Autotrader, Cars.com, what is your favorite 3rd party lead provider?
We have agreements with about everyone....had a terrible experience with Carsdirect 72 leads 0 sales...and customers seem to use it as a wish lists...for new or used...not to mention I hate that they have a site to tell me how much I should be selling my cars for. AutoUSA seemed less attractive when they lost Edmunds. Imotors/Reply.com very low closing ratio..similiar customers to Carsdirect.
So currently we are using Autobytel, Zag, Edmunds, KBB, Dealix, we even pay for 3rd party leads from the manufacturer. We get a total of 550-600 leads on average.
Who do you like....and why?
I am always looking for good companies that are not on my lists or radar and would love to know your closing ratios....
We close over 11% when you include the leads driven by our website...and I have 2 experienced managers and 2 people with no car experience answering the leads. We have a decent system I put in place.
I am just not getting enough leads and I want more traffic...(that does not mean I want to expand my miles radius past 25)...whenever I have stretched it out the close ratio drops too much and puts my R.O.I. out of wack.
Look forward to the thoughts out there.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by MANNY LUNA on
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Thanks Robert,
I know that you are being hit with alots of ways to help you sell more cars. I would love to take about how much we really have in common. 3rd Party Leads are what I used to make my living with when I sold cars and ran Speical Fin Lead Depts. I signed up with every one of them and had a 50,000 a month budget to work with at Planet Ford 45 Spring Tx and Bill Heard Chevy in Sugarland Tx... If I knew then what I know now, I would of really killed it! Save all your money and I can share with you how to really kill it!
Let talk soon
Manny Luna
832-341-1806
Robert Hildreth said:Manny,
I will look into your suggestions as well as your company....it will take me awhile to digest it all and I will hit you with questions from there...thanks for the input
MANNY LUNA said:Robert,
Looks like your doing a great job making things happen to sell cars! In reading everyone post sounds like everybody is singing the same song, I have used, worked with and have some of there products in our clients dealerships,some do very will and some of our dealers are having problem with there inventory feed on there website. I agree with Robert with eleadcrmcom , there are some tweaks that you can make with your website company to help you get more 1st party leads;
NADA tells us that the customer's will go to your Specials page first, That would be the first thing to do. As far as posting your inventory on Craigslist, If you don't have any more then 45 to 50 preowned cars in stock you wont get the traffic you really want. Cargigi can do a good job with your inventory I seen on your website. Cost 399 for the first area amd 299 per area after that. They are month to month so I would give them a try.
NADA has found that 1st party leads will close at 16% compared to 3rd party leads at 8%,so the goal is to have a ton of 1st party leads funnel into your main website. So be sure your website is ready to sevice your online clients.
Who do you like....and why?
I would like one vendor to do a all in one package that can funnel in tons of first party leads into my main website, then sign me up on a exclusive agreement for my brand with a 75 mile radius consisting of 10 cities.
That way they couldn't go to my competition and sell them the same package.
We are the only Company in the Indrustry that do that.
Digital Media and SEO Content Strategies:
Strategies:
-Monthly Digital Plan and Budget
-Develop and drive short and long term strategies
-Weekly analytics and ROI Reports
-Manage current vendor relations including inventory feeds to various sites
-Social Media strategy and planning as well as extensive reputation management services including “fan sites”
testimonial and review submissions to various review and social bookmarking sites (totaling 350 different sites per review)
-e-news letters and email blast campaigns
-weekly conference calls
-Employing the newest and most innovative products into campaigns
SEO:
-Video SEO exclusive to each dealership for their brand within a 75 mile radius consisting of 10 cities
-Deployment of 10 micro sites within a 75 mile radius consisting of 10 cities
-Extensive back linking campaign including link wheels for each individual dealer rooftop
-Adding target links to each review submitted through the reputation management package
-Creation of blogs integrated into the micro sites for enhanced optimization
-Friendly SEO reports sent out weekly (micro sites and dealer website reporting)
-Create an on page seo strategy consisting of inventory and target market optimization
-Manage website content for seo optimization purposes
-Manage and create a strategy for SEM (keyword strategy media buying, placement etc) Amounts TBD and will vary
Website Maintenance:
-Upload custom sliders for home page of websites consistent with other marketing campaigns with updates incentives,
community involvement, etc.
