 This statement sums up many sales managers' approach to advertising. With manufacturers pumping out more models than ever before and with customers researching their purchases more than ever before, the sales manager's ability to get customers into the showroom has become the make-it or break-it factor for many dealerships. Unfortunately, he/she has no idea how to do this effectively and, thus, has adopted an advertising style of 'more is better.
'Dealers' advertising budgets have been going up, up and away and although they have a huge presence in their market's media, it seems to be ineffective at driving customers through the door.
The fundamental problem with the more is better advertising style is that thousands of dollars are being spent that don't do anything to bring customers into the showroom. The question we've all asked ourselves for years has been which advertising is working and which is not.
First, pull out your most current five advertisements-print, radio scripts, or TV scripts. As you look at them individually, what vehicles have you advertised in each of the ads? Many dealers, trying to get as much bang for their buck in each ad, have reduced the size of the pictures and the text in an effort to get as many vehicles included in the ad as possible. From mini-vans, to SUV's, luxury cars, entry level cars and pre-owned cars, sales managers have become incredibly effective at getting as many vehicles as possible into that smallest ad.
I have to assume that the sales manager is trying to put something in each ad that will appeal to every customer in the marketplace.The problem with this style of ad is that in trying to appeal to everyone, are you successful in appealing to anyone? Does the credit-challenged customer read the Wall Street Journal? Is the customer looking for a luxury SUV going to be drawn to an advertisement that starts with thousand-dollar 'as-is' vehicles even though there is a luxury SUV somewhere in the ad? Virtually every sales manager and every dealership at one time or another, due to excessive inventory of one model, an over-abundance of used cars under $5000 or some other circumstance, was able to put together an extremely successful promotion and clear out all of those vehicles and did so in a profitable and timely manner. In fact, many dealers continue asking you to "do it again" and you wish you could do it again, but fortunately and unfortunately you only learned one thing from that last great promotion. You learned how to prevent yourself from being in that position of being overstocked in any model, or pre-owned cars, and didn't learn one of the secrets that is not so secret in the art of advertising.
By focusing your promotion/campaign on clearing out that 'problem', you, inadvertently, in fact, unlocked the key to any successful ad or promotion. If you think back, you will find that during that entire campaign/promotion/month all of your efforts were focused on clearing out that model. You wrote ads that appealed to that customer and, most likely, that customer only. You selected media that your 'problem inventory' customer reads, listens to and watches. You also did one thing, the most important thing you could have done; you didn't try to sell every model in your inventory to that one customer. Think about that for a moment. You didn't try to sell an 'as-is' vehicle to a luxury SUV customer. You can spend thousands upon thousands trying to do so, but you'll never have any success. Does putting every vehicle possible into one ad appeal to anyone? Would advertising mini-vans in a college newspaper net you any sales?
Don't try to put a square peg in a round hole and don't assume that simply because you have an ad in the media that it is being seen or heard. You have to focus your campaigns and promotions on selling your vehicles to your vehicles' customers, and when you do so, you will always have success.
Tell me about your successful campaigns and promotions!
shawn.ryder@autouniversity.com |
