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The Year 2012 In Review? (What's An Automotive Industry Nutshell?)

(Warning, 1000 words below!)

OK, who's got their 2013 game face on? Nobody? Good, let's make things difficult!!! 2012 was one heck of a year: consumer demand is still up and growing for cars (although demand still outstrips what sold), mobile use is skyrocketing (albeit not remotely matched by dealers providing strong solutions), digital demand is still growing at a breakneck pace (while use of traditional media by dealerships is up), vehicle technology, especially in-car, is amazing and overwhelming (while we still can't truly get a MPG sticker correct without driving like we're dying) and quality is better than even with IQS improving (hand-in-hand with more "media" coverage of massive recalls). Yup, 2012 was quite the year...

So ask a car dealership what they're doing and about 16,500 answers will flutter around "more _________ and less ________ while focusing on our key strengths in _____________". And that, by the way, will be the answer around January 5-15th because, unlike other industries that revolve around retail, we seem to be focused on a date non later than January 5 to close the year. Newsflash: 2012 is done. Make more calls, send more emails, offer more dealer cash/rebates/incentives/consumer cash/financing discounts and leases and you're still not going to sell more. Hello?!?! The "Oh, we pulled 10 more from our competitor" crap doesn't fly. You'll sell what was essentially already in the hopper and be happy with it.

Over the last twelve months we saw highs and lows in the automotive industry, mostly driven by International factors like economy, emerging markets, regulation, partnership and bankruptcy. As a matter of fact, we are more tied than ever to what happens in Europe and Asia, even considering how insular as we tend to be. Whether or not we get to see a new Cadillac in the States depends more on what happens in Germany than ever while BMW's success likely depends on what happens in South Carolina. 2012 saw the continued demise of storied as well as soft brands everywhere.

In the passing of this last year, it's important to reflect on how we actually invited people into showrooms while not making it any more enjoyable (except for the new showrooms which mostly made the factory happy while getting better looking floor tiles and slightly better tasting coffee to customers and some of those neat kids' play rooms we desperately needed). We switched website CMSs, dealership CRMs, DMSs, SMSs and POPs but did satisfaction with dealerships actually go up as much as 2012 IQS? Jaguar is still tops (well, 2nd behind Lexus for 2012 models) on the list and they can't seem to sell the damn cats...

What did 2012 deliver to your business? If you've not asked your customers more than your factory reps, your salespeople and your accountant, you will miss the boat by a larger gap in 2013. Yes, you will continue to sell cars next year and maybe, fortunately more again, but where does that stop based on solely looking back or not at all?

Where your concentration needs to be, right now, is around March 2013 because your next 6-8 weeks are already figured out for the most part. No matter how many "cycles" we have, after 100 years of automobile sales most think that there is some magic to the last few weeks of the year. Bullhooey.

If you want to succeed starting next Tuesday, there is no other way to do it than be steadfast in every aspect of your staff, processes, facility and follow through. Your greatest efforts need to be put into place around the touch points (hint: it's not the cars!). Those are showroom (real and virtual) and people. Nothing else matters without those. We are asked regularly how to "jumpstart" sales to the effect that many talk about in the industry. If you've not been bombarded by spam marketing and videos, it usually sounds like "100 to 500 cars overnight with our processes" and "our sales events will have people driving in from everywhere" and don't forget "our websites will optimize so well (or drive leads so easily), no other dealer will be able to touch your numbers, you'll dominate and just have to deliver cars". Rat dung!

Get the best assets in your business today that understand how everyday people use technology and expect to be communicated with. If that means more green peas, then do it! Training?!?! Tearing down your salespeople to build them back up means you have the wrong people and wrong processes! It's not "that Internet thing" any more than your cars are "those things that have engines and tires". It's time to grow up and look forward. If you 15-pounder 15% of your customers, expect 50%+ of your reviews to scream you suck.

If you want to look at things in a nutshell, read another whitepaper about how great a solution is (6- to 12-months after it's relevant while you signed up to get marketed like mad by the same company) and look backward. Our industry is depending on people who look forward with only what's needed about past performance as indicators, nothing else. Improve incrementally prior to making the huge, sweeping changes like we hear about so much and maybe, just maybe, you'll see about 3-4 months that the big stuff is not so big after all because you were able to move the needle consistently. Overnight success is a short-term facade over impending disaster. Count on it.

