Digital Marketing

There are all sorts of coaches and trainers in our industry. But there is a difference. Trainers are brought into an organization to teach a specific set of skills – kind of like what Liam Neeson is famous for saying in the movie Taken.” Maybe the trainer is there teaching sales skills, maybe they are teaching how to use a technology or perhaps it is product knowledge. The definition of coaching, however, is much different. According to Wikipedia:

• “Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance.”

While this may sound similar, it isn’t. Why? Because a coach is someone that is present all of the time. And should be in some form of management role. Most managers don’t take the time to identify or observe their staff. In the automotive space, managers tend to forget about the salesperson that is kicking butt monthly and focus on those that aren’t. Even then, the “coaching” turns into a negative thing as in “if you don’t sell 10 cars per month, we will have to let you go.” Rather than taking the time to “coach,” the feedback has been turned into one that makes the employee feel undesired and puts undue pressure on them.

Coaches should be leaders. Leaders don’t just coach, they do intentional coaching. What does that mean? It means that not only should leaders be looking at their underperformers but also be open to those employees’ feedback. Leaders aren’t all-knowing. Perhaps there is a good reason for those employees to be underperforming. An analogy would be something similar to telling a carpenter to build a house and, when they can’t, firing them. Had the leader listened, he might have learned that the carpenter didn’t have a hammer – or maybe even nails.

On the other side of the coin, leaders shouldn’t forget about those employees that are doing great but rather discuss with them how they can improve. Just because 20-car Freddy is killing it every month doesn’t mean that a leader shouldn’t discuss with Freddy how they can get to the next level and become 25-car Freddy. For leaders, it’s easy to underestimate how much help their employees need for them to achieve MAP (the Minimum Accepted Performance) regardless of whether they are under or overachieving.

Leaders have to get away from simply identifying and coaching underperformers with a negative mindset but rather trust their employees, and collaborate with them as partners in a positive way. Leaders will ALWAYS have time for their employees. Leaders will ALWAYS be willing to listen to their feedback and, most importantly, leaders will ALWAYS be able to identify when THEY are wrong and be willing to be coached by their staff. What’s that famous phrase: A great leader is someone that is a great follower?

Don’t let time stand in the way. Your people are the most important asset your business has. By either ignoring them or throwing negativity at them rather than listening to their challenges as well as how they think those challenges could be fixed, you are doing your business a disservice.

When was the last time that you took to do a leader walk? A leader walk is simply when a leader visits every employee in every department in order to observe, interact and find “in the moment” opportunities to be involved and coach their employees. A great leader doesn’t allow separation between themselves and their staff but rather creates opportunities with which they can be a part of their organization in an open and visible way to not only show appreciation to their staff but also to listen to them, hear their challenges in real-time and discuss with them how – between the employee and the leader – those challenges can be overcome.

Stop staying in the leader/manager “Ivory Tower” hiding behind the one-way glass and get involved with all departments in the organization. Observe and interact with not only employees but also other management peers and customers. Find out what motivates them, develop relationships, recognize and reinforce the right behaviors while offering appreciation, encouragement and seeking input. A leader is a role model and a teacher. By following this advice, you’ll create a better company culture, find your employees overachieving, increase retention and create a better customer experience. Now stop reading and start doing.

-Originally published by Digital Dealer

In the automotive industry, we tend to think about conversions in a funnel-type journey not only within our marketing and sales but also with the outcome of the customer’s journey. We lead them down the path that we want them to follow and hope that they end up in a sale. Am I wrong? Many dealers judge all of their marketing and technology partners’ results on two things:

1. How much did I spend?
2. How many cars did I sell?

It’s typically that simple when evaluating performance. A dealer or General Manager looks at their doc sheet at the end of every month and, invariably, they see that they spent $3,000 with a marketing partner but only sold 3 cars for $800 in gross. (or some amount of money less than what they spent.) In my opinion, this is unfair to the vendor. With customers sometimes doing initial research when they are “thinking” about buying a car, the results that a vendor brings in may not show up for 90 days or more until the customer is actually ready to buy. If the Dealer/General Manager is making decisions on a 30-day basis on whether to keep or cut a marketing vendor based on these criteria and with this length of time, they may be doing a disservice.

I get the funnel analogy. Top funnel are people who may want to buy. Bottom funnel are people closer to buying. Dealers tend to ignore, however, the top funnel customers when analyzing vendor partner’s performance. Why? Because they can’t draw a straight line between a “lead” and a sale!

I’m not here to talk about sales attribution, however. Personally, I don’t think “conversions” ever end. I’ve had people drive 60 miles in a dense automotive community to mine just to save $50! That’s insane! What I’m talking about is whether the “sales” conversion is the “final” conversion.

Let me share a story. Presidential nominee and U.S. politician, “Barry Goldwater’s family owned a department store in Phoenix, Arizona. At a party Goldwater was seen in a garish, flowery tuxedo. ‘One thing about owning a store,’ he told the amused guests. ‘You’ve got to wear the things that don’t sell.” *1

Automotive dealerships tend to focus more on the sale than on the after sale. This amazes me seeing as service penetration accounts for a large majority of the revenue that keeps the lights on especially in the current time that we are in. Dealers, however, are still hyper-focused on sales and pay little attention to warranty, recall, parts and regular maintenance revenue.

