 In reality, thousands of dealerships each year have done this very thing. Like so many of us in the auto industry, we started in the business washing cars and due to an increase in sales at one point, or a lack of salespeople, and a desperate sales manager at that time, we were given the opportunity to sell cars. Lo and behold, we turned out to be pretty good salespeople. We continued to work hard and spend lots of hours at the dealership, and we were recognized for our "dedication" and "loyalty" and then one day we were promoted to sales manager. Our fellow salespeople were extremely congratulatory as "one of their own" had become the boss and things would be better now! He would know what to do; he was on the floor with us. Things are going to change for the better!
We certainly didn't realize how much was involved in being the sales manager beforehand. There sure is a lot of paperwork, the manufacturer sends memos, home office letters every day, the Comptroller is forever asking me to check vehicle receivables, I have to get this week's vehicle allocations done for my DSM, what do I need to order? The dealer wants his report on vehicle gross, I have three trades out there to appraise, the salespeople are wondering which vehicle works out best utilizing the new month's programs, I have to ensure those trades from yesterday get into the Service Department for reconditioning, I need to sign off the deals from last week for Accounting to post the commissions, there are two sales staff waiting for me to pencil deals for them, the receptionist is asking if anyone from the afternoon shift is coming in early, the service manager needs to see me as he has a customer in the drive with a problem that is really a "sales issue" and, oh yeah, I have four messages to phone the rep from the radio station and the rep from the paper. I was supposed to have given them ads for tomorrow. I'll get to that later.
Sound familiar? I know it does!
So what do most sales managers ultimately do when it comes to advertising? Unfortunately, we do exactly what the previous manager did before we took over the responsibility. In fact, the succession of sales managers prior to our promotion to the position all did exactly the same thing. So when we look at our advertising, what are we really looking at? We are looking at the same style of ad that we looked at in the 1950's. We look at our competitor's advertising; it looks similar to ours, so it must be the "way" it is done, right? Wrong! It only looks similar because every other sales manager in town got their position the same way you did and have done the same thing you've done. What appealed to customers in 1950 should appeal to the customer of 2007 right? Then why are we running the same ads? When you consider that we were once the "kid in the wash bay," and have had no training on advertising since, how could we possibly know what we are supposed to do? We know we can negotiate a great deal with the media, but in our zest to negotiate the deal, we forget to consider the most important component of any advertisement: "CREATIVITY." No matter how great of a deal you negotiated for advertising space, or the number of "spots" you are getting for your money, none of your advertising dollars will be effectively spent unless you have good "Creativity." Here are a few things to consider before running your ad or your spot:
- What do you hope to accomplish with this ad or campaign?
Do you want a customer in front of you wondering where the $99-per-month-with-zero-down vehicle is OR do you want several customers in front of you because your dealership is the one they visited first and they're not really sure why?
- Who do you want to reach with this ad or campaign?
You can spend millions of dollars advertising mini-vans to college and university grads. Is this who you want to reach with this product?
- What type of ad and what advertising medium is your money best spent to reach the people you want to reach?
Many of us create ads that appeal to ourselves, that we would react to. Are we the same person as the customer we want to reach?
Are you even QUALIFIED to answer these questions?
Know yourself well enough to know when and what you don't know! Utilize the resources that are available to you FREE of charge. Your manufacturer has given you the demographics of your customers, in many cases, by model and by trim level. Your radio stations, television stations and newspapers have entire "creative departments" in which they've been trained to "reach" certain demographic groups with their advertising and there is rarely, if ever, a charge to use these departments. Lastly, be open to less-conventional advertising mediums. The newspaper, the radio and TV are not the only mediums you can advertise in. Don't be afraid to step into a realm of advertising that you've never done before; there just might be great success there! |
