a division of Systems Marketing, Inc. December 2005

AutoSuccess Must-see Companies NADA 2006, page 4

ADA 200UST-SEE COMPANI

O R L A N D O F L O R I D A

American Auto Exchange: Delivering innovative solutions that streamline and maximize dealers� sales operations to

include: inventory optimization, Þ nance menu, reporting, and dealer desking tools.

BZ Results is a digital marketing & consulting company currently working with 8 of the top 10 eCRM Dealers of the year. BZ offers CRM, Web marketing, Search Engine & Email marketing, Websites, New & Pre-Owned, F&I, Service, Parts and specializes in BDC�s. BZ set up the largest BDC in the world which sold 384 vehicles in one month. They also work with the #1 Pre-Owned eDealer, #1 Honda eDealer, #1 Chevy eDealer and the #1 eDealer Group in the world.

Impact Direct develops innovative sited sales and direct marketing campaigns that light up your phones, Þ ll up your showroom and

deliver vehicles. All with out taking a percentage of your gross proÞ t.

InterActive Financial Marketing Group offers new and used car dealers lead generation, direct mail marketing,

CRM, advertising and Þ nancing by leveraging it�s brands; Carloan.com, Autoloan.com, 1.800.CarLoan and

IFMG Direct.

Ultimate Warranty provides leading-edge service contracts and ancillary F&I products. More than 8,000 dealers

have recognized the advantages and have beneÞ ted from selling Ultimate Warranty products. Stop by the booth,

and Ultimate Warranty can show you how they are making a great thing even better in 2006.

Auto Dealer TrafÞ c, Inc. is the automotive search engine marketing experts. ADT�s focus on SEO, Paid Search, and

analytics has made it the premier company in the automotive arena. ADT�s proprietary technology analyzes your

search marketing efforts easily. Count on us to give your marketing dollars a ROI!

HomeNet, Inc. is a technology provider offering online vehicle inventory solutions to help automotive dealers manage their vehicle inventory and increase online sales. HomeNet�s Inventory Online (IOL) system allows control of the acquisition, editing and distribution of vehicle data. IOL interfaces with all major DMS and broadcasts accurate vehicle inventory information and photos across the Web.

Established in 1999 Auto Internet Marketing has been generating both New Vehicle and Finance Leads of superior quality and content since the beginning of the Internet Revolution. Our unique marketing platform promotes FREE exposure for our Dealers, resulting in FREE leads every month! We look forward to speaking with you soon!

TimeHighway.com is the premier, real-time, online service appointment scheduling solution. It will increase customer satisfaction and retention, service department efÞ ciency and revenue, load balance service bays and drive trafÞ c to the dealer�s website. Are your customers returning to your dealership for scheduled maintenance? If not, let us help!!!

J&L Marketing�s solid reputation as the industry leader for direct marketing campaigns is based on the strong relationships we form, focused marketing, and the increased proÞ ts we provide for our dealers. We take great pride in our expertise to build the best campaigns for your individual needs. This remarkable success that J&L provides for over a thousand dealers a year can be yours, too.

We provide a fully integrated web-based software solution for F&I, leasing, special Þ nance, BDC, inventory management and sales mangement reports. We also provide direct mail, Internet leads, credit hotlines and website hosting.

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AutoSuccess Magazine is published monthly at 3411 Pinnacle Gardens Drive, Louisville, Kentucky, 40245; 502.588.3155, fax 502.588.3170. Direct all subscription and customer service inquiries to 877.818.6620 orinfo@autosuccess.biz. Subscription rate is $75 per year. AutoSuccess welcomes unsolicited editorials and graphics (not responsible for their return). All submitted editorials and graphics are subject to editing for grammar, content, and page length. AutoSuccess provides its contributing writers latitude in expressing advice and solutions; views expressed are not necessarily those of AutoSuccess and by no means reflect any guarantees. Always confer with legal counsel before implementing changes in procedures.© All contents copyrighted by AutoSuccess Magazine, a Division of Systems Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without express written consent from AutoSuccess. AutoSuccess may occasionally make readers’ names available to other companies whose products and/or services may be of interest; readers may request that names be removed by calling 877.818.6620. Printed in the USA.Postmaster: Send address changes to AutoSuccess Magazine, 3411 Pinnacle Gardens Drive, Louisville, Kentucky 40245.

3411 Pinnacle Gardens Drive Louisville, Kentucky 40245 � Toll Free: 877.818.6620 � Facsimile: 502.588.3170

Patrick Luck, Editor & Publisher• pluck01@autosuccess.biz

Susan Givens, Vice President• sgivens02@autosuccess.biz

Courtney Paris, Sales-improvement Strategist• chill-paris04@autosuccess.biz

Brian Ankney, Sales-improvement Strategist• brian01@autosuccess.biz

Thomas Williams, Creative Director• twilliams03@autosuccess.bizGod Bless America

INSI

DE 8121314161819202224262832343536373840

PartickLuck

To Be or Not To Be, The Answer is in the Becoming MichaelYork

Mediocrity is a Magnet ChrisAlford

TonyDupaquierIt is a Good Car, However ...

CarolArdellBeyond the MissionHow Your Behavior Affects Your Staff�s Attitude and Performance

AutoSuccess� Innovative Companies of the Year

PattiWoodThe Power of the Steeple

JimAdamsMail and E-mail Follow-Up, Part 2

AnthonyHallDon�t Wait to Start Prospecting

TomGegaxDraw Up Tomorrow�s Roadmap

DavidKain

Are You Insane

MarkTewartHow To Build a Winning Team

RoyReutterHow We Sold 414 Cars a Month OnlineSheehy.com Increased Leads More Than 300 Percent in 60 Days

The Complex Sale Today BrianTracy

The Two Week Press

ChrisHanson

DougHallThe Trust Power of Saying �No, We Don�t�

JeffAmegodMaximizing ProÞ t

What Fuels Your Vision ErikStuttz

Is Your Dealership an Opportunity-Based Selling Organization

JoshWeaver

e-Newsletter Metrics Uncover BuyerBehavior, Desires and Buy Signals

BrianEpro

Psalms 100: 4-5“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!Give thanks to him, bless his name!

For the Lord is good;his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

NADA 2006

Stop by and seeus at the NADA

2006 Conventionat booth

#3816

Innovative Companies Of The Year

This issue is dedicated to honoring the Innovative Company of the Year awardwinners. This year!s honor is awarded to companies in 2 categories: First, innovation in the service of suppliers and OEMs and second, innovation in serving automotive retailers. Below we announce the winners and we reveal the best practices of the most innovative companies in the automotive industry today.

Announcing the Winners

Our winners deliver the most innovativeproducts and services for helping their clients generate huge increases in pro" t while growing their own business. Accomplishing this while achieving excellent client satisfaction has earned SAP and BZ Results recognition as AutoSuccess! Innovative Companies of the Year.

SAP is the world!s largest enterprise software company and the world!s third largest software provider. In the automotive industry, they work with 17 OEMs and 39 suppliers. BZ Results currently works with 8 of the top 10 eCRM dealers of the year and they help manufacturers and retailers use technology and training to improve their sales and service pro" ts.

Innovative Companies

Need Innovative Leaders

Recently, SAP!s President and CEO, Bill McDermott and BZ!s CEO Sean Wol" ngton were named as " nalists in Ernst & Young!s Entrepreneur of the Yearprogram. Ernst & Young created the annual Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award program in the United States in 1986 to recognize the most successful and innovative

entrepreneurs. Many of the Entrepreneur of The Year winners have become household names: Amazon.com, Southwest Airlines, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and AutoNation. Wayne Huizenga, the founder of AutoNation, was last year!s winner.

William #Bill$ R. McDermott is the Chief Executive Of" cer and President for SAP America, Inc. In this position,

McDermott is responsible for all of SAP!s business activities in the United States and Canada and managing the region!s more than 4,000 employees. Prior to joining SAP, McDermott served as the Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales Operations, of Siebel Systems, an organization responsible for supporting customers in 37 countries, where he led global sales and " eld operations.

Criteria for Innovative Companies of the Year:

Most innovative products & services

Growth in revenue, proÞ tability & client base

Company�s ability to increase productivity& proÞ ts for their clients

Company�s client satisfaction

PatrickLuck

To nominate a company for the award, contact us at: Innovation@AutoSuccess.biz8

Newtown Square, PAwww.SAP.com

Coventry, RIwww.BZResults.com

During his tenure, he established a clear

vision to build the most professional,

customer-focused and consistently

high-performing sales organization in the

information technology industry.

Sean Wolfi ngton is the co-owner and

CEO of BZ Results. In this position

Wolfi ngton is responsible for all of BZ’s

business operations around the world. He

started his career in the automotive industry

in 1989, co-founded Cyber Car in 1999

and led the acquisition of Automark which

was later sold for an enterprise value

of US $200 million. In the past fi ve years,

under Wolfi ngton’s leadership, BZ Results

has grown 6000%. During his tenure,

he has built a clear vision and strategy

Congratulations, Innovative Companies of the Year!

to help manufacturers and retailers lever-

age technology to improve the customer

experience and increase their profi tability,

customer satisfaction and loyalty.

BZ Results and SAP were among 4 fi nalists

recognized for being among the most

successful and innovative entrepreneurs

in technology today. “Few companies

have the passion and perseverance to turn

a bright idea into a brilliant business like

the men and women recognized by the

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year®

program,” explains Ernst & Young. For

19 years Entrepreneur Of The Year has

shone a spotlight on the entrepreneurs who,

through their vision and vigor, have created

enterprises that blaze trails for others to

follow. Both companies experienced

dramatic growth while casting a new vision,

developing new products and services

and creating extraordinary growth for

their customer partners. In the automotive

industry SAP is the clear leader for

providing enterprise application software

products for suppliers and manufacturers.

For Automotive retailers, BZ is a clear

leader for providing technology and

consulting to improve dealers sales

and service profi ts. Both companies have

enjoyed 10 quarters of dramatic growth

because they have a customer-centric

approach aimed at generating value

and creating a measurable ROI for

their partners.

