Does Your Internet Certificate Mean Anything?

There are a lot of seminars and classes to which you can send your Internet director to help him learn how to better sell vehicles on the Internet, but how do you know that your Internet director has learned anything when he comes back to the dealership? How do you know that certificate that he received means anything when there are no tests given after the learning seminars?

Before there were official standards for physicians in this country, snake oil salesmen used travel from town to town selling alcohol and opium as cure alls or “tonics.” Sure they made people feel better for a little while, but once they wore off those people were left feeling worse than ever and the “doctor” was long gone, on to the next town to do it all over again. There were, of course, a lot of well meaning doctors that genuinely tried to help people with their ailments instead of trying to make a quick buck, but before there were medical licenses, there was no way to tell which kind of doctor you were going to see.

The problem of snake oil salesmen and sham doctors was solved when the state started requiring that doctors receive medical licenses in order to practice. That’s why today we can go to the doctor’s office with confidence, knowing that when it says “Licensed Practitioner” on the door, it means the physician inside has been well trained and is knowledgeable about the human body. Dealership Internet departments should have a similar level of accountability when it comes to the certifications they receive.

Much like the days when anyone could start up a medical school and start calling their graduates doctors no matter what level of education they receive, today there are a lot of seminars that graduate their students and call them Internet sales experts without any proof of their abilities think of them as Internet sales, snake oil salesmen. Fortunately Dealer Synergy, an internationally respected Internet sales and business development authority, has started training dealers and their Internet directors on how to find more sales on the Internet with their “Internet Director Immersion Program.” Their program is the leading automotive Internet training seminar and teaches dealers and Internet directors everything from how micro-sites and search engine optimization cost effectively boost the visibility of your site to maximizing the productivity of your ILM and CRM. Most importantly, however, unlike other training seminars, graduates are required to pass an exam at the end of the course in order to become “Dealer Synergy Certified Internet Directors.”

The test is a rigorous examination of what the participants have learned and passing is by no means guaranteed. In order to pass the participants must prove that they have learned the information taught in the various seminars and know how to put it to use in real world situation. This is no meaningless degree, graduates of the program can be proud to display their new certificates that say they are “Dealer Synergy Certified Internet Directors,” because this certificate really means they are an Internet expert.

Budgets are tight right now and many dealers may think twice about springing for a training seminar when they just finished trimming their marketing budget. If you want your dealership to succeed in the future, however, you need to be where the customers are and today’s customers are on the Internet. And if you don’t know how to market on the Internet, your dealership will fall behind those that do. Then next Internet Director Immersion Program will be held July 13th - 16th in Los Angeles, California. Visit www.InternetSales20Group.com or call 800-676-6155 to learn more about it.

And remember what Derek Curtis Bok, the former president of Harvard University said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Michael Bowen is the Editor in Chief for Dealer Marketing Magazine. He began his career at Dealer Marketing Magazine as an intern in 2007 and was hired on later that year.