Good afternoon everyone brandon hardison for champion strategies.
Another edition of hardison’s tips, glad you can be with me today.
I don’t know if you can see behind me we’re doing a sales training class they’re out to lunch.
So i have a set time.
You have a set time, so, let’s quickly unpack it, so we started with f and i last week we had one of the best at the walk around from utah and today we’re honored to talk about a couple of things from one of the best in his Area, if not the nation coming from a place called alexandria louisiana now, let me let some of you think about it, because louisiana mardi gras new orleans, hey there there’s a whole other state besides new orleans, but let’s just get to it i’ll.
Let him introduce his own self in his own way, i’ll just call him lamb! That’s what his folks point by, but hey mr holmes, how about telling us about yourself and what’s going on exciting for you down there in alexandria and who you’re working for thanks for having me, mr hardison, i’m still working for walker, honda.
Of course, i’ve been in walker honda for 20 years here at this dealership.
Okay, i’ve been in the car business.
A total of 24.
20 years in one place means that people know where to find you.
You know one thing that i was taught in this business early was: if you jump around you’re, going to lose people because they’re always wondering hey.
Where do you go this week? Where is he at this week? If you stay in one place, deal with the ups and downs, build your clientele from top to bottom start with the smallest person, and they will enable you to move up the ladder and build that clientele to where people know.
Where you are they always.
You may not always get them, but they will always call you before they buy something outstanding.
Now i have more new hires than the experience that i deal with, because they need to be nurtured and many many times they don’t get nurtured by the managers back at their dealerships, not saying that they’re bad.
But they forget that they were new once and you need to make sure that they’re comfortable, if not they’re, going to think that this is not a good career and go.
But here’s where i’m going by staying in one place is there a way now we can fill the pipeline have a book of business and don’t really have to rely on the advertising or the allocation of that dealership because you already have a following.
I do we do the the biggest thing that i do is i try to make sure i contact my customers.
That’s number.
One.
Follow-Up is very important whether you do it through quick page, which is you know, relatively new.
You send videos to your customers on the products or just a happy birthday or happy anniversary for their call.
You can do it through phone calls emails.
You know most people like to be like you when you reach out to them and now keep in touch.
Now.
I’m glad you said that follow up because from a manager’s perspective and i’ll just give you an example: uh we just put down brandon looking at a corvette, there’s no way the manager can help you out, because they were too lazy and i’ll say it again.
They were too lazy to understand that this tool, the crm, if you enter in a whole lot of information, because you had a conversation, not an interrogation, you had a con, it can tell you about birthdays anniversaries.
Is that what you’re telling everybody? That’s what we use? Uh, rentals and rentals as our crm, okay, i also have many many of my customers are facebook, friends, social media friends, so they see what i’m doing, how i’m doing and if i see the birthdays on facebook, if i miss it in the crm, i can see It on facebook or or instagram or snapchat or wherever you may have them, and you can always go back and send them a happy birthday wow.
Now, i’m just asking from you doing that, because some some of the folks that are probably watching that are still new to the industry and they’re, probably wondering if i made a good career choice because they came to work to wait.
They didn’t come to work with a plan.
So is there a way you can explain that again because they might may have missed that part.
If you use the tools, your crm, all your stuff, that you’re giving your facebook, your social media, you’re able to maintain a constant contact with your customers, there is there are pro platforms out there.
I mean – i don’t know if you remember a few years ago, uh there was a company called constant contact.
I believe where you would pay them and they would constantly send out information to your customers right right.
So if, if these folks, that think that they can’t make it in this industry would just slow down and find a way that they’re comfortable to follow up, it doesn’t have to be the crm.
The crm could be the start.
But if i heard you, if there’s social confidence, i can use the facebook snapchat any one of them out there just follow up with the customers.
The one thing about the car business that a lot of people forget is this business is a marathon.
It’s not a sprint, the longer you’re in the longer you’re in one place, the more clients you’re going to be able to build into your book of business once you jump around.
If you have this week, you’re at uh honda here next week, nissan over there, you people are gon na again.
Will they’re gon na lose you because they’re gon na say well.
He sold me this product now he’s over here.
Is he trying to sell a better product? What’s he doing, and the biggest thing about staying in one location is having the confidence in the product that you sell also to stay there.
That’s right excellent! Now! I know we’re both on schedules here with that.
So, let’s quickly talk about these social sites and i’ll tell everybody.
I watch this gentleman every weekend blow it up now.
I don’t watch during the week because i’m busy doing a lot of things, but on saturdays i see this person consistently blowing it up.
So when people say that, let me just let you cross across the curb happy motoring, that’s a bad thing to do.
