Century Interactive is on the 7th floor of a cool office building in Dallas, TX. To our right, as we look out, is Downtown Dallas. To our left, and no more than a pitching wedge away, is a bustling Whole Foods. It’s a great spot for a high end grocery store and they do really well. Whole Foods is smart. Really smart.

They offer hands on events at the store. These fun interactive sessions like cooking classes, baking classes, sit down meals, barbeque skills sessions, and wine tastings. A couple months ago, I forked over $40 for myself and a date to participate in a wine tasting class. It was fun, informative, and we bought a couple bottles to take home.

Here’s why Whole Foods is smart: They aren’t getting rich from my $40 to attend the class and while they’re happy I purchased on the spot, that’s not the end game. The end game is for me to leave the class feeling like a “Wine Guy.” I’m a guy who drinks wine. I’m the wine drinker in my group of friends. I’m the guy who knows a little about wine. I’m the guy who can recommend wine. Ultimately….I’m the guy who shops at Whole Foods for wine.

Quite literally, I walk to Whole Foods after a long day to grab a decent bottle of wine and fresh food. Note that I’m not a rich fancy wine connoisseur. My beer of choice is Miller Lite and I have no shame in grabbing Chipotle three days in a row. However, my trips to Whole Foods are routine. They don’t just occur on work days when location proves convenient. I drive past other grocery and liquor stores to get there.

What has Whole Foods done? 

They have given me a persona. Along with brother, son, friend, and college football fanatic, my “Wine Guy” persona is important to me and it keeps me coming back for more.

Neuroscientists recognize that humans create these personas in order to build a desired self-image. They help us understand the world. They help us understand each other. They motivate us. Ask yourself, what is your professional persona?

I recently read the book How to be a High School Superstar by Cal Newport. It’s a little bizarre that a grown man with no kids read a book about how high schoolers can get into the best colleges, but there was big picture reason. Newport sees a trend where students with average grades are getting into these top tier schools because they have a persona. 

These students identify a passion, become an expert, and develop a persona. They don’t sign up for every single academic honor society and pointless club. That model has lost its luster. Instead they become heavily involved in things like marine biology, work to find alternative energy, or start small tech companies.  Their genuine interests create personas. They have fascinating stories to tell curious college admissions counselors. They have a professional persona before they can buy cigarettes.

We can learn a lot from these young superstars. I again ask you, what’s your professional persona?

Are you THE go to person for at your dealership, company, or in the industry?  If you left your position today, what would the work environment instantly lose and miss greatly?  What story will you have to tell in your next job interview?

Personas are all around us.  Some are more serious than others. Some happen naturally. Some occur over time. All take a little effort and creativity. Your persona gives your professional life personality and value. Selfishly, it makes you irreplaceable. It gives you a personal brand. Not just a stereotype, but a legitimate actionable work role and function:
- The person who is a whiz at reputation management
- The person who handles all the marketing vendor relationships
- The person who completely owns a certain big time client relationship
- The person who consistently owns and rocks phone ups
- The person who hits the outbound phones are harder than anyone else
- The person who organizes office happy hours or company outings
- The person who is active in the online automotive community

Look around our industry. Maybe without even realizing it, intelligent people and companies work hard to create personas:

• Jeff Kershner = DealerRefresh.
  
• Alex Snyder and Joe Pistell are Mr. Product
  
• Jerry Thibeau is THE Phone Ninja.
  
• Ryan Thompson and Mitch Gallant are our Friends to the North
  
• Malinda Terreri is THE newsletter resource
  
• Ryan Leslie OWNS reputation management

I ask you again, what’s your professional persona?


Feel free to ad to my list industry professional personas in the comments.

Honor the Sacred WIIFM

For decades now, salespeople have been trained to honor the sacred WIIFM Principle (What’s in it for Me?) in everything they do. The rationale being that the more a salesperson can help his customers understand how the product will meet the needs of their unique situations, the more likely the customer will be to buy it.

Knowing that the kind of people who go into sales are often the type who enjoy talking about themselves, the WIIFM principle provides a tool for keeping the presentation on track and paving the road toward that all-important yes.

But that was then, and now, we need more.

These days, customers need a different kind of help to lead them to that yes, so I suggest that we as digital marketers add a new concept to the WIIFM Principle, which I have dubbed The TCBM Principle, or That Could Be Me. This concept argues that many consumers no longer want to be like their role models, they demand the knowledge and resources necessary to become them.

