Best Reach - Out Methods For Automotive Businesses

[ASuave]

Way too broad of services - I'd eliminate consulting, legal, CRM, and SaaS development.

Focus on marketing, social media, and SEO - will be a far easier sell.

And the easiest way to sell to dealers is having a proven track record of driving results. Getting the first client is the most difficult. Find a dealer, offer your services at pennies on the dollar, blow their sales up, use them to get you in the door at other dealerships.

Id take it a step further and ask what exactly is offered in marketing/social media/SEO that makes him competitive in the first place. The idea that an agency was formed, because the feedback he got to start an app turned him off of doing so, isnt exactly a positive selling point.

Being brand new, there's no existing clients for referrals, no proven results, etc. At this point, the forum is more of a consultancy for his own startup, than the other way around.

He should run some social media ads, generate some leads, and start from there to test his own strategies. Similar with paid search or anything else he plans on offering.

"agencies" that come and go are a dime a dozen. Plenty of dealers burned by overpromising the world.

My gripe about SEO is probably long in the tooth, but Im of the opinion that if one cant rank their own business on google search, then they have no business in selling SEO service to anyone else.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Also, I outsource the marketing, SMMA, SEO, etc. to professionals.

Do not do this.

 

[Ryan Everson]

I don't mind trouble shooting what is going on but you need to post a lot more information than saying, "my car is making a noise".

1. what is your script.
2. are you following it, are you reading it, have you memorized it?
3. are you asking Y/N questions or opened ones?
4. how many calls have you made? what time in the day? what day of the week?
5. did you write the script yourself? did you have it proof read? did you ask for an opinion on it?


here's some motivational information. Sorry for the US centric ideas.

A professional baseball player is a pro because he has a .2x batting average. Ichiro almost hit .40 an Shohei is in the .3x range.
Think of it this way. Even the most famous baseball player is striking out 6 our 10 times. Average professionals fail 8 times out of 10.

So to be good salesman is just 2 hits out of 10. A killer salesman is 3 sales out of 10.

But let's be realistic.

3-7 out of 100 will say yes.

Have you called 100 locations?

Life is a numbers game.
How much have you learned from your failures and how many times have you tried.

Keep going and keep iterating!

TLDR;
No, I don't think your age matters. Unless, you do sound really young.

More likely it's your script or offering.

Any of these questions are going to stop you in your tracks, IF you are even lucky enough to make it past the receptionist gatekeeper:

Dealer: What other dealers do you work with?
@autovantaofficial: None yet

Dealer: What's your website?
@autovantaofficial: I don't have one

Dealer: Can you send me a PowerPoint to look at?
@autovantaofficial: I don't have one put together yet

Dealer: Do you have any results you can share?
@autovantaofficial: Not yet

Dealer: Do you do everything yourself?
@autovantaofficial: No, I outsource it

Dealer: Have you ever worked at a dealership before?
@autovantaofficial: No

Dealer: Can I submit you for co-op?
@autovantaofficial: What's that?


As I shared earlier, you'll have much greater success walking in wearing a shirt and tie with a resume in-hand and ideas on how you can help their dealership sell more cars.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Do you think my age is something holding back businesses?

No, dealers love giving chances on young, motivated individuals. Especially when it comes to anything related to the internet.

"Steve's nephew is good with a computer, let's get him in and hire him" = how many internet managers got the opportunity they're in

So you can use your age as an advantage. But it's much easier going the employee route initially, otherwise as a vendor you'll need to be able to adequately address each of the objections I listed in my above post.

 

[ASuave]

I hate to even ask this, but why exactly did you choose automotive sector for what seems to be your first foray into direct sales, marketing, running an agency, or app development?

This is probably one of the hardest industries to sell to as a greenhorn. Its going to be exponentially harder with you admitting that you have no dealership experience, and you not planning on doing any of the actual work yourself. You're going to be competing against WELL established agencies that have proven results, SEO dedicated agencies, paid search dedicated agencies, paid social dedicated agencies.

Places that have people that have been specifically living and breathing those disciplines for 10+ years, that know them inside and out, and sales staff and a budget to pay them accordingly.

You're not trying to get a job at a retail operation, where you will be able to build a relationship as a new to the industry hire, you're asking for people to blindly trust you with their money, their business, and their reputation.

Ive seen incorrectly run ads message all kinds of nonsense, in some cases non-coop compliant, or worse. I've seen agencies blamed for messaging on the dealership website that became evidence in a state AG's investigation. Ive also seen incorrectly setup campaigns waste tens of thousands of client dollars (money you likely don't have to refund), and everything in between and the path you're on now is more or less guaranteed to go the destructive route more so than the alternative, of actually providing something of value of anyone willing to take a chance on you.

At this point, it would be nothing short of irresponsible to unleash you on any dealership as a service provider.

 

[Carsten]

I get why you guys are giving out hard love to this youngster and in ways agree too but why so be harsh on him?

Everyone needs to start from zero.

What's wrong with out sourcing your work? Henry Ford did and he put to shame a group of reporters who came to call him out.

So, I know uncle Joe is very hip on the boots on the ground idea. but this is the ideal situation where the dealerships isn't going to take advantage of him and will teach him the ropes.
i can see how getting burned on the phone daily and talking with people who actually have to make decisions could most likely be more informative than chatting with Jim Norton over in sales.

How would a dealership fails to check their own marketing ... ? I was going to say I am confused here but I can see how service has proven to me why this would happen,

 

[Ryan Everson]

I get why you guys are giving out hard love to this youngster and in ways agree too but why so be harsh on him?

Everyone needs to start from zero.

I personally receive dozens of vendor sales calls and emails every day - preparing a salesperson for common objections they'll face is not being harsh, it's sales training.

 

[joe.pistell]

...how you can help their dealership sell more cars.

Hand a blank sheet of paper to 100 software product managers and ask them to write in great detail:

1. What do dealers do daily to sell more cars
2. List the friction in the system
3. List how the dealer overcomes the friction (i.e. brute force, buys SAAS that isn't executing, etc)
4. Where do you fit in?

99.9% can't answer the 1st question. It's why were stuck in "lead gen is the internet".

 

[joe.pistell]

--important--
I watch CarMax and Carvana, their Product managers are hard wired into operations. Shooters like @Ryan Everson & his team at garber are ones to watch, but, Ryan works with an army of SAAS vendors who build templated solutions that Ryan has to get them to modify. If Ryan ever had his own large dev team, look out. Ryan also has to appease the new car compliance nazis, used car indies don't have this ball and chain.

 

[Carsten]

I'm missing something here.

Doesn't a TEAM indicate that their are various players part of it?

A product manger needs to take what the stakeholder gives them and turn that into items that a developer can then work on. A product manager does not need to be a matter expert. A product manager does need to know when to tell the stakeholder what is actually the point is.

Carvana and carmax copied all of the stuff that people who have been working in ecommerce since the beginning.
I've spent too many days and weeks working through what we all know now as single page checkout. We worked on abandoned cart items back then too and such. Yeah, I'm sure I have an idea of what those companies used. I've spun up plenty templated solutions that others have used.

Be careful of Carvana and Musk. I don't want to see it happen so I am sharing what I know here to help delay that day which could be coming.

Ryan's BHPH webiste is nice. Possibly one of the best I have seen for that market, I liked it better than Drive time. I hope he does break out and build his own company. It's not an easy adventure though having to worry about not just all that you mentioned but all your employees too.