UP and made millions: http://www.businessinsider.com/young-successful-entrepreneur-world-....  Not all in sales, but all with the belief that working harder towards their own success was the way to break into the real game of success.  If you don’t believe you each have that “million dollar” idea somewhere inside you, then you limit yourself—and you probably DON’T have that idea for the success game.  and you need to!!  You must be the first to believe in your own success, because that will get you moving and also pull others along.  And then you gain momentum.  And an audience.  And then you are unstoppable.

So, how do you get your winning lottery ticket?  Do your best, and then make a big part of doing your best to always learn to be even better!  Modernize!  Aim for success!  ALWAYS.

One in 200,000??  That's WAYYY better odds than any other lottery you’ll ever buy a ticket for.

And the best part?  It's that YOU are the ticket to your own winning lottery.  Go get it!

by Keith Shetterly
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved
keithshetterly@gmail.com www.keithshetterly.com

Co-Op Makes Us Stupid!

Advertising assistance from the OEMs, commonly referred to across various manufacturers as “co-op” when it is refunded by the OEM, can be a great help to dealers to offset advertising costs and achieve market share.  I won't say that what the OEMs deem as "co-op-able" is always the best choice for a dealer:  However, in many dealers it seems that “is this advertising co-op-able?” has become a standard bar to measure advertising—instead of measuring sales results!!—and that is extremely dangerous.  And stupid, really.  Especially when this sales year of 2012 is shaping up to be the first really good one in quite a while!

So, how does co-op make us stupid?  For example, let’s say an OEM-approved website vendor has a co-op-able pay-per-click (PPC) program.  Let’s do it!  Can’t be bad, right?

Except it can be and likely is.

Because if the OEM-approved website vendor is using the same PPC terms across all the dealers with the same lines in the same area, not only is this ineffective it also just burns through a PPC budget in a hurry.  And produces little, if any, sales.

And this happens every day.  I’ve seen it.

Another example of “co-op making us stupid” is limiting our advertising to only those things that are co-op-able.  Let’s say some co-op money is available for direct mail, but it’s only possible to do it twice a year and co-op the money.  So all we do is direct mail twice a year and we ignore that our market actually reacts well to direct mail quarterly or more!   And we lose sales because we forgot that advertising is about “investing money to make sales”—and not about “investing money to get co-op dollars back from the OEM.”

I will reiterate that co-op, when used correctly, can be a great help to a dealer's advertising and a great competitive advantage.  However, we need to use co-op to smartly add to our business and not to just buy inept programs because they are co-op-able and/or limit our advertising to only the advertising—good or bad—that is co-op-able. 

Remember, advertising is done to gain sales, not to gain co-op money.  If we make advertising (digital and non-digital) decisions based solely, or even in larger part, on whether the advertising is co-op-able, we are dangerously letting co-op make us stupid.

Which, in a rebound year like 2012, will still put us “back-of-the-pack” in sales.  Do we want to be “#1 in co-op”?  Or “#1 in sales”?  Easy decision when put that way.

So go be smart and sell!

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012
www.keithshetterly.com  All Rights Reserved
keithshetterly@gmail.com

Can Great Data + Great Buying Experience = Great Sales?

I've been involved in the TrueCar discussions for months now, sometimes prominently.  And the idea of protecting the dealers'--nay the industry's--data has become very, very important to me.  Thank you, Jim Ziegler, for goading us to pay attention to these issues.

However, lately I've taken to also looking at these points:  Is the "Data Horse" already out of the barn?  Data genie out of the bottle?  Data under the bridge?  Maybe, maybe not.  

And even if we can still just lock all vendors out of the dealers' data . . . well, what ramifications does that have for our business?  Should we just pull that plug with possibly as much ignorance in stopping the practice as we have had during it's birth and growth (when we, admittedly, weren't paying any attention)?  Are there strong and business-REQUIRED positives which we don't even know about that will die without that information?  And hurt dealers' business?  It is very hard to tell just where the data goes in all this, how much is sourced back at the dealer, how much is sourced downstream, and how much is sourced in ways we just don't know about at all.  That's our fault, being taken advantage of by vendors because we weren't paying attention.

Thinking it through, then, it seems to me that dealer data used only to provide buyers to dealerships--and still not giving those buyers a better buying experience!--is doomed to fail.  Call that model what we've seen from TrueCar.  So, forgetting all the emotional errata on that for few moments, I think that "better buying" experience is just what TC left out.  They focused on the "negotiation" but not the sale and used stereotypes to position themselves with consumers as their advocate--I have pointed out many times  that I believe that Painter's anti-dealer position blinded him to who TC's real customers are (dealers!!), so those stereotypes are Cheap & EZ Marketing 101 for those who make that mistake from their own prejudices.

