More Meaningful Marketing, Part 1

Let's look at typical marketing at dealerships and many other businesses. Step 1: Run an ad in the paper. Step 2: Hope for traffic. Step 3: Hope to sell something. and Step 4: Repeat the process. At least that's the way it seems to be working right now in this strange economy. Really, step 2 is intended to create traffic and step 3 to sell some of them.

If you really think about it, when it comes to transportation, the vast majority of a dealership's business is not based on need, but desire. So, when people cut back, they rein in their desire for change in their fear of change. Interesting. If need were driving the economy, it would be a very small in comparison with where it is normally. We could all cut our food budgets in half if we needed to. Buying a new car could be put off for a long time. So, this is one of the main reasons the ads don't create the traffic they used to.

Let's try some more meaningful marketing. In 1993, I read the book The One To One Future - Building Relationships One Customer At A Time by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. Basically, the book said that the time honored mass marketing rules of the past are not working well anymore and it is time to focus on your own best customers while taking your focus off of market share and onto customer share. I thought the book hit the mark squarely back in 1993 and it is still on target in my opinion--even with the addition of the Internet.

The One To One Future states: "If your company is typical, it costs you five times as much to get a single new customer as it does to keep one you already have. Moreover, most businesses lose about 25 percent of their customers annually. If you could cut just 5 percent off of that customer loss, you could add as much as 100 percent to your bottom line. Yet companies allocate six times as much to the expensive process of trying to generate new customers as they do to the less expensive process of trying to retain their current ones."

They continue: "If you see a single customer not as a one-time transaction, but as a series of transactions over time--not as an on-off switch, but as a volume dial--then you can think of the task of generating a greater share of the customer's business as maximizing an individual's lifetime value to your firm."

"In Customers For Life, car dealer Carl Sewell estimates that each of the customers that venture for the first time into one of his dealerships' showrooms represents a potential lifetime value of over $300,000. He gets to this figure simply by calculating the number of automobiles each new customer is likely to buy during the course of his or her lifetime and estimating their average price, along with the service his own dealerships can expect to deliver and charge for. It's a very common sense approach. General Motors' vice president for consumer development, after accounting not just for cars purchased and service rendered, but also for income from auto loan financing, figures that a loyal customer is worth $400,000 over a lifetime."

What is missing from the desired marketing results that many businesses are having today is that they are focused on the new customer and spending almost all their resources trying to increase the number of new customers when they could be achieving much greater returns by focusing on building on the client base they already have. Yet most, have no system for doing that and spend little or none of their resources in this area.

Think about what was said earlier in the book quote, ". . . most businesses lose about 25 percent of their customers annually." If a business is spending almost all its resources trying to get new business with little thought to the clients they already have, and they are losing 25 percent per year of those new customers (I think it is much higher than 25%), that is a problem in good times, but when a business downturn hits, it can be devastating--even fatal. This is one of the main reasons for many business closings in this economy in my opinion. If you're always focused on the new customer and now there are less than 50% of those over a period of time, it doesn't take long for the losses to mount up.

Although changing to this one to one kind of marketing focus is not a quick fix--it takes time--it is never too late to get going on it. You could read both of these books this week and that will help a good deal to get a different perspective. Tomorrow, I'll delve into more that can be done.

The Planter Story

Over the 25 years I was in the car business, I've worked with a few good salespeople. I was just thinking about this one salesman on my staff when I was a young sales manager. His name was Dennis. He was hilarious and bold and good. He had such a way to make people laugh and feel more at ease, while at the same time, giving them some less than exciting news. I heard a lot of it because my office door was just a few feet away from his. My favorite is the planter story.

Dennis would have this couple--typically and older couple trading in an older car that didn't have much market value left in it. He would set them down in his office and go get an appraisal on their car. When he came back, he would walk into his office just laughing and he would tell them, "folks, I think the best thing we can do with your trade-in is to turn it upside down and make a planter out of it." I know full well that if I tried saying that, those customers would be out of there in 5 seconds flat, but not with Dennis. It was his laugh, his light-hearted attitude about it, I don't know what, but they would soon start laughing themselves and pretty soon he was delivering the new car to them and they were all having a great time.

It's funny even today to me. I can still hear his voice, his demeanor. I can hear the initial shock in the customers reaction, then I hear them all laughing. It was magical. Talk about taking a lemon and making lemonade! When Dennis was in a good mood which was a good part of the time, he was just hard to beat. He just had a way of lifting my spirits with those silly lines. Thanks Dennis!

