I think a lot of people get offended by Grant on this one because they take it personally. If what he's saying doesn't apply to you in particular then you should disregard it.

On the other hand, some of us get ticked off because we don't like to hear things like that, even when they are true. I am a fan of positive motivation and Grant has, over the years, always told managers that they need to be more positive when they speak to their people so it's a bit contradicting to then say "this sucks that you're doing" and "this other thing about you suck" but at the end of the day there really are some folks out there who fit what he described exactly.

There are some folks who can benefit by one or two things he said. I know that for me, I try to see if there is a little truth that I can grow from in everything rather than getting offended by the stuff that doesn't pertain to me personally anyway.

Going all the way back to Jerry's comment I have to say I agree. The reason most salespeople aren't successful is that they don't PROSPECT the right way.

It isn't because they're lazy or arrogant. It's because their manager handed them some business cards, showed them a board full of keys and said 'go get 'em tiger, remember 100% T.O., they don't leave without me talking to them'.

Sadly, that happens today at stores all over the country. That said, we can't blame it on our managers because most of them got shitty training too. So at the heart of things, Grant is 100% right. We have to look in the mirror and say to ourselves: "I chose to work in this industry and if nobody else will teach me how to do it well I'll take it upon myself to find the resources to succeed...period."

We are 100% responsible for our success and failure aren't we?

I'm glad i retrained for a new profession. I really believe that i was a good sales rep, maybe not a high flyer, but steady.

I was ruined, by asshole sales managers, who were incompetent, and ego maniacs.

I never thought i would hate this profession, but i believe the sales rep will soon be a dinosaur. People can buy with a mouse click.

People are educated, they don't need a rep to lie to them. I can call in an order to any old CSR. It won't be long and sales people will be nothing more than kiosks.

Tim, I am only saying that Cardone is wrong in this video. Can you imagine Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, or Herman Sazarosky, telling their players they suck in order to motivate them to win? This is a self aggrandizing, narcissistic, diatribe by a guy who has not sold cars this century.
He falls in the same category of “DA MAN” who last sold a car during the Nixon administration. Who ever got better by being told they suck? Electronic templates can get stale and you do have to keep them fresh. You attract more humming birds with sweet water than salt water.
Cardone owes every sales person an apology. Sales people are as good as the people that manage them. If they suck it’s the managers fault for not making them better or firing them. The coaches at San Diego couldn’t make Drew Brees a winner. It took a real coach at New Orleans to coach Drew and his teammates into World Champions. I guarantee you they were never told they suck while they were building their championship team.

Do our salespeople really suck? The Elephant in the Show Room is this: We get what we pay for. I've worked with some stellar salespeople in my life, and there are some on the typical car floor. However, the typical SALESperson isn't compensated for being stellar. Here's a quote from a salesmanager I know, as of last year: "Well, if they were any kind of GOOD salespeople, they would have been promoted to management!" . . . Think on that statement, folks--it really says it all for our industry.

Krissy,

You obviously did not get my point. You made the comment that word tracks don't work online. I think what you meant to say is that the SAME word tracks that work "belly to belly" don't necessarily also work online. But if you are sending templates (even if you change them now and then in an effort to find out what works), you are using word tracks...most likely the wrong ones.

As for me sucking, well, I can tell you that I have invested in continuing education, I'm always hungry for new ideas, constantly critique myself, practice and rehearse my techniques, seek guidance from within and outside of our industry...and, while I have continually improved not only my skills but my title and my position and my lot in life, I still have a long way to go.

Unfortunately, most salespeople in this industry I have encountered (IS"M" or otherwise) are not like me. And if you are to be honest with yourself, you will admit that most YOU have encountered are not like me (and maybe even you) either. I know they are out there, but let's be honest, we are few and far between. Most salespeople don't want to become professionals (hence the golf analogy in my last post), and therefore THEY SUCK.

I'm far from "old school," Kris. I'm 30. And old school mentality disgusts me. All these guys who think that just because something worked 25 years ago it will work today will be replaced by people like you and me. And like Grant says, "a business card does not make you a salesperson" any more than a set of golf clubs makes you a golfer.

