Beyond The First Pencil

How prolific are you when it comes to knowing the best route to take for social media? Sadly, many people flounder or completely miss the mark because they’ve not begun at the beginning. Their lack of social media strategy hands over the advantage to competitors. This week, Kathi and Mike talk about all the ways to be better (great?) at social media if you make a strategy for yourself.  Music segm...

Lots of talk about electric vehicles happening right now. Kathi and Mike discuss Tesla’s safety concerns after the release of a New York Times documentary on the dangers of self-driving technology. We’re excited to see what’s coming from legacy auto manufacturers with EVs. As former retail peeps, we’re also curious how an EV sales operations model looks from a dealer’s point of view. Check out thi...

The past few years have seen a lot of changes in the car business. From consumer preferences driving operations shifts to new business models to sell cars and data-driven advertising strategies to target car buyers.  The larger companies are contributing to the shift too, example: big names have pulled out of this year’s SEMA Show.  Digital data privacy laws and regulation are coming to the forefr...

Anyone who uses social media knows that it can be a minefield. In a world where everything we say and do is cataloged, wouldn’t you agree it’s crucial to pay close attention to what you say and do online? This week, Kathi and Mike talk about why it’s so important to think before you post. Comment sections, posts, video - all the places you participate - are being scrutinized by potential customers...

We’ve talked a lot about video use in so many different ways to sell cars. This week, Kathi and Mike welcome Michael Sampson. He’s Director of Sales at MinMax video enablement app for making branded videos.  As automotive retail continues to shift, driven by customer shopping and buying preferences, video is a way to stand out. We explore interesting ideas, tactics and processes that will help you...

With inventory being scarce and supply chain delays still a challenge, we’ve all been witnessing dealer markups. Market conditions often warrant markups but in some cases, the markups seem extreme. Either way, this practice is nothing good for the dealer body’s reputation - all you have to do is look at the comments when someone posts about their experience. Kathi and Mike talk about the fact that...

Today’s car sales professionals are finding themselves in this new environment called digital retail. While there are tools to help facilitate online transactions, many salespeople are interested in growing their own network to develop their future sales pipeline.  Using social media to establish relationships BEFORE customers are ready to buy is a key component of digital retail. If salespeople a...

Having employees with strong personal brands in your company is an opportunity, not a threat. As dealership operations are being forced to change and adapt to today’s customer preferences, dealership employees are an asset that’s just beginning to be recognized.  Employees have firsthand experience with the retailers they work for because they live and breathe it every day, and they have in-depth...

This week, Kathi and Mike talk through the events that may cause the great automotive dinosaur extinction. We aren’t holding our breath on that, but we’ve never really been this close. In the music dept, we chat about our top three favorite nights at The Roxy (on the Sunset Strip, next to The Rainbow Bar & Grill - which has the most delicious food!). Link to “The Dee Gees” (aka: foo fighters):...

Kathi and Mike discuss the latest used car financing offers and what they mean for the future business of retailers. The short term actions that are taken that adversely affect future business. We also cover the benefits of salespeople utilizing their downtime to learn more about using social media to sell cars. There’s such an opportunity. In our music segment, we discovered a new band! You can l...

Digital retail transactions are the next generation in customer experience. Kathi and Mike discuss how caring for the customer’s needs is nothing new, and why that caring mindset will give dealers and their staff a running start in digital retailing.  Then we share a couple of sub-prime deal stories, of which we have thousands. We also talk about some key findings in a new E-Lend digital retailing...

Mike just got back from NADA and shares his insights. Kathi and Mike discuss the welcome addition of new voices in the car business. Diversity and inclusion are finally being talked about, and with that, comes company culture and employee retention. The Jam documentary “About a Young Idea”   The Style Council “Long Hot Summers” documentary The Pogues’ “FairyTale of New York” (live version, RIP Kir...

