The last year that I sold cars, before starting a BDC, was 2003. While 7 years doesn’t seem like that long it was a lifetime in technology, and if I had to do it all over again I’d do it the same way. What? That’s right, I’d do it the same but I would go about it very, very differently. You see, even back when I first started selling cars I understood the value of creating positive, win-win relationships with my customers, in fact, a lot of the things I train on today, in regards to social media, I learned while working lot traffic and building my own book of business.

One of the first things I did when starting my very first job selling cars is have two sets of post cards made, one for sold traffic the other for unsold traffic. The first thing I would do when a customer drove off the lot is send them a post card, maybe it was a post card thanking for them for their business or one thanking them for their time, but every person I spoke to got one in the mail.

Once a month I put a newsletter together with Microsoft Publisher and walked down the street to a printer and had it printed up. I would then address them by hand, stamp them and put them in the mail, one to everybody in my database, whether they bought a car from me or not. I would even clip out magazine or newspaper articles if I found one that would interest one of my customers and mail that to them as well.

I would devote part of my day calling my customers, keeping track of them and building relationships each and every chance I got. I understood that the value was in the relationship, and that relationships were worth more than the commission check I earned from selling them a car, you see I wanted them to come back and buy another car from me and another, I even wanted them to send me referrals, and you know what? They did, and they were happy to do it.

So earlier when I said I would do it the same way I meant it, and by the same way I meant that I would still build relationships, because that’s where the real value comes from. Of course, I would go about it differently because I have so many tools at my disposal today that I would have a much easier time going about it. Back then I would talk to service customers and talk to the HR department of X-plan companies (I worked at a Ford Store) to get more business, all of this took time and I had to do a lot of this stuff on my own time, at home or on my rare days off, but as I look back it was well worth the experience I gained.

But I ask myself now, how would I go about this differently if I sold cars today?

• I’d have a blog. On that blog I would write about the same things that I wrote about in my newsletter. I would write funny stories, stories about my family and my experiences as a car salesman. I would still interview the detail manager about how to best take care of leather  or how to get those pesky stains out of the upholstery.
  I would upload my customer testimonials along with pictures of them enjoying their new vehicles. I would even go so far as to interview them, just like I did for my newsletter, but this time I would blog about how their experience was working with me versus the other guy down the street.
  I’d blog about the makes and models at my dealership, really show my passion for the products I sold. I’d use my blog to build relationships, not sell cars. I would let people know, through my actions, not my words, that I wanted to get to know them, that I’m in the car business to take care of them, not to rip their heads off.
• I’d have a Facebook profile that I’d use to keep up with my customers. I would upload pictures of them, that I took, just before they left the lot and tag them in it. Then I would go to their Facebook wall and say something nice about them on their wall, on the picture that I tagged them on. I would do that because I know that they would feel compelled to say something nice about me and then all of their friends would see it. A kind of impromptu testimonial.
  Then I would listen. I’d watch to see what my customers were talking about so that I could get to know them. I would then find articles online that interest them and post it on their wall with a little note saying that I came across it and thought about them. I would also partner with local businesses and get coupons from them so that I could give them to my customers. I’d give as much as I could, I’d give advice when I could and offer my service whenever I had a chance, even if I had to mow the grass of one of my elderly customers who’s grandson was out of town for two weeks and couldn’t get to it (Yes I did do that).
• I’d create videos. Lots and lots of videos. I would create walkarounds that I would post on Youtube, my blog and on Facebook. These wouldn’t be ordinary walkarounds but the fun kind where I see how many people I can fit in the trunk.
  I would post videos teaching my customers how to operate the navigation, the memory seating, and any other number of things. I’d get a service tech to show my customers how to check their fluids and the importance of proper maintenance. Whenever one of my customers, or a potential customer wanted to know more info about a particular vehicle I would take a video of the car and show it to them, making sure to use their name in the video. I would then upload their video, with the proper meta tags to Youtube so that they rank in the search engines.
• I would have a LinkedIn account where I would connect with as many of the influencers in my market as possible. I would find as many opportunities as I could to refer the people in my network to them. I would do this because I know that the people on LinkedIn carry a lot of authority, and if I could get an endorsement from a few of them, it would bring me more business.
  I would go to great lengths to be a connector of people, build as much social capitol as possible so that they would in turn connect people to me.
• I would organize as much face to face as possible. I would organize meetups at the dealership where the finance manager could talk about budgeting, credit repair, or the value of gap insurance. I would even have the service manager conduct new car care clinics.
  I’d invite customers in to test drive new models so that they could give me their opinions on them, of course I would record the whole thing and upload the videos to Youtube, Facebook and to my blog. I’d organize networking functions so that I could bring my customers even closer together so that they could network and get to know one another.
  I would organize giveaways every month, dinners for two, or tickets to the theatre. I would use these to create excitement around me and my dealership.

