All Discussions Tagged 'management' - DealerELITE.net2024-03-29T12:35:02Zhttps://www.dealerelite.net/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=management&feed=yes&xn_auth=noAutomated Lead Generation: The Future of Powersports Marketingtag:www.dealerelite.net,2020-10-12:5283893:Topic:13570132020-10-12T19:58:03.992ZJenhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/Jen
<p>Automated lead generation and marketing is the next step in your marketing platform evolution. When it comes to building your Powersports dealership, you always need to be looking forward and finding your next best move. If you’re looking at the now, you’re looking too far behind. Your marketing plan will need to include AI and automated solutions, and as time goes on, more and more of those become available.</p>
<p>Automated lead generation and marketing are the latest in…</p>
<p>Automated lead generation and marketing is the next step in your marketing platform evolution. When it comes to building your Powersports dealership, you always need to be looking forward and finding your next best move. If you’re looking at the now, you’re looking too far behind. Your marketing plan will need to include AI and automated solutions, and as time goes on, more and more of those become available.</p>
<p>Automated lead generation and marketing are the latest in <a href="https://psxdigital.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AI solutions</a> that you can integrate into your CRM platform. This tool is intuitive and can even learn as it goes, giving you less work to do in every regard. Not only will you have less to worry about when you integrate this tool, but it will also allow you to hand over lead generation so that you can focus your efforts elsewhere.</p>
<p><em><strong>The Future is Automated</strong></em></p>
<p>Artificial intelligence is only going to become more useful over the years, and there may come a time when you can't function without automation and AI tools that are designed for Powersports dealers. However, it's always best to integrate sooner when you can and make sure that you are ready for the new world of marketing automation before you lose out on too many deals.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8029313259?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-left" width="202" height="202"/></p>
<p>Being able to take your hands off the lead funnel and most other aspects of <a href="https://psxdigital.com/ai-powersports-crm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">customer management</a> and the marketing funnel will give you more time to put your hands into the customer experience. Do this right on the sales floor, and spend your energy on other tasks that need your attention. Automating as much as you can means you'll reduce the manpower required for daily operation, eliminate redundancies, and trust that the data side of the marketing and lead generation provides accurate and useful insights in addition to everything else that it offers.</p>
<p>Upgrade Now for Improved Operations at Every Level</p>
<p>In any business, the goal is profits. When you have the best tools and solutions integrated to assist you in day-to-day operations, you will be able to reduce your overhead costs. You will also eliminate waste and ensure that you are doing everything to maximize profits while also maximizing the buyer experience.</p>
<p>Automated lead marketing assistants can even score and qualify leads to help you prioritize them or connect potential buyers directly to a person when they're ready to buy or want more information from a human source. It's all about getting more out of your dealership, and this solution offers that and so much more.</p> 4 FACTORS THAT AFFECT A FLEET DRIVER’S DRIVING PERFORMANCEtag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-10-06:5283893:Topic:4641102015-10-06T01:35:06.725ZGraeme Parkerhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/GraemeParker
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-6" style="color: #000000;"><a href="https://ukfleetsolutions.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/4-factors-that-affect-a-fleet-drivers-driving-performance/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000000;">4 FACTORS THAT AFFECT A FLEET DRIVER’S DRIVING PERFORMANCE</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-5" style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #000000;">Please feel free to add your ideas. Thanks!</span></span></p> What's the Deal With TrueCar? One Salesman's Take On The Service That Seems To Be Everywheretag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-05-24:5283893:Topic:4552672015-05-24T01:17:03.851ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">A couple of weeks ago a middle-aged woman came to my dealership to buy one of our best-selling Bel Canto sedans. Before coming in, she had gone online and gotten a price quote from TrueCar. TrueCar passed along her contact information to us along with the quote. When I looked at the quote, which TrueCar calls a "Price Report," I was amazed by the amount of information it showed and its accuracy. The price was broken down like this:…</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">A couple of weeks ago a middle-aged woman came to my dealership to buy one of our best-selling Bel Canto sedans. Before coming in, she had gone online and gotten a price quote from TrueCar. TrueCar passed along her contact information to us along with the quote. When I looked at the quote, which TrueCar calls a "Price Report," I was amazed by the amount of information it showed and its accuracy. The price was broken down like this:</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">TrueCar Member Network Estimated Price: $24,019.00 <br/>Invoice Price: $23,899.00 <br/>+ Options: ($0.00) <br/>+ Regional Ad Fees ($0.00) <br/>+ Destination Fee ($820.00) <br/>+ Dealer Offset From Invoice (-$700.00) <br/>- Dealer Cash ($0.00) <br/>- Finance Cash ($0.00) <br/>- Customer Incentives ($0.00) <br/>- Program Incentives ($0.00) <br/>Minimum Estimated Savings = $1,696.00 Below MSRP</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">All you Rip Van Winkles who still believe in phony invoices or complain about the "lack of transparency" in car sales today need to snap out of your hundred-year sleep and take a look at a TrueCar Price Report. It's ALL there. Every bit of it, except for dealer holdback and, curiously enough, MSRP, or manufacturer's suggested retail price, but both are readily available elsewhere. This single e-mail from TrueCar provides the customer with <em>everything the dealer knows</em>. Which is truly remarkable if you think about it.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What exactly is TrueCar? Well, according to its website, <a href="http://www.truecar.com">www.truecar.com</a>, it is an "information provider." Founded in 2005, the California-based company collects pricing information on automobiles and passes it along to consumers at no charge.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What's different about TrueCar is that the information it provides is based on real-world transactions, relayed by participating dealerships, and it's updated weekly, with manufacturer incentives checked daily. If you go to TrueCar's website you can put in your ZIP code and pull up a graph representing what others in your area have paid for the vehicle you want within the past few weeks, ranging from the lowest (which it calls the "Unusually Low Price") to the highest ("Above Market Price"). TrueCar will then provide you with a Price Report, which you can take to one of about 10,000 participating TrueCar Certified Dealerships across the country, thus eliminating the hassle of car buying.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">But TrueCar, like all third-party price providers, has it weaknesses. For one, what happens when consumers build a car online and get a Price Report from TrueCar only to find that the "virtual car" they've conjured up on the computer doesn't exist or isn't available in their area? Well, I've experienced it firsthand. The result is a great deal of frustration, and no deal.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The problems with my customer began when we discovered we didn't have the exact color and option package she wanted, and we had to explain to her that, generally speaking, special pricing like TrueCar's <em>is only good on vehicles that are currently in dealer inventory</em>. This is a common problem with quotes from third-party sources such as USAA or Edmunds. Even though it's usually stated on most of these websites that their price is only available on vehicles in stock, 99 percent of the consumers I deal with do not notice the disclaimer. My customer got very upset when she found out we couldn't get the exact vehicle she wanted from another dealership. To try to salvage a deal, we told her we would be happy to give her the TrueCar price on any vehicle in stock, and she agreed to take a look at our inventory.</span></p>