2013 can be great for many, even amongst the raising concerns about economic and other pressures. The best always raise to the occasion, it's just that it needs to be done in newer ways more consistently. And remember to make changes with anything that you do by benchmarking and recording first because so many will pull the wool over your eyes and scream "we did it for you!". We see it every day. There are some great dealership partners out there. Remember that opportunity is missed by most because it comes dressed in overalls. It's work and most of the time it's slow.

So relish in the success you've had in 2012, you deserve it! At the same time try not to look back all that much. It will take longer to catch up than you realize. The automotive world moves at the speed of retail. That is the only truth. So stop slowing yourself down more than needed.

Much success in 2012 and thanks for continuing to read...

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

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IM@CS Gary May Interviewed By Automotive Digest At #DSES

Chuck Parker and the Automotive Digest team were at DrivingSales Executive Summit and J.D. Power & Associates Automotive Marketing Roundtable October 21-25 interviewing top executives and industry leaders. This is part of my interview, focusing on how mobile is affecting change in the automotive indsutry.

Luke Wroblewski spoke to the DSES crowd about the impact of mobile, however the industry is still lagging behind consumer trends and usage plus analytics and mobile-ready content. This is a huge opportunity for dealerships...

 

 

Gary May Participates in Automotive Digest Executive Discussion Round Table

Chuck Parker of Automotive Information Network (Automotive Digest) invited Gary May of IM@CS to join a "state of the indsutry" chat along with Allan Cooper of Cooper Media Group and Charlie Vogelheim of ResponseLogix on January 20, 2012 in Los Angeles. This is the first of a series of roundtables that Automotive Digest in planning on having with industry executives.

We appreicate the opportunity to join the discussion and thank Chuck and AIN for the inclusion!

Automotive Digest Executive Discussion Round Table from Automotive Digest on Vimeo.

NADA Time: Start Operating Your Business As Yours Or Someone Else Will

More often than not, businesses are left to turning part (or all) of their operation over to vendors and partners with the reasoning that they're not able to "do everything". In automotive retail the de facto excuse you hear usually has something to do with how selling cars is what gets done and nothing else matters. Well, it's 2012 and everything has to do with selling cars.

News flash: It always has been so.

More likely than not, as we're upon the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) season, hundreds if not thousands of dealers will leave with contracts signed, or nearly signed, convinced that simply punting their responsibilities over the wall is the best way to get 'er done. Fact is nothing is further from the truth.

Dealers must grasp a much more realistic perspective of controlling their business through action, education and accountability or they will absolutely have it taken over. And nobody is saying that's a bad thing, in the event that a business has no desire to be "in" business. While a $6M dealership may not scale, invest, market or operate like a Fortune 100 business, but there is not a single reason why it can't approach and plan business in the same way or using the similar methodology.

A few things to keep in mind as we go into the NADA conference this coming weekend.

1. Assess your dealership's needs and gain consensus from your employees on what to return from the conference with
2. Plan 90% of your schedule via expo and workshop schedules, focusing on must-have meetings
3. Schedule meetings with critical existing and vendors and check out their competition
4. Talk to as many dealers as you can outside of your 20 Group, in the booths you visit, about what they're doing and not doing with the vendors you're visiting as well as haven't considered
5. Look at vendor and supplier reviews on Google, forums including DrivingSales and other reliable sources
6. Ensure the viability of vendor/product deployment in your store prior to signing any agreement
7. Talk with existing/new vendors after the conference again, prior to accepting any new agreement

 

While the above steps are no guarantee against "being had", it should at least put some steps between a mediocre quick decision and a thought out beneficial one.

Areas that seem to be gaining traction and popularity that don't make sense include:

• Reputation management: services that promise hundreds, if not thousands, of well-deserved gleaming reviews from consumers that just haven't provided them to you. Garbage! Consumers see through it faster, better and more than Google does. Start expecting your staff to obtain reviews when selling or servicing products and ensure a process is in place. Some staff members don't want to do that? Let them go or simply hand over the keys because you're not leading a dealership...
• Social media: services that promise hundreds, if not thousands, of fans simply because you're a car dealership, with "caption this" or "tell us what you think" on nearly every other post sprinkled with inventory or incentive specials don't say "great place to buy" in the least. If a great Facebook, Twitter or blog presence means 2,000 likes, followers or readers and not more than 3-4 comments, shares, retweets or +1's, you're likely being had. Nobody wants to go to a dealership Facebook page to play Asteroids or Bejeweled 2 and write a title for a photo showing two dogs dressed up as superheros chasing each other, let alone find a tab that doesn't work (for months).
• CRM: services that say their great, train your staff for $5,000-10,000 a day, put in standard templates and tell you to look at reports to create accountability need to start traveling with the Dodo bird. At the same time employees not using CRM for any reason need to pack their neon-green Hulk baggage and leave town as well. Get real, negotiate agreements, expect your account person to visit regularly, get all of management to use the tools and then expect everyone else to in the dealership. If utilization of CRM is under 75% in your dealership, get your vendor to start acting like a partner and put sales and service staff on the bubble. It's not a choice, it's a reality check.

