Consumers Want Video Walk-Arounds. Here’s Proof!

October 27, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

In my days with HomeNet Automotive, a new feature was released that allowed our customers to upload live video into their inventory for distribution to the third-party websites that would allow it.

Being in sales, I wanted to have a real video in which I could show potential clients the possibilities and an actual example of what one would look like so I enlisted help from a friend of mine who’s a GM at a nearby dealer group to allow me to video one of his employees doing a walk-around.

After filming it, I used it here and there when showing a demo of IOL Pro, HomeNet’s core inventory management software. After I left HomeNet Automotive, I promptly forgot about it.

Recently, I came across it in my YouTube video list and was ASTONISHED to see that it had almost 12,000 views in about 21 months! That’s an average of 570 views per month! This is without ANY exposure or publicity whatsoever. It was not on a blog post or anywhere. I can only guess that these 12,000 people came across this video via keyword searches either within YouTube or via a Google search. I did a quick keyword search and was astonished to see that my non-distributed or promoted video ranked 2nd in Google organic search results!

Imagine if this video had actually been a part of that dealer’s actual inventory on their website as well as all the third-party sites. Given that this was a new vehicle, it could have been added to all of the listings for this model and year vehicle in their inventory. They could DOMINATE Google searches for their brands.

The proof is in the pudding. I highly doubt the people watching these videos decided randomly to watch a video walk-around of a Toyota Venza. It’s more likely that these were consumer’s interested in that vehicle.

This is advertising GOLD and cost them absolutely nothing.

If you want to watch it, here’s the video:

How To Be (And Make Others) Successful Selling Cars

June 17, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

The other day, I started thinking about all the friends I’ve made that I met because they bought a car from me. I’m not talking about acquaintance-type friends, I’m talking about people that are involved in my life, and have been for a long time.

I’ve been out of retail for about 2 years now. When I was in retail, I made a lot of money. As a commissioned salesperson, to make a lot of money you have to make profit on cars. Many people think that “making a profit” and “giving a good deal” can’t co-exist. There were times that I even felt guilty getting a hefty commission voucher. I was averaging 30 cars per month while maintaining a CSI score of 98% (and I had a high return rate on surveys).

So what was I doing right?

I always treated everyone like they had 800 credit scores. I made sure that all of my customers were happy and, if they weren’t, did everything within my power to make them so. I helped solve problems for any customer at my dealership, whether they were mine or not. I made sure that I respected all the parties involved and thanked them for their business sincerely. I followed up with them religiously to insure that they were satisfied and to recognize important occasions in their lives. I made sure my customers got not only the car they needed, but one they wanted, not necessarily the one I wanted to sell them. I truly cared about my customers and treated them all like they were my personal friends… and, guess what, many of them became just that.

While I enjoy money as much as the next person, I was never really “money-motivated.” A “good job” and recognition went farther for me. It wasn’t until I went to work for a particular manager that many of these ideals were instilled in me. He truly cares about his employees and took me under his wing. His leadership and personal attention truly made me want to work harder, sell more, and make the dealership successful. By doing that, not only did I care more about my job, the dealership and its customers, but I made more money. He inspired me to want to do a good job for him, not just for the money. Don’t get me wrong, he held you accountable. He just didn’t do it through fear as I see many retail managers do. He empowered his employees and trusted them to do their jobs. His favorite saying is “I’ll give you all the rope you need and you can either hang yourself with it or make a basket to carry all of your money.” I attribute my success in this industry to him. Without the culture and leadership he provided, I wouldn’t have achieved what I have.

Leaders can motivate in many ways. Sadly, many think the only way to motivate is through either fear, money or a combination of the two. By choosing the leadership style that he did and helping mentor me into the sales style and ideals that I adopted as a salesperson, I became successful, not only professionally, but personally. Too many salespeople (and managers) are looking for the next big voucher and not paying attention to their customers’ needs. Take care of your customers and do business right and the money will come.

So, thinking back on my retail career, as I recognized how many people I have in my life that are my friends simply because fate brought them into my dealership and I happened to assist them with their vehicle purchase, I realized that this provided me far more of an indication that I did things right than any “good job” could have and it was all possible because I had a great leader.

