All Discussions Tagged 'dealership' - DealerELITE.net2024-03-29T10:35:35Zhttps://www.dealerelite.net/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=dealership&feed=yes&xn_auth=noEffective Ways How Car Dealerships Can Survive in Coronavirus Pandemic?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2020-04-21:5283893:Topic:10268462020-04-21T10:50:59.525ZReynalda Lorhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/ReynaldaLor
<p>Greetings!</p>
<p>As we know, coronavirus badly affected the global economy but it put very adverse effects on the travel industry and dealerships. Though many companies can work from home in this coronavirus crisis but it hard to work remotely for dealerships and their employees. In this thread, I am going to share my ideas about how <a href="https://www.cbtnews.com/how-dealerships-can-come-out-of-the-covid-19-scare-stronger-than-before/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">dealerships can…</a></p>
<p>Greetings!</p>
<p>As we know, coronavirus badly affected the global economy but it put very adverse effects on the travel industry and dealerships. Though many companies can work from home in this coronavirus crisis but it hard to work remotely for dealerships and their employees. In this thread, I am going to share my ideas about how <a href="https://www.cbtnews.com/how-dealerships-can-come-out-of-the-covid-19-scare-stronger-than-before/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dealerships can survive</a> in the current pandemic.</p>
<p>First of all, the safety of your staff and customers should be your priority. As in the many states of America and other European countries, administrations are opening businesses gradually so you should get proper safety equipment like a mask, hand sanitiser and disinfect sprays etc. for your staff and dealership at first. </p>
<p>Secondly, to deal with social distancing instructions, you will have to train your employees. In this regard, you can also hire medical experts and conduct a proper workshop. Withal, if you don't have enough budget to organize such workshops then you can also follow <a href="https://whomtosupport.com/docs4opendebate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resources like DOCS4OpenDebate</a> to know about the accurate coronavirus measures. This forum is all about the advice of medical experts and their suggestions about Covid-19 measures. </p>
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<p>Now, we need to talk about business survival. It is tough because people are facing severe financial setbacks and most businesses and individuals are not much interested in buying new vehicles. However, it doesn't mean you wouldn't find clients because many companies like retail and courier etc. are still working. To engage more clients, you need to show your <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/14/cars/online-car-shopping-coronavirus/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">online presence</a>. In this regard, a website or few social media pages wouldn't be enough, you will have to <a href="https://bannerboo.com/bannermaker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">make banner ads</a> and need to run banner ad campaigns on related platforms. These efforts would make potential clients able to notice about your dealership. Hopefully, you would aware of how banner ads display on the bottom of websites, YouTube videos and other places. </p>
<p>Similarly, to stay connected with your clients the use of the web or mobile applications is also very effective. With the help of such apps, you can receive car instalments from them quickly and can also update their portfolios rapidly if you are using the real-time database.</p>
<p>Withal, if you don't have enough development knowledge then you can also go with <a href="https://blog.back4app.com/firebase/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this serverless app development</a> option to host your application and update data in real-time. Indeed, web and mobile applications are also a part of any business's online presence strategy. By the way, if data privacy is your major concern and you have enough budget then you should try these <a href="https://www.purplecrane.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">custom software development services</a> instead of the cloud ones. </p>
<p>On the contrary, if you are not familiar with online booking of vehicles, inventory tracking and payment procedures and also offer vehicle rental services then Reservety is the best all in one option that you can consider. In this regard, you would just need to pick a <a href="https://reservety.com/rental-website-templates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website template from here</a> and can subscribe to their rental booking software to track your inventory and allow clients to make payments online. This is one of the best eCommerce software that also supports a variety of languages that's why you can definitely engage numerous potential customers. Hopefully, you would double your sales by using this outstanding software. </p>
<p>Moreover, you will have to respond quickly with user-friendly details. Don't forget competition is going to be tough. In this regard, you can get inspiration from the <a href="https://www.royalcarcenter.com/royal-cars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Royal Car Center</a> who are offering used cars, vans and SUVs on monthly instalments. It is easy to select a vehicle of your choice from their virtual car showroom with great ease. </p>
