Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community (ADM)
Car Dealers, Internet Sales Managers and Interactive Marketing Professionals
The Billy Mays Persona
The Billy Mays Persona
By Jason Parman
Everyone know who Billy Mays is right? Billy Mays is the beard encased, flannel wearing spokesperson for such products as Oxy Clean and Super Putter. My questions to everyone reading this article today is this; “Could you imagine Billy Mays trying to sell those products in a soft spoken, un-enthusiastic, monotone voice?” My guess is that if Billy Mays conveyed his message in that manner, almost all of you would turn the channel as soon as possible! In my opinion I feel like that we all could learn something from the Billy Mays Persona.
Have you ever passed by your BDC Center and overheard your Internet Specialists conduct a phone interview with a prospect? Have you ever cringed when you heard your Internet Specialist convey his message so enthusiastically that you could have fallen asleep standing there in the doorway? I have experienced this many times as a Dealership Manager and as a BDC Manager and would have loved to inject some Billy Mays Persona into my BDC Center and Sales Staff.
Now, let’s step into the shoes of your customers. How do you think your customer feels when they are talking with a boring, un-enthusiastic Internet Specialist or Sales Person? I know if I called in to an Automobile Dealership and was transferred to a person that sounded like they were about to fall asleep, I would simply just hang up the phone and call the next dealer. Odds are you would too, right? Of course you would because no one wants to talk to these people! Customers want to feel like you care about their needs and the best way to convey that is by enthusiasm! In my opinion, if your Sales Staff and Internet Department took a page from the Billy Mays Persona and utilized his enthusiasm to create a since of excitement with the customer, odds are your units sold would increase dramatically and the amount of appointments set by your Internet Department/BDC Center would double!
Teaching this to your staff is easy! The best way to train your staff on this persona is by adapting this persona too! If your staff comes in and you are excited about having a great day, they too will perceive this excitement and in-turn adopt this behavior for that day. If you come in carrying the world on your shoulders, like I know most of you do. The underlying perception that you are stressed and having the worst day of your career will also transfer over onto your staff and will kill their mood instantly! Leave your problems at the doorstep and come in with a newly adopted Billy Mays Persona. Your enthusiasm will rub off onto your employees 99% of the time, for the other 1% who insist on being Monotone Mary or Bored Bob simply part ways and hire someone that can adopt the Billy Mays Persona!
If you have any questions regarding this technique, please feel free to give me a call or send me an e-mail. I am available 24 hours a day!
Thanks and God Bless
By Jason Parman
Everyone know who Billy Mays is right? Billy Mays is the beard encased, flannel wearing spokesperson for such products as Oxy Clean and Super Putter. My questions to everyone reading this article today is this; “Could you imagine Billy Mays trying to sell those products in a soft spoken, un-enthusiastic, monotone voice?” My guess is that if Billy Mays conveyed his message in that manner, almost all of you would turn the channel as soon as possible! In my opinion I feel like that we all could learn something from the Billy Mays Persona.
Have you ever passed by your BDC Center and overheard your Internet Specialists conduct a phone interview with a prospect? Have you ever cringed when you heard your Internet Specialist convey his message so enthusiastically that you could have fallen asleep standing there in the doorway? I have experienced this many times as a Dealership Manager and as a BDC Manager and would have loved to inject some Billy Mays Persona into my BDC Center and Sales Staff.
Now, let’s step into the shoes of your customers. How do you think your customer feels when they are talking with a boring, un-enthusiastic Internet Specialist or Sales Person? I know if I called in to an Automobile Dealership and was transferred to a person that sounded like they were about to fall asleep, I would simply just hang up the phone and call the next dealer. Odds are you would too, right? Of course you would because no one wants to talk to these people! Customers want to feel like you care about their needs and the best way to convey that is by enthusiasm! In my opinion, if your Sales Staff and Internet Department took a page from the Billy Mays Persona and utilized his enthusiasm to create a since of excitement with the customer, odds are your units sold would increase dramatically and the amount of appointments set by your Internet Department/BDC Center would double!
