- Apr 7, 2009
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Craig, try it sometime. Try to build and engage and audience and keep an eye on your Quality Score while you're doing it. It's easy on paper, it's a lot of work when it's done right.
TAKE POLL Sales Reps & their personal FB
- Thread starter joe.pistell
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Craig, try it sometime. Try to build and engage and audience and keep an eye on your Quality Score while you're doing it. It's easy on paper, it's a lot of work when it's done right.
With proper tools it's not that bad. I've done it before with blogging, social connections, etc for both personal and commercial accounts.
I'm not saying the average person can do it in 5 minutes per day, but if you're smart you can make it part of your natural process instead of it becoming an additional task that eats time and energy. Quality Score is key, but it comes down to efficient multi-tasking and personal project management for me.
I visit and partake in multiple forums like this one, private LinkedIN groups, FB groups, etc and I don't find it all too taxing and it yields a ridiculous amount of business. I'm not selling cars or dealership services in these instances, but I'm selling services. Facebook is by far the most profitable by simply having conversations with people my inbox is filled with, "Hey, do you know how to do an EJ timing belt?" - easy to convert these trusted conversations to sales.
- May 1, 2005
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@JoePistell - According to research from Social Centered Selling and A Sales Guy, 72.6% of salespeople who incorporated social media into their process outperformed their colleagues. In addition, socially savvy reps beat their quotas 23% more often.
Another stat from the study -- 75% of respondents to the study say they were given no training in the effective use of social media
Another stat from the study -- 75% of respondents to the study say they were given no training in the effective use of social media
- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
@kevinfrye you're a larger dealer group. How do you feel about or support individual sales professionals having their own facebook page and social presence?
@Joe Webb and @Bill Playford - what are you seeing?
@KateFrost - step up to the plate....
@Joe Webb and @Bill Playford - what are you seeing?
@KateFrost - step up to the plate....
I will say that I have a few that I know are quite active with sold photos and then responding to comments made on said posts. Instagram has been quite good much to my surprise though. I have a 3-5 regulars who sell cars to fresh customers on Instagram. I post to our main corporate accounts and ask that our reps simply mention us so I can re-post, but that's a challenge in itself. Overall I'm a fan but it's very difficult to police, especially with as many reps as we have (50+).
Another issue I have are knuckleheads taking the company name and putting it through the ringer with different account names. I still can't get my Facebook URL because an ex-employee started a page before the company did (before my time) and FB won't do anything about it. Actually if anyone has some tips for that I'd be grateful.
Are those here that have 'social savvy reps' making them create work accounts like Jamie Car Sales, or just using their own personal accounts?
Another issue I have are knuckleheads taking the company name and putting it through the ringer with different account names. I still can't get my Facebook URL because an ex-employee started a page before the company did (before my time) and FB won't do anything about it. Actually if anyone has some tips for that I'd be grateful.
Are those here that have 'social savvy reps' making them create work accounts like Jamie Car Sales, or just using their own personal accounts?
- Apr 25, 2011
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- Jake
I'll chime in @JamieS since nobody else has offered a reply to your most recent questions.
I'm a vendor and not a dealer, but I can definitely speak to the "social savvy reps" question since that's almost exclusively who we deal with. When sales reps sign up with us they do so because they want to be more proactive in generating their own leads (great for the dealership, right?). They're generally ahead of the curve and "just get it". There are some that come to us and want their personal Facebook page tied to their salesperson website (which we can do if they insist), but the majority either have a fan page or create one shortly after signing up with us. These are typically more professional than personal pages where their friends may be posting offensive things on their page or a variety of other potential things that may not be a good idea to have facing the public eye. There are also other advantages to having a fan page instead of using their personal pages in terms of features. In my experience, there are reps that try to leverage personal pages in a good way, but usually this is only when they don't know best practices...that's where it's up to my reps to educate them for success.
Regarding the knuckleheads who use the company name in their FB page name, this can be a good thing when done properly but it's definitely a concern. This is also why we suggest that when clients sign up with us that they choose a domain name which does NOT include the dealership name. Something like www.TrueCarSalesman.com instead of NickAtLouSobh.com. There are benefits to both the dealer and the rep so it makes sense. From the dealer's standpoint, their name isn't being used where they have little control over it (as you've experienced already). From the salesperson's standpoint, they're not locking themselves in to that store when it comes to their own marketing efforts. In other words, if they leave for another store in the future, they don't need to start from scratch with a new domain that makes more sense.
Lastly, the only tip I can offer for your ex-employee that started a FB page is to report the page to FB as 'permanently closed'. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't, but if you haven't already done that, I would start there.
I'm a vendor and not a dealer, but I can definitely speak to the "social savvy reps" question since that's almost exclusively who we deal with. When sales reps sign up with us they do so because they want to be more proactive in generating their own leads (great for the dealership, right?). They're generally ahead of the curve and "just get it". There are some that come to us and want their personal Facebook page tied to their salesperson website (which we can do if they insist), but the majority either have a fan page or create one shortly after signing up with us. These are typically more professional than personal pages where their friends may be posting offensive things on their page or a variety of other potential things that may not be a good idea to have facing the public eye. There are also other advantages to having a fan page instead of using their personal pages in terms of features. In my experience, there are reps that try to leverage personal pages in a good way, but usually this is only when they don't know best practices...that's where it's up to my reps to educate them for success.
