Heavy Lifting

As referenced in out Facebook status earlier, why don't people lift weights?

The answer is simple.

Because they are heavy.

I cannot take credit for that analogy. I first heard that used by Sean Bradley of Dealer Synergy (website link - external). Sean and Dealer Synergy are spot on when it comes to structure and process.

Back to the point.. Sure weights are heavy. The require effort to pick up. For the people that do there are tremendous results. You know the.. people that workout. They are the ones who stand up straighter, have more energy and are the ones who aren't afraid to take their shirt off at the beach.

Now they didn't start picking up the weight (doing the work) yesterday. Its a process and doesn't happen over night. The ones who stick with it benefit.

The people who exercise regularly don't view it as "I have to exercise today" but more of an attitude. A way of life. A habit. Much like where you get your first cup of coffee in the morning, the commute to and from work, the websites you visit. There is not much thought to it, its just what we do. It becomes part of their routine with one major benefit... results.

The dealers that start doing the work, and it is work, will see the benefits and so will others. Not only other dealers but consumers as well. The days of a dealer telling the masses "how great we are" are over. The consumers tell each other how great your store is now - see previous social networking post.

Point being - do the work, lift the weights. Results will follow as long as you lift heavy enough weights.....

Thanks Sean for the analogy! Read more!

Social Networking

First - hop on over to Facebook.com and search for toyotanyr

Now...

A quick stop over at wikipedia.org gives us the following definition of Social Networking Sites:

"A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America;[1] Nexopia (mostly in Canada);[2] Bebo,[3] Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Tagged, Xing;[4] and Skyrock in parts of Europe;[5] Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America;[6] and Friendster, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands."

Now on to the point. People LOVE cars. They want to know all about them. Why cant you be one of the sources of the information they are seeking?

What a great outlet to not only stay in front of the user but also to be a source of CORRECT information about the topic.

Oh and guess what? This is all FREE.

Yes. I said FREE.

If someone from the NY Times walked into your dealership and said they want to give away placement in their paper, for free, no strings attached, would you sign up or send them walking?

Yeah, me to.

Then why doesn't every dealer have a Facebook page? A Myspace page? A blog?

If it was me, I'd have a "page" on every social networking site I possibly could.

Just having the pages doesn't do too much though. The pages must be updated and filled with appropriate content regularly.

Having links to your dealerships website on these pages helps in two incredible ways. First it allows a user to click to your site directly. Second, it creates higher relevancy to search engines so your SEO improves.

You see, the more sites that link to you, the more important search engines think that linked to URL is....

So get out there and start social networking your store. TODAY.

RETHINK EVERYTHING! Read more!

ComScore: Internet Population Passes One Billion; Top 15 Countries

ComScore: Internet Population Passes One Billion; Top 15 Countries

The number of people on the Internet surpassed one billion in December, according to comScore. The actual number is probably higher than that (Internet World Stats counted nearly 1.5 billion Web surfers worldwide as of June 30, 2008). In any case, only between 15 and 22 percent of the world’s population is on the Internet. We have a long way to go.

Using the comScore numbers, here is the breakdown by country and region (in unique visitors as of December, 2008; some of the numbers are rounded):

Top 15 countries, by Internet population:

China: 179.7 million
United States: 163.3 million
Japan: 60.0 million
Germany: 37.0 million
United Kingdom: 36.7 million
France: 34.0 million
India: 32.1 million
Russia: 29.0 million
Brazil: 27.7 million
South Korea: 27.3 million
Canada: 21.8 million
Italy: 20.8 million
Spain: 17.9 million
Mexico: 12.5 million
Netherlands: 11.8 million
Worldwide Internet Audience

Asia Pacific: 416 million (41.3%)
Europe: 283 million (28.0%)
North America: 185 million (18.4%)
Latin America: 75 million (7.4%)
Middle East & Africa: 49 million (4.8%)
Read more!

Why Not?

Innovation leads to evolution.. check out www.toyotawhynot.com and start!

And while we are on the topic of innovation - heres a good read - what Japanese toilets can teach us about the US automotive industry... read Read more!

The $10 Dollar Hamburger

I want to tell you a story.

A while back I was at Disney World with my family. You've been there.. who hasn't. And talk about a great time.. it really is the "happiest place on earth". OK maybe not for adults but we booked this flight so I guess we have to at least enjoy the ride huh...