Teaching this to your staff is easy! The best way to train your staff on this persona is by adapting this persona too! If your staff comes in and you are excited about having a great day, they too will perceive this excitement and in-turn adopt this behavior for that day. If you come in carrying the world on your shoulders, like I know most of you do. The underlying perception that you are stressed and having the worst day of your career will also transfer over onto your staff and will kill their mood instantly! Leave your problems at the doorstep and come in with a newly adopted Billy Mays Persona. Your enthusiasm will rub off onto your employees 99% of the time, for the other 1% who insist on being Monotone Mary or Bored Bob simply part ways and hire someone that can adopt the Billy Mays Persona!
If you have any questions regarding this technique, please feel free to give me a call or send me an e-mail. I am available 24 hours a day!
Thanks and God Bless
Tags: bdc, center, department, internet, manager, sales, selling, staff
Replies to This ADM Discussion
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Permalink Reply by James A. Ziegler on
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Billy Mays is one of my all-time favorite marketers. I mentioned him extensively in my book. He's so loud and bigger than life you are commanded to listen and pay attention. Good analogy. JIM
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Permalink Reply by Jason Parman on -
Thanks Jim, you are absolutely right! I believe Billy Mays could get anyones attention!
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Permalink Reply by Jason Parman on
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Thanks Stan I am glad you like my article, I often put on a flannel shirt and a fake beard to motivate my staff! They Love it!
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Permalink Reply by Philip Zelinger on -
Hi Jason,
I read your post with a smile on my face because it was like looking in a mirror! Don't get me wrong, I don't look like Billy Mays or anything remotely like him - I am much better looking - but your basic concept of managing by example and putting on a "happy face" when managing/training your staff is management 101!
After 25 years as a General Manager and Dealer Principal I learned that motivation is part of any manager's job description. I often referred to it as "playhouse 90" - not my generational reference but one that my mentor passed on to me! The fact is that a salesperson or BDC representative communicating on a phone or chat room has to project a personality even louder than real life for one on one conversations because the phone and/or the internet filters out his/her pretty smile or freshly pressed suit. The energy level has to be elevated to get to the last row - just like in the theater defined by the Playhouse 90 reference - again, before even my time but still relevant!
A salesperson is like an actor on stage who must project past the clutter and treat every day and conversation like opening night! Sure, the "script" gets old for the salesperson but it is the first time that the customer has seen the play!
The point of your post is that people like to do business with people that they like and a personality and a well time sense of humor gioes a long way in differentiating a salesperson from the rest of the auto dealers out there - real or virtual.
My team was always able to know when I was sick or had a bad day because I was unusually cheerful! My job, and that of any manager cashing a pay check - was/is to manage and motivate by example! Oddly enough today's Internet staff often uses the same "glass wall" between them and the customers to assume that their personlaity won't show through when the truth is that with a little effort it will stand out even more!
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Permalink Reply by Jason Parman on
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Phillip,
I am glad that you liked my article and that we share the same ideas when it comes to management. My team can tell when I am having a bad day too, because I project myself over the top as well. In my line of work I spend 6 days a week away from my wife and kids, which is very hard for me because they are the number one reason I wake up in the mornings, but I keep moving forward because I know I was meant to help Automobile Dealers. I have always loved the business and will continue to love the business till the day I die.
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Permalink Reply by Philip Zelinger on
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Jason,
I guess that great minds think alike! One suggestion, don't die, we will miss you and unfortunately your dealer will probably forget you as soon as he hires your replacement!
My point is that I too love the car business but I have learned that the best managers are the one's that temper their work life with their home life and recognize that neither can work without the other!
Just a shared wisdom from a survivor. After all, what are friends for!
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Permalink Reply by J.C. Hurst on -
Excellent article, Jason! Thank you!
Billy Mays is awesome... you MUST give it to the 'new guy' on the block too...
the "SHAM-WOW" guy!
HOLY CRAP... this dude is DOMINATING Google right now!
"You're gonna' love my nuts" LOL
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Permalink Reply by Paul Rushing on -
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This is a paragraph from my book....I talk more about Billy but here's the gist of it all...
You can learn so much about marketing from these programs if you carefully study the psychology packed into every word and every demonstration. George Foreman is selling the newer, bigger, better, improved Lean Mean Grilling Machine. And, then there’s that wild-eyed bearded guy yelling at you from the top of his lungs...yeah that’s Billy Mays, the OxiClean guy. I love all of these people. They have become like close personal friends. My all-time favorite is still Mike Levy; you know who he is, the nerdy little guy in the argyle sweater and the black-framed plastic glasses. He gets so excited about the juice machine or the bread-maker. That kind of excitement and enthusiasm sells products. When you are watching him sell, it’s like watching a little puppy that is so excited you know it’s about to pee all over the place at almost any second. I love it!
