If you have ever watched a TV show of video bloopers, been on Reddit, have friends or relatives that include you in the address bar of every funny viral email they send, or have surfed YouTube for blooper videos, then you probably have seen Bill Dance.
Bill was going to be a third generation doctor, that is until he came upon a rather grisly traffic accident. With that experience he was no longer interested in a career in medicine. So what would he do? Well, he liked to fish. Bill started joining, and winning, lots of fishing tournaments. This led to endorsements, and name recognition, and ultimately his popular fishing show and product empire.
Bill is certainly not the most polished public speaker. He does not have a commanding film presence. Bill is likable, though, very likable. His sincere and simple nature connects with viewers to make him one of the very best at what he does. Most likely though, you know Bill because of the times that things have gone wrong.
So what does this have to do with automotive digital marketing or car sales? One of the hardest things to convince business development and car sales professionals to do is to make a short video for a customer. You would have more success asking them to go to hell to retrieve the devil's nose ring while he sleeps! Almost all of the time it comes down to an absolute fear of the vulnerability inherent in being captured on video.
We all have seen that sales colleague who is not the best dresser, is as smooth as a cob in his/her presentations, and whose speech makes Homer Simpson look like the president of Toastmasters and yet who still has success selling! We all know why. For all that he or she lacks in appearance or eloquence, they connect with people. Here's a little secret: If someone on your staff is even somewhat successful setting appointments or selling cars -- they, too, can obviously connect with people!
When your staff takes a moment to record a short video to answer their customers' questions, they begin the process of building rapport. That is the most compelling reason that the video should feature THEM! Don't worry about brief moments of being tongue tied, awkward camera angles, a bad hair day, or that pimple that just showed up. Does that keep them from approaching showroom visitors?
Customers will appreciate that they went the extra mile to record a personalized video for them. Now the prospect will also get to see that the person that is helping them is real -- and has imperfections -- just like them!
Here is an example of a simple customer video I did when I discovered that one of my BDC reps was off sick and had an interested prospect with questions about a VW we had online:
As you can see, the technique is not hard, it requires no special equipment beyond your smart phone and a YouTube login, and takes hardly any time to execute. The biggest challenge is getting your staff to stop being afraid of being themselves!
I am not supermodel material. I actually really hate the sound of my voice when recorded. I was not dressed well that day as I had planned to stay cloistered in my office. In fact, did you notice I was even wearing the logo of a competitor? None of that mattered as much as letting this customer know that we valued his interest, we work as a team, and that we were happy answer his questions.
Everyone recognizes Bill Dance for one simple reason: he was not afraid to put himself out there -- even to the point of sharing a laugh, or hours of laughs, at his expense. Your customers are going to meet your staff eventually anyway. Invite them to control that inevitable first impression somewhat by packaging it within a simple, and very real "WOW!" moment for their prospect. It won't take them long to begin feeling, and cashing, the results!
Sources:
http://www.billdanceoutdoors.com/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fishing+blooper+videos
https://youtu.be/VSazi4GwRqI
https://youtu.be/OC7LcjnbzCY
http://www.whybuyengagement.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeanU6VHbYsoj32NVdjBlbg
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
I'm Sorry, Was That Your URL?
Love him politically or hate him, Donald Trump's strategy cannot be labelled "timid". Recently the news included a story that Jeb Bush had failed to renew or claim jebbush.com. Though the page was blank and, thus, no cause for concern, it now redirects to donaldjtrump.com.
My friend, former co-worker, and fellow YouTube star Gabe Pytel wasted no time on Facebook asking me if the stunt looked familiar. Of course it did.
One day early in my career my general manager and I were buying domain names for our particular auto group. In the course of the process we discovered that the two closest auto groups, both of which eschewed any thoughts of an Internet advertising strategy, had only one domain apiece registered. For a quick investment of $100 we soon owned multiple derivatives of our competitors' names.
In the world of SEO, unless we were going to build and optimize sites on these domains, they were likely to be all but invisible in organic search. I bought them, however, because the tablet and smart phone browsers that were emerging were increasingly combining search into the address bar. By redirecting these domains to my dealer site, someone who would type into their tablet browser "mycompetitorautogroup.com" would suddenly end up on my site.
It was more an exercise in fun than a quest for meaningful conversion. It was also going to be fun to see how long it would take for the competition to even notice. One of them was tipped off within a few weeks by one of our salespeople. He called one of the owners in a red faced rant about how he was going to have me arrested by the FBI and thrown into federal prison, etc. etc. That was funny. It's hard to say if the other would ever have noticed. We gave them all back. They didn't even charge the $100, which would have been a small price to pay for the lesson learned, but that was their choice to make.
