Archive for February, 2010
What is your perception of car salespeople?
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Last week, I asked my direct connections for help coming up with blog topics so I can make sure I am talking about things people want to know. There were a ton of great responses, which will give me plenty to talk about for the weeks to come. However, if there is anything you ever want answered, please feel free to let me know. Amongst the great ideas was a question from Everet about how Ewald combats the stereotypes of car salespeople.
I was ready to jump into a post headfirst when I took a step back. I realized I don’t fully understand what the stereotypes are. Perhaps this is because I have been around the auto industry my whole life, but I have had fairly positive response and feedback from people about their perception of car salespeople relative to our business operations. I know this is not true across the board, but I would like to better understand what people’s stereotypes are.
In everything I do I try to be upfront, open, honest and timely. Hopefully, some of this has shown through in my blog posts. If this is not the perception that people have, then I would definitely like to know what your perception is so I can make sure our team is aware of what people, our customers and community members believe to be true. I know how I operate and how our company trains our salespeople to operate, but I cannot speak for the industry as a whole.
Outside of the Ewald walls, I would like to know what the perceptions are of car salespeople. Also, why are those perceptions that way? Is it based off of one bad experience or repeat bad experiences? Is it due to a lack of understanding and communication between buyer and seller? What could the car salesperson have done differently that would have altered your stereotype? Lastly, what can I do to alter your stereotype of car salespeople?
So…there are a lot of questions in this post, and not too much information to share this time, but hopefully the responses I get will allow me to better answer Everet’s question. If you would like to send me your response privately you can do so at: cihde@ewaldauto.com
And be as open and honest as possible. Speak from experience and what you believe to be true so that we can further discuss in the future. Thank you!
Tags: automotive, car buying, car dealership, car sales, car salespeople, Ewald
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
We need your help to go green
Monday, February 15th, 2010
The green topic has been in the mainstream media for sometime now and it continues to get attention. As a corporation, Ewald Automotive Group has made the decision to become more environmentally conscious. Since this is our first attempt to move the needle, I would like your feedback on the subject.
As of right now we are considering several different options to make Ewald more “green.” The first of these is to put a major effort behind recycling 100% of the items that can be recycled. While this sounds fairly simple, implementation could be difficult. Our main question with this option is enforcement. Besides educating our employees and reminding them from time to time, how do we ensure everyone is recycling?
We are also looking at replacing our standard light bulbs with energy efficient models. As of right now it appears to be a substantial initial investment but one that will save us money by reduced energy and increasing bulb life. Does anyone have any solid numbers on what the ROI timeframe is or what the best bulbs are? A difficulty we face with bulbs is that we need a wide range of them. Our facilities have everything from standard office lighting to industrial units for our shops.
We also want to look into other energy saving possibilities within our dealerships but we have yet to find anything that would warrant the investment. If anyone has any ideas on how we could improve our energy consumption in a cost effective manner, I would love to hear about it.
Besides these things we are open to any other suggestions that you have. We consider this an important step to take in 2010 so we welcome your feedback. Please feel free to send me your suggestions: cihde@ewaldauto.com
Tags: automotive, car dealership, energy efficient, environmental, Ewald, green, recycling
Posted in For Employees, For Employers | No Comments »
Narrowing down what vehicle to purchase
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
An acquaintance of mine approached me after a networking event last week. She explained to me that she had a Honda CRV and that she knew that she needed a larger vehicle, but had no idea where to start. She told me her family had recently added a third child and they were having a hard time fitting three car seats in the back of the CRV. As we talked through her problem, I had a couple of questions I needed her to answer.
How much “stuff” do you need to haul around? In this case, I already knew she had three kids and their car seats to fit in. Since I have two kids of my own, I know that kids come with a lot of baggage and storage capacity is a necessity. This pretty much guarantees she will need some sort of minivan, but if she would have a problem with that, it is important to look at other model types available. However, she was happy with the minivan suggestion, so I was able to very quickly run her through the current models and their strengths and weaknesses. With this in mind, she could start test-driving a few.
What can you afford? Have you thought about this yet? My family is as budget conscious as any other family, so I always want to fit this into the equation when deciding to make a vehicle change. In this case, she knew she could afford around $300-$350 a month. I explained the general rule of thumb that $100 per month gets you $5000 worth of vehicle. This put her around $15,000-17,500. However, her trade(the Honda CRV) was most likely worth a few thousand dollars, so she could reasonably look at vehicles up to $20,000. At this point, we were getting very close to identifying what she could seriously consider for her next vehicle.
What is your driving style? By style, I mean how do you spend 80% of the time in your car? I asked my friend what her typical driving day included. Between commuting, taking the kids to day care and the bi-annual vacation to Colorado, the dominant style was short commuting. She wanted to ensure the kids were comfortable for the long trips they take and that they would be safe on a daily basis. With this in mind, we narrowed her search further to a top safety rated minivan with good highway gas mileage ratings.
When we started out our conversation she had stated that she wanted to purchase a vehicle in the spring. Her thinking was that it would take that long to find the vehicle they wanted. However, as we answered these quick questions during a 10 minute conversation, it became clear that it would be very easy to select the perfect vehicle to meet their needs and wants rather quickly, which may have surprised her due to her own expectations of the sales process. She found out that it doesn’t have to take forever if the right questions are asked and answered during the process.
Thinking through the above questions can help you narrow down what vehicle you are looking for next time you are thinking about making a change. If you’d like someone to run a question by or to help you with the process, drop me an email at cihde@ewaldauto.com.
Tags: car buying, car dealership, car sales, new cars, trade in, used cars, vehicle negotiation
Posted in For Employees | No Comments »
Am I too salesy?
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
When I made the decision to go “all in” with social media four months ago I had two goals in mind: education and discussion. Along the way, it has been brought to my attention that my goals may not be coming across in my posts. I would like to take a step back and discuss this for a moment.
Each week, when I decide what to write about, I look at issues that have come up in our dealerships. My thought process is that if one person is facing this issue, there must be more out there. I attempt to write blog posts that will let people know why that issue arises and how to address it. I also attempt to ask questions relevant to that issue in order to find out other people’s opinions. I feel that feedback allows me to be better at my job and serve my customers better.
While following this plan, several people have expressed that my posts and questions come off as being “salesy.” To me, this is a big problem because that is the last thing that I want to portray. However, as I review my posts, I have trouble seeing where those people are coming from. I have also reviewed other postings in forums and they appear to come across as much more sales focused than mine. I wonder if the negative response is due to my actual posts, or some people’s negative connotation of the auto industry.
I do want to say, though, that not all responses have been negative. As a matter of fact, the majority of the social media world has been very open and embraced my initiative. I brought this topic to the surface in order to make my position clear, and encourage dialogue as to how to constantly improve how I help my social media connections. I want to ensure my posts are educational and create discussion but I do not feel that I should have to avoid talking about my place of work, as it is key to my insight.
And so with one caveat, I will open up the discussion. I request that all responses do not attempt to personally attach me or air grievances about the auto industry that I cannot control. I honestly look forward to everyone’s constructive feedback!
Tags: Auto, Automotive Advantage, car buying
Posted in For Employers | 2 Comments »