However, these negative car-buying stereotypes exist today, and people are still experiencing them.  Or saying they do.  Cases in point are a couple of articles I read this week about the horrible buying experience some women still have with dealerships, and also sometimes men (one is by Becky Quick at Fortune, and see another in Forbes). .  Whether this is really still a rampant problem or not, it's a rampant STEREOTYPE.  I've compared the need for Painter's ouster from TC as the same issue that Nixon had--no matter what you thought of the president, politically he Had To Go.

Well, WE are our own "Nixon" here on the buying experience issue, and we can't remove ourselves from the seat in the middle.  We CAN, however, pursue a modern buying method that serves the dealer's bottom line, modernizes the sales staff and processes, and delivers a great experience for the buyers.  Make any bad sales process "resign like Nixon", and right NOW.

On top of that, we have controversies over Google's March 1, 2012 privacy changes, the Whitehouse wanting data privacy standards, and the EPIC/FTC fight about privacy and Google.  We need to know how our own data in our own industry can be protected and put to use for the dealers.

We don't need to focus on the past ("When you let your past go, just make sure it doesn't run ahead into your future." - Keith Shetterly) or we just drag along our own stereotypes.  

IF the data aggregators information could be turned into a positive for the dealers, providing great buyers, and then the dealers can provide a great buying experience, THAT is modernization.  Great Dealer Evolution, not Painter's Dealer Cataclysm.

Is there a vendor out there to do this?  I perceive that Criss Castle, Ralph Paglia, and myself have recently made the point in Jim Ziegler's TrueCar Blog that data use on BEHALF of the dealers for dealer success is certainly a possibility.  A great pro-dealer cause, if you will, especially if the "data horse is really out of the barn."

Who is that vendor that will rise up and make great and fair money for themselves and dealers while promoting--and helping to provide--that great modern buying experience for both men and women shoppers?  Is there one?  Can there be one?

I don't know.  But I know we need one.

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved http://www.keithshetterly.com/
keithshetterly@gmail.com 

Industry Wake-Up Call: A Script Won't Help

Is anyone reading this old enough to remember travel agents and travel companies?  The Internet eventually killed them and rolled them all into Expedia, Priceline, etc.  I met a travel company owner back when Priceline was just taking off, quite a wake-up call to the travel industry, and he was buying up companies and agents as fast as he could:  He was convinced he was going to win because "People still want to buy from an agent."  He went out of business and lost a bundle.

He missed the wake-up call.  Sound familiar?  Read on.

Now the smart phone is killing the PC.  HP and Dell, the last titans of PC land other than Mac, are failing--and they even ousted the guy who smartly wanted to sell the PC division of HP last August, replacing him with a PC-fan CEO . . . who now faces a quarterly debacle that shows the guy she replaced was right (click here for that story).

In our industry, we have billions of dollars in brick-and-mortar facility investments, protected (at least) by franchise laws that were intended to prevent OEMs from getting a dealer invested into a dealership location for millions and then deciding for their own purposes (or ignorance, to give that possibility) to set up a same-make competitor--or a "company" store--right in the same area.  Or even across the street.

And so we have some breathing room that PCs and travel agents didn't have, in large part for us because of these laws.  Which room cannot and will not last.  Maybe 5-7 years more?  Who knows.  It ain't forever, that's for sure.  And the consumers--misled, or right, or some mix of both--will be who rise up against the laws.  This will happen as surely as every other change that folks didn't want to see--the dinosaurs, I'm sure, did not understand their demise, either, no matter how it came.

And we're not alone.  Amazon,etc. online retailers are already using Walmart, etc. as brick "showrooms" for their online products, forcing brick-and-mortar retailers to re-asses their pricing.  

That's an online margin attack that we've already seen the first volleys of in our own industry:  Anybody remember CarsDirect.com?  Welcome to CarsDirect.com Version 2.0, also known as TrueCar, which has stated on numerous occasions that they intend to move from car pricing towards aftermarkets.  Even if that agenda has changed or ever does, that doesn't mean that there isn't some Version 3.0 out there lurking.  Because there is.  The Internet marketplace guarantees it.

