That kills a General Manager it’s what he doesn’t know!

Those words spoken to me by one of the smartest dealers I ever worked for, Jay Marks, have stayed with me since 1996. Same principal applies in every position of the dealership but particularly in marketing.

Let’s face it Marketing is quickly becoming a dealership position. It’s a complicated dance between traditional and digital, the dealership and its partners. What is most alarming to me is the lack of basic information dealerships and their marketing partners have about the dealerships market and customers behavior. It’s always amazing to me that so many dealerships can operate even profitably and know very little about their market or their customer behavior. Even more alarming is the “Marketing Partners” they are using know less than the dealership, “They are not at the store!”.

The data is all there, in my earlier post “The Secret Weapon” I discussed the massive amounts of data that are available to dealerships and how you can leverage some of this data. I also talked about “What a Relational Marketing Database should do.”

One of its first functions is a “Market Analysis” you historical data will tell you a ton about

   • Where your customers are willing to come from   

   • What cars they are willing to spend the money for   

   • What cars they are getting rid of   

   • Where your customer are will to come from for service   

   • What cities you have the best penetration in    • What vehicles make you the most money
   • How and who to increase customer pay service with

I could go on and on but the post would be overwhelming.

Bottom line – If you are interviewing a marketing partner… and that is what it is an interview, and they can’t show you where the marketing & conversion leaks are, they can’t tell you where they think they fit in your marketing plan and can help then you already have your decision, it’s the same one you would make in an employee interview.

"I dont have to tell you you know what the decision is"

Finally if you don't have a basic market analysis you’re throwing darts in the dark… STOP even if your current “Marketing Partner” cant supply you with one you can do this yourself in excel.

Here is a link to a sample marketing analysis you can download that will at least give you the basic data to make good marketing decisions on. GET A SAMPLE MARKETING ANALYSIS.

Before you go chasing “Spinner Bait” (the shiny object) get your foundation right. Start with the data, get your market analyzed and look at who you need to target and how those people find you. Get that right then you can start to tackle the more advanced and subtle areas of marketing like social media, advanced content marketing, mobile etc.

Hope this helps,

Attend my session at Digital Dealer 12 “Marketing By The Numbers, E...