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Permalink Reply by Barry Jordan on June 29, 2015 at 5:07pm

First the Dealership has to commit to the process. We use DEALER RATER and set each person up with a picture (not a mug shot) and a detailed profile. This allows the employee to strive to get as many personal endorsements as they can. This is included as a link in their electronic signature.

Communication with a future prospect allows the potential client to review the employee's past reviews. It has to be put in front of the client with pride.

Once a person has built a strong following its really tough for them to leave that behind and start again fresh at a new dealer, and its also just as difficult to have a 5 star person leave the dealership. Once a person and a dealership part ways you can lower their profile and it cannot be seen publicly

It wont be long before you start to hear stories about a client that drove across the city past 5 competitors to ask for your top rated person by name. That spreads very fast on a sales floor.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Bennington on June 30, 2015 at 9:03am

Why J.D., is this post as simple as it sounds, or is "Salesperson Branded Presence" some IT-related term I'm not familiar with?  Just supposing this is actually about building a rep's "personal image" to improve their reputation and performance, I've got 40+ years of experience doing it, first for myself, and then the last 20+ years doing it for the reps at my client dealerships.

The things I developed for myself, they're too numerous to list, but they allowed me to become a nationally recognized "organ salesman" in my earlier career, which believe it or not, was nearly perfect training for vehicle sales.  As to their similarities, my favorite description is "Selling organs is just like selling cars to people who can't drive."  Now, I can just imagine the "smug dismissal" this will generate from some, but keeping it in perspective, the average priced organ I sold cost as much as a base model Chevrolet and 95% of my customers never played before.  (A big difference, though, was working with a 100% mark-up and, of note, I could barely play.)  Also, a big incentive for me to experiment with marketing was that I did it in the Midwest, where follow-up was critical, as my clientele were some of the "slowest rolls" on earth.

My last car-selling job was with Lexus, when they were introduced.  There, because management was surprised at how many of my previous M-B, etc. customers came in and bought cars from me, they wanted me to do for everyone what I was doing for myself.  At that time, I was "hot" on newsletters, but I couldn't get the rest of the salesforce to be as enthusiastic about sharing them with their customers as I was.  Recognizing every problem has a solution, I designed a "Profile of Excellence" insert that looked exactly like it was a page of the newsletter, and did a different one for every rep at the dealership.  Including lots of action photos, a super complementary bio and even a rep "interview," the reps could hardly wait to give their customers a copy.  It was real satisfying, but wasn't generating enough business to hold my interest, so I moved on to "Relationship Centered Marketing," which has kept me fascinated for years.

So, now you know someone who helps reps at dealerships brand themselves.  By the way, that "Profile of Excellence" would look damned impressive on the Internet! 

       

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Permalink Reply by JD Rucker on June 30, 2015 at 9:42am

Brian - it is as simple as it sounds, but...

I will be replying soon when I'm not on a call at the same time. I want to explore this further and I want to give it my full attention.

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Permalink Reply by JD Rucker on July 2, 2015 at 5:45am

I can see the Profile of Excellence being very useful online!

As far as the reasons for this question, we've seen an influx of individual salespeople who have inquired about social media marketing. At first, the few that trickled in last year were quick phone calls and unfortunately not much else. I was very shortsighted on the topic. I thought it was a great idea and if I ever sold cars again I would totally do it, but I didn't think there was enough interest to explore it as a product.

Today, the inquiries are coming in at a much faster pace. Pretty much every week we receive an inquiry from a salesperson and I realize the error of my shortsightedness. As much as I would love to have our team supply the solution (four of them were doing it for themselves at dealerships before they joined the team) I feel that there is probably very good coverage already by others. If we aren't going to supply a solution, it's important that we know where to point people when they ask.

I remember in the 90s sitting in on a training course. I believe it was Joe Verde but I could be mistaken. While my memory of the source has faded, the message will stick with me forever. This is a business. It's not just the dealers who is running a business. Every salesperson is running their own business. Back then, it was smiling at people at grocery stores and handing out business cards at church. Today, there's an opportunity through the internet, personal websites, and social media to do the same thing. I'm not certain whether or not it's a replacement, but it's definitely a different venue and one that can appeal to more people trying to build their own business.

The most prolific car salesman I've ever known owned a small bar. He would make connections every night. He would come into the dealership 3 or 4 days a week, usually no earlier than noon, and he would end up splitting deals with all of the other salespeople because there would always be someone coming in for the "Garfield deal". As much as anyone hates a split, we knew two things when anyone would come in asking for him: they were likely a laydown and if they walked, Garfield would probably get them back in later.

