Car Dealership Marketing Guy

It’s only January 2, and I just read some marketing wisdom that will make my “Best of 2019” list in 12 months.

A marketing guy at an auto dealership posted to an online marketing forum this question: “What would you suggest I do to get everyone to understand why we use social media?”

The salespeople at the dealership are cranky. They think social media is a waste of time and money. And they’re groaning about it to Marketing Guy.

Marketing Guy needs help replying to the sales folks.

Several people in the forum posted earnest replies about the importance of social media and how to use it to sell cars.

But one person cut to the chase with best-of marketing wisdom: “If you have to ask the internet for why you’re doing social media, then your salespeople are absolutely correct in questioning why you’re doing social media.”

Amen!

The internet is littered with “marketers” who are busy doing stuff with no idea why they’re doing it.

Ask them why they’re doing it, and they shrug…

…or worse yet, they offer answers that have nothing to do with the bottom line.

I was talking with a marketing manager the other day who spends 15 hours a week on social media.

“We’re killing it,” he said.

He then ticked off a bunch of stats about “likes” and “retweets” and “followers” and all those other “metrics.”

I asked, “How many social followers have become customers or referred business?”

He shrugged. “Not sure,” he said, “But I’m sure it’s helping.”

Yeah, he’s sure —  kind of like auto dealership Marketing Guy is sure.

The problem: The salespeople, who spend their time counting revenue, not likes, say it’s not working.

Are the salespeople right? Hard to tell.

All we know is this: Marketing Guy has not yet demonstrated any correlation between the things he measures and the bottom line that salespeople measure.

Until Marketing Guy connects those dots, he’s only guessing when he says his tactics work, and his salespeople are right to wonder.
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