Networking? or Notworking?

Just curious.... anyone concerned that social networks might be a distraction from getting real work done? Networking in general is a good thing, although all of us have been to an industry event that felt more like a "vendor family reunion" than an opporutunity to increase revenue....

That said, I pose two questions:

1. How do you monitor your employees activity on social networks (including this one) so that it doesn't become a distraction? Or is this even a problem?

2. Also, how do you ensure that tradeshows increase revenue, as opposed to just being another place to rub shoulders with your competition and other companies?

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Replies to This ADM Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tim Sandefur on August 20, 2008 at 2:05pm: This is a good topic Sarah,

These are my opinoins.....The car business is a big industry, yet in each market around the country its a very small world. People switch dealerships like changing pants and some bring vendors along and have long relationships with several vendor people. I for one believe in networking as long as it is from a learning aspect just to hear and see what everyone else is doing and what new things or trends vendors offer.

The funny thing is alot of people I know don't network even though they should in todays market. I feel if you have people blogging, or on social networks as a small part of their day that is great as they are interracting with people in a similiar position, so this forum and others are a great way to see what is going on elsewhere.

As far as tradeshows, or event, we always (if we participate) have a structured lead form, with interest notes and then those leads are called, worked and followed up as a pipeline for those at the show. Then it always has been easy to see the ratios based upon leads from the show. If your people come back with none, they didnt do anything but have fun...It is also what expectations you set and express to your people. If you have people that only "Party" or "Rub Shoulders" and don't sell, you have the wrong people going. Set checks and balances up is what I always find to be best.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ralph Paglia on August 21, 2008 at 12:17am: Sarah,

Great questions... And, both get asked quite frequently, so they are obviously valid.

Question #1: I wrestle with this daily... There are many days when i spoend far too much time taking care of my ADM project, which I have intentionally kept out of ADP's sphere of influence, aside from the occasional message i get from "on high" that says something like "and I don't want to see this on that blog, social network, or whatever it is you call that thing..." However, every time I think that maybe the past 8 months I have invested part time hours into ADM may be not worth the time, something happens, which leads to a business opportunity, which leads to me renewing my faith in the ADM community as a viable use of time. I just worked at a dealership for 2 days as a result of this community, and the price the dealer paid was substantial... I stopped working on the cheap a few years ago. And, walking into a major OEM's offices to discuss their Digital M\arketing strategy as a result of what they have read on ADM definitely makes it all worthwhile (that Monday/Tuesday of last week). I have also received several phone calls and emails from other professionals who have thanked me for ADM after they closed a deal with a client they met through ADM. So, some people seem to benefit, and perhaps many do not... Like a lot of things in this business, sometimes if you BELIEVE, stay committed and work at it, the ROI comes, maybe directly, maybe indirectly.

Question #2: GREAT QUESTION! Personally, I have attended about as many automotive conferences as anybody, including every Digital Dealer, every J. D. Power Internet roundtable, I drafted the original Jumpstart "ThinkDigital" think tank, and this coming NADA will be my 10th. Every conference I have ever attended has paid off for me, and although I know some people do not seem to benefit, I personally believe it is up to the individual to manage their time, attention and how they leverage these events in order to receive an ROI... I have been to several NADA's that were amongst the hardest working 4 days of my career, and although I may not have felt too great about being pimped out by my colleagues for 4 days, the business they all booked seemed to ensure i was compelled to go to the next one, and the next one, etc. Recently i have been going to the Kelley Blue Book Brunches, and those have been the best ROI my employer has received from any of my conference activities... 6 contracts from 3 events to date, the only expense being my travel exepnses... Dealer 20 Groups are probably the ultimate, because I have never been to one that did not generate at least 1 contract, but usually more.

All in all, this is one of those businesses where you can go to where opportunities are floating all around you by the dozen, but if you do not have a positive attitude, TRULY want to help your potential clients to make money, and be willing to roll up your sleeves and work on whatever is important to them at that moment in time... At the conference... AND, really believe in what ioty is you are trying to sell... AND, have generated lots of good karmic equity throiughout your life... YOU MAY END UP BLA NKING!

Knock on wood, polish my chrome and toss that salt, I haven't blanked at an industry event in the past 27 years of going to them... But, hey... Maybe I am just a dumb Italian oaf from Buffalo that doesn't know any better and the many, many millions of dollars in business I have written had nothing to do with meeting the buyers at these types of events... I've been wrong before!

Sometimes... You gotta believe in your heart before it works! Here's some photos I took at ENG last week:; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah Draley on August 21, 2008 at 6:03pm: Thank you for your answers, Ralph. I'm happy you've had such an enormous amount of success at networking events... you make me a believer!

