Don’t Compete in Your Local Market; Dominate It.

Here at AMP Solutions – we typically work with winners. I’m inspired by them. I teach and  learn from them, but, every once in a while, we all need to recalibrate our thinking. I mean, really take it up a notch

Grant Cardone published a book entitled "The 10X Rule" in which he states,

"There is nothing ordinary about the 10X rule. It is simply what it says it is – 10X the thoughts and 10X the actions of other people. You set your targets 10X higher than what you want and then you do 10X what is needed to accomplish your objective or goals."

Grant Cardone published a book entitled “The 10X Rule” in which he states,

“There is nothing ordinary about the 10X rule. It is simply what it says it is – 10X the thoughts and 10X the actions of other people. You set your targets 10X higher than what you want and then you do 10X what is needed to accomplish your objective or goals.”

What should you be paying yourself?

Brilliant! I am on board 100%. We are all simply setting our goals too low because we don’t believe we can accomplish them. Do you believe that you could pay yourself, let’s say, $400,000 a year from your dealership? Most would say, “no, you know, I don’t think that is possible.” I would ask you, “Why not? Some do it, and some even more. Why NOT you?”

More than one of my clients have been challenged by me on this exact question (not all, just those who are ready) and once they get over the initial shock of thinking this way, they become accustomed to the idea and then they begin to plan for it. It is important to note that you won’t achieve this milestone by trying to compete in your market, by being at least as good as everyone else, or a little better. You achieve a goal like this by dominating in your local market (you don’t have to be the biggest dealership, you just have to be the best). And you do it by accepting that it will take 10X the commitment, 10X the work, 10X the overcoming adversity than you are currently accomplishing.

I can tell you that I know this works. But you have to get serious and commit to doing “whatever it (ethically) takes” to accomplish your goal. If $400,000 is not the right number for you – too low or too high – then change it. But, you have to know your number. If you don’t, you’ll just be like everyone else – average.

Stop Limiting Yourself

Setting goals that are too low; severely underestimating what it will take in terms of actions, resources, money, and energy; and underestimating the amount of adversity you will need to attain your goals are the key mistakes that Grant Cardone describes in his book.

Our Opportunities are Unlimited

If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you live in the United States or Canada. Two places where hard work is rewarded.

Wait... Not Hard work - but Smart work that is handsomely rewarded.

Don’t limit your thinking. Don’t limit your rewards. Don’t limit your income. Remember, you are in the business of Marketing a Car Dealership.

Sean Patrick is the President and CEO of Auto Marketing Profits, and the author of 52 Marketing Strategies To Transform Your Dealership and various other books. Auto Marketing Profits is a company dedicated to helping car dealers and businesses reach their professional and personal goals by building their “perfect marketing balance”. He can be reached at sean.patrick@automarketingprofits.com. You can find out more about Auto Marketing Profits at www.automarketingprofits.com

Car Dealer Online Marketing Experts Talk About SEO

If you are just starting out with your automotive online marketing plan, you may have heard a lot about search engine optimization (SEO). Car Dealer SEO, simply put, is the process of making Google and other Search Engines find your dealership’s website and showcase it to your potential clients. This may sound easy, but it actually is not – there is a lot to manage and the major search engines changes how they rank websites quite frequently.

So How Does Automotive SEO Work?

When car dealers come to us for help with search engine optimization, we take many factors into account, including:

Content. Achieving the best SEO means great content. Many customers begin looking for a car dealer because when they begin thinking about a new vehicle or have questions about one. If you have an informative website that can answer the questions your prospects are asking, then the search engines will display your website and allow your website to be on page 1 of Google.

Keywords. Figuring out which keywords your prospects may search for will help you fine tune your marketing campaign, and will help you build a more relevant content. We can help choose your most revelant keywords and tweak them over time, as needed.

Analysis. Car Dealer SEO analysis can be broken down into two main areas: knowing what’s going on in the automotive marketing world wide, and keeping a careful eye on your actual dealership website statistics.