This industry is NOT the “Field of Dreams!” It’s not “If you build it, they will come.” Do you think a customer that bought a car from you wouldn’t consider taking their vehicle to an independent like Jiffy Lube? You know that they would and, oftentimes do. That’s why the independents are winning the battle for customer-pay regular maintenance. Think that you’ve got a stranglehold on warranty and recall work? What about your competing franchise competition? With many states legislating retail labor rates for warranty service, dealers should be aggressively pursuing these customers.

While I’m not saying don’t pursue sales, I’m simply saying that, in my opinion, dealerships shouldn’t neglect other revenue producing departments in their stores. If you go to almost any dealer’s website, their “service” page either barely exists or is outdated. If, however, you visit Jiffy Lube’s website, it is filled with information, pricing and content informing customers how and why they should choose them. If we return to the story of Mr. Goldwater, the lesson that exists is that dealerships should be wearing the clothes that don’t sell. Namely service-related offerings that are being missed. Whether that’s because customers are choosing Jiffy Lube over the dealership, choosing to have warranty and recall service done by a competitor or dealerships missing out on customers that don’t even know they need it.

Conversions don’t stop at the sale. The customer’s journey doesn’t stop when they buy a car – unless you let it. Smart dealers realize this and continue their customers on a journey that can lead to a lifetime of service and referrals as well as brand and dealership loyalty. That one customer that bought a car from you can easily be transformed from the $800 loser to the $100,000 winner over their lifetime. My advice? Don’t stop at the sale. Nurture the relationship as long as possible while creating as many more as you can. Never stop. This is a long-distance run. Customers will follow if you are a good leader. As they say, the best leaders are also good followers. There is no “final conversion.” It’s a never ending relationship that will benefit your dealership – and a dealership simply needs to say “I do.”

*1 Fadiman & Bernard, Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes, Page 141

Today, one of the hot buttons of any digital campaign is “conversion rate”. It makes total sense when it comes to the true attribution of a campaign. How many visitors to your site? How many people became a “lead” from those visits? Ask any (good) marketer today and they will tell you that a true conversion is a lead or a sale in the e-commerce world. In the industries I spend most of my time in, a conversion is a phone call, a text, a chat or a lead form (e-mail) sent in. To go further down that rabbit hole, those numbers typically get transferred to another department. Meaning that the digital team hands off the “lead” to the appointment setting and/or sales dept. We call it a BDC in the automotive business. Then web visits head down the path of final attribution. But how many buy and for how much gross profit?

To me, that is the way it should be. It is the best measurable way for you to tell if your website is set up to “perform”. I mean, having a website is great, but if it has no visitors, that is tragic to your business. I personally think it is even worse if you drive traffic to your website and it does not convert. There are only two reasons for that waste of visitors to happen.

1. The traffic sucks. They are not high quality relevant visitors coming with the intent to research your company and/or offers.
2. The traffic is not inspired to spend time on your site (TOS) and does the proverbial bounce or it simply is not set up properly to convert with the right calls to action (CTA’s) designed to move the visitor from the website visit to a lead or a sale.

Here are the answers as I see them…

1. Make sure you are pushing high-quality traffic to your website if you are using paid search strategies. Hold your team or agency accountable to the quality of the traffic, not just the amount of the traffic. Second, (and really first,) is to make sure that you have as many organic traffic strategies in play as possible. SEO, GMB, YouTube, etc. Wait for it… using even traditional media “offline” strategies to push direct hits. A direct hit, if you are not privy to this term, is a customer who did not search for you in a search bar, i.e. Google, or just click into your site originating from an ad from Facebook. No, this person just typed your URL in and went directly to your site because that is what they wanted to look up, YOU and YOUR BUSINESS! All of this traffic should be high-quality so long as the content pushing the visits is consistent with the site and the offering that you have.
2. Be sure the site, landing pages, and conversion points you have are optimized for conversions. Be sure that you are operating in today’s relevant ways by using chat, text messaging, and other conversion tools that will lead to higher conversion rates, i.e. for the auto industry, a compelling trade-in appraisal tool. Beyond that, allow me to get to the origin of this blog post, the “First Conversion.

Much of this is rudimentary, and anyone who truly gets it is saying “no shit” Troy, this is obvious. But for those reading this that are not trained on site traffic, quality of traffic, TOS, CTA’s, Direct hits, etc, what I have written so far is a good entry point to understanding it all. Hopefully it helps executive managers and owners alike that are reading this hold their teams and agencies a little accountable. Now for the fun….

I subscribe to the theory that there is a “conversion”, you must pay attention before you worry about that CTA button, lead form or chat function (never mind the click to call button.) I call it the “First Conversion.” It is the conversion of the human mind to even consider your business and/or offering. The real professionals are doing it every day… and they are winning. At minimum, they are winning the game of attraction. The business model behind some of the best marketers in the world can be debated, but my goodness, they understand the human mind.