This week, Kathi and Mike discuss the ever-evolving dealership model and how the partnership with the manufacturer seems to be evolving too. There doesn't seem to be the push-back that there once was to the franchise model, especially given shifting consumer preferences. We wonder how that will look as we go forward.  On the music front, we chat about our one favorite concert (we only choose...

This week, Kathi and Mike talk about the changes that are happening right now in the Facebook Ads ecosystem and beyond…and strategies to consider going forward. On January 19, 2022, Facebook said it would be removing some ad targeting features, including ones that focus on race, ethnicity or religion. They’ve actually expanded on their removal of targeting capabilities. Advertisers need to conside...

Kathi and Mike build on last week’s discussion of the looming automotive online reputation debacle around MSRP markups and the potential for gouging. We are talking about it again because this week added even more weight to it.  Marking up MSRP right now is a gamble that some think is a sure thing. Consumers are wise to ALL the old tricks and as dealer advocates/former retail peeps, we are pleadin...

Just when we thought we were gaining ground on dealership customer experience, somehow things have gone south. And we are digging ourselves a hole that will be difficult to recover from.  Kathi and Mike share their insights on how inventory shortages have turned some really nice dealers into places that no one wants to visit. Where all that hard-earned goodwill is fading fast. Then, we touch on th...

A picture is worth a thousand clicks.  What effect do customer images have on a dealership’s Yelp profile? How about Google profiles? We talk about how to review your own profile and what you can do to ramp up more customer-generated photos. Hint: employees are your secret weapon. We touch a little bit on why humor is so important in social media when you want to stand out from the crowd. Check ou...

The simple equation of supply and demand is causing a tectonic shift in auto retailing. Kathi and Mike talk about the pitfalls as more dealers are adding “Market Adjustments” to their inventory (marking up price due to market demand).  It’s simple economics: when there are fewer vehicles to sell, the price increases. And with some factories switching up the traditional invoice>MSRP model, deale...

It’s been a tough week with the impact of COVID on all of us. As we begin the new year, we remind ourselves to find ways to make the best of things.  Do we detect a culture shift happening? Auto retailers are starting to realize that social media is social. We’ve seen some big “auto voices” promoting old tactics and sadly, dealers and others are listening. But for Kathi and Mike, we advocate emplo...

It’s our last pod of the year, our first New Year as podcasters, and we sure appreciate you listening.  If you’ve spent any time online lately, you’ve likely seen a few photos of dealership addendum stickers in your feeds showing “Market Adjustment” amounts added to the price of a new vehicle. These “Market Adjustment” prices (see example HERE ) are to accommodate for vehicle inventory shortages,...

This week, Kathi and Mike share their insights on the value of uploading images to Google Business Profiles (formerly known as Google My Business). Supported by insanely positive, data-backed evidence, it’s clear that when you, your customers and your employees add images to your profile, they are viewed by a large number of users, which increases your search visibility. We offer some motivational...

Have you ever needed something important done and thought, “I can do it myself!”? Well, Mike shares his story of living that reality and the perils that come with it. It brought to mind the pitfalls that retailers and their staff can fall into with social media. We tell a few “horror stories” and of course we share what to do instead. A good social media manager is hard to find. Kathi and Mike tal...

It’s crazy to think about it but yes, we are still talking about social media fails. The reason we’re still talking about them is because they are still happening in automotive retail. Getting hacked is scary but if you’ve got a good social media manager who’s on their toes, (and a good social media policy in place) catastrophes can be avoided. What about orphaned social profiles where the admin w...

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strange.... Geez, so much is happening with the automotive supply chain. Kathi and Mike discuss the short-term and long-term effects of vehicle inventory and how dealers are adapting their customer experience, both good and not so good, to keep up with the constant changes. The “build-to-order” model is being talked about even more now, with some manufacturer...

Kathi and Mike cover the “new idea” of having a “social champion” at the store to collect and publish content that improves organic engagement on social channels. The catalyst for our discussion was a recent Automotive News article spotlighting a dealership who’s doing this and getting great results.  Note: We just have to say...that we’ve been advocating for this strategy for TEN YEARS. Why oh wh...