But more importantly, thank you for the time, energy and expense you've invested into this site. I've been reading it for months, but only recently became a more involved and active member.

I should have been more specific regarding the first question I posed. I do believe this network is an excellent industry forum. And, although valuable and profitable time could be wasted on any forum, I'm more interested in dealership's input on the more prominent social networks like MySpace and facebook.

Is there a problem with "notworking" while maintaining dealerships' MySpace/facebook pages? Have dealership's seen a profitable benefit to having these sites? Enlighten me!

I'd especially appreciate the perspective of dealerships on this subject (no offense Ralph, Bryan and Phil... I like reading your thoughts, too.)

SD; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bryan Armstrong on August 21, 2008 at 12:30pm: Sarah,
Cutting to the heart of the matter again...I love it!
There are many times when I spend to much time on this site, look at my post times and you can almost hear my wife in the background saying " I think its time to turn off the computer and come to bed".
However just when the "networking" becomes "notworking", I come across a new process or viewpoint that makes me re-evaluate, a pointer from a kind-hearted peer or vendor (yes you fall into that category) that saves me countless hours of research, enhances my understanding ,and increases profitability or a product review that causes me to sway my marketing one way or the other.
I don't beleive I could put a price on the type of "service" that is rendered through this site nor the exposure that social marketing can bring...though I am sure there are some vendors on here that probably have a formula to compute it!
As long as objectivity is maintained and censorship doesn't occur (THANKS AGAIN RALPH!) i will continue to be an avid supporter of this network.
As far as tradeshows go you usually get out of them exactly what you thought you would before you went...hmmm.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah Draley on August 21, 2008 at 5:53pm: Thanks for the post, Bryan... and for letting everyone know I'm a vendor. I was trying to keep that on the DL : )

Seriously, though, thank you for your perspective on the subject. I am a supporter of this network, as well. It provides a forum for everyone in the industry to round-table with open dialog and gives insignificant folks like me the opportunity to have a "voice."

"As far as tradeshows go you usually get out of them exactly what you thought you would before you went...hmmm." <<< that's an expensive "hmmm".

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Permalink Reply by Philip Zelinger on August 21, 2008 at 2:42pm: Hi Sarah,

I will address your two questions as one since you may find that the answers over lap.

The Internet has created a new breed of consumers with a unique persona that allows them to distance themselves from the "fast talking car salesperson" - real or imagined. Consumers shopping for a vehicle use it as a research tool without the boundaries or complications that existed in the real world where - before the internet - the only source for the answer was at the dealership.

Even the first generation of websites and applications limited releasing final information on product and price to conversion tools tied to emails or visits to the dealership that tried to control the customer before the relationship was earned. "Give me your name and email and/or make an appointment to come to the dealership or settle for MSRP or something other than our best price" - or something to that effect. That practice was transferred from the phone scripts that preceded the websites and emails and it dosen't work anymore because the answers are only a click away from a true virtual showroom or third party resource site.

Social networking sites developed and matured in other industries before the automobile industry and they proved themselves on many levels. The "culture" of seeking information from likeminded consumers with shared agendas created a focus on people and personlaity as much as product and price. Consumers found that the "total experience" often dominated the online conversations more than price so they considered the whole picture when they narrowed down their search for the right dealership for sales and/or service. Oddly enough, that same dynamic exists in the real world but it is less obvious to the consumer who previously thought that the price was enough even though their buying habits have proven otherwise in both the real and the virtual world.

People like to do business with people that they like but the first generation of websites had a "glass wall" between the consumer and the dealership that made it tough to get to know eachother. Now comes the answer to your questions.

Any fisherman will tell you that the seceret to fishing is to go where the fish are. Car shoppers are on the Internet and, more specific to your question, social networking sites have already proven themselves as a major fishing hole with the bait being relationship based information and selling. They have already matured in the travel and restaurant industry, along with many other non-automotive verticals, and their exponential growth in the auto industry evidences that the auto industry is next.

Salespeople, or perhaps more importantly, auto dealerships must participate in social networking sites or they will be perceived as an outsider. More importanly, the dealers are already the subject of the discussions so they might as well get in their two cents before the decisions for or against them are made by the online network of car shoppers that are flocking to share their experience and narrow down their shopping lists. Any involvement is better than none so - no, participating in a social networking site is never a problem.