<div class="bq-Cntnr mtArticleBlockQuote"><blockquote class="bq"><h2><span class="font-size-3">How are we supposed to sell someone a car for less than we paid for it?</span></h2>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Unfortunately, the closest thing we had to what she wanted was a performance model, the Bel Canto GT, which had a price of $28,475 – about $2,775 higher than the vehicle she originally came in to buy. But my customer agreed to buy it if we could get our price "close to" the target price TrueCar had given her on the first vehicle. After I presented her with numbers based on TrueCar pricing for the GT model, she said we were "way off." According to her, we should be able to sell her our $28,475 car for $24,500. That's $500 above the original TrueCar quote and $3,975 below sticker price. And she wouldn't budge.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Keep in mind, the Bel Canto isn't chopped liver. It sells well, it's gotten great reviews and won many awards, and we have absolutely NO incentives on them. Zero rebates. Zero dealer cash. And exactly $1,004 of markup to play with. When I pointed all this out to my customer and showed her that TrueCar's Price Report confirmed what I was saying, she was unmoved. The highest she would go was $24,500. In exasperation, I asked her: "Ma'am, when you got this quote from TrueCar, did they explain how we were supposed to sell you a car for $3,000 less than we paid for it?"</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Long story short, we gave the customer our lowest price, which meant losing money, and she got angry and left. Later, she told my sales manager I had been rude and she would never buy a car from us -- ever. Several weeks later, this whole experience still plagues me. How are we supposed to sell someone a car for less than we paid for it? In what world does this make sense?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">When TrueCar first started out, it caused a great deal of apprehension in the car industry. Its advertising was built around the goal of providing consumers with "the lowest price." To those of us in sales, that means taking money out of our pockets. Maybe even putting us out of business. Since then, however, TrueCar has shifted its emphasis and now its slogan is "Never overpay." Which sounds a little nicer, and suggests that maybe dealerships are entitled to some profit. But whether the goal is providing the lowest price or protecting consumers from overpaying, I think the biggest problem many of us in the car business have with TrueCar – or AutoTrader, Edmunds "True Market Value," USAA, or any other similar service -- is the idea that a third party can dictate what we should sell our products for.Let me put it this way. Suppose you had a little artistic talent, and you liked working in clay, so you saved your money and opened up a little shop down on Main Street, selling pottery. You're pretty successful, and then, one day, some guy sets up shop across the street from you, and his whole gig is telling people they're overpaying for your pots and what they should really be paying is X, not Y. How would you feel?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I defy anyone to find any other industry where a company's actual costs and incentives are as well known, or as clearly spelled out, as they are in car sales. Buying a boat? Go online and try to find out how much the dealer paid for it. Good luck. There is no such thing as "TrueBoat." Same with motorcycles. Want to know how much profit the dealer is making on that Harley-Davidson Street Glide or what the last guy paid for one? </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You won't find that kind of information on "TrueMotorcycle" because it doesn't exist.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Only in the realm of car sales is accurate, comprehensive, up-to-date information readily available for public consumption, and <strong>only in car sales is it accepted practice for a company to exist solely for the purpose of telling consumers what they should pay for another company's products</strong>. And, get this -- they even charge the company selling the products money for cutting their prices! Again, kind of mind-boggling.</span></p>
<div class="bq-Cntnr mtArticleBlockQuote"><blockquote class="bq"><h2><span class="font-size-3">It's a fact: TrueCar makes dealerships money, or it wouldn't be so successful.</span></h2>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">But there's a reason car dealerships pay for TrueCar's services. It's because TrueCar is the No. 1 provider for car dealerships all across the United States. One general sales manager I interviewed said this: "I love TrueCar. When TrueCar customers come in they're ready to buy, and TrueCar cuts out all the back and forth. Most of the time dealerships take two or three hours negotiating and still end up at the TrueCar price anyway, so this just cuts out the hassle and makes things easier for everyone." It's a fact: TrueCar makes dealerships money, or it wouldn't be so successful.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If you ask TrueCar, it will say that its mission is to "make the car-buying process simple, fair and fun." Strangely enough, that's my goal, too. And I can certainly see how TrueCar makes the car buying process fair . . . for consumers. But is it fair for lowly little salespeople like myself? I'm not so sure about that. Basically, what third-party pricing means for me is, no matter how well I know my product, no matter how good a presentation I give you, no matter how well I treat you or exceed your expectations, <em>you'll still only pay me what TrueCar has told you to pay me</em>. Which completely robs me of any motivation I have to learn my product, give you a good presentation, build value, treat you well, or exceed your expectations. For me, you're a "mini deal."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">You're the smallest commission I can make. So my goal will be to get you in and out as quickly as possible. Or, you've been convinced that I can do the impossible -- sell you a car for a huge loss -- which only wastes everyone's time. Is this fair to anyone?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">To me, this isn't the how free market system should work, and in the long run it may not benefit the consumer. Of course, TrueCar would probably disagree with my assessment and say, "We're not setting ourselves up as price dictators. We're simply collecting data and informing the consumer of what others in their area are paying so they don't overpay." I tried to get TrueCar's side of the debate from executives, but they declined to be interviewed.