BREAKING: DealerTrack to Acquire eCarList

May 25, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

DealerTrack to Acquire eCarList

May 25, 2011 8:30 AM ET

Adds Innovative Vehicle Merchandising Solutions to Industry Leading Inventory Management Offering

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — DealerTrack AAX, Inc., a subsidiary of DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. TRAK, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of eCarList LLC, a leading provider of inventory management and merchandising solutions for automobile dealerships The combination of DealerTrack’s current AAX inventory management solution with eCarList’s product suite of vehicle merchandising, pricing analytics and mobile inventory solutions will provide dealerships with a comprehensive vehicle management offering. Len Critcher, president and chief executive officer of eCarList, along with the entire eCarList management team, will remain with the combined company. The acquisition is expected to close in July, subject to customary closing conditions.

Mark F. O’Neil, chairman and chief executive officer of DealerTrack, commented, “We are extremely excited to announce this acquisition. eCarList is one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry and is a leader in delivering innovative vehicle merchandising and management solutions for the automotive retail industry.” O’Neil continued, “We believe the addition of eCarList will enable DealerTrack to expand its leading position as the industry’s most comprehensive suite of inventory management and merchandising solutions that leverages the best from each company.”

“We look forward to joining the DealerTrack family,” said Len Critcher. “The combination of DealerTrack AAX and eCarList will drive even more innovation to help dealerships generate additional vehicle interest and higher quality Internet and showroom traffic, all while maximizing overall deal profits.”

The financial impact of this acquisition to DealerTrack’s 2011 guidance will be given in conjunction with the release of DealerTrack’s results for the second quarter of 2011.

About DealerTrack (www.dealertrack.com)

DealerTrack’s intuitive and high-value software solutions and services enhance efficiency and profitability for all major segments of the retail automotive industry, including dealers, lenders, OEMs, agents and aftermarket providers. DealerTrack, whose solution set for dealers is the industry’s most comprehensive, operates the largest online credit application network in the United States, connecting approximately 17,000 dealers with more than 1,000 lenders. DealerTrack’s Dealer Management System (DMS) provides dealers with easy-to-use tools and real-time data access to enhance their efficiency, while DealerTrack AAX delivers the inventory management tools and services needed to accelerate used-vehicle turn rates and help increase profits for dealers. DealerTrack’s Sales and F&I solutions allow dealers to streamline the entire sales process as they structure deals from a single integrated platform. Its Compliance solution helps dealers meet legal and regulatory requirements and protect their assets. DealerTrack also offers additional solutions for the automotive industry including electronic motor vehicle registration and titling applications, paper title storage, and digital document services. DealerTrack’s family of companies also includes data and consulting service providers ALG and Chrome Systems. For more information, visit www.dealertrack.com.

About eCarList (www.ecarlist.com)

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, eCarList provides a full suite of inventory management and online marketing tools for the retail automotive industry enabling dealers to appraise, price, and merchandise vehicle inventory online in real-time. eCarList’s services include inventory management, inventory distribution, vehicle appraisal and pricing tools, mobile software, dealership health reporting, CRM, custom web design, and digital marketing solutions via a fully integrated software as a service platform. eCarList improves dealership productivity, inventory turn, sales, and profits for its clients by improving and simplifying the way in which inventory is managed, distributed, and viewed by consumers.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

Statements in this press release regarding benefits to DealerTrack and its customers of the pending acquisition of eCarList and all other statements in this release other than the recitation of historical facts are forward-looking statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of DealerTrack to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

Factors that might cause such a difference include: economic trends that affect the automotive retail industry or the indirect automotive financing industry including the number of new and used cars sold; reductions in auto dealerships; the impact of some vendors of software products for automotive dealers making it more difficult for DealerTrack’s customers to use DealerTrack’s solutions and services; security breaches, interruptions, failures and/or other errors involving DealerTrack’s systems or networks; the failure or inability to execute any element of DealerTrack’s business strategy, including selling additional products and services to existing and new customers; the integration of the eCarlist acquisition and the expected benefits; DealerTrack’s success in expanding its customer base and product and service offerings; and other risks listed in DealerTrack’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. These filings can be found on DealerTrack’s website at www.dealertrack.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements included herein speak only as of the date hereof and DealerTrack disclaims any obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or circumstances, except as required by law.