Lack of Permission Marketing

Asking permission is a sure way to get nowhere. You might as well wish and hope. My best advice is always: Just Do It! I mean to do it with thought and a plan, but do it. You've probably heard the phrase, "I would rather ask forgiveness than permission." It's great advice from my own experience. Everything that I have really been successful with came from that mindset. The interesting part is that I rarely ever needed to apologize and neither will you.

The world is crying for leaders in every endeavor. Step out and just do it.

Thank You and I Do Apologize

Thank you for reading these blog posts. I do enjoy writing them. I apologize for the post I wrote yesterday about the tickometer. It was cute, but contrived. It was true, but unnecessary. Those of you who got it via email, I apologize. I deleted it.

Sometimes I hit the mark. It's a good feeling. I sometimes feel that I express my thoughts on the topic particularly well and it does feel good. I'm happy to publish it. Then, sometimes, I miss the mark badly. I don't want to, but if I'm not paying attention, it can slip through. You deserve the best that I can do and that is certainly my aim. It's just that sometimes I get caught up in putting a number on the board and keeping up with my goals. I get focused on the wrong thing. My ultimate aim is to share knowledge and instruct, and I really want to inspire. I would love to inspire you to change or take action or just think about something. I also inspire myself by writing this because it causes me to think. Have you ever heard that phrase that the way to really learn a thing is to teach it? It is true. I'm happy to have been teaching it for a long time now, yet there is so much more to learn!

If I miss the mark badly again, just drop me an email and let me know, or leave a comment here. I'll take note and pay attention. At the same time, if I hit the mark really well, it would be nice to hear that too. Some of you do that and I very much appreciate it. Feedback is good. It will keep me on my toes and focused where I really want to be--doing my best.

Thank you for reading and allowing me to share. The experience is grand. I'll give you the best I've got to give.

Change

Change is the opportunity to. Embrace it. The best is yet to come.

Outside Sales Isn't An Inside Job

The whole idea of outside sales is to bring in business that probably would not have come in any other way. Specifically, it is about building relationships. In building relationships, it is a requirement to become more familiar with each other and each others businesses. Frankly, that is the really fun part. Once a salesperson is at that level with a prospect, it is really easy for them. The harder part is making a decision to get out of the chair, then finding someone to talk to, and last to start building a relationship. It can all be fun, if you choose to see it that way.

Owners and senior managers: Help create more success with your outside sales team. One of the best ways to do this is to give the outside salesperson a reasonable budget for food. I would suggest starting with $500 and see how that works. Just cut that much out of your other advertising and you won't be spending any more than you are now. There is no better thing that your outside salesperson can do to build relationships than to get the prospect away from their business for a while and no better excuse than to have breakfast, lunch, dinner, or just go to get some coffee somewhere. Don't reimburse them, give them the money. If you don't trust them with it, you hired the wrong person. Replenish the fund as needed so they can continue uninterrupted. You can also issue a company credit card if you prefer. Treat all of this as part of your advertising budget because that's exactly what it is.

If both of you golf, that is a great way to get them away and even better because of the amount of time you get to spend with them. Perhaps there are other interests that will encourage a relationship. Perhaps, you both like hunting or fishing, going to certain concerts, auto racing events, tractor pulls, you name it. Maybe it is something that gets the prospects spouse involved. The more the relationship develops, the better. I know a number of companies that have golf country club memberships for this very reason, and, of course, that does make it a business expense.

Direct and guide your staff to do the best things to get more business: get out of the office and go talk with someone. Give them the tools they need to make that be effective. Pay attention to the results and make sure and get complete reports of contacts, developments, etc. Don't let it run on autopilot. You're the leader, so lead them by helping them to succeed with encouragement, support, positive motivation and follow up.

Daily Thought Starters

I love the Internet. What an awesome invention. To have so much information available so easily is just fantastic. Blogs are a great source of regular information of value. I subscribe to several and prefer to subscribe via email so I can have them land in my inbox and I can look at them at my convenience. You can subscribe to this blog the same way.

My favorite blog (so far) is from Seth Godin, who has written a large number of great little books such as Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable, Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Freinds Into Customers, and many others. His latest book is, Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us. You can get the new Tribes book for free at Audible.com after registering at no charge.

Try registering to get his blog via email for a while. I think you might become a regular too!