Bill McDermott, President & CEO of SAP, fi nalist in

Ernst &Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award this year.

Sean Wolfi ngton, CEO of BZResults, fi nalist in Ernst

Ernst &Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award this year.

Wayne Huizenga was named by Ernst & Young

as “Entrepreneur of the Year” last year.

To nominate a company for the award, contact us at: Innovation@AutoSuccess.biz 9

0090 L05b Article Feature A.indd3 3 12/2/05 9:12:19 AM

“BZ Results works

with 8 of the top 10

eCRM dealers.”

“SAP Automotive

works with 17 OEMs

and 39 suppliers.”

The Automotive Technology Revolution

As publishers of one of the auto industry’s

most widely-circulated trade magazines, we

consider ourselves to be students of the car

business. This year we noticed a dramatic

the way technology is used by suppliers,

manufacturers, dealers and customers. As

customers began using the web to shop for

vehicles rather than traditional advertising

sources, dealers responded by marketing

online and by using technology to better

manage and measure their customers and

business. Suppliers and manufacturers

have learned to use technology to

improve their productivity and make

sourcing and building vehicles more

effi cient. Technology has created a

tidal wave in the automotive industry

and both SAP and BZ are helping their

respective customers stay on top of the

wave to use its momentum to improve

their productivity and profi ts.

About the Winners

BZ Results was incorporated in 1998

and in the last fi ve years has become

the industry leader in digital marketing,

CRM and consulting.

BZ Results has grown 200-400% a

year over the last fi ve years and they

have increased their dealers’ sales

and service profi ts by up to 1000%.

BZ Results is a technology and training

company that helps dealers and manufac-

turers fi nd, sell and keep more customers

profi tably. Their system includes tools and

training for the following areas of the

dealership: Marketing, Digital Marketing,

Search Engine & Email Marketing, Websites,

BDC, CRM Tools, New & Used Car

Sales, F&I, Service & Parts.

When we noticed that

8 out of the top 10

eCRM dealers of

the year were BZ

clients, we decided

to take a closer look

at the company.

It appears that BZ dealers are successful for

several reasons. BZ mastered search engine

and email marketing for their clients before

anyone knew anything about it. BZ clients

like their award winning websites and their

best in breed CRM tools.

Bob Tasca at Tasca.com explains, “The

secret to the success of BZ’s system is that

they give us all of the tools and training

we need to get positive results without a

lot of effort. We need a simple strategy that

connects our entire business together

in a way that’s easy to implement or it

won’t work.” Mr. Tasca summed it up

when he said, “I do not want to work with

15 different companies to get everything I

need to run my business. BZ’s system gives

us everything we need to attract, sell and

service more customers profi tably.”

SAP has more than 30 years in the business

of helping businesses grow. Founded in

1972, they are the recognized leader in pro-

viding collaborative business solutions for

all types of industries and in every market.

With 12 million users, 96,400 installations,

and more than 1,500 partners, SAP is the

world’s largest inter-enterprise software

company and the world’s third-largest

independent software provider overall. SAP

has a rich history of innovation and growth

that has made them a true industry leader.

Today, SAP employs more than 34,000

people in more than 50 countries.

When we learned that SAP worked

with 17 OEMs and 39 suppliers we wanted

to know why. The fi rst thing we discovered

from some of their customers is that SAP

Automotive professionals are dedicated

to providing the highest

level of customer service

and support. In addition,

SAP has effectively leveraged

their extensive experience in

other industries to deliver

comprehensive range of

solutions to empower every

aspect of automotive business

operations. Finally, we have

learned that by using

SAP solutions, automotive organizations

of all sizes have reduced costs, improved

performance, and gained the agility to

respond to changing business needs.

About the Award

AutoSuccess honors Innovative companies

who inspire other businesses by pursuing

excellence in every aspect of their opera-

tions. We also honor the men and women

of these innovative, high-performing

organizations who continue to blaze trails

for others to follow.

Innovative Company of the Year Award

winners can be nominated for next year’s

awards by contacting us at Innovation@Au-

toSuccess.biz. Next year we will be adding

additional categories to honor more innova-

tive companies that serve the automotive

industry.

All nominees will be evaluated rigorously

by an independent board of examiners on

the following criteria: Most innovative

products & services, growth in client base,

company’s ability to increase productivity

& profi ts for their clients and the company’s

client satisfaction.

The evaluation process will include an

in-depth review by teams of examiners to

clarify questions and verify information in

the applications. Most importantly, we will

profi le the winners in our special Award edi-

tion that will reveal the best practices of the

best companies in the automotive industry

today.

To nominate a company for the award, contact us at: Innovation@AutoSuccess.biz 10

0090 L05b Article Feature A.indd4 4 12/2/05 9:12:20 AM

Last month I sent out an email

to my list of subscribers with the

controversial headline titled, �Does

your trafÞ c suck?� It created a

couple of negative responses from

people who said that the title was

offensive. My reply was then and

is now � �Get a life.� All of us have

heard the term �Sucking wind.�

What�s offensive about that?

I want to make two points. The Þ rst

point is that the worst thing you

can ever be in marketing is boring.

That title that was considered

offensive by two people out of the

60,000 it was sent to. The other

part of the story is that title and that

email wound up making me, my

company, my employees and some

our clients a small fortune. You

may be asking yourself how.

In that email, I told the truth. The

truth was that trafÞ c did suck for

many dealers as it still does for many

now. The domestic manufacturers

cleared their inventories and pulled

the market ahead by several months

and created a lot of low gross deals

for many dealers. If you think the

title of these emails have been

offensive, you should consider how

offensive it is to sit there with no

Does Your TrafÞ c Suck?

MARK TEWARTTewart Enterprises

trafÞ c day after day. Now that�s

offensive.

In my previous email, I mentioned

that for years, several of my clients

have asked me to provide staffed

event sales. I have always declined

because I had seen mostly drunks,

drug addicts and rogues who did

those events. My apologies go

to those that don�t Þ t into that

category. But even those people

would have to admit what I�m

saying is true. Some of my clients

wanted the huge boost in sales and

gross proÞ t but didn�t want to have

to deal with mess afterwards.

Finally, I relented. I recruited an

awesome staff of people and we

began to make things happen. Just

recently, a dealer client of mine has

experienced $200,000+ in gross

proÞ t in Þ ve days. The dealer is

right now almost doing cartwheels

because of the success of the event

and how it is being handled and he

has rebooked us for another event

in the future. The list of these types

of results is long.

The question is, do you want to do

something about your weak trafÞ c?

If these types of events are not for

you, I certainly understand. If you

want those types of results for

your store or you are least curious

to know how it works, call 888.

2TEWART (888.283.9278) to Þ nd

out how it works.

Once again, call 888.283.9278

Or

Email us at info@tewart.com

Or

Fax us at 513.934.4588 with the

word �sales event� written on

your business card.

Visit www.tewart.com toreceive your free newsletter

The Complex Sale Today

BrianTracy

It used to be that we would make a single call to a single buyer who would make a single decision on our product or offering.

In this simple form of selling, we used the attention/interest desire/action (AIDA) model

of sales presentation and focused intensely on many ways of closing the sale. Once we had made the sale, in many cases we never saw the customer again.

Today, everything is different. We must make multiple calls, an average of fi ve or six, in order to make the sale. We deal with multiple

decision makers, each of whom can infl uence the purchase.

If that weren’t enough, there is more competition than ever before, and it is more determined and resolute than it has ever been in the past. Not only must we compete on the basis of price, quality, services, capabilities, fi nancing and warranties with many other vendors of our product or service, we must also compete with every other vendor of every other product or service who is striving to get the same customer dollar that we are after. Our competitors are extremely determined, driven the same as we are by tight markets and careful customers. They are committed to starting earlier, working harder, and staying up later thinking of ways to take our customers away from us.

Our prospective customers are beset on all sides by every conceivable sales offering. Because they are drowning in details, options and choices, they are in no hurry to make up their minds. With markets changing and contracting, the amount of discretionary funds they have available has shrunken and they are more careful today than they have ever had to be in the past.

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. If a business does this in a suffi cient quantity and with proper cost controls, it will make a profi t. The profi t is the result of creating and keeping customers effi ciently.

As the president of your own professional sales corporation, your job is to create and keep customers. And just as a company must continually restructure and redesign its product and service offerings to satisfy the changing tastes of a demanding and competitive customer marketplace, you as a sales person must constantly upgrade the quality and sophistication of your sales procedures and approaches if you are going to create customers in suffi cient quantity.

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. First, be prepared to make multiple calls on a customer to close a sale. Plan your sales work systematically so you always have a new reason for calling back. Second, think continually about how you have to change and improve your selling and your offering if you want to succeed in a tough market. Work on yourself every day and never stop getting better.

Brian Tracy is the chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International. He can be contacted at 866.300.9881, or by e-mail at btracy@autosuccess.biz.

12

13december 2005

Are You Insane

ChrisHanson

December is one of my favorite months. Not because December is a big selling month but because December is the month to really go

over the past year and decide what the next year will bring. It doesn’t matter if you sell 10, 15 or 25 cars a month, there is always room for improvement. Set your goals and develop an action plan for making it happen. December is a very crucial month and should be taken very seriously. Not only do we need to end the year with a strong fi nish but we need to put in place what we are going to do for the next year. With setting goals for the new year comes a great responsibility because most people set their goals and forget to take action with them.

I think the biggest challenge most sales people face is they live in insanity. What is the defi nition of insanity? “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” Albert Einstein said.

Within this article I will give you some ideas to consider as you make a plan for the upcoming year. Within my goals for the new year I always consider the following:

Set goals.Setting goals each year is a must. All successful people set goals. Without clear goals you won’t know where you are going. If you need help goal setting, e-mail me and I will send you some ideas on how to set goals and things to consider.

