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How to Hire Great Salespeople


Great salespeople deficit? 


I give our industry a D+ when it comes to the hiring process and a frequent complaint right now is “I can’t seem to hire good salespeople.”  Joe Webb nailed it when he made this video: The Job Interview.

So where do we go to find good people?  Posting an online ad is often not very effective and may result in quantity, but not quality.  Your current employees and customers are a great place to start to find new employees.  A recent Inc. Magazine article written by David Lewis, CEO of Operations Inc. indicates:

  • 50% of the most successful companies have given up on job boards.
  • Social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are cheaper and more effective.
  • People hired by referral are 47% more likely to stick around after three years, compared to 14% for job-board applicants.
  • Cash bonuses are the best way to get current employees to refer others.  $1200 is the average referral bonus across all industries for full-time hires.

When you are ready to make a hire, start by notifying current employees.  If the job pays well, employees will often brag about how much they love their work and attract others to your business.   I have used this strategy for the last three years when hiring coaching staff for Phone Ninjas, and I often have qualified applicants waiting for a job.

If your dealership has Facebook presence, this is also a great way to inform people of your intentions to hire.  You could also offer a bonus to customers who refer others.  Everybody knows somebody looking for a job.

Here’s an example of an ad that you might place on Facebook:

Leading Automotive Retailer Seeks a Hungry Tiger!

Our top performers earn 100K yearly!  Even if you have little or no automotive experience, our training program will teach you the skills required for success.  Our dealership offers: (briefly talk about what your dealership offers existing employees).

We are looking for the following qualities:

  • Goal oriented person with a history of achieving success
  • Professional appearance
  • Ability to work with a computer
  • Professional phone skills
  • Ability to write professional e-mails

To be considered for this position, please follow the below directions:

  • Send your resume and salary history to: (e-mail address)
  • Included in your e-mail, please tell us in 100-200 words why we should consider you as an applicant.
  • Make a video with your smartphone or video camera and sell us an object such as your vehicle or an item in your house.  We don’t expect it to be perfect; we just want to see your creativity and passion.

All qualified applicants who complete the above steps will be rewarded with an interview.

Let’s digest the highlights of the above ad.

  • Start with a positive upbeat subject line that will catch their attention!
  • Take the average pay of your top two performers and use this number.  Hopefully that number is 100K+.  If not, your dealership is definitely in need of some new talent.
  • I am not a fan of hiring veteran automotive salespeople unless you are certain they have not been rejected from other dealerships.  Salespeople making good money tend to stay put.  I do use the term “little or no automotive experience” since many dealerships don’t take the time to properly train new staff.  In 1985, I was a classic example of a bad hiring experience.  My first job at a dealership lasted a month because I was never provided with proper training.  Fortunately, my second automotive sales position came with lots of training.
  • Talk about the positive things your dealership offers to its employees.
  • Give a brief description of the qualities you seek.  The ones I listed above are a good place to start.
  • Ask your applicants to follow a very strict application process like the one outlined above.

Look for a salesperson with the qualities needed to work all aspects of this business.  In the email look for quality writing skills, the same ones needed to be effective when replying to Internet leads.  In the video, consider passion, personality, and creativity.  If someone can make a video, they should be capable of making one to respond to Internet leads.   The last bullet point will help weed out unmotivated people because if they don’t perform these steps to get the job, they certainly won’t do them once they have the job.

When dealerships implement a better hiring process, they will attract quality people capable of working floor-ups, phone-ups, and Internet leads thereby reducing or eliminating the costs of operating a business development center.

After you review your applicants, it’s time to start the interview process.  First, send your favorite applicants an e-mail and ask them to call you at a very specific time and make sure you are available at that time.  Start with a 5-10 minute conversation to get a feel for their phone skills.  If they call you at the scheduled time and the conversation goes well, then it’s time to invite them to an in-person interview.