I call it this.
What can you do your job? What can you do to ensure that the customer has had a great experience with you before they leave or how they’re going to take you home with them? If you want to look at it that way, because they’re going to tell people that yeah, i purchased a new car.
But let me tell you about my sales person.
So, what’s some of the things that you do, i’ve done everything from uh have the car cleaned with balloons and a bow on it to uh years ago.
I i need to get back and practice my sold photographs.
I would take those and put them on a uh postcard and send it to the customer, and a lot of them put them on their refrigerators.
Did things like that so that they would always, you know, be like a little congratulations.
Maybe a couple pictures of them in the car meeting them.
They would always remember that hey, he showed me a car, it’s on the fridge.
So when they go look i’m in their house.
Some people do.
Thank you notes, i’m a talker.
So i call and thank conversate here at the dealership, one other thing that we do because we’re not as large as some dealers at this dealership.
They make us uh when we have a local customer with a license plate, we can either invite them in to come.
Pick up their plate and we’ll put it on for them, or if we have time we can run it to their business and put it on for them.
Ah, now you opened up a whole new door, because most managers and sales people feel that the brick and mortar is the only thing to do.
Did i hear you say, leave the dealership and go to somebody’s place of business or home, yes taking their license plate.
If they’re at the business, when you go in the door with their plate, that makes other people observe and they say well, my salesman didn’t bring me a plate.
My salesman didn’t even call me when my plate came in uh wow.
This guy must be something different or this organization may be something different.
So therefore they may not come and see me, but they may come see.
Somebody who works in my organization to get the same treatment to see if they can get the same feeling that that other person received that that that is it now.
What would be your feeling, because we’re all going through it and hopefully one day, we’ll get to the end of it, but ever since this virus has attacked a whole lot of dealerships across the nation uh.
I know for myself on this side of the mississippi.
Many of them didn’t have a plan talking about the ownership and they’ve shut down.
People have been furloughed uh, some people just don’t like the hours because it’s been too reduced, but i try to tell them you’re just trying to wait for the up bus and live off of the dealership be more of an entrepreneur.
So since we talked about leaving the dealership, is there any tools, maybe that you use if the dealership doesn’t have where they can do some of the work online and not all of it when they come to the dealership? Do you have anything in place or have you heard of anything like that? The dealership has a few things in place me.
Okay, personally, i have you know my own.
My cell phone number available people contact me via facebook, messenger via my cell, and we start building the deal from that point.
If i’m, if i’m out, we can text, if i’m at work, we can call or text.
However, it takes for them to uh.
Get the deal done, whether it’s call text email messages right now we also offered uh home deliveries.
Doing we also own home test drives? Okay, i don’t know if you’ve seen her there’s, also a young lady in uh north carolina that i follow uh she works at.
I think a honda dealership over there.
She does everything home delivery, so i’ve been trying to find people who do things that i like and take some of that and add it into what i’m already doing, excellent the reason being once again, people are still buying vehicles.
We have to give them a reason to buy from us, or our establishment.
Well do do something different do something that the other folks are not doing so taking it to their home for a delivery or a test drive yeah.
Why not as long as it’s sanitized and they feel comfortable with the ride? That’s that’s great um.
I have even talked to some people that would even take the service to do the same thing.
You don’t want to come into the service department.
Where do you work? We’ll come and pick up your vehicle leave you a loaner, so we can service your vehicle, bring it back to you.
All it takes is thinking a little bit instead of waiting for somebody to come through the door because they may not come in with today’s client, and we have the client and the client climate going on current buyers.
It hurts people now running down on time.
A little bit because i i thank you – and i only had about 20 minutes to work with that.
There was something new dealing with the social platform that you wanted to: share professional videos.
Okay, one one of my colleagues had a professional video done for his social media outlet with uh.
You know not just with your cell phone, you go in, you have someone come in, they video camera.
They edit, i mean it, looks the the quality and presentation changes from, of course, a cell phone to a professional development develop professionally, develop video so that you have a product that you can use all year.
You can use it every month.
You can move it around.
You can use it as long as you want to as long as you’re in that that establishment right right, professional video.
I think that’s my next adventure, professional professionally edited and filmed video to post on my social media website.
Okay, so just for some of the folks, and they may still be trying to wrap their head around it.
What do you think is the difference between the cell phone quality and to have somebody who does it professionally? Well, you get more in the video with the cell phones, you can i mean you get the product, you can get the person, but you get different scenarios though you can do.
The editing is better the they can use different lighting, different setups to change.
You know from each office as you go from, if you do it at your sales desk.
If you go to the finance office to walk through the whole process, you can let them see how easy it is from step, one all the way through which can be done with a camera.