To illustrate my point, here are a few examples of brands and brand personalities who are profitably leveraging the That Could Be Me principle:



Have you participated in a Hard Charge?
Hard Charge: This “Televised Obstacle Mission” travels from city to city and sets up mud pits for adventurous people to slop through, all the while filming the action to later be turned into a TV show broadcast in the local area.

Reality TV already scores high on the TCBM charts, as the low level of talent allows viewers to project themselves into the story (“if they could do it, why couldn’t I?”), and Hard Charge takes the concept a step further, allowing the general public to actually be a part.

With now over 1,076 Facebook RSVPs and counting for the Wichita event, and with admission prices ranging from $56 to $122, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more of these types of productions taking their ideas on the road. That could be me.



Joel Thomas Zimmerman, better known as Deadmau5

Electronic Dance Music: Never before has the fabled path to stardom appeared as direct as it does with the current EDM craze.

All you need, the current legend goes, is a laptop, some headphones, and a dream, and pretty soon you’ll be DJing parties all around the world. Forget the old world of recording studios and record distribution -- all that can be done from your laptop, too.

Music producer and trendsetter DeadMau5 once famously said that DJs are the number one customers for his music, which is immensely telling. In other words, his biggest customer base is not the music listening public, it’s the kids who want to use his music to draw attention to themselves. He’s found great success with the sale of sample packs, too, which are digital downloads of the raw elements one needs to make electronic music, such as drum sounds, synthesizer samples, and so forth.

Why would I want that? Because That could be me.



Tracy Myers - Walt Disney for a new generation

Tracy Myers: Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without everyone’s favorite American Flag-hatted “Walt Disney for a new generation.”

We all know Tracy sells a LOT of cars, and much of his content stays true to that aspect of his brand. However, the real magic of his marketing machine is the message that if we, too, follow the path he’s laid out, we might also reap similar rewards. Tracy has been demonstrating the TCBM Principle on full blast for years now, and it's what keeps us hanging on his every post.

In the excellent documentary The People Vs. George Lucas, there is an discussion of the concept of participatory art, which accounts for the staggering amount of Star Wars fan fiction, art, video, costumes--basically, an entire fan universe. It is no longer enough, they say, for people to merely be spectators. To show one’s love is to take an active part in the culture, because that could be me.

One of the reasons why Pinterest is so successful is that it allows customers to pin and browse at their own pace, as opposed to having to move at the pace of video or read an entire piece of text.

Humans can process images in 1/20th of a second, or they can contemplate as long as they like. You’ll notice that successful pins often don’t have human subjects inside of them, which allows the pinner to project herself (or himself?) into the scene. Also, Pinterest allows pinners to take credit for the curation, and congratulate themselves on having such great taste. In other words, by using someone else’s building blocks, pinners are allowed to assemble the information needed to construct what they want their lives to look like.

That’s why the do it yourself project pins are so popular, because I could do that. That could be me.

So, how can your dealership use this to move forward?

For starters, by understanding that it is no longer enough to just have a social media presence. The secret’s out, the social gold rush is in full swing, and businesses everywhere are stumbling over themselves to figure out how to be “engaging.”

It’s time to start tearing down the walls between online and real life as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Start interacting with other professionals in your community who are hungry to take their skills to the next level, and do what we do here on DealerRefresh every day -- SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE. We’re eager to share best practices with industry colleagues, which is great, but it’s easy to forget that this information is also valuable to businesspeople in other sectors of your community, potential influencers for your brand, and ultimately, potential car buyers. We’re so hardened by the constant upheaval in this business that we forget that the internet still scares the crap out of a lot of folks.

In the car business, you have the opportunity to try approaches that others in your community might not have even heard of yet, so open your box of secrets and people will love you for it. This could include putting your writing talents to work for a local publication, seeking out networking groups, or taking steps to start a marketing community of your own right where you are.

It’s no longer enough to present an image of personal success for people to admire - too many slicked-up car guys have shut that road down. These days, leaders must be confident enough to share their secrets, so that their followers might believe that, someday, that could be me.

Food for thought: What are some other auxiliary ideas that your dealership might be able to sell to make people want to be part of your tribe?

Bonus: The graphic at the top is a playful reference to the bizarre phenomenon of Bruceploitation.

After Bruce Lee's death, several Bruce Lee lookalikes changed their names to lame knockoffs like Bruce Le and Bruce Li, and were cast in a batch of even lamer films like Bruce is Loose, Bruce Takes Dragon Town, and Fist of Fear, Touch of Death. If you've ever shopped in any bin of discount VHS tapes, chances are you've come across one of these films.

