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STOP
Wasting Advertising And Marketing Dollars!
Invest in something with a Guaranteed Return
That’s right I said STOP wasting all of that money! It
mystifies me how dealers can spend so much money on advertising
and marketing. Every month the average automotive dealership
spends over $50,000 in advertising. The average dealership has
10 sales professionals on the showroom floor. And before we hit
this current slump, they delivered about 100 units per month.
By now we all know dealers are cutting costs everywhere they
can; eliminating positions, and trying to eliminate waste. But I
also see some dealers are spending more than ever in an attempt
to sell more cars. They believe that all they need is to try to
generate more ups in order to sell more cars. Sounds logical,
doesn’t it? The problem is many of these dealers are spending
their dollars in the wrong areas. Watch out for vendors peddling
snake oil. Often I hear about vendors putting a spin on what
they can deliver, and making it sound like they are offering the
dealership the Holy Grail. All I can say is beware of offers
that sound too good to be true.
Let’s get back to the numbers in the first paragraph. If the
average car dealership spends $50,000 on advertising and has 10
sales professionals (not including Internet or BDC staff) on the
showroom floor, that means that the average dealership invests
approximately $5,000 per person in advertising.
I don’t know about you, but to me that is a lot of money. And,
what if you are investing that money in the wrong sales person?
How can you justify spending $5,000 in marketing dollars on a
sales person that makes $2,000 - $3,000 a month? The answer is
you can’t justify that kind of spending on team members that are
not working at their peak performance levels.
The solution is often to invest resources into your people.
Highly trained and focused employees can be the greatest
contributors to increased sales when they are operating
effectively. Show me a poorly trained staff and I will show you
high turnover, low closing ratios, poor CSI, and very few
referrals. Dealers ignore these signs at your peril. Why spend
more on leads and ups when your team is not effectively working
the prospects coming in the door now. Without a change in people
and/or process training your conversions will only go lower and
lower.
I know things are tough out there, but please do not blame the
economy, the world, or Barack Obama for your issues. Examine
your own store and your team. I constantly see auto dealerships
cancelling vendors because they do not feel they are getting the
maximum value from their service. You might think that a certain
lead source provider isn’t good or that your website provider is
not providing you with a quality product that converts every
visitor to a customer. Chances are it isn’t the vendors you are
working with; it’s your own staff that need a shot of
enthusiasm, confidence and morale building training to get
things moving again.
You should be promoting a culture in your dealership of constant
continuing education and motivation. Here are some examples of
training topics to consider:
• Leadership
• Management
• Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.)
• Phone Skills
• BASIC Technology
• BASIC Internet Sales
• Product Knowledge
• Time Management Skills
• Personal Development
• “Road to the Sale”.
• Handling Objections and Rebuttals
• Prospecting, Prospecting, and Prospecting!
• Referral Generation
• Customer Service & Respect
Once your team is versed on these topics, just imagine what they
might achieve on a daily basis. Encourage your people; provide
the resources to them in the way of great training and you will
see amazing, powerful results.
Sean V. Bradley is founder/CEO of Dealer Synergy Inc. Dealer Synergy is an international automotive training and consulting agency that specializes in full business development, CRM, Internet sales, owner retention, phone sales, special finance and advertising/marketing. |