And by the way, those who have reported to me on a daily basis, even those I have fired, respect me and I'm proud to call most of them my true friends to this day. They respect me because I never asked them to do anything that I wasn't willing to do myself...all I ever asked of them was to continually improve themselves. You don't have to feel sorry for anybody who reported to me.

I wish I could post my full real name here for full disclosure and so you wouldn't have to take my word for it, but because I was lured away from retail, I now have company policies to abide by that prohibit me from making comments like this one on a forum such as this. I know, now you're going to call me a sell out or call me weak for hiding behind a nickname.

Timmy, speak for yourself. I would like to see where you get the 99% stat that everybody sends out the same stuff. The ISM's I know are always trying new processes and templates out to respond back to their customers. Sales people DO NOT suck! Maybe you are speaking about yourself sucking. People with your attitude are thankfully getting out of our industry. You’re on a "new school" site like Dealerrefresh.com with that "old school" BS mind think. You have obviously never been a leader in a store. You may have the title, but you are no leader. Cardone's stuff is good for taking ups and word tracks once they are belly to belly with a customer. No argument there. However, calling everybody a weak suck and belittling their commitment is crap. Shawn Morse is 100% correct in saying that there is a lot more to building a team than just telling everybody they suck, say a few swear words and calling that a sales meeting. Maybe back in 1952 when the Edsel was flooding show room floors and or when they were selling covered wagons. That junk does not work in today's show rooms or in any modern sales force. I feel sorry for anybody that would have to report to you on a daily basis.

Reminds me of Glen Gary Glen Ross...ABC always be closing and Coffee is for Closers.There are too many good people in the business today for this approach to work effectively in my opinion. I did not see where he offered any advice or training, just hammering how bad "you suck". It is OK to try and get their attention but you have to give them something to take away from the meeting that would make them better, I did see that.

I love the "word tracks don't work online" comment!

Then why do 99% of ISM's still send out the same obviously templated, ineffective auto response (and "personal" response) they have been sending since they got "promoted?"

And Kris: there is no "if" in salespeople sucking. They do suck, just like golfers. Except the professionals. Or the ones that at the very least TRY to make themselves better.

I think this is insulting. It is the opposite in what we should be preaching in our sales departments today. You can be a hard ass without being an A-Hole. With all due respect, Grant go into any showroom today as John Smith, under cover, no hair product or three piece suit, take ups and or work on an internet team (film it) and see how you do. I don’t think your fire and brim stone theatrics will hold up. Try working on the pay plans that most dealers have today. Selling has changed from when you were selling in 1952. It is a lot easier said than done. You are great for word tracks, the best in fact. Word tracks don’t work online. This last year has been tough on everybody. If sales people are struggling is not because they suck or they are not trying. Read any online source and you will see that the economy is getting worse not better. The “Truth” is Grant, that Unemployment rises in 30 states in January.

The “Truth” is that instead of kicking people when they are down, you build them back up. Telling people they suck gets nobody nowhere. For a guy who trains sales people for a living I thought you would have known better than to be a condescending negative naysayer.

When I watched the video in the beginning I thought he was talking to management.

I agree with Hagen and jeff on this one. Why be so negative and where do you draw the line? You guys should check out this video on Dale Pollak's site:


The sales manager was fired after the cell phone video got to management.

Jeff,

That is old hat for Grant,. He just retooled it a little. I prefer this one.

Login to view embedded media View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KYBV73OvZI

I think that if we as humans could listen past the style of the delivery and instead ask if any of this applies to us in any way, there is a growth oppurtunity. If an oppurtunity is discovered, we have a chance for growth. Watching from that vantage point had me not hear the tone, just the possibilities.

I don't like anything that is negative towards anyone's family situation that is supposed to motivate. As well, a Grant Cardone quote about sales meetings seems to take another tack: "Focus on the 'wins not the losses! Take a few minutes at every meeting to congratulate salespeople for any and all completed goals, closed deals, and successes. Praise reinforces positive behavior and encourages everyone to do well. Keep the discussion relevant and don't allow people to present problems unless they also have potential solutions."