When interviewing, remember that you are also being interviewed, and dealerships often fail to prepare.  It’s important that applicants walk into a professional setting.  This means no salespeople loitering at the front door.   Your dealership should look like a well-oiled machine with professional salespeople at work.  Most importantly, be ready for your interviews!  Making a person wait is not a good strategy.  Here are 15 must-ask interview questions:

  1. Take me through your work history and tell my why you left each job.   Those with a job jumping history should have a good answer.
  2. Did you play sports in high school or college?  Competitiveness is one of the best traits you can find in a salesperson.  Competitive people are the ones you will find at the top of your sales board.
  3. Why do you want to be a salesperson?  The right answer is financial motivation.
  4. How much money do you need to make monthly in order to maintain your current lifestyle?   The higher that number, the more I like that person.
  5. Tell me about your greatest accomplishment in life?  Look for passion and excitement as they talk about their accomplishment.  If they can’t get excited talking about themselves, they certainly won’t be that way with your customers.
  6. If I asked your current boss what he or she likes about you, what would the answer be?  This question will indicate strengths in your applicant.
  7. What would your current boss say are your weaknesses?  These answers could be potential red flags.
  8. What have you done in the last year to fix those weaknesses?  Look for people who are adaptable and focused on self-improvement.
  9. What is the last educational book you read and what did you learn from it?  Look for people who are constantly trying to improve.  These people are trainable.
  10. What qualities did you like about your last or current manager?  Look for answers that indicate an applicant’s willingness to take direction.
  11. What qualities did you not like about your last or current manager?  People will often unknowingly reveal their weaknesses when answering this question.  If an applicant is willing to trash talk their current or previous employer, move on.  Avoid future drama or confrontation!
  12. Is there any question I haven't asked you that I should?  This is a perfect opportunity for your applicant to sell himself/herself.
  13. I am not quite sure you’re the right person for this job.  Help me change my mind.  Typically I’ll even leave that last sentence off and see if the applicant can handle my objection.  Objection handling is a big part of our business and I want people who won’t take “No” for an answer.  This question alone will tell you if you’re interviewing a pushover or a closer.  Closers will challenge this statement and tell you why you should hire them.
  14. How do you think you did on this interview?  I have just given the applicant the perfect opportunity to close me.  Look for closers.  “I think I did well” is not the right answer.  They need to follow up by asking me for the job.
  15. Do you have any questions for me?  Remember that quality candidates are interviewing you as well, and their questions will give you the opportunity to sell them on why they should work at your dealership.  Poor or no questions can also indicate the candidate is the wrong person for the job.

If at any point you don’t like the answers you are hearing, go right to question #13 and end the interview.

Never make a job offer after the first interview.  If I like a candidate, I will ask him or her to come back soon to meet with one of the other managers and assign a project.  One of my favorites is to send the candidate home with a phone script and ask them to study it because part of their job entails answering incoming sales calls.  When the candidate returns for the second interview, I will conduct a role play session.  Those who know it get the job and those who don’t certainly won’t learn it after they have the job.  Provide your business card in hopes that they thank you for the interview via e-mail and or by phone and demonstrate good follow-up skills.

One more thing I would like you to do before letting the applicant leave is to hand them off to another manager for a tour of the dealership.  However, do not tell your applicant this person is a manager.  Instead, tell them that you’re going to have one of your salespeople show them around before they leave.  You’ll may be surprised at what a person will say and ask when they think they are conversing with a peer.

Hiring quality people is one of the most important aspects of your business, and making a bad decision can cost your business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost opportunity. When you surround yourself with great talent, it’s easier to attract talented people and you should always be on the lookout for great talent.  Sometimes it is found in the most unexpected places such as Best Buy, Verizon Wireless, restaurants, hardware stores, and places where you are in the role of a customer.

I once hired a young man from Burger King just because he greeted me with a smile and great attitude.  He turned out to be the dealership’s number one sales rep. Your next superstar is waiting to be found and groomed.  Your success or failure as a manager is defined by the people you hire.


How are you finding and hiring your next NEXT great sales person?

If you enjoyed this article - use the "print button" and leave a comment below!

As The Dust Settles From The Social Media Whirlwind...

JD-- I'd love to hear which dealers you think are doing this best. 
What's driving traffic and leads, instead of fans?
And how do you measure the folks coming in for a test drive or for services, since many of these don't have clicks associated with them or tell you how they heard about you?

As The Dust Settles From The Social Media Whirlwind...

