As I finished up my presentation at the UAAMG conference on Unified Marketing, a few of the dealers in the audience asked to sit down with them to discuss this one on one.
Defining your “Why Buy From Me” marketing message as unique.
We broke off to the side of the room and I asked them each to tell me what could they say in their marketing that made their dealership unique. A few things that came up were:
- Serving the community for 50 years
- Customer Focused
- Trained technicians
- One Price Store
- 2 day return policy
- Friendly Service
As I reviewed the list with them, we looked at each entry and I asked them if any of their competitors could claim the same thing. We began to strike off many items on the list. Some they felt should stay on the list, such as serving the company for 50 years. I agreed as long as that makes you the longest tenured dealership in the area, but if anyone else can claim close to this time frame then it is not useful.
They began to see what I meant. The one price store was a great entry to make you stand out. Even the 2-day return policy. That was unique.
Finding the right marketing message to share that sets you apart will make it easier to unify your message across many different mediums.
Getting vendors to sit at the same table and work together on your marketing message. What if they won’t?
The short answer is to get new vendors. This can be a little tricky but I reminded them that the vendors work for you. I would make this requirement part of the screening process for new vendors. If vendors are unwilling to sit on a vendor marketing call with your team each month then they are not looking out for your best interest.
I explained that as a multi-million dollar business, you have a message that you need shared across different mediums and you need to make sure you are not wasting money due to vendor inefficiencies. If you SEO vendor and SEM vendor are not working in harmony, it costs you, the dealer, and money. If your traditional marketer is not sharing their vision with the online marketer, this is creating a disconnect for the customer.
How do we inject a “marketing message” in our phone process and email process?
Again this comes down to your message. Whatever you are claiming, then you need to make sure your employee’s actions are supporting it. If you claim is to be the most helpful with information, then you have to make sure your website and salespeople are sharing information. Not just on site, but online as well.
When it comes to the word marketing, one of the biggest mistakes is to only think it is a thing versus how your employees are marketing through their actions
Everything must align or else customers will move on to the next dealer who will live up to their marketing.