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<p>It is also essential to engage potential buyers will competitive prices and additional features. Likewise, you can offer them aftersale services and repairs or can share expert advice with them about the insurance of commercial vehicles. Although to compare van and <a href="https://www.fasttruckinsurance.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trucking insurance quotes</a>, you can get help from here but to get the competitive edge, you can ask your own teams to conduct researches for it.<br/> <br/> On the other hand, dealerships should stay connected with their customers and should share recent details of the auto industry via messaging or emailing them. In this regard, you can go with two types of email marketing strategies. The first one is inbound marketing where dealers try to engage their existing clients. The second one is outbound marketing where you target the new target customers and you can see this complete guide <a href="https://www.duocircle.com/content/outbound-email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about outbound emails</a> from here. Indeed, the use of outbound email marketing strategies could also beneficial to engage more customers. Especially <a href="https://www.usabledatabases.com/database/us-business-yellow-pages-of-companies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this database</a> can assist you in finding potential B2B dealership leads. No doubt, appropriate customer communication is the key to survive in this crisis.</p>
<p><br/> Hopefully, you will improve your communication skills as a business and will try to include more and more online sources to keep in touch with your existing client and attract new clients as well. <br/> <br/> All in all, I provided a few suggestions to you to survive this pandemic. If you have more ideas, you can share them.<br/> <br/> I am waiting for your responses. <br/> <br/> <a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/4478001517?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/4478001517?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="530" height="353" class="align-center"/></a></p> Increase Small Dealership Security With Advanced Technology?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2020-02-07:5283893:Topic:8205172020-02-07T19:56:30.793ZReynalda Lorhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/ReynaldaLor
<p>Greetings!</p>
<p>Nowadays, technology is replacing manpower especially when we talk about advanced security for organizations. We are also looking to improve security at our dealership with the help of advanced technology. First of all, we are planning to replace our lighting system with a smart lighting system that could be controlled with a mobile application and yes, motion sensors will also install near the places vehicles are being parked. In this regard, I consider using…</p>
<p>Greetings!</p>
<p>Nowadays, technology is replacing manpower especially when we talk about advanced security for organizations. We are also looking to improve security at our dealership with the help of advanced technology. First of all, we are planning to replace our lighting system with a smart lighting system that could be controlled with a mobile application and yes, motion sensors will also install near the places vehicles are being parked. In this regard, I consider using <a href="https://homesecuritygearlab.com/ring-security-system-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this security system</a> because my budget is limited nowadays. Actually, I purchased it for my home but now, thinking to use it for the dealership. Do you think it would be a good option for my small dealership?</p>
<p>Moreover, we are also going to install advanced security cameras with smart technology. Yes, we want to keep an eye on all activities happening in the dealership. Withal, it is still crucial to examine the performance of CCTV cameras and monitors and in this regard, we are also thinking to pick a <a href="https://www.noyafa.net/products-10356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CCTV monitor tester from here</a>. Hopefully, it will stabilize the performance of our security cameras. </p>
<p>On the other hand, to improve entry-level security, it has become expensive for us to hire a receptionist who allows people or workers who can go inside or not. In this regard, our team is planning to install a video entry system from here <a href="https://lobibox.com/pages/virtual-receptionist-kiosk-business-mobile-app">https://lobibox.com/pages/virtual-receptionist-kiosk-business-mobile-app</a>. Actually, works as a virtual receptionist and permits the visitor either he/she can go inside or not on the basis of their <span>integrated Access Card</span> etc. However, I am not sure which other security devices and alarms should be installed in our dealership to increase security and overcome the theft risk.</p>
<p>It would be great if you share your experiences and suggestion with me. I am waiting for your suggestions. </p>
<p><a href="https://d2vb8t3x837ylc.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/16135941/auto-dealership-2.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://d2vb8t3x837ylc.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/16135941/auto-dealership-2.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="509" height="339"/></a></p> Green Vs. Metal Roofing For Garage?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2019-08-13:5283893:Topic:6671962019-08-13T19:33:12.070ZReynalda Lorhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/ReynaldaLor
<p>Greetings!<br></br> <br></br> We are looking for the best roofing option for our London-based dealership garage nowadays. In the beginning, we are planning to repair the previous Asphalt shingles but then the <a href="https://www.beyondexteriors.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">roofing experts</a> suggested us to replace the roof because this repair wouldn't be long last. That's why I am looking to install metal roofing. Though it is expensive but according to roofing experts, it would be…</p>
<p>Greetings!<br/> <br/> We are looking for the best roofing option for our London-based dealership garage nowadays. In the beginning, we are planning to repair the previous Asphalt shingles but then the <a href="https://www.beyondexteriors.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">roofing experts</a> suggested us to replace the roof because this repair wouldn't be long last. That's why I am looking to install metal roofing. Though it is expensive but according to roofing experts, it would be durable. <br/><br/></p>