Education.Be a student of the business. There are many books available specifi cally about selling cars. In today’s automotive selling career we have a wealth of information at our fi ngertips. There are also many CD and cassette sets from which you can learn about selling cars. If you don’t have a subscription to AutoSuccess Magazine and you’re not reading it cover to cover, you’re missing out. I have read every issue since I found this magazine two years ago. I read, highlight, take notes and incorporate new ideas into my process. I take action by incorporating the new ideas I learn after I read an article.

Sales tools.Are you using today’s sales tools? You must have a follow-up program to keep track of customers, prospects, goals, monthly income, etc. A specifi c follow-up process

for sold and unsold that uses an evidence manual, articles, phone scripts, video e-mail, be-back CD, quarterly newsletter, monthly e-mail newsletter and thank you cards. If you would like more information on the following sales tools, please e-mail me and I will help you out. In today’s market you need to be unique and innovative to hold on to and gain new customers.

If you are living in insanity, you will read this article and think, “Wow, these are great ideas; I’m going to do this.” And when you wake up in the morning you will forget, procrastinate and continue to do what you did yesterday and, unfortunately, you will receive the same results you did yesterday. In many cases, because you don’t have a clearly defi ned path, the opposite can happen, you might start receiving results that are less than what you received. “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” Proverbs 29:18 says.

Take action.If you are tired of living in insanity, it takes persistence, a desire to improve your career, well-thought-out goals then action. Write down “The defi nition of insanity is: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein. Make a couple of copies and put them in your offi ce, at home and anywhere you will continually see them. It will remind you to work on the goals you have set for yourself until they become habit. Don’t leave your career in the hands of someone else. Take charge and do it yourself. Make some changes and you will receive different results. With a clear vision we can make this upcoming year the best yet.

Chris Hanson with Hibbing Chrysler can be contacted at 800.901.2862, or bye-mail at chanson@autosuccess.biz.

CONTACT US TODAYat 866-964-NEWS (6397) ext.214

or email us at loyaltydriver@imninc.com

Keep your customersfor just pennies a day.

Loyalty DriverTM by .

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know when your customer

is ready to buy.

14

The Two Week Press

DavidKain

As a sales professional who is always looking for ways to improve your results it is nice to occasionally come across an idea, a

product or a process that works consistently. Too often you have to experiment over and over to determine if something truly works. I’ll save you the time.

The Two Week Press plays off the fact that a large percentage of your Internet buyers actually buy within the fi rst two weeks after they submit the leads. By creating a strategy to address this phenomenon you will see more of your prospects make appointments and buy more vehicles within these fi rst two weeks. Sure you will have to keep marketing to those who don’t buy but this is a solid foundation to boost your sales and profi ts.

The Two Week Press gets Internet prospects to respond, which in turn helps you improve your connection ratio, which improves your appointment ratio, which improves your close ratio. A bit of a warning fi rst – as with most things that are worth doing – this is not easy and requires a steady approach and a belief and understanding in how Internet prospects behave.

Elements of the Two Week Press

The most basic element of the Two Week Press is believing there is really a customer out there for you to sell and you just need to get him or her to respond. Internet prospects don’t typically send leads for their own entertainment as you tend to hear quite often with statements like, “I was just playing around online.” I liken this statement a lot to a prospect that is “just looking.” I made a good living from the customers who bring up this knee-jerk objection. You can, too. Focus on helping and being professional and they will come around. It works the same way with your Internet prospects.

The second element of the Two Week Press

is the focus on connecting. If you listen or see advertisements by marketing giants like Budweiser or Coca Cola you have to appreciate the effort they have gone through to connect with you. They steadily market to you using multiple mediums that are patient and creative – two very key premises

to effective marketing. These companies spend millions of dollars each year to make impressions on you or to connect with you so keep your one or two e-mail messages or phone calls in perspective. With all the marketing your prospects receive in their e-mail each day it is no wonder your message may not get their attention.

Here’s the framework:

Day 1 actions:E-mail: 1. Send an auto response or a personal

response acknowledging receipt of the lead and your plans to serve the customer.

2. Send a personal response focused on the customer’s request.

Phone:1. Call the prospect twice if a number is

available. 2. Leave a message every time.

Day 2 actions:E-mail: 1. Brand building e-mail to keep your

name in front of the customer.Phone:1. Call the prospect twice if a number is

available. 2. Leave a message every time.

Day 3 actions:E-mail: 1. Quick hello e-mail with personalized

information.Phone:1. Call the prospect once if the number is

available.2. Leave a message.

Day 5 actions:E-mail: 1. Quick survey e-mail.

Phone:1. No call.

Day 8 actions:E-mail: 1. Quick hello e-mail with personalized

information.Phone:1. Call the prospect once if the number is

available.2. Leave a message.

Day 9 actions:E-mail:1. Reasons to buy e-mail.

Phone:1. No call.

Day 11 actions:E-mail: 1. Quick hello e-mail.

Phone:1. Call the prospect once if the number is

available.2. Leave a message.

Day 14 actions:E-mail: 1. E-mail from the manager offering

assistance.Phone:1. No call.

Simple and intensiveIt seems simple, and it actually is. It can be labor intensive unless you have the tools and the right number of employees for your lead volume. Most of these actions take less than a minute to complete so you will still fi nd yourself with plenty of time to interact with those who respond. You will also need to adjust for weekends and off days for your team.

Necessary Tools:To do this effectively you need to use a lead management or CRM tool which can be set up to prompt you to take all these actions. This takes some time and some set-up interaction with your tool provider but is well worth the effort when you recognize how much time it can save and the fact that you can have multiple employees working the same process.

Connecting is the key If you recognize the fact that your role is primarily that of an Internet marketer you will do well with this. In this role you are only an Internet sales person when the customer decides to interact. I believe that you need to convince them you are the person that wants to sell them the most.

David Kain is the automotive Internet training specialist at Kain Automotive Inc. He can be contacted at 800.385.0095, or by e-mail at dkain@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.kainautomotive.com.

NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

16

Don�t Wait to Start Prospecting

AnthonyHall

The mission of an automobile sales person is to constantly prospect for new customers. We can’t afford to wait for the

customers to just walk in our showrooms and buy our car. Your primary job is to sell automobiles with maximum profi tability, and to accomplish this you must have quality sales prospects.

Webster’s Dictionary defi nes prospecting as “Solicititing, canvassing, druming up, polling, seeking, leading or campaigning.”

1. Treat prospecting as the lifeblood of your sales career. Use power-packed prospecting:

• Focus on quality. It is the only way you can spend most of your prime time with qualifi ed prospects. It is also the only way you can have enough hours in a week to be successful.

• Focus on quantity. Your success depends on having enough solid sales leads.

• Focus on consistency. A steady supply of qualifi ed prospects can enable you to avoid slumps and plateaus, eliminate call reluctance and procrastination, and keep you from pressuring current customers.

• Do it now. Increasing your prospecting effectiveness is the fastest way to boost your sales and income.

2. Treat prospecting as your most valuable time management tool. Remember that you are always looking for ways to better leverage your time:

• Use it to avoid wasting prime time on people who are not qualifi ed to buy, such as your fellow sales people.

• Use it to ensure that you will always have enough qualifi ed prospects to keep you productively busy.

• Avoid time wasting through sloppy or haphazard prospecting.

3. Take an organized approach. Never keep leads on scraps of paper or post-it notes. Use a contact management program. Whichever platform you choose, select one that ensures you will never:

• Lose or forget about valuable leads.

• Be late on promised follow-up calls or visits.

• Waste time looking for lost information.

• Improperly value your prospect inventory.

• Fail to do mailing and other footwork due to disorganized prospect list.

• Become a compulsive procrastinator when it comes to developing your prospect inventory.

4. Remain alert for suspects who have the potential to become qualifi ed prospects. In today’s fast-paced society, people’s needs may change rapidly and radically, giving you prospects where you hadn't thought to look.

• Develop a prospecting mindset that automatically asks, “Is this person a prospect?”

• Assume all suspects are prospects until proven otherwise.

• Keep looking for new places to fi nd prospects.

• Cultivate mutually benefi cial relationships with everyone who can give you leads or open doors for you.

• Take full advantage of every effort by your organization to generate leads. Maintain close alignment with your service department.

• Make it your policy always to secure referrals from satisfi ed customers.

5. Stay in constant touch with active prospects through phone calls, periodic mailings and personal contacts. Keep in mind the Top of the Consciousness Principle which states that:

• The only certain way to ensure your customers think of you fi rst is through frequent, repetitious contact.

• Others are always competing for a fi nite amount of your prospect’s attention and dollars.

• You never know when your prospect’s motivation to buy will suddenly and dramatically increase.

• You need to be sure that he or she thinks of you or your product fi rst when they evaluate how to fi ll their transportation needs.

6. Rework your suspect inventory regularly to try to upgrade suspects to the status of qualifi ed prospects. A good fi ling system

will help tremendously:

• Learn to use the telephone in a professional, pleasant and business-like manner, then use it regularly.

• Constantly search for people who can give you a referral for every suspect on your list; or will they make a contact for you?

• Look everywhere for the slightest clue that the suspect’s buying status might be changing.

7. Continually upgrade your prospecting system and strategies.

• For a steady fl ow of fresh ideas, you should read books, journals, magazine and business news, listen to CDs, invest in CD Roms, watch videos, attend seminars and talk to other successful sales people.

• Above all, keep a positive attitude about prospecting. Make a game of it, and become great at it.

Everyone we meet is a prospect for an automobile or knows someone who is or someone who soon will be. To successfully prospect, you must talk to people everywhere about buying an automobile. People like to do business with someone they know. So even a brief meeting will give them that familiar face and name to look for when they visit the dealership.

Automobile sales are nothing to be embarrassed about; it is an honorable profession that can support a family and send children to college. Willingness to talk about your profession and the service you offer is essential to consistent production. Make a commitment to ask one question to everyone you meet. “When are you going to buy your next car?”

The key to a successful sales career is knowing how to open. And it all starts with an organized, systematic approach to prospecting. After all, without an adequate supply of prospects who would you sell your automobiles and service to, anyway?