-Create and upload car specials slides
-Create special landing pages and micro sites for SEM campaigns
-Make necessary compliance changes to website
-Manage and help negotiate with current vendors
-Oversee content strategy of dealer’s main website
Please take note that in order to sell tons of cars, you have to have great reviews also. We do that to:)
Here are a couple of links that should help you see the big picture of what are customer are looking for:
http://www.mediapost.com/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=157679
Internet traffic will have increased six fold by 2012 in a five-year period as more users view and post videos online, delegates at an Internet forum heard on Wednesday.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.11b0df967c4c85298aa3020...
A new report from YuMe on 2011 Q2 video metrics shows that nearly 25% of all video ad impressions come from three states: California, Texas, & New York.Great post, let me know when your ready to have some real fun and dominate your market!Manny Luna832-341-1806
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Permalink Reply by Robert Hildreth on
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Someone is giving you bad information then....I maintain all emails that I have correspondance with. I was contacted on September 22nd 2010 about the Carsdirect opporutnity. At the time I was still rather new to the company so I said I was not ready to spend any money on 3rd party companies until I had a grasp of the people and the talent.
Justin, one of your reps began negotiations with me on the contact in December....because I was talking to several 3rd party companies the deal was made when your company offered me 60 days of free leads...How could I possibly pass that up.
Our first lead was recieved on the 31st of December 2010. Our last lead was on January 23rd 2011. We still had free time and free leads promised but I passed on it.
I realize this is your livelyhood so I am trying to be respectful....but once again...this is just ones man opinion...It did not work for us yet we are a fairly sucessful firm with a good process.
Take it for what it is worth...but where you company needs to start is taking the prices off the internet telling consumers what they should pay for the car....that only causes friction between the public and the dealer. You are supposed to be on our side....not theres.....I dont mean you cannot be an advocate but you are publishing prices that can only be hit in most cases by the dealer losing money....
Why would be pay you so you can suggest to the customers you are going to introduce us to that we should lose money. At least Zags model gives us the choice of losing money....Edmunds TMV at least allows us to be at invoice or a few hundred above or below the invoice.....I hope you see where I am coming from...and I am just pointing out a frustration felt at the dealer level.
Tony Abbott said:Thanks for your reply Robert,
You have clearly been stirring up the pot with this discussion. I did a little homework and saw that you canceled our services just over two weeks into them. Although your process sounds stellar, I don't feel you gave CarsDirect.com a fair shot. Again, I would encourage you to reach out at some point and let me resolve this issue with you. Happy Selling.
Best,
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
Robert Hildreth said:Tony, we have a system in place that generates 8 email attempts and 7 phone calls spaced over a 15 day period. That is the minimum for how the system works....I personally call a few times during that period and send 2 emails. I started off back in 2001 trying to understand the internet business. I saw the potential then and thought this was going to be a big part of how things are going to change. Since that point I have spent the last decade perfecting a follow up system that would maximize contact, allow good flow, (I.E. make sure it is reasonable how many calls and emials are expected daily), and lastly make sure the people making the calls and emails have the right mindset to do the work.
I go through every single lead....the problem with the leads we got were rather simple....there was only a few who were really interested in buying a car. Maybe not what we sold...or maybe they were not in our area and bought closer to home. But when I reviewed the leads...there was not one deal that we missed. Meaning the few who were buyers bought at another manufacturer or a like manufacturer but closer to home.
We had the opportunity to try 2 free months...and for 2 locations and 4 Internet salespeople who each individually have closing ratios over 10%....they could not close 1 deal....The notes they left me were very detailed and it was obvious the frustration each had working the deals.
I was nice in parting ways with your company...I said maybe in the future we will look at this again....BUT one very frustrating and insulting product you have that I do not like is a site that tells customers what they should pay for a vehicle. Who made your company the authority that we should sell cars for a loss?