As The Dust Settles From The Social Media Whirlwind, Car-Selling Strategies Emerge

It’s hard to call the changes that have happened in automotive social media over the last five years an evolution. The medium was gone from promising to enigmatic, from simple to impossible. It was something that every dealer had to do before being something that many dealers ignored.

Today, the realities of what social media can and cannot do for dealers is starting to become more clear. Much of the clarification is coming through better understanding by the mediums themselves. Facebook, for example, is finally starting to understand how to let businesses leverage the advertising platform without harming their user experience.

The other part has to do with dealers. Many are hiring tech-savvy people to run their digital marketing instead of handing it off to an “old car dog” that’s willing to stop taking ups. Some are finding success getting resources, training, and support for their “old car dogs” who have learned to make the transition from old school networking and advertising into the digital age.

As 2013 pushes towards its halfway point, there are two different ideologies that are polarizing the dealer body and the vendors that support them. Technically, there’s a third camp, but it’s so small right now that it’s barely a blip on anyone’s radar. These classifications are supported by information that I’ve been gathering over the last 8 months as I interview dealers, examine their social media presence, and decipher their mindset or the mindset of their vendor.

In one camp, you have the branders. These are the dealers and vendors who play the social media game by trying to fit in. They’re posting memes and cat pictures while trying to sneak in photos of happy customers standing in front of their new vehicles. Their goal is branding and exposure. Their perspective – nobody will buy a car or get their cars serviced because of anything they see on social media, so the benefit is in exposing the brand to as many people as possible.

In the other camp, we have the sellers. They believe in the bulk aspect of social media. There’s enough people on there at any given moment to find buyers, so to them it’s a pure numbers game. It’s not that they think that any particular user is going to buy a car because they saw it on Facebook, but if one happens to be in the market, they don’t want to miss them.

Reputation management has become the primary focus for many dealers. They see social media as an add-on component of their review-acquisition strategy. It’s a throw in, a selling point that puts a mark in the social media check box. Reputation, after all, is perceived to help to sell more cars by preventing people from skipping over dealerships with bad reviews. That concept in itself is somewhat flawed, but I’ll save that argument for a different post.

The lack of attention that is being given to social media is unfortunate and in many ways it’s our fault. Those of us who have been immersed in the mediums for the last several years are all guilty of steering dealers in the wrong direction at one point or another. I look back at some of the “best practices” and strategies that I recommended back in 2008 and 2009 and I feel utter shame for giving the wrong advice. I still hear some of the same advice today and it scares me.

Here’s the thing. Social media has the potential to help dealers sell more cars and drive more fixed ops business. It doesn’t require cleverly manifested magic or complex strategies. It’s definitely not possible by being a “brander” or a “seller” on social media, though each of those strategies has other benefits. Sales can be achieved through social media by driving foot traffic and website visitors utilizing proper strategies and a tenacious focus on the local area market. It’s not easy. It takes work. Fortunately, it’s not something that requires special training or a “guru” certificate to accomplish. It requires no vendor interaction. Any dealer can make it happen quickly if they’re willing put in the effort.

DealerRefresh seemed to be the perfect venue for this series. If the interest is here as expressed in the comments below, I will submit a 4-part series to the team here to be published at their discretion. There’s no pitch. My vendor hat will be humbly removed. That’s why DealerRefresh is the right home for this content. I’ll be returning to my roots of working at dealerships and applying what I’ve learned as a vendor to show readers how to make a direct impact on their bottom line through social media.

If that’s something you’d want to see, here, let me know in the comments.

Why Millennials Aren't Buying Cars - with Lindsey Kirchoff

As a person from the demographic, I completely understand the statistic, "“46% of 18-24 year olds would choose the Internet over their car”
If I have the internet and no car, I can find a way to get a ride somewhere through expedia, craigslist, facebook, twitter, et cetera. 
If I have a car and no internet, I can get somewhere but I'd get lost without Google Maps, not be able to get reservations or phone numbers without Yelp, and I'd have no one to go with because everyone would be at a party I didn't get invited to because I don't have email/internet.