Anthony Hall is a training consultant at Ziegler Supersystems. He can be contacted at 800.610.9047, or by e-mail at ahall@autosuccess.biz.

18

It is a GoodCar, However ...

TonyDupaquier

In cases when vehicles have the reputation of being higher quality vehicles, customers may not see the need to purchase a service

contract. Knowing how to overcome this perception is crucial for business managers to learn.

Consider the main reason for which the customer is looking to trade – to reduce the cost of ownership. Explain to your customers that a vehicle service contract does just that by allowing him or her to budget in the cost of repairs upfront.

The classic close for customers who do not see a need to purchase a VSC is the 99.9 Percent Reliability Close, which is:

“Mr. or Mrs. Customer, would you be happy if your vehicle was 85 percent reliable, meaning 15 percent of the time it would be un-drivable and in the shop?” To this question, the customer’s response will likely be “No.” “Of course you wouldn’t. Would you be happy if your new vehicle was 99.9 percent reliable?” At this point, the customer’s reply should be “Yes.” So would I. That percentage means there is one-tenth of a percent chance that there would be a defect or failure in the vehicle. Considering your new vehicle’s 16,000 moving parts, that would mean 16 parts may be defective or could experience a failure during your ownership. Taking into account that your factory limited warranty would cover eight of those parts, that would mean eight parts would be your responsibility.

“The average repair bill here at our dealership is $583, so you could be exposed to up to $4,664 in repairs. Wouldn’t it make sense to spend less than half that amount by spreading it over the term of the loan? This would ensure that your vehicle is always working properly and that you would have alternate transportation plus the convenience of roadside assistance, with only a small deductible when that problem occurs?”

It is important to do some research before using this close. You want to have an accurate number for the amount of moving parts inside the vehicles you sell. Remember: A single bearing, alone, may have up to 60 parts. You will also want to know what the

average repair bill is for your store. Include all repair bills such as factory warranty and service contract work, not just what the customer pays.

Another close that works very well with many customers is the Racecar Close. This close works well if the customer has any interest in motor sports. It is important, however, to fi nd out beforehand if the customer has ever watched racing on TV or ever attended a race. This close will be even more effective if you can fi nd out who the customer’s favorite driver is.

“Have you ever watched racing on TV?” If you have asked the customer if he or she likes motor sports, the answer will probably be “Yes.” “What is the number one reason drivers do not fi nish?” The customer should say, “They crash.” “Right, and what is the second reason they do not fi nish?” Lead the customer to say, “They break.” “Correct.”

“In today’s highly competitive racing arena, the teams use the absolute best materials and the most modern technology to generate the best reliability. The technicians building these cars are the absolute best in the business. If while using the best of the best, the teams still have problems with failures in only a few hundred miles, isn’t there a good chance that today’s production vehicles that are built on an assembly line could have a failure in the tens of thousands of miles you intend to drive? Wouldn’t it make sense to make a small monthly investment and protect the more than 16,000 moving parts inside your new vehicle while having courtesy transportation and the security of roadside assistance?”

Using the Racecar Close is extremely effective and an excellent way to build additional rapport with your customers.

Once you enlighten your customers with some insightful logic, most will see the need and value of a VSC. Even though a customer is buying a quality vehicle, a VSC is the best investment that he or she can make.

Tony Dupaquier is the director of F&I training for American Financial & Automotive Services Inc. He can be contacted at 866.856.6754, or by e-mail at tdupaquier@autosuccess.biz.

19december 2005

The Trust Power ofSaying �No, We Don�t�

DougHall

Selling cars is all about getting to the yes. But did you ever think that revealing a no might be the quickest route to getting your

customer to say yes?

One research study found that trust was the primary driver of increased persuasion when features were disclaimed. What does that mean? When sales people say, “No, we don’t offer that,” a customer is more likely to be persuaded to buy a car.

In this research study, a set of customers was shown ads for two products. The fi rst product claimed to be great for everything. The second product claimed to be great for most things, but admitted that the competition was better in two areas. Research found that customers believed the ads that admitted the competition was better in two areas to be signifi cantly more truthful.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. You’re shopping for a new car, and after reviewing a few Web sites you’ve decided to stop by several dealerships. All the cars looked great on the Web sites, but you just know there has to be a catch. You start talking to a sales person, and all you hear is yes.

“Yes, we offer rebates.”“Yes, we can get you approved for a loan today.”“Yes, we have a 5-year, 100,000-mile warranty.”“Yes, we have the car that’s perfect for you right here.”

So as the customer, you’re starting to wonder – what’s the catch? What you really want to know is – “What’s the ‘no’ going to be?”

This is where many sales people fail, because they’re afraid to say no to a customer. You’re so busy accentuating the positives that you forget one important thing every car buyer knows: no vehicle is perfect. To be able to make a decision, the customer wants to know the pros AND the cons. They want to be able to trust you, and hearing the “no” will actually make it easier for them to put their faith in you. If you don’t believe that, believe this: Either they’ll hear the “no” from you – and you’ll have a chance to save the sale and earn their trust – or they’ll fi nd the negatives themselves and wonder what else you were holding back.

Be open about what your vehicle can and can’t do. What are your strengths and weaknesses? When you add them together, do you still win? If your combination of standards and options is superior, why not make the differences open and easy for customers to see for themselves?

Underpromise, but be sure to overdeliver. Develop a reputation for delivering more than you promised. If you promise a customer their new car will be ready on Wednesday, be sure the car comes in on Tuesday and call them in advance with the good news. Be known as the sales person who exceeds expectations rather than the one who regularly exaggerates.

Make the sale contingent upon your evaluation. When there is even the smallest doubt in your mind about whether a car is right for your customer, say so.

Talk about your company’s history of success and failure. With experience, you will learn the strengths and weaknesses of your vehicles. Without telling competitive secrets, relate your experience about when your cars have been perfect for customers, AND when they have not. The fact that you’re willing to admit to less-than-spectacular results – even if you think a sale is guaranteed - will dramatically increase your customer’s trust.

You can even fi nd ways to make one of your weakness stories funny – if your company has done something that fi xed the problem and made customers happy. This will put the customer at ease and show them that your company listens carefully to buyer feedback.

When you simply state just a few of your product’s weaknesses, you can more easily earn your customer’s trust. By being open, the customer will recognize that you’re helping them make a decision, which will help you get them to say yes.

The bottom line is you want your customers’ trust, and one of the best ways to earn it is by saying, “No, we don’t.” Offer a full disclosure, and your no will more easily lead your customers to yes.

Doug Hall is the CEO and founder of Eureka! Ranch. He can be contacted at 866.872.8109, or by e-mail atdhall@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.EurekaRanch.com.

NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

20

The Power of the Steeple

PattiWood

You’re in a meeting and your boss kicks back and puts his hands behind his head. He has just put on his crown to show you

his power. The steeple gesture is created by the person holding his or her hands together and linking fi ngers together so the knuckles point upward. Or, in another way, placing hands together and locking thumbs while the fi ngers point upward like a church steeple. In general, a steepler is showing you that they are thinking and processing information. There are several variations of this gesture. The high steepleIn the high steeple, elbows touch the table while the forearms are raised, causing the steeple fi ngers to point upward. Both Churchill and Gorbachev used this steeple.

The high steeple is often used by those delivering an expert opinion, such doctors, lawyers, academics or by people who have an expert or perhaps confl icting opinion on the topic. If you do not ask a question, the person with the high steeple will maintain his or her present opinion. Low steeple or the cannonThis is a defensive steeple characterized by elbows touching the arms of the chair while the forearms and steeple point forward. The person using the low steeple has a strong

differing opinion and wants to shoot a “cannon” at you. Sales people need to be very careful not to use this gesture when responding to a question or comment from a prospect.

Hidden steepleThe hidden steeple is like the low steeple except that the hands are deliberately hidden below a table or desk. This one may be hard to spot, but if you see it, don’t hesitate to take action. It signals the person is confi dent in his or her ideas. It’s a gesture to use if you are shy, lack confi dence and just need to do an acceptable version of holding your own hand to feel better. One can put his or her hands in a steeple when they begin to feel a loss of control or power. The act of holding the steeple can give you more control.

Praying steepleThe praying steeple features hands clasped and upwardly pointed fi ngers, interwoven for prayer. Crown steepleYou see the crown steeple when the steeple fi ngers are unfolded or the interlaced hands are held high around the back of or on top of the head like a crown. This gesture has meaning outside the context of the rest of someone’s body language sentence. As the name suggests, the crown steeple is also a power gesture. With the steeple,

height comes into play. The higher someone holds the steeple crown, the more power that person feels or desires.

The cape and crown gesture A steeple raised and locked behind the head, with the head tilted up and elbows extended, sends several power cues. The head is above the centerline, showing superiority. The V of the elbows extend outward, like a cape, take up lots of space making the person’s head appear larger and elbow points are arrow-like weapons pointing outward in attack. The hands locked behind the head indicate the person is locked in his or her viewpoint. The chest is exposed, puffed out and vulnerable, indicating a strong sense of personal power.

Just as we use gestures and touch to communicate to others, we also use certain gestures to comfort, control or communicate with ourselves. These gestures involve self-touch and serve as unconscious self-regulating mechanisms.

Join your hands together, put them behind your head, because now you know the power of the steeple.

Patti Wood is the president of Communication Dynamics. She can be contacted at 800.849.3651, or by e-mail at pwood@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.pattiwood.net.

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MUST-SEECOMPANIES

To Be or Not to Be,The Answer is in the Becoming

MichaelYork

I’m sitting on a plane waiting to take the return fl ight home to Charlotte when I can’t help but be drawn to a conversation behind

me between a little girl and a woman who must be her mother.

“I want to BE … a pilot!” The little girl announced loudly. “I want to BE … a rock star! I want to BE … an artist!” As she continues with her list of “I want to BEs,” the woman tells the little girl, “You can BE anything you want to BE, but it will take lots of schooling, lots of practice and hard work, and …”.