Take the slogan “Car Buying Shouldn’t Suck.” That will do it. Four words that attack what a consumer feels, is worried about and is an easy target to sway to another side. In this case, it is the side of the automotive disruptor Carvana. It is conversational in a way. The consumer thinks to themselves “You are dang right. It should not suck!” And there you have it, the conversion of the human mind to start an internal conversation with the business and is instantly converted to a potential consumer.

How hard do you think it is once they are on the website scoping out this new (disruptive) business and their website that makes the consumer “feel” exactly like their marketing said it would. A clean, crisp, easy to navigate experience which basically says in NEON and every word communicates “THIS DOES NOT SUCK!” Or, in the case of Car Max, “THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!” The website is set up, written, and strategized, optimized, and A/B tested to make a consumer feel exactly that way.

Think I am crazy? Go to www.carmax.com and, when you get to the site, truly pay attention to the first line, “30 day Money Back Guarantee,” and that’s if you like it enough after your no-obligation 24-hour test drive. The next thing you will notice, as you scroll down, is the ability to shop by cars that fit your budget. Is this not sounding quite a bit like “THE WAY IT SHOULD BE?” After all, you can shop, drive and buy with no pressure and with a guarantee. You can shop for cars that you think you can afford, and it takes the pressure off of being on a car lot and wondering if the salesman is going to give you numbers you feel pressured into or are embarrassed to say “Sorry, I can’t afford that” in front of your spouse and kids.

It is not until you get down that far on the website and they know how you are starting to feel, do they actually throw their slogan at you: “Hey this is how it should be!”

THE WAY IT SHOULD BE! And at this point you think to yourself subliminally, yes, this is exactly how it should be. Folks, this is genius marketing at work.

Many businesses think traditional media is dead and that everything has to be done digitally. But the second a consumer sees something ( regardless of whether it is on TV, Facebook, Radio, or Instagram, etc), that is a little new, has a fresh twist on something that they wish was easier, better, different, more comfortable, has less pressure, or is more affordable, they will go to your website to check it out. If your website experience is everything you promised in your ads to make things “better,” that builds trust. Once the consumer trusts you, they will be far more likely to hit that “tell me more” button,. chat Button, click-to call button, and yes, even enter their very sensitive information i.e. Social Security number into your lead forms.

And there you have it, the “First Conversion” at work. Convert the consumer into liking you, and BINGO, they will convert. It kind of reminds me of a lesson that we should all heed from the famous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Give the person who is holding what you want, what they want first and do it with a purity and honesty that is undeniable.

I don’t know about you, but I feel more businesses could learn a thing or two from that thought process. We tend to focus on our lead forms, pop ups, etc. etc. and expect that technology to provide us with the results we want. Sometimes people will just sit back and wonder why someone else, who seemingly doesn’t have any better technology, product, widget, website or even location, is kicking their ass. When and if you ever have that thought, I’d ask you to consider whether you have made the first conversion yet?

– Originally published in the September/October 2021 edition of Dealer magazine.

“While everyone ran in panic, Roselle remained totally focused on her job.”

Sometimes life gets hectic. We try to focus on and accomplish too many things at the same time. We have deadlines to meet, customers vying for our attention, fires to put out and countless voicemails and emails to respond to. In a world where employers consider multi-tasking a desirable trait, we’re taught from a very young age that this is a necessary skill. Sometimes, by focusing on too many things at once, we end up not focusing on anything at all.

A customer’s experience in your dealership is completely dependent on your focus. They can’t multitask their way to a solution. Only you have that. I realize that on a busy weekend at a dealership there are times when you’re being pulled in multiple directions. To a customer, however, they are the sun that everything revolves around.

“While debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm.”

The most successful business people know that you must treat each customer as if they are your only one. Customers intuitively know when chaos is present – whether by observation or intuition. No matter how busy you are, by stopping and giving a customer… any customer… your undivided attention, not only will you be more effective in resolving their problem but you will also instill in them a feeling of gratitude and, if you’re lucky, loyalty.

“We were forced to stop often and we took those opportunities to encourage each other with a quiet word, a joke, or a gentle pat on the back.”

Don’t forget that you have a team. Teamwork is crucial in these moments of chaos. The ultimate goal is to provide a solution that is satisfactory to the customer. Maybe you aren’t the right person to efficiently guide the customer down the path to a resolution. In these times, what typically happens is that you’re forced to get someone else involved. A great team knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Each member knows the best player for every situation and gets them involved immediately.

“…we must choose to trust those leaders who must also work hard to earn our trust through wise and timely decision making.”

As a manager, sometimes you are the one being asked to resolve problems. You are the ones being asked to multi-task. You are the one who is focusing on so many things at once that you lose focus. Your team looks to you to guide them in these moments of chaos. You must be able to focus on the single most important task you have: the customer standing in front of you. If you’re trying to desk and close deals while answering the phone and helping customers, you’ll accomplish a little bit of everything but a lot of nothing. Be a leader who shows customers that they are the most important task at that moment and follow through with that promise. Not only will you end up with a happy customer, you will also become a role model for the future managers on your team.

“Don’t stop until the work is over; sometimes being a hero is just doing your job.”

Be a hero to your customers and your team. That’s what great leaders are. Every one of us has someone in our lives that we consider our mentor in life. Be that mentor to your team and guide them through the chaos by remaining calm despite it. Teach them that the customer in front of you is the only one that matters. Reinforce it by following your own advice. They will notice and they will buy in.

