March 2011 Blog Posts (110)

Enhance Your Dealership's Facebook Page with Custom Tabs

In today's Potratz online workshop, Dan talked about ways to enhance the look and features of your auto dealership's Facebook business page. One way to give a page a true "custom" feel is to add custom tabs with branded images, content, etc. In our experience with automotive advertising on social media, we find that the more customized the page, the more people like…

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Added by Paul Potratz on March 17, 2011 at 2:25pm — No Comments

Its NEVER too late!!

It is easy to give up at times - easier than most things in life. NO its NOT too late!! NEVER say NEVER!! You deserve to be SUCCESSFUL!!!

Your level of success in terms of your happiness, emotional well being and anything else you desire is a direct result of how you talk to yourself. The most important relationship you-ll ever have is the one you have with yourself. In order to motivate yourself to success, to the levels of happiness and joy that you want, you have to understand that…

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Added by Lizelle Landino on March 17, 2011 at 2:19pm — No Comments

Happy St Paddy's Day! Festive Email Marketing Campaigns from Real Dealers!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we thought we'd share some real automotive email marketing campaigns the ADP Digital Marketing  team came up with to drive traffic to dealers like you! With this kind of integrated strategy, who needs luck;)… Continue

Added by The Cobalt Group on March 17, 2011 at 12:32pm — No Comments

7 Habits of Completely Useless Managers

7 Habits of Completely Useless Managers

Due to the overwhelming response to The 7 Habits of Largely Ineffective Salespeople I was compelled to write a follow up piece on Sales Managers. These 7 habits will be beneficial to those already in a management role as well as those aspiring to become to be managers. If you are a Largely Ineffective Salesperson these additional habits will put you on the fast track to the abyss of poor management…

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Added by Brad Alexander on March 17, 2011 at 11:09am — 1 Comment

Website Analysis

Your website is your online Sales Department.  From that perspective, what does your dealership Sales Department do with a new potential customer? 

  • Welcome them to the store.
  • Find out what they’re looking for – sales, service or parts.
  • Help them get what they need.

Your website can’t “talk”…

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Added by Joseph Little on March 17, 2011 at 10:29am — No Comments

Is your Dealership an Industry Expert?

Q&A websites like Quora, Aardvark and LinkedIn Answers are gaining popularity in the social media spear, and people are looking for answers. Answers about cars, about servicing cars, about car parts and about where to buy cars. So the question is- as an auto dealership- are you an expert in the car industry?



People buy from people. Q&A sites can enhance your dealership’s reputation by establishing your credibility on automotive topics. By  contributing to these sites you can… Continue

Added by Paul Potratz on March 16, 2011 at 4:51pm — No Comments

Create Emotional Connection with your Community through Twitter

Last Wednesday a marketing employee from New Media Strategies, Chrysler’s former marketing company, mistook the Chrysler Twitter account for his personal account and posted on the Chrysler Twitter page, ““I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to drive.” Between “to” and “drive” was an unfortunate word. The impact was felt immediately when followers began to retweet the post. Chrysler quickly responded by posting “Our apologies-our account was…

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Added by Joseph Little on March 16, 2011 at 3:19pm — No Comments

Auto Show Engagement Opportunities

The Calgary auto show I visited last week probably has the same format as other auto shows across the country.  It provides a great opportunity for manufacturers to strut their stuff - lots of glitz, some glamour and plenty of consumer interest.  After all, this is one of the few events where consumers pay for the privilege of being qualified and sold to.

I’m not…

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Added by Volker Mendritzki on March 16, 2011 at 2:40pm — No Comments

YOU had ME at "Hello" don't work in the BDC room.....GET NINJALIZED With Jerry Thibeau!

Jerry first entered the automotive business as a sales representative in July of 1985 for a Subaru dealership in Waterville, Maine. By August of that year Jerry had been fired. His General Manager told him, “son, you just don’t have what it takes to make it in this business.”

After his less than prosperous start in the automotive industry,…

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Added by MANNY LUNA on March 15, 2011 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments

How to Apply TLC (Tough Leadership Criteria) To Your Hiring Process

By now, most automotive professionals are aware of the need to crack down on hiring practices in their dealerships-the mirror-fogging test just won’t cut it anymore. The question of course is how to do this. Below, the experts at ADP Digital Marketing shares four best practices for vetting potential employees.