Why Millennials Aren't Buying Cars - with Lindsey Kirchoff

Great line-- "You don't just have to convince us to buy YOUR car, you have to convince us to buy A car."
How much of this could also be due to the removal of Driver's Ed from many public school systems? I was shocked when I heard that Driver's Ed would no longer be offered regularly in Wichita schools. Sure, that class could be pretty cheesy at times (we used those "simulators" from the 1960s), but I completed it feeling confident in my driving abilities. Schools would do well to reinstate more life skills training and less standardized test taking, but I suppose that's a conversation for another forum! :)

Why Millennials Aren't Buying Cars - with Lindsey Kirchoff

Hey Lindsey!
Enjoyed this immensely.  I missed your presentation at the Kain Automotive event last November.  Glad I could at least catch up with this.  
It takes some serious vision and commitment to wrangle with these ideas.  Dealers and dealer groups who do will be on the right side of history no doubt.

Location Targeting: Engaging the mobile car shopper when the timing’s right

I can think of no better to way lose my customer's trust - This is a horrendously BAD idea. UNLESS there has been explicit disclosure that the App was going to follow the client around, spy on them like a bad stalker, and report back to me that they were thinking about getting an oil change at some quick lube joint, maybe then it would be OK.
If you would be alright with explaining the above scenario to your customers, go right ahead, otherwise leave the spyware "on the shelf".

Location Targeting: Engaging the mobile car shopper when the timing’s right

csabatka1 nails it on the head.  Location Targeting is only effective when the intended target (customer) has downloaded the dealer's mobile app.  Therefore, Location Targeting is most effective in influencing customers in the act of cross shopping the competition. These are customers who have previously interfaced with the dealership in some way (web visit, store visit).  Mobile-focused dealers are using creative ways to get their app into customer's hands on during the initial interaction. Everything from visiting the dealer's site to visiting the showroom provides an easy way to get the app.  
Therefore, the dealers that benefit most from Location Targeting are those who have put a marketing emphasis on promoting a mobile app communication channel.

Location Targeting: Engaging the mobile car shopper when the timing’s right

I'm trying to understand how a dealer targeted the location and was able to get 7 customers to come to their lot.  These customers needed to have downloaded the dealer's app and have it running on their phone either active or in the background.  They more than likely they were customers of that dealership already and shopping around.  Customers just don't stumble upon and download dealer apps, it's hard enough to get them to your mobile site, let alone going to the Play Store or iTunes to download the app.

Location Targeting: Engaging the mobile car shopper when the timing’s right

Remember those Apple iPhone ads for Siri?  “Siri, remind me when I get home to take out the trash”.

Admittedly Siri has had her bad PR as of late – more useful as a tool to raise blood pressure than provide convenience. While we can debate the usefulness of Siri, I want to focus your attention on the location targeting technology at play in that commercial. Your iPhone is able to give you useful information when the timing’s right. In this example it’s arriving home and taking out the garbage. In other examples it can be a coupon or offer at the time you’re purchasing a product.

In a commercial setting Location Targeting derives the most benefit with retailers who rely on timing to engage their customer. For large ticket retailers, such as dealers, convenience and timing of the message is key.

location_targeting-300x205.jpg


How valuable would it be to chat with your customer the moment they walk onto a competitor lot? How valuable would it be to send an oil change coupon to your customer the minute they pull into a quick lube station?

For the first time we are able to influence a customer precisely at the moment of decision.

Let me give you an example:

I was shared a story by a GM who used Location Targeting for a Saturday only offer:

“Best Price Match Offer + $500 cash.  Today only.”

The dealer targeted 5 competitor lots. On that Saturday alone, 7 shoppers brought their phones into the store and 3 purchased vehicles from the offer.

The dealer above is a prime example of catching a customer at the time of decision.

Let’s look at technically how Location Targeting works.

