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.