(This series is an edited excerpt from Assumptive Selling: The Complete Guide to Selling More Vehicles for More Money to Today’s Connected Customers, which is available on Amazon for $49.99. To begin with the first article in this series, visit How to Sell Cars via Facebook – Real Social Selling.) Less is More with Automotive […]
(This series is an edited excerpt from Assumptive Selling: The Complete Guide to Selling More Vehicles for More Money to Today’s Connected Customers, which is available on Amazon for $49.99. To begin with the first article in this series, visit How to Sell Cars via Facebook – Real Social Selling.) The Second Rule of Social […]
(This series is an edited excerpt from Assumptive Selling: The Complete Guide to Selling More Vehicles for More Money to Today’s Connected Customers, which is available on Amazon for $49.99. To begin with the first article in this series, visit How to Sell Cars via Facebook – Real Social Selling.) Social Selling and Facebook – […]
(This series is an edited excerpt from Assumptive Selling: The Complete Guide to Selling More Vehicles for More Money to Today’s Connected Customers, which is available on Amazon for $49.99.) How to Sell Cars via Facebook – Real Social Selling – Part 1 At this very instant, there are vehicle salespeople on Facebook enjoying 25 […]
The Benefits of Social Selling for Car Dealers Despite the results many dealers enjoy by encouraging social selling among their sales teams, many others are still unsure if they want to empower salespeople to leverage Facebook as a true sales driver. Some, shockingly, still aren’t sure they want this kind of “behavior” on their dealership’s […]
Dealers: Stop Googling Yourself! Quick question: How much time do you spend conducting Google searches for your paid and/or organic listings? Stop it. I understand seeing your listings – especially your ads – at the top of the page can give you a sense of satisfaction. Similar, perhaps, to the satisfaction of hearing your ad […]
Why “Wait & See” Wins with Shiny Objects Ten years ago, the consummate car-guy Charles Oglesby (then CEO of Asbury Automotive Group) told me, “In automotive retail, you cannot hold a creative competitive advantage for very long.” His point was clear: In the rare case that someone truly discovered some purchasable competitive advantage that actually […]
The SEM Thieves Aren’t Even Trying Anymore! A Google Analytics map hit my inbox today that can only be described as mind-numbingly incredible. Incredible, in that it is simply not credible. The map, displayed below, shows where this anonymous dealer’s website traffic originated from last month. No, this is not the board from the game […]
Power Off to Power On! It’s time to bring innovation and creative brilliance back to your company! (Yes, this article is long… and the fact that many will not be able to read it in its entirety in one sitting will precisely prove my point.) There was a time – before smartphones – when people […]
Dear Toyota: Here’s $108 Million to Spend in Your Fight for Share Against Ford As the Toyota brand works to replace Ford in the top spot for US vehicle sales in 2018 (as of this writing, the Ford brand holds roughly a 14% share of the US Market to Toyota’s 12.4%; source here), you have […]
Dear Automotive Dealer: Google & Facebook Are Not Your Friends Facebook is presenting at a conference? Google is hosting a meeting in Mountain View? Oh! My! God! Where do I sign up? How can I get tickets? Will they be signing autographs? Okay, maybe no one will be seeking autographs, but there is something strange […]
Has the Time Come for You and Your OEM to Find New Digital Marketing Partners? I spoke with a marketing manager for a good-sized group the other day and he lamented that many of their current digital marketing “partners” were wasting tens of thousands of dollars every month with no regard to actual dealership results. […]
Best Automotive Internet Sales Processes: How to Perfect Your Trade-In Lead Handling It’s well known that many buyers are suspicious of the trade values your team provides them in-person; but, what happens when your online trade-in tool provides consumers a value? How can you both reinforce this unbiased, third-party number and keep a prospect engaged […]
Do Your Carfax.com Leads Close at Relatively Low Rates? Let me level set right from the start: I like Carfax. I have friends who work at Carfax. I think Carfax has (ultimately) been good for the industry. Additionally, this post is not intended to encourage dealers to cancel their Carfax.com listing agreements, only to drive […]
Your Dealership Doesn’t Need an SEO or SEM Expert – You Just Need a BS Detector Mastering “Google,” if you will, is more than a full-time job. It’s an all-consuming odyssey that no single-point dealership – withal, no small- or medium-sized group – can afford to take. The targets move so often that the true […]
How to Spot and Stop SEO Fraud! Last week, we published some guidelines to help you uncover and stop the SEM theft we’re seeing in nearly every dealership visit. Today, I wanted to tackle the potential Search Engine Optimization (SEO) fraud that also appears to be fairly ubiquitous. SEO, as a quick reminder, refers […]
It’s Time to Stop SEM Theft If you’re an average car dealer – and I do mean just average – you’re likely wasting $50,000 or more every year on basically worthless Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (sometimes interchangeably referred to as SEM or PPC). For some of you, you’re actually the victims […]
What Not to Say in Your Automotive Lead Responses I understand teaching your team what not to do is considered negative coaching; and negative coaching, as most of you know, almost never works. For example, teach a young hockey player to “never shoot the puck at the goalie,” and they’ll hit the goalie square […]
It’s 2018 and Automotive Sales Leads Still Matter Way More Than Attribution I support those vendors and consultants who want to open dealers’ eyes to the concept of digital marketing attribution – it’s an important topic. However, when they do so by bashing sales leads (as if a website sales lead mattered less than […]
Automotive Internet Sales Processes: The DISC Test and the DIR Test If you’re involved in your dealership’s marketing decisions, you’ve probably heard about the DISC Test, right? Does It Sell Cars? For many dealers, every marketing decision comes down to this simple test. Does this or that sell cars? For some, it’s not just a […]