What Am I Doing Wrong?

[mautos]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forums and I'm really looking forward to sharing some of my experiences in the car industry as well as looking for some advice!

I've come here because as an advertiser for vehicles for my dealership, I am absolutely stuck. And I mean STUCK.

The dealership I work for is Metropolis Auto Sales. The website is here ---> www.metropolisautos.com.

What really bites me is that I cannot figure out why I can't sell any cars. When I first began working, things were fabulous. Now, I can barely push any cars out to be sold for the dealership. I'm taking pictures, posting on Craigslist, we belong to Autotrader, etc. and I still can't figure out why I can't pull in anyone. With people I email, I give the most respect I can to a potential customer, etc. and I can't get them to contact me back.

I guess what I'm looking for is, what am I doing wrong here? What are some ways I will be able to pull in customers like a successful fisherman catching dozens of fish in an hour?

One thing I will be doing is an inventory refresh, which will be retaking photos of all the cars I have listed and maybe doing a little more of a writeup for each of them.

Does anyone have the slightest amount of suggestions? Anything is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[joe.pistell]

Look back at your old listings:

• check product mix and price points, make sure they are the same so you can compare apples to apples.
• look at your pics. Did you get lazy? I saw your Tahoe, it looks like a junk yard in the back ground.

Look at your units as a shopper would. Do you have new competition stealing eyeballs from your ads?

Web shopping drops as temps rise. Seasonality will change your results.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Mausto, thanks for posting!

This could be a loaded question that could be a break down on the marketing level and/or the process level.

First, if things were going well before, what changes have you made. You might want to back step. Not only your marketing but also your process.

Are you still getting the same amount of leads or is that not the issue?

From what you are saying here, it seems like you are more focused in on the marketing side.

Elaborate a little more for us..

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

With people I email, I give the most respect I can to a potential customer, etc. and I can't get them to contact me back.

If there's a number you need to pick up the phone and call them.

What are some ways I will be able to pull in customers like a successful fisherman catching dozens of fish in an hour?

The telephone is your rod and reel. What comes out of your mouth is the bait. Can you lure them in?

You can have the best lead generator in the world, but if you can't set the hook, then all you'll get is nibbles.

Download a few audio files and send them to me, I'll give you some feedback on your phone techniques. If you don't have a call tracking service, you should be able to get some from your AutoTrader account. Send them to [email protected] and I'll get back to you shortly with the results.

 

[Dominic Belfiori]

Hey Mautos,
Have you thought of social media? a Facebook fan page, and twitter account (with clear visible buttons on your web page) are great tools for both listening and engaging. Also, wouldn't hurt to have a Youtube account with your vehicle listings, especially if its free . I know there are great services like Carsoup.com and Cars.com that are often searched by car-seekers aswell.

If you need help with your Social Media feel free to send me a email at [email protected]
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/members/mautos/

 

[Alex Snyder]

I can tell you right now your toughest problem is selection. Like Joe was saying earlier you should be more concerned about stocking the right vehicles.

You might want to look into ways to make your website look bigger. Don't show the number of cars you have in stock on your homepage. On your inventory listings page (Metropolis Auto Sales - www.metropolisautos.com) see if you can find a way to make those listings larger. Show more than 10 cars per page. Rename the navigation items to be more "customer-talk" than "dealer-talk" - when was the last time a customer walked in and said "let me see your inventory"? They probably wanted to see your "cars" - think of those kind of things.

Your website is flexible unlike your physical location. Years ago I used to be into modifying and showing a Honda S2000, and the place to buy parts from was Evolution Autosports in Chantilly, VA. Evolution was such a big draw because the owner was on every S2000 Internet forum and had pictures of the coolest cars to show off all the time. About a year after I got to know the owner I talked him into hosting a car show at Evolution. I was shocked to find out Evolution was roughly an 800 square foot store in a strip mall that had virtually no inventory. I was always envisioning this Taj Mahal of a tuner's Disney World gone to Vegas - waaaay over the top. I was blown away. The moral of the story is that you can be anything you want online.

 

[TuneyFish]

what are you measuring on your site?

 

[joe.pistell]

Hey Mautos,
Have you thought of social media? a Facebook fan page, and twitter account (with clear visible buttons on your web page) are great tools for both listening and engaging. Also, wouldn't hurt to have a Youtube account with your vehicle listings, especially if its free . I know there are great services like Carsoup.com and Cars.com that are often searched by car-seekers aswell.

If you need help with your Social Media feel free to send me a email at [email protected]

Someone restrain me... ...must not flame SM rainbow maker


mautos asked "what has happened to my prior successes, they're gone.. what have I done!"

 

[CAORYAN]

I am with Joe on this one. You need to get to the basics of selling cars. Doing things that generate revenue and social is not a bottom line revenue builder. You certainly don't need to spend time on social networks when you are trying to sell cars. I believe in social marketing but not for a struggling salesmen.

1) evaluate the leads you are getting and why they aren't converting (Price, Things you are saying, etc...)
2) Run your own promotion - tell you customers you are running an internet promotion that ends on Sunday. Maybe its urgency you need to build.
3) When you do get someone on the phone during the day while they are at work ask if you can bring the car to them on their lunch break if they are close.
4) focus on your customer and don't give off the impression you are struggling. People love to buy from successful salesmen.
5) Find your mojo and leave your home life at home. Many of my salesmen struggled with their home life and it always effected their sales. (May not be you but just saying)
6) I know we aren't supposed to talk religion but this isn't religion its real....PRAY!
7) Give! When I started giving my income exploded
8) wake early and get to the store before it opens. You get a lot done that way.

No order....maybe #6 first.

 

[TuneyFish]

Your "About Us" Page needs some attention - nobody will read that paragraph.

Don't make it hard to find out who you are, where you are, and what you sell.

Your "Contact Us" page is just a form? Wheres your phone #, email, facebook, twitter, blog, etc...
Put your phone number on your website (in the header) and make it big so people don't have to look for it. Increase the size of the text on the inventory pages, too hard to see.

From an SEO perspective there's lots of things to improve. I just noticed that you have a "Directions" page, "Contact Us" page, these pages have no content on them none of the pages are interlinked with keywords, there's a lot of stuff to do.

From a buyer's perspective what am I walking into, I don't feel comfortable going to a dealer in the first place, let alone one without any pictures, any trace of who they are (facebook, twitter) so I'll keep moving along.

Get a photographer out there and take some good pictures of the facility, the staff, and make your website feel like there's "real people" behind it.