Link Building. Search engines put a lot of stock into links from other credible websites when deciding how to rank yours. We help you build a ton of relevant and credible links to your dealer website allowing you to out rank your competition!

If you are interested in getting started with online marketing plan for your dealership, speak with the experts at Auto Marketing Profits today at 866-927-0437. Whether you need a website make-over or just need a little help with an existing website, we have the expertise you need to bring in more prospects and help your dealership grow.

Are You A Trusted Dealer or a Shiesty Dealer?

Any bad review can hurt you. You work hard and do your best for each potential client, so it’s disheartening when a past client gives you a bad review on a major search engine such as Google or Bing. Even if the review is not truthful, you know it will still affect future potential clients to give you a call when in need of a new vehicle or service.

You may be tempted to delete a bad review or post your own content to counteract a bad score but we highly recommend that you do NOT. The New York State Attorney General’s office recently fined 19 search engine optimization companies for falsifying online reviews. The temptation to create a better image for their company overwhelms many in the legal business as well. Have you ever been tempted to use these phony tactics to boost your company’s ratings?

A Shiesty Car Dealer:

• Bribes clients into writing positive content
• Writes ghost content he or she wants clients to say
• Only posts part of the story
• Includes misleading information
• Deletes truthful but negative feedback on search engines

A Trusted Car Dealer:

• Encourages real clients to share their stories, including both the positives and negatives
• Takes negative feedback to heart and makes changes as necessary
• Strives for accuracy and honesty on his or her site
• Relies on real customer reviews to bring in new clients

A Shiesty Dealer may get the initial sale, but the client will quickly see through the thin disguise, further ruining the Dealer’s reputation. A Trusted Dealer doesn’t have to resort to such dishonest tactics. If you’re struggling to make the most of your good reviews, you may just need a little help optimizing your site. The skilled team at Auto Marketing Profits strives to help dealer’s boost their SEO ratings with honesty and accuracy.

To see how we can help you improve your site, call 866.927.0437 today.

Car Dealership Marketing Ratings: How Does Your Dealership Measure Up?

The most valuable asset you can have is an objective perspective of your dealership. 

 Here is a simple test you can take to help identify some objective  details about your business.

Grab a pen and paper and grade yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being totally unacceptable,  10 being perfect)

1. I am totally satisfied with my staff and feel they are  doing the best they can do.
...

 

2. I feel my staff is happy and content with their jobs.

3. I have a good understanding of my customer base.

4. I am satisfied with my current efforts and know I  am offering the best possible service, quality, and  pricing to my customers.

5. I believe my showroom, dealership layout, are  the best they can be.

6. I am satisfied with my current level of sales and  profit.

7. I have a thorough understanding of my competition  and know their strengths and weaknesses.

8. I feel the products and services I offer are complete, my prices fair, and my profit margins acceptable.

9. I am confident that my inventory levels are under control.

10. I am aware of my strengths and weaknesses and can  list them on paper.

Now, let’s see how you did. Add up the ten individual scores to see how you stack up.

90–100—Great job! You obviously are in touch with the pulse of your business.

 80–89—You have a pretty good understanding of your business, but realize there is room for improvement.

70–79—Things are becoming overwhelming to you, and you are searching for answers.

60–69—Your business is getting out of control and you are probably considering joining a monastery.

59 and below—You are wondering why in the world you got into this industry in the first place.

Car Dealership Credibility

Make sure you establish your dealership's credibility. You can get this done by educating prospective customers about their problems and the solutions you recommend. Also, you should offer specific facts about your dealership's background, education, specialized service training and years of experience. In addition, you should describe how you have helped other customers in similar situations. Prospects won’t hire your services until they trust your knowledge and skills. So make sure you establish your credibility.

Website Tweaks for Car Dealers

Your web site should offer reliable information that will answer every question your prospective lead may have.

You want prospects to see you as an authority. Also, you want them to see your dealership as the only source of information they need before buying or servicing a vehicle. The more information you offer, the more prospects rely on you, trust you, and feel they know you.