These lessons originated from an unlikely source. Roselle, you see, is a dog. Her owner is blind. He also happened to work in the World Trade Center and was on the 78th floor when planes flew into the building. There were an estimated 17,400 people in the Twin Towers when this horrible event occurred. Not only did Roselle guide her owner down 1,463 flights of stairs to safety but she was also “giving doggie kisses to each and every firefighter who climbed past us up the stairs.”

“While debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm.”

In the midst of all of this chaos, Roselle focused on a single task. She led her owner outside and, despite the chaos and falling debris, found the nearest subway station and led her owner underground.

Roselle was honored as the American Hero Dog of the Year. While she isn’t with us anymore physically, her memory and lessons stay with us to this day. Roselle wasn’t just any dog. Roselle was a highly trained guide dog that had a single job to do for a single customer – her owner. Had she not been trained; she couldn’t accomplish this task with the laser focus that she must have had to navigate down one of only three stairwells along with 17,000 other people for 78 floors to achieve her goal.

“Sometimes the way is hard, but if we work together, we will make it down the stairs.”

Never forget.

New Dealer Funnel Comprehensive Text Messaging Solution For Auto Dealers, Engages Customers & Increases Sales

Created by two automotive industry veterans, Dealer Funnel has proven to increase sales through a combination of social media ads and text messaging.

Sanford, FL – June 2, 2021 – Dealer Funnel, a technology solutions provider for automotive dealers, today announced the launch of an online tool that links all aspects of a car buyer’s shopping journey, handling customer engagement from social media ads via text messaging in real-time, all the way through short and long term follow up.

Pilot dealers using the solution have enjoyed social media lead closing rates as high as 11%.

Co-created by:

• Geoffrey Wise, President of Xcel Media Group
• Troy Spring, CEO of Dealer World

Dealer Funnel delivers precise messaging tailored for the dealership from a single dashboard and rectifies common pain points for auto dealers by enabling them to immediately engage with customers and then continue to follow up, both short and long term, through a series of funnels, a plug-and-play method, and marketing automation.

The Dealer Funnel platform can be tailored to the exact needs of a dealership, regardless of size. It comes in a stand-alone software solution, all of the way up to a fully managed solution, where incoming leads resulting from social media ads are responded to immediately by a team of seasoned automotive professionals.

The tool can also be used to put leads into the funnel and follow up with customers who end up purchasing the vehicle elsewhere, attempting to capture their service business. Through extended beta testing and software refinements pilot dealers have seen social media leads close at 9-11%, with one client generating 1,000 leads from a $10,000 ad spend resulting in 38 sales in one month.

According to co-founder Geoffrey Wise, he, and Troy Spring created Dealer Funnel because they saw many dealers wasting thousands of dollars on ineffective advertising who did not have consistent long-term follow-up solutions in place to re-engage leads, regardless of the initial opportunity. “Having worked with many dealerships, I’ve seen that customer engagement on incoming leads is in the range of about 2-3%. Salespeople and Business Development reps are attempting to catch the low-hanging fruit and quickly forget about the other 97%. Many dealers simply cannot count on their salespeople or Business Development reps to complete all follow-up tasks on every customer. They rely on emails that are frequently never seen. Or they get deleted by customers, or simply end up in a spam folder. We knew a solution was needed, so we created one,” said Wise.

Dealer Funnel’s technology benefits dealers in the following ways:

• Increases customer engagement on social media platforms and other mediums consumers are actively using.
• Helps gain more opportunities to engage with customers for less advertising expense.
• Increases lead generation through powerful ads that convert. Enables real-time conversations with car buyers and captures the buyer’s information.
• Provides smart and powerful follow-up funnels for both short and long-term follow-up via marketing automation.

The platform is designed to be a custom fit for any dealership.

Dealers can be entirely involved in the process or allow Dealer Funnel’s dedicated BDC of highly trained automotive industry professionals to engage with customers. “Far too often dealers spend upwards of $30 per lead from third parties that may contain no, little, or erroneous contact information. With 34 years of auto industry experience, I realized that a solution was needed to connect with buyers on their terms, in the medium they prefer – namely, text messaging. By leveraging Facebook’s 228 million user audience in a targeted and strategic way, dealers can know the car buyer engaging with them is real and stop wasting their staff’s time attempting to contact shoppers that never respond,” said Troy Spring, Dealer Funnel co-founder. “It’s not just the combination of Facebook ads and texting that makes a difference. If a dealer cannot create ads that are noticeable and compelling, the results will suffer. I have always judged the performance of an account by the ROI.

The Dealer Funnel platform truly optimizes the leads’ ROI, both long and short term. More importantly, we believe that it increases ROI in ways we have not yet seen any other combination of platform and staff do in this market.”

For additional information and to schedule a demonstration call (800) 675-4522, or visit www.dealerfunnel.com

About Dealer Funnel

Based in Sanford, FL, Dealer Funnel is the first online tool that links all aspects of a car buyer’s shopping journey, handling customer engagement from social media ads via text messaging in real-time, all the way through short and long term follow up. The tool can also be used to put leads into the funnel and follow up with customers who end up purchasing the vehicle elsewhere to attempt to capture their service business. It delivers precise messaging tailored for the dealership through a simple process from a single dashboard.