  1. Get the download.
     App-based location targeting is tied to, you guessed it, a mobile app.  Be it Android or iOS, the automotive shopper must first have installed your dealer app on his or her device.  The app does not need to be running and the phone does not need to be turned on.
  2. Identify targeted locations.
    Location Targeting by definition delivers a coupon or offer to the user based on their location.  Therefore, we need to identify up to 5 physical locations of interest.  Many dealers choose competitor lots or quick lube stores.
  3. Compose the offer/coupon.
    The coupon or offer should correspond with the location targeted.  For example, if we had chosen a competitor’s lot, our offer could centered around a price match offer.  If we had chosen a 3rd party quick lube location, a service scheduling discount would be most applicable.
  4. All set: Location Targeting is Active.
    When a customer visits one of the five targeted locations, a message with the coupon or offer instantly appears on their smartphone.  Should the customer choose to engage with the message, they are taken to the app for redemption or next steps.

Your goal with Location Targeting should be a showroom visit.  Incentivize your customer to visit your store by motivating them when the timing’s right.

What other incentives or offers work well when delivered at the moment of decision?
“Claim Your $25 Starbucks Gift Card with a Test Drive of any Vehicle”

“Your $19.95 Oil Change Coupon is Available”

Do you think Location Targeting works best pre-sale or post-sale?

How else could you use Location Targeting with your store? Let us know in the comments!

Cars.com Re-targeting Program - What do you think?

Latest HOT Discussion in the Forum

Re-targeting and Cars.com version of Re-targeting

Hello,

I'm wondering how much money everyone spends on re-targeting Some of you may be paying for it and don't know that you are. Especially if you market with Cobalt. Re-targeting seems to be the new big thing, and Cars.com is coming out with there version of this package on June 3rd. The second question I have is how many of you have heard about this program?

I know they have made test runs in bigger markets like Atlanta. I would love to hear from someone in one of these markets. For those who don't know about this program I will give you some details so you can give me your feedback.

First, there are different types of re-targeting The basic type is when someone goes to your dealer website a cookie placed on there computer and your online ad's will start popping up on that computer when the online shopper is on other various websites. One can even push Silverado ad's to an online shopper that was looking at Silverado's on your website.

Cars.com is coming out with a re-targeting package that goes something like this. When a local shopper in your local market searches for the make you carry then your dealers "cookie" is locked into that customer for 60 days. That customer will see your dealers ad's across various websites that cars.com is affiliated with which is in the millions, from what they are telling me. For example: we are a Chevrolet dealership. If a customer that is local to us, the program is based off of zip codes goes on cars.com and searches for any Chevrolet then that customer will now start seeing my dealer ad's on many other websites.

Here is where it gets interesting. This varies by market, but in my market, New Orleans LMA, they are only allowing two Chevrolet dealers to participate. One Chevrolet dealer can buy both spots if they choose. The cost varies by market and it's actually fairly reasonable if you ask me. Supposedly the spots in Atlanta have already sold out according to the cars.com rep, but of course that's what they would say.

What is everyone's opinion on this, and have you heard about it yet?

Click here to read comments and join the discussion

Cars.com Launches Cars360

Cars.com Launches Cars360 to Help Automotive Dealers Influence Local Car Shoppers Throughout Their Online Journey

CHICAGO – Cars.com, the premier online resource for buying and selling new and used cars, launched Cars360, an audience extension solution designed to help automotive dealerships extend their reach and influence Cars.com shoppers even after they have left the site. As consumers spend more time online and longer periods of time in-market, Cars360 keeps a dealer’s brand top-of-mind throughout the consumer’s online journey by targeting relevant, local car shoppers across a network of hundreds of thousands of websites.

“Car shoppers spend as long as 19 weeks in market to purchase a vehicle, and during that process, they spend over 20 hours a week online. They’re browsing auto websites, but they’re also reading news sites, checking sports scores, planning out their weekends, shopping online or checking email,” said Rock Irvin, Manager of Data & Partnerships, Cars.com. “Cars360 offers additional exposure to a highly targeted audience of local in-market shoppers who have expressed interest in a dealership’s make on Cars.com. The dealership’s brand will be seen by those shoppers across the web, providing dealers with a unique branding opportunity to influence potential customers even when they are not shopping on Cars.com.”

Cars360 does not require manual setup and regular maintenance; dealers simply select their vehicle make and market, then either work with Cars.com’s graphic design team to create their ads* or supply their own creative. Cars.com then manages the process for them by tracking the vehicle searches completed by more than 12 million monthly unique visitors to Cars.com, driving awareness via display ads linking to either a dealership’s website or to their Dealer Profile on Cars.com.