<p>On the contrary, after reading this article <a href="https://www.gbrionline.org/courses/green-roofs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about green roofs</a>, I am in the favor of green roofs. Actually, I am an environmentalist and always prefer to go with green building ideas. This source is referring to a detailed flipbook that tells everything about green roofing. However, probably, I would need to discuss its implementation with any LEED-certified architect. I am not how it is going to work but I am hopeful for its success. Ford is already using the green roof for its dealership and its idea inspires many people. Yes, I am also one of them. <br/><br/>By the way, if we only go with shingle or metal roofs then any of these <a href="https://lgcgroup.london/roofing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">London-based roofing services</a> can assist us with our budget. Yes, I am negotiating different roofing companies and probably I will prefer the local ones. But yes, I always like to get suggestions from different roofing experts on such matters. <br/> <br/> What are your views in this regard? Do you think metal roofing is the perfect choice for garage roofing?<br/> <br/> Waiting for your serious suggestions. <br/> <br/> <a href="https://www.greenroofs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/int_greenzoneford01.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://www.greenroofs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/int_greenzoneford01.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p> Sales slow-down is coming - 5 ways to strengthen your team's sales 'muscles'tag:www.dealerelite.net,2016-03-11:5283893:Topic:4746872016-03-11T14:44:53.458ZBig Tom LaPointehttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/TomCarChat24
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311747420?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311747420?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="700"></img></a></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Sure, 2015 was nearly a record sales year for the auto industry, and overall, there is a year-over-year increase in sales so far in 2016, but there is a storm coming. The used car shortage which has propped up trade values for the past few years is long gone, and worse, there is a huge glut of used cars in the pipeline headed off lease. As…</span></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311747420?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="700" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311747420?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Sure, 2015 was nearly a record sales year for the auto industry, and overall, there is a year-over-year increase in sales so far in 2016, but there is a storm coming. The used car shortage which has propped up trade values for the past few years is long gone, and worse, there is a huge glut of used cars in the pipeline headed off lease. As these cars come off lease, they will quickly suppress used car wholesale values. All of a sudden, you’ll be a grand or two lighter on Ford Fusions or Nissan Jukes that you’re used to. It will quickly affect both the amount of sales that can be made AND nick gross profit margins as dealers have to dig deeper to make deals.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span class="font-size-3">According to an <a href="http://www.autoremarketing.com/wholesale/how-rental-prices-volume-faring-auction" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Autoremarketing.com article</a> March 7, 2016, ...in the 2016 Used Car Market Report, Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb acknowledges the “justifiable concern” that off-rental pricing will be hurt by the surge in off-lease cars. But he also points out that OEM incentive and inventory practices will play a bigger role in the fate of off-rental prices — which is typically the case, he said.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">The drop in values doesn't put it at 2008 levels, but they are clearly trending down, relative to last year. Then there’s the eventual domino effect on retail pricing, as vAuto and other valuation tools start to notice the lower asking prices from dealers who snapped up these units at the lower prices. So now your EXISTING inventory will be at the higher end of the price spectrum, competing against units that were acquired for hundreds or thousands less. Is your team ready for this challenge?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">All is not lost. Just like bears have to go back to hunting when summer campers stop leaving food out for them, sales staff and managers can sharpen their skills NOW for prospecting, building value, product demonstrations, closing, and follow-up. Here are five ways to shore up your income defenses:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><span class="font-size-2">Identify the weaknesses in your team, and find a strategy for improving them</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span class="font-size-2">Determine your strengths, and make them stronger</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span class="font-size-2">Find a sales training regimen - and stick to it. In-house is great, but just like kids will listen to their coach more than their parents on some occasions, a third-party training option is a wise choice</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span class="font-size-2">Take a look at CSI - in a challenging sales environment, a culture of customer care will make a massive difference</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span class="font-size-2">Keep your head around digital marketing game. Paul Potratz says you don’t have to be an expert, but you have to be aware of your ROI</span></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Hitting a 16 million SAR in auto sales for 2016 may be a bigger challenge than many dealers think after a banner year in 2015, but there are still some chinks in our economic armor and more than a few grumblings about some weak key economic indicators. Just a bit of preventive maintenance to sharpen your sales team can position you well to compete in an unpredictable market.</span></p>
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<p><strong>Tom LaPointe CarChat24 Marketing Consultant</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.carchat24.com/" rel="nofollow">www.carchat24.com/</a> 24/7 Interactive Automotive Dealer Website LIVE CHAT Solutions Managed Chat, Backup Chat Support, and chat software options 727-638-0195</p>
