If you're a small business owner trying to keep your head above water, who do you listen to in helping you decide the best outcome? Whom do you trust to have the right answers? Do you look for experience? What course of action should you follow? What qualities do you want your leader to have? As a business owner, do you have a plan? How about a marketing plan?



Do You Make Decisions Based On Principle, On Facts?

I like to deal with the facts. Therefore, let's take one sector of our economy that I know a little something about. I have been marketing for the retail automobile industry for over two decades. This industry, like many others, are wishing they could discover a fresh, new marketing approach or campaign, that could magically increase buyer activity among local shoppers in today's tough economic climate. Auto dealers throughout the country are staying with methods that they find tried and true, according to Auto Remarketing, an automotive newsletter based in North Carolina.

Selling: Time To Go Back To Basics

Some dealerships are finding success with such events like special monthly activities to draw in much needed traffic and hopefully, buyers. Some dealers have opened up added used car lots that attract buyers looking for lower priced cars. Others have said they are going after New Referrals and still others are looking to the internet to bring activity to their showrooms. No matter which course of action is taken, it all boils down to rolling up your sleeves and applying some extra elbow grease to those particular ventures. Many dealers, when questioned, said they weren't doing anything new and different, but they were reapplying some of the old basic Principles of Selling. Those basics involve direct mail, contacting their customer base and trying to do relationship marketing. This is very important because too many dealers and small business in general, do very little, if any at all, follow up. You need to fix your follow-up. And if you think that by sending out a letter, brochure, postcard, or whatever, every three months is going fix your follow up; save your money. Unless you are willing to spend the time and effort for what it takes to keep in touch with your customer once a month, you're kidding yourself. In those 90 days between your mailings, phone calls or emails, your competitor is banging on their door repeatedly. This is your wake-up call to fixing your follow up system. This should be your number one priority right now.

What Is Working Now?

Many dealerships are giving various marketing methods a go in an attempt to lure customers to their showroom floors. Some of the old traditional methods are being retired. We are seeing a deep decline in newspaper readership. Many dealers have not renewed their contracts because of poor responses using the classifieds. Television advertising has soared in price and with hundreds of channels to choose from makes it difficult to test them all. TV is a saturation medium and unless you're prepared to spend a lot of money, this makes this choice too expensive for many. Radio is still a good buy in many parts of the country. But this too is a saturation medium. The other downside to all three of these sources of advertising is the fact that they are hard to track. When you are spending ad dollars, don't you want to know how effective your ads are? There are only two mediums that can give you the feedback you want for your ad dollars and that is Direct Mail and the Internet.

Many dealers have opened an internet department. The future for the retail automobile dealer is going to be in using the internet and how effective you are in using your internet department. Do you have a website? If you do and it isn't user friendly, or it doesn't offer good feedback to your customer, you may have missed the point of having a website. Your website needs to be a reflection of you. If all you want to do is put up a site giving prices and pictures of cars you'll lose a prospect. They have questions and they want answers.

What Can You Do To Get More Prospects, More Buyers

There are many ways to encourage prospects to come to you. That is a topic for another day. But for right now you can Fix Your Follow-Up. Let them know that you are still in business to serve them and that your doors are wide open.

Copyright (c) 2008 Hal Hoadley