There will be a lot of fanfare, parties, speakers pitching and snow jobs at booths. However, it's in everyone's best interest to see through the smoke and put the rose-colored glasses down. Our entire world is digital, mobile and fast. It's time for 17,000+ franchises (and who knows how many independents) to get so as well. Leave the hook, line and sinker at home, ignore the playmates for as long as you can and get real with your business.

There is a boatload of opportunity for those that want it in 2012 and NADA happens to be a great place to kick it all off or continue down the progressive road if you've already started. It's also where tons of dealers get sucked in by nothing more than marketing and get nothing for their hard-earned cash except for an open liability door.

So go with purpose to NADA. Come back and operate your business properly. Or someone else will take it from you. All of it.

 

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Google Plus Pages Allowing Dealers To Do More (Half-Baked)?

With innovation and technology comes missteps and half-hearted attempts to "do it". As more dealers encourage their staff, and many times vendors, to push into new technology, software and social networking, which should be commended, the volume of missteps and simple ignorance increases as well. It's simple: if you don't know how to do something, get assistance. Just winging it in today's market won't pay dividends nor register with the public when it counts.

Google Plus Business Pages launched more than a week ago and searches with typical terms (Toyota, Honda, Ford, etc) on G+ turns up car dealerships using Google Plus profiles as businesses. Not pages, Google Plus profiles as in personal pages. This is absolutely the same lack of common sense and willingness to "ask for directions" that has thousands of retailers on Facebook personal profiles rather than the appropriate business pages.

No different than buying a CRM and not utilizing more than 40% of its capabilities or paying $699 a month for a website without SEO services, multi-million dollar establishments continue to fudge it and then wonder why things "don't work" or "provide revenue or ROI". It seems that the more technology and opportunities avail themselves, the faster car dealers are willing to say "we don't have any more budget", "we're not looking to go after every thing we can possibly buy" and the ever-popular "we already are doing a great job using what we use". So things go 'round like they always do: crap in, crap out.

The jury is in on your decision to half-ass things: you're wrong! The rule is go big or go home.

When sales, service and parts staffs are quick to Google the latest part that a customer brings up, right after they check ESPN highlights on their smart phones, why do things stop before the extra click to search for "setting up google plus business pages" and reading a quick particle or, better yet, watching a two-minute video that explains everything to properly establish their presence. Naw, it's better to wait until it's seemingly too late to make a change and your competition that you "beat" now has a more established foothold in the same technology, website or service. A local dealer, after offers of assistance fro multiple companies, apparently had to wait until their Facebook "friend" page had over 2,000 people on it before asking about making a business page. WHY??????????????????

We continue to be an industry filled with ignorance, denial, shortcuts, Band-Aids and excuses. ALL of the information is available if you're willing to ask the right questions and select the right employee, partner or vendor. Yes, there is a lot of misinformation but it's not impossible to weed through it. Recently, a top-OEM endorsed social media company executive informed an audience at one of the auto industry digital marketing events that deleting spam posts from Facebook pages was not possible but that they "scan and report" such occurrences. Yes, there is incorrect information out in the market from what should be reputable companies so always finding the right ways to do things can be a challenge.

So are the absolutely-essential, need-to-have Google Plus Business Pages allowing dealers (and other businesses) to do more, just in half-baked ways? Yes, sure enough. Just like everything else that is not known, understood, new and not managed. Until it is.....

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Things That Pissed Us Off In 2010 (Yes, They Pissed You Off, Too!)

We know it, you know it, they know it. Almost everyone knows it. Because if everyone knew it we wouldn't have ben put through it. But we were, you were and they were. Disclaimers: These are not in order of importance. Many companies are being called out, not all. This is a singular perspective.