The 50/50 Poster

I took a full page ad out of the Wall Street Journal a little over a year ago and have had it on my wall ever since. It is an ad from Accenture. They retain Tiger Woods for many of their ads and I just love all of them. I've gone to their website and have seen all the Tiger Woods ads, but this one stands out above all the rest for me. I call it the 50/50 poster, but they call it Attitude/Aptitude. It shows Tiger in a winning stance like he just made a 50' putt and it says 50% Attitude and 50% Aptitude.

The poster reminds me that I have aptitude, but what I always need to be reminded of is to have that winning 50% attitude--to take my skills and move with confidence through the world. I know what it is like to have the aptitude without the attitude and I tell you it is nowhere. I get to look at this poster many times during the day and it is a wonderful reminder and motivator. Don't we all need some little reminders like that?

Sometimes It Is Hard To Believe

Opportunity. It is everywhere, all of the time. Yet, with how people talk much of the time, you would think that opportunity has vanished from the planet, or that when times are really good there is opportunity, but when the economy slows down the opportunities slow down with it. Wrong. It's not logical--it's inventive--because the way you are able to see opportunities is to think in a different way.

Many people I've met (including myself many years ago) feel that opportunities wane with economic downward trends. Perhaps you see people being laid off, businesses going out of business, houses not selling, whatever. It would be easy to think that there are fewer opportunities when you look at those effects. Take the automobile business right now. Talk to anyone you like on the dealer level and almost all of them will be telling you how much fewer the opportunities are now compared to a year ago. So, with all of this, here is my first point:

• Fewer sales, less business, fewer businesses, tighter credit, dire news reports, fearful workers or fearful consumers does not mean that there are fewer opportunities. Those things are effects of stimuli and have nothing whatsoever to do with opportunities being there or not being there.

Some would say that I am out of my mind, over the edge, stuck in positive thinking la-la land and generally misdirected and out of touch with reality. Oh, I do love that last one. It is the one I hear the most: Out of touch with reality. Yes, I am. Thank goodness.

When I was a child, I used to hear things like, in every cloud, there is a silver lining. I didn't understand it, but that has led me to, with every negative, there is a positive. It is never all bad, nor all good. In the best of economic times, the newspaper still focuses on what could go wrong and other newspaper selling predictions--just go look at past issues front pages during great times. But this is not normal right now and what a world it would be if it were! What is normal is fear. Normal is reality to most, but even with that, the opportunities are everywhere. It is all in how you choose to look at it.

A dealership goes out of business and closes its doors. Is there any opportunities there? They are endless. If you can't see them, ask it in a different way: If there could be an opportunity from this event, what might one be? Then, you'll just be playing a game and its okay to step outside of reality to play a game. Here's some thoughts of what could be an opportunity from this kind of event:

• This makes more business for the other dealerships in the region.
• There might have been several employees there who didn't really like their job much, and now they have the opportunity to find one they do like. (Kind of a forced awakening. It requires courage to stop what you are doing and try something else. Now is an opportunity to do that with less courage since it is being partially done for you.)
• An ex-employee decides to start their own business. (Businesses are started at every different kind of economic time, including depressions. Economic times do not predict success or failure of an enterprise.)
• For the owners, there may be lessons learned from this experience that will have them be stronger, more focused and more successful in the next. (Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame failed countless times prior to succeeding with KFC and that also required him to bring in help).
• Many may get into a more lucrative or interesting type of business. (I left the car business for the body business and it was a huge and wonderful change. I stopped going to work at a place every day and worked out of my home. It was a very positive change.)

These are just a few of the opportunities and you could come up with a lot more by just letting your mind flow on that idea for a while. So, that leads me to the next and final point:

• Limited thinking will keep you limited no matter the economic times. Expanded thinking will always give you more opportunities no matter the economic times. Once you start thinking in possibilities and opportunities, you will begin to see more of them. As you see more of them, you will see even more of them. It is that simple. Open your mind to the possibility of seeing opportunity and you will see it. Open it further and you will see more. You get to choose how you want to look at events and circumstances.

Start today in seeing opportunities. You can be really safe at first and keep your job and just look at what the opportunities might be for other people who are in a position of change. As you read that the big store at the mall is closing, think of what the opportunities might be surrounding this event. Play with it, practice it and when change comes, you will know how to look at it: There are endless opportunities all of the time.

Managers Think They Manage Results

It took me a lot of years as a sales manager to realize and accept the fact that I really couldn't manage results. As much as I liked the idea of managing results, I had to let it go. It was a turning point. But, though I could not manage results, I could manage activities, and if I could be effective at managing the right kind of activities, the results would come along for the ride. When I finally got that, my whole focus as a manager changed to one of directing activities and my managerial life improved dramatically.