True enough. And good advice. Here’s the rest of the story. The reality of this exchange is in instruction that not only requires understanding for children, but for adults as well. Before we can “BE” anything, we must commit to becoming.

Being is what many people say they want or wish for. “I wish I could be …”, Why can’t you? How could you? Shakespeare’s question is one most all of us have heard, “To be or not to be ...”. Better question, “What am I prepared to commit to in becoming whatever it is I want to be?”

“Being” is great. Becoming is the process that takes us there. Fact is, most people won’t do what it takes to be great … even when they know what that is!

Anyone who’s ever participated in (or even watched) sports, knows about goals. Hit the ball, throw the ball, catch the ball. Shoot, score, win!

Most of those goals would be in the immediate future, so they’re referred to as short-term goals. And that is the most popular kind in today’s society. Only champions think about longer-term goals, like winning a championship, creating a legacy or designing a life.

While wanting and wishing are common, setting goals - I mean actually thinking about it, going through the process of writing down what you want, and continuing the process of achieving them - is most uncommon. The evidence of history bears it out.

In 1978 I was introduced to Zig Ziglar and goal setting. It would be 10 years later before

Jim Rohn convinced me that Zig was right and I really should set goals. And that if I did, my life would dramatically change.

I knew I should probably set some goals, that it would be a good idea … but did I really have to go to all the trouble of actually writing them down? Couldn’t they just be something in my head? Something I wanted to do, be or have? Wouldn’t that be enough? The answer? No. So how can you become an uncommon individual who sets goals? It’s easy to do … but as always, easier not to do.

1. A goal isn�t really a goal unless you capture it on paper.And even in today’s computer society, I believe it should be hand-written. Something that you recognize as your own writing, and that it was important enough that once upon a time you wrote it down. Note to me, “Let’s do this.” Now you’ve got yourself a goal.

And somehow, at that very moment, you begin to be pulled toward that thing that you’ve now written down. You’ll fi nd yourself thinking about it at the oddest hours and all during the day. Each time you read it, it compels you to answer “Are we there yet?” Or it should.

Zig’s plan for goals was simple enough. It was really just two basic steps:

1. Ask a series of questions2. Make a list

2. It takes a commitment to becoming.The really big problem I saw right up front is that he told me this process of beginning to set goals would take about 10 hours. Ten hours? Actually, a minimum of 10 hours … and maybe as much as 20 hours! Twenty hours?

Well, that’s it then. I just didn’t have 20 hours I could pull out of a hat just to begin this goal-setting thing. Then he said … “That’s the main reason only 3 percent of the population have clearly defi ned their objectives in life.”

Aha! That proved my point, most everyone agreed with me! Is that your defense? The court of popular opinion rarely leads to big life or big success.

3. In matters of top performance and high achievement, don�t follow the crowd!It was only later in life did I begin to

understand that in issues involving top performance, high achievement, getting the most out of a big life, etc., I did not need to be running with the 97 percent!

Another way it’s been said is to watch what nine of 10 people are doing, and don’t do that! These goal questions were questions to ask myself. Once you put something on your goals list, then ask if that’s really your goal. Would it be right and fair to everyone? Can you really commit to it? Can you see yourself reaching the goal?

Other questions were about becoming happier, healthier, more prosperous, having more friends, peace of mind, becoming more secure and improving relationships with others. And only if I wanted all those things should I really become serious about setting goals.

4. Life is big.Goals make it bigger. And “big” really is available. Goals are a part of the process of becoming. Life is bigger than work: not everyone got the memo on that one. Don’t just have work goals, have life goals. And don’t let someone else set goals for you. You go fi rst.

Want to add direction and purpose and passion to your life? Want to think and act differently? Here is the law of inertia that propels you in a certain direction even though there are many unknowns along the way. It is the commitment to becoming that will one day allow you to be.

What are you becoming? And what is it you’d like to be one day? Make your life bigger by thinking about, and writing down your goals.

It is never too late to be what you might have become. Why not start today?

If you’d like to get going with your new goals, send me an e-mail and I’ll send you my short list on “Uncommon Goals” how to set them and how they can work for you!

Michael York is an author and professional speaker. He can be contacted at 800.668.5015, or by e-mail atmyork@autosuccess.biz, or visit www.MichaelYork.com.

22

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Draw Up Tomorrow�s Roadmap

TomGegax

The strategic plan fl ows into team objectives, which fl ow into operating plans, which fl ow into individual goals,

which fl ow into action plans, which, fi nally, fl ow into results.

Every choice, every decision, every single action traces back to the strategic plan.

Seat-of-the-pantsers, particularly in smaller organizations, consider strategic planning as a waste of time. Markets change too rapidly, they say. It’s true — long-term plans are subject to the whim of unexpected events. And strategic planning is conceptual, at best, when planning out fi ve to seven years. But short-term and mid-range strategic planning are absolute necessities. Certainly you can’t plan for every possibility, but failing to methodically look out a year or two can be fatal.

Planning change, changing plans.

Show me a leader who avoids planning and I’ll show you a leader afraid of change. It’s human nature. Grooves are safe and comfortable. Too much comfort, however, dulls the senses. You may think you’re at the top of your game when you’re actually skating on thin ice.

The best leaders expect change, embrace it and inspire others with its promise of new opportunities. Managers who stubbornly cling to the status quo inevitably hasten a change in their own status. I’m reminded of a woman who attended a change management seminar only to walk away disappointed that the subject was managing change, not changing managers.

Weave the management of change throughout your strategic planning process. Twice a month, at executive-committee meetings, people reported on what was new and different. What was the competition up to? What did customers want that they didn’t want a year ago? What new tipping-point technologies were in play? Continuously challenging our

assumptions kept us on our toes.

Whether you’re running with the bulls or laying low with the bears, strategic planning is straightforward. Frame it with a searching question: How can we take advantage of our strengths and opportunities and neutralize our weaknesses and threats? Fix your eye on your SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), and the right plan begins to unfold.

Strategic planning’s eight steps:

1. Identify SWOTs.You need clarity on every issue you’re facing. In July (or six months prior to the next fi scal year), schedule a series of two-hour brainstorming sessions with reps from every group of stakeholders, from department heads and customers to vendors and the rank-and-fi le. Each group has its own point of view. Collect plenty of observations — macro, micro and everything in between — about internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Keep

24

NADA 2006

MUST-SEECOMPANIES

it simple — ask everyone to fi ll out a single sheet listing the four SWOT categories. Then merge the results into one report.

2. Set priorities.Come September, gather the executive committee and other key people for a daylong priority-setting meeting. (The “executive committee” in smaller shops may simply be the owner and her three top people.) First, establish context by summarizing industry trends, competitor activity, last year’s performance and this year’s fi nancial forecasts. Next, vigorously debate which issues (gleaned from your SWOT list exercise in step one) deserve priority in the coming year, and which make the list over the next two to four years. (Best use a pencil for anything more than 18 months out.) Simplify both lists by grouping similar issues under the same macro heading (approve no more than eight macro issues per time period). Now that priorities are set and ranked, assign them to the appropriate leader.

3. Taskforce it and plan, plan, plan.Each priority earns its own taskforce, composed of the company’s natural subject-matter experts. For the next two months, they research the priority and design an action plan that assigns responsibilities and accountabilities, sets deadlines, allocates resources and establishes controls.

4. Present action plans.Schedule a review meeting (a day or two) in early November that includes the same folks from the early-September gathering. Here, taskforce leaders present their action plans. Each presentation is like a Ph.D. dissertation — it must be defended. That means respectful disagreement is essential. It pushes the taskforce to thoroughly prepare benchmarking protocols, ROI projections and other necessities. With the taskforce plans presented, start green-lighting. Some plans will be good to go; others will be modifi ed based on availability of resources. Of course, each strategic objective is generally multi-departmental — hence the team approach.

5. Present departmental operating plans.Now, break each action plan into pieces and parcel them out to the right people. Those employees who have others reporting to them create individual operating plans to execute the pieces assigned to them. Department heads collect these operating plans, approve them and roll them into departmental operating plans. In December (or the fi nal month of your fi scal year), round up the same group as in November to review and approve these departmental

plans. Example: The accounting plan looks good except we need the fi nancials two days earlier. Departmental and individual operating plans are then updated.

6. Budget it.Start the budgeting process in early November. All four parts of the corporate budget — projected P&L statement, projected monthly cash fl ows, projected balance sheet, capital expenditure plan — should be built off last year’s performance and this year’s SWOT-powered operating plan.

7. Follow up.A poorly executed plan isn’t worth the spreadsheet it’s printed on. Follow-up is critical. After all, enthusiasm can wane. Attention can be diverted. Here are three ways to monitor results:

• Six months after approval (and again six months later), convene the executive committee for an operating-plan review. • Each manager keeps the operating plan humming by meeting one-on-one two to four times a month with everyone who reports to her.• Regular, one- to three-hour executive-committee meetings throughout the year — once a week to once a month, depending on team experience and the pace of change (ours was every two weeks) — also keep the strategic plan on track.

8. Team update.Gather the entire company for a few hours each month or quarter to motivate, inform, celebrate and educate. Have department heads update people on wins and losses, what needs to be done over the next period and how the audience can make it happen. Solicit ideas and questions. It’s also a good time to salute birthdays, births and employment anniversaries.

At fi rst blush, the creation and execution of a strategic plan appears as complicated and overwhelming as learning a foreign language. Sure, it takes discipline and hard work — but following these eight steps can deliver you to the promised land. After upgrading our strategic planning, our profi ts increased tenfold and revenue soared from $40 million to $200 million in just eight years. Coincidence? I think not.

Tom Gegax served as the chairman and CEO of Tires Plus and is the founder of Gegax Management Systems. He can be contacted at 800.723.2601, or by e-mail at tgegax@autosuccess.biz.

continued

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26

Beyond the MissionHow Your Behavior Affects Your Staff�s Attitude and Performance

CarolArdell

This is the last of a three-part series on how different styles of business leadership affect subordinates on the job.

