I have one simple question for you:

What were your personal advertising expenses last month?

I know you're asking yourself, 'My personal advertising expenses?' I didn't have any, it’s not my responsibility to advertise, the dealership does it. Indeed, the dealership spends thousands and thousands of dollars every single month to drive traffic to the dealership, but ask yourself another question, 'How many of those people who came into the dealership from an advertisement arrived asking for you specifically?' That's right - None!

You see, the dealership's advertising is not specifically designed to drive customers to any one salesperson; it is simply to drive customers into the dealership period. If there are 10 salespeople on your showroom floor, the most ups you can expect to get from these advertisements is 1 in 10; if you've got skates on, maybe 2 or 3 out of ten.

We know that only 15-18% of first-time walk-in customers will close, yet most salespeople come in each day and wait for his or her "customer". A truly professional salesperson has already determined that one cannot live on floor traffic alone and most have sought other methods of bringing customers directly to them. One way of doing just that is by advertising yourself personally. I'm not talking about taking out a full page ad in USA Today or the LA Times. I'm talking about advertising in everyday local community-based papers that your customer base reads.

A good example is the local High School Yearbook.  The students who produce the yearbook are always looking for patrons and will give you a page of advertising for a few hundred dollars. Of course making up some flyers and paying the paperboy an additional $20 to deliver them with the papers he/she is delivering has always been an inexpensive and minor source for advertising. There are also several small not-so-mainstream community newspapers that are always in need of advertisers. By taking some time to research and make a deal (you know how to do that right?) with some of these small publications, you can personally advertise yourself, driving traffic directly to you. Universities and colleges often have their own radio stations and a few hundred dollars from you can ensure a big presence to the university grads (gee, do we have a program for them?) who listen.

There are the small locally based television producers who produce local cable shows like 'Fishin' with George' or something along those lines.  They need sponsors as do local car racing groups,  local baseball teams, etc.  All of these are relatively small expenditures when compared to ONE full page ad in most of the nation’s newspapers.

Granted, there won’t be a lot of customers coming in, but how many vehicles do you need to sell to justify a one-hundred-dollar expense? As time goes on, and your success grows along with your income, you can make the decision, slowly if need be, to move your personal advertising into more mainstream media.

If you've got any other ideas, please let me know, and if you want some help, by all means, contact me!

david.cameron@autouniversity.com

Good luck and Good Selling!