Some people might confuse this with micro-managing. This is generally a negative term that indicates someone who has their nose in every little move and is mainly a nuisance. It creates ill will and fear. Though I am speaking of managing activities, I don't need to be spying and eavesdropping as micro-managers do, in order to manage effectively.

If I am managing a sales staff, I want to make a plan of what we need to do to achieve sales. What are the individual tasks toward that end? So, as I think about that, I know that we need to talk to people and we prefer to talk to people who might be buyers for our products. We need to design a method of recording what was discussed, knowing that most will not buy today, so we will want to continue to follow up with them and hopefully secure a sale when they are ready. We need to encourage people to experience our product and to become familiar with our services. We need to be able to secure financing and we need to be able to negotiate the nuances of each deal. We also need to be of service to them after the sale and we need to encourage them to refer their friends and associates from their satisfied experience. The cycle of the sale from start to finish can be immediate and it can be many months or even longer, so I have to have a plan to manage all of the contacts in such a way as we maximize every opportunity in a timely manner. And one more very important thing: we need to have a good time doing all of this. It needs to feel good, or it will be a huge volume of work.

Well, there's a task! Or, I should say multi-tasking. Of course, I could lean against the wall as one of my sales manager's used to do and when I would walk by, he would say, "Sell 'em!" That was one of the shortest motivational speeches I ever heard. I experienced a number of managers who had no real understanding of the management task as outlined above. They saw it differently: Stand on the point, rush to the customer, land 'em on a car, demo 'em, get them to commit to anything, sit them down in your office and write it up. We'll take it from there. Shades of the '60's in today's world. And, when there is a plethora of customers to talk to every day, this plan has the unfortunate benefit of working--sad, though it may be. A dying breed I pray.

Back to really managing. My job as a good sales manager then, is to develop a plan of how to achieve the tasks I listed above and if that is executed well and consistently, I would feel assured of achieving the results I am after in the end. If I have no real plan and try to manage this inconsistently, I would expect to be having dramatically different results. So, if I am going to really manage results, I must effectively and consistently manage quality activities designed to achieve our overall objective of making sales. This is also my full value as a sales manager and it will also create better salespeople in the process.

Bring Service Business Back To the Dealership

I get my oil changed in my two vehicles about every 5,000 miles in round numbers. Though the service centers always advise 3,000, I think that 5,000 is just fine and reasonable. I take it to my favorite place where I am in and out in about 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes without an appointment. I take some work with me so I can make my stay in the waiting lounge more productive and interesting. I almost always do it on a Saturday morning because that is the most convenient for me and my schedule. Once in a while I will do it during the week if I can, but it is rare.

Since I have owned both vehicles, they have had oil changed at a dealership twice at one dealer and once at another in 180,000 miles. So out of about 37 oil changes, the dealer got three. The dealer who got two is two hours away from my house. It was just really convenient at the time since I was consulting with this dealer and would be there half a day and the timing was just right.

How could the dealer get me in for the other 34 oil changes? How can you get a customer like me back into the dealership for routine maintenance? Here's some ideas:

• You could follow up with me more effectively since the sale. Suffice it to say, that it is rare for a dealership to do much of any follow up with customers. They are so busy with all those new ones.
• Time is important to me. I get my oil changes on Saturday and many dealership service departments are a Monday through Friday business 8am to 5pm.
• Time is important to me. I like appointments very much and am eager to keep them, but for an oil change I want to be in and out in 30 minutes. I think that is very reasonable with an appointment. Without an appointment, I may have to wait a bit longer, but it shouldn't be too much longer. Where I go, this is not really a problem, but it is not a dealer.
• Price. I'm not focused on price, but I do know what the competition sells oil changes for. I want to be fair and reasonable. I think in today's market that $29.95 is all the money for a lube, oil, filter on the average gas car or truck. Quick Lube places are many times under $20. I'm willing to pay a little more, but not $45 and then want to come back for more. Specially trained and certified means nothing to me for an oil change.
• Reminder sticker on the windshield. They used to put them on the door jambs years ago, but those clear reminder stickers they put in the top corner of the windshield are the greatest thing. I can look anytime I want and see where I am in relation to the next oil change. Helps me immensely. Just make sure and use a pen that can be read in two months. I rely on those stickers now. What a cool idea.
• Have a clean and nice waiting area. This is the only thing I don't like about the place I go for my oil changes. They have a waiting area, but the chairs are filthy and they are very old. They just don't spend money on this kind of thing and never have. Considering everything else is pretty positive and has been for many years, I live with that. It's a little tacky, but not intolerable.
• Remember me. What I like most about where I go is they treat me like a special customer, which I am. They know me by name and treat me very nice. I like that more than I can say. Of all the points I am making here, this one is the number one reason I continue to go back to this place after 15+ years. I am somebody important to them. They even give me special discounts or sometimes fix a tire with a nail in it free and things like that. They are being of service and being friendly.
• Let me know of other things that need attention and don't give me any BS about it. If I need it now, tell me. If I need it soon, tell me that. One dealer I went to had a really low price for oil change, but the up selling was tiring and over the line. Go maximize your Repair Order Averages on someone else. Be of genuine service to me as if I were your brother. Dealers have been sold a bill of goods on this up sell thing. A little of that is good, a lot of it kills the deal for good. Be honest with me. Very few know I was a journeyman auto mechanic, so I know a few things about cars. You never know what experience the person you are talking to has. Keep it straight.