When we did have contact with customers they threw this out at me like we were trying to rip them off....and I looked at what they were reading.....your suggested prices were deep into the holdback.....and seemed to never be in the same zip code with reality of what I could sell the vehicle for.....
It has to be said..if we consitantly close over 10% but could not even close 1 deal...it may not be us.
Tony Abbott said:Gosh Robert,
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with CarsDirect.com. How was your process? With 72 opportunities how can you not have at least one sale? I would be happy to go through each and every lead with you and find out where and what happened to these opportunities. Please contact me. I would like to address this issue with you.
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
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Permalink Reply by MANNY LUNA on
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Rich,
Sorry to post this, but AutobookNow.com will not do anything for him, Look at his inventory, AutobookNow did not work with Hass Toyota World, over 700 cars in stock, Legacy Ford, Autoneeds Superstore, and many more I have talked to. They still owe one of my client 1495 for charging the dealers credit card after het told them to cancel.
Nothing against you Rich, I know to much about the company you work with, The owners Danny and Ray never returned a phone call from my dealer friend.
Good luck Rich!
Call me if you would like to talk.
832-341-1806
Robert Hildreth said:Hello Rich, the name of your company is?
Rich Soviero said:Robert,
We have a program that consistently delivers 100+ leads per month to our dealer clients,and they are closing from 9-15% These leads are generated directly from your inventory and within the radius you want to focus on. If you would like to know more please call me at 954-658-2900
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Permalink Reply by MANNY LUNA on
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Rich,
Sorry to post this, but AutobookNow.com will not do anything for him, Look at his inventory, AutobookNow did not work with Hass Toyota World, over 700 cars in stock, Legacy Ford, Autoneeds Superstore, and many more I have talked to. They still owe one of my client 1495 for charging the dealers credit card after het told them to cancel.
Nothing against you Rich, I know to much about the company you work with, The owners Danny and Ray never returned a phone call from my dealer friend.
Good luck Rich!
Rich Soviero said:My Company is Dealer Solutions LTD, and the name of the program is Autobook Now.
Robert Hildreth said:Hello Rich, the name of your company is?
Rich Soviero said:Robert,
We have a program that consistently delivers 100+ leads per month to our dealer clients,and they are closing from 9-15% These leads are generated directly from your inventory and within the radius you want to focus on. If you would like to know more please call me at 954-658-2900
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Permalink Reply by Tony Abbott on
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Robert,
Of course, I back my company up. Clearly you do not understand that we sell cars online; hence the name CarsDirect. We have been selling cars online for over 12 years. We partner with dealers on a wholesale side to offer these deals to our consumers. We generate so much traffic that we partner with other dealers to send them the opportunities where we do not sell directly. Justin, who is no longer with us, should have explained this to you. That is why you received calls on our pricing. I kindly asked you to contact me so I could explain this all to you, but you are persistent as to air your issues with my company here on this forum. I have the contract right in front of me with your signature on it. Before we go any further with this, let's just agree that the program didn't work for you. I am sorry it didn't. I truly wish it did. Our intention is not to have dealers be unhappy with our product and bad mouth us on respected forums. We all work hard for our dealers here and average retention is 2 years. I hope some day you will try us again, with a better understanding of how we generate over 35 million visitors a month through our awesome automotive network.
All the best,
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
Robert Hildreth said:Someone is giving you bad information then....I maintain all emails that I have correspondance with. I was contacted on September 22nd 2010 about the Carsdirect opporutnity. At the time I was still rather new to the company so I said I was not ready to spend any money on 3rd party companies until I had a grasp of the people and the talent.
Justin, one of your reps began negotiations with me on the contact in December....because I was talking to several 3rd party companies the deal was made when your company offered me 60 days of free leads...How could I possibly pass that up.
Our first lead was recieved on the 31st of December 2010. Our last lead was on January 23rd 2011. We still had free time and free leads promised but I passed on it.