Our fi rst article, “Beyond the Vision” discussed ways in which extremely assertive, time-driven, lively entrepreneurs can best enhance the effectiveness of their team. The second installment, “Beyond the Goals” focused on the persistent leader personality, one that is ambitious, logical and patient -- but also quite staid and, sometimes, hard to read. This month, we take an in-depth look at leaders who are more open, easygoing and inclined to pleasantly persuade, not make bold demands. These individuals might not earn high marks for aggressiveness, but they’re undisputable charmers -- and use their social skills as often as necessary to reach their objectives!

The Networker personalityYou have ambitions, but see no real reason to push yourself on others -- you fi gure you can ultimately accomplish much more, get others to fall in line, just by being pleasant, funny, understanding -- the quintessential nice person. You get fi dgety easily and seldom sit in one place for any length of time. You maintain a brisk pace, keep a full schedule and stay busy; people who seem content doing just one thing at a time elude you. You dislike the confi nes of very structured situations and trust your subordinates to make the proper decisions; you prefer to manage with a “hands-off” policy. Details and specifi cs are not your primary concern; it’s the bigger picture that really matters – at least in your eyes.

If you’re a Networker manager, most of your staff probably love working for you. You strike up casual conversations, express interest in day-to-day personal events and hate taking a controversial stance. Underline your authority and try to consciously conduct

yourself with an air of authority. Be prepared to take an unpopular stand, deliver bad news, discipline a lagging employee or say no to a worker’s unreasonable request. Focus on putting personal feelings aside in order to meet business objectives.

Because of your magnetic personality, you may not always need to work as hard as others to instill a sense of loyalty and dedication among your staff. People enjoy being around you and most of them probably go out of their way to make you happy, hoping you’ll do the same for them whenever you can. Be careful, though, as you’re bound to fi nd yourself face to face with a rebellious employee from time to time. You’ve dealt with them before – the smart aleck, know-it-all workers with bad attitudes. These are the people who can test your limits and make you look weak if you choose not to stand up to them.

Communicating with the seemingly dead You like to express yourself and probably never hesitate to jump into conversations. However, remember that some people are less socially adept, far less communicative than you. They may tend to speak only when spoken to -- and then in a direct, monotone, almost impersonal way. Technically minded people who work in areas such as IT, fi nance, processing and analysis often exhibit this trait. You can speak their language and garner their attention, however, by keeping your discussions with them brief and to the point. Stick to the facts during conversations and provide quantifi able information; save your lighthearted, off-topic stories and unconventional ideas for those who are a little less reserved and a lot more gregarious!

Be a ready resourceMany on your staff will probably appreciate your fl exibility and strong commitment to building a self-suffi cient, free-thinking team; subordinates needing attentive guidance and a fi rm hand however, will not. When a self-

doubting employee seems lost or appears to be fl oundering he or she will likely turn to you for direction. Make sure you take the time and have the technical expertise to do so. One of your responsibilities as a leader is to ensure the maximum amount of productivity from your existing resources; in other words, you need to know the needs of your subordinates and then fi nd ways to meet them in order to maintain good morale and lower turnover rates.

Are you fast or are they slow?Patience may not be your strong suit, but you will need to muster every ounce you have when interacting with subordinates who like to take their time and not feel rushed. Bear in mind that their more “relaxed” pace enables them to take on very tedious tasks, like searching for reasons a customer’s vehicle keeps stalling, pinpointing a small accounting discrepancy or setting up a new computer system for your dealership – all things you need done but have no desire to do yourself! Respect your methodical employees’ need for order and predictability. Avoid springing surprises on them and let them know in advance if you’re planning to make changes that will affect them.

This series highlighted three of the more common personalities exhibited in leaders. Your unique behavioral traits steer your own actions, but in many ways they also steer the actions of your subordinates. As a leader, an important part of your job is to inspire staff to work hard to achieve the company’s vision, goals and mission. But to do this, you need to look beyond those objectives. Once you do, you’ll see yourself and realize it’s the person you are who holds the key to motivating, enlivening and infl uencing others!

Carol Ardell is a senior consultant with the Omnia Group. She can be contacted at 800.601.3216, or by e-mail at cardell@autosuccess.biz.

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28

How We Sold 414 Cars a Month OnlineSheehy.com Increased Leads More Than 300 Percent in 60 Days

RoyReutter

At Sheehy Automotive, we sold an additional 414 cars in one month online while decreasing our advertising costs. We

did this by shifting some of our marketing budget to focus on targeting the Internet. Customers have changed where and how they shop so we have changed the way we market to ensure we reach them effectively. In our experience, the Web has proven to be a lot less expensive than traditional mass media, and it’s easy to measure the returns.

Initially, we relied heavily on third-party providers for our leads but since everything is measurable, we realized that the leads with the highest closing ratio and lowest cost were coming from our own Web site. We’ve since set up our own regional buying service and we’re generating more traffi c and more leads than we ever thought possible. We’ve increased our numbers by more than 600 percent, and the Web has even become our primary source of phone traffi c. The initial strategyOnce we realized we needed more than a great Web site and a few third-party lead providers, we worked to build a complete strategy for increasing sales. We worked on a vision and a strategy to market our Web site, to update the Web site, to staff our team, implement a process and establish pricing

and more. That was two years, ago and since that time we have increased our numbers by more than 600 percent and dropped our cost per sale to about $130 per car. We were able to do this because our Web site provider gave us everything we need to implement our action plan and turn our vision into a reality.

The resultsAfter switching to our new provider, we increased leads from 400 to 1,350 in the fi rst two months and have continued to steadily improve results. Today we are generating more than 2,400 leads a month from our Web site alone, and that translates to more than 400 cars a month online.

The Web siteIn our journey from 400 to 2,400 leads, we have found there are fi ve keys to an automotive Web site capable of generating great results. They are:

1. Simple and easy to use2. Content the customer wants3. High-impact, engaging multi-media

that is fast to load even on a low-speed connection

4. Automatic updating for inventory, specials and pricing

5. Designed to create more Internet, phone and showroom traffi c

The marketingIf you can’t generate traffi c there’s no point in having a Web site. The Sheehy Auto Stores

have been able to generate more traffi c at a lower cost per sale by using search engine optimization in conjunction with multi-media Buzzmail campaigns. We blend our digital marketing strategies with traditional marketing so that customers know where and how to reach us on the Web. As a result, customers are landing at www.Sheehy.com rather than at the competitors’ sites.

The people and processWhat sets a super performer apart is not the business model, the marketing strategy or the Web site alone; it’s a combination of all three, and it must be supported by the right people and process for managing leads, setting appointments and selling cars. Recruit, hire and train the right people to staff your department and you can overcome a multitude of other obstacles. We look for rookies with no prior sales experience but with great phone and follow-up skills and we commit to a training program that will get them comfortable with our process, our scripts, our templates and tools. We’ve made it easier to bring new people up to speed by documenting our process for handling leads, and we’ve mapped out every step for turning leads into appointments that show.

At Sheehy, we’ve been able to track that if we can set and confi rm the appointment our closing ratio is 60 percent. Knowing this, we do everything we can to fi ne-tune our process so that rather than hit the delete key upon receiving one of our e-mails, customers move one step closer to coming in.

Measure and manageThe fi nal key to success is to track everything. We monitor the number of leads by source, response rate and time, number of appointments, appointment percent, show percent, closing percent, cost per lead, response time and cost per sale. This information helps us determine what’s working, what’s not and when it’s time to make an adjustment. One of the best parts about the Internet is that everything is measurable.

Roy Reutter is the eBusiness director at Sheehy Auto Stores. He can be contacted at 800.350.9775, or by e-mail atrreutter@autosuccess.biz.�We sold 414 cars online because we have the best Web site in the region.� Roy Reutter

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32

Mediocrity is a Magnet

ChrisAlford

“It is a wretched taste to be gratifi ed with mediocrity when excellent lies before us.”- Isaac Disraeli,

(1766-1848) author/father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Dealerships across the land are experiencing frustration from an invisible magnetic force disrupting sales forces and their effi ciency. Its effects are clever and expansive, ranging from a de-motivation of effective sales people to the draining of business reserves. This magnetic force is compromising. It links contentment with sub-standard performance. Its presence spirals bright successful teams into sleepy armies of disdain and excuse.

This magnetic force is mediocrity.

While there is no available historical data heralding the arrival of mediocrity onto the world scene, its effects have always been present. Psychologists suggest that at one time or another, all individuals experience the pull of mediocrity, a “timeless magnetic notion, fostered or refused at the personal level.” Research reveals danger in both its magnetic social properties and in the foothold it takes in the workplace.

When mediocrity marches onto the scene, there are no banners or trumpets announcing its arrival. Its “intangible state of mind” makes it most diffi cult for leaders to detect at fi rst glance. Its effects however, are instantly recognizable. Boring product presentations, late arrivals at work, low production rates and unproductive daily routines are all clear indicators of the effects of mediocrity. By tradition it lampoons those seeking to improve themselves, while its followers nevertheless remain unproductive. The pull of mediocrity gradually disarms sales people of the most valuable asset in business - enthusiasm - and it can easily attack management with a frustrating sword of corporate division.

Do these effects mean that one should run or jump ship when mediocrity rears its head in the workplace? Perhaps, but not necessarily. While the causes of mediocrity are numerous, it is an elected state of mind that

travels with an infected host. Jumping ship without addressing the issue would not solve the individual’s problem. Rather, it would simply reassign that individual’s unresolved issue from one employer to another.

Colonial Capt. John Mason (1586-1635) displayed his understanding of the mediocrity phenomenon, as he painted a verbal visual, giving dimension to the dynamic. “Mediocrity is a place that’s bordered on the north by compromise, on the south by indecision, on the east by lack of vision, and on the west by past thinking.” These four borders give ambitious personnel practical reference points that confi ne the concept. Using his visual as a map, individuals can navigate and break the borders of mediocrity to expand confi dence, charter new enthusiasm and stake their claim to fi nancial prosperity.