While it makes for a funny story to tell around the water cooler my stunt, which I'd like to believe inspired The Don, should serve as a reminder to all business owners. I would not recommend wasting money on every possible derivative and variation of your business name, but at least own the basics. If your business name is frequently misspelled or prone to error through fat finger syndrome, perhaps you should register the misspelling, too, and redirect it. Laws protect you from trademark squatters, but who really wants to go to that expense or face the embarrassment of Jeb, and ... I won't mention his name.
 |
| Wait, that's not Jeb! |
My friend, former co-worker, and fellow YouTube star Gabe Pytel wasted no time on Facebook asking me if the stunt looked familiar. Of course it did.
One day early in my career my general manager and I were buying domain names for our particular auto group. In the course of the process we discovered that the two closest auto groups, both of which eschewed any thoughts of an Internet advertising strategy, had only one domain apiece registered. For a quick investment of $100 we soon owned multiple derivatives of our competitors' names.
In the world of SEO, unless we were going to build and optimize sites on these domains, they were likely to be all but invisible in organic search. I bought them, however, because the tablet and smart phone browsers that were emerging were increasingly combining search into the address bar. By redirecting these domains to my dealer site, someone who would type into their tablet browser "mycompetitorautogroup.com" would suddenly end up on my site.
 |
| Oh yeah! Got 'em! |
While it makes for a funny story to tell around the water cooler my stunt, which I'd like to believe inspired The Don, should serve as a reminder to all business owners. I would not recommend wasting money on every possible derivative and variation of your business name, but at least own the basics. If your business name is frequently misspelled or prone to error through fat finger syndrome, perhaps you should register the misspelling, too, and redirect it. Laws protect you from trademark squatters, but who really wants to go to that expense or face the embarrassment of Jeb, and ... I won't mention his name.
 |
| Hey, it's my website..no...wait...NOVAK! |
The Neanderthal CRM
Many, many moons ago I was a brand new agent at the Western Southern Life Insurance Agency. I was given a debit book (book of customers whose premiums were collected by the agent), piles of marketing material, business cards, and a cool little desk that opened like the ones I had in elementary school. I was also given a stack of 3x5 index cards with pre-printed fields on them complete with a metal box whose dividers allowed you to file the cards according to who was to be called throughout the month. In order to be effective, Western Southern wanted me to have a plan for regular customer engagement.
Customer relations tools are not new. They have been around for decades. Almost without fail new managers stepping into their new position would put in place the CRM strategy and tools he/she used successfully as a salesperson. For automotive managers, this invariably involved some sort of desk log that everyone was responsible for filling out whenever they had an "up". The manager could then flip through the pages in meetings asking each salesperson the status of any given unsold customer.
Enter CRM software. Software brought to the industry the automation of the 3x5 index cards, sales activity sheets, and the sacrosanct desk log. Calendars within the database kept salespeople from missing important calls should they have forgotten to shuffle their cards properly. In addition to automated customer and prospect contacts, CRM software gave the automobile sales manager a whole new level of control.
Instead of simply tracking the most recent entries on the desk log, CRM software allowed managers to track the follow up activity of their sales staffs. For those for whom complete control was the source and summit of their management strategy, electronic CRM's offered the opiate known as the "lock out". Salespersons who were not consistent or timely in their follow up could be locked out of certain customer files or from working with new customers altogether until they approached their manager for electronic absolution.
Today CRM use should no longer be about control but about producing detailed, reliable data that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a business development or sales staff. Unfortunately, the many resulting automotive CRM software platforms today appear to be based on the desk log model and sort prospects and customers according to three basic archetypes: Internet, Phone, and Walk In. They measure activity by tabulating the volume of calls, emails, letters, or customer visits. While no shortage of new tech features have been added to help the competing CRMs differentiate themselves from their competitors, scant attentions seems to have be given to the restructuring of CRM software platforms to allow these types of activities to be further categorized.
Dealers are increasingly being challenged by their OEM's to measure multiple key performance indicators (KPI). Any serious dealer monitors how many calls the sales or business development staff has made and measures the number of resulting appointments, but knowing the conversion ratio of all sales calls does not tell the full story. Were those outbound calls to those who submitted an information request via email? Were those returned calls to prospects who visited yet did not purchase? Were they marketing calls to follow up on equity or lease retention offers, or perhaps they were calls to owners as part of a sold follow up process?