<p>A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Tom has an MBA in Marketing and is an automotive writer and author with nearly 20 years experience in virtually every aspect of the retail auto industry. He has been involved with the internet from the beginning, building websites at Johns Hopkins University in the 90's, and has been a performance leader in nearly every dealer role, from sales and service, to BDC / internet sales and viral marketing.</p> DealerApp Vantage now offers a complete turnkey solutiontag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-06-17:5283893:Topic:4567522015-06-17T17:57:09.131ZMatt Kuczkahttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MattKuczka
<p><span class="font-size-3">DealerApp Vantage now includes a complete turnkey solution included with our mobile app. You not only get a great mobile app that represents your dealership, but we will also market to, promote, and engage your customers. We have partnered with a dealership marketing company and put together a strategy to get you the most downloads and engage more of your customers. We found that some dealers were struggling to promote their new apps so we wanted to take that…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">DealerApp Vantage now includes a complete turnkey solution included with our mobile app. You not only get a great mobile app that represents your dealership, but we will also market to, promote, and engage your customers. We have partnered with a dealership marketing company and put together a strategy to get you the most downloads and engage more of your customers. We found that some dealers were struggling to promote their new apps so we wanted to take that roadblock away and simplify the process. </span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">We can now include a complete solution so you get the most out of your app and can start utilizing this great new marketing, communication, and retention platform. </span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">There's no reason to not get a mobile app anymore, all you have to do is sign up. Want more information on what's included and how it works: <strong><a href="http://dealerappvantage.com/turnkeysolution/" target="_self">CLICK HERE</a></strong></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311744220?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311744220?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-full" style="padding: 2px;"/></a></strong></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> Does your Dealership use Facebook as Part of your Engagement Strategy?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-27:5283893:Topic:4503622015-03-27T13:27:02.584ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-4">Then, here's an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/technology/debunking-the-latest-predictions-of-facebooks-demise.html?_r=0" target="_blank">article</a> you might find interesting:</span><br></br><strong><span class="font-size-4">Debunking the Latest Predictions of Facebook’s Demise</span></strong></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-1"><span class="font-size-3">Every few years, a strange affliction breaks out in Silicon Valley. The…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4">Then, here's an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/technology/debunking-the-latest-predictions-of-facebooks-demise.html?_r=0" target="_blank">article</a> you might find interesting:</span><br/><strong><span class="font-size-4">Debunking the Latest Predictions of Facebook’s Demise</span></strong></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-1"><span class="font-size-3">Every few years, a strange affliction breaks out in Silicon Valley. The disease, <a title="More information about Facebook, Inc." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Facebook</a> Second Guessing Syndrome, has as its worst symptom an embarrassing tendency to predict an early peak for the fortunes of the world’s largest social network.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">To techies who laud Apple for its hardware and software design or Google for its data prowess, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about Facebook, Inc." class="meta-org">Facebook</a> has long looked a little frivolous and more than a tad faddish. The company’s genius is in bringing people together and persuading them to stick around, an unusual skill in Silicon Valley, and something Mark Zuckerberg’s company has done consistently for over a decade.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-2"><span class="font-size-3">That’s despite various potential threats to its dominance — the rise of alternative social networks, a shift from desktop computers to mobile phones and the perpetual technological fickleness of young people. Facebook has even managed to reap substantial profits from its operations, beating analysts’ expectations in every quarterly earnings report over the past two years. Its market valuation recently surpassed $230 billion, passing JPMorgan Chase and within striking distance of General Electric.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Yet the skepticism persists.</strong></span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">Now, as the company holds a developer conference this week in San Francisco, another theory arguing that Facebook’s success may be illusory has been making the rounds. This theory concerns the rapid sales growth in Facebook’s ads in its smartphone app, the most used app on the planet.</span></p>
