1) Hung out with buddy that wanted a car
2) He complained about getting ignored by local dealers after requesting information via their websites (luxury brand)
3) He asked me to “help him.”
4) I called a local dealer (my buddies)
5) We sold him a car (4k gross)
6) He Tweeted about his “new ride.”
7) Two people that “follow him” on Twitter have called the same salesperson for a “like deal.”

So… we can decide to like or dislike the technology but we cannot decide if our customers do. People are doing this, it’s just the way it is. Some things are out of our control and trying to force people to communicate in ways that they do not decide is bad – super bad.

Like Ralph mentioned earlier….RELATIONSHIPS = GROSS!

Gawd, I wish I wrote that headline.

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/twitter-impacts-relevance-like-i-impact-gravity

I fell off my chair with his new google rank schemes.

enjoy!
Joe

I started selling cars in 1981, and I am about as grizzled a veteran as any of the other old timers pushing iron over the curb these days… Even a knucklehead like me figured out over 20 years ago that RELATIONSHIP = GROSS! My first wife once told me what an idiot I was when I explained that CSI is determined by gross profit… Because when CSI reports first took hold I immediately saw that the highest gross deals we made generated the highest CSI scores… Doh… She was right (only time!), the gross was generated because there was a good relationship foundation! The customer ALLOWS us to earn a respectable profit margin WHEN A POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN CREATED. Yes, I know car guys like Joe probably think that they are sooooooooo crafty and cunning that any high gross deals they generate are through slight of hand… NOT. Talk to the guys selling cars at Acton Toyota in MA about how the deal works when a customer drives 100 miles, past 8 other Toyota stores to buy a car from Acton Toyota because of the 200+ Positive reviews that consumers have created on DealerRater.com at the request of their salesperson… BECAUSE they had a relationship with that car salesman! When I first started selling cars, my mentor would wack me with his crutches (bad knees after 30 years on the blacktop) and tell me to stop selling cars and start building relationships with customers FIRST… He would ask me, “whattaya wanna be, an order taker? ’cause there’s no gross in taking orders, and i ain’t splitting no minnies with you, so start selling yourself before you distract these ups with the damn car!”.

Anybody who does not understand the types of differentiation that Jeff commented on is doomed to a career (or lack of) of minimum commission, low CSI and job dissatisfaction… You know when I REALLY think a deal is real? When i hear the salesperson laughing along with the customers as they are writing up a worksheet! People don’t laugh with car salesman, they might laugh at us, but they do laugh WITH professionals they have come to trust, respect and want to do business with… When was the last time you got a referral, someone you never met before and it was the easiest deal that month? Why, because you had a head start on building a relationship based on the transference of “relationship equity” from the person who sent his/her friend to you as a referral… Personally, the last car I bought was a used Ford Expedition, and i know I paid about a grand more than I could have paid, so that i could buy it from a manager I trust who works at a dealership that has treated me well as a supplier… It’s ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIP, or you can take orders for mini deals… You pick!

Thank you for your responses and commentary… It is good to know that I am not the ONLY car guy crazy looking at Web 2.0 from a relationship marketing perspective. Now, please don’t get me wrong, I have used various social networking sites as advertising venues and have seen some successes in driving traffic to dealer sites that turned out to be far more qualified than I had initially expected… BUT, and this is a big butt (he he he), From just a few direct experiences from some prototypes and experiemnts, the power of “word of mouth” when the web is used to propogate it more effectively than offline ever did, can be truly amazing… And scary! Heck, just look at RipOffReport.com for the scary side. Yet, even with a stumbling and bumbling, haphazard, making a lot of guesses and trying stuff never done by dealers before, I have one dealer I work with who SWEARS he is selling 3 to 5 additional vehicles each week from the UGC/Web 2.0 experimentation we are doing for his store… And, I figure it must be true (he may be low-balling me) because his wife is the store’s controller, who can’t stand what they pay me per diem, AND she gave me a big hug during my last visit, and took me out for a nice seaside dinner, and picked up the check… Dealers buying dinner for me is proof enough that we as professionals have only scratched the surface of what is possible… Ya’ think I’m leaving money on the table with my first dealer community, social networking success story? LOL… Truth be known, I think i would have PAID to see something with UGC/Web 2.0 actually generate some car sales!

Use the online networking sites to position dealership executives, management, and staff as trusted, knowledgeable resources for purchasing new and pre-owned vehicles, financing, parts, service, and related products. Create, monitor, and manage, online ratings and reviews that can positively promote a dealership’s reputation. Connect with people online to provide a source of referrals, recommendations, customer testimonials, and Internet visibility.

When you do advertise, create awareness of a dealership’s unique features, benefits, inventory, and outstanding customer service through highly targeted traditional, Internet and mobile media campaigns. Use digital and traditional advertising to drive customers to a usable, useful, and enjoyable website and one that embraces online social networking. Use an advertising agency that knows how to help you connect online AND off. If you have an agency that doesn’t, or need one that does, email me – tberry@thetitanagency.com.

Here are a couple of recent articles in which I am extensively quoted about this very topic.

Automotive News March 16, 2009
“Studies: Luxury car shoppers on Web want instant info.”
https://home.autonews.com/clickshare/readLink.do?CSAuthKey=n0JWd7kdRFQ-q_DW2o1hGPQ-0

Dealer.com Newsletter – Power to the Dealer April 7, 2009
“The Titan Agency Surveyed 50 Luxury Brand Dealerships”
http://newsletter.dealer.com/e_article001394623.cfm?x=bfmQfGf,bb10mFCv

Social Networking is like Public Relations on speed. If you design your message effectively, you can have the world spread it for you in minutes. You’re not going to reach everyone the TV would reach, but you’re going to have “fans” working for you that you don’t have to pay!

This is how social networking can be capitalized on. BUT, you need to be very careful in how you approach it.