Originally published on DealerElite.net and ADM

In The Trenches During The AutoTrader Acquisition Of VinSolutions

May 23, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

As I’m sure you’re probably aware by now, AutoTrader announced Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to acquire VinSolutions.

I was in the unique position to actually be with most of the executive leadership and employees of VinSolutions when the news broke. I was also with HomeNet Automotive when the rumors started that AutoTrader was working to acquire HomeNet Automotive. I also came really close to working directly for AutoTrader as they attempted to recruit me and, ironically, I was actually at an event in Colorado that Chip Perry was in attendance when I was informed by the Autotrader recruiter that I was “not worthy” (their loss). I like to think that AutoTrader is following me around acquiring companies I work for simply because they actually want to “acquire” me. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

After my initial shock passed, as an employee of a media company, the investigative part of me started paying attention. What I expected to see was executive management in a celebratory mode making plans to roll around in the pile of money they must have just made. I expected phone calls being made and Internet leads being submitted for new Ferraris. I expected VinSolutions employees to be anxious about their future employment and having a feeling that this company, that they all were very proud to be a part of, was at an end. I saw none of that.

What I saw was quite the opposite. Executive management and VinSolutions employees were still talking to dealers. VinSolutions employees were excited. The entire team was customer focused, not acquisition focused. In fact, it really seemed as if VinSolutions had acquired AutoTrader rather than the opposite. They weren’t feeling as if this was the end, quite the contrary. They felt like this was the beginning. They were excited about the incredible resources and value now available to VinSolutions to make their product(s) bigger, better and faster than they ever were able to before.

What makes this acquisition a historic moment is that this is the first time in our industry’s history that a non-DMS company has acquired a company that does what VinSolutions does. VinSolutions wasn’t interested in being acquired by a DMS, because several trends inevitably happen: the acquired company immediately loses half their market share, but they also fall into this virtual black hole eventually disappearing never to be heard from again. AutoTrader “could” make VinSolutions the hub of their operation powering and integrating with ALL of the AutoTrader/Cox owned properties acquired in recent history.

With all of the properties that AutoTrader owns, they are in the unique position to dominate the automotive market. All of these properties, prior to their AutoTrader acquisition, had stellar reputations within the industry and with their customers. AutoTrader “could” leverage these properties to offer an unprecedented value to their customers. Whether (and how) they do this is still up in the air.

Not discounting the incredible value and loyalty that current VinSolutions customers have, ultimately VinSolutions is more than just another company. In fact, the people DEFINE VinSolutions. Yes, they have innovative solutions and offer the power and convenience of a completely integrated solution to dealers. VinSolutions could easily be named “Mike-Sean-Matt-Kendall-Solutions,” but that would certainly be hard to create a marketing campaign for. Why? The reason is simple. Mike Dullea, Sean Stapleton, Kendall Billman and Matt Watson ARE VinSolutions. Without them, AutoTrader would now own air. I sincerely hope that AutoTrader recognizes this (if they don’t already) and just like a NFL team, these people were signed to 20-year contracts. If you buy the Colts, you make sure Peyton Manning is included in the deal. Yes, VinSolutions’ integrated dealer solution offers great value to their customers. They are continuously looking to improve the value VinSolutions offers to their customers. The dedication and passion that these people, along with the entire VinSolutions team define VinSolutions.

As I talked to VinSolutions’ dealers that are attending this event, their concern had nothing to do with money/price increases, etc. It was completely focused on how AutoTrader would change WHO VinSolutions IS, and who they are is the key to their success. Yes, there are other people who can be a CEO. Yes, there are other people that can run a sales team. Yes, there are other programmers. Yes, there are other people who can be the “website” guy. The fact is that there is NOBODY that can replace these people, perform with the passion, dedication and experience that they have and perform at the level that they do. Disregarding the standard “business as usual” statement, VinSolutions truly has a culture of family. That family makes them who they are.