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<p></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">The trouble, the theory goes, is that Facebook is increasingly depending on these ads, many of which are run by other start-ups hawking their own apps. For some industry observers and market analysts, Facebook’s reliance on money from other app companies looks like the making of an unsustainable monoculture — not a lasting business, but something spun up in the heady froth of a venture capital smoothie.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">“There are now a number of revenue streams that are being driven by venture dollars,” Bill Gurley, a prominent venture capitalist who has been warning of a tech bubble, <a title="A YouTube video." href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRpUl8KYVUk&t=3314">said recently in an onstage interview</a> at <a title="More articles about SXSW." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/south_by_southwest_music_and_media_conference/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">South by Southwest</a> in Austin, Tex. “Facebook and</span> a little bit of <span class="font-size-3">Twitter’s revenues are now coming heavily from mobile downloads. These are ads for, like,<a title="Related article." href="http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/21/that-kate-upton-tv-ad-for-game-of-war-targets-manly-man-shows-for-men/">Game of War with Kate Upton</a>. Those ads are now an increasing percentage of their revenue, and they’re being spent by these excessive venture dollars.”</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-3"><span class="font-size-3">The notion that Facebook and other social networks will suffer most deeply when the bubble bursts sounds plausible because <a title="Related article." href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-hiding-important-information-2014-9">it rehashes the last tech boom and bust</a>, when advertising revenue run-ups at huge web portals (remember those?) turned out to be funded mainly by venture capital investments. In 2001, revenue at Yahoo — the largest</span> portal, <span class="font-size-3">and something like the Facebook of its time</span> — <span class="font-size-3">plummeted by almost $400 million when start-ups stopped spending during the bust. Yahoo has never recovered its former glory. Could Facebook face the same fate?</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">Probably not — or not yet, at least. On closer inspection, the theory that Facebook’s growth depends on unsustainable venture capital is mostly overblown, another strain of Facebook Second Guessing Syndrome. It’s a story that misses important facts about Facebook’s advertising business. For one thing, as Facebook’s executives have repeatedly pointed out, ads from app companies make up a small percentage of the company’s overall business. Most of the social network’s revenue comes from video ads and ads for large brands.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-4"><span class="font-size-3">The theory also misses two other points. Not all these ads are coming from</span> unproved <span class="font-size-3">start-ups. And the ads are set to be adopted more widely because they actually work.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-5"><span class="font-size-3">According to several app makers and observers of the industry, the ads are tremendously effective at leading paying customers to new apps. It’s the effort to reach these paying customers — and not venture funding — that is often the reason for all the money pouring into ads for apps.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">App-pushing ads are known in the industry as app-install ads. They appear in your Facebook News Feed or Twitter stream and encourage you to download apps from companies that make mobile games and e-commerce and travel services; they also come from big brands like Target and Chase. When you tap the ad, you are sent to Apple or Google’s app store. Facebook and Twitter are paid for each click according to prices set by an online bidding process.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">According to Cathy Boyle, an analyst at eMarketer, a research firm that studies the online advertising business, the market for app-install ads is growing rapidly. Ms. Boyle estimates that in the United States, app companies spent $1.67 billion on install ads in 2014. She expects that number to grow 80 percent this year, to about $3 billion. The market for app-install ads is growing faster than just about any other digital advertising category, Ms. Boyle said, but it is still relatively small. In 2015, these ads will account for about 10 percent of the American mobile ad market, according to eMarketer.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-6"><span class="font-size-3">Facebook and Twitter would not specify the proportion of their revenue from app ads, but both have described it as far from the majority of their business. “We talk about our mobile ad business growing — mobile app ads are a small part of that, growing in line with our total business,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, in a call with investors in October.</span></p>
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<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-7"><span class="font-size-3">One reason spending on these ads is growing is that the ads solve a problem faced both by businesses that make apps and by users who want apps: App stores are becoming ever more crowded, and it is increasingly difficult for new apps to find an audience. In this way, apps for ads on social networks perform the same function as the highly successful ads for websites that Google runs alongside its search results — they show people something that they might click on and pay for, based on a combination of users’ interests and a business’s willingness to pay.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">App ads are also like search ads in that they are highly measurable. Marketers can target specific types of customers whom they want to present with an ad for a certain app, and they can also track exactly how much money they make from customers they get through an app ad. By contrast, the advertising boom that doomed the portal industry was not built on measurable ads. Those were mostly web banner ads, whose effectiveness has always been <a title="Previous coverage in The Times." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/technology/personaltech/banner-ads-the-monsters-that-swallowed-the-web.html">something of a leap of faith</a>.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">Acquiring new customers through app ads is “100 percent based on data,” said Bernard Kim, senior vice president for social and mobile publishing at the video game developer Electronic Arts. “We have the ability to track the players that we get through these networks very carefully, and we know what the profitability looks like on a player, so these ads are a very effective tool for us to bring in the players that we want to engage with our titles.”