By Melanie Borden, VP of Marketing, Celebrity Motor Cars
Working with five dealer brands under four rooftops, I have had the pleasure of getting to know a lot of different people. There is a vast amount of knowledge and experience, stemming from all different backgrounds, in any given car dealership.
The face of new business
One of the departments that I feel represents the dealership as the face of new business, is sales. The sales team has a unique opportunity to create a value proposition to the prospective customer, not just for the dealership but also for themselves.
In the monthly grind to hit numbers and objectives, sometimes our personal lives and other distractions may come up. We forget some of the basics on how to market ourselves which includes our personal brand.
Most dealership sales teams do not receive ongoing education on branding or how to market themselves. When you’re in car sales, most of the time you are knowledgeable on every aspect of the vehicle; are certified in the brand you sell; and have an innate fire within yourself to bring in business. But what separates one sales department or sales consultant from another is their brand.
The more knowledge and awareness of how EASY it is to create a brand on and offline – the more traffic to the dealership. This results in a more confident sales consultant, higher client retention and customer satisfaction, and most importantly, increased profit to the dealership’s bottom line. Like anything, it requires work, consistency, and patience, but anyone can do it!
As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It doesn’t happen at once, but over time if you implement these basic principles of branding, I promise they will pay off.
Three essential golden nuggets that will refresh your personal brand
in 2020 and separate you from the rest of the pack
1) Have a new professional headshot taken from the showroom of the dealership you presently work at (within the last six months).
There is an old saying: you only have one chance to make a first impression, make it a good one! Your image is important to be consistent across everything you do at work. It also represents the professionalism of the organization you work for.
You do not need a photographer to have a professional image, however, if you want to invest in yourself, hiring one to do a new headshot for you once a year is not a bad idea.
You can also have a co-worker or friend take the photo for you with a cell phone – the smartphones on the market today produce beautiful pictures.
2) Create a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is the most undervalued and underutilized social media platform in our industry. It is your online business card (and resume) and allows you to not only network and connect with people in the auto industry, but you have a chance to stay engaged with your customers! BTW, just under half (44%) of all LinkedIn users are women.
Women influence and drive the car-buying experience, as we all know.
Become the specialist for your dealership’s brand by being part of their professional network! Ask your customers for the connection, just as you would ask for the happy CSI factory survey. You can post delivery photos, product model launches, how-tos, video walkarounds, and updates from the dealership. LinkedIn is a huge opportunity, it’s growing, and your customers are on it.
3) Create videos! Video is expected to make up 82% of internet traffic by 2021.
Customers are researching brands on YouTube and making purchase decisions. Facebook Live, Instagram TV, LinkedIn Video, TikTok, and Snapchat are just a few channels where video is consumed and there is a significant opportunity for.
Pick one that you want to focus on and become the expert on that app. You can invest in a tripod for your phone or start to create a video without it.
There are many types of content that you focus on, including video introductions, thank-yous, walkarounds, what to expect at a dealership, customer reviews, events, or informational/business advice. This content is invaluable and will differentiate you from the rest.
In closing, I like to write personal goals on why I want to work on my brand. Define for yourself why you want to make these updates, and then create a plan and write it out. Identify who it is that you are and what image you want to portray to best represent yourself and your dealership. Be yourself and authentic. Remember, people buy from people they like. Whether you want to set a new goal of selling five extra cars a month, want to learn social media apps to promote yourself, or just want to challenge yourself with going outside your comfort zone. Take that goal and plug it into an alarm on your phone. Set it every day for when you get into the office. This goal will serve as a daily reminder of the changes you’re making and why you’re making them.
About the Author
Melanie Borden, a Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, has spent the majority of her 14+ year marketing career in the automotive tech industry. Melanie has worked in various atmospheres from social media startups to a public tech company in consulting, marketing, and business development roles. Presently, she is the VP of marketing for Tom Maoli’s Celebrity Motor Cars auto group where she develops and implements all facets of the marketing strategy and built the in-house advertising agency.