In my eyes, AutoTrader didn’t acquire a company; they acquired the equivalent of the Justice League of America. Take away any member of that team; the Justice League ceases to exist. JLA without Superman isn’t the Justice League of America. What made the JLA the powerhouse that they were was the collective power that they all brought to the table.

Does the competition need to be worried, absolutely, but not because all of a sudden VinSolutions is now owned by AutoTrader, but because AutoTrader acquired Superman, Batman, the Flash and the Green Lantern and, most importantly, a family.

Originally published on DealerElite.net and ADM

How to: Turn Your Facebook Fans Into Spammers

January 19, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

Businesses are constantly trying to generate word-of-mouth
and increase their exposure in social media via promotions. Promotions are an
effective way of increasing eyeballs and, perhaps, generating new customers, if
done right.

If done WRONG, it can actually do the opposite. What do I
mean by that?

This is how I’ve seen promotions being run lately and the
thought process that I suspect went along with it.

I want exposure or new customers.
I’m going to hold a giveaway or contest via
Facebook.
I’m going to enlist my existing fans or customers to spread my message.
To do that, I’m going to require them to “share” my message with their social network. The more they share, the greater the likelihood that they will win.
By doing this, my message will be shared with, hopefully, a lot of people and my business will gain exposure that meets or exceeds the value of the prize(s) being awarded.

There’s a couple of problems with this thought process for
both the business and the fans of that business.

First, requiring your fans to “share” on Facebook is against
their Terms of Service . To be precise, it clearly states that:

“Section 2.1: You will not condition entry to
the promotion upon taking any other action on Facebook, for example, liking a
status update or photo, commenting on a Wall, or uploading a photo.”

Second, by encouraging
your existing fans to repeatedly share your message by rewarding them to do
that, your fans run the risk of alienating members of their social network. By
alienating their “friends”, they run the risk of being “unfriended” or, at the
very least, hidden. If your “fans” are hidden or “unfriended”, their social
graph decreases making the sharing
of your message less effective not
to mention the detrimental effect it will have on your fans by decreasing their
reach.

You know this is true.
Think “Mafia Wars” or “Farmville”. How many people have you “unfriended” or
hidden because of their continuous sharing of these social games’ content? How
many dealers have you unfriended or hidden because, despite everything we say, they continue to post their inventory continuously online?

The third aspect of this
is that most businesses open their contests up to everyone, not just their
customer base. I’ve heard of plenty of dealership vendors and/or people who would otherwise never do business with
a company entering and winning a Facebook promotion. It’s just as easy to “unlike”
a business Facebook page after the contest ends as it is to “like” it in the
first place.

The fourth problem is
that, just because your business is holding a contest or promotion on Facebook,
it doesn’t exempt you from your state’s laws regarding contests and promotions.
In example, California has strict laws dictating how you must run a promotion
including mandatory disclosures. Just because the winner of your contest may
not be in California doesn’t exempt you from your state’s laws.

Acura started a
promotion called “Compete Like A Pro last week. On their Facebook page, these
are the exact words:

“All you have to do is work your social network as hard as your
quads to earn the most votes. Spread the word on your wall, send friends an
email – do whatever it takes to let people know how serious you are about your
action sport.”

Buick, on the other
hand, also has a social media promotion called “Quest for the Keys”. Their promotion doesn’t involve
spamming your friends anywhere. It involves participation by the contestants to
“find” keys that are hidden in various US cities. To gather clues, you (as a
participant) must pay attention to their various social network assets. Now you
have people regularly monitoring and visiting your various social networks and,
most importantly, not annoying the hell out of their friends.

Finally, you have to
consider the message you are sending. A contest going on right now being run by
Grant Cardone is wrong on so many levels.

Let’s analyze WHY.

First, it violates Facebook’s Terms of Service.

Second, anyone who wants
to win is REQUIRED to spam their friends by posting on Facebook and Twitter. (I
don’t have a problem with the YouTube component because, while you have to
create a creative YouTube video promoting the contest, it doesn’t appear that
you are required to share it to increase your chances of winning (although I
could be wrong)). You may argue that it’s not required but let’s be honest here, the premise of the contest is that you score points by sharing on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. If you don’t share, you don’t score points which means you can’t win. This pretty much means that, to participate in the contest, and have a chance at winning, you are required to spam your friends.