Border one:Break the border of compromiseRefusing to associate with time-wasting individuals is a commanding indicator of fi scal maturity. Mediocre time wasters and dream stealers are surprisingly structured when it comes to recruiting others into their circle of compromise. Be polite to them, but be aware of the clear and present danger they embody. Avoid these people at all costs. Conversely, make a conscious decision to form associations and strategic alliances with the movers and shakers in your fi eld. Spend time with them. Who do you know that is a winner? Exposure to productive people is a proven builder of confi dence and productivity, the nemesis of mediocrity.

Border two:Break the border of indecisionIndecisive sales people may say, “I’m not sure if I can sell this customer or not.” Decisive sales professionals break this border of indecision with a confi dent decision-making mentality. Walking inventory upon arrival at work is an exceptional way to assemble this decisive nature. A keen knowledge of inventory assures sales people a continuous fl ow of uninterrupted quality time with customers to confi rm buying decisions and provide quick decisive solutions for hesitation. Indecisive sales people snub this preparedness and repeatedly check with the desk, a move that suppresses excitement,

breaks timing and stalls critical emotional momentum.

Border three: Break the border of lack of visionPeople on their way to the top have a clear vision of the future and advance it daily by working from a hand-written activity-based action plan. A daily plan is a proven ignition source that spurs momentum-building activity, building inner drive and focus. A daily coaching system provides another outstanding momentum-builder. The classic morning one-on-one is a verifi ed catalyst of clear vision for leader, manager and sales person. Its power should not be underestimated.

Border four:Past thinkingThe best sales people know the past does not equal the future. Therefore, some of yesterday’s routine sales strategies may not stir the emotions of today’s demanding customers as they once did. Yesterday is history. Customers do not mind product presentations. They do mind dull, boring, routine, predictable phrases and product presentations. Live in today’s market. Renewing an old, tired product presentation will re-kindle the excitement of both sales person and customer, touching vital emotions and peaking incredible product interest. Customers shop three things: Product to product, price to price, but most important, sales person to sales person. Innovative product presentations with fl air and personality bring new value to a world that demands the best price.

The most effective success techniques continue to remain fundamental, elementary and simple. While it is virtually impossible to forever eliminate mediocrity, this author believes that the power to break its magnetic grasp ultimately lies in decision. In summary, individuals may not be able to control mediocrity coming into their minds, but with a little effort and preparation, anyone can control how long it stays.

Chris Alford is the president of Motivate America and Chris Alford Concepts. He can be contacted at 866.881.9315, or by e-mail at calford@autosuccess.biz.

34

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Mail and E-mailFollow-Up, Part 2

JimAdams

Repitition is the golden rule of advertising, so follow-up should continue to be your golden rule. Here are a few more examples of

important ways to follow-up.

Owner follow-up:If you plan to make the automotive industry your career then you must take the necessary steps to ensure your success. As I said last month, 99 percent of your customers will buy more vehicles if you take the time to remind them that their business is important to you. Below is an example of one-year of owner follow-up by mail or e-mail:

Day one:Congratulations,

I hope you are enjoying your new car. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to assist you. If you have any questions please feel free to call me.

Have a great day,Jim Adams

One week:Hi folks:

I just wanted to write and tell you how much I appreciate your business. I know that who you buy from is almost as important as what you buy. Thank you for letting me assist you with your automotive needs. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Have a great day,Jim Adams

One month:Who’s who at Roper Kia?

Jim Adams, sales person:(417) 626-3818

Duce Lett, sales manager:(417) 626-3840

Brian Lamar, service manager:(417) 626-3860

Steve Bushnell, parts manager:(417) 626-3850

If I can assist you in any way, feel free to call me.Jim Adams

Birthday cards, monthly newsletters or vehicle purchase anniversaries are also great ways to keep in constant contact with your owner base. Mail and e-mail are also an outstanding way to call the customer.

Your owner base will be loyal if you stay in touch and honor your commitments. The spoils of success go to the sales people that understand that follow-up is one of the most important functions of professional sales people.

New business:Your circle of infl uence is every person in the world to whom you are connected to. Moms, dads, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, business and church associations. Start a master list. Remember “The rule of 500.” There are 500 people who know your name and you know 500 people’s names. You should be able to come up with a couple hundred pretty quick. Now introduce yourself to three new contacts every day. You know, the guy at the bank, the mom at soccer practice. Add them to your list. There are around 250 work days per year. If you make a concerted effort to introduce yourself the three new people every day, you will have more than 750 new business contacts who know who you are, where you work and what you do.

Professional selling is about generating enough opportunity to achieve your goals. Your daily work plan should be designed to cultivate every source of business: fresh ups, repeat owners, referrals, new business and be-backs. Your monthly goal-setting should begin with one number: the number of opportunities you need to guarantee your success.

Jim Adams is the general manager at Roper Kia in Joplin, MO. He can be contacted at 800.905.0627, or by e-mail at jadams@autosuccess.biz.

35december 2005

How To Builda Winning Team

MarkTewart

Each year at the start of football practice, Vince Lombardi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers started his season the same

way. His opening statement to his players was, “This is a football.” Every year, John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins started his fi rst practice of the season by demonstrating to his players how to properly put on their socks to prevent blisters. Pretty basic stuff, huh?

Notice the similarities between Wooden and Lombardi in the educational formats. Whether it’s athletics or business, you must start with the fundamentals fi rst. Just as if you built a mansion on a weak foundation, a business built on a weak foundation will crumble. Bill Walton the former star basketball player for UCLA was interviewed about John Wooden and he recounted his fi rst practice with Wooden and how the coach talked about putting on socks properly. Bill Walton remarked that he expected incredible wisdom to come from his legendary coach in the fi rst practice and was disappointed that the practice started with how to put on his socks. When Bill Walton questioned Wooden about the fi rst meeting, Wooden’s reply was simple. If he were to teach Mr. Walton everything he knew about basketball but he could not do any of those things because he was sitting on the bench unable to play because of blisters, then all those teachings would not matter.

How many times have you experienced or witnessed yourself, sales people, managers and owners looking for miracle cures without taking care of the fundamental basics? Massive advertising campaigns, computers, software, business development centers, new facilities or cure-all sales approaches won’t matter if you don’t have the right foundation in place.

What are the components of a solid foundation? First, you must have the right team members. Everything starts with people. I encourage every manager or owner to raise your expectations and requirements for the team members you recruit. Concentrate most all of your efforts into getting the right people before you move on to anything else.

Make sure you have the talents of those

people matched to their positions. Many baseball historians have reviewed the “Big Red Machine” of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team in the 1970s and noted the improvement in the team that was made when Sparky Anderson, the Reds manager, moved Pete Rose from the outfi eld to third base to allow the insertion of George Foster to the outfi eld. At the time, the move was considered by many to be risky and even ridiculous. In retrospect, the move was genius because it allowed the right people to be in the right positions. In the book, “From Good to Great” by Jim Collins, Collins noted that great companies not only must have the right people on the bus, but that you must have them in the right seats as well. An example would be that great sales people don’t always make great managers and vice versa.

Next, make sure you give your team members the processes to use their skills. Talented team members going in different directions will still create bad results. The proper education of process should include what to do, how to do it, when to do it and, just as important, why. Talented and intelligent team members will also provide benefi cial feedback to strengthen your process. It can even be argued that the process should come fi rst. Talented and bright team members recruited into a bad process with limited fl exibility to improve the process will just create heightened turnover problems. In other words, if your business model is bad, the better the recruit, the quicker he or she will leave.

When looking at a big task like creating a winning team with a winning strategy, it is natural for it to seem daunting. Remember that all big goals are accomplished one step at a time. Break down your strategy into small steps. Create a simple fl ow chart that utilizes a visual guideline for your goal. Put estimated timelines next to each stage to create urgency in creating your success. However, don’t be tempted to reduce your level of expectations to just say you made your deadline. Remember your end destination and take action every day, the time of achievement will take care of itself.

Mark Tewart is the president of Tewart Enterprises. He can be contacted at 866.429.6844, or by e-mail at mtewart@autosuccess.biz.

36

Maximizing ProÞ t

JeffAmegod

There are three specifi c areas that can maximize your dealership’s profi tability. Number one is the

sales team. It should be professionally prepared, well trained and knowledgeable with what its selling. Make sure that your sales force is up to speed on what your competitors are offering. If your employees have true potential, then take the time to help them reach it. Make sure they have all of the training opportunities and resources available to make them successful at your dealership. All new hires should be professionally trained before they meet their fi rst customer.

Some dealerships have a dedicated trainer on staff, while others look to outside training companies. Once your sales team is properly trained, your volume and profi ts will increase. This will also serve to increase employee longevity and customer retention. A happy employee is a productive employee.

Number two is to embrace Internet technology and understand how profi table it can be for your business. Maximizing sales from your Internet department is crucial. With only a few simple and inexpensive steps you can dramatically improve both your show and closing ratios for this department. If you do not already have an Internet sales department or specifi c Internet sales employee, you should consider the development of an effective Internet sales department immediately. Capturing your share of these buyers can increase your sales by an additional 10 to more than 50 units per month.

An Internet sales department that is capable of increasing profi ts instantly can be set up in a very short amount of time and with very little effort or expense. By hiring or even training existing employees to understand the intricacies of automobile Internet sales, you’d be amazed at the increase of volume and profi t that your dealership will achieve.

With more and more consumers relying on

the Internet for information and as a direct link for which dealership they will mostly likely do business with, this department can be the backbone of your dealership. If you’re not sure how to set up an effective Internet sales department, you can seek a company that specializes in automobile Internet sales training on the Web. Number three is an after-market sales department. This is a great opportunity to increase profi ts in your dealership. Using the resources already available in your store, vehicles should be properly dressed on the showroom fl oor to display quality accessories and aftermarket equipment that can be added to a vehicle. Customers buying a vehicle fi nd this experience to be new and exciting. Offering customers the opportunity to personalize or customize their vehicle within your dealership will only add credibility, professionalism and profi t to your transactions.