By nurturing leads – whether over a day or as long as five years or more – Dealer Funnel’s software platform provides the engagement and follow-up that a dealership needs to increase sales and revenue in both the immediate and long-term future.

Media Contact:

Matthew Kelly

Director of Business Operations
Email: mattkelly@dealerfunnel.com
Phone: 484-894-8112

Automotive Industry Veteran Arnold Tijerina Joins Dealer World as Director of Business Development

Lehighton, PA, April 14, 2021 — Dealer World, a full-service advertising agency for franchise and independent car dealers, today announced that well-known automotive industry veteran Arnold Tijerina is joining the company as Director of Business Development.

As Director of Business Development, Tijerina will oversee sales and assist in developing strategic partnerships.

Tijerina brings over 19 years of automotive industry experience to Dealer World, including holding just about every sales and management position at auto dealerships. He also served as a successful Internet Sales Director for two large dealer groups in Southern California that were selling more than 1,000 units per month each at the time of his tenure.

An active and respected member of the automotive community, Tijerina is known for his expertise in digital marketing and social media. He is a highly sought-after speaker for industry events and has been involved in over 50 conferences arranging agendas and consulting on speaker applications.

Tijerina is the founder/owner of Storytailer and for the last eight years has worked with many vendors in the automotive industry overseeing their content marketing and social media and has been responsible for the syndication of dozens of blogs in top industry publications. He is also the owner of DealerElite, an online community with almost 12,000 vetted automotive industry professionals.

Commenting on the addition of Tijerina to the team Troy Spring, Dealer World CEO stated,
“As we continue to grow at the pace we have been year after year, adding Arnold to the team just seemed natural. He brings years of sales experience to the table that matches our culture of not really selling anything. We think very much alike when it comes to simply finding dealers that need help and helping them. That has always been our core value. Because our values align so well, my growth projections were adjusted by another 20% the second Arnold agreed to join the Dealer World team.”

Dealer World offers a truly unique and winning experience and understands the car business because its employees have worked in or managed dealerships. All clients’ automotive advertising needs are under one roof, and each department is managed by an industry expert. From online media to offline media, there is no need for a dealership to outsource advertising to different vendors.

“I’m excited to join the Dealer World family and look forward to assisting in the company’s growth. I have a strong belief that Dealer World’s services bring value to dealers and am excited to have the opportunity to be a part of that growth.” Tijerina stated.

About Dealer World

Based in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, Dealer World is a flat-fee, full-service advertising and performance agency that provides franchise and independent dealerships with best-in-class digital marketing, social media, and traditional advertising solutions. Founded in 2009, Dealer World has a proven track record of providing exceptional customer service while helping dealers cut costs, drive more traffic and increase sales. For more information, contact us today or call Arnold Tijerina at (951) 490-8000 or email him at arnold@mydealerworld.com.

While waiting to board a plane to Austin, Texas for my first trip to a Google Campus, my colleague and I were standing next to a woman wearing a sweatshirt that said “New Hampshire” on it. Being from New Hampshire I said, “I grew up there – love the shirt,” to which she replied, nicely, “yeah, I just got it.”

Once we boarded the plane, it turned out that she was sitting in the third seat of our row. She continued our conversation by reiterating, “so you’re from New Hampshire?” I said, “yes I am, born and raised.” Because she’s a retired school principal, she travels quite extensively now, and she told me the story of when she visited the White Mountains and how beautiful she thought they were. She was headed to Austin to meet some former colleagues and attend a science and technology conference.

So how is this connected to marketing? I’m sitting on a four-hour ride to Google to learn more about the platform and how I can help businesses sell more of their product in an effective, cost-efficient manner, and my mind can’t stop wondering why she bought the shirt.

The simple answer is she liked it. But as a marketer that spends an extensive amount of time figuring out how to make people tick, take action, and hopefully end up parting with a few of their hard-earned dollars. I couldn’t leave it there. I came to the conclusion that I normally come to: it was because of the way it made her feel.

So, does that shirt from the gift shop connect her to that trip, to the memories with friends and family, and to the beauty she doesn’t get to see everyday where she lives? Why did she wear it today? Headed to Austin, did it make her feel, even subliminally, like a world traveler or make her want to advertise to her friends that she had been to New Hampshire recently?

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you sell a product valued at more than that $29.95 shirt, so let’s dig in! Say you sell new or used cars, which most of our clients do, how much thought are you putting into how a customer feels prior to shopping and how they feel during and after the process? Many businesses take the stance, “We sell, X. X is a good product and I have invested a lot into selling it. People should buy X, because it is a good product and I am here to sell it.” Ladies and gentlemen, meet “entitlement,” which is the enemy of building a brand.

Every brand in the world makes you feel a certain way. Ponder this scenario for me:

Wearing a Rolex makes a successful man feel a certain way. It says something about him. After all, there are many ways to tell the time these days without wearing a $16,000 watch. Now think forward a few years, when he has a few grand kids and has made some more money, and the feeling of that Rolex is old. At every conference he goes to, he sees the guys wearing the trophy of their hard work in different models and colors. He boards a plane home and sees an ad for a Patek Philippe that says “You never really own a Patek Philippe, you simply take care of it for the next generation.” He pulls out his phone and starts to research a new watch to make him feel a different way.