CarChat24 PRESENTED WITH DRIVINGSALES DEALER SATISFACTION AWARD

CarChat24 receives a “Top Rated” Award for Dealer Satisfaction in Chat Products Category

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Feb. 11, 2013 – CarChat24, an industry pioneer with cutting-edge Dealership Website Live Chat Software, is the recipient of a “Top Rated” Chat Product award in the fourth annual DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards, for a second time*. The awards were presented at a special event in conjunction with the 2013 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Expo.

“This award shows that dealers recognize our commitment to help them increase auto sales with our dealership website live chat software and services,” said CarChat24 President and CEO, Shereef Moawad, who started the industry-leading live chat software company seven years ago to help auto dealers better connect with shoppers directly through their websites. “It is gratifying to earn this recognition for our efforts to provide world-class software and support to dealers, even as we continue to enhance our Live Chat products and services with cutting-edge web technologies.

“Live Chat software is an integral tool for dealers to maximize their automotive dealership websites and increase car sales by starting the sales process the moment a visitor lands on their website, and we are proud that our efforts at CarChat24 to create an effective live chat solution and provide a valuable service have led to this coveted award,” Moawad continued.

The DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards measure dealer satisfaction with vendor products and services, and are based on cumulative ratings tallied and verified over the calendar year (January – December) at DrivingSales.com Vendor Ratings. DrivingSales.com Vendor Ratings is the industry’s only neutral, comprehensive vendor rating forum featuring real-time peer reviews and honest competitor comparisons, and provides dealerships with important information from actual customers who have hands-on experience using vendor products / solutions in their stores. Each rating is verified as coming from an actual dealership employee.

“We congratulate CarChat24 on winning a ‘Top Rated’ Live Chat Award and for being recognized by its dealer customers for high levels of excellence and customer satisfaction,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “Dedicated dealership service providers like CarChat24 continue to step up and pioneer innovation, performance, and customer service that meets – and exceeds – the expectations of its dealer customers.”

A leader in auto dealership website Live Chat technology, CarChat24’s innovative software was developed by veteran automotive professionals, and offers free Live Chat Software to dealers, as well as Live Chat services with 24-hour staffing by highly-trained chat operators. The company is on the verge of a major software upgrade that will include Advanced Chat Analytics, secure chat with integrated social networking, integrated Edmund.com data, automatic lead capture and language translation, behavioral engagement, and much more.

Full award results are available online at http://dealersatisfactionawards.com/. Award winners are showcased in the Q1 2013 issue of the DrivingSales Dealership Innovation Guide which, in addition to being distributed at the 2013 NADA Convention and Expo, is delivered to every new car dealership nationwide, as well as to the top 100 used car dealerships.

*CarChat24 previously received a “Top Rated” award in the Chat Products category in the 2nd annual DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards, announced at NADA 2011.

About CarChat24.com (CarChat24)
CarChat24 provides 24/7 hosted Live Chat Support & Dealer Chat Software for new and used car dealership websites. CarChat24 helps dealers sell more vehicles by converting a higher percentage of their website visitors into quality leads. Since June of 2007, CarChat24 has been helping car dealers improve their sales and customer service on the Internet. Our mission is to empower car dealers with cutting edge live chat technology, and provide the professional staff and superior processes needed to obtain the best possible results. We are committed to helping our clients get the best return on investment from their websites. We strive to make our support service the very best and are always looking for innovative ways to give our dealers the edge over their competition. Follow CarChat24.com on http://www.twitter.com/CarChat24 and fan CarChat24.com on Facebook at CarChat24 | Holiday FL

For more information visit CarChat24 or call 1-800-510-7567

Dealership Phone Receptionist Training Video

...or what I like to call, The Director of First Impressions.

[highlight color="ff9900" font="black"]For Jerry's full transcript of this video (could be used to reference and train at the dealership), click the "Continue Reading" button over there...[/highlight]

 

Hi Jerry Thibeau with Phone Ninjas.

So you think you are just a receptionist, a lonely old operator? You are a lot more than that and today I am going to give you a promotion! From this day forth you are now the Director of First Impressions.

See you touch more customers in one day than most of your employees in a month and I feel your customers deserve to be wowed by your amazing skills and in this video segment we’re going to show you how.

Have you ever called home and you got somebody on the phone and within a matter of a couple seconds you knew what type of mood that person was in?

Well that’s the same impression we give customers. See voice inflection plays a very key role in answering the phone. People can tell whether you are rushed, stressed, angry, upset, happy or excited just by the way you answer the phone and we need to deliver that great message each and every time.

Let’s start with the basics.
Step 1 let’s start by smiling, alright? When you are smiling you deliver a great message. People can actually envision the smile on your face and I want them to envision somebody who’s happy. So put a smile on your face, it’s not that hard to do.