Well, there it is. You want more business coming back to the dealership? This stuff will work with me and I am sure that I am not alone.

Spending the Same Money Differently To Make More Money

I was talking with a salesman at a local dealership that I have known for a long time. He told me that sales are way off and in fact, the worst he has seen in over 20 years. As I am listening, I am in the showroom and I am looking around. He's right, I think--there's no customers in the showroom, just salesmen looking out the window. I am introduced to the sales manager and he is in his office looking at the computer. I see the finance manager sitting at this desk looking at his computer. We go have lunch and come back an hour later and it is the same.

I came back for another reason several days later in the afternoon and said hi to the sales manager and asked how they were doing today. He said they have yet to see their first customer. It is 2pm.

The weekend comes and I decide (very rare) to look at the newspaper. I see a full color, full page ad for this dealership on Friday, another Saturday, and another on Sunday. I'm thinking. . . do they really think this is still working? Did it ever work well? I was in the car business for 25 years and I don't remember it working well. Some may say it did, but is it now? I think that they just think that's what they are supposed to do. In my 25 years, the ads were never tracked, so who would know what works?

The ad has lots of vehicles and prices--a lot of big SUV's and expensive metal, along with a much larger selection of pre-owned vehicles. I see the other ads in there do the same. Is it working? This ad has a box that says 0% is back, and of the 40 vehicles in this ad, one of them has a payment. Tell me that makes sense to you. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Few pay cash, so price is not the main issue of interest. So, I would think that this is a large amount of cash to spend on full page ads to try and make some money with give away prices.

This kind of mass market advertising has seen better days. Even if a few people responded to it, it would be a challenge to have it be a profit. Maybe I'm wrong about all this, but I think there is a better way--especially with the climate when the first customer has not even come in at 2pm. Let's explore some ideas.

That one full page, full color ad cost over $1,000, so over the weekend, I'm sure there was $3,000+ spent just for these three days. Here's some ideas of where to better spend that money and really get some results and be proactively building your business at the same time:

• Hire a new salesperson. That will take care of one week's worth of advertising. You previously cut back, but now you need at least one more.
• Get a database going of customers of the salespeople you have and hire someone to manage it full time. Don't ever let the salespeople manage it because it will be far too valuable. If you don't already have the database, pull out the deals from the last few years and get that information put into the database program quickly.
• Buy some small give away trinkets like post note pads with the dealership name, letter openers and other small items to leave behind. This will cost about $1500 or so and last a few months.
• Get the salespeople to contact their key clients and centers of influence and make appointments to go visit them. Give them a company credit card or cash to go take those clients to eat. Make sure that they have breakfast with one and lunch with another and maybe even play golf with another. Get them out there talking with clients and the best way to do that is while breaking bread together or having a little break on the course. (I learned this in the body business. For ten years I worked calling on dealers and the best money we ever spent was breakfast and lunch. Most the the best sales were made at one of those. At one lunch appointment I sold 110 units to one client. Still a record, I'm sure.)
• Set this up as a prospecting system so that you have coverage at the store, but most of the salespeople are out and about and spending your advertising money by actually talking with clients and potential clients and building relationships.
• As you start seeing new sales being made, do not let them stay in the dealership. Get them back out there after making some new appointments.
• Another way to break bread with them in a great way if you can't get the main person to go out is to bring pizza or sandwiches in and feed their crew. This creates some great interaction with many more potential clients. While they are eating you have a captive audience to make a few quick points and maybe hand out a nice flyer or something.
• Another way is in between meals, drop by a business and leave off some inexpensive give away gifts with the dealership name on it. The post note note pads are great ones.
• Make sure the person hired to manage the database is updating all the new information generated. The best way to do this is to have a paper form that the salesperson fills in.