That same guy walks into Nordstrom’s for a few things with his wife. He heads over to buy a suit for work and she heads over to the shoe department. An hour later, he’s out $2,200 and has a smile on his face as they load up the trunk and head home. He could have bought six pretty nice suits and seven pairs of shoes for his wife at Macy’s for those two stacks, but his trunk has two suits and a pair of shoes. After all, a Ted Baker suit will make any man feel better about himself. And his wife, well, she’s never been out in a pair of shoes that make her feel the way the Valentino’s in the trunk do. She cannot wait to wear them to a wedding on Saturday and will inevitably feel better when she puts on the most beautiful shoes she has ever seen.

Brands resonate with us. They tug on our souls. The way the concierge treats you when you make a purchase like that makes you feel like a millionaire at the moment. It feels good. It validates their hard work, and for a fleeting moment in time when the $2,200 leaves his hands, it feels normal, like an equal exchange. Two Suits, a pair of shoes and some world class service, and ahhhh life is good. Macy’s wouldn’t have made him feel that way.

People buy all kinds of things to make them feel a certain way. Want to feel like a badass outdoorsman? Head on over to L.L. Bean or Patagonia. Want to feel frugal and save money? Shop on a sale day and feel like you beat the system. Want to feel faster? Buy the newest running shoe for whatever the asking price is. You may not even realize it, but think about it: you buy everything you own – down to your shampoo and deodorant – because it makes you feel a certain way.

So, why oh why do so many businesses have websites that confuse people, are hard to navigate, don’t offer a value equation, and make them feel nothing? Consumer behavior is changing fast – we want things to be fast, easy, informative, and we want to connect to the things we buy. We want to feel smart about the purchase, safe in the fact we did not pay too much, and we want it to be easy and delivered within 36 hours. Yes, Amazon, Google and the like have trained us that we can get what we want, when we want it, and it will be easy.

If you own or run a business and have a website, I implore you to look at how your website makes your prospective customer feel. Whether it’s a $29.95 New Hampshire shirt, or the cars most of our clients sell that range from under $5,000 to close to $1,000,000, know your audience and actively work your brand to connect with them. Make them feel that connection, because it’s good for the soul and it’s good for your bottom line.

A few examples in our industry that are winning the battle right now are CarMax and Carvana, and auto dealers all across the country have made it easy for them to do so. At Carvana you’ll be told “Car-buying shouldn’t suck” and at CarMax, it’s “car-buying the way it should be.”

The sites are fast, they’re easy to navigate and I’m already pre-sold because yeah, it shouldn’t suck and I’m glad I’m on a site shopping at a company that “does it the way it should be.” When that home page loaded, it made me feel a certain way. I can spend my $27,500 anywhere, because I’m going to buy a car and there are millions to pick from. I’m in the market and the money is all but spent, so why not spend it somewhere that doesn’t suck, does it the way it should be, and that makes me feel “good?”

Local businesses, car dealers included, can fight this battle against larger and better-funded companies that are focused on the brand experience. It’s really not that hard, you just need to focus on the experience too.

The only reason Carvana is winning and selling cars in the backyard of dealers who have the same products and who sell it for less most of the time is because of, you guessed it, how they made the customer feel. It was fast, it was easy, they’ll deliver it to my door – wow, that really didn’t suck! There’s not a dealer in the country that can’t do exactly the same thing, but we don’t. We stick with old website designs. We ask for required fields in old-style lead forms for every CTA there is on the site, and make the customer feel that we are going to call them every second until they buy from us or turn us in to the authorities for badgering them. That’s how most of us in the auto industry still do it. That’s how we make a customer feel. We’re behind. It’s a clunky, slow process, and we think we are entitled to their business because we sell X’s and, by gosh, I’m closest to you and shouldn’t that be enough?!

Adding insult to injury, we spend more and more money to get traffic to sites with Google, Facebook, a great SEO strategy, traditional media, etc. Then, we somehow expect the website to do some magic, even though we all know it isn’t set up very well. Our old-school mentality as an industry has us going back to the internet manager and the BDC to yell about leads being down, and why we don’t have 10 appointments for the day. But we didn’t open up the website and also check the competition’s site – you know, the one kicking your ass – to see what maybe they’re doing differently. Ahhhhhhh, there it is, that’s what they’re doing differently. “But that isn’t for us, that won’t work here.” That’s the sales managers’ sentiments on the subject.

Yes, I said it. There is someone in almost every store that will buck the system and keep saying we shouldn’t change things, we just need more traffic. News flash: you have more traffic, and if you don’t you have the wrong strategy. The traffic just doesn’t walk up every morning, grab the paper and head out on a 5 store visit tour on Saturday morning anymore. They spend all night Friday shopping on websites and hoping a dealer that has the car they want has good pictures, has a good website that informs them and, wait for it, makes them FEEL like that is the place they should go first thing in the morning to buy a car. Notice I didn’t say “look” at cars. They did that. Maybe they searched YouTube for how the engine sounds. I know I did that for the last car I bought, and heck, I felt like I had already driven the car before I even saw it.

