Real Social Selling for Car Dealers (and others) – PART 1

 

Real Social Selling for Car Dealers (and others) – PART 1

TRANSCRIPT:  Hi. This is Steve Stauning with another Steve Stauning Short and Sweet video training lesson. Today’s lesson: Real Social Selling. Now, this eleven part series was originally recorded live as part of the Undeniable Advantage Live Video Webcasts. To ensure you never miss a live video webcast, go to Undeniable Advantage.com right now to register.

Good morning, good afternoon. My name is Steve Stauning. You are joining me for gaining the undeniable advantage. Today, we’re talking about real social selling that actually sells something. We’re going to teach you real social selling today. The kind of thing that your social media management company doesn’t want you to know because all of this stuff I’m going to teach you today is 100% free. You can be selling online today via Facebook socially and doing it all for free.






Now, we’re going to dive right in to this. We only have two sections today but they’re both pretty long. Section number one is buyer social and your company and we’re going to take you through this. Now, let’s quickly start with buyers. Today’s buyers like those before the internet are looking for three things before they make a large purchase. They’re looking for value, they’re looking for relevancy and they’re looking for authenticity.

Now, let me explain to you exactly what all three of those are. Value, that’s the easy one. Value is, is this a good value? Is this a good price to pay for the value I’m going to receive for this item? Whether it’s a home or a car, a truck, an RV or a motorcycle, today’s buyer just like yesterday’s buyer wants value. They’re looking for value. They’re also looking for relevancy. Now, relevancy means is it a good fit for me? Is this home the right size for us? We’re downsizing, we’re upsizing. Should I buy a minivan or should I buy a two-seat convertible? Is it relevant to my lifestyle? Does it fit with what my needs are?

Finally, authenticity and that is am I buying from someone authentic? Usually the company so your car dealership, your RV dealership, your brokerage, but more often than that it is the person. Is the person I’m buying from someone authentic? We used to say in the car business and we still say quite a bit today is that people buy cars from people they like. That’s the authenticity part. Are you authentic?

Again, today’s buyers just like the ones before the internet are looking for value, relevancy and authenticity before they’ll make any big purchase. Now, for each type of business, where and when they get value, relevancy and authenticity is different? For example, realtors. I know we’ve got some realtors on watching the video today. See, some buyers are going to find value and relevancy on a home you have listed right online, right realtor.com or Zillow and if they’re not already represented by an agent, then they’re going to reach out to you.

Now this is a crapshoot of course for them to find value and relevancy on their own and then just because you happen to list that home, they reach out to you. See, this requires you to become a listing monster if you want to get more than your share of today’s buyers while getting buyers to seek you out first gives you an edge over all other realtors. That’s why we’re talking about real social selling because realtors who are using real social selling have the advantage.

See, they can generate buyers. They get control of the buying process. By doing real social selling, this allows you to help your clients discover value of relevancy. If you have the client first, getting the buyer to seek you out because you’re doing real social selling, this allows you to help your clients discover value and relevancy with you. See, with social selling done right both buyers and sellers will seek you out. You don’t have to have a home listed for example to generate buyers.

Now, for our RV and powersports and really even appliances and furniture, many customers arrive at your place of business, on your lot or in your store with just an idea of what they want. They really haven’t found full value and relevancy yet. This is good in that it gives you a chance to build value and show them relevancy as you remain authentic. Of course with social selling, customers will seek you out. See, there’s no more hoping that today’s buyer chooses your store. There’s no more hoping that the next walk-in is a real buyer.

They will come to you as a trusted expert and listen to your recommendations when you remain authentic of course. If you can remain authentic and honest they’re going to seek you out. That’s what real social selling is going to give you. Now, for car buyers today, it’s a little bit different. Value and relevancy are determined before they ever visit your dealership, if they visit your dealership. See, all you can do is be authentic for those who happen to arrive. The average car buyer looks at more than 24 sources of information.

They spend more than 19 hours doing research online so they found value, they found relevancy, they arrive on your lot looking for authenticity, but here’s the deal for the sales people on the call today or on the webcast today. See, your location, your store’s location, your store’s inventory and your store’s pricing policy, those are what determine the ups but social selling can give you the authenticity you need before they discover value and relevancy. Again, we can get buyers to seek us out before they decided exactly what they want and why does this matter?

If you can get buyers to seek you out because you’re authentic, it allows you to guide the customer, to build the value as you help them determine relevancy whether that vehicle is a good fit or not, whether it’s a good value for the money. See, this can and does mean higher grossing deals. Again, provided that you remain honest throughout.

Now, I don’t care what business you’re in. Ultimately, everyone wants a friend in your business. For cars, everybody wants their guy or their gal. This is the same for any category commission sales. See, people want their guy or gal. They really do. Someone they can go to and trust. Social selling makes you that someone.

Now, let’s look at social just in general. Let’s take a look at the social media map. These are just a few of the sites that are out there today. The social media map is too big to wrap your head around all of the avenues. The good news is with real social selling, you don’t have to. See, most of these social channels are completely irrelevant to you and to your company because they lack two things. We’re going to talk about these a few times today.

They lack interaction, the ability to have interaction and they lack the ability to create a viral host or a viral interaction. For most of them, for nearly all of them, they provide little to no ROI. ROI is return on investment and I know what you’re thinking. “Wait, Steve. ROI? Isn’t social media free?” Yeah, but time isn’t free. Remember, ROI is return on investment. This includes a return on the investment of your time or of your efforts.

You need to measure investment for social in terms of dollars, in terms of time and in terms of effort. The effort that you put in and the time that you could be doing something else.