Step 2 let’s thank the customer for calling. “Thank you for calling ABC Motors” or if you want to be really upbeat you can say something like, “it’s a great day at ABC Motors thank you for calling”. So get excited when you answer that phone and thank the customer for calling.

Step 3 Introduce yourself by first name; it’s the right thing to do. You’ll create a more receptive customer by giving your first name.

Step 4 let’s ask the customer “how may I direct your call?” It’s not “how may I help you because in fact you’re not going to be helping them. You will be directing that customer to another person or another department. So, it’s “how may I direct your call.” Once you transfer a customer to a department or person your job is not done. Your job is to make sure that customer was properly handled.

See a lot of times customers are going to voicemail and when they go to voicemail they don’t like it. Half the time they choose not to leave a voicemail and hey they might go on to your competitor. They may call somebody else; well we don’t want that to happen. So when you transfer a call make sure it gets handled. Let’s not let it go to voicemail and if you suspect that it’s going to voicemail ask the customer “would you like to leave a voicemail or would you prefer that I give him or her the message and I would ask the customer how do I spell you last name and your first name is and what number would be best to call you back at, great I’m going to send them a text message right now and let them know that you called.

Then I would encourage you to have a list of all your employees’ cell phone numbers and then send them a text message. You can do it from your cell phone or you can choose to do it through an email and here’s an example of the more common places to find text message addresses.

In a browser bar go ahead and type emailtextmessages.com and this will bring you to a site that will provide you with all the differ text message addresses for instance if I want to send to somebody on AT&T a text message I would simply copy the @txt.att.net. I would then open up my email, type in the persons phone number, give a subject line, then go ahead a type your message.

Now when typing your message you’re only limited to 160 characters for a text message, so keep that in mind when typing out your message and you may want to remove your signature file and replace it with your first name. And that’s how you send a text message by using email.

Now let’s listen to coach Maggie as she demonstrates the proper way to answer the phone.

“Thank you for calling ABC Motors, this is Maggie. How may I direct your call?”

“It’s a wonderful day here at ABC Motors, this is Maggie. How may I direct your call?”

Is that not a professional greeting?

That’s the way it’s done right there. You can actually hear the smile in her voice as she answered the phone and that’s what we want to do. You know when I listen to that greeting I picture a happy go lucky person sitting behind a desk with a big smile on their face. And here’s a picture of Maggie hahaha, Maggie is going to kill me when she sees this video. That’s not really Maggie. Here’s a picture of Maggie.

Let me tell you a little story about Maggie. Maggie came to work for Phone Ninjas a couple years ago and before she was a receptionist/operator for a psychologist and somebody had heard that I was looking for a new employee and they reached out to me and said, “Jerry I have the perfect person for you, you’ve got to talk to Maggie. She’s probably the best receptionist I have ever seen and you’re going to love her and I interviewed her and I did like her and I’m like I’ve got to hire this gal. And I did and she’s been a great employee ever since. And I tell you this story because I want you to realize that you know we all have to start somewhere in our carriers and ya maybe the operator job receptionist is an entry level job but if you want to get out of that job, be the best receptionist you can be. Because if you are just an average receptionist guess what….you’ll probably be a receptionist for life.

When you’re great people are going to take notice of that and they are going to want to help further your career. So be an amazing receptionist don’t just be average. In conclusion I’m going to give you 5 more simple rules to live by.
Rule 1 I will not let the customer know my desk is on fire and that 4 other lines are ringing. I will make a game of just how much I can accomplish using skills such as diplomacy, courtesy, and tact.

Rule 2 Just for this call I will remember that it is the zillionth time I’ve taken a call, but for that person calling in it may be their first

Rule 3 Just for this call I will treat this call as if I was the owner of this business and remember the golden rule “do unto others”.

Rule 4 Just for this call I will remember that the person on the other end of that line is our most valued possession -a Customer.

Rule 5 Just for this call I will remember I am not only representing this business, I am also representing myself.

And those are the 5 Rules I want you to live by. So how are we going to remember those 5 Rules?

Well, I like to come up with trigger phrases that help jog your memory. So for everyone out there watching…when you walk by your receptionist we are going to use a trigger phrase that’s going to jolt your receptionist into action and that trigger phrase is SHAZZAM!

So operator/receptionist when somebody walks by and says SHAZZAM I want you to put a smile on your face and I want you to go into greatness mode and deliver that great presentation to your customers as you answer the phone.

This is Jerry Thibeau with Phone Ninjas.

 

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