I realize this is your livelyhood so I am trying to be respectful....but once again...this is just ones man opinion...It did not work for us yet we are a fairly sucessful firm with a good process.
Take it for what it is worth...but where you company needs to start is taking the prices off the internet telling consumers what they should pay for the car....that only causes friction between the public and the dealer. You are supposed to be on our side....not theres.....I dont mean you cannot be an advocate but you are publishing prices that can only be hit in most cases by the dealer losing money....
Why would be pay you so you can suggest to the customers you are going to introduce us to that we should lose money. At least Zags model gives us the choice of losing money....Edmunds TMV at least allows us to be at invoice or a few hundred above or below the invoice.....I hope you see where I am coming from...and I am just pointing out a frustration felt at the dealer level.
Tony Abbott said:Thanks for your reply Robert,
You have clearly been stirring up the pot with this discussion. I did a little homework and saw that you canceled our services just over two weeks into them. Although your process sounds stellar, I don't feel you gave CarsDirect.com a fair shot. Again, I would encourage you to reach out at some point and let me resolve this issue with you. Happy Selling.
Best,
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
Robert Hildreth said:Tony, we have a system in place that generates 8 email attempts and 7 phone calls spaced over a 15 day period. That is the minimum for how the system works....I personally call a few times during that period and send 2 emails. I started off back in 2001 trying to understand the internet business. I saw the potential then and thought this was going to be a big part of how things are going to change. Since that point I have spent the last decade perfecting a follow up system that would maximize contact, allow good flow, (I.E. make sure it is reasonable how many calls and emials are expected daily), and lastly make sure the people making the calls and emails have the right mindset to do the work.
I go through every single lead....the problem with the leads we got were rather simple....there was only a few who were really interested in buying a car. Maybe not what we sold...or maybe they were not in our area and bought closer to home. But when I reviewed the leads...there was not one deal that we missed. Meaning the few who were buyers bought at another manufacturer or a like manufacturer but closer to home.
We had the opportunity to try 2 free months...and for 2 locations and 4 Internet salespeople who each individually have closing ratios over 10%....they could not close 1 deal....The notes they left me were very detailed and it was obvious the frustration each had working the deals.
I was nice in parting ways with your company...I said maybe in the future we will look at this again....BUT one very frustrating and insulting product you have that I do not like is a site that tells customers what they should pay for a vehicle. Who made your company the authority that we should sell cars for a loss?
When we did have contact with customers they threw this out at me like we were trying to rip them off....and I looked at what they were reading.....your suggested prices were deep into the holdback.....and seemed to never be in the same zip code with reality of what I could sell the vehicle for.....
It has to be said..if we consitantly close over 10% but could not even close 1 deal...it may not be us.
Tony Abbott said:Gosh Robert,
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with CarsDirect.com. How was your process? With 72 opportunities how can you not have at least one sale? I would be happy to go through each and every lead with you and find out where and what happened to these opportunities. Please contact me. I would like to address this issue with you.
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
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Permalink Reply by Robert Hildreth on
-
Tony,
I clearly understand that you sells cars online.
I also clearly understand this is who you work for.
You should realize this is not a a hit piece against your company. It was an exploration about what is working....I noticed several posts from others about your company but also about other companies. Forums are meant to be honest and share ideas. I have taken a lot of good notes from opening this discussion and I hope others who read it are able to take something from it as well. Frankly I had no interest in calling you to review leads that are 9-10 months old. I am sorry if that bothered you.
I clearly take issue with your comment. I have been selling vehicles online through both sales and sales management since 2001. I only stated it did not work for us....I also stated I did not like that your website gives pricing out yet you dont have a dealership to offer the vehicles. It puts undue pressure on those of us who have the investment in inventory that are prices are too high or we are somehow trying to trick the public.....if you only knew what your customer service rep said when I called in on my cell phone about the dealers like me.
I have more on my mind..but in the spirit of this page....I will just drop it...I am not here to have these sort of ongoing discussions so I will kindly move on and not comment further in this thread.