He would sell 30-50 units a month working part time and splitting half of them.

I don't know if that's possible with an internet-only style of personal branding and business building, but I'm definitely going to find out if there's anyone out there helping to make it happen.

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Permalink Reply by Danny Maynor on July 2, 2015 at 2:41pm

I've done this with remarkable success since 2010.  I have my own website (www.socalvwguy.com), Facebook page (facebook.com/socalvwguy), Youtube channel, Email marketing list, and more.  I even designed my own logo and business cards.

The salesman is changing to sales consultant and is almost reduced to a clerical job in many ways.  I genuinely feel that for the professional salesperson to survive as a career, personal branding is a must.

I saw my repeat and referral business double after creating my online presence and my own marketing and have been contacted by other salespeople for advice on setting up their own online presence.  VW training even uses me for an example with new salespeople sometimes.

I'll actually be sharing a project I'm working on here shortly, that will be designed specifically to help other salespeople set up their own car sales business.

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Permalink Reply by Tyson Madliger on July 3, 2015 at 12:44am

We should talk.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Bennington on July 2, 2015 at 10:05pm

Thanks J.D., It was nice you finally elaborated on your original rather abbreviated comments.  And, I'm extremely flattered you'd want to give this (dare I say me) your full attention.  However, (and if you knew me better, you'd know I'm mighty redundant with "Howevers") I'll mention what I'm not too keen on about your most recent "selling" suggestions.

First, "Smiling at everyone in the grocery store and passing out your business cards at church" to generate business, is to me, demeaning and sorely lacking in originality.  Kind of like a "Walking Dead" style of prospecting.  (I'd be hard pressed to think of anything more obnoxious than hustling a new customer in the cereal aisle.)  Actually, I figured out other ways to "skin that cat" long ago.  You're correct that reps should recognize they're running their own business.  I did, and while I have a strong inherent "Midwestern" attitude of loyalty to whom I'm working for, as soon as I got the feeling the dealership where I was at wasn't as serious about their business as I was, I began making plans for my departure.   Yet, because of extremely disciplined follow-up procedures and dealerships' much-to-slovenly attitude about customer relationships, I always had a comfortable number of my clients following me to the next dealership.

You might call this arrogance (I know I would), but it's not uncommon among top producers in any field.  You've heard the expression "high maintenance"?  A top producer is always pushing their organization as they're usually operating at a faster pace than what management is use to. I did have to pay a little penance, though, as knowing how easy it was to have my success resented by my co-workers and even middle management, I spent a good deal of time being "Mr. Nice Guy," always ready to do the "lunch run" and never hesitating to split deals with the "less fortunate."  (Actually, I found it somewhat rewarding.)  By the way, I've spent enough time in bars during my youth in a working R&R road band that I'd never want to own one.

Now on to the "meat" of this.  For the individual rep, the Internet is NOT the golden ticket, for many reasons.  As an advertising/marketing medium, it's impossibly polluted with "We'll do it for less" dealership proclamations.  In fact, I think it's impossibly polluted with too many "deals" on everything, at least if you enjoy competing for a bigger profit.  And, because of its anticipated "inexpensive delivery" and the ease in which it allows people to "spin," it's bound to become more ineffective.  There's also a danger to the uneducated rep who gets involved with an IT "charlatan" (and J.D. I'm sure you'll agree there are many) promising big profits and instead delivering big invoices and lots of excuses.  

Does the Internet have a place in automobile sales?  Absolutely!  But, keep it in perspective.  If it's for a rep and they're paying for it, put up something simple, attractive and lasting, so you're not spending hours a day screwing with it.  For anything elaborate, use the dealership's money.  When you see stats like the recently AN-published MaritzCX study of the most influential sources for car shoppers, with "chat rooms, blogs and forums" at 1.5%, and "online videos, mobile apps, Facebook,Google+, Linkedin, and Twitter all totaling 2.6%, I'd go with building my selling expertise to take advantage of the #1 rated "salesperson at the dealership" influence (21.5%).  One final note.  Within the last week, I was reading a new rep's letters aloud to him at his dealership for final approval before production, and I glanced over and saw tears in his eyes.  I immediately stopped and asked why he was crying.  He then quietly informed me how grateful he was for the wonderful way I was "talking" to his customers saying the things he wanted to say.  After I finished, he thanked me so much it almost made me uncomfortable.  His payback will come with the repeats and referrals he'll get, just like it is for the other 15 reps there I've been ghostwriting for over the past 13 years,  I believe everyone likes to hear nice things said to them, and I sincerely love helping people say them!  (That's on my website,)                                 

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