So, what do we do?  Those dealers who can will evolve to be customer-centric as in no other time in history.  Real customer service, not just CSI massaging.  Real reputations, not "BuyYourRep.com" crap.  Smarter advertising, online and offline, targeted to CONVERTING the in-market shoppers.  To getting the great sale now in return for a great buying experience.

Be smarter.  Stronger.  Faster.  Better.

And then, no matter the changes, you won't just survive, you will prosper.  And flourish.  And eventually stand, as we do now without even thinking about it, on top of miles of rock containing the bones and fossils of those who did not make the evolutionary step.

You're getting that industry wake up call now.  And you better answer with your best, not with some dusty old pre-Internet script--but with a strong, new voice to your future.

"Ring!"  And how do you answer?

by Keith Shetterly
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved
www.keithshetterly.com keithshetterly@gmail.com 

Certified Me: I Am Who I Am

I am who I am.  I am me!  I work as me, I advise as me, and I write and publish as me.  I am this way because, as a person, I fit the “new credibility” very well:  I am all over the Web, and you can reach me by email and phone if you go to my website.  You can find me, easily, and find out about me, because I don’t hide.  I am real.  And I don’t ever use pseudonyms for my work, and I don’t participate in pseudonyms for hire, either--so don’t bother asking me to ghost write for you as some have requested.  The answer is “No”.

I have experience and a mind you can purchase services from, but many times I give away so much for free that my friends want to tie me up and gag me to get me to stop talking myself out of money.  I don’t adjust my ethics versus what I’m paid to do (you can’t hire me if I don’t basically agree with you on some important level), and you can’t get me to say or do just anything you want by waving a fat checkbook at me. 

Whenever and wherever I express myself, smart or stupid, I own it.  And you can find me on the web very easily.  That’s the new credibility, “Certified Me!”, to just be who you are on the Web and be honest there.   Come on along!

Are you with me?

By Keith Shetterly
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved
www.keithshetterly.com keithshetterly@gmail.com

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Internet Salespeople

1) They get the online shoppers from leads and calls into the store; they answer the shoppers’ questions but still build urgency and make appointments.

2) They are great on the phone and depend on it for success; they know that email is best as merely a strong, personalized riff on a template and that it faces many hurdles (SPAM, attention, etc.) to just be seen by the shopper.  Even those shoppers who ask for contact don’t often see it by email.

3) They are their own commercial.  They use things like short, personal video invitations and video walkarounds to establish connection and rapport with customers before they come in.

4) They understand that the store’s reputation online is first seen by shoppers but first built by sold customers, and they work very hard to add positives to that online reputation from every customer they can.

5) They keep strongly to an effective, standard follow-up schedule—not just by email, but also more importantly by phone.

6) They aren’t shift workers:  They are available for a quick few minutes of phone/email whenever they can, not just “open” hours.

7) They are great salespeople in person!

I tried to keep it simple, and many props to Mr. Covey for the years of great reads and education--and for the riff on his title that I myself made here. 

by Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com

www.keithshetterly.com Copyright 2011

All Rights Reserved

Shetterly's Three Laws of Dealer Data

1) No Dealer shall allow access by any Vendor to their business data (DMS, CRM, etc.) without restrictions  to specific data needed and on the use of such data for onlyproviding a clear and very strong business advantage to the Dealer.

2) No Vendor shall use their access to a Dealer's data for any purpose other than advancing that dealer's business only and, as well, shall not break or attempt to break the restrictions on data access levied by the Dealer.

3) If Laws 1, 2, or both are ever broken, data access for the Vendor involved shall be ceased by the Dealer in every way necessary and immediately.

by Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com
Copyright 2011 www.keithshetterly.com
All Rights Reserved 

P.S.  Want to understand this better?  Check out Jim Ziegler's Record-Setting Blog on TrueCar, www.truecardealers.com, and this blog The Truth About TrueCar.  Want more laws?  Visit www.Shetterly's Laws.com.

The Road to the NO SALE!

Everyone selling vehicles or managing others selling vehicles should know the meaning of "The Road to the Sale" - and you should also be aware that too many of us, all too often, know that phrase but instead follow "The Road to the NO SALE!"

I've often likened the chain of events that produces a vehicle sale to that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where the sawmill reduces a large tree down to a single toothpick - there's so much effort and waste!  In our case, it's waste from neglect:  Neglect of our processes, neglect of our advertising, neglect of our training, and most of all neglect of simply executing on what we already know will sell more cars.

We know that phone calls get mis-handled.  We record them.  We often don't listen to them.  When we do listen, we don't do anything effective to correct the way they are handled.