Third, the contest is in
violation of promotion and contest LAWS of the State of California as, at the very least, it doesn’t contain the proper
disclosures. Now I’m not a lawyer but these laws carry not only civil
penalties, but also criminal ones.

I’m not even going to embed these videos into this post but, if you haven’t seen them, here are the links:

Grant Cardone Social Media Contest – Win $10,000

Grant Cardone Social Media Contest – Win $10,000 Part II

The final, and maybe most important, is simple.

What message are you
sending to people when the “Grand Prize” is $10,000 in “store credit” OR an
iPad (Retail value approximately $500) OR $500 cash. Second prize is $5,000 in “store
credit” or $250 cash.

Maybe it’s just me but
it “seems” that $10,000 of his training material just got equated to $500 cash.
I’m sure that he doesn’t really “want” anyone choosing the iPad or cash, that
would be the ultimate snub. That being said, why on earth would you even plant
the SEED of that idea in your customer’s minds?

Third place is… wait for
it.. a set of steak knives. Of course, if you don’t want the steak knives, he
has also offered the third place winner a $100 bill with a personal message on it
that he won from his twin brother. Check it out.

Note: Since he began the
promotion, he has since censored out the “message” written on the $100 bill within the video. Guess he thought it was a bad idea after the fact. Luckily, I preserved it.

In the second video (on
the day the promotion started), his message to his fans was the following:

“.. or I will give you
this hundred with a personal message to you.. a personal 2011 message.”

Well, if his personal
message to “me” (seeing as I’m a fan) is what is written on the $100 bill from
the first video, that’s plain insulting. Now, I know Grant personally. I’ve
always supported him and sincerely like his training materials. Lately,
however, some of his messages have contained material or comments that I find
offensive. Being from the car business, I’m pretty thick-skinned and have heard
(and participated in) plenty of swear words.

I can certainly tell you
that I have NEVER sworn in front of any customer and I certainly have NEVER
delivered any message similar to the one Grant wants to “personally” deliver to one lucky “fan”, who is, in fact, his customer.

If that’s what you want
to tell me, I only have one thing to say… right back at you.

[Update 1/19: Day three of the contest brings another level that is the fun of getting my fans to spam their friends and, this time, it’s via E-MAIL! Yes, I’m so ready to upload my contact list into your system so that I can spam everyone I know. Video here: Grant Cardone Contest – Emailing Contacts ]

Disclaimer: In this rant (yeah, it’s a rant), I’m not trying to
imply that Grant’s material has no value. On the contrary, I used his material
to help me sell a lot of cars and make a ton of money. I’ve always been a fan
of his and recommended his material to anyone that asked me. I’ve helped him
spread his message and assisted him personally in social media when he’s asked
me to. The purpose of this rant WAS, however, to not only warn businesses of
some of the dangers inherent in running a Facebook promotion wrong, but to
call Grant out on his ridiculous contest. I’m not holding back here and I’m
sure this won’t be appreciated but it’s a message that people need to hear..
especially Grant Cardone.

Of course, this is all my opinion. I’ll let you decide whether you agree with me or not.

Podcast Episode Beta: Intro to Facebook Pages

November 20, 2010 By Arnold Tijerina

Hi everyone. Despite the rumors, I have not fallen off the edge of the
Earth. I have taken a position and have been working secretly making the
universe …. uh, well, I’ve been working. All will be revealed soon.
My blog, on the other hand, has been my red-headed step-child and I’ve
neglected him.

This podcast is the first podcast I’ve ever made.
It’s an introduction to Facebook Pages and includes some great tips that will
be new to novices and some veterans.

It is numbered “beta” because it
was also a test of quality, functionality and efficiency of many things –
software, hosting, microphone, etc.

It was unscripted and fairly
free-flowing so I hope you enjoy it and gain some insight into Facebook
Fan Pages. Your feedback is much appreciated.

Was it too long? too short?
Was the sound quality good?
Was it informative?
Was it easy to access and listen to?

Thanks in advance and enjoy!

Click the “Play” button.

Played: 20 | Download | Duration: 00:12:01

Facebook Page Demographics

November 9, 2010 By Arnold Tijerina

Have you ever wondered who the fans of your Facebook page are?