The Good News

If you’re selling cars you don’t have to wait for customers to walk on the lot, you can build relationships with your past customers at the same time you build relationships with new ones. The hard cost is next to nothing, you could partner with a local restaurant for the free dinners or at least get a discount. Of course, this all takes time, but if you devote just a fraction of your time each day to building relationships, before you know it, you will be working by appointment only.

This is the 21st century and as salespeople we need to use the tools that are available to us to build a community of raving fans around our personal brand. It doesn’t take much work to put a strategy in place but I assure you, once you start building relationships with your customers and take care of them in any way that you can, they will, in return, take care of you. What are you waiting for, get started now!

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

Related posts:

1. If It Can Help a Man Get Elected President, Social Media Can Help You Sell Cars

Here’s a good rule of thumb for you about new technology: if it limits customer interaction it’s probably not a good idea to go with it. That is, if a new technology, no matter how much time it saves you, takes AWAY from your ability to build relationships with your customers, then you’re better off without it. Earlier, I was talking with B.A. Nerison, owner of Wheel City Auto in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he had this to say about the lack of relationship building opportunities that debit card and ACH payment options has brought to BHPH, “In days past customers used to pay in person, at the dealership. This gave us the opportunity to build relationships with our customers, one-on-one. With today’s automated payment options it has become increasingly more difficult to build personal relationships with our customers. This has had a direct impact on the delinquency and repossession rate at buy-here-pay-here dealerships.”

I’m not against these types of payment methods, they do make things easier, but at what cost? While building customer relationships is important to any dealer, it’s even more so to a BHPH dealer. Sure, we’re all happy when a sale is made but without the ability to collect payments, a BHPH dealer is out of business. With the onset of social media, BHPH dealers are, once again, given the ability to connect with their customers and in a very personal way. As B.A. said, later in our conversation, “We don’t want people thinking, ‘it’s okay if I default on my loan at the dealership,’ we want them thinking, ‘I don’t want to let Jeff down, he took a chance on me when nobody else would.’“

The whole idea behind social media is to bring us all a little closer together and it can and should be used as a tool to connect with our past customers, as well as connecting with potential customers. Imagine if, as a BHPH dealership, you were able to bring your default rate down just half a percent, how about a full percent, two percent or even five, do you think it would be worth implementing then? Of course it would!

Increasing Relationships to Decrease Delinquency

It’s common practice for a BHPH dealership to tell their customers that they want to aid them in rebuilding their credit  but few of them actually follow through, and I’m not talking about just reporting to the credit bureaus but making the actual effort to teach them how. Here are a few quick and easy steps you can use to follow through on your desire to help.

Step 1: Create a series of videos on credit repair, the difference between secured and unsecured loans, getting out of

Increased Relationships mean Decreased Delinquency

debt, the fallacies behind only paying the minimum amount on your credit cards and anything else that relates to finances, credit and debt. These don’t have to be professionally produced videos, in fact I urge you against it. They should be videos created by your staff, staring your staff and include helpful information that will actually benefit your customers. You can make as many as you would like, the topics are endless and the more people at the dealership that are involved the better.

Step 2: Create a fan page on Facebook (you can create a blog for this as well, but let’s keep this as simple as possible). Upload your videos, making sure to label them so that they are watched in a specific order, this way if you reference what was said in a previous video, then you know that its already been watched.

Step 3: Interact! Have daily, weekly, and monthly contests and giveaways to keep your fans engaged. Get your employees to shoot short bio videos explaining why they work for the dealership and upload those as well. Create excitement, be real and let your customers know that you’re not some brick and mortar business but real life people that want to make a difference in people’s lives.

Step 4: Once a month invite your fans to the dealership for a workshop, feed them and teach them, record the whole thing and get testimonials. Not testimonials about the dealership but about the information provided. Get them to talk about how the workshops have impacted their lives.

Step 5: Have fun! These is no better feeling in this world than knowing that you have made an impact on people lives. Rinse and repeat.

Conclusion

Some people may be thinking, how can this lower my default rate? If you take a look at what all of this really accomplishes then you see that all it is, is a way to connect with the very same people that put you into business in the first place. They will start to see their car payment as a bill that they have to pay, it won’t be one of those, “oh it can wait a month.” In fact it will open up a line of communication that will involve them calling you, instead of you having to call them, when they are unable to make a payment. What are you waiting for, go make a difference and see a difference.