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">But let's face it. The reason companies like TrueCar exist is that we in the car business have, over the past 60 years or so, destroyed the public's faith in us. We have unintentionally made the process of buying a car so difficult, so stressful, and so loathsome that people will actually <em>pay someone else to do it for them</em>. Until that changes, companies like TrueCar will continue to thrive -- and our prices will continue to be determined not by how good a product we offer or how well we do our jobs, but by third parties whom people trust more than they do us.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.motortrend.com/1505_car_salesman_confidential_whats_the_deal_with_truecar.html" target="_blank">Article from Motor Trend's Blog</a></p> The 7 Deadly Sins of Customer Experiencetag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-07:5283893:Topic:4476322015-03-07T00:19:19.130ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">Is your company committing the 7 Deadly Sins of customer experience?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Recently, my kids asked me about the 7 Deadly Sins; I don’t remember how the topic came up, but when they ask, I answer. Of course, as I ran down the list and explained them (in a PG kind of way), I pondered sins of the customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I guess that put me on a 7 Deadly Sins kick. I just hosted a webinar about the 7…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Is your company committing the 7 Deadly Sins of customer experience?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Recently, my kids asked me about the 7 Deadly Sins; I don’t remember how the topic came up, but when they ask, I answer. Of course, as I ran down the list and explained them (in a PG kind of way), I pondered sins of the customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I guess that put me on a 7 Deadly Sins kick. I just hosted a webinar about the 7 Deadly Sins of Journey Mapping. I’ll take a broader stroke</span> in <span class="font-size-3">this post and look at customer experience management overall.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The 7 Deadly Sins are mortal sins (as opposed to minor sins) and are considered to be the root of all other sins. If you commit these sins, failure is certain. Are there more than seven sins in customer experience? Yes, probably. But I think these are the most egregious; if you are guilty of these, you won’t successfully transform the customer experience for the better.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">1. No executive commitment</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Probably the biggest Sin to commit is to think you can transform anything without executive buy-in. If company leadership isn’t on board with focusing on the customer, then forget it; it won’t happen. Oh sure, you might have localized or departmentalized efforts, but those will be</span> silo’d <span class="font-size-3">efforts that translate to</span> silo’d experiences <span class="font-size-3">for the customer. Without executive commitment, you’ll never get resources – human, capital, or other – to execute on your customer experience strategy.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">2. Lack of CX vision and strategy</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Following up</span> to <span class="font-size-3">my last statement regarding executive commitment, you must, of course, have a customer experience vision and strategy. CX Strategy refers to your approach to delivering a great customer experience. It’s your plan or direction. Your strategy outlines how you’re going to achieve the goal of delivering a great customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Without a vision and a strategy, you can’t achieve your goals, and your employees can’t deliver a great experience. Without knowing what you’re delivering, it’s really hard to execute! If leaders don’t define the vision, communicate the brand promise, and outline what success looks like, employees can’t be expected to deliver on it.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">3. Failing to outline a governance structure</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Without a governance structure in place, we perpetuate silo thinking and fail to achieve cross-functional alignment, involvement, and commitment. Why? Because a governance structure outlines people, roles, and responsibilities when it comes to your customer experience strategy. Who is going to ensure that there</span> is <span class="font-size-3">alignment and accountability across the organization? We often see this piece of the governance structure refer to a core program team, an executive sponsor, and cross-functional champions. Your oversight committee should include the team of people you believe will best carry out the strategy, driven by your corporate and customer experience vision, for your organization.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">You’ll need to have clearly-defined rules and guidelines for how the customer experience management strategy will be executed. Who will drive the efforts and how? How will you transform to a customer-centric culture? How will organizational buy-in be achieved? How do you continue to motivate employees to focus on the customer? How will you listen to customers? Who will use the data and how? Where does accountability lie? What processes and policies must be in place in order to roll out these efforts? How will change management be handled? How will you measure success? How does it all tie</span> in to <span class="font-size-3">our desired business outcomes?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">4. Not understanding – and listening to – your customers</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">You can’t transform something you don’t understand. Included in that “understanding” is not only the current state of the experience but also (especially) the customer himself. Who is he?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Do you know – really know – who your customers are? They might be partners, resellers, and/or end customers/users. Why do they buy products and services from you? What are their needs? What problems are they trying to solve? What are they trying to achieve? And how do they feel about how you are performing or how you are meeting their needs? I’m talking about personas, journey mapping, and voice of the customer.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">5. Not acting on what your customers tell you</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">This one is simple: You can’t listen to your customers and then <i>not </i>act on what they’re telling you. How disappointing! It’s wrong on so many levels!</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Are you making improvements based on customers’ feedback? Are you letting customers know what you’ve done as a result of their feedback? You must! And if you don’t, then you’re missing a huge opportunity, for a variety of reasons.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">6. Making the employee experience an afterthought</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">… or not thinking about it at all.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Why? Because we know that the employee experience drives the customer experience. It’s called the <i>spillover effect</i>, or “the tendency of one person’s emotions to affect how other people around him feel.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I like to quote this <a href="http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/801.html" target="_blank" class="external">1999 article from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge</a> that summarizes the work Sears executives did to rebuild the company to focus on customers. The article talks about the new business model and what they discovered: <i>There is a chain of cause and effect running from employee behavior to customer behavior to profits. </i>Imagine: their model is data-based!</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">7. Perpetuating inside-out thinking</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Inside-out thinking means your focus is on processes that are designed and implemented based on internal thinking and intuition. The customer’s needs and perspectives do not play a part in this type of thinking. You make decisions because you think it’s what’s best for the business.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">On the other hand, outside-in thinking means that you look at your business from the customer’s perspective and subsequently design processes and make decisions based on what’s best for the customer and what meets the customer’s needs. You make decisions because you know it’s what’s best for your customers.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Which of these Sins is your company guilty of?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-deadly-sins-customer-experience-01170978" target="_blank">Article Link</a></span></p>