An idea is to offer articles with attractive titles that draws your prospect  into clicking them.  These articles should offer genuine iformation that will help your prospect.

Calls-to-action should be all over your website; grabbing the attention of your prosepect and leading them where to go. 

Be it:

• Credit App
• Featured Vehicles
• Service Specials
• etc.

Take the time to go through your dealerships website to see if how you rate.

How To Recruit Great People For Your Car Dealership

Choosing the right people to join your dealership is critical and one that so many businesses get horribly wrong.

Why is recruitment so important?

 

The true cost of recruiting, training, and losing staff is massive and that can be ruinous for small to medium sized dealerships. We encourages business owners to evaluate the true cost of recruitme...nt by asking themselves the following questions:

• How much did you spend last year on recruiting costs?

 • How much did it cost you to train new employees last year?

 • How much time did your staff need to spend training new recruits?

 • What business opportunities did you lose as a result of using key staff to train new recruits?

 • How long does it take before new recruits are operating at a productive level?

Advice -

Hire people who have done the same jobs in the same industry with other dealerships similar to yours. That way you can compare their past behaviour and predict how productive they will be in the future. And you’ll know that candidates like these won’t need hours and hours of training – they can be productive immediately.

Is Your Car Dealership Marketing A Wasting Of Money?

MISTAKE #1: Common marketing / advertising methods don’t work in today’s competitive environment. Wrong!

 Common methods -- such as advertising, publicity and newsletters -- can be highly effective when used correctly. If they don’t work for you, assuming your reaching your actual target audience, the problem is that you’re sending an incomplete marketing message. The method is only as good as the message it delivers. If your message lacks any needed components, you’ll lose clients to other dealers who deliver a complete message.

 

MISTAKE #2: Your marketing’s most important function is to promote your vehicle's and services. False!

 

The most important function of your marketing is to establish that you can be trusted. Most people will not do business with people they don’t trust. While your prospect is considering whether to work with your dealership, he / she is also trying to determine whether they trust you.

MISTAKE #3: All you need to do is get the word out. No!

You must both get the word out and get a response back. This is the meaning of “direct response marketing,” often shortened to “direct marketing.” Old style marketing worked back in the 1950's - 1980's using only institutional advertising. But today, your marketing efforts must be built on proven principles of direct marketing. Because if you don’t receive a response, you can’t be sure your prospect even received your message.

MISTAKE #4: A public relations program that generates feature articles and broadcast interviews will attract new clients to your practice. Maybe not.

In most cases, P.R programs bring exposure, but exposure does not always bring new clients. A good publicity program can be an important part of your marketing program. But whether your publicity program generates only exposure or solid marketing results depends on the experience and know-how of the person conducting your program.

MISTAKE #5: The toughest challenge you face is to persuade your prospects. No!

Your toughest challenge is to find prospects. Your marketing program should attract qualified inquiries so you start to build a trusting relationship with genuine prospects. You could have 100 new clients tomorrow if prospects knew how you could help them and where to find you. But, in most cases, prospects don’t know you exist. So you must assume the burden of getting your message into your prospects’ hands. That process begins with finding those prospects.

 

MISTAKE #6: The most effective time to start delivering your marketing message is when your prospect is in your dealership. Wrong!

The most effective time to deliver your marketing message is when your prospect first thinks about his / her problem or want and wants to know what solutions are available. You have a significant advantage over other dealers when you have a packet of materials you can send to your prospect. You can offer your information packet any number of ways, such as through advertising, publicity, newsletters or direct mail. When your prospect thinks about their problem or want, they see that you offer material on the subject. They either call or walk into your dealership and requests your information. Then you send your materials by mail or e-mail. In many cases, this puts your marketing message into their hands before they make a call on other dealerss.

 

MISTAKE #7: You should send your newsletter to clients and prospects quarterly. Not even close!