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

Related posts:

1. Social Media … And the BHPH Dealer
2. WARNING: Do NOT Start A Social Media Campaign Before Reading This
3. Is Social Media for Every Auto Dealer?

As I write this it’s 1:57am January 1st 2010. Not really sure where I’m heading with this post but I felt compelled to write so here I am. 2010, like most new years, starts off with hope. Hope for a better year, hope for better money and better health. I’m no exception, I have big goals, I have big hopes, and I see big things in 2010 for my family and myself.

Sometimes we are too quick to write off the previous year, to shed it’s unwanted weight and boldly step into the new year telling ourselves that things will be different, that things will be better. While that may be true and I wish it for you, I mean that, you have to take a look at 2009 and think on what went right and what went wrong.

What went right for you in 2009? Not just in business but in your personal life as well, how were your relationships? How did you grow? Who influenced you to be better, who did you influence? Write them down. Write down what went right. Not only that write down how it made you feel.

Now write down what went wrong. Be as honest with yourself as possible and list everything that went wrong in 2009. Don’t just give what went wrong but how it went wrong and how it affected you. Be personal, don’t blame anybody else, you’re an adult and should take responsibility.

Now I want you to compare the two lists, what do you see? Is there a reoccurring theme? Which one is longer? Go back to list number one and add to it, make it at least as long as the second.

While one of these lists may seem negative they are both quite positive. Both lists are a series of lessons that you can choose to ignore or choose to learn from. I encourage you take the lessons learned  into 2010 and use them to shape your own future. Take charge in 2010, hit the ground running and always remember the lessons from 2009.

The Real Currency Of 2010 Will Be Relationships

The more positive, win-win relationships that you can create in 2010 the better off you will be and the more successful you will become. Social networking is a great way to connect with people and if used correctly will propel you into the upper stratospheres of success. Stop trying to get the most followers on Twitter or the most friends on Facebook, we all know that quantity doesn’t matter when it comes to relationships, it’s the quality that matters most.

Use social media to engage with the people in your market and in your field of business. Give more than you take and add value to peoples lives. Do this and you will start to see your influence grow, not just with your clients/patients/customers but with your friends, family and others in your industry.

Not trying to preach to anybody here, like I said in the beginning I had no idea where this post was going, but I do know one thing, I probably needed to hear this more than you did.

I wish you the best year of your life, so far, and it’s my desire that you obtain the level of success you’ve always dreamed about. Go forth and make it a reality!

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

Related posts:

1. Top 5 PersuasiveConcepts.com Posts of 2010
2. FREE Webinar: Developing A Successful Social Marketing Strategy

Too many dealerships, too many business, too many people try to force old world advertising models into the Social Media box. They are using a medium that runs on social interaction to run commercials. I’m here to beg you, please stop! Tradition advertising is a one way pitch that takes being social out of the equation. If you are a business and want the most out of your social media efforts, build relationships, earn the right to tell people about your product and reap the benefits.

Too many times I see a screen full of tweets about nothing but inventory and Facebook fan pages full of commercials. Where are YOU in all of this? Who are YOU? I don’t see you interacting with your fans or followers, how do you know what THEY want if you don’t first listen.

Relationships are much easier to build in the world of social media than they are in real life because everybody likes to talk about what they are doing, they like to put their lives on display, take advantage! Take a look at what people are saying and comment, ask questions and show interest. If you see one of your followers/fans/friends talking about cycling and you run across an article about cycling online send them a link, its just that easy!

I hear it all the time, “social media doesn’t work for me.” After looking at their social networks and how they are interacting I almost always see nothing but self promotion. People do not care about what you have to sell unless they care about you as a person. That’s the way it is with social media, give people a reason to want to do  business with you, build a relationship based on trust and mutual respect and you will start to see your market share sky rocket.

I know I have taken a no nonsense approach in this post whereas most of my other posts take on the voice of teacher but sometimes we ALL need to hear it just like it is.  Take a look at your approach to social media, do you see more self-promotion than friend-promotion? If so you are going about it all wrong and you need to reevaluate your approach before it does ANY MORE harm. That’s right I said any more. I say that because each time you spam (which is the way most people view it) you are doing yourself more harm than good. I hope you have taken what I said to heart, learn from your mistakes, better yet the mistakes of others.

I would love to hear your comments, tell me what you think!!

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

Related posts:

1. The Law Of Reciprocation and Relationship Marketing
2. Social Media, BHPH and Decreasing Delinquency Rate