<p><span><br/>Read more at <a href="http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-deadly-sins-customer-experience-01170978#rI5Rm25YxyY4c249.99">http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-deadly-sins-customer-experience-01170978#rI5Rm25YxyY4c249.99</a></span></p> Your Customer Is A Narcissist: How To Turn This To Your Advantage In Customer Loyaltytag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-02:5283893:Topic:4468322015-03-02T12:40:53.695ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>The customer’s at the center of the customer’s universe</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">A customer wants to feel that they’re at the center of your (the service provider’s) world. Customers are, after all, already at the center of <em>their own</em> world, their own reality. All that matters to the customer <em>is</em> the customer and the people whom the customer cares about, a category that only tangentially includes you, the service…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>The customer’s at the center of the customer’s universe</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">A customer wants to feel that they’re at the center of your (the service provider’s) world. Customers are, after all, already at the center of <em>their own</em> world, their own reality. All that matters to the customer <em>is</em> the customer and the people whom the customer cares about, a category that only tangentially includes you, the service provider. It’s important to absorb this reality–because it <em>is</em> </span>reality<span class="font-size-3">. Drill this reality into every single member of your staff–not just once, but as often as every day–and keep it in mind, in good times and bad, yourself.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">While it sounds dispiriting to accept your tangential position in your customers’ lives (your business, after all, is the center of <em>your</em> universe, or at least of your</span> worklife<span class="font-size-3">), this acceptance <em>paves the way for a magical result that can lead directly to sustainable customer success</em>: It allows you to get to work creating the illusion that the customer is at the absolute center of <em>your</em> </span>world <span class="font-size-3">as well as her own. This is, in a sense, an</span> illusion, <span class="font-size-3">because you have (I hope) more than one customer to support. But it is an extremely powerful business-building illusion if you can successfully pull it off.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>The Red Bench Principle</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If the self-interested, even narcissistic portrait I’m painting of customers makes them sound childish, yes, I agree overall with that childish (or at least child-like) characterization, or at least I find it useful. In fact, one of my favorite ways of giving myself a reality check about customers is to think about the day, years ago, that my wife and I took our daughter to the first day of her morning nursery school. On this fine New England morning, my wife and I delivered our daughter to her new school for her first half day of nursery school. The young, hippie-trippy teacher collected her from us outside the classroom, where the three of us were sitting together on a red park bench. When the teacher returned our daughter to us at noon, my wife and I happened to be sitting, in the early-autumn warmth, on that same red bench. It wasn’t until a week or three later, as the routine continued, that it became evident that our daughter thought her two parents were sitting on that red bench each day throughout the entire morning, awaiting her return. She didn’t think this in a vague or metaphorical sense. She didn’t kind of half-believe this. She <em>really</em> believed it.</span></p>
<div><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Customer-Star-Millennials-Everyone-ebook/dp/B00QRJ9MPM/ref=sr_1_2?utm_source=article&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=customerserveebook">Your Customer Is The Star: An eBook From Forbes </a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Customer-Star-Millennials-Everyone-ebook/dp/B00QRJ9MPM/ref=sr_1_2?utm_source=article&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=customerserveebook">How to make millennials, Boomers and everyone in between fall in love with your business. By Micah Solomon.</a></span></div>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The lesson here is this: For a customer, as with a little kid, they’re not going to be thinking about your other obligations, interests, activities. They’ll</span> think, <span class="font-size-3">until you prove them wrong (which would be a mistake) that you’re all about them. And as a service provider you benefit from giving this impression—this illusion, in a sense–rather than becoming resentful that the customer’s presumptuous enough to be thinking this way. It’s a credit to your business, actually, and to your level of service, if they believe that you’re truly all about them all the time.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">In our daughter’s case, what were we doing in the hours when we were out of sight? We ate. We did other work, including behind the scenes work necessary</span> for <span class="font-size-3">her ultimate happiness as our “customer,” as well as work which had nothing to do with her. We even, if there was</span> time<span class="font-size-3">, slipped off to the bathroom. We <em>were</em> thinking of her, but not every minute. But—and here’s what mattered in keeping up the illusion—we were there for her even before she came outside to look for us after school was over, and we were <em>entirely</em> there for her when she did.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">So, I’m going to suggest you throw out the clichéd image of wowing your customers by “rolling out the red carpet” and replace it</span> in <span class="font-size-3">your thinking with “sitting on the red bench” as the ultimate in customer care. In other words, what’s most important isn’t to just put on an all-star show for your customers as much as it’s to manage to create and maintain the illusion that you are always there awaiting your customer, attending to them as if you had nothing else on your agenda that could possibly interfere.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Pull this off and you’re well on your way to guaranteeing yourself a customer for life. Because, really: if you make them feel this way, why would your customer go anywhere else? Even if they did momentarily lapse into trying out one of your competitors, will your customer ever be able to replicate the feeling that they got from you? Unlikely. Very, very unlikely.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/03/01/your-customer-is-a-narcissist-embrace-this-reality-to-boost-customer-loyalty-and-engagement/?ss=salesmarketing" target="_blank">Article Link</a></span></p> Remember: It’s a Buyer’s Journey, Not a Sales Cycletag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-02-18:5283893:Topic:4456922015-02-18T01:55:51.322ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<h1 class="entry-title post-title"><img alt="kaufen, verkaufen, Börse, Aktienhandel, Spekulation, Bulle, Bä" class="wp-post-image" height="676" src="http://www.salesforlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dollarphotoclub_73488607.jpg" style="font-size: 13px;" width="900"></img></h1>
