- Apr 22, 2009
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Hey Everyone!!
It's been a while since I've posted anything here on DR but I definitely hadn't stopped reading daily over the past few years.
I wanted to give you guys/gals an update on my next automotive adventure and was hoping I could use this thread to document the journey and bounce some ideas around.
Quick Background
ONWARD
I'll give you some more updates as I go. I've literally only been there for 5 days and am well aware we have LOTS to do.
I'm spending time with CDK learning their platform and they've actually been really supportive and helpful.
For a small store it is great to be able to offload some of the dirty work on to them (make updates, change specials, create banners).
Quick Overview of store:
Feel free to check out the website and share anything that you think would help in my first 30-60 days. Will definitely keep everyone posted on the progress.
Ernie Dean Website --
http://www.erniedean.ca/
Planning on documenting some of this on my blog but right now I just need to put my head down and focus on the store.
ps. Uncle Joe has already been giving me some awesome advice on twitter around taking photos of new vehicle hacks. One of my first orders of business was to get actual photos on the new inventory. Stocks drive me nuts. It appeared as though we had 8 blue Cruze's.... simply because they throw a blue stock photo on regardless of which colour it is.
Oh ya.. here is my new demo (first truck I've ever owned)
It's been a while since I've posted anything here on DR but I definitely hadn't stopped reading daily over the past few years.
I wanted to give you guys/gals an update on my next automotive adventure and was hoping I could use this thread to document the journey and bounce some ideas around.
Quick Background
- Sold cars @ 22 for 5 years at a GM dealer in Alliston, Ontario -- Ernie Dean Pontiac (at the time)
- Moved on to the vendor side for 8 years in which the majority was spent at Kijiji launching the automotive vertical, building a team, and being a big pain in Autotraders ass
- Oh ya.. met Shereef from CarChat 24 right HERE on the forums and introduced the service to Canada around 2009.. they now have some pretty strong penetration here in Canada. Great crew over there. Here is the link that started the CarChat 24 relationship -- free 24/7 chat case study on DealerRefresh
- Launched annual DealerTalk conference in 2013 and had 4 successful sell out events. @Jeff Kershner was guest speaker last year! (the godfather)
ONWARD
- Life comes full circle and I have an opportunity to help my old boss and friend kickstart there store which is still successful but has A LOT of potential with some new thinking
- I'm now 35 and ready to put myself to the test and turn this small town store into a sales beast
- Moved out of downtown toronto (where i walked to the funky kijiji office everyday) to the "country"
- I just finished my first week and WOOOOOW there is a lot to do and learn
I'll give you some more updates as I go. I've literally only been there for 5 days and am well aware we have LOTS to do.
I'm spending time with CDK learning their platform and they've actually been really supportive and helpful.
For a small store it is great to be able to offload some of the dirty work on to them (make updates, change specials, create banners).
Quick Overview of store:
- 2nd generation family owned
- Alliston is around 15,000 people. Lots of farmers.
- 5 gm stores within 50 km
- 80% of vehicles we sell are trucks (ish)
- 1 sales manager (new/used) + 3 (soon to be 4) sales people
- No used car dept -- working on that now
Feel free to check out the website and share anything that you think would help in my first 30-60 days. Will definitely keep everyone posted on the progress.
Ernie Dean Website --
http://www.erniedean.ca/
Planning on documenting some of this on my blog but right now I just need to put my head down and focus on the store.
ps. Uncle Joe has already been giving me some awesome advice on twitter around taking photos of new vehicle hacks. One of my first orders of business was to get actual photos on the new inventory. Stocks drive me nuts. It appeared as though we had 8 blue Cruze's.... simply because they throw a blue stock photo on regardless of which colour it is.
Oh ya.. here is my new demo (first truck I've ever owned)
