Internet Sales

I keep reading a lot of articles on what is selling vehicles online. The conscenus seems to be whatever seems to work. Now of course that is the conscenus, but what really sells cars? Salespeople, sure you need the glitz to get the customer to talk to you. How do you accomplish the glitz? Smart marketing, just like your radio and tv advertising. Make the advertisement grab the customer.

Grabbing the customer does not need to be some "new" technology. Make the advertisement easy to read. The interesting thing about the articles that I just read, they were in a new format. How stinking annoying it was also. I had zoom in on the page to see it, no I am not blind! The page was made to fit the screen, but so small it was unreadable to even a gnat. So zoom in I did, then I had to scroll the page by not using the scroller on the mouse. That zoomed the page larger, by the time I had read 3 articles, I was more than annoyed.

Sounds like I get upset easy but honestly it was so annoying it was good enough to put me here on the blog writing about it. Now, for the clincher, it was a Digital Dealer Expert!! Now, I have to ask you, what in the heck is an expert doing using technology that is annoying?

Just food for thought. Couple of the articles were good. Most importantly an article on how each dealership is different and what works for one does not necessarily work other dealerships in their chain. Really good food for thought and another article, coming soon. I need to get more prolific on what sells cars here on the blog.......Tomorrow

Welcome to the Auto Hot Spot

This website is going to be devoted to all the good men and women who are working in a very tough industry. We are the ones that can help each other. You have a forum, you don't have to sign your name unless you want to. You can rant, you can teach, you can give up all of your great secrets to your success. If we all make this blog and website what we need it to be. We will ALL survive the downturn in the auto industry. Got a bank that is buying deep on secondary? Got a good mailer idea that seems to work? Have one of those follow up ideas that is working well for referrals? I have some ideas on selling vehicles online effectively. Yes, even for you old school guys that think the internet is some kind of voodoo that can't possibly sell car.

As my time frees up I am going to talk about how I sold a lot of vehicles online. The training that is out there on HOW to sell online seems like a bunch of bunk to me. Being an auto salesperson, my sales instincts just scream when some smuck that didn't sell spit, tries to tell us how to sell cars online. Why? Because they are a computer geek that can write code and get the vehicle listed, doesn't mean that they can sell one. Best Practices for selling online, sweetie, whatever sells that car. Sure, I need the great glitzy advertisement online to get the car sold. Sure, I need the placement at the top of the page so the customers can find my car. But can I really afford to spend a small FORTUNE to get those cars online?

Traditional advertising has taught the auto dealer that big bucks are required to sell cars. Does the internet sale of a car have to cost BIG BUCKS? Not in my experience. I can put your auto dealership website on page one google and KEEP it there for less than $400 on a one time shot. It isn't just me that can do it, it is a lot of sales companies. Think they are charging $400 to do it? Oh my gosh no, add it up, most dealers pay more than that a month to PURCHASE leads. The same people that would have looked at the dealer's website if it were on page one for the search engines. Sheesh, wake up!!

Who am I? Dang, I am not even sure so don't ask. I just am a little blond in the sticks that happened to sell cars and manage auto dealerships for a lot of years. Too many to my way of thinking. Now I am going to sit online and help the dealers that so need it. Course they have to want it first, then they have to find me. Hmmmmmmmm this is a new blog, Come find me please. I will do everything that I say I can to get the website as page one google by July, 2009.

If you are a dealer that needs help, or an auto salesperson who needs help. I sure hope this site will benefit you. If not, then do you really want help? After all I am old school, I could sell cars before the internet. I am asking for all the great sales ideas that are out there. I am asking for your best practices......sure I have probably heard them before. Surprise me with some really off the wall new ones. Meanwhile, I am gonna sit here and build more of the glitzy templates for your autos to sell online. Gonna write up some honest to gosh sales techniques for selling online in my spare time too.

Recently I was at a Auto Trader training to sell vehicles based on the Auto Trader website. Man dealers, no wonder Auto Trader lists the most cars but DOESN'T sell the most cars. If you are selling 12 a month on Auto Trader, then you should be selling 24 on other websites. Sorry to sound opiniated but I am. Craigslist is free...... Ebay is a ton cheaper than Auto Trader and guess what? They sell more cars off of your auto lots than ANY OTHER WEBSITES, add a few extra sites to Auto Trader's stats and you STILL AREN'T CLOSE!!

I do have to hand it to Auto Trader though, those guys have the people on the ground to talk ya right into what they offer. Gosh they even charge you a fortune for all the "help" that they give you. I am using "help" very loosely here. What do they have? A great listing of autos, where does your autos rank on page one of Auto Trader? Where does it rank on the model you have listed? Pay more, possibly it will show up page one. Pay more and maybe just maybe you will sell a car. Does it cost less than conventional advertising? Yes!! Is it an important website? Yes!! Does it actually sell the most cars? NO NO NO!!!

Sales people, you need to wake up. You sit there on your duff for most of the day. Ok, if you are a smoker, you get a bit of exercise walking outside to smoke. ( I am a smoker, so I know!) How about listing 6 vehicles on Craigslist? In your name, your time, your money if ya sell it..... right? It is FREE!! We can give you the template to use. Even make it special just for you and your cars. You are the guy on the phone selling the car, can ya do car sales on the phone?

They said for years, NOPE, we couldn't sell cars on the phone. I heard it every time I was on the phone with a customer. I heard it from Joe Verde himself!! Get those customers down to the lot instead. WRONG, we can sell cars on the phone. We do it daily. We smile and we gab and we sell cars on the phone. We were just TAUGHT that we couldn't. How good are you on the phone when it is a past customer calling to ask about replacing their vehicle? Darn good, I bet! Well this customer online just happens to have bought his last car elsewhere but he WANTS to buy THIS car from YOU! He is calling you, if you set the advertisement up right. How good are you now? I would like to help you get better at talking to those customers on the phone.

Now, I am going to stay my own sweet backwards opinionated self. Gosh, darn and duff will be my words. I may even call you by "ya". For the very reason that they are the "customers" words. Well, some of the customers, the others are professionals and then I will use YOU. I am going to keep writing and talking and helping ya all till you actually sell a few more cars than ya did last year. 2008 was the year in the auto industry best forgotten. Well, I am here to make 2009 the best auto year ever. Come along for the ride if you want. Don't have a vehicle for the ride, hold on, I am gonna sell ya one, give me your phone number!!