By offering these products in house, you will help eliminate any unnecessary risks of damage from unauthorized vendors due to inferior products or workmanship. If a dealership has invested in selling satellite radios or entertainment systems (DVD, CD, telephones, etc.) then these items need to be prominently displayed for the customers to see. Many dealerships have been successful in dramatically increasing their back-end profi ts by simply offering and displaying top-quality accessories on the show room fl oor. Adding items such as custom wheels to a vehicle on the showroom fl oor will increase sales through the aftermarket sales department immediately.

Every dealership should have a dedicated aftermarket sales department to give the customer the opportunity to enhance his or her vehicle to their specifi c tastes. In addition to increasing front- and back-end profi ts, a dedicated in-house after-market sales department will dramatically increase revenues for your service and parts departments as well. These are just a few of many proven techniques to help you increase productivity and profi tability.

Jeff Amegod is the president of Auto Achievers of America. He can be contacted at 866.401.5970, or by e-mail at jamegod@autosuccess.biz.

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At your last sales meeting what did you discuss? Was there any discussion about opportunities? If your store’s deliveries are

not where they need to be, you must fi rst look at your opportunities and have a reliable method for accounting for them. Here are a few tips to become an opportunity based selling organization.

1. It�s just as important to measure your sales calls as it is your sales. This is your sales department’s fi rst opportunity. Do you know exactly how many calls came into your store in the last week? What sources are providing those opportunities? Is the number high enough for you to achieve your sales goals? There are many tracking devices to answer this question. You must fi rst know how many calls are coming in. If the number is not enough to achieve your sales goals, you have an opportunity problem. You must increase your inbound phone opportunities.

2. The Up is the means to the end, right?Focus on the means. Is the Up count what it should be? If not why? Where and how could it be improved? This is the next opportunity your sales department has. Call your desk manager on duty at the end of the day and ask him or her how many opportunities they have had. If the Up count is not where it needs to be, your staff doesn’t have enough opportunities. Without enough opportunities, you are wasting your time discussing the sales results.

3. How are you tracking what happens to your Dealership�s opportunities?Do you know where all the opportunities have gone? We are in the age of BDC’s, CDC’s and CRM’s. There are more tools than ever available to answer this question. Just make sure that the information going into these systems is accurate. If so, your management team will always know the status of your opportunities.

4. Do you maximize your opportunities in your Finance Department?Is your Dealership the one on the block that says, “if we can’t get them done, no one can?” You should be. Management teams should track an application all the

way through fi nance. Hold your Finance Manager accountable for attaining an acceptable approval ratio.

It is certainly important to track sales numbers, however, sometimes in the automotive industry we don’t focus enough on the opportunities that generate those sales. Also,

focus on what happens once the opportunity is in the dealership. If you perfect the number of opportunities, and perfect the process, the sales results will be there.

Josh Weaver is the owner of Impact Direct LLC. He can be contacted at 866.401.5961, or by e-mail at jweaver@autosuccess.biz.

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What Fuels Your Vision

ErikStuttz

Dreamers are the leaders of the world and the revolutionaries of our industry. And by dreamer I really mean a person who dares to

set out and accomplish a central purpose and vision in his or her life.

Those without vision fall an easy prey to worry, fear, trouble and self-pity, all of which indicate weakness and serve as precursors to failure. The leader who treasures a grand vision is more likely to realize his or her lofty ideal than someone who merely wishes for an outcome. But a vision does not guarantee success.

Christopher Columbus treasured a vision of a new world, and he discovered it; Nelson Mandela cherished a vision of equality, and he was willing to go to prison and even to die for it; Henry Ford cultivated a vision of affordability, and he mass produced it.

The visionaries represent the potential of what you can one day be, but to determine whether or not your vision will materialize into reality you need to ask what fuels it.

While success cannot be sustained without vision, vision is not enough to achieve success. Why do some visions succeed and others fail? Why do some visionaries enjoy fl eeting success only to fail in the end? And does failure to accomplish the desired result equate to ultimate failure or does the strength of character gained provide the true measure of success, from which to form a new starting point for future triumph? What determines the staying power of any leaders’ vision? The answer to those questions depends on the leader’s ability to clarify the vision, but more importantly, it depends on what inspired the vision. All that a person achieves and all that he or she fails to achieve is the direct result of the clarity and the fuel of his or her own thoughts. Fuel comes in two varieties: positive and negative. Our visions are fueled

by a desire to build a model of what we seek or by a burning desire to avoid and prevent the pain that stems from injustice and frustration. We’re fueled either by a desire to move toward something good or away from something bad.

Think of the visionaries you know personally and I’ll bet that the most persuasive and persistent of the bunch are those who are fueled by a burning vision of what could be or a problem they want to solve or a dream they want to achieve. Many of these people have had what I call a Popeye moment. Popeye was a regular guy until someone threatened Olive Oyle, at which point he’d tear open a can of spinach and cry out, “I’ve taken all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!” With muscles bulging, he’d save the day and rescue Olive from her tormentor every time. A leader of great conviction has had his or her Popeye moment, has experienced injustice and chooses to confront it and change it.

Rather than run from what pains them, great leaders embrace that which breaks their heart; using those experiences to fuel their vision of what could be. In our industry, a Popeye moment might arrive after years of experiencing the anger, frustration and distrust that customers can bring into your showroom. A Popeye moment might come after too many long hours on the point, too much internal confl ict with other people at the dealership and too much dis-ease coming from internal and external negativity. A Popeye moment might come when a family member, friend or stranger makes one more rotten comment, sarcastic joke or show of disapproval at your choice of professions. In our industry, a person either succumbs to the negative stereotypes, eventually perpetuating them or has a Popeye moment and uses the injustice so prevalent in the car business to fuel a vision of what could be. The next time you experience pain and injustice at the dealership, I challenge you to seize a Popeye moment and become the change you want to see. Use your frustration to fuel your vision and you’ll increase the staying power of your own success.

Erik Stuttz is the vice president of consulting for the STC Group. He can be contacted at 866.402.0697, or by e-mail at estuttz@autosuccess.biz.

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e-Newsletter Metrics Uncover Buyer Behavior, Desires and Buy Signals

BrianEpro

The true power of e-newsletter marketing is the analytics that track the behavior of each e-newsletter reader as he or she clicks through

the articles. E-Newsletter reporting provides precious covert intelligence that can uncover buy signals and enable sales associates to close sales more quickly.

Click-tracking: the hidden gem of e-newsletter analyticsWhen people think of e-newsletter reporting, they usually think of statistics like delivery rates, open rates, unsubscribe rates, etc. There is another level of e-newsletter analytics. Click tracking, or subscriber detail reporting, allows the e-newsletter publisher to look at the exact behavior of individual readers what links they clicked, what articles they read and how much time they spent reading each issue.

Subscriber detail reporting uncovers buy signalsClick-tracking analysis is critical for auto dealers. Imagine, for example, that an e-newsletter subscriber spent seven minutes reading your e-newsletter. You could see that the subscriber read a product review of a new car model then clicked the link at the bottom of the article to connect to your Web site’s real-time inventory of new cars, then clicked to the test drive request form. This e-newsletter reader has exhibited a clear buy signal, and you would want a sales professional to follow up immediately.

Contrast this behavior to the e-newsletter reader who opens your e-mail, scans a lifestyle article about a movie review or local vacation destination and closes the e-mail. That subscriber may eventually turn into a more serious lead, this is the perfect time to create and establish a relationship.

Subscriber detail reporting can actually tell you when the time is right to turn up the heat on a particular sales lead, and when it is best to simply let it simmer on the back-burner.

The challenge is to plan, automate and operate these buy signals. E-marketers will optimize the content and navigation of their e-newsletters so relevant content compels readers to click their way to a more advanced engagement with the dealership (e.g., links to the dealer Web site, forms for requesting a test drive, etc.). Some e-newsletter service providers offer professionally written content. This can be a tremendous advantage because professional writers are trained to draft article content that propels the reader into action. It also frees your Internet manager from the burden of content creation, which is the most common reason e-newsletter initiatives fail or never get off the ground in the fi rst place.

Investigate the reporting capabilities of your e-newsletter service provider. Reporting tools should make it easy for you to monitor subscriber activity and identify buy signal behavior. Make sure you have the ability to set up automatic alerts to notify you when readers submit forms requesting appointments for service and test drives.

Give them what they want: Article popularity drives strategyAnother metric that can pay great dividends if monitored properly is the popularity of each article. Gauging the readership of each article provides you with an understanding of what type of content is of most interest to subscribers.

Article popularity should drive decisions about the editorial calendar as content for future issues of the e-newsletter is developed. Delivering what the readers want is essential for reducing the rate of dropped subscriptions. Interesting content

will be considered more valuable, and therefore result in greater brand exposure, improved customer loyalty to the dealership and higher lifetime customer value.

Article popularity can be used as a guide to overall marketing strategy, too. For example, a BMW dealership included a sneak peek story about the new M6 luxury coupe in a recent issue of its e-newsletter. The strategy had been to place most of the emphasis on lower-end products with broader appeal. To their surprise, the reporting showed that the article about the M6 - a 507-horsepower automobile that defi nes the high-end with a sticker price well over $100,000 - was far and away the most popular article in the issue.

Armed with this information, they are planning a special dealership promotion around the arrival of the M6. Based on the popularity of the e-newsletter article, they expect the M6 promotion to be a strong draw to boost dealership traffi c. And if they sell even one M6 as a result of the promotion it will easily justify the annual expenditure on their e-newsletter.

e-Newsletters add beauty and brains to auto dealership marketingE-Newsletters afford the local dealership the opportunity to execute professional-looking branding campaigns at the local level. But the true beauty is in the braininess of this marketing vehicle. Newspaper advertising, local television and direct mail cannot provide the same measurable effectiveness and market intelligence that is easily available via e-newsletter metrics.

Brian Epro is the marketing manager for the Automotive Services Group of IMN. He can be contacted at 866.393.3919, or by email at bepro@autosuccess.biz.

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