Raise your hand if you have ever seen the car business this bad. If you raised your hand, you must remember the Hoover administration, because this is the worst it’s been for many, many years. With the turmoil in banking, mortgages, stocks, construction, fuel, and nearly every other industry, the car business is suffering from consumer paralysis and fear. The good news is that things will change and consumer confidence will return.
In the meantime, this is your opportunity, as an auto dealer, to do some careful examination of yourself and your dealership and make the changes necessary to survive as a car dealer of the future.
Since this magazine is dedicated to dealer marketing, and marketing is one of the largest expenditures of any dealership, we recommend that you take a closer look at how you market your dealership.
The car business has changed a lot in the past five years and so have consumers. The old methods of marketing don’t really work anymore and, as a car dealer, you need to accept that fact. If you want to successfully compete in the future you have to learn how the market has changed and that is why I strongly urge you to read Ego Kills by Scott Toland, one of the smartest auto marketing guys in the country. This book takes much from Toland’s Marketing Academy and adds more material to help you become a killer marketer.
Be warned, Toland doesn’t pull any punches when he talks about what car dealers do wrong. In fact, the main premise of the book is that most dealers think they know everything and that is their downfall. If you are looking for someone to tell you how great you are this book ain’t for you. Toland outlines exactly what you need to learn to do a better job of marketing and it requires hard work.
As a twenty-year ad agency owner, I can tell you that if you read this book, you will know more about marketing your dealership than any ad agency owner in your market. The book goes through the most common mistakes, media, advertising vs. marketing, and all kinds of real world dealership challenges.
The book is a hundred bucks. It is a hundred bucks because the only people that will buy it are auto dealers and that is a much smaller group than consumers in general. If Toland sells one to every dealer in the nation, that is still not many books. This, however, is a laser-focused book, aimed right at you and your business, so pay the hundred bucks and make an extra million in car sales next year.
In case you are wondering, neither Dealer Marketing Magazine nor I will make a nickel off the sales of these books. I just know it will change your life and the life of your dealership.
Order the book online at www.ScottToland.com, call 800-509-4223, or see the ad on page 35 of this magazine.