The QVC® Home Shopping Network has a limited supply of genuine Diamonique® tennis bracelets. You need to get a move on and call now! Operators are waiting! The timer in the bottom of the screen is counting down and the price has been slashed. You’ve only got three more minutes before our limited supply runs out and this offer is gone forever...or until next week, whichever comes first. This is the absolute epitome of urgency, limited time, introductory price, and limited supply advertising.
Sally Struthers cries and pleads and begs for you to help her to feed starving children all over the world; although, she, herself apparently is not. This is a classic example of what I call guilt complex advertising.
Wow! Look at this; the outside of the envelope says you’ve just won ten million dollars from Ed McMahon or Dick Clark. By now most of us have caught on that we probably haven’t won anything yet. Still, a shot
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Permalink Reply by Jason Parman on
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You said it in a nutshell, I would love to get a chance to read your book. Seems like we are both on the same wavelength. If every dealer would teach their staff to be more like these televised salespeople, they would see increased grosses and units sold!
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Permalink Reply by Wendell Dossett on -
Interesting posts and I agree with most of the ideas posted. Sales management 101 tells us that we must lead by example (rarely done in this business). It takes a special manager to do this. Not only to put on the face but walk the talk. Lot of people like to say we should do this or that - fine , show me dude. Just aint gonna happen, even in these times when there is more time to do so. Lets go out and try to find a fun manager right now. He may be out there, but like looking for the best mate - you will need all your sensors working full time. You are all right - Setting the right mental attitude is a basic sales 101 feature set, no doubt. Plus having someone who can be fun and a great role model, that in itself is a ShamWow. But, and here's the butt, Do we really want your customers to be subjected to a Billy or Vince attack. Yes we can learn learn a lot from the marketing, and the best minds in the business know how to pack it all in to the time slot. But this is a one way lens, no feedback allowed. Todays customers need a heavy dose of listening to and customized selling. Building a long lasting relationship with a Billy-Vince talking head might be a dream not to come true. We all have a hope for the advertising schemes to come true, but the fact is that when the unbelievable product fails our belief in this type of overbearing , loud character dies just a little bit more in us. Our belief in this character is skeptical at best. Do we want to align ourselves with this? Isn't this what we are trying to overcome these days? DID Ya come in for the sale today??
Now this is not to say, once again, that we shouldn't be on our best game and have too much fun. We should always. We should even press the envelope hard, stretching ourselves more than ever. Not just looking for external motivation, but internally what can make us do our best - not aspiring to be Billy ( someone we are not). Who wants to be around a phony. Not that Billys a phony, but you would be trying to be Billy.
It would interesting to think what a prospect would do if I sent them a webcam of me explaining the vehicle but shouting at them like Billy. Or, maybe leave a voice mail like Vince. Now you may say that it got their attention, and you would be right. But if you can't be more professional than that - you have big selling problem, not to mention a retention & referral problem. Plus, you are not going after the demographic that WOW or scream boy are going after. A very profound Toyota trainer recently said, "There is now just a small bucket of idiots who fall in off the street and buy at list (like the old days). Now is the time to learn how to sell".
It would be fun to see...
How Billy or Vince would be after their 3rd 560 beacon in a row. I bet it wouldn't be so WOW. Vince might just dice their small finger, LOL.
But, we as sales professionals that get repeat business and still sell in these times, do what we know works. That is being ourselves and a little bit more. We come alive when we are with a customer, on the computer, and when we get on the phone. We anchor in - we stand up and achieve that goal we know we need to obtain when we decide to accept the call. If your people can't do this, get new people. They have proven they cannot. You can't afford more bad people mistakes.
Unfortunately, we need more than ever, a lot of tools. This goes much farther than attitude, although attitude is the most important. We need knowledge, modern tools, and the ability to provide Compelling Service. Communicate effectively in many ways using many media well. We are in the info world, and you need to be a transparent supplier. Sure we can throw some Billy & Vince, and put on some freak. But just like Chilli powder, just a dab or so will do ya.
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