As many Internet Sales Professionals would agree, the new popularity of videos as follow up does not ensure car deals by themselves however as an integral step in a strong follow up process they can be highly effective. Above is a video message I made for my team as a 'Managers Message' and it it attached to an email that goes out on the third day after an Internet request has been received. Although the views don't reflect the real reach the response the email gets in reply's and in texts is great. Just like when working with a customer in the showroom sometimes having a Manager to speak to can be the assistance needed to assure the customer that they aren't making a mistake and doing business with the right folks. In the video I offer our guests the ability to reach out to me direct by calling, texting or replying to the email and it works, by allowing our customers the options that best work for their communication comfort we show that we are indeed here for them. Its not the best quality or produced but its gets the point across and was easy to make, as a manager could your process benefit from more of your direct involvement? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section, I look forward to your point of view! 

A couple of years ago I got caught up in a famous motivational guy's No Negativity Allowed Here wave and even took pictures of all my team members holding up his red sticker and posted them all over our Facebook page. It was fun but there was always something missing and it was my awesome Coach Renee Stuart that helped me figure what it was. She asked me why I was focusing all my attention on what was NOT allowed and not giving my team the idea to fill the void of what wouldn't be allowed. As I took a step back and looked at the whole picture I saw clearly that contentiously stating was wasn't allowed kept out focus on just that, the Negative that we kept repeating over and over wasn't allowed! I quickly updated my campaign to my new and improved; "Only Positivity Allowed Here" motto and created an exercise to help take advantage of the Power of Positivity, the 30 Day Positivity Challenge. As a team we focused on improving our attitude by helping each other stay Positive at all times, even things like seemingly harmless jokes would be recognized and eliminated from our daily banter if they were negative in nature. For 30 days we committed to each other to do our very best to be support of each other and encourage each to be his/her own very best every day. It was eye opening to say the least to realize just how much negative creeps into our daily lives when left unchecked and soon we were Rocking sales and breaking records. I wrote a post about our performance HERE, and now that I have settled in a bit here at my new home with a new team I think its time to do it again! Beginning on December 1st, my team and I are going to commit to each other to to our very best to always be as Positive to each other as possible, to point out (in a friendly way of course) when one of us is being negative even with a joke or sarcastic comment and encourage each other to push harder and really get out of our own comfort zones every day! This time around I want to add to the challenge.... I want to open it up to EVERYONE that would like to join us! Who would like to commit to 30 Days of Positivity with Mike theCarGuy and the Raceway Ford Team? Join us with 'I'm In' and each day check my Twitter, Facebook or Google+ feed for the Positive Thought of the day and please feel free to share your own Positivity with us as well. Together we can make magic, I truly believe that! Spread the word, Join the #30DayPositivityChallenge :)

These days it seems like every vender that sits in front of me has the same catch phrase; “content is king”. Now I’m sure this is a valid point but this is not about venders or even anything online, I wanted to talk about the other king today. Here at the dealership I have a similar saying that I have spoken many thousands of times over the years; “accountability is king” which is a para phrase of a saying I'm sure you have heard many times yourself, “inspect what you expect”. There's a difference though between repeating it and doing it! Many times we look only at the results of an employee and mistakenly assume the activities that led to them, both positively and negatively. Sometimes we may assume that our 20 car a month salesperson does a fairly good job of his daily work-plan, or that he in fact does have one! Conversely looking at a low performing staff member and making the assumption that he isn't working his daily plan. The real problem is an overwhelming lack of accountability that prevails in the car business. Now if your dealership has it figured out to a tee then forgive the implication however after 25 plus years in showrooms I do speak from real experience! We all get busy, believe me I know and I get busy too! Its all to easy to lose track of the day and simply nod as my sales people check out at the end of their shift with a casual, ‘good night boss’…. If this type of check out is left unchecked it suddenly is the last weekend of the month and the scramble is on to find those precious few more deals that we hope will make up for a slow month. The reality is simple. There are no slow months, there is only the lack or preparation followed up with implementation and inspected by management so as to hold our people accountable for their own production. Lets face it our people rely on us to keep them on track and earning their living so its our responsibility to make sure they; have clear and easily understood goals, they have reviewed their goals with us as managers and are being inspected daily to ensure they are working toward those goals. Before the end of a month the following months activities should be clearly planned out. For a retail person on the floor they should be able to project how many up, demos and write ups they will need to reach their goal and most importantly what they need to do to acquire those opportunities. Internet people have similar steps to manage with how many leads, phone call, appointments , demos, write ups etc. Its imperative to look through our CRM daily to see what our people are, and aren't doing and then consult with them to offer praise or guidance when needed. If wee look up at the sales board and see someone selling a bunch don’t assume he or she is doing a bang up job of follow up and leave it at that, look into it and if they are well then praise them however, if they aren't ask them how amazing their numbers would be if they were! If you have a low performer drill down and find out where the breakdown is, if a guy has taken a ton of ups but can't get to the demo work on that. If hes had a great demo ratio but isn't asking for the business there is your next training session etc. I’m not breaking any revolutionary new ground here, but it is advise that needs to be repeated often! Fire up your computer, log into that CRM and find more deals by holding your team to a higher level of accountability! Until next time, Sell Something!

I am very excited to announce that I have joined the team at Raceway Ford, located at 5900 Sycamore Canyon Blvd. in Riverside, CA 92507! I will be working with the Internet Sales Team and also assisting with our digital marketing efforts and look forward to being a part of something absolutely amazing here! This energy of this store is electric and everything is set for this ship to take off, watch as we change the game, make many smiles and "Rebuild the Inland Empire one new Ford at a time"! Woo Hoo! :)