So, I submit to you where you need to spend your efforts in the coming months. Work with someone who understands consumer behavior and trust them. Test changes to your website. I heard someone say recently it’s not your second showroom anymore, it’s your first. BOOM! That’s well-said and I agree. It’s no different from training the receptionist how important her tone, politeness and speed is, because they’re the first impression and contact for a phone call. Well, again I have news: it might be the first contact still, but it might not be. Your website was more than likely the customer’s first impression and their first contact might have been chat. So let’s all be as aggressive, intent and focused on that first impression as we were in 1989 while training our receptionist.

Dealer World Ranks No. 2701 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 With Three-Year Revenue Growth of 243%

NEW YORK, August 14, 2019 – Inc. magazine today revealed that DEALER WORLD LLC is No. 2701 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment, its independent small businesses. Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

“For me, this award goes to the clients that trust us and value what we do. Without them, we have nothing. It’s also a representation of the talent and intensity of the hardworking team we have assembled here at Dealer World. We grow rather organically because of our high retention rate of clients. That is a direct result of the great work the team does and the care factor they do it with. That for me is the real win.” – Troy Spring, CEO

Not only have the companies on the 2019 Inc. 5000 (which are listed online at Inc.com, with the top 500 companies featured in the September issue of Inc., available on newsstands August 20) been very competitive within their markets, but the list as a whole shows staggering growth compared with prior lists. The 2019 Inc. 5000 achieved an astounding three-year average growth of 454 percent, and a median rate of 157 percent. The Inc. 5000’s aggregate revenue was $237.7 billion in 2018, accounting for 1,216,308 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

“The companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have followed so many different paths to success,” says Inc. editor in chief James Ledbetter. “There’s no single course you can follow or investment you can take that will guarantee this kind of spectacular growth. But what they have in common is persistence and seizing opportunities.”
The annual Inc. 5000 event honoring the companies on the list will be held October 10 to 12, 2019, at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona. As always, speakers include some of the greatest innovators and business leaders of our generation.
DEALER WORLD. BUILT BY A TRUE CAR GUY.

When you work with Dealer World, you are getting a truly unique and winning experience. We understand the car business because much of our Senior Management has worked in the automotive retail industry. All your automotive advertising needs are under one roof, and each department is managed by an industry expert. From online media to offline media, there is no need to outsource your advertising to different vendors. With our unique flat fee service, there are no surprises from month to month. We come up with winning, process-driven strategies every month to help you dominate your market.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

The 2019 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2015 and 2018. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2015. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2018. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2015 is $100,000; the minimum for 2018 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.’s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. Inc. took home the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012. The total monthly audience reach for the brand has been growing significantly, from 2,000,000 in 2010 to more than 20,000,000 today. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

The Inc. 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. Started in 1982, this prestigious list has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success. The Inc. 5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony is an annual event that celebrates the remarkable achievements of these companies. The event also offers informative workshops, celebrated keynote speakers, and evening functions.
For more information on Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/

Let’s face it: the auto business isn’t getting much easier. We’re faced with more and more challenges from nearly every angle. That being said, there are plenty of stores out there that are thriving, and I’m lucky to work with a bunch of them.

There’s a common denominator that I’ve picked up on that inspired me to write this blog. When I visit high-performing stores, they thank me for what we do for them as a company. My response is always to say that we’re lucky to be a part of what they’re doing. You see, high-performing stores are high-performing for a reason: the people in leadership positions making good decisions.

It’s no different from the concept laid out in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. I can tell you that high-performing stores in our industry have one thing in common, and it’s not that their location is good, or their franchise is great. It’s not that they’re lucky, or have been in business for 100 years either. Typically it’s not even that the owner is smart, but more often than not, it’s because the owner hired great people who know how to get the job done, no matter the circumstances that stand in the way.

So, when they thank us and say it’s because we drive loads of traffic that helps them sell cars, I say, again, we’re one small part of that equation and then highlight the other 99 smart things they do.

In order to have a Turbo Charged store, you have to build it systematically, and it starts with leadership that knows the value of having a great team around them. No matter your feelings on Robert Craft, he’s a smart man to have surrounded himself with winning individuals who make the Patriots dominate the way they do.

So what’s some low-lying fruit that can change your business in an instant?

1. Hire the right people. Be sure they are capable of doing the job, they want to do the job, and are excited about doing it. If your management team and employee base doesn’t fit that mold, you will be beaten by a team that has those qualities.
2. Keep things very simple. We make it so hard some days, so let me simplify things. Assume you already have the right people in place per that last paragraph. Drive loads of traffic to the showroom floor and the service lane to keep that talented team busy. They’ll sell service and cars like crazy if you put the right people in front of them.
3. Have inventory to sell that’s priced right. Think about this: if your talented team has lots of people to talk to or follow up on because your lead strategy is strong, and they have properly priced and clean inventory to sell from, what else could you possibly need to succeed?