I watched this a second time with an assumption that he was talking to the dealer instead of the salesperson. In this case, I think he was right on target IMO..

There is too much old thinking that needs to evaporate..

Not my type of training. I've become successful by building my sales people as individuals and promoting the success that they have the natural building blocks for. Not cutting them down so that they are open receptive to listen to a new set of rules...

Though he does seem sharp.. Maybe he's got a good book.

Grant didn't buy that nice suit giving out bad advice. I loved that video! That probably applies to a lot of people, and not just salespeople. Now let's see, P-R-O-S-P-E-C-T-I-N-G.

Jeff, thanks for the mention about CAR-Research XRM in your NADA overview. The show was very successful for us, and we have been swamped with requests for demo's and presentations. I just wanted to mention also, that I have had numerous calls and emails from dealers wanting more information about CAR-Research after reading your comments about us. The notice has been great for us, and we appreciate your stopping by our booth and taking a look at our new platform. Thanks again.

I'm curious about the HomeNet eBay/Edmunds thing mentioned above, but I can't find it on their website... does this require you to already be their customer?

So DealerMouth?
Create Micro Sites for each sales rep?
I thought this was an SEO no-no?
>search engines do not want to see multiple sites with similar or the duplicate content.. (The Problem with Multiple Websites and Duplicate Content - Manning Search Marketing )

Issues... downgrade your rankings on search engines... search engines will pick only one page for the duplicate content... stop indexing dealership main pages? Remove dealership from index as this is considered Black Hat SEO.

Does a dealer really want his sales rep to have his main SEO keyword searches going to the sales rep page or the dealership page?

Seems this is poorly thought out. If you want special pages for a rep... just give it to them on the main web site? We have all seen those meet the dealership - where most of them are BLANK... do you really thing sales reps are able to do this? I don't see it now on those web systems that have a "meet our team". Most of those have an "under construction" notice on them.

Not sure I get this?

Give'em a Facebook or Twitter account if they have something to say... but not a competing web site in their local market.

What am I missing here?

(FYI- no pitch here but...Offers Network (icarsandtrucks, autodealermls, utubeautos) helps dealers create YouTube videos of dealer inventory and also post to Facebook and Twitter... thus giving them legal back links to their web site and enhancing their overall SEO in a market.)

Many businesses including the auto industry are wrestling with how to handle all that is being thrown at them social media wise. The bottom line is that we can either continue to attempt to communicate with our customers the way we always have or join them in communicating the way they prefer to.

Last week I got a message on facebook from a service customer that had a magnetic sign damaged in our car wash after a service appointment.

This customer’s first form of contact to address the issue was through facebook!

She did not do it in an open forum where it could have taken a negative spin, but I am willing to bet if I had not handled the situation to her satisfaction she would have taken it to the wall.

The old way of talking at our customers is all but over. We now have the ability to stay engaged with them in a social manner, have a dialog with loyal customers, potential customers and yes the disgruntled customer. The key here is to be a part of the conversation, just be a good party guest.

The average facebook and twitter user knows better than most car dealers how to behave and communicate via social media so don’t fear them. Customers will reach out to you for any number of reasons. You will find yourself answering credit and finance questions. They will ask you about recommended service and warranty questions. Sometimes they will IM you and sometimes write them on your wall. This is where your customers are and this is how they choose to communicate.

Come on in the waters fine.

While there is nothing to disagree with in the post or comments; it is all dead on. Dealers do need to realize that even though the medium has changed and the volume of people that are exposed to news about your dealership (positive or negative) has greatly increased, that the basics of business are still the same. Create an environment that your employees are proud to tell their friends and family where they work. With NADA having just taken place in the land of Disney where image is everything. The "cast members" have always been happy and willing to to lend a hand well before social networking. Disney has done this by creating the "happiest place on earth" for the employees and the guests. This kind of work place is contagious and viral because it creates positive employee moral and self esteem which in turn creates great customer experiences.