Regarding the knuckleheads who use the company name in their FB page name, this can be a good thing when done properly but it's definitely a concern. This is also why we suggest that when clients sign up with us that they choose a domain name which does NOT include the dealership name. Something like www.TrueCarSalesman.com instead of NickAtLouSobh.com. There are benefits to both the dealer and the rep so it makes sense. From the dealer's standpoint, their name isn't being used where they have little control over it (as you've experienced already). From the salesperson's standpoint, they're not locking themselves in to that store when it comes to their own marketing efforts. In other words, if they leave for another store in the future, they don't need to start from scratch with a new domain that makes more sense.
Lastly, the only tip I can offer for your ex-employee that started a FB page is to report the page to FB as 'permanently closed'. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't, but if you haven't already done that, I would start there.
- Apr 25, 2011
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I am working with a dealer that wants their teams to start becoming advocates and in order to do that I recommended a foundation, policy, easy rules and some training. I've done it in dealerships that I was an employee at and am passionate that it helps the grassroots efforts along with providing a salesperson to take that responsibility and create their own traffic. With this effort they bring in business, they take pride in the experience, and push the dealership to step it up. There are obvious downsides to this but the foundation, policies and regulations help limit those. (You will always have the outliers).
Now, the thing I found most interesting is that MANY of their staff... approximately 18 of their 49 staff that I trained were already branding themselves or attempting to sell via Social Media. MOST were doing it wrong and some had even invested in websites and business cards etc.
I'm a believer that building and supporting company advocates (no matter what the company) is important. But we, as management, need to control the narrative and the manner in which the message is delivered. Simple rules and agreements aid that effort. For example: The assets need to be "Name at Dealership" and all material should include official/approved logos, graphics, and messaging. The content, tone, information shared should follow with a Social Media or Brand Ambassador policy to ensure no legal ramifications of someone publicly representing your business saying the wrong thing.
HUGE fan of this thread. Good stuff!
Now, the thing I found most interesting is that MANY of their staff... approximately 18 of their 49 staff that I trained were already branding themselves or attempting to sell via Social Media. MOST were doing it wrong and some had even invested in websites and business cards etc.
I'm a believer that building and supporting company advocates (no matter what the company) is important. But we, as management, need to control the narrative and the manner in which the message is delivered. Simple rules and agreements aid that effort. For example: The assets need to be "Name at Dealership" and all material should include official/approved logos, graphics, and messaging. The content, tone, information shared should follow with a Social Media or Brand Ambassador policy to ensure no legal ramifications of someone publicly representing your business saying the wrong thing.
HUGE fan of this thread. Good stuff!
- Apr 25, 2011
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Spot on, @subi101. Working with so many salespeople over the years my conclusion is that most of those who do it wrong do so because of a lack of training. Training from both the dealership on their policies as well as from experts in the field of personal brand marketing, whether that's my company or others. I can't tell you how many clients come to us after trying it on their own and failing because they know having their own presence increases sales, they just didn't have the proper guidance.
Consistency is key from the dealerships perspective. This was a major area we had to address when launching our latest platform. Dealers absolutely need to be able to have oversight of their sales rep accounts. The obvious areas would be things like restricting reps from editing pricing on vehicles on the sales rep sites, but also less obvious things like what info is collected on credit applications on those sites. They wouldn't want one rep collecting social security numbers without their knowledge while their other reps aren't doing so. Policies are fairly simple to implement and help ensure the consistency.
- Apr 20, 2009
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It seems to me that the relationship between the dealer and the OEM could be very similar to the relationship between a "brand advocate" and the dealer. How does the OEM control the marketing initiatives of tier 3 to make sure that logos are current, marketing messages are consistent etc? Sometimes they do it through mandate, but in a perfect world, they partner and assist with the cost of the advertising so long as certain standards are met.
What do you think? Could a dealer run an effective co-op program for brand advocates? How much of their ad budget could they transition away from traditional and less effective lead gen expenses to support and encourage brand advocates? Would they actually return more on those investments? We've all seen the recent Automotive News article citing massive churn rates, could a dealer investing in their staff impact employee retention rate and positively affect the bottom line by reducing operating expenses associated with turnover?
I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with a very smart operator at Digital Dealer that treats his business like a realtor. He absorbs his own marketing costs. He averages nearly 30 units a month and year to date 49% of his business is repeat/referral or something he cultivated on his own. I think he is the future of this business. Consumers show a strong desire to work with an individual rather than an entity. As an industry I think we need to start embracing the opportunity that brand advocates represent instead of stifling them because we are afraid of what they MIGHT do... (I know that isn't what you are suggesting Subi, some rules and policies are like seat belts that are good and necessary restraints. "Yes you can, but..." is very different than "No you can't, because you might...")
What do you think? Could a dealer run an effective co-op program for brand advocates? How much of their ad budget could they transition away from traditional and less effective lead gen expenses to support and encourage brand advocates? Would they actually return more on those investments? We've all seen the recent Automotive News article citing massive churn rates, could a dealer investing in their staff impact employee retention rate and positively affect the bottom line by reducing operating expenses associated with turnover?
I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with a very smart operator at Digital Dealer that treats his business like a realtor. He absorbs his own marketing costs. He averages nearly 30 units a month and year to date 49% of his business is repeat/referral or something he cultivated on his own. I think he is the future of this business. Consumers show a strong desire to work with an individual rather than an entity. As an industry I think we need to start embracing the opportunity that brand advocates represent instead of stifling them because we are afraid of what they MIGHT do... (I know that isn't what you are suggesting Subi, some rules and policies are like seat belts that are good and necessary restraints. "Yes you can, but..." is very different than "No you can't, because you might...")