<div class="post-entry"><p dir="ltr">As a sales professional, you’re no doubt familiar with the sales cycle. Your sales manager has probably used the term many times when talking about the sales process. It goes like this: You start with a discovery call, which leads to a demonstration, followed by drafting a proposal, negotiating the deal, and finally closing the deal.</p>
<p></p>
<p dir="ltr">This may be the internal process your organization…</p>
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<h1 class="entry-title post-title"><img width="900" height="676" src="http://www.salesforlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dollarphotoclub_73488607.jpg" class="wp-post-image" alt="kaufen, verkaufen, Börse, Aktienhandel, Spekulation, Bulle, Bä" style="font-size: 13px;"/></h1>
<div class="post-entry"><p dir="ltr">As a sales professional, you’re no doubt familiar with the sales cycle. Your sales manager has probably used the term many times when talking about the sales process. It goes like this: You start with a discovery call, which leads to a demonstration, followed by drafting a proposal, negotiating the deal, and finally closing the deal.</p>
<p></p>
<p dir="ltr">This may be the internal process your organization takes, but it means that you’re fitting the buyer into your sales cycle. The reality? A buyer goes through a very different process. In fact, the <a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/lori_wizdo/12-10-04-buyer_behavior_helps_b2b_marketers_guide_the_buyers_journey">buyer controls the buying process more than sellers control the selling process</a>. This means that you need to get inside your buyer’s journey.</p>
<h2>The 5 Steps of a Buyer’s Journey</h2>
<p><span><strong>1. Status Quo</strong>. </span>During this step, buyers are happy with the way things are, and are not yet willing to make a purchase decision. The status quo never lasts, however, and buyers will inevitably move into Step 2.</p>
<p><span><strong>2. Priority Shift</strong>.</span> It’s inevitable that the status quo won’t last. Something will usually happen to change your buyer’s priorities. Maybe their competitor has a new product, or there’s a shift in personnel or capital. Whatever the circumstances, when a shift occurs, a buyer realizes that the status quo no longer works. That’s when they experience a priority shift, which moves them into Step 3.</p>
<p><span><strong>3. Conceptual Solutions</strong>. </span>At this stage, your buyer is looking for solutions, and arming him or herself with information to make an informed decision. They’re searching online for articles, blog posts, and other content and digesting information. This step is ideal for marketing automation software because you’re tracking buyers who are downloading and digesting your content. Armed with the knowledge that your content provides, the buyer then moves into Step 4.</p>
<p><span><strong>4. Vendor Review</strong>. </span>During the vendor review, buyers will be researching specific vendors in search of companies who can provide solutions to their problem.</p>
<p><span><strong>5. Purchase Decision</strong>. </span>The buyer is ready to purchase, and will hopefully choose your company to provide solutions.</p>
<p>As a sales manager, it’s important to recognize where you think your sales professionals are adding the most value. Sales professionals typically tend to add value at Step 4—the vendor review. But they instead need to align themselves with the buyer’s journey long before clients search for specific vendors.</p>
<p>If you wait for the vendor review stage, you’re missing a huge opportunity. According to Lori Wizdo, Principal Analyst at Forrester, “buyers might be anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out to the vendor.” Your buyer has done a large amount of research long before they even contact you. So realizing that you can affect the buyer’s journey long before the vendor review will help you create the <a href="http://info.salesforlife.com/10-steps-to-building-a-social-selling-machine">social selling machine</a> your business needs to succeed.</p>
</div>
<p><span>- <strong>See more</strong> at: <strong><a href="http://www.salesforlife.com/sales-advice/remember-its-a-buyers-journey-not-a-sales-cycle/#sthash.A2TzN73z.dpuf">http://www.salesforlife.com/sales-advice/remember-its-a-buyers-journey-not-a-sales-cycle/#sthash.A2TzN73z.dpuf</a></strong></span></p> 14 Secrets of Really Persuasive Peopletag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-02-16:5283893:Topic:4457132015-02-16T01:21:56.103ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">Whether you’re convincing your boss to fund your project or your preschooler to wipe his own hiney after using the bathroom, persuasion is a skill that's instrumental to your success in life.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people have an uncanny ability to get you leaning toward their way of thinking. Their secret weapon is likeability. They get you to like more than their ideas; they get you to like <em>them.…</em></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Whether you’re convincing your boss to fund your project or your preschooler to wipe his own hiney after using the bathroom, persuasion is a skill that's instrumental to your success in life.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people have an uncanny ability to get you leaning toward their way of thinking. Their secret weapon is likeability. They get you to like more than their ideas; they get you to like <em>them.</em></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Here are the 15 tricks of the trade that exceptionally persuasive people use to their advantage.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Know their Audience</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people know their audience inside and out, and they use this knowledge to speak their audience’s language. Whether it’s toning down your assertiveness when talking to someone who is shy or cranking it up for the aggressive, high-energy type, everyone is different, and catching on to these subtleties goes a long way toward getting them to hear your point of view.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Connect</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">People are much more likely to accept what you have to say once they have a sense of what kind of person you are. In a negotiation study, students were asked to reach agreement in class. Without</span> instruction <span class="font-size-3">of any kind, 55% of the students successfully reached agreement. However, when students were instructed to introduce themselves and share their background before attempting to reach agreement, 90% of the students did so successfully.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The key here is to avoid getting too caught up in the back and forth of the discussion. The person you are speaking with is a person, not an opponent or a target. No matter how compelling your argument, if you fail to connect on a personal level, he or she will doubt everything you say.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Aren’t Pushy</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people establish their ideas assertively and confidently, without being aggressive or pushy. Pushy people are a huge</span> turn off<span class="font-size-3">. The in-your-face approach starts the recipient backpedaling, and before long, they’re running for the hills. Persuasive people don’t ask for much, and they don’t argue vehemently for their position because they know that subtlety is what wins people</span> over <span class="font-size-3">in the long run. If you tend to come across as too aggressive, focus on being confident but calm. Don’t be impatient and overly persistent. Know that if your idea is really a good one, people will catch on if you give them time. If you don’t, they won’t catch on at all.