In “Turbo Charging your Business,” your job is easy. It’s a matter of people and products. Hire really great people – people who you want to be around and who your customers will love. People that understand work ethic, and care about your business. Then go out and stack your inventory with the right cars at the right prices. Last, pick an agency or advertise in-house if you can afford a team of 4-5 in marketing. Make sure to demand that your agency drives traffic and leads.

Once you hold yourself accountable for building a world class team and hold your managers and yourself accountable for stacking the inventory properly, all you have to do is make sure your marketing plan is dedicated to driving as many walk-ins and leads as you can to create a good ROI.

One mistake I see often is failing to keep the pedal down. When a dealer does this to a certain extent, they stop thriving. Sometimes I actually believe they don’t think that selling more is possible. To truly Turbo Charge your store, you must think big. You must do more of what’s working, less of what’s not, and make sure your entire team is on board with this mode of thinking.

In the end, it comes down to belief. You will fail if you think you can’t do better. Your team will be weak because they’re working for someone who doesn’t have confidence, so how can they? Your excuses of your franchise, your location, the economy, everything else, including “there’s no support from the factory” and “we have 50 dealers around us” creep into the fibers of every square inch of your organization and the Turbo Chargers can never get cooking.

So let’s recap: Hire awesome people, drive loads of traffic to them, give them good products and services to sell and a nice work environment. And most importantly, lead them from the front optimistically. If you believe, then they will believe. When that happens, you’ll sell more and you won’t be able to stop that team from finding more ways to succeed.

That is how you Turbo Charge a business. It’s not rocket science, but it’s hard work and it’s a mental game. I work with many dealers to help them put the Turbo Charged system in place, and I’d be glad to talk to any struggling dealer and help them identify the first steps to firing up the Turbo Chargers at their business.

Last week, I asked Hunter Swift over the phone from 3000 miles away, to halt all proactive sales efforts for Dealer World. Hunter took that to social media, unbeknownst to me, and it gained a little traction and praise. Since the post, I fielded a few calls and discussed it with some friends and colleagues. I figured I would write this quick blog post that explains, in detail, why I did it, since it may make for good reading for some young and upcoming entrepreneurs.

As many know, I started this company in a very “pull myself up by my bootstraps” way. I had no capital, no clients, no software or platform, nothing really, except being good at what I do. I was lucky enough to find a dealer that gave me a chance to be their agency about 75 months ago and it has been one heck of a wild ride ever since. Dealer World was on its way!

One thing many people don’t know is that we could easily be twice the size we are now if not for my leadership. So, have I let down the company as its leader or have I succeeded? I ask myself this question often.

My son was 4 when I got divorced and started this company. I had been through it before with my daughters, working 75 hours a week and missing a good portion of them growing up to stay ahead of my bills. I respect every man and woman that works that hard and I have empathy for the sacrifices they make to give their families a good life.

When I got the chance to try it again back in 2009, I sold myself on the idea that I could build a company and raise my son as a very involved and active father all at the same time. So I set out to do so. In the meantime, my daughters were only 12 and 15, so I still had time to make up for some of what I had missed.

I feel so lucky to have pulled this off. I went into it with the attitude that I needed to make a difference in a few dealers’ lives, and that would allow me the flexibility to be home more and be an active and important part of my kids’ lives. Then, it just took off. I never really did much selling; we grew organically from reputation, a few speaking gigs and a lot of referrals. We grew so much that I think we will be named to Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies in America (we applied and I think we fit the bill). Fast forward to last week and another 25% growth, literally, in two weeks.

I have promised all our employees a great working environment and although it’s work, and some days it’s hard work, I think we have succeeded in our mission of personal and professional growth for all rather well. It’s important to me that our staff doesn’t get burned out because of massively rapid growth. We’re good at recruiting and filling our pipelines and have always hired early to be ahead of the game.

But last week, when we signed more business in 14 days than we ever had before, business that would have actually made for a solid 6 months or even a year, I freaked out. I freaked out because I care about our employees not getting burned out, and I care about our loyal customers, without whom I wouldn’t be writing this at all. I freaked out saying, “Okay, we got this, but my instincts tell me no more, not for a while.”

Money was not my first priority back in 2009, and I think it’s part of why I succeeded against all odds, being severely undercapitalized and with no staff. All I knew to do was to find dealers that needed help and help them with my heart and my mind. I think if money had been my motivator, I might have failed. I know I would not have the relationships I have now: the families of the dealerships, the trust of the owners who have been with us for years, the managers who thank me for our efforts. I think if money were the motivator, all those relationships would be different. The type of clients we attract became apparent a while back. Dealers transitioning to a new generation, or dealers who need help navigating this new world of business and advertising, seem to gravitate toward us. They can feel that we don’t operate just for the bottom line. They can feel and know we care.

So closing sales was a tough call for me as a leader, but an easy one for me as a human. Money is still not the motivator. The motivation is helping those who need help and to maintain the relationships that got us here as we strive to become a better company and agency everyday. Through it all, I also make sure our team feels that we care and that they are not just a number, because the number of employees is growing too.

So, as I stated, when I feel we have successfully on-boarded all our new clients, kept all our legacy clients happy, continue to offer new, relevant advice and ads that drive true leads and traffic, and the team at Dealer World tells me they are ready for more, then we will open up proactive sales efforts again. Until then, I have a lot of work to do.