Tony Abbott said:
Robert,
Of course, I back my company up. Clearly you do not understand that we sell cars online; hence the name CarsDirect. We have been selling cars online for over 12 years. We partner with dealers on a wholesale side to offer these deals to our consumers. We generate so much traffic that we partner with other dealers to send them the opportunities where we do not sell directly. Justin, who is no longer with us, should have explained this to you. That is why you received calls on our pricing. I kindly asked you to contact me so I could explain this all to you, but you are persistent as to air your issues with my company here on this forum. I have the contract right in front of me with your signature on it. Before we go any further with this, let's just agree that the program didn't work for you. I am sorry it didn't. I truly wish it did. Our intention is not to have dealers be unhappy with our product and bad mouth us on respected forums. We all work hard for our dealers here and average retention is 2 years. I hope some day you will try us again, with a better understanding of how we generate over 35 million visitors a month through our awesome automotive network.
All the best,
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
Robert Hildreth said:Someone is giving you bad information then....I maintain all emails that I have correspondance with. I was contacted on September 22nd 2010 about the Carsdirect opporutnity. At the time I was still rather new to the company so I said I was not ready to spend any money on 3rd party companies until I had a grasp of the people and the talent.
Justin, one of your reps began negotiations with me on the contact in December....because I was talking to several 3rd party companies the deal was made when your company offered me 60 days of free leads...How could I possibly pass that up.
Our first lead was recieved on the 31st of December 2010. Our last lead was on January 23rd 2011. We still had free time and free leads promised but I passed on it.
I realize this is your livelyhood so I am trying to be respectful....but once again...this is just ones man opinion...It did not work for us yet we are a fairly sucessful firm with a good process.
Take it for what it is worth...but where you company needs to start is taking the prices off the internet telling consumers what they should pay for the car....that only causes friction between the public and the dealer. You are supposed to be on our side....not theres.....I dont mean you cannot be an advocate but you are publishing prices that can only be hit in most cases by the dealer losing money....
Why would be pay you so you can suggest to the customers you are going to introduce us to that we should lose money. At least Zags model gives us the choice of losing money....Edmunds TMV at least allows us to be at invoice or a few hundred above or below the invoice.....I hope you see where I am coming from...and I am just pointing out a frustration felt at the dealer level.
Tony Abbott said:Thanks for your reply Robert,
You have clearly been stirring up the pot with this discussion. I did a little homework and saw that you canceled our services just over two weeks into them. Although your process sounds stellar, I don't feel you gave CarsDirect.com a fair shot. Again, I would encourage you to reach out at some point and let me resolve this issue with you. Happy Selling.
Best,
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
Robert Hildreth said:Tony, we have a system in place that generates 8 email attempts and 7 phone calls spaced over a 15 day period. That is the minimum for how the system works....I personally call a few times during that period and send 2 emails. I started off back in 2001 trying to understand the internet business. I saw the potential then and thought this was going to be a big part of how things are going to change. Since that point I have spent the last decade perfecting a follow up system that would maximize contact, allow good flow, (I.E. make sure it is reasonable how many calls and emials are expected daily), and lastly make sure the people making the calls and emails have the right mindset to do the work.
I go through every single lead....the problem with the leads we got were rather simple....there was only a few who were really interested in buying a car. Maybe not what we sold...or maybe they were not in our area and bought closer to home. But when I reviewed the leads...there was not one deal that we missed. Meaning the few who were buyers bought at another manufacturer or a like manufacturer but closer to home.
We had the opportunity to try 2 free months...and for 2 locations and 4 Internet salespeople who each individually have closing ratios over 10%....they could not close 1 deal....The notes they left me were very detailed and it was obvious the frustration each had working the deals.
I was nice in parting ways with your company...I said maybe in the future we will look at this again....BUT one very frustrating and insulting product you have that I do not like is a site that tells customers what they should pay for a vehicle. Who made your company the authority that we should sell cars for a loss?
When we did have contact with customers they threw this out at me like we were trying to rip them off....and I looked at what they were reading.....your suggested prices were deep into the holdback.....and seemed to never be in the same zip code with reality of what I could sell the vehicle for.....
