Why ZMOT is BS

One of my most favorite sayings in the world goes like this:

“A sale, like a war, is won by many battles and lost
by one”

This is true across every industry and business and why there is no single ZMOT (Zero Moment Of Truth). There are multiple events that take a customer to the point of decision to contact your dealership or buy your car.

Our own studies have shown along with many others that a visitors will visit a site multiple time and even see and click multiple ads before they convert to a lead basically showing that there is no one single moment where a visitor
decides to convert or buy.

So what is ZMOT?

Well for the car business I believe it’s a name for the process a visitor goes through before… “you get a seat at the table”. (I talked about this in “The Currency Of Trust” post in March of 2010) That’s really all a lead is… “ a seat at the table”, like any other marketing you will still have to sell yourself, sell the dealership and create rapport with the customer to get the dealership visit and / or ultimately the sale.

So what has ZMOT changed?

Actually nothing, the most it has done is made us aware that customers and visitors have more places than they want to get the information they want about buying a car and that we need to be transparent, something we have all known for some time. It has made us aware that the first point of contact and decision is on the web not on our lot, again something we have known now for many years.

At the MOST ZMOT may have made more dealerships see that the conversion is the point of your web marketing, without it you don’t have a chance to gain the rapport and relationship you need to sell the car.

That brings me to the ONE THING… there is a single action that can dramatically affect your ability to convert leads and sell customers today. That is NOT giving the vital information needed to make the decision to
consider you dealership in the buying process.

Marketing is so fragmented today and every visit is so fragile that it only takes ONE THING to not look right to your visitor, ONE THING be clouded, one moment where you message isn’t clear or its too hard to get the information the visitor or customer wants or needs for the them to just move on or that lead to just not email you back or just not answer the phone when you call.

“It is all too easy today for consumers to just cut
you out of the buying process for you not to be ultra-transparent and more importantly HELPFUL. The bottom-line the consumers web shopping experience when it comes to automotive is more of a process of elimination not one of inclusion”

So the ONE THING is more of a ZMOL (Zero Moment Of Loss) if you have marketed or sold in the car business long enough you have experienced it, you have even seen it physically that moment when you know you just lost the sale.

That’s just my perspective… What say you?

Larry Bruce @pcmguy

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Comment by Larry Bruce on November 25, 2011 at 1:53pm: First, Yes Brian I have read the book several times in fact.

Secondly this post is not a referendum on Jim Lecinski’s work on the book which is actually quite cool, I have Kindle Enhanced Version. The book is very well done and so is the work.

In your terms “Now that we are clear on those facts” let me address your comments specifically.

1. I see you have the + behind your 18 so I am sure you realize there are far more than 18 points of influence that a car shopper might take into account before they purchase a car.

2. More importantly you nor the dealer or I can know which ones will affect a consumer to convert or buy, that is why we TEST, TEST, TEST, the only people who really know are the visitors.

3. ZMOT and FMOT are just additional confusing acronyms for Integrated Marketing, again something most dealers understand they need but are having a hard time getting from Marketing Providers not the other way around.

Finally I think you are COMPLETELY missing the point of the post.

While there IS NOT ONE ZMOT TEHRE IS ONE ZMOL (Zero Moment Of Loss) all of the goodwill, trust and authority your dealership builds in ZMOT and FMOT can be dashed away with a single act.

In closing I wouldn't say it was designed to draw fire I have actually been thinking about this for some time and we have even had an #automarketing tweetchat discussion on the subject, which contributed to me wanting to write this post.

The only people the title of the post would draw fire from are those people trying to use ZMOT as a foundation for a business instead of making their own. However the title does draw attention and the reader into the post which is Content Marketing 101, so I am glad you found it effective.

Comment by Brian Pasch on November 25, 2011 at 12:50pm: Larry

Happy Thanksgiving and it's appropriate for such a turkey of Blog Title that was created to

draw some fire. It was effective.

You open this blog post with this statement:

"This is true across every industry and business and why there is no single ZMOT (Zero Moment Of Truth). There are multiple events that take a customer to the point of decision to contact your dealership or buy your car."

If you read the book, which you must not have, the Zero Moment of Truth defined by Jim Lecinski, is not a singular event. For auto shoppers, its the 18+ points of influence that consumers particpate with BEFORE contacting the dealership.

Now that we are clear on the facts, you are correct that ZMOT doesn't share data that is ground-breaking but it does create a language that dealers are starting to understand.

The book is not filled with terms like SEO, SEM, IRM, etc. which tend to baffle dealers. It's a smart way to show dealers that their offline stimulus needs to be supported by ZMOT and FMOT investments.

It means that dealers have to UNDERSTAND that their TV investments don't drive consumers directly to their lots. Stimulus just sparks consumer research on the Internet, and that's where dealers need help.

I think that the ZMOT conversation is the starting point to encourage dealers to have a comprehensive marketing strategy that spans all mediums and technology platforms.

If you think that's BS, that OK.

I expect you to be the contrarian voice...and like that.