I am going to cut to the chase here because your time is valuable and reading on and on....and on the ramblings of a “expert” is not really how you make money.  I will show you how to DOUBLE your business and it is no joke.  With no reservation I will tell you I have done it time and time again.  It takes two main ingredients and a commitment to the “success recipe”.  

The ingredients are the hardest to find really.  I have walked away from many a deal because without the right “parts” you can not expect the formula ( recipe ) to work.  I have zero desire to be a part of a losing team and with the wrong ingredients ..... it is failure for sure.

The major ingredient is an owner that wants to win and willing to open his mind and wallet to do it.   Think of Billy Beans open mind and George Steinbrenner's willingness to spend to win. If you are owner, please take note of how important your role, trust and commitment are here.  Maybe baseball is not your thing, well than a bit closer to home in our business there is a man named Billy Fucillio who gets this formula and WINS with it bigger than anyone I have ever seen.    Look him up if you do not already know who he is you will be astounded by his budgets and how much business he does.  More importantly you wont want to compete against him and glad he does not won the store down the street. 

Second, you need a partner ( ad agency or consultant)  who knows how to drive mass traffic, has done it before and will keep you on course when you want to quit because you had a few bad days, never mind a week. and Third a Sales manager who wants to win just as bad as ownership and will carry the vision to the floor where it is imperative it resonates with passion and excitement.

The Formula is simple OWN your market like no one else.  Advertise with a BRILLIANT marketing plan that will brand your store while driving direct result sales today.  Advertising had 4 major keys to its success.  

1. Reach
2. Frequency
3. Creative
4. Cost

If you dial in this formula better than anyone in your market you will win BIG!  Bottom line ... reach mass amounts of people so often they have your STRONG creative message hardwired into their head and do it at a cost that supports a strong net profit.  

Sounds easy right? It really is if you know where to spend your money and how to negotiate rates that will knock your competition off their HIGH HORSE :)  The first step is to define your market and what type of market you are.  I have seen it work with radio and TV.   Newspaper is old school but TV and radio depending on your market can be your best friend.  Once you know which one you are or if you are lucky enough to be both, the hardest part of all this comes in to play.  Ready for the PUNCHLINE?  The place which holds almost every Dealer back and I lose most of their attention when discussing this.  You must trust the formula!!!!  The numbers are what they are.  IE: If you need a 69% reach and a 7.0 frequency to WIN the radio game in your market than you had better negotiate those numbers to a point that you can afford it and then make sure you do not waste it with crappy creative.   Numbers do not lie my friends.  Hit enough people with a strong enough message, hit them enough times they can not help but remember it and do it at a low enough cost ......... YOU WILL WIN.  If you play the “budget game” meaning that you throw 3K at it for the month because that is what your owner gave budget for and end up with a 38% reach and a 2.6 frequency just do your self a favor and save the 3K.  Go have a nice dinner or something with it.  The guy who did it right is eating your lunch with a 70% reach, a 7.0 frequency and made your “little” buy seem “little” and OWNS the market. No one remembers second place.

In some markets the radio buy ( 3-6 stations deep) might cost $3000 a week if you are a small market and the reach is limited. In other markets it might cost 17K a week.  either way, it is the formula that makes it work not your willingness to hand over 3K a month to the pretty rep that sells froggy 107.5.    The same holds for cable and network TV.  If you are in the right market and on the right shows and there enough to hardwire the message in you can win with TV too.

How does all this relate tot new internet phase of our lives.   This is where I keep it really short and give you a HAMMER of an analogy.  Watch TV this year for the BIG Game called the Super Bowl.  The companies like Monster.com and even Godaddy.com will be spending millions to market their brands for their internet sites on traditional media.  The best and brightest in the auto business are driving people to their micro sites and lead generating this way on a smaller scale and therefore benefitting from organic leads they pay zero for.

To summarize.  If you spend 5K to advertise with traditional media that also plugs a strong lead generating website that you own, have you not won both games?  You have internet traffic and your message is resonating in the marketplace.  The internet is great and you must be in that game, but everyone thinks that is where all the money is.....those of us that are not blinded by the bright lights of the internet craze are more than likely kicking your tail using traditional to push digital.

As in all things, each market is different and to be fair some markets are solely internet markets, but there is about 20% chance you live in one, so theres an 80% chance you don’t.  Do not abandon traditional media unless you are sure you are in a digital market.

Disclaimer, if you try this, be sure 100% sure your creative is the best in the market and do not attempt without consulting a few people first who get it.  The win is BIG!!!!!!!!!! but the loss can be horrific of you mix up the formula.

Troy “Turbo” Spring

President

Dealer World

Co-Author of “Unfair Advantage” 

888-904-9994

www.mydealerworld.com