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Does Facebook work for dealers

kevinfrye

Sr. Refresher
Apr 7, 2009
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Kevin
Does Facebook work for dealers? See below. Within 10 minutes of posting this "status update" on my Facebook account I had a new lead, and then another following that shortly, and got 2 phone calls as well... Ultimately, Facebook and the other social network sites are just online "word of mouth". Our other sales reps and managers posted similar statements on their personal Facebook accounts and had success as well...

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Hell yeah it works. I have a few guys working their linkedin profiles..selling an extra 1-2 cars a month.

Should dealers be social networking?..they should have a presence but ultimately sales people should be social networking. It's no different than joining the local rotary club or other forms of personal networking.

I'd be working the crap out of social sites if I were back on the floor. I was working the forums way back in the day.
 
It is all in how you approach it. You can't "break the conversation" with an advertisement. And I'd be all over this stuff if I were on the sales floor - a salesperson has the most to gain from any of the social networking sites!
 
Jeff I agree with you. Sales people are missing the boat if they are not involved in social networking. Sales people complain when old friends or sometimes even family walk through the door and buy a car and not ask for them. It so easy for them to keep in touch using social networking.

Great topic Kevin! Imagine if Dealerships had their army of people (sales staff) all on Facebook and LinkedIN. Imagine the power of repeat and referral business through this medium. That’s only if you do it in a way that DOES NOT spam people. I have removed friends who are in the entertainment industry because they spam the hell out of me.
 
Missed opportunity to use Facebook to possibly sell ME a car.

A few weeks ago my local Volkswagen dealer (former employer as well) had a used White Volkswagen R32 on their front lot. Needless to say I was drooling...

I took a snap a photo of it on my Blackberry and posted it to my facebook account.

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I had totally forgotten that a friend of mine from high school was a salesmen there. He saw that I had posted the photo with the caption "I really want this...will I pull the trigger?" and had responded back. We went back and forth a few times but he never actually asked me to visit him so we could take it for a spin (unless you wanna count the smartass remark of "whats it going to take Mr. Kershner...").

The more I thought about this..the more I realized that it was a missed opportunity on his part. I was really hot for that car and had "someone" given me the smallest reason to stop in and take that beautiful R32 for a drive..well..I can be an easy sell. :)

Hopefully Tony doesn't read this (I'm sure he won't), because the last I checked..that R32 was still sitting out there.
 
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I think the opinions already posted are spot on. Ultimately social networking needs to be driven by individuals not organizations in my opinion. I think the last thing people want to see when they log into facebook is an advertisement. For the individual on the floor the opportunity is huge if done correctly and as Alex said conversationally.
 
Sure, for the same reason that all relationship based selling systems work. I will qualify my answer by suggesting that the individuals within the dealership should act as individuals, not inside of a dealer sponsored page.

People like to do business with people tnat they like and facebook allows you to make friends before you try to sell them a car or service their present one. Old school "car guys" learned to deal with their spheres of influence which were limited to family and friends gathered from High School, College, The local Night Club, The Chamber of Commerce, The Boy Scouts - and the list goes on.

Faceook, like all the social networking sites that have developed on the WWW, is simply a virtual version of all of the above. Just like in the real world, if your conversations always start by trying to sell your friends a car you will lose your friends and the sale. Also, just like in the real world, if you focus on caring about your friends with only a casual mention that you happen to be in the car business then it is only a matter of time before they need a car at which time they will approach you to help them buy one. With that invitation, you are doing them the favor by selling them a car which coincidentally is in full view of your other friends on facebook who happen to be following your kind gesture --- which they will keep in mind when they need a car and the sales go on!!

After all, what are friends for!
 
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I believe in today’s society with the fast pace of changing e-marketing solutions it has become more vital than ever to keep up with people in the fast pace world! I think that FACEBOOK is more driven for a more social networking atmosphere rather than for marketing autos for sale which it could be a new way to market in the future buying autos from your trusted friends on the site. The only questions I would be asking is how could you properly merchandize the autos on face book to get a seriously engaged shopper when you have other sources such as AutoTrader.com, CARS.com and others? Coming from the car dealership arena I believe that it could be another way to merchandize a personal touch to generate positive feedback from the consumer to research a car on line from a positive source.

Jason McCollum
Advertising Executive