We know our traffic is up or down, but we don't put the traffic into the CRM so it can be monitored and our advertising adjusted for results.  We know our customers' information is in the CRM, but we don't pursue them for sold-to-service.  We know people service at our dealership that never bought from us, so we know we're convenient to them, but we don't pursue them for a vehicle sale.

We know we need to regularly train on phone and the sales process, but we don't.  Or, if we do, we don't effectively train for the results we want.

We know online pricing is important, but we can't find time to price properly.  And we have Autotrader/Cars.com/etc. for our used cars, but we don't take enough pictures for our own website much less for that advertising.

We know the Internet has forever changed how our sales funnel gets filled, but we don't adjust our advertising to focus best online.  And we know that reputation is the OLDEST advertising, and we know that everyone comparison shops online, but we pay no attention to the poor online reviews we get and we make no effort to get more online reviews from our happy customers.  Or, we know that we have a great online reputation that shoppers have to find, and we make no effort to proactively advertise that great reputation!

And so on.  Does any of this, or perhaps most of it, sound like your dealership?

If so, take action, now:  Make a list of your top five items that send you wrongly down "The Road to the NO SALE", and start improvements with that.  You'll sell more cars and make more money.  In many cases, almost instantly.

But, then, you already knew that, didn't you?

(Many thanks to Jim Ziegler for his blog Is the Road to the Sale Obsolete? that inspired this article.)

by Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com
www.keithshetterly.com Copyright 2011
All Rights Reserved

If a Review is Written in the Great Forest of the Internet, and It Makes No SEO, Does Anybody Read It?

This is a simple editorial:  STOP supporting the review sites that make you or your customers jump through hoops in order to use them.  Despite what the review site companies and some of your peers claim, NOT EVERY REVIEW SITE IS IMPORTANT FOR DEALERS.  

If you sell a hundred cars a month, we don't want to risk losing even ONE because of a bad review, right?  We have to fix that, right?  Even if the review site is ridiculous?  Even if the review site is not used much by car shoppers?  EVEN if our 2-stars on some random car-shopper review site is crushed by our 4 stars on five other indexing (SEO) car shopper sites?  Let's still help the review site fix their market, right?  Send all your customers THERE so that it BECOMES relevant to the search engines AND is an established Consumer Advocate review brand for car shoppers?  NO.

Does anybody else see how silly this is?  If not, I'm launching www.WhackADealer.com in some dusty corner of the Internet, getting reviews from folks claiming to be your customers, not allowing you to participate without paying me, making it hard for your customers to give real reviews, and sending all the negative reviews right to your dealer principal.

Oh.  Wait.  Except for the website name, that's already been done! 

Sheesh.  Please stop the madness!!!!!

by Keith Shetterly, keithshetterly@gmail.com

Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

www.keithshetterly.com 

First, Do No Harm

We are not doctors, but I love the idea of “First, Do No Harm” for working with dealers.  Even though that phrase is the common, but incorrect, quote of the Hippocratic Oath for Physicians, it still conveys a lot for the proper doctor/patient relationship—and it also means a lot for vendor/dealer, consultant/dealer, and even blogger/dealer relationships.  And, so, I’m establishing it here as the cornerstone of a vendor/consultant/blogger creed for working with dealers.

When any of us (peers, dealers, vendors, consultants, etc.) are working with, critiquing, or advising dealers—or even affecting the readers on this and other online forums by what we write—we need to remember up front to not over-state and/or overreact:  Help for a hangnail shouldn’t be amputation!  Not even for a frantic, and possibly hypochondriac, patient. 

Next, we need to remember that the “patient/doctor confidentiality” from medicine goes a long way towards the trust we also need in place to really help a dealer--so neither a minor outing nor “going tabloid” on a dealer issue to the public (especially online) will do anything to help that dealer and may in fact hurt.  The “facts” online for dealers are all too often a frustrating mix of good and bad information already, and singling out particulars (even wrong ones) in public--even if you mean well!--can just lead to a cascade of bad feelings mixed with possibly-damaging SEO effects:  For example, customers should NOT be able to search a dealer and find links on SERP 1 pointing to automotive professionals writing negatively about the dealer.  Or on any searchable page, for that matter.

So, as a simple reminder to all that, Shetterly’s Creed is hereby founded for vendors, consultants, and bloggers in the automotive professional space:  First, do no harm; second, seek to fairly assist as can be agreed; third, deliver on what you promise.

by Keith Shetterly, www.keithshetterly.com
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved
keithshetterly@gmail.com