So here it goes:

1. Automotive marketing overall: Sucked, still sucks, will likely continue to suck.
2. Dealership websites: 1995 called and wants its sites back. Give us a break and some new suppliers!
3. OEMs that don't publish new inventory: Get over it. customers leaving your brand are.
4. Automotive trainers that re-branded as web consultants: A new suit can't cover 1982 style.
5. Reputation management companies: Fudge is brown. So is bull%^&*. Fake customers? Envelope stuffers? Hooters girls? Please leave...
6. Motivational speakers that re-branded as automotive trainers: See line 4.
7. Social media companies: Charging dealers $3,000-5,000 plus per month? Larceny is still a crime.
8. DMS companies: Still make clients sign in blood for 15 year old technology, for 15 years? Nice. FAIL.
9. Website company dashboards: No, use this thing called Google Analytics. Quit fudging numbers. Block dealers' and your IPs for starters!
10. Inventory marketing portals: The luster is long gone. Run or acquire some companies for revenue!
11. Sales reps: Stop selling and start helping. Don't know much so you can't help? Sell elsewhere.
12. Ad agencies (Tier 1): Quit the facade. Traditional doesn't sell. Experiential does. Learn to like social. Get help.
13. Ad agencies (Tier 3): Quit lying to yourselves and your clients...You don't get digital. Get help.
14. CRM companies: If you don't do that, say you don't do that. Otherwise add it for free. Pariahs.
15. Website companies using Flash: 2003 called and wants their websites back. It's called HTML or PHP.
16. Facebook Personal Profiles: Businesses, we've been yelling. Set up pages. Not "friend" profiles!!
17, Social media companies: Setting up APIs and RSS feeds from OEMs is not social. It's plagiarizing.
18. Social media companies: Setting up inventory feeds as posts? If that's social, I'm tall, rich and hot.
19. Traditional media/ad networks still selling to dealers "old school". Shame on you (and your bosses).

Dealers, you're not in the clear either:

1. Hiring any service, including social, as a "pay for it and leave it" service? No such thing. Period!
2. Hiring any company because you "liked the rep when they were at ________ before". Failure...
3. Not taking the time to get educated on new aspects of your business? Hand the keys back to the OEM
4. "Trying" new things?! Sample spoons are for ice cream. Business is for big boys and girls. Just Do It!
5. Cutting your nose to spite your face? Chances are you're too lean. Hire the right people, not resumes.
6. Leaving everything up to the factory (especially some luxury brands). Wake up! It's your business!
7. Believing the you can turn your store's reputation over to an outside company?!?! I've got a bridge...
8. Not flinching on a new $4,000+ service to a company you're already cutting a $15k check to? Dumb.
9. Spending $3,000 on a 3-day conference 3+ times when you can get a month for that?! And get more!!!
10. Spending any money on your business and not taking ownership of the new spend. Why, why, why?
11. Paying any amount of ad money to traditional media and it's not integrated and tracked?! Foolish.

New-age definitions when you don't understand the spend:

CPM: Can't Provide Much
CRM: Can't Remember Much
ILM: Incredibly Lousy Marketing
CSI: Coached Senseless Investment
SSI: Serving Senseless Initiatives
I/O: Incredibly overpriced
OEM: Overlord, Empire, Master
PDI: Petty detailed injustices
Social: Someone outside control incompetently and loosely
IMS: Inventory Means Something
DMS: Decades-old Money-draining (or Mediocre-Moduled) Systems

We could go down the path a long way but here's the simple version of the message: quit doing things old ways, with old thought processes, with old beliefs, with old defenses, with old intentions, with old management. If you want to run a dealership the old way, get stuck in 1964, 1974, 1984, 1994 or 2004. If you want to thrive in this and the coming markets, wake up to the reality that business will not be the same. Even if we sell 17 million new cars again, it'll never be the same.

Some may be able to, by all appearances, just skim along on the surface, mesmerized by everything going on around them and still put up the numbers. For most of the businessmen and businesswomen in the retail part of our industry, it's a deep dive kind of time. Your success depends on you and how you build your business's presence, results, growth and more. Less than 5% of your colleagues are engaged, firing on all cylinders and moving forward in today's market.

There are a lot of things that pissed us off in 2010. And we may never do a post like this again. But somebody needed to do it. This might motivate some, light a fire in others and have some in stitches. No matter what, it's time for moving some more metal. There's not too many ways to do that today.

Are you pissed off enough to do something? We've been helping those that want to do something for the past three years and three months. Are you next?

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results