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I LOVE DEALER REFRESH!!! CALL TO ALL VENDORS!!!

CAORYAN

Boss
May 28, 2009
354
11
First Name
Ryan
Sorry for the all caps! It makes me smile when people do that.

Anyway, I want to confess my love for this forum. I remember when I was thrown into an Internet Manager position and I was clueless and in 1999 there wasn't a forum or internet training that I was aware of. I had to figure everything out on my own.

I recently did a 30 day challenge without any social media and here is what I experienced.....I found that it was most difficult not being able to use my friends for advice or recommendations. That is why this forum is so great. You can ask a question that you honestly don't know the answer to and receive a million answers in no time. Not only that but you will receive wrong answers, good, answers, great answers, and even advanced answers from people like Uncle Joe that if you understood it you could catapult your business 5 years ahead.

People like Shereef doing the chat trial to prove to dealers that chat doesn't take away from phone or email. Chat is a product that enhances your business and it works for every dealership. I have actually sent dealers to that thread that closed because of those reports. Thanks Shereef!

The forum is nothing without the participation of all the dealers and vendors. I know from speaking with Jeff that there are many people on here that don't participate. I want to encourage you to give your two cents and you will only help make this forum that much better.

Vendors, encourage your dealers to visit this forum. I do! I know, I know.....there are like 1 million ads for chat competition on this forum and it has caused questions but for the most part I don't have any problem overcoming those ads. I would rather help that dealer educate themselves or be part of helping spread the word for the better of the car business. Overall competition is good because it brings awareness and causes change if you are getting beat out. In my eyes I personally want to thank my competition because I once was banging my head on a wall to explain why chat is important and now I only take orders and explain why Contact At Once.

Much Love! oh, and I was not paid for this nor do we get a discount on our ad for this post. This was straight from my heart and was not encouraged by anyone from the forum or outside the forum.
 
I'm ready for chat, just waiting for Active Engage or CAO to blow me away. You both keep teetering, and it just never happens. CAO had me hook line and almost sinker at DD. Sadly, nobody followed up this week.

While we're on the subject of vendors, why do you all keep hiring old car guys? As a progressive thinking woman wearing VERY big shoes at my dealership, they are usually offensive. They lack relationship building skills and become condescending when I ask too many questions they don't know how to answer. Thank you to Autotrader, Dealersocket, Homenet, and Dealerskins (to name my favorites) for being great!
 
Jill,

I do not consider myself to be an "Old Car Guy" (Not sure if that was intended for me or someone at my company). As a matter of fact I love the car business and only want to make it better. It's funny because when I was in the car business I used to abuse my vendors and now that I am on this side I get abused. It's frustrating because we are treated as a lower life form and some of us probably are but majority are great people. I enjoy building relationships as does many of the vendors I know and network with. I can see how sometimes vendors don't feel dealers want to build relationships. I for one believe people still buy from people they like.

I am sorry that we didn't meet your expectations and I am sure we can make it up to you. We can handle that publicly and completely transparent or behind closed doors. Up to you.

Thank you for your feedback it is greatly appreciated and I wasn't able to make this DD but I heard a lot of really good things and that chat was a big subject of the conference. We have been slammed ever since.
 
Your company has been pretty good so far - I didn't mean to direct that specifically at you. I hope to do business in the very near future! There are a lot of vendors that do run with old car guys, or barbie bimbos. I crave being sold something by somebody who knows what they're talking about! I can't be the only one that gets barbies and bad suits stopping by am I? =)
 
DealerRefresh is the best resource in the business. Just like anything you only get what you put into it. I'm sure there are thousands of visitors who do not sign up and just lurk for good ideas. On the other hand the regular contributors are sharing ideas and building relationships with the best vendors/dealers in the business. I will take a moment to thank some of the great people I've enjoyed reading and chatting with,

- Ryan - Contact at Once / Competitor or not the guy is stand up
- Jerry - Phone up Ninjas
- Jeff. K - The God Father
- Mitch - Captial Auto Group - the only other Canuck I know on here...where you guys hiding?
- Uncle Joe - Gave me a super crash course in Googe Local. Have helped several dealers with those tips
-Shereef - Car Chat 24 - Partner in crime
-Ryan Leslie - DealerRater
-Alex Snyder - can't get enough good tricks from this All-Star
-Eric Hoopman - DealerFire

Plus tonnes more. Thanks everyone. Let me know if anyone needs help in Canada. Go Leafs Go
 
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