If you subscribe to Hootsuite, they’ve just released a feature that gives you a pretty comprehensive report about your Facebook fan page. They call it “Facebook Insights” and any Hootsuite user that has admin access to their Facebook page can add it to their Hootsuite account and it will show them the following:

New fans to your Page
Demographics including: region, age, gender
Amount of Page comments
Number of “likes”
New discussions
Number of new wall posts

You’ll also see historical comparisons to see which way your pages are trending. And, like other stats in HootSuite, you can create a printable report to share with your colleagues, clients and executives.

This is definitely valuable information and more comprehensive than the Facebook analytics offered within Facebook itself.

Here’s a screenshot of a report:

There is more to the report including Interaction data and Daily Page Activity (which are readily available through Facebook’s reports so that’s nothing new) but the demographic data is strong.

I blogged about News Feed Optimization awhile ago. Since page and content interaction is incredibly important in determining whether or not your fans see your posts, this information is invaluable.

In the example above, since we know that 66% of the fans are male, there would be a couple of strategies you may want to employ. First, since the goal is more interaction, you may want to concentrate on male-oriented content. The second would be to work on increasing your female base of fans.

You should know your product’s demographics so why wouldn’t you want to encourage and/or grow your Facebook page demographics to match your products demographics?

This information will also allow you to identify which content is actually generating activity which would then allow you to utilize similar content in the future.

If posting pictures of modded cars gets you a lot of responses, you’d want to post more of those. If you have a predominately female fan base and you see that the recipe you posted for cookies got a lot of attention and interaction, you post more lifestyle-type posts.

Of course, this information requires you to be a Hootsuite user to obtain (for now at least).

In what ways do you think this information could be used to better leverage your social media marketing efforts on Facebook?

Originally published on DrivingSales.com

Digital Dealer’s Hidden Learning Opportunity

October 9, 2010 By Arnold Tijerina

As we get ready to attend the 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas, I wanted to talk about a hidden learning opportunity.

Over the past weeks, I’ve seen plenty of blog posts and articles from people with advice on how to get ready for and efficiently attend the conference. All of these articles offered great advice such mapping out your sessions and bringing proper supplies. I agree with all of them.

One thing I haven’t heard, however, is one of the most beneficial things I used to take advantage of at the conferences and that is the ability to check out all the new technology and services available within our industry that could help me sell more cars.

I was an internet director working for large automotive groups for a long time. I was constantly bombarded – as I’m sure you are – by calls from vendors. Some days it seemed like I appeared on every vendors “to-do” list and, at times, I just stopped taking their calls. We’re all busy and we’re all focused on selling cars. Nobody wants to be “sold” something when you’d rather be doing the selling.

One of the most attractive things for me, at the conference, was the opportunity to visit with all the vendors in the exhibit hall if only to check out what solutions and technology are available. Whether you are in the market for a new solution or not, the knowledge of what’s out there is invaluable because the one thing in our business that is constant is change.

When your dealer principal, GM, GSM or whomever comes to you with a problem and asks you to fix it, would you rather know what solutions exist and be able to make some suggestions RIGHT THEN, or have to start hunting from scratch. I guarantee you it will waste more of your time hunting for a new vendor for whatever your needs are if you don’t already know what’s out there.

This also gives you the opportunity to ask other DEALERS about their vendors. Every vendor is going to tell you that their product rocks, that they are the best at it, and that they will help you sell a ton more cars than you already are (if you use it properly, of course). So how do you weed out the good companies from the GREAT companies? How do you find the “diamonds in the rough”, so to speak?

Look, we all know that post-conference sales pitches, phone calls, and e-mails only INCREASE – as they should. You can’t blame the vendors. Say you sold Fords and you went to an auto show. At that auto show everyone was educated on the benefits of driving a Ford Explorer. Everyone left with some level of knowledge that maybe I should be driving a Ford Explorer. Now, say the conference decided to give you a list of all of those people who were interested in a Ford Explorer. Would you call them? If you are any type of salesperson you would.