So create your Social Networking strategy from the inside out with the basics and you will be successful.

I relate to Alex's frustration over the ignorance of old school dealers who ignore the fact that change is a constant in the auto industry. The Internet represents the natural evolution of the buying and selling processes that fuel the retail auto industry. Technology has always accentuated human nature which is another constant that should be embraced, not challenged.

Specifically, marketing platforms that integrate social networking engines into their online solutions are already being introduced to allow dealers to market to social networking communities from the inside out vs. from the outside in by engaging the customers in the process. Ask a Friend/Tell a Friend functions that initiate C2C comments vs B2C comments are allowing dealers to leverage their current traffic to their virtual showrooms by spreading a viral message to increase their top of the mind awareness to sell more cars. Given Google's recent announcement that they are weighting real time social networking in their search algorithms it is critical for dealers to tie into this SEO tool. This process is not new, it used to be called networking and selling to your spheres of influence. The Internet and the new applications that have been built to maximize the R.O.I. for the dealers that are using it have simply provided efficiencies and scalability that could not be replicated in the real world.

As far as the salesman's role in social networking and the potential abuse that Alex and previous replies so correctly pointed out, once again new technology has provided the solution. New applications allow a dealership to empower their staff to sell themselves as well as the dealership to friends, family and new customers by hosting individual websites for their salespeople. These sites extend the SEO of the dealership through direct links with integrated meta tags, headlines and search words allowing the salespeople to host their own online "Why Buy Here" book that links to the dealer's inventory as well as Facebook, MySpace and the other social networks that the salespeople can and should access to extend their family of friends - real and virtual. More importantly, all of their online activity is captured in an R.O.I. analytic tool that allows the dealer and his managers to monitor their activities so they can inspect what they expect from their salespeople when they are online.

The point is that the controls that are needed - as suggested by this post and the replies - to monetize social networking and the Internet are already here for those dealers that get it! As for those dealers that don't, no worries; they won't be around long enough to matter!

Great article. I agree with everything you had to say. I think that we all need to be social and keep our names out there. I also think that as we start to interact with our consumers on facebook and Twitter we should learn to be smart with the content we put out there. My dealership has a facebook, staff members, car people, and customers are friends with the profile. I discovered one of my girls from my interet department with sold wild pictures. I completley gave her a hard time about it. I was teaching her how she needs to have a good image. You never know who will see you your pictures. You never know what kind of opportunities you can miss in life over the content you up. I learned that lesson a lot as I got older and made mistakes on facebook in the past. You must use discretion at all times. It will keep your image positive and it will make you a more serious person in life. This is so true. I love the social networking stuff as most of the people reading this know about me. However, I devote a small portion of my time to facebook and Twitter. I devote another portion to having the best reviews possible and keeping a nice image for my huggable dealer. For such a new dealership we really have leveraging reviews and they do help us produce results. Dealerrater has taught me well and the value of it. I like to spend the rest of my time getting down to the nitty gritty Koch is getting the people in and producing large amounts of traffic in the showroom. I use these tools to leverage how I get people in. But at the end of the day phone skills and salesmanship is the most important thing. In my opinion I believe that we need to have a balance of priorities especially as ecommerce directors where the job has ever increasing responsibilities. I still believe in growing the networks and being very active. We must be humble, very careful, and master using the technologies but not forgetting what is most important for our buisness at the end of the day.

Here here! Alex- short succinct and to the point! There has been a paradigm shift in the business world of late, and that is the shift of power and influence from the business to that of the consumers, and to a great extent the employees.

By enacting the Fourth Reich, employees will act out and bash the organization at every opportunity. Look at what happened last year in Iran with the protests. People were Tweeting and youtubing the demonstrations in the street. Horrific violence and killings took place.

The point: The threat of losing my job pales in comparison to the threat of a tyranny telling me what to do (or what NOT to do) when taken in context. By "outlawing" blogging or F-booking, interest will only be fostered and grow like wildfire.

Embrace it, nurture it and roll it out as a part of the company's new culture. Change is not all that bad after all, is it?