By Eduardo Aragon

Sales Pros: If you’re not selling at least 2-6 cars off Facebook a month, you’re doing it wrong.

Dealerships: Suppose you have 10 people on your floor and they sell 2-6 cars extra, each – Facebook is time well spent.

” Quit taking pictures of your lunch and go sell me some cars.” These famous words were spoken to me by my sales manager Klay in 2013. This individual taught me so much about the business, but in this instance, I loved proving him wrong.

2 years later I was selling 3 cars a month, sometimes more, using the social media site Facebook.

This was hard to do, mostly because the dealership had blocked the site off our desktops and Wi-Fi, so I was forced to upload pictures and videos off my data plan.

But I kept at it. Day after day, post after post, failure after failure- until I found success.

After a couple of months, the dealership relented and we got Facebook back. The proof of ability is in the results it seems, and I was getting results.

Fast forward to 2016, dealerships have turned to Facebook advertising in droves, fighting for space on our news feeds with paid campaigns, and launching their own Facebook pages.

Some do a great job and see great ROI. Some fail miserably and give up, swearing it off like a gambling addiction.

“If dealerships fail, how can an individual Sales consultant hope to succeed?”

For the average Sales consultant looking for a few more sales each month, it can be a challenge to get started. We start the business with little to no money and zero experience. Good thing Facebook is free and you have a super-computer and a movie camera in your pocket!

Paid ads are only one way to sell cars using Facebook. I’m going to show you a few more ways to sell cars using Facebook for free.

Before we begin though, let’s go over the numbers, best practices and things to avoid.

Believe me, I am not an expert on Facebook. This form of marketing is constantly evolving and if your knowledge isn’t real and up to date, you’re out of the loop. For a real expert on the subject, check this guy out: Gary V

However, I am a believer in big data. And if I can leverage anything to sell me more cars, I am going to use it.

So here’s the facts on Facebook and why you should be using it right now to market yourself and sell cars.

You can’t fool the math. Over 219,000,000 North Americans and counting own at least one Facebook account.

Half of these people are daily Facebook users. They spend over 20 minutes on the site each day. Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that the average time on the site in North America is 40 minutes a day.

These numbers are staggering.

Facebook marketing is here to stay.

When done right, Facebook’s massive audience can be leveraged by your company and by you as an individual to produce sales in huge numbers.

Think about it. Your Facebook posts can be liked, commented on and shared by your Facebook “friends” and then seen by their friends, and their friends’ friends.

It’s the cheapest form of advertising you can use. If you do it right.

Unfortunately, most salespeople aren’t doing it right.

Marketing yourself on Facebook the wrong way is just as bad, maybe worse, than not doing it all.

So before we explore what to do, let’s look at what not to do.

Here’s some things to avoid right now.

1.) Mixing business with pleasure:

Your personal views on politics, religion and sometimes even favorite sports team (don’t post Broncos’ posts in a Carolina market), can turn-off your audience.

People can block you, mute you, stop following you or troll you for your posts.
The goal is to attract people, not repel them. So keep it light, fun, and professional.

2.) Hammering your message.

Yes, you are in sales, but every post can’t be about business or people will simply tune you out.

Mix up your advertising posts with other posts that your audience cares about and you will stay in the “like” column a lot longer.

Try this 5 post combination out: a funny post, an educational post, a how to, a personal post/testimonial (remember what not to share) and then a sales pitch.

People go to Facebook for entertainment, so give them what they want. Entertain, educate and inspire your audience and they will do business with you.

3.) No target market.

Facebook paid advertising helps you identify your target audience. But if you aren’t clear on who you want to sell to it won’t work.

Make sure to identify a target audience before you begin.

For ideas on how to market and who to market to check this out: Attract the right customer. It’s a PDF so you will need to log on to your google account to download the PDF, I promise it isn’t malware!

4.) Not following through.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” True words, just remember to take the rest of the steps or you will never get to your destination.

Maintaining a strong presence on Facebook takes work, creativity and dedication.

Following through doesn’t just help your golf swing, it is imperative for success on Facebook.

If you start a campaign, finish it. If you advertise a reward, make sure people “see” someone win it online. Keep going, don’t stop untill you perfect your pitch, your process and your results.

For a better understanding of what you want to do, click here to log in to google and download the PDF: The Lead Generation Blueprint (this is on here twice, it’s that important.)

OK, awesome. We know what doesn’t work. Now let’s look at how you will sell cars on Facebook.

1.) Make friends.

You need friends to make more friends.

Start with your service department. Then add key family members like your wife and kids. Avoid adding people from other accounts that will embarrass the heck out of you. Keep it professional.

Remember, this is your professional account. You might want to create a completely new one from scratch depending on your past posts.

Add previous clients as a way to follow up and add new clients as part of your delivery process. Get lots of friends.

This will pay off huge when they are thinking about trading in 3 years from now. Trust me.

They will message you on the “messenger” app, make sure you install it on your phone.

2.) Make groups.

The inimitable Bobby Howard has one of the biggest and best Facebook groups ever. Check it out. Facebook Vehicles for sale. He sold over 50 cars in February 2015 in a small town in Louisiana. People came from 500 miles away, just to buy from Bobby.

Groups allow you to create a big following without having to “friend” a million people.

Use the group to create conversations, invite people to private sales, and help people out with their vehicle woes.

3.) Create a Facebook business page.

Dark posts, offers, sales posts, targeted advertising campaigns, coupons, etc. These all become available to you with a page. Make your own facebook business page

40 likes gets you the analytics tool “insights”. From there it’s all go and no slow.

4.) Join groups.

My hometown if Kelowna, Canada has a 17,000 person strong group called Okanagan Vehicle lot. That’s 17,000 people actively looking to buy, sell and trade their vehicles in a town of only 150,000. Now I have a huge market to prospect to. Okanagan Vehicle Lot

Use the search function in these groups to track down people searching ” ISO” for specific vehicles. ” iso dually reg cab “, ” iso Jeep tj”

Contact them using messenger.

5.) Get the word out.

You are your best product. So keep posting daily, build your network and provide value to your sold clients and prospects.

Need some ideas? Check out this interview with Gary V: How to advertise on Facebook

Alright, there you have it. Now get going and start creating awesome content to attract, engage and convert your “friends” into buyers.

Facebook is so important, it will take you months to learn and perfect what you need to do to get a consistent flow of traffic. But you can start selling cars right away, just take the first step.

I wish you all the best of luck in business and in life. Got questions? Reach out to me on LinkedIn, Google Plus, or Facebook. I am easy to find.

Have a Powerful day today!

Eduardo (Eddie) Aragon