An Easier Way To Get Customers ’ Perspective On Marketing in the Modern World A Dealer’s
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hy does marketing to get customers seem so difficult and daunting? Why do so many dealers fail in their attempts to drive a consistent flow of traffic? With all the new tools and tricks available in the Internet age, you’d think it would be easier than ever to get customers to come to your dealership. But that’s not the case. Finding the right customers, and enough of them, seems harder than ever. To get the latest on real-time marketing trends, we caught up with Tom Ring, from Brown Daub Kia, part of a dealership group that’s been around since 1936. Brown Daub Kia is well known for having nearly quadrupled sales in the last few years.
’ Brown Daub Kia So what’s doing differently than other dealerships? Our growth has largely been driven by improved marketing. But marketing today is a strange paradox: with all this new technology we’re able to be more connected with our customers than ever, through email, social media, video, chat, etc.—yet we’re also more disconnected from our customers than ever. The trend is for customers to view dealerships as “all the same” and make decisions solely on price. And why not? With all this new technology, communication is faster, but there’s less of a relationship. You can’t build a genuine relationship with a customer through text or email only. Having been in business for decades, we place a lot of value on customer relationships. We truly believe our dealership is the best choice for our customers, regardless of price. So our focus is on giving our customers unique reasons to visit us, face to face, so we have a chance to build a relationship with them and truly help solve their problems. That’s proven to be the best way to attract and convert customers and maximize our gross and net profit. Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller at Gravitational Marketing have helped us develop the marketing strategy that puts a priority on relationships and solutions over prices.
It drives you nuts when it doesn’t work! Nobody likes wasting money, and so many of the marketing “ideas” aren’t much different than gambling. The other frustrating part is when you find something that works once or twice, then it stops working. The start and stop breaks your heart and demotivates your staff. Ultimately, we have worked hard to create a winning strategy that works consistently and improves over time. The secret to that is focusing on something other than low price because it’s always easy for another dealership to out-price you. Instead, with the help of Gravitational Marketing, we talk about the value we provide and the problems we solve.
Why do customers choose Brown Daub Kia when there are so many other options?
In the end, consistency of results is what matters most. Jim and Travis helped us apply Gravitational Marketing to our store and we got results immediately and have continued to see results, consistently, for four years now. They have a complete plan, not just one or two quick fixes. It takes effort, hard work and commitment, but that’s how we knew it was the real deal. There’s really no “easy button” in life. They call their group of dealers “Rich Dealers” for good reason—when traffic increases, money increases, and the business gets better all around. It’s enriching in more ways than one.
Any advice for dealers who just can’ t seem to get any traction in their market? Move! Or hire Gravitational Marketing! Seriously—stop thinking that you have to come across like every other car dealer. Start focusing on what makes you unique, on the true value you offer your customers. I think most dealerships don’t place a high enough value on the service they provide. When you shift your perspective from low price to high value you unlock a lot of new opportunities.
People hire specialists like financial advisors and personal trainers to help them get ahead in life. So we chose to position Can other dealers ourselves as specialists. We specialize in helping duplicate your success? people drive the car of their dreams. When a customer needs an “expert” to help them with a As long as they’re willing to commit to the new or used car, they choose us. Jim and Travis process and apply the effort. I know of are always saying “Same is lame,” which helped about a hundred dealers in the country who use us realize that if we look and act like other a similar approach and have similar results. It’s dealerships, then customers won’t have any not for everybody, but it may be for you. reason to choose us unless we offer the lowest price. So rather than price ourselves out of business we went in the opposite direction and Get in touch with became the first choice for our customers.
You mentioned Jim and ’ the biggest Travis and Gravitational What’s frustration dealers have with Marketing. What makes them any different than other marketing these days? marketing companies?
Gravitational Marketing
at 407-641-0248 or RichDealers.com/tomring to see if you can become a “Rich Dealer.” That’s the advice I give most dealers who ask about our success.