While retargeting solutions can be effective in helping dealers re-engage shoppers who have already visited their dealership website, Cars360 draws upon Cars.com’s vast, high-quality audience of in-market car shoppers to drive new traffic to a dealership’s website or Cars.com Dealer Profile. And unlike behavioral targeting, which targets individuals based on inferred shopping behavior, Cars360 reaches consumers who have explicitly demonstrated in-market shopping behavior by searching for a particular make on Cars.com.

For more information, dealers can contact their local sales representative or visit dealers.cars.com/Cars360.

*Select markets only.

ABOUT CARS.COM
Cars.com is an award-winning online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools. Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

ActivEngage Employees Raise $2,600 for Cancer Research and Relay For Life

May 21, 2013 (Orlando, FL) -- ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, and its employees participated in a local Relay For Life event and raised over $2,600 for the American Cancer Society. ActivEngage began participating in the Relay for Life event two years ago and were excited to continue the tradition in 2013.

Relay For Life is an event to honor cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to the disease, and to help raise funds for cancer research. The relay includes teams from multiple organizations coming together to stay overnight on a track or path at a high school, park, or fairground. Members must continue to walk or run along the track all night, with at least one participant on the track at all times to symbolically represent how cancer does not sleep.

In the months before the event, committee positions were assigned to ActivEngage’s Management staff and Virtual Sales Assistants (VSAs) interested in participating, and they worked diligently with Relay For Life to plan the setup, sponsors, entertainment, and round up more supporters and funds. In fact, 50 percent of the main committee members in charge of organizing the event were dedicated ActivEngage employees. Employees also worked hard to raise funds for the event by holding bake sales and a chili cook-off, having spirit weeks, and by dedicating symbolic paper feet to cancer victims. They even had a Foot Race between employees, where teams would pay $1 per foot and $2 to steal a foot. In that 12 hour period, ActivEngage VSAs raised $700.

Carol Marshall, the Director of Virtual Sales, whose mother died of cancer and has battled cancer herself since 1998, was the Event Chairman for Relay For Life. Speaking on the importance of the event, she said, “Relay For Life is a meaningful event for our company and that is why we participate in it every year. Seeing employees take their time and energy to put this together, getting to know them better during the event, and realizing the people you work with every day are struggling with some of the same hardships you’ve gone through - it really brings everyone together for a common mission.”

On Saturday, April 27, 30 ActivEngage employees attended the Relay event at Winter Springs high school.The entire event raised over $30,000 and 25 teams from various organizations participated. The event’s theme this year was Superheros, and ActivEngage chose Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as their superhero of choice.

To learn about local Relay for Life events in your community, go to http://www.relayforlife.org/learn/index

About ActivEngage:

ActivEngage (www.activengage.com) is the most trusted brand in automotive live chat. Our proprietary chat software, real-time business intelligence and fully-managed chat solution inspire conversations that create powerful first impressions and lasting relationships between the website shopper and the dealership. Each solution was created to meet the specific needs of our dealership customers. ActivEngage is #121 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing American companies, ranked #20 on the Tech 200 national list, and received the first ever Inc. Hire Power Award for the creation of American jobs.

Facebook Testing Ads, Reviews, Drilling Down Search

Facebook has been very busy lately- figuring out how to monetize Graph Search, while improving its functionality.

The process of monetizing Graph Search comes as a welcome addition for Facebook investors.

Facebook currently has a limited monetization focus with search ads, which are not targeted to the user’s search criteria. Instead, standard targeting and retargeting methods are used. Ads appear at the bottom of the page only if there are multiple pages of search results. These ads are currently targeted like other Facebook ads; based on the user’s age, gender, location, employer, Likes, and previous sites visited.

A much more powerful option for advertisers would be to allow them to target specific keywords. Lower funnel keywords would be much more valuable to advertisers and could allow Facebook to command a much higher rate. Users would be shown relevant ads from businesses that have purchased those specific keywords within a specific geographic region. Perhaps Facebook will move in this direction in the future with Graph Search.

