Salesperson Branded Presence: Who's the Best?

[renee.stuart]

It's been a while since my last post, Jeff (circa 2011). As you know, I'm one of your biggest fans. I'm a @emiltsch super fan too! What a success story Mr. Miltsch has to tell.

A mega shout out goes to the talented Ms. @JessicaRuth. She has a persistant and pleasant non-intrusive "nudge". Thanks for bringing me back Jessica. I appreciate you!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@JD Rucker @renee.stuart Heck, everyone – why do you think this is a growing trend? What has you thinking we are at a “tipping point” with this?

I’m curious to who is asking for this type of service? Is there a particular age group you’re mostly working with @Renee? Are they mostly new to the industry or are they veterans?

During my travels and visits to dealerships, it’s rare I get to have this type of conversion. It’s rare for someone to approach me with questions on self-branding. So I’m extremely jealous that you get to have fun conversations like this all the time.

Most are quick to come out and share with me their story and how this is something they’re doing until something better comes about. Of course my response is usually something like this…

“what could be better than this? You’re being paid to learn how to be a professional in sales. Granted, much of it will be self-taught, trail on error, but there is a wealth of information and free training available. You just need to decide to commit. And when you become a true sales professional, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling. So get past the stigma you have formulated in your head on the perception people have of being a “car salesmen or saleswomen” and commit to being a sales professional. Until you do that, you will most likely not succeed in the profession of sales."

Once you commit, it’s time to self-brand! That’s the fun part…

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Like I said in my previous post, it’s rare I get to have these conversations BUT I remember this one specifically. It was during one of our Dealer ThinkTank conferences last year.

I had a noob approach me (his name was José) on how he could go about branding himself, what could he do to separate himself from all the other sales people at the dealership and become “memorable”?

5 days on the job and the dealer sends him to one of our conferences. How’s that for some initial training?

I know we sat there for at least an hour as I loaded him up with ideas. The very FIRST action I suggested and urged the importance of … getting personal reviews. So when I read this..

For those who want to create an online presence without investing time and money in the personal brand discovery process - your best investment and most profitable ROI will be in capturing "reviews". If you're not going to dig deep and tell your own story - then by all means let your customers do it for you.

I know I was giving this gentleman the same advise as a proven professional.

I told him to register the URL ReviewJose.com (which was actually available, and still as it’s obvious he didn’t take my advise). Throw together a quick website using Wordpress or even a service like Squarespace or Weebly – one that offers a Review app/plug-in.

This website becomes your central branding hub! And since the URL is your name and not associated with a dealer, make, brand – you will be able to take it wherever you go with whatever you do.

Next – get your Youtube page together and start accumulating video testimonials.

José now becomes ReviewJosé.com – this was the first 10 minutes of the conversation

 

[renee.stuart]

Like I said in my previous post, it’s rare I get to have these conversations BUT I remember this one specifically. It was during one of our Dealer ThinkTank conferences last year.

I had a noob approach me (his name was José) on how he could go about branding himself, what could he do to separate himself from all the other sales people at the dealership and become “memorable”?

5 days on the job and the dealer sends him to one of our conferences. How’s that for some initial training?

I know we sat there for at least an hour as I loaded him up with ideas. The very FIRST action I suggested and urged the importance of … getting personal reviews. So when I read this..



I know I was giving this gentleman the same advise as a proven professional.

I told him to register the URL ReviewJose.com (which was actually available, and still as it’s obvious he didn’t take my advise). Throw together a quick website using Wordpress or even a service like Squarespace or Weebly – one that offers a Review app/plug-in.

This website becomes your central branding hub! And since the URL is your name and not associated with a dealer, make, brand – you will be able to take it wherever you go with whatever you do.

Next – get your Youtube page together and start accumulating video testimonials.

José now becomes ReviewJosé.com – this was the first 10 minutes of the conversation

Salespeople are not marketers, and they are definitely not web developers. I recognized the need for an "off the shelf - boxed solution" back in 2011. So I approached Mike Fitzpatrick (DealerTrend) with the idea.

What you recommended for Jose' is already built, tested and perfected. Visit: www.kevinthejeepguy.com. Please forgive me - with full respect for a NO PITCH zone - This is NOT my product. My only affliation with this site is that I helped Kevin with his personal brand strategy (aka: What he wanted to get from investing in his own site). As @usedcarricky said in his video... My job is to help you figure out "what you want" and then design a plan of action so you can have it.

Mike Fitzpatrick is the website host/provider. If salespeople are serious about building a solid online presence -AND- they want a website they can pull off the shelf, they should check out MarsCars (for salespeople). He offers a version for dealerships too!

 

[renee.stuart]

@JD Rucker @renee.stuart Heck, everyone – why do you think this is a growing trend? What has you thinking we are at a “tipping point” with this?

I’m curious to who is asking for this type of service? Is there a particular age group you’re mostly working with @Renee? Are they mostly new to the industry or are they veterans?

During my travels and visits to dealerships, it’s rare I get to have this type of conversion. It’s rare for someone to approach me with questions on self-branding. So I’m extremely jealous that you get to have fun conversations like this all the time.