But you know the image is so much clearer and so much more perfected with a actual professionally developed video than it is with a cell phone.
I’m glad you and thank you for sharing that.
There is something, ladies and gentlemen, which is an exact science and, if you’ve been following me in the morning, at 5 00 a.
We we talk about it.
It’s called neural linguistic programming, an exact science.
If you don’t know that term, just put in your favorite search engine, nlp nancy, larry, paul, nlp and you’ll get a plethora of information about this fact: science, but in the short and skinny it’s how people learn it’s how they take in information.
Some people are auditory.
Some people are visual, some people are touchy, feely or anesthetic or a combination.
So what i’m hearing lamb say is that if you have this professional, better quality with the pixels everything pops a lot better when they’re viewing you doing this walk around the dealership, correct correct! You can see more, it’s uh more to me.
His video was in depth, whereas with the camera just kind of an overview with the phone camera, you get a little overview because it’s quick short and easy.
His video was less than a minute done.
Okay, just going through and it was i i it when i saw it first, i called him – i said: hey dude, who did your video who did, and he was like well this guy over here at uh, take seven studios, which is a local local, uh entity.
Here in town, okay, man send me his number i’m gon na call him.
So i called him getting ready to schedule mine, hopefully in the next week, to get everything lined up where i can do the same type, video beautiful beautiful now i know some people may be watching and they’re going to say: hey, you know what lamb i’m! I’m new to it that that’s probably going to be out of my range and i don’t.
I don’t want you to give me a price, but let’s look at this investment.
Let’s look at this investment for their profession down the road, exactly from what you’ve heard from what you’ve seen about it, can you get your money back? Oh yes, definitely i mean if you doing any type of video and promoting yourself on facebook, social media outlets.
You have a full-fledged opportunity to get every dollar back that you put in it.
That could be one car deal depending on where you work could pay for the whole video you pay for a couple of videos, so you we’re in a business where we’re blessed to be in a position where we can do that.
Excellent everything that you’re saying is extremely correct and, as we wind down just wanted to find out your personal thoughts because uh there are some youngsters that are considering coming in or they’re in and yeah facebook, that’s grandmom.
You know linkedin uh, that’s where my popping them uh.
I had read an article just want to get your thinking of it uh.
I thought about three to five percent.
Now sales people are getting it from tick tock.
Have you heard of anybody using uh tick tock? I haven’t seen anyone here where i will work well.
I was just talking to one of my co-workers.
He was on there looking at videos and it looks like i mean people just sit there and watch the video.
So it’s definitely another platform to look to use.
Um i mean like i say: sometimes you got to use what you got to get, what you need, which means use every every outlet you can to help yourself.
Okay use it all! That’s that’s it because all we’re trying to do is build that book of build business.
Get that funnel going so, no matter what we get out of there.
It would be outstanding.
So i want you to wind it down with this, because you do have that experience and i know you’re you’re blessed and you do a great job.
But what would be one little snippet of advice to somebody who just changed careers thinking about maybe going in because, like i said, we call it hardison’s tips, so anything that you would share with somebody from your 24-year experience here, um in in this business, whether you’re New or whether you got 50 years experience you’re, always able to learn something from someone, whether the green pe, as we call them the new guy or even the older.
If you in the car industry, if you decide you know it all you’re not going to last long, so always keep an open mind and keep focused on learning new things on a consistent basis.
I i love it and, while i got you there, a couple of folks who are listening chimed in they agreed with you, lamb by saying so true just need to have a process whatever it is and actually follow it all the way through another person just chimed In and said that they are actually using the platform that you’re talking about as far as the live video with the camera, instead of the cell phone, so yeah people around the country concur what you’re saying there without them.
So with that said, i have to get back to my sales training class and i know you probably got an appointment or delivery or something that you’re rocking and rolling.
With still still with me for having me there, you go okay, then thank you and uh just quickly.
Where is alexandria, louisiana we’re in the central of the central area of louisiana, we’re kind of in the middle of the state um with the area we live in.
We call it sinla, which is like say central louisiana.
Um shreveport is two hours away.
New orleans, however, is about three and a half baton rouge is about two okay, so essentially located right in the middle of the state, so that big elongated state, where they just know the southern part new orleans there’s still more to it.
Oh, this is there’s a top half there’s a top hat.
Okay, then i’m glad to have you you take care, god bless.
God bless you too thanks again: okay, no problem, and for the other folks out there remember we do this live every wednesday, 12 noon.
Don’t try to keep you long because we’re both working so with that said just like, as always in parting brandon hardison for champion strategy, saying go on out and make it a champion day.