The latest Facebook Graph Search update, allowing users to drill down and refine searches, was unannounced, just as the new right-side menu rolled out. This new feature not only makes life easier on the user, it also prompts them to find additional people or relevant businesses.

Here is a screen shot of Graph Search for the broad category of "Car dealerships” --

3.png

Now if I drill down to find only those dealerships "liked by my Friends” and ones located in Nashville, TN, I get the following results:

2.png


Clearly Facebook is exposing more of their search graph to the user, enabling them to visualize drill down opportunities. The user is also now prompted to Extend This Search, by finding photos or videos from the businesses listed, or noting which friends had visited them.

How can dealers maximize their opportunities with this new search drill down? Make sure the dealership is categorized correctly, first of all. Next, a large number of Likes on the dealership’s business page and properly coded location are important.

In playing around more with broader searches, I began to find reviews with star ratings for some heavily visited venues. In the Cincinnati, OH area, just searching for Places presents the following:

1.png


The bad news for the automotive industry is that if the user simply searches for Places with no category chosen, there are no relevant categories in the drop down menu. A user would need to enter something like "car dealerships” or "oil lube & filter services” in the top Graph Search box in order to see your dealership listed. Perhaps that too will change in the future!

It is unclear exactly how the star ratings next to some of these very popular venues are calculated. I ran a few comparisons of venues on Yelp and Foursquare, and based on the large number of non-matches, Facebook is not republishing them. It looks like they may be based on Likes, check-ins, mentions, and general PTAT ("People Talking About This”- Facebook’s algorithm on unique users who have created a "story” about a page). This would be similar to Foursquare’s algorithm, based on Likes, Check-ins, popularity, loyalty, and local expertise.

If, in fact, the Facebook reviews are an internal quality algorithm, dealers truly need to ramp up their social efforts. It’s important to not only find new ways to increase business page Likes, but increase engagement (check-ins and other PTAT activities). Technology is constantly evolving, so attempting to manage every end point is futile. The best strategy is to manage the one constant in today’s dealerships- consumer relationships. This is the core of reputation management.... offline strategies that enhance the online social environment.

Reputation Management was the first concrete step into socializing search and was the foundational piece of creating a truly local online experience. At its core, Reputation is about consumer engagement. A winning Reputation strategy can be measured by the interactions of a community and by the willingness for businesses to participate and evolve. The Facebook Graph Search team will continue to refine this very important new tool, both adding to the functionality, as well as creating new options to monetize with advertisers.

I’ll continue to monitor it closely, and share my findings.

How to Get More Of Your Dealers Mobile Emails Opened

Thanks Kevin and Jeff.
Jeff, we've tested icons before and haven't been able to see that much of an improvement in open rates. Here's an article from Bronto on using symbols: 
And here's a link to a listing of symbols: Miscellaneous Symbols - Wikipedia
I think the challenge is finding easy to view symbols that are relevant.

How to Get More Of Your Dealers Mobile Emails Opened



Emails opened on mobile devices are now surpassing webmail and desktops

Here are some recent stats from Litmus for March of 2013:

  • 25% of emails were opened through Webmail (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.)
  • 32% through Desktop (Outlook, etc.)
  • 43% with Smartphones (iPhone, etc.)

Coding tips for optimizing your emails for mobile are beyond the scope of this post, but there is one easy trick you can implement for all of your emails that will make your mobile opens more effective: take advantage of your preheader!

A preheader is the line or two of text at the very top of your email. When you look at your inbox on your phone, it is the two lines of type that show up right below the email’s subject line.

Here are some examples:

preheader.jpg

The importance of pre-headers for mobile email

When people are triaging their mobile inbox emails and deciding what to open or delete, they often make that determination by looking at: who it is from, what the subject line is, and what the preheader says.

Do you really want to waste the valuable preheader area with information such as:

  • An unsubscribe link
  • Edit preferences link
  • Forward to a friend link
  • Permission reminder
  • A request to "whitelist" the sender (add the sender to the recipient's address book)

When instead you could use this space to give your reader another enticing reason to open your email. Some numbers to consider…

You have about:
25 Characters for your From Name

35 Characters for your Subject Line

85 Characters for your Preheader

Are you making the most of every character in your emails or are you wasting them?

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