In today’s over-advertised society, you’re fortunate indeed if you can create an impression in your prospect’s mind. If you hope to make your impression stick, you should send your newsletter at least monthly. The more often you stay in contact with your customers, the more new business you will likely attract. The frequency with which you deliver your newsletter is important.

 

MISTAKE #8: Prospects will go out of their way to do business with your dealership. Hardly!

You must go out of your way to attract their business. Dealers often think a small obstacle, such as paying for a long-distance phone call, will attract calls from more qualified prospects. And this is true when your prospect comes to you by referral. But if your prospect does not have a personal recommendation -- and has not yet received your marketing message -- They may have no greater interest in using your dealership vs another in your area. I urge you to provide an e-mail address, toll-free number, and other conveniences. These increase the likelihood that your prospect will contact you before they look at your competition.

Making Your Dealer Website More Powerful

Dealers, when it comes to marketing, you gain nothing by sitting around and waiting.  Don't put off marketing any longer.

Your dealership website should contain information that achieves the 6 essential elements that provide marketing and customer attraction success:

These are:

1) Credibility

 2) Differences

 3) Interaction

 4) Urgency

 5) Commitment

 6) Loyalty

Your web site should be one place your dealership displays your entire marketing message. Your message should include these 13 must haves:

 

(1) a powerful subtitle, beyond your Dealership's name

(2) substantive content identifying your prospects problem, proving it exists, identifying the solution, proving it works, and building yourself into the solution,

(3) advice on how to choose a dealer in the area of car sales you want to promote,

(4) a call to action spelling out the action you want your prospect to take,

(5) dealer principal photo and a detailed biography of owner / history

(6) results you have had with credit problem clients,

(7) testimonials from past clients - images and video

(8) letters of recommendation from colleagues and professionals in your city

(9) a detailed list of services you offer,

(10) a services letter that explains to prospects how to hire the right mechanic,

(11) the many ways prospects benefit from choosing your dealership,

(12) a list of your competitive advantages identifying how you differ from all dealers in your area,

(13) a list of your prospect=s objectives, which can be emailed so they can mark by priority and return to you by fax or email, or bring with them to your dealership, and

Need more help for your Dealership - we here at AMP Solutions give your Dealership the chance to grow!

 

 

Car Dealer Online Checklist

As we are part way in a new hopeful new year, I thought it would be helpful to deliver my top five items for a social media strategy checklist for 2013.

And, as we also enter a new year of Google changes to the ever-important search algorithm, I will include, as any smart marketer will do, a review of SEO from a social standpoint.

Here they are:

1: Internal Team
Ensure key staff members are o...n board with entering into the technology stage

2. Collection of Internatl Assets
A good start is a complete analysis of all previous customers / sales and leads to begin with

3. Review of 2012 Efforts
The only way to assess and trigger your business is to see what your previous activity (2012) has done to drive customers to your dealership.

4. Review Your SEO Program
Have your previous efforts delivered quality leads to your website? If not, it is time to adobe a new strategy for marketing online.

5. Define 2013 Goals
Are you selling new or used cars, parts or services?

Engage your customers with the following ways:

•Excellent customer / client service
•Updates on your brand, vehicles, parts and services
•Education of the customer around your value
•Making your dealership go viral on the web
•Acting as a thought-leader by taking the lead in online education

Mastering this checklist will propel y our 2013 goals to new heights.

Creative Advertising In Your Dealership

Beware of Creativity In Your Car Dealership

Creativity can creep into the picture many ways, including your own boredom with your business; overestimating the sophistication of your market; taking advice from unqualified sources, etc. The most important thing to remember, as David Ogilvy put it is: creativity is what sells.

Every element of an ad, printed piece, or strategy should advance the sales process. If something does not move the prospect closer to purchasing, what is its purpose?

It's interesting to note that much of the advertising that wins the awards and the approval of the advertiser, his associates, friends and family members fails miserably in selling anything.

Most marketing purposes can best be served by sticking to the proven basics, rather than relying on the current creativity fads.

Now, go ahead and take a fine look at your advertising to see just how creative you are being in your dealership.