Anyway, as many of you know its not the "cheapest place on earth". Not only did we pay about 14 million dollars just to get into the park but there are costs associated with everything once inside.

Thirsty? 5 bucks please

Want a picture? 5 bucks please.

Which leads me to lunch / dinner.I want to tell you a story.

A while back I was at Disney World with my family. You've been there.. who hasn't. And talk about a great time.. it really is the "happiest place on earth". OK maybe not for adults but we booked this flight so I guess we have to at least enjoy the ride huh...

Anyway, as many of you know its not the "cheapest place on earth". Not only did we pay about 14 million dollars just to get into the park but there are costs associated with everything once inside.

Thirsty? 5 bucks please

Want a picture? 5 bucks please.

Which leads me to lunch / dinner. You HAVE to eat. So we sit down in to eat. I head up to the line (oh there are lines for everything there) to order.

Me - "Ill take 3 chicken strips kids meals and 2 hamburger meals please."
Cashier - "Sure thing. That will be $67.50"


So I whipped out the cash and paid the lady, moved forward to the counter to await for our food. The whole time I was thinking about the look on my youngest sons face the first time he rode the "pirate ride" and wondering why our sons were being so good. No one got a purple nurple (yet) and no one was called "dummyhead" and its past noon.. Wow.


Brought the food back to the table and we all ate. The whole time (and pretty much the whole trip) we were all smiling. As a matter of fact we started thinking about our "next trip" later that same day... Disney sure has something here.
Soon after that trip was over with tentative plans for a return visit, it hit me like an 18 pound sledge... I paid almost $70 for 2 burgers, 15 chicken strips, some fries and some soda / water.

$70!!!!!!!!!!!!

The whole time Im smiling. As I "whipped out the cash" to pay for lunch, as I basically mortgaged the house to pay the entrance fee to the park. As I stood in line for hours on end to ride the rides. Sure the kids cant go to college now but damnit, we rode Jungle Cruise 3 times in a row!!

I know we could have rolled in to Six Flags, which is an hour away from home, dropped about 200 bucks on the entire trip and been done with it. I mean a boat pirate ride is a boat pirate ride right?


We leave in 8 months for Orlando!

Point of this story, offer customers what they are looking for. Treat them they way you would want to be treated. They will become loyal. And remain loyal.


You can be that "$10 Hamburger" if you have the right attitude and processes in place. People will pay a premium for added value.


You dont have to be a Lexus store to spoil your customers.... Read more!

Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate, in internetland, is defined as the ratio of visitors who convert from casual (passive) content or page views into desired actions (active) based on subtle or direct requests.

For you old schoolers out there, think of it as how many people call or come into your store due to the ad in the newspaper.

Now that we cleared that up, how does your conversion rate measure up?

National average is 2% - 4% for email only. No data is available for phone.

Dealers on the Toyota eCertification program show consistent 5% - 8% conversion rate for email only leads. When we add the phone leads to the mix EVERY SINGLE DEALER on this program have total conversion rates above 18%. With some in the mid 20's!!!!!!

ABOVE 18%!!!!

Do the math - is your site generating 2 to 4 "leads" for every 100 visitors or 20?

If we know our overall closing ratio (typically around 15% just dogging it...) you need to have 5 TIMES as many leads to sell the same amount as dealers on the program. How are you getting those leads? You buying them? Thats a whole other topic..... but I will say this for now, SEO and VSEO...

Quality over Quantity.

Want to increase your conversion rate? Want to increase closing ratio?

Want to SELL MORE while SPENDING LESS?

Contact the region or comment here on this topic.

RETHINK EVERYTHING.

Read more!

Start your Alternative Marketing Engines!

The 2010 Toyota Prius has made its official debut at this week's Detroit Auto Show. The company estimates it'll have a 50 MPG rating -- up from 46 MPG in the previous model -- and there's a bigger, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine for improved highway mileage. In addition to Power and Eco driving modes, EV Drive will let you run on battery alone for about a mile, which if nothing else should provide a little extra push for getting to the gas station when you've held off for too long. One of the coolest (literally) new features is the optional solar panels in the moonroof that will generate power for circulating air and keeping the interior temperature from going too high. If that's not enough, there's a remote-controlled A/C system that can run on battery alone and lets you set the temperature before you get in.

The above text was taken from Autobloggreen.com.

