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The 2010 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp will be held a day prior to the official start of the 2010 NADA Convention in Orlando; February 12th.  The event is receiving an overwhelming welcome from automotive marketing professionals seeking an edge in 2010 over their competitors.  The seminar classes are nearly full, giving dealer professionals who still want to attend little time to register.

Seating for the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is limited to 75 attendees to offer a small and intimate classroom setting.  Registration is required and the few remaining seats will be offered on a first come first serve basis for the remaining registrants. 

Automotive Principals, General Managers, General Sales Managers or Internet Sales Managers are encouraged to register online at http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com/paypal

Six Automotive Marketing leaders have come together to lead this one day series of classes for automotive professionals who want to hone their skills and knowledge in Automotive Digital Marketing. 

The Boot Camp will cover important elements of automotive digital marketing strategies: social media, blogging, video, microsites, link building, content creation, SEO and pay-per-click marketing.    Every participant will be required to bring a laptop since the boot camp will feature hands on skills training.  This will enable participants to take back to their dealership and implement what they learned in class

Instructors include JD Rucker, a leading automotive social media expert and CMO of TK Carsites. Paul Rushing and Brian Pasch, respected leaders in Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization, will lead classes on microsites marketing and digital marketing strategy.  Tim Jennings and Matt O’Such will lead seminars on video marketing and optimization. Eric J.B. Mayhew, Manager of Advertising Products at Dealer.com, will lead a class on managing and leveraging Google Adwords to increase sales for your dealership.

The combination of these industry leaders will give attendees a firm grasp on the most effective digital marketing strategies for 2010.  Dealers are encouraged to send 2 employees so that they can cover all of the courses offered at the Boot Camp.

Complete class descriptions can be found online at http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com/instructors/

About the Brian Pasch and the Pasch Consulting Group

Brian Pasch is a veteran marketing expert and a noted expert in the field of Automotive SEO and Internet marketing. His career has spanned both management and technology roles.

He continues to lead research into Digital Marketing platforms. PCG continually tests new digital marketing strategies which can provide a cost effective channels for business advertising and lead generation.

PCG works for and with an ever-growing number of auto dealers and dealer groups from all over the country to maximize results of their digital marketing efforts.

http://www.dealer-seo.com

Most of us have heard this when we are waiting to speak with a company…

“ This call may be recorded for training purposes”

While we may understand the benefit of recording calls,  is anyone from this company listening and scoring these calls?

What about your dealership?  In 2010, as dealerships move more of  their marketing budgets to the online media channels; Adwords, Blogs, Social media, Banner Advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are you also having a discussion about your call center infrastructure.

Although consumers are choosing the Internet to research their cars before speaking with car dealer, dealers should not ignore that many online shoppers will eventually end up as a phone conversation with one of their employees.

If dealership employees are not trained correctly, then any change in the allocations of your marketing budget will not be fully leveraged.  Dealership call centers or BDC teams, no matter how small or large, need to have the proper training to convert conversations into sales or positive customer service experiences.

Part of this training must include feedback from calls that were recorded and scored by a professional call center trainer.

Companies like Whose Calling or Call Source will provide tracking and statistics from the calls they record. Although they provide a valuable service to car dealers, are car dealers really utilizing the true value of the service?  Is anyone at the dealership actually listening and scoring to the calls?

If managers base marketing investment ROI on the call volume they receive, they can end up praising poor execution versus correct effort. Call volume only tells a part of the story,  hearing what is being said on the phones is the other half.

If automotive retailers do not take the time to review incoming calls , how can they improve their sales and customer service processes?  More importantly, if calls are not being handled properly, your online investments are being negatively impacted.

2010 Call Center Action Plan

In 2010 companies that want to improve can do the following:

1. Decide on a number of calls per agent/ per week. Make sure to select a variety of call types. Do not focus on calls that result in a sale. Listen to refusals, calls that are very short or very long. This will give you a scope of how your employees handle all situations.
2. Utilize a uniform call checklist to score agent’s performance on each aspect of their calls.
3. Provide feedback to the employee in a manner where your comments focus both on what they are doing well as well as areas they can improve on.
4. Follow a consistent “Coaching Process” where you take the time to explain what they need to do but also demonstrate for them how to improve.
5. Track the agent’s performance each week to monitor their improvement.
6. Continue this process as part of your ongoing training for your employees.

This process will not only help you to fully monitor how your employees respond to customers, but also allows you to adjust scripting, providing needed answers to FAQ and make sure everything is aligned with your image and ideals.

The goal is to ensure that utilizing the new marketing channels work in your favor. Remember that a customer’s negative impression of your company will be spread across the Internet just as fast or faster than your marketing efforts.

Why risk a negative brand image due to something that is in your control.

Guest post by:

Glenn Pasch, CEO
Improved Performance Solutions
http://www.ipsforyou.com/
732-261-5472