Customers - New Customers VS Repeat Customers

Most every dealer spends a ton of energy, money and time on obtaining new customers. I am an eager and continuous student of marketing and business and if you’re an eager beaver, you’ve probably also read a few books and articles about different marketing strategies designed to help you get more new customers into your dealership.

It seems that every week or month there’s some new advertising technique promising you the best way to get to attract more clients.

It is proven that continual new customer acquisition proves to be very costly. So, as new or used car dealer, how do you compete? How can you get more paying customers through your showroom, parts and service counter?

No doubt about it—getting new customers is tough, and in the current economy, even more so!

Is there a better way to expand your dealership sales and service?

Oh yes there is! 

As a manager or DP, you know just how difficult it can be to get new customers.  Would it not be smart to hold onto these customers for as long as you can?

 

Repeat Customers

It is much cheaper and quite simple to grow your current customer base into more paying customers  rather than trying to attract new customers. It’s also proves to put more cash into your pocket!

If your dealership is looking to fix your draining customer base, simply add more to their experience.  Selling more services and / or vehicles to customers who already have dealt with your dealership (and know who you are) is far easier than attempting to stretch across your city in search of new customers..

Think about it this:

Who would you rather call:  

a) Customer who you know will probably buy

b) Someone you’ve never met, to whom you’ll have to explain your dealership and services and convince them it’s got value and that you are a trustworthy and reputable business?

Over 90% of dealers will pick going after new customers.

But the smarter dealers who choose existing customers who already find value in your dealership and on top of that - they trust you. That’s why they’re your customers.  It’s easier, and there’s a greater chance of selling them parts, services, oil changes and a new vehicle.

Building trust in your customers is a constant up-hill battle. Nearly every new customer has a strong distrust taste in their mouth at the start of any sales cycle.

Start by thinking of yourself as a customer. When approaching a car dealership, do you immediately trust the high pressure sales rep? I am guessing not unless you know them / were referred to them or ready many, many testimonials. Even after this you might still need to verify everything you have been told.

Now, your prospective leads are in no way different and why should they be - People don't trust car dealers...?

No matter whether you are a new or used car dealer; your best bet to increase your profits is to gig deep with your existing customers. Plus, the longer they deal with your dealership the greater chance they will talk about you with the friends / family and spend more money at your dealership.

Take the time to increase your customer base and referrals with our effective services at www.automarketingprofits.com

Is Your Dealership Website Working For You Or Not?

Note: Before you begin, if you're NOT 100% serious about getting your dealership website to the top of Google, Yahoo, and MSN, don't read another word.

If you're anything like I was when I first began online, your dealership probably has a website in the last year or two.  It may or may not be converting visitors into actual leads but you are happy with it.

The company who built it submitted it to a few search engines and you were hoping that people would mysteriously show up at your site and buy whatever it is you were selling.

After a couple of weeks go by and only a few stray people show up at your website, you decide to try and "optimize" your website around your main keyword in hopes that you just might rank well in 1 of the millions of search engines. Another couple of weeks go by and still no luck.

At this point you probably give up and decide to either build another website around a different target

market or just lose all hope and quit. Well, news flash, as you've probably figured out by now, this is not the way to go about doing things.

Let me give you a specific example of what your very first steps MUST be when creating any website... no matter what the subject matter.

 

In our example, let's create a "car loan" related website. Before we start creating and collecting content for the website, we need to do a little keyword research. This is VERY important and should not be skipped. To do our keyword research we need to visit a few websites.

The first of which should be http://www.goodkeywords.com/.

They have a very good keyword tool, and best of all it's free! Once we've downloaded this software, we can enter the most generic keyword for our website into the software. In this example, our keyword would be "car loans".

If you looked at the example you will see how many times per month people were looking for "car loans".  Do NOT start out by optimizing for a generic keyword that is searched too many times.  Go for keywords that are searched a bit lower and target for your general area.

Now - you can go to your own dealership website and do some research to see if that company that built your site actually knows what they are doing.