Just like you get irritated when you call someone that you got an internet lead on because they’re irritated that you called them, so do the vendors. If you took the time to educate yourself about the technology products and services that are available WHILE YOU”RE AT THE CONFERENCE, you would be able to tell the vendors when they call you post-conference that you took the opportunity to check out their service already.

I’m not saying you have to spend your time watching everybody’s demo. Just set aside a block of time to make a quick trip around the exhibit hall to check out what new services and technology products are being offered by companies – both new and old.

I guarantee you’ll discover something that you didn’t know existed.

You have all the notable vendors within our industry in the same place at the same time. Use that to your advantage. Learning what is available to help you sell more cars is just as important as learning new techniques and processes to do that via the seminars. The vendors are an intrinsic part of what makes the Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition POSSIBLE. They’re at the conference because they want the opportunity to meet you and talk to you.

Be the go-to-guy (or gal) at your dealership with the solutions and you’ll make yourself that much more invaluable.

…and pick up some free swag and enter their contests for prizes while you’re at it. We all like free stuff and they like to give it out.

Here is the list of vendors that helped make the 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition possible.

Exhibitor List

I hope to meet everyone at the show.

Facebook ‘Questions” Could Bring You Business

August 23, 2010 By Arnold Tijerina

I’ve been watching this new feature Facebook has rolling out called “Questions”. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s not a new idea. Yahoo has ‘Answers’ and is the most used of the Q&A sites but there are plenty more. It’s still in beta and is rolling out slowly so you may not be able to see it yet but I believe there’s a potential for some Facebook Page exposure and, possibly, for dealerships generating some business.

First, here’s an example of what a question would look like:

Now initially, you would think there wouldn’t be any payoff for trolling through questions posted by a service with a user base of 500 million people. I mean, how is answering someone’s question that lives 2000 miles from your dealership going to generate business for you?

There’s also a lot more involved than posting a status update or tweeting 140 characters. To answer most questions properly and intelligently (especially in the automotive business), it will require more than a little explanation. I mean, how easy is it to answer the question “How much is my trade worth”? That’s a complicated answer. (Unless you go old-school on them and ask them to back the car up to the phone so you can hear it.)

The features that make it potentially worthwhile to a dealership or business are these:

If you are the administrator of your business’ fan page, you can choose whether to answer the question as yourself (ie. John Doe) or as your business (John Doe Ford). By answering as your business, your Facebook page is the official “responder” and, just as any post, will be linked back to your Facebook Page. This could lead people there to explore further.
Facebook Questions will allow the people posing the questions to geo-target those questions. For example, a person in Ohio could seek answers from other people in Ohio and/or just want to identify where they are in case that has relevance to their question. If you’re a business who has decided to peruse Questions, you can not only search topics (ie. automotive) but you can also search geographically. Obviously if your business is in Ohio, and it’s a car dealership, you could look at automotive-related questions from people in Ohio. I’m not sure yet exactly how fine-tuned the geographical function will be (ie. can you choose to see questions from people down to the city level) but you could certainly see how answering automotive questions from people in Ohio which could then lead them back to your Fan Page and, possibly, your website or dealership, could be beneficial.
We know that public information on Facebook is indexed by Google. We know that Fan Pages are. Seeing as Questions is public, I’m assuming the question (and your answer) would be indexed by Google. Facebook ranks well with search engines so it could get your business’ fan Page (and name) a little more (or a lot more depending on how active you are answering questions) exposure and SEO.

When I was in Internet Departments, I would target message boards seeking to answer people’s questions about my particular car brand. I answered them directly and never tried to sell them anything. People appreciate that and you could help yourself stand apart from your competitors.

Just as in Yahoo Answers, I’m guessing that people can search Questions previously posted (and answered) for similar questions that they may have. In this case, best case scenario is that they find a previous question posed by a Facebook member and answered by your business. If they are also geographically limiting their searches, you could have a local customer seeing your business being helpful and pro-active in answering people’s questions. This is certainly a form of reputation management that could assist you in gaining some brownie points with a potential customer.

This is certainly a method of gaining some exposure for your business. It’s not the easiest or least time-consuming but the advantage is does have is that not only do you get your name out but you associate positive images with it at the same time. Once this feature is rolled out to everyone, it will be interesting to experiment and see what happens.