 

Four Tough Hiring Practices to Employ in Your Dealership Today…

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Added by The Cobalt Group on March 15, 2011 at 7:12pm — No Comments

Don't forget the "Social" in Social Media

Do you have a social media strategy for your dealership? Maybe you’ve met with your marketing department or your management team to discuss how you should go about posting to Facebook or Twitter. The discussions and the opinions can be endless- who should post, how often, what to post and what time of day and on and on and on.

 

Unfortunately, during all this planning and strategizing we often forget the key to…

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Added by Paul Potratz on March 15, 2011 at 5:51pm — No Comments

The cow path theory....When was the last time you reviewed your processes?

If you have ever been to a farm, one thing that stands out are these zigzagging baths that seem to randomly crisscross the pastures, these are cow paths. These cow paths are created by cows, which are creatures of habit and when one cow starts to walk across the pasture, the second one follows and the third and soon the rest of the heard follow. After a short while, the cows have created a crooked path, a well worn route from point A to B. Often their destination is to fulfill their basic…

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Added by Todd Des Marais on March 15, 2011 at 12:30pm — No Comments

What is a Car-guy?

What is a Car-Guy?

     When my, then girlfriend, now wife Bernadette and I announced to our families that we were going to get married it was met with let’s call it muted approval (concern and disapproval really).  First off, we were thousands of miles away from either of our kin, stationed on the island of Guam.  Secondly, we were young, 19 and 21.  Finally, we hadn’t known each other very long (I proposed on our second date!).  We had met in…

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Added by Brad Alexander on March 15, 2011 at 12:00am — 4 Comments

Location-Based Marketing for Auto Dealerships

As smartphones grow in popularity, advertisers are turning to location-based marketing applications like Foursquare to engage consumers. At Potratz, we have implemented location-based campaigns on social sites for multiple clients to encourage users to check in on their phones. Here are a couple examples:

Steve White VW Audi offers $15 off parts/service when people check in

The Bill Rapp Superstore offers a $10 NYS Inspection and car wash for every…

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Added by Paul Potratz on March 14, 2011 at 5:04pm — No Comments

Does Your Software Vendor Support You?

Support. It's not something that a good product can do without. Ever. The best training will not overcome the need for it. So, with the products you have, do you get Product Support? Do you know who to call? And when?



I spent some time last week talking to a dealer who had installed a key, new piece of software at the dealership. Training had been great. Software was… Continue

Added by Keith Shetterly on March 14, 2011 at 4:00pm — No Comments

wearing blinders...

Most dealerships reduce their overall expense in ways that make complete sense.  They utilize vendors for pin striping, dent repair, small paint repair, even detailing departments.  Why would you pay the expensive overhead to employ full time people that provide "part time" results?  Yet everyday, dealerships keep paying a ridiculous amount per year for warranty administrators...

Added by Christopher Akin on March 14, 2011 at 1:48pm — No Comments

The Joke About Two Bulls and Corporate Bureaucracy

 Reposted:

The old joke about two bulls on a hill goes something like this. There are two bulls on a hill, an old one and a young one. The young bull says “Hey dad, lets run down the hill and get one of those cows.” The old bull replies, “no son.” “Let’s walk down the hill and get them all.” The moral, in the punchline of this joke, is supposed to be about the…

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Added by MANNY LUNA on March 13, 2011 at 9:00pm — No Comments

The 7 Habits of LARGELY INEFFECTIVE Salespeople

The 7 Habits of Largely Ineffective Salespeople

     It is with my sincerest apologies to Stephen Covey that I write these words.  As I review his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and consider the simplicity of most of its contents my mind goes to the insanity of our industry.  I trust you will receive this in the spirit in which it is intended.

     The 7 Habits of Largely Ineffective Salespeople is a compilation of vast…

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Added by Brad Alexander on March 13, 2011 at 5:59pm — 1 Comment

Fran Taylor is the Undisputed King of Prospecting...

A leader in the field of automotive sales and management. Using his "Taylor Techniques," Fran has worked as a sales trainer and consultant with automobile dealerships since 1986.



Fran's "insight" into sales comes from his experience as a premium salesman. He was employed as a salesman for the number-one dealership in his area and was Salesman of the Month…

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Added by MANNY LUNA on March 13, 2011 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Creating An Email List: Lead Nurturing

Creating an opt-in email list is as foreign to the auto industry as driving on the left side of the road but there is a place for it and in this post I'm going to share with you both the why and the how. On your dealer site the end goal is to turn surfers into leads, to get some sort of contact information whether it be an email address, a phone…

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Added by David Johnson on March 13, 2011 at 11:29am — No Comments

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