In this era of transparency, consumers can gather more information than ever before. In the past, they relied upon the dealer to provide it to them. Now, however, they can visit multiple websites in order to gain the information they need before even contacting a dealership. Once the consumer decides they are ready to buy (or close to it) and start to take…

April 8, 2020, Laguna Hills, CA – Recall Masters, Inc., the leading provider of automotive recall data, technology, and communications, today announced the launch of a special COVID-19 Response Kit at no cost for its auto dealer clients. The kit is designed to help improve the handling of service…

When it comes to email marketing, frequency of communications plays an important role in getting customers to open your emails AND in getting them into your showroom.

However, flooding their inboxes with daily communications poses risks. Too many emails and your customers will lose trust in your business and unsubscribe from future marketing.…

I’m sure that most managers are familiar with the frustration that comes with discovering a salesperson decided a sale was not to be made without really working the lead, letting a perfectly good customer leave the lot. Perhaps the salesperson pre-qualified them and decided they…

Since Facebook has exploded, businesses have all rushed to capture their audience’s attention and leverage the platform’s marketing potential. In the beginning, gaining business exposure on Facebook’s platform was relatively inexpensive. As Facebook continued to modify its algorithm to appease its users and better monetize the platform when it went public, Facebook…

Transparency

In an era where transparency is the cornerstone of any successful digital marketing campaign, the opaque tactics used by car dealers to convert Internet leads into appointments astonish me.

Mystery Shop 100 Dealers

In order to better understand of our industries lead conversion culture, my team and I mystery shopped 100 randomly selected dealerships from across the country and compared the results.

Best Price

We went to…

Consumers increasingly use their smartphones to research which businesses they should patronize. These days, online reviews are a big part of that decision process. If managed incorrectly, these reviews can easily flip your prospective customer away from your dealership and into the lap of your competition. And it’s not just a bad review, it’s how you respond to them and…

Today’s consumers look to social media as a prime way to reach out to businesses for customer service needs. From requesting help with a problem, to simple answers to product questions, many consumers take to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Recently, Facebook upped the ante for businesses with a new way to communicate with customers that…

An interesting study has been going on for the last 6 month over at Twitter. As it was increasingly seeing users use the platform for brand interactions, the company decided to see just how much of an impact those interactions had. Users were identified that had at some point interacted with a brand’s Twitter account for customer service and 14,000 were…

At the risk of being lambasted by my more distinguished and experienced colleagues, I'm posting one of my responses to an internet lead.  My goal is, first and foremost to get a response; and secondly, to see if the possibility exists to make a sale.  While it's unconventional, I feel that it stands out from the bland, scripted responses that consumers usually get from other salespeople.  Because I want to learn from others in this business, I welcome your comments and constructive…

In my last post about making the internet department good for gross, not just volume I talked about having the right people in the Internet Sales department.  The most important part of that was this (you will see this again too!)...

The internet salesperson should be an experienced salesperson, who can quickly and easily function as the salesperson, finance manager, and sales manager.  They need to be able to quickly answer any question, and overcome objections with…

The importance of ensuring a customer has all the information and resources they need when making a big decision is crucial to turning a stand-offish prospect into a smiling cornstomer (We are in Iowa, of course we use corn references. Keep reading to learn the meaning of cornstomer). Patience, tact and logic seeds are key. 

Occasionally, OK, OFTEN we hear from our prospects about sad news that is keeping them from moving forward…

At Auto iLead, the most important task we perform each day is helping people. To help people we must first understand them, their needs, and how to truly HELP. Our commitment to help drives us to enhance the relationship a customer has with a dealership prior to arranging their appointment to inspect or test drive a vehicle. Keep in mind that our leads originate as an email to our dealer clients. Email is often our only means of communication which means we have to be the best! In…

In business, you are what you are perceived to be.  Your customers not only have their own opinions of your business, but they can also influence other potential customers. How you actually run your business is certainly important. Just as important, however, is how customers that have never stepped foot in your business perceive you. Before they ever step foot into your…

An acquaintance of mine shared an experience with me that got me thinking. He traveled frequently and was a member of a particular hotel chain’s loyalty program. One particular stay at one of the chain’s locations was, in his opinion, beneath the quality that he had come to expect from the chain. There were multiple issues with the room – some involving cleanliness and even…

It’s not uncommon for digital marketing at the dealership to give primary focus to vehicle sales processes and practices and for the most part ignore service and parts departments.  The reality is that more and more of your customers are online and 

touching all of the dealership’s departments.  The frequent strategy for addressing these divergent points of communication is like the story of the blind men and an elephant.  A group of blind men touch an elephant to…

What boxer would step into the ring without having studied his opponent? What coach would take his team onto the field without have watched game films of their competitor? One of the key differences between being a champion or an “also-ran” is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your rival. The same is true in business. The ability to scout your opponent and then use this information to design and implement a solid game plan is critical to your dealership’s success. As a professional,…

Direct Response Marketing

First of all lets go over the definition of “Direct Response”:

Definition – What does Direct Response Marketing mean?

“Direct-response marketing is a type of marketing that elicits a…

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov famously tantalized his dogs by ringing a bell to alert them that food was about to be served. The dogs, soon wise enough to associate the sound of a tinkling bell with a big juicy steak, began to salivate each time the bell tolled.

This associated behavior is known as “classical conditioning,” and the parallel between the doghouse and the dealership cannot be clearer. Obviously, the incoming…