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Aren’t Mousy</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">On the other hand, presenting your ideas as questions or as though they need approval makes them seem flawed and unconvincing. If you tend to be shy, focus on presenting your ideas as statements and interesting facts for the other party to mull over. Also, remove qualifiers from your speech. When you are trying to be persuasive, there is no room for “I think” or “It is possible that.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Use Positive Body Language</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Becoming cognizant of your gestures, expressions, and tone of voice (and making certain they’re positive) will engage people and open them up to your arguments. Using an enthusiastic tone, uncrossing your arms, maintaining eye contact, and leaning towards the person who’s speaking are all forms of positive body language that persuasive people use to draw others in. Positive body language will engage your audience and convince them that what you’re saying is valid. When it comes to persuasion, <em>how</em> you say something can be more important than <em>what</em> you say.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Are Clear and Concise</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people are able to communicate their ideas quickly and clearly. When you have a firm grasp</span> on <span class="font-size-3">what you’re talking about, it’s fun and easy to explain it to those who don’t understand. A good strategy here is to know your subject so well that you could explain it to a child. If you can explain yourself effectively to someone who has no background on the subject, you can certainly make a persuasive case with someone who does.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Are Genuine</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Being genuine and honest is essential to being persuasive. No one likes a fake. People gravitate toward those who are genuine because they know they can trust them. It’s difficult to believe someone when you don’t know who they really are and how they really feel.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people know who they are. They are confident enough to be comfortable in their own skin. By concentrating on what drives you and makes you happy as an individual, you become a much more interesting and persuasive person than if you attempt to win people over by trying to be the person they want you to be.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Acknowledge Your Point of View</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">An extremely powerful tactic of persuasion is to concede the point. Admit that your argument is not perfect. This shows that you are open minded and willing to make adjustments, instead of stubbornly sticking to your cause. You want your audience to know that you have their best interests at heart. Try using statements such as, “I see where you are coming from,” and “That makes a lot of</span> sense<span class="font-size-3">.” This shows that you are actively listening to what they are saying, and you won’t just force your ideas upon them. Persuasive people allow others to be entitled to their opinions and they treat these opinions as valid. They do this because it shows respect, which makes the other person more likely to consider their point of view.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Ask Good Questions</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The biggest mistake people make when it comes to listening is failing to hear what’s being said because they are focusing on what they’re going to say next or how what the other person is saying is going to affect them. The words come through loud and clear, but the meaning is lost. A simple way to avoid this is to ask a lot of questions. People like to know you’re listening, and something as simple as a clarification question shows not only that you are listening but also that you care about what they’re saying. You’ll be surprised how much respect and appreciation you gain just by asking questions.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Paint a Picture</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Research shows that people are far more likely to be persuaded by something that has visuals that bring it to life. Persuasive people capitalize on this by using powerful visual imagery. When actual images aren’t available or appropriate, these people tell vivid stories that breathe life into their ideas. Good stories create images in the mind of the recipients that are easy to relate to and hard to forget.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Leave a Strong First Impression</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Research shows that most people decide whether or not they like you within the first seven seconds of meeting you. They then spend the rest of the conversation internally justifying their initial reaction. This may sound terrifying, but by knowing this, you can take advantage of it to make huge gains in your likeability and ability to persuade. First impressions are intimately tied to positive body language. Strong posture, a firm handshake, a smile, and opening your shoulders to the person you are talking to will help ensure that your first impression is a good one.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Know When to Step Back</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Urgency is a direct threat to persuasion, so tread lightly. When you try to force people to agree instantly, studies show that they are actually more likely to stand by their original opinion. Your impatience causes them to counter your arguments in favor of their own. If your position is strong, you shouldn’t be afraid to back off and give it time to sink in. Good ideas are often difficult to process instantly, and a bit of time can go a long way.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Greet People by Name</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Your name is an essential part of your identity, and it feels terrific when people use it. Persuasive people make certain they use others’ names every time they see them. You shouldn’t use someone’s name only when you greet him or her. Research shows that people feel validated when the person they’re speaking with refers to them by name.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If you’re great with faces but have trouble with names, have some fun with it, and make remembering people’s names a brain exercise. When you meet someone, don’t be afraid to ask his or her name a second time if you forget it right after you hear it. You’ll need to keep the name handy if you’re going to remember it the next time you see the person.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Are Pleasers</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people never win the battle only to lose the war. They know how and when to stand their ground, and yet they are constantly making sacrifices that help their cause. They are always giving in, giving ground, and doing things for other people that make them happy. Persuasive people do this because they know in the long run this wins people over. They know it’s better to be successful than it is to be “right.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>They Smile</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">People naturally (and unconsciously) mirror the body language of the person they’re talking to. If you want people to like you and believe in you, smile at them during a conversation, and they will unconsciously return the favor and feel good as a result. Persuasive people smile a lot because they have genuine enthusiasm for their ideas. This has a contagious effect on everyone they encounter.