It has to be said..if we consitantly close over 10% but could not even close 1 deal...it may not be us.
Tony Abbott said:Gosh Robert,
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with CarsDirect.com. How was your process? With 72 opportunities how can you not have at least one sale? I would be happy to go through each and every lead with you and find out where and what happened to these opportunities. Please contact me. I would like to address this issue with you.
Tony Abbott
Dealer Relations
CarsDirect.com
310-280-4191
tony.abbott@carsdirect.com
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Permalink Reply by Robert Hildreth on
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We do maintain a small inventory.....we have found that if we keep the inventory at this level our turn is ridiculously high....when we had over double the inventory we did not sell anymore vehicles...so playing with it this is where we are.
I just switched to Aultec to manage the inventory and I plan on switching our inventory control company next month....
I have noticed making the change to Aultec my phones have blown up.....we had as many calls in 1 week on Cars.com then I had in the last 4 months....I will not mention the old company but wow what a difference.
Would it not be easy to just sit down with a road map that says....if you get this company you will pay this and this is what you would expect as a result...LOL...there should be such a cheat sheet guide.
One website is being changed completely while the other is being modified....and I am also changing our fleet website....there is just not enough time to do all of this...but time will have to be made to continue to help us grow.
MANNY LUNA said:Rich,
Sorry to post this, but AutobookNow.com will not do anything for him, Look at his inventory, AutobookNow did not work with Hass Toyota World, over 700 cars in stock, Legacy Ford, Autoneeds Superstore, and many more I have talked to. They still owe one of my client 1495 for charging the dealers credit card after het told them to cancel.
Nothing against you Rich, I know to much about the company you work with, The owners Danny and Ray never returned a phone call from my dealer friend.
Good luck Rich!
Rich Soviero said:My Company is Dealer Solutions LTD, and the name of the program is Autobook Now.
Robert Hildreth said:Hello Rich, the name of your company is?
Rich Soviero said:Robert,
We have a program that consistently delivers 100+ leads per month to our dealer clients,and they are closing from 9-15% These leads are generated directly from your inventory and within the radius you want to focus on. If you would like to know more please call me at 954-658-2900
-
Permalink Reply by William Bryant on
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Awesome! Yes little tweaks to the websites will definitely make some great increase in lead volume without an increase in ad spend.
And congrats on such a small move as your inventory company to increase call volume like that. We used them at the VW store and I liked their tool and service.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Johnny B Awesome on
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Ain't no party like a warehouse party, cuz a warehouse party won't stop.
This is not only a remake to a song I once heard, it is also the truth. One party in your showroom could up to 30 x your leads with QUALIFIED people.
Why, two reasons:
A) People like to party
How many songs have you heard where people actually talk about this activity. How many songs do you hear about people who "log online and try to get sold to" .... point made
2) Long-term longevity.
People who were at the first Woodstock remember (depending on drug use) being there. Your customer doesn't remember what he ate for breakfast, let alone what site he was on 3 months ago. He will remember parting at a dealership... and he'll tell people.
3rd parties are good, real parties are AWESOME!
"Why have good, when you can have Awesome"
-Johnny B Awesome
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Permalink Reply by MANNY LUNA on
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I agree Johnny! Why settle for just a good party , when you can spend less money and have a AWESOME party everyday of the week 24/7!
Johnny B Awesome said:Ain't no party like a warehouse party, cuz a warehouse party won't stop.
This is not only a remake to a song I once heard, it is also the truth. One party in your showroom could up to 30 x your leads with QUALIFIED people.
Why, two reasons:
A) People like to party
How many songs have you heard where people actually talk about this activity. How many songs do you hear about people who "log online and try to get sold to" .... point made
2) Long-term longevity.
People who were at the first Woodstock remember (depending on drug use) being there. Your customer doesn't remember what he ate for breakfast, let alone what site he was on 3 months ago. He will remember parting at a dealership... and he'll tell people.
3rd parties are good, real parties are AWESOME!
"Why have good, when you can have Awesome"
-Johnny B Awesome
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