Most are quick to come out and share with me their story and how this is something they’re doing until something better comes about. Of course my response is usually something like this…

“what could be better than this? You’re being paid to learn how to be a professional in sales. Granted, much of it will be self-taught, trail on error, but there is a wealth of information and free training available. You just need to decide to commit. And when you become a true sales professional, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling. So get past the stigma you have formulated in your head on the perception people have of being a “car salesmen or saleswomen” and commit to being a sales professional. Until you do that, you will most likely not succeed in the profession of sales."

Once you commit, it’s time to self-brand! That’s the fun part…

Age is not a determining factor. I've worked with people as young as 19 and some in their late 50's/early 60's.

My coaching clients have one thing in common - they all have a deep desire to achieve success. They are high-potentials who want nothing to do with mediocrity.

The people asking me for legit "personal branding services" are thinking about their future - the are developing their legacy now. They want to be different!

In response to your "something better comes along" comment - I get several calls a week from the "oh, hey look - shiny" people. They want my help setting up a Facebook or YouTube channel. They believe that having a social media channel or website will miraculously take them to the top. Only once I begin to ask the hard branding questions (what do you want, who is your target audience, what problems are you attempting to solve, how will you know when you've achieved success, etc) well, they suddenly have to go. No - they don't call back.

Jeff - you nailed it when you said "You just need to decide to commit."

 

[JD Rucker]

We started noticing leads coming in recently, probably just in the last 6 months, asking about using social media as individual salespeople. We messed up big time by not listening to Subi Ghosh last year when she said we should extend our services to include that very option. At this point, we still aren't certain that we can do it since our efforts are really geared around a dealership's website, but just because we don't have a solution doesn't mean we can't point salespeople in the right direction.

The sad part is that I held a training session at an east coast dealer group back in 2011 that was specifically about this. We talked about how the standard principles of networking taught for decades by people like Joe Verde could be applied today to social media. Out of 50+ salespeople I trained, there were only 4 or 5 who we could verify were using the techniques three months later. They were selling, yes, but I wasn't happy with the adoption rate so I never tried to look at it again. Whether it was a shortcoming in the way I presented it or if it was just not at the tipping point at the time, I'll never know, but I am ready to embrace that the industry may very well be ready for it again.

One thing is for certain: it won't be me doing it. That's the point of this thread. Renee, Ryan, Kathi - I know them all and I would prefer to point to a specialist rather than to try to do it myself. Not my niche. With that said, pointing people in the right direction is definitely something we like to do.

Those of us who have been fortunate enough to work at great dealerships that take care of salespeople have probably been taught the concept that selling cars isn't a profession. It's a business. The best salespeople are forming their own business within the confines of a dealership structure. Social media, personal branded websites, and other techniques that the experts here utilize allow for a salesperson to build a low-overhead personal business with someone else paying for the merchandise and venue. I am becoming a believer that it's low-overhead, not zero-overhead, for those who want to be truly successful. That's why I want to know who has what out there and where I can point people.

Thanks for the time, friends. I'm hopeful that the specialists will contact me soon to tell me what they're doing for salespeople. We have people asking and I want to give them answers.

 

[MikeFitzpatrick]

@renee.stuart Thank you for the mention.

If you are a salesperson and are interested in marketing yourself and creating a personal brand. Don't start a website or social presence until you know "what you want" like Ricky says. If you are remotely serious and aren't sure of what you want, talk to Renee before doing anything and invest in yourself.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@renee.stuart - since due to your expertise you were of course included in much of the conversation within this thread. While being in the middle of our industries conference season, I was wondering if you had anything new to add...?? Seeing anything new?? Any new apps or services a sales professional could utilize for increased self branding?

Anything things to add since ...



Would love to hear from ya. Great running into you at #DSES.

 

[renee.stuart]

@Jeff Kershner thanks for the shout out. I'm so glad we were able to connect at DSES.

As you are already aware, there are a handful of vendors claiming to have the latest and greatest widget, gizmo or app to help sales people brand themselves - some are pretty cool ... others, meh! I actually had someone approach me at DSES offering to show me a "Personal Branding App" -- This made the hair on the back of my neck stand up ... and not because of the App ... but because of the belief that an App can be held accountable for personal branding.

Personal branding isn't something you do --- it's everything you do! The pros who have experienced long-lasting success selling cars get that. They understand that technology is HOW they position themselves so the people who need to know them, can find them. The real superstars have a very clear & consistent personal brand strategy that includes WHO they are as individual contributor [and] WHAT they want to accomplish in their career - that's how they are able to put themselves where their ideal customers are -- and sell a shit load of cars (consistently).

We're a highly intellegent group of automotive professionals that work extremely hard to solve problems with technology, but what we're really dealing with is a fragmented understanding of WHAT personal branding is [coupled] with a people problem --- a lack of willingness and intrinsic motivation.

I would love to report that there's an awesome new gadget that's taking the automotive industry by storm -- but I've got nothing. I believe that there is already a ton of awesome technology available to salespeople - but without buy-in (aka: having an understanding of what's in it for me from an intrinsic level) ... the widget, gizmo or accountability app's that the dealers keep investing in will eventually become obsolete.

*Word on the street is that something is BIG is coming...and it includes "personal brand strategy" support. Stay tuned! DealerRefresh will be the first to hear about it...

 

[higherturnover]

Couldn't agree more, Renee. "Personal branding isn't something you do, it's everything you do". Regarding the "word on the street", something BIG is already here. We should connect. Same to you, JD Rucker. In the meantime, this other forum post should interest you both.