New marketing manager needs help

[ErdmanMotors]

I have recently transitioned from an IT position in a group of dealerships (Toyota, Nissan and Cadillac) to a marketing position. I just started on and off helping with the websites, getting and optimizing leads, and streamlining our internet sales process and after almost a year of this management liked what I was doing and has made me a marketing manager. That being said they are looking to get monthly marketing presentations on what were doing and what the competition is doing, ideas, etc...

I have no formal marketing training but what ive been doing has been working but now it's time to take my job to the next level with internet and eventually print, mail and more. If any of you guys have any ideas on what you have been doing as far as planning and presentations for upper management I would be curious to know. I have been lurking the forums for awhile now and I know there are some great ideas out there.

Thanks in advance and I'm ears wide open.

 

[yagoparamo]

Mike,

Jump to the first chance that you have to a Brian Pash seminar, Driving sales, or Digital dealer. It will be like College in steroids.

I know a bit about this stuff (at least more than Kermit the Frog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and I will be at Pash seminar next week in Vegas.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Hey Ryan,

Welcome to the forum and congrats on stepping out of the shadows with your first post. It always interests me to see how many people are reading as guests and not logged in.

Lean on your Vendors! The good ones will really appreciate it too. Pick one or two a month and ask them to prepare a health checkup for your store. Ask them to put together a What are we doing well, What can we improve on without increasing spend, What is going on in the market in your area of expertise that we need to be aware of and prepare for? doc or powerpoint and review it with them. Then you present to your management team as a status update. I've taken the opportunity to do this with a lot of my dealers and it is a great exercise for both parties. In 10 minutes the vendor gets the chance to reestablish their value proposition and be held accountable for their performance and the dealer gets reminded of the often no-cost improvements they can make with a current vendor and can hold themselves accountable for the full use of a product or service they are already paying for. Win-Win.

On the Vendor side of the fence I work the hardest for the dealers that are willing to really partner and engage with me, the ones that recognize that they are paying for a service and expect service/market intelligence out of me. It has nothing to do with spend either. I think every GOOD vendor really wants to be a Partner, but sometimes that is tough when the relationship isn't reciprocal. Take time to leverage your vendors and I think you'll have plenty of stuff to present to your management team, and a better operation too.

This may not have been what you were looking for, but I hope it helps in some way.

 

[merritt]

Great post, Ryan.

Yes. Lean on your vendors. All those reports and more should be available at your fingertips for quick retrieval.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

You can drive all the leads you want to your store, but if your moment of first truth processes are broken, you're just going to spin your wheels.

 

[yagoparamo]

You can drive all the leads you want to your store, but if your moment of first truth processes are broken, you're just going to spin your wheels.

View attachment 862

I really like this simple post. It has so much to offer.

We had a long conversation in the office about dealers trying to achieve better sales by buying all kinds of digital tools--videos, chat, CRM, ILM, photos in a booth, QR codes, SEO, etc but inventing no money in their sales team.

We even found one of these new technology illuminated dealers where one guy (uno!) out of the entire team had a smart phone (the rest had flip phones).

I'm a 90% digital vendor, but nothing of what I do will work unless there is a top to bottom team behind it at the dealer to work it.