If CRM software only considers a phone call a phone call (or an email an email, etc.), the only way to measure trending successes or struggles is to again keep paper activity logs that are manually tabulated -- the very thing software CRMs were created to replace. Dealers need reliable data to let them know that while they are strong in first outbound calls to email prospects, for example, their appointment setting prowess with unsold showroom traffic is struggling. This is the sort of data that empowers management to use targeted training in those areas that are of the greatest concern first.
One cannot blame the CRMs, by the way, for the slow evolution of detailed KPI cataloging. When the majority of your target consumers still seek reporting metrics that convert easily into "gotcha" moments used to assign blame, it is difficult them to appreciate the value of new, more specific KPI capture. To remain competitive, the CRM industry has had to develop shiny new objects like web cam integration, gauge styled graphics, and social media lookup icons to throw into the cage to keep the gorillas excited.
The tipping point is approaching, though, when a substantial number of dealers will need the ability to effectively and efficiently capture those KPIs that will allow them to most effectively analyze their conversion success. Those CRM vendors who have tested, reliable, and easy to use platforms in place to meet these demands will obviously be at a decided advantage.
Customer relations tools are not new. They have been around for decades. Almost without fail new managers stepping into their new position would put in place the CRM strategy and tools he/she used successfully as a salesperson. For automotive managers, this invariably involved some sort of desk log that everyone was responsible for filling out whenever they had an "up". The manager could then flip through the pages in meetings asking each salesperson the status of any given unsold customer.
Enter CRM software. Software brought to the industry the automation of the 3x5 index cards, sales activity sheets, and the sacrosanct desk log. Calendars within the database kept salespeople from missing important calls should they have forgotten to shuffle their cards properly. In addition to automated customer and prospect contacts, CRM software gave the automobile sales manager a whole new level of control.
Instead of simply tracking the most recent entries on the desk log, CRM software allowed managers to track the follow up activity of their sales staffs. For those for whom complete control was the source and summit of their management strategy, electronic CRM's offered the opiate known as the "lock out". Salespersons who were not consistent or timely in their follow up could be locked out of certain customer files or from working with new customers altogether until they approached their manager for electronic absolution.
Today CRM use should no longer be about control but about producing detailed, reliable data that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a business development or sales staff. Unfortunately, the many resulting automotive CRM software platforms today appear to be based on the desk log model and sort prospects and customers according to three basic archetypes: Internet, Phone, and Walk In. They measure activity by tabulating the volume of calls, emails, letters, or customer visits. While no shortage of new tech features have been added to help the competing CRMs differentiate themselves from their competitors, scant attentions seems to have be given to the restructuring of CRM software platforms to allow these types of activities to be further categorized.
Dealers are increasingly being challenged by their OEM's to measure multiple key performance indicators (KPI). Any serious dealer monitors how many calls the sales or business development staff has made and measures the number of resulting appointments, but knowing the conversion ratio of all sales calls does not tell the full story. Were those outbound calls to those who submitted an information request via email? Were those returned calls to prospects who visited yet did not purchase? Were they marketing calls to follow up on equity or lease retention offers, or perhaps they were calls to owners as part of a sold follow up process?
If CRM software only considers a phone call a phone call (or an email an email, etc.), the only way to measure trending successes or struggles is to again keep paper activity logs that are manually tabulated -- the very thing software CRMs were created to replace. Dealers need reliable data to let them know that while they are strong in first outbound calls to email prospects, for example, their appointment setting prowess with unsold showroom traffic is struggling. This is the sort of data that empowers management to use targeted training in those areas that are of the greatest concern first.
One cannot blame the CRMs, by the way, for the slow evolution of detailed KPI cataloging. When the majority of your target consumers still seek reporting metrics that convert easily into "gotcha" moments used to assign blame, it is difficult them to appreciate the value of new, more specific KPI capture. To remain competitive, the CRM industry has had to develop shiny new objects like web cam integration, gauge styled graphics, and social media lookup icons to throw into the cage to keep the gorillas excited.
The tipping point is approaching, though, when a substantial number of dealers will need the ability to effectively and efficiently capture those KPIs that will allow them to most effectively analyze their conversion success. Those CRM vendors who have tested, reliable, and easy to use platforms in place to meet these demands will obviously be at a decided advantage.
 |
| So, too, must your CRM Software Evolve! |
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