</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" id="story-continues-8"><span class="font-size-3">Skeptics remain. One tech investor who has been critical of these ads pointed out that start-ups are often very bad at calculating the long-term value of new customers. This miscalculation often causes them to overspend on marketing. Several recent venture-funded flops, including Groupon and Fab.com, were tripped up by huge marketing spending that did not lead to lucrative long-term customers.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">If today’s money-burning, venture-funded app companies — Uber,</span> Lyft<span class="font-size-3">, Airbnb and many more — are also overestimating the value of new customers, could they wake up one day to find they’re spending too much on app ads?</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">Facebook does not think so. In an interview, Andrew Bosworth, the company’s vice president for advertising, argued that start-ups today were more disciplined than in the recent past, with many analyzing not just how much they’re spending to get new users but also whether those people are actually buying stuff. “That’s been the big shift. The big V.C.-backed<a href="http://fab.com/">Fab.com</a>s of the world spent on acquisition but couldn’t actually convert,” he said. But when today’s start-ups look at these ads, “They’re asking, ‘Can you put a dollar in and get two dollars out?’ If you can, you spend, and if you can’t, you don’t.”</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><span class="font-size-3">Sure, Mr. Bosworth’s argument is a variation of “this time is different,” which is the stock defense during every boom. But he added that Facebook wasn’t counting on app ads for its long-term survival. “I think this will be a stable ongoing market,” he said. “I think it will plateau at some point in terms of share, as smartphone growth plateaus. I don’t think it will shrink dramatically, but I just think there will come a point where it plateaus.”</span></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>
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<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> Breakthrough: Use Millennial Marketing to Reach Boomerstag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-02-27:5283893:Topic:4467162015-02-27T19:17:39.165ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<div class="article_heading"><h1><span>How can you use the same tactics to reach both Millennial consumers and Baby Boomers?</span></h1>
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<div class="article_desc"><p>Anyone who reads my columns frequently, or sees me speak at conferences, knows that I am a huge fan of "generational marketing." At my last keynote on this subject I suggested that if you are looking to create a killer marketing strategy, start by gathering one person from every generation in a room, gave them all an iPhone,…</p>
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<div class="article_heading"><h1><span>How can you use the same tactics to reach both Millennial consumers and Baby Boomers?</span></h1>
</div>
<div class="article_desc"><p>Anyone who reads my columns frequently, or sees me speak at conferences, knows that I am a huge fan of "generational marketing." At my last keynote on this subject I suggested that if you are looking to create a killer marketing strategy, start by gathering one person from every generation in a room, gave them all an iPhone, and ask them how/why they would use it. Within 15 minutes you would understand how vastly different the response and interaction with marketing is by different generations. I even have a chart that I share with people that outlines tone of voice, type of messaging, and media outlets that work best for various generations.</p>
<p>But all of that changed last week when I made a bold move. Eliminate the majority of my "Boomer-only" marketing and use Millennial marketing to reach Millennials <em>and </em>Boomers.</p>
<p>Today, the "Boomer" market still encompasses the largest amount of disposable income and spends trillions each year on items to better themselves and their families. Following closely behind them are the Millennials. Millennials are poised to soon take over the reign of largest buying demographic as the Boomers begin to age out of range. By 2020, they will total more than $1.4 trillion in spending power. At some point in time, marketers and brands will have to make a move to adjust their marketing strategies and tactics to meet the needs of the market. Well, that point in time is now.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, <em>NewsCred </em>released a report called "<a href="http://newscred.com/theacademy/learn/millennial-mind?utm_source=nurture&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MillennialMind&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons6zKZKXonjHpfsX66O0uWaC%2FlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CRcJqI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFT7jAMaZkw7gJWBk%3D" target="_blank">The Millennial Mind: How Content Drives Brand Loyalty</a>." After reading this report, I realized that the strategies for effectively reaching Millennials can also work with Boomers (but not the other way around). This means as brands, we can evolve our marketing to attract the new buyer without negatively impacting our current buyer. It’s a pretty exciting breakthrough.</p>
<p>Here are three lessons I am putting into play as we speak:</p>
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<li>Keep the content/message crisp – you only have 10 seconds to capture interest</li>
<li>Make my marketing as personalized and hyper-targeted as possible (hello programmatic buying and design)</li>
<li>Strive to entertain, inspire, or educate by putting the right message into the right channels at the right time (pre-rolls will rule!)</li>
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<p>When I look back on it, Millennial marketing might just end up bringing us back to best practices. I’m looking forward to watching the results of this move to Millennial messaging.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2397243/breakthrough-use-millennial-marketing-to-reach-boomers" target="_blank">Article Link</a></p>
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