Webinar - Merchandising Commercial Vehicles

Webinar Wednesday #1: Merchandising Best Practices Guests: Rene St. Hilaire, Director Fleet/Commercial, Hendrick Automotive Group Michele Hodge, Regional Sales Manager, Work Truck Solutions

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Table Stakes: Five “MUST DO’s”

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The MINIMUM necessary to maximize commercial vehicle merchandising.

Top Checklist # 1 - Main Menu ‘Commercial’ Link # 2 - Lead Routing # 3 - Accurate Price # 4 - Photos # 5 - Body Invoice

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#1 - Add ‘Commercial’ Link

Step 1: A ‘Commercial’ link on the main navigation bar of your dealership website.

Tells buyers you sell commercial inventory.

638% more visits per month on avg for dealers that have a navigation bar link vs those without.

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#2 - Lead Routing

Have both digital and phone leads go directly to a dedicated person to ensure effective handling of ALL commercial leads.

Digital Phone

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#3 - Accurate Price

Accurate pricing is critical for properly merchandising commercial vehicles to savvy buyers.

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#4 - Photos

Vehicles with 16+ photos (plus the body invoice) average 1.5x more leads than a vehicle with fewer.

Be sure to show both the chassis and body details.

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#5 - Body Invoice Using upfit invoices to properly categorize and display the types of vehicles is very important.

Including body details not only drives more leads, it moves buyers further down the sales funnel.

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Maximal Exposure Ensuring proper lead routing, accurate pricing, full photos and an upfit invoice maximizes the vehicle listing on four websites: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Dealer’s site Comvoy.com Tier 1 locator(s) Upfitter locators

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Extra Credit: Using the Universe to Help Merchandise

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Google Business Page Google has 91.38% of online search. Google Business Profile is a quick and easy way to get your business found. It displays information about your location, contact, hours, website, logo, products and more on relevant searches.

Talk with your dealership marketing team and see if there is a way (a slightly different address) for the commercial department to have their own page. If not, make sure that the commercial information is included on the dealership’s Google Business Page!

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Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and LinkedIn can expand reach, both for the dealership, and for an individual salesperson.

Each one has their best target audience, and most appropriate style, approaches and options.

In a later webinar we will dive more deeply into how to use each to target and build a bigger customer network.

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To Blog, or to Partner Blogging can be a great way to provide your customers with information, and build a reputation of being a resource (Rule # 1 in B2B marketing!!).

However, to be successful it is critical to be committed and consistent.

Another approach is to find a partner that will permit you to share their content. Please check out CVBNetwork.com and NuPropel.com for ideas.

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Emails are NOT Dead A great email signature is like a little billboard. Half of the world emails. It is important for both the dealership, and for your sales consultants in 2minute Prospecting, to have a professional and branded signature.

Prescribing a consistent format and branding on the signature is very appropriate.

Regular email campaigns (newsletterish) are like blogging - before starting there needs to be commitment and a content plan.

You may want to consider Communicator.

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Digital Advertising Defining your target audience is the first step for display ads on search engines, sites using ad networks, or on social media. If your dealership marketing team can understand the uniqueness of your target market, they may be able to properly focus the budgeted ad spend.

Re-targeting site visitors can be more effective than standard display ads. Reporting helps refine what is most effective in market for your goals.

You may want to consider BusinessBuilder.

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SEO Successful SEO—short for search engine optimization—helps search engines understand your content, which then helps users find your site.

By increasing visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines when people search for inventory you sell, services you provide and info on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience, more buyers will find YOU. The great news is with Work Truck Solutions - you don’t have to do anything!!

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Next Steps: Complete the Checklist Pick One New Thing to Keep Investing in Merchandising Call Your CSM

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Questions?

Comments - Feedback

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