Did you just read this? So would prospects if you sent out "blast" emails to them using your database. But dont just send it to everyone and their mother. Think different. Send it to a select group of people such as:

1. Have expressed interest in a Prius

2. Have expressed interest in fuel economy

3. Are current Prius owners who may be ready for a new one or an additional one (think family)

4. Previous Corolla and Scion customers

5. Prior Hybrid customers

You get the picture...

Grab information from Toyota.com and wordsmith it to show your dealers identity.

The Press Release section of Toyota.com is at your disposal... and speaking of press releases, maybe its time your dealership did a few as the SEO of a press release from Reuters is priceless!

RETHINK EVERYTHING.

Read more!

Just HOW MANY are using the internet???

Would you agree with me if I said 50% of your dealership floor traffic has been on the web looking for information prior to visiting your store? Sure. 60%? You betcha. 70%? No doubt.

How about we just agree on something here - EVERYBODY (100%) has referenced the web on your product prior to visiting the store. Makes no sense to adjust our business model for the 10% of non-conformers. Its better to play it safe here and know that the 100% is not that far from reality.

Now since we just agreed that 100% of your shows have used the internet in some way to reference your product, wouldnt it make sense to rethink the way we do business and adjust to the consumers wants and needs? Or should we stay the course and pretend its "business as usual"?

RETHINK EVERYTHING.

Want to talk more about it? Contact your District Manager.... Read more!

Follow Up and then Follow Up more

30%- 40% of of the consumers who submit a lead through Toyota.com channels (2nd tier) who purchase, do so 91+ days after their initial lead was sent.

Thats not a typo. Thats NINETY ONE PLUS!

If your follow-up consists of "a few emails and a call or two", your results will attest to that process.

If your follow-up is 30 days max... well I have some bad news for you... the percentage of leads closed in the 0 - 30 day range is right around 40%. You just might be giving up on 60% of your opportunities.

Make an effort to follow-up past 90 days. The work will be rewarded.

Now, we all know what good follow-up is right???.......... Read more!

Looking to take your on-line presence to the next level?

The New York Region has available a comprehensive eBusiness program blending all of the elements needed for a successful Internet process and structure for Toyota dealers. GS Marketing’s eCertification program is currently being used in the GST and Kansas City regions to provide a comprehensive, turn-key solution for Dealer Internet departments and staff.
This program is unparallel in the SEO realm. Dealers on this program DOMINIATE search rankings and since over 50% of dealer website traffic is generated through search engines, being highly ranked will assist with driving more traffic to your website. Dealer website leads have a higher closing ratio so it makes sense to drive as much traffic to your sites as possible for the best return on investment, more so than "just buying leads".

Toyota dealers on this program have experienced an increase in site traffic as well as a substantial increase in the number of leads generated.

The program provides all of the elements needed to take Toyota dealers to the next level in the critical interactive marketing arena. The program is sponsored and branded for the Region and managed by GS Marketing. A single monthly fee provides all of the following:

Classroom eProcess Training - the key differentiator and most important component of the eCertification Program.

Measurement - Understanding performance is essential in providing valuable feedback that reinforces proper actions and identifies opportunities for improvement. We measure response time and quality, assess results, and report performance

Recognition - Motivated Internet Managers produce desired results. Our recognition programs drive that motivation and promote positive, measurable increases in sales and customer satisfaction. Monthly Challenges (Cash), Six Month Contest (travel/resort) and Annual eCertified elite Award

Toyota Dealer Websites - Advanced online presence including consistent Toyota only branding (TDAC Compliant), National and Regional Event promotion integration, Automatic regional incentive posting, SEO, SEM Available, Customizable design choices. Unique 800 numbers to track calls. Superior reporting on all aspects down to individual keyword searches on a daily basis.

Toyota Talk eNewsletter - The long-term, bi-monthly Toyota Talk eNewsletter is sent to all consumers who submit a lead through the website and have not purchased a vehicle. This important customer communication keeps the Dealer top of mind throughout the vehicle buying cycle

Reporting - Using Google Analytics, dealers are able to see substantial reporting data in real time from referring urls all the way down to individual search terms allowing dealers to better manage on-line campaigns that may or may not be working. This real time reporting access coupled along with the Measurement aspect of the Region will allow dealerships to custom tailor their on-line marketing.

Accountability - Your investment is 100% trackable. You will know exactly "how many" and "how much" for all your online initiatives. Try that with print, radio and tv advertising!

For more information contact the region.

Read more!