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Putting It All Together</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Persuasive people are adept at reading and responding to other people. They rely heavily on emotional intelligence (EQ) to bring people to their way of thinking. With 90% of top performers high in emotional intelligence, it’s no wonder that persuasive people rely on this skill to get ahead. Add these skills to your repertoire, and you’re on your way to joining this exclusive group.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/14-secrets-really-persuasive-people-dr-travis-bradberry?trk=tod-home-art-list-large_0" target="_blank">Article by Dr. Travis Bradberry</a></span></p> Why insiders say subprime auto loans pose no risktag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-02-07:5283893:Topic:4451162015-02-07T20:51:05.310ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">Auto retailers and lenders are trying to debunk the notion that a bubble of rapid growth in subprime auto loans will lead to a wave of defaults, </span>tanking<span class="font-size-3"> the U.S. financial system the way subprime mortgage defaults did before the 2008-09 recession.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Mike Jackson, </span>CEO<span class="font-size-3"> of AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto retailer, dismissed the threat during a conference call…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Auto retailers and lenders are trying to debunk the notion that a bubble of rapid growth in subprime auto loans will lead to a wave of defaults, </span>tanking<span class="font-size-3"> the U.S. financial system the way subprime mortgage defaults did before the 2008-09 recession.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Mike Jackson, </span>CEO<span class="font-size-3"> of AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto retailer, dismissed the threat during a conference call last week. "People. Pay. Their. Auto. Loans," Jackson said, emphasizing each word.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">He said subprime auto loans don't threaten the U.S. economy because auto debt is relatively small -- about $900 billion of American consumers' $12 trillion in debt outstanding -- and because auto defaults are low. "Lower than mortgages. Lower than credit cards. Lower than student loans."</span></p>
<h4><span class="font-size-3">The bubble idea</span></h4>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Wall Street analysts have been asking the auto finance industry about the rise of subprime loans since last summer when <em>The New York Times</em> popularized the bubble idea. The paper in July kicked off an occasional series of articles, now numbering at least seven, called "Driven Into Debt." The series features human-interest stories about poverty-stricken consumers who are apparently tricked into taking out loans they can't afford.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What has legs on Wall Street is that the articles compare the current recovery in subprime auto loans to the bubble in subprime </span>mortgages.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The idea of a subprime bubble also appears to have helped inspire investigations into asset-backed securities by the U.S. Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The subprime mortgage bubble burst when home prices fell. Much of the subprime mortgage industry was built assuming home values could only go up. The housing bust also hit investments backed by subprime mortgages. Lenders in effect had sold bundles of subprime mortgages to investors allegedly without fully disclosing how risky and prone to default the underlying mortgages were.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Auto lenders, especially in the subprime segment, are large issuers of securities backed by subprime auto loans. The practice was noted in a <em>Times</em> article on Jan. 26: "In a kind of alchemy that Wall Street has previously performed with mortgages, thousands of subprime auto loans are bundled together and sold as securities to investors, including mutual funds, insurance </span>companies<span class="font-size-3"> and hedge funds. By slicing and dicing the securities, any losses if borrowers default can be contained, in theory."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The continuing news focus on subprime has forced auto lenders to address the issue repeatedly in their conference calls with analysts.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">On Jan. 29 Ally Financial CFO Christopher </span>Halmy<span class="font-size-3"> fielded a question about Ally's "concentration" of nonprime loans. "As long as we're getting the right risk-adjusted returns, regardless of where we play in the credit spectrum, we are very comfortable with that risk," he replied</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Ford Motor Credit Co. CFO Michael </span>Seneski<span class="font-size-3"> was asked about subprime in a separate call the same day. "With appropriate originations and risk management, a portfolio will perform as expected," </span>Seneski<span class="font-size-3"> said. He noted that Ford Credit's repossession rate in the fourth quarter of 2014 was its lowest fourth-quarter rate ever at 1.06 percent, down from 1.14 percent a year earlier.</span></p>
<h4><span class="font-size-3">Wholly different</span></h4>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Auto finance experts point out that, unlike subprime mortgage investors, subprime auto loan investors didn't lose money during the recession and still aren't. That's true, according to Standard & Poor's </span>Ratings<span class="font-size-3"> Services, even though losses and delinquencies on the underlying loans have started to tick up from recent lows.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Industry insiders also insist that investing in 30-year mortgages, expecting the underlying assets to appreciate, is wholly different from investing in auto loans, which usually are no longer than six years and are backed by a depreciating asset.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">"The vehicle marketplace does not resemble the housing bubble," the American Financial Services Association and other trade groups wrote in a letter to Congress in September.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">In general, industry experts stress that subprime auto loans are growing because they fell so low during the recession. In October and November, subprime loans accounted for 54.9 percent of used-car loans, compared with 55.6 percent for the entire fourth quarter of 2013, according to Experian Automotive. Said Senior Director Melinda </span>Zabritski<span class="font-size-3">: "We're not seeing this big, undisciplined increase in subprime."</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20150207/FINANCE_AND_INSURANCE/302099978/why-insiders-say-subprime-auto-loans-pose-no-risk" target="_blank">Original Article</a></span></p> 4 ways to defeat negativity and build moraletag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-02-07:5283893:Topic:4447722015-02-07T01:16:45.896ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><img alt="" class="fwit" src="http://searchcraft.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/dreamstime_xs_27741270.jpg" title=""></img></p>
<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="font-size-3">On Sunday afternoon, my wife asked if I would cut down the diseased grapefruit tree in our backyard. I used my much loved Wolfgarten tree pruning knife, made of German steel, to do the job. As I was sawing back and forth, I thought of how the knife’s small, sharp teeth were so quickly and easily cutting through the thick trunk the tree had probably developed over the last five to seven years. In fifteen minutes the job was…</span></h1>