Of course monitoring your salespeople's activity must be applied to the social networking sites the same as with any other daily activity while they are on the clock but there are established applications in many CRM and telephony systems - especially the newer VOIP applications - that can be applied to make sure that they are not surfing for a date. The appointment logs and individual end of the month sales commissions are also an established gauge.

As for question number two - first see above - then add the fact that "rubbing shoulders" is often more productive than a formal presentation. Relationships are still the key to success in both worlds and I can personally confirm that I am still getting "deals" from the 1st Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville as the relationships mature.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Webb on August 22, 2008 at 3:55pm: In regard to dealerships having their own page on social networking sites, I am all for it. However, I am in charge of the page along with only one of my Internet Relations Managers and my advertising exec. We don't have a myspace page to sell vehicles. That is not the purpose. As a Scion dealer, we have "connections" with some Scion car clubs in the area on our friends list. When promoting our bi-annual Scion events (last week's event had 85 Scions registered and showed - a huge turnout), we send out messages to these groups through myspace and other forums.
This is also a good place to throw up any dealer videos, pics of salespeople and management, new weekly ads (every week our primary pic is our newest ad), and to demonstrate to consumers that you are not the average car dealership.
The reciprocal links coming in from a big networking site like myspace doesn't hurt either.
I did say, though, that only a few of us are allowed on this. We, as management, must police our employees from playing around on such sites. I do not believe, if a salesperson were on a site like myspace, it would be with the intentions of networking for business. I simply wouldn't allow it.
Now, if they were perusing around a car forum, I wouldn't see the harm in that. Maybe they'll learn something.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James A. Ziegler on August 23, 2008 at 3:36pm: Believe it or not you can sell a lot of cars and make a lot of money with the popular social networks everyone is using.

Linkedin, MySpace, Ecademy, Plaxo, and any other that communicates with a mass number of people, potential customers and referrals; I am using social networking more and more as I just invested in becoming the Blackstar City leader for the City of Atlanta with rights to the State of Georgia for Ecademy.com. It is a sustantial investment that I know will pay off huge.

On the other hand, I sometimes wonder what some of you would do if your dealer joined some of those automotive blog sites and realized how much time you spend there. JIM; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ralph Paglia on August 24, 2008 at 7:01am: Jim,

The nice thing about this business is that most dealers are OK with whatever you are doing as long as you are selling cars! When the Daly Brothers worked for me, they had 1 day a week when they did not even show up at the dealership because they were out canvassing neighborhoods with flyers that they stuffed into door jambs of people's homes, condos and apartments. Between the 2 of them, they were good for 25 to 50 cars beingh sold every month... NOBODY questioned the value of their day of working outside the dealership... Just like nobody questioned the value of giving up our conference room 1 day each month for the Phoenix Valley Corvette Owners Club... Or. when the fleet/commercial guys would take a day to play golf with the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce... Or, when a couple of the ISS's would take a day off to participate in a "Sober Riders" road trip... Because, we sold plenty of cars to members of all these groups. However, I can tell you that when somebody would publish a negative story about the dealership at Kudzu.com or on a MySpace blog page, the owners wanted to know what we were doing to publish positive reports!

Social networking is VERY real and exerts a lot of influence on where people buy their cars... Any dealer who avoids involvement by their PEOPLE in the social networking space is giving a competitive advantage to those that do.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah Draley on August 26, 2008 at 4:07pm: So true, Ralph! When sales are up accountability becomes less important!

But the numbers don't lie... car sales have slowed. Behavior within a dealership which wasn't "questioned" previously, is now being reviewed carefully.

SD; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah Draley on August 26, 2008 at 3:51pm: Thank you for your balanced perspective, Jim. I totally agree... being visible on social networks can help make a dealership seem more approachable, while creating incremental sales opportunities.

Your word of caution rings true: "I sometimes wonder what some of you would do if your dealer joined some of those automotive blog sites and realized how much time you spend there." I'm afraid this might be the down-side of maintaining a social network page/site.

I'm anxious to hear from more dealerships to give their feedback on the subject.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Armstrong on August 26, 2008 at 8:22pm: We do not maintain any social network presence as of yet.
Thats right Sarah, I am not a vendor, just an average car guy.
It is something,however, that we will be implementing as soon as I find the right person to maintain it as I believe it is a crucial part of marketing and Public Awareness. Just as we sponsor the local School programs and contribute to community and National charities, social networking raises your "brand" and helps maintain that "top of mind awareness" that can be so crucial.
Just as I wouldn't have every salesperson write my weekly ad, nor would the social site be accessable to just anyone to maintain.
Unfortuneately, we have had to block many domains because of the extraordinary amount of time that has been abused by the few.; ▶ Reply to This