Now your sales manager has something to manage. Your database will have some meaning and constant use. Get the finance manager involved. He can do some classes on finances offsite. Pay your salespeople to do your advertising. You'll be spending the same amount, but you'll have healthier salespeople by taking care of their needs (give them a salary--yes, the s-word, or a guarantee or something to demonstrate that you are wanting their valuable assistance to rebuild your business and you will be relieving worry and keeping them busy doing fun things while they are making business happen. Of course it will be somewhat more of a challenge to manage this kind of sales program, and, yes, this does require courage and tenacity. You will have to think way outside of the box (really not that far). Yet this will work and you can take charge instead of waiting and hoping. When the demand outstrips the supply again sometime in the future, you can easily go back to the old way. But, you might find that the old way is no longer a good way. . . It could happen.

Keep A Lookout On Your Outlook!

I saw $2.99 gas today in Northern California. It's been quite a while since that number has been seen. That's good news.

There's not so many new homes going in as there was, but the commercial buildings are going strong! I see construction going on all over in that arena. Some very large projects too.

I see new shopping centers still going in. Another new Starbucks just opened in Fairfield. Some new restaurants opening too.

24-Hour Fitness seems very busy no matter what time I go in there, although they must have slow times too. There's lots of people working on staying fit.

Niche market businesses seem to do well no matter what because there are so few who specialize in what they do. Their businesses are growing.

There's a lot going on. There is business being done. I read that the US car market is down to 13 million per year. Only 13 million new cars. Of course that doesn't count used cars, commercial trucks, etc. There are plenty of countries that would love to have an economy performing at that level.

I'm at the place where I just love hearing dire predictions. They sound so stupid and funny. If it was to be as bad as some complain, we are all going to be out of work, living on the street, begging for a quarter. Instead of the glass half full, or half empty, this one is bone dry--hell, it's not even a glass anymore, it's a tin cup. People, you have to laugh at that stuff. Nothing is ever all bad. Let's get a better outlook.

What's good about this? Make a list. If you are having trouble, ask it a different way: If there could be something good about this, what might it be? I'll get you started.

• This is causing me to look at my goals and to finally set some goals and think about how I want things to be. I'm tired of rolling with the tide of human affairs, I want to learn how to focus and create what I want.
• This is causing me to look at how I run my "business." I am realizing now that I am really in business for myself, though I hang my license at this location. I get this office space and all this inventory with zero investment. How cool is that? I really can learn to control more of what I do in my business.
• I am going to start thinking and planning some new services, like a real follow up system so that I can stay in touch in various ways with my clients as well as prospects.
• I'm going to start keeping records of how many people I talk to on a daily basis and what the results are so that I can see what is working and what is not working more efficiently.
• I'm going to start being more active in my business by going out and visiting some key clients at their place of business. I want to see their operations and see if there might be some new ways of being of service to them. They probably have employees that might like my brand of service as well. They probably have suppliers who I can be introduced to. If nothing else, I can develop better relationships with these key clients.
• I'm going to start sending out 25 mail pieces a day to my mailing list. Every 100 mailers will contain a different offer so that I can see what kinds of things might work better than others. I will be consistent with this.
• I will make more phone calls and log how many I make so I can see how those efforts are paying off in the long term.
• I will find ways to go to where people are if they aren't coming in to the dealership. There's nothing quite like driving a brand new car or truck, so I'll offer some demo drives and create some excitement. I'll have some displays and show off my products.
• I know gas is coming down again, but it can just as easily go back up, so I am going to stock more gas rigs than before and I am going to find some smaller or more efficient units that can do a similar job that the bigger diesel truck was doing before. This should increase my market and will give me new items to show off.

That's a good start. I'll let you work on moving that list to 25 or 30 more ideas. Your outlook is looking good.

TIPS - To Insure Prompt Sales by Chuck Bauer

If you have trouble watching this video, here is another link: TIPS

Sales Mileage from Holiday Cards by Chuck Bauer

If you have trouble watching the video, here is a link: Holiday Card Advice