<p><img class="fwit" src="http://searchcraft.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/dreamstime_xs_27741270.jpg" alt="" title=""/></p>
<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="font-size-3">On Sunday afternoon, my wife asked if I would cut down the diseased grapefruit tree in our backyard. I used my much loved Wolfgarten tree pruning knife, made of German steel, to do the job. As I was sawing back and forth, I thought of how the knife’s small, sharp teeth were so quickly and easily cutting through the thick trunk the tree had probably developed over the last five to seven years. In fifteen minutes the job was done!</span></h1>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Negative words act very much like the teeth of that saw. No matter how positive and upbeat a team’s culture may be, negativity unchecked can quickly cut through the strong fabric of a team’s morale.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">As a Business Owner or Manager, here are four things you can do with your sales people and support staff, to reduce the damaging effect of negativity,</span></p>
<ol>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Reduce your tolerance for negativity in your work place</strong></span><br/><span class="font-size-3">You approve what you accept, of yourself and others. Set the standard that if people have a problem, they must address it only to those who can provide them with a solution.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Assess the words you are speaking in public</strong></span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Are they full of hope or hopeless? It is essential not to allow your pressures to shape the words you speak to people. If you allow your fears and challenges to dominate your speech, they will undermine the very things you are trying to achieve through your people – growth and success.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Confront people who are generally negative</strong></span><br/><span class="font-size-3">As hard it may seem, it is essential to have a frank and honest chat with staff who are generally negative. Unchecked, these people will spread their attitude, which will result in increased employee dissatisfaction and eventually poor performance and greater turnover. As a Business Owner or Manager , you need to do this for your business and for others who might not have the courage to do so.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Make people take responsibility for the problem</strong></span><br/><span class="font-size-3">People complain when they feel they are not in control. Ask them ‘What are you doing about it?’ For example, if sales are poor, ask how much effort your sales people are putting into generating leads and closing prospects?</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">On a positive note, as you can consciously reduce negativity, you can also increase and build morale. When you do, people begin to believe that change and improvement is possible. They become more engaged, work harder towards goals, enjoy the satisfaction of things coming to fruition and stay longer. Win-win!</span></li>
</ol>
<p><span class="font-size-3">So, start by reducing and removing those sharp teeth (negativity), which can so easily destroy your team’s culture and motivation. The results will speak for themselves.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><a rel="nofollow" href="http://searchcraft.com.au/2013/12/4-ways-defeat-negativity-build-morale/" target="_blank">Article Link</a></span></p> Finding the Hidden Market That Your Business Is Missing Out Ontag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-01-25:5283893:Topic:4429132015-01-25T03:13:22.349ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p>Recently, I went car shopping with my wife. We were casually browsing when a salesperson approached us. After listening to his pitch, he turned to me and -- in front of my wife -- said, “Most of the ladies won’t care about looking under the hood, so I won’t bother giving her the marketing spiel on the performance.”</p>
<p>His comment surprised me. Yet this kind of stereotyping happens all the time in marketing. Just look at the gender bias in advertisements: Whether it’s a reference to…</p>
<p>Recently, I went car shopping with my wife. We were casually browsing when a salesperson approached us. After listening to his pitch, he turned to me and -- in front of my wife -- said, “Most of the ladies won’t care about looking under the hood, so I won’t bother giving her the marketing spiel on the performance.”</p>
<p>His comment surprised me. Yet this kind of stereotyping happens all the time in marketing. Just look at the gender bias in advertisements: Whether it’s a reference to sports, clothes or professions, companies try to typecast men and women in ads. But doing this can be detrimental to marketing efforts. </p>
<p>In fact, stereotypes can inadvertently prompt a company to ignore important customer segments -- consumers who could be top buyers.</p>
<p>But when marketers explore other audiences, they may find an upside in places not expected. Look at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443Vy3I0gJs" target="_blank">Coca-Cola’s 2014 Super Bowl commercial</a>. It depicted a wide range of people, from same-sex parents to hijab-wearing women, as red-blooded Americans. As a result, Coca-Cola may have connected with several new markets.</p>
<p><span>Related:<a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235220"> Catch Up With These 3 Big Waves in Marketing to Women</a> </span></p>
<p>Stop stereotyping your customers: Instead, tap these ignored markets to reach people who may have wanted your product all along.</p>
<p>When you open things up to more genders, ages and cultures, you can find hungry new customers. Here are just a couple examples of underserved audiences:</p>
<p>The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is traditionally overlooked and incorrectly marketed to. Tiffany & Co., however, recently targeted the LGBT community with its<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/10/living/feat-tiffany-ad-same-sex-couple/" target="_blank"> first ad </a>featuring same-sex couples. In an effort to combat pigeonholed gender marketing, the conservative jewelry company celebrated its same-sex customers.</p>
<p>Leaving out the powerful sector of elderly Americans could be a costly mistake. The age group of Americans older than 65 had <a href="http://adage.com/article/special-report-american-consumer-project/marketing-wasteland-clermont-fla/234998/" target="_blank">47 times</a> the net worth of households led by individuals 35 and younger, according to a <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/07/142092567/older-adults-are-now-47-times-richer-than-those-under-35" target="_blank">Pew Research Center analysis</a> of 2009 Census data. Elderly Americans are living longer, becoming more literate online and staying active. </p>
<p>Discovering and incorporating hidden audiences requires better data but it’s entirely possible, thanks to the amount of social-media information available. In fact, many startups have successfully interpreted data, such as public Twitter feeds and Facebook pages and turned it into actionable insights. Tools such as <a href="http://www.brandwatch.com/" target="_blank">Brandwatch</a>, <a href="http://www.sysomos.com/products/overview/heartbeat/" target="_blank">Sysomos Heartbeat </a>and <a href="http://www.exacttarget.com/products/social-media-marketing/radian6" target="_blank">Radian6</a> can help inform a<a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2321521/using-social-media-data-to-build-audience-personas" target="_blank"> company’s content strategies</a>.</p>
<p>While social-media insights are key, you still must consider your company’s mindset. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241980" target="_blank">Article Link</a></p>