Comment

Comment by Mr. Natural on June 28, 2011 at 12:44am

O.K. Paul, but how can I get even 20% of the $'s spent on conventional advertising used for my department. Newspaper, radio, T.V. is all so static and dead...We interact for God's sake. Everyone has not only two computers, but a computer phone as well. Why am I the ugly step child, and the newspaper gets to go golfing and eat cake?

 

g~

Comment by Christine Nolden on June 28, 2011 at 12:30am

 TRUE!!!

Comment by Mr. Natural on June 27, 2011 at 11:47pm

Conversion, conversion, conversion. I convert to a sale at 14%  I kid you not. But I have a slightly different outlook. I don't know how many employees I'm 'sposed to have, but what I wanna' know is who's going to build all these pages, and who's gonna pay for it? I love the idea of lots of landing pages, but we do it a bit different.

 

Paul, I love your stuff, but I march to the beat of a different drummer. And I'm gonna' get right to the point, and make myself clear. There are many out there who would have us think that "they" have the Holy Grail of Internet Protocol. A cookie cut version of the steps to the sale, just adjusted for the internet...You remember: "Meet, greet, qualify, present, demonstrate, trial close, ask to buy"...or something along those lines. "Can you imagine how good this will look in your driveway?" The part I always liked best was: "Take what you need, and leave the rest." These days, as the internet director of a large Automotive Group, mostly-I leave the rest.

 

I have the true Holy Grail of internet lead conversion...The customers phone number. I kid you not. You know what? I know nothing about the cars. When I talk to a customer on the phone, there are eight things I absolutely do not talk about. Year, Make, Model, Trim Level, Price, Rate, Term, or Price. So what do I talk about? I'll tell you.

 

I deliver my base statement ("We will treat you with dignity and respect, like we would like to be treated if we were going to spend thousands.") Something like that...Then find some common ground, like say...politics, or religion. (I recommend this only if you have a good feel of the customer.) If you dont feel comfortable with that, I suggest talking about how a 16 year old son always wrecks his first car, and what a bad idea it might be to get him a new mustang...I always recommend a 1978 Mercury Marquis Brogham for a kids first car. Lots of protective metal for that first impact.

 

I also like talking about the ephemeral nature of life, and how that without love-life flashes by. You think I'm kiddin'? Try it sometime. People love to be caught off guard. They aren't expecting it in out business. Try something honest right from the gut. Smack 'em over the head with something genuine and heartfelt. Women are great to talk to and develop relationships rapidly with. You can say ANYTHING to a women-as long as its not crude or rude-and you'll get a response. And I'll tell you this, if you can have a great conversation with a woman who is even on the far outer edges of a car deal, they will be your most valuable proponent and strongest ally. 

 

Anyone can have a webpage built, and it might look great, but it will still be a web page. "E pluribus unum"  "Out of all things one, one out of all things." People will not like you because of your web page. People will rarely buy anything from someone they don't like. Provide all the information you like, but the customer is still going to make a decision based on desire and emotion. As humans, we seek the emotional connections in our life, it's something we all must have.

 

I have a friend who used to sell encyclopedias...the full sum of human knowledge in his case. But it was he that did the selling, the knowledge was worthless without HIM.

 

One last thing...You have to stand out. Be different. Do something unexpected.

 

Live long and prosper.