Ultimate Prep Packs

As you may be able to tell I'm taking the time this week and next to educate on the many different things offered in our mail packages. This is meant to be a refresher course for current clients and an intro to the new people we are working with. Please never hesitate to call the Diva Hotline with any other questions: 317-644-5729 :) What is the Ultimate Prep Pack? Many companies offer some lot outfitting with their promotions. In fact, six years ago we were one of the first to do it. We find it's very important to dress up your lot so that people coming to the sale and those driving by realize something special is going on! The Ultimate Prep Pack is a customized pack of lot outfitting that matches the specific campaign you are running, here is what is included:

• 2 bags (72 count) of 17" Tuftex Balloons
• 1 spool of Balloon Ribbon
• 150 Hang Tags
• 400 Registration Cards (3 copy forms)
• 1 2x3 foot Banner
• 1 3x8 foot Banner
• 5 2x3 foot Posters

If you want the dress up the lot even more we also carry a full line of lot outfitting products including: Sky Busters, Caution Tape, Pennants, Yard Signs, & Custom Banners.

Here are a few other ideas for dressing up the lot before an event:

Change your front row to match the color of the sale--having a Patriotic event this summer? Line up the vehicles in red, white & blue order.

Give away a "mystery vehicle" and put it front and center on the road with a car cover on it. Let everyone know they could win it with a large poster or sign.

Don't underestimate the atmosphere some free food brings to an event. Put someone outside on grill duty and cook up some hot dogs, throw some chips & pop in and you have a free lunch (and perfect bonding opportunity!) for anyone that stops in.

Be creative! Just about any logo or idea can be made into a car cling-how about a "Kiss your Clunker Goodbye" event that features the best clunker you can find and a pair of lips across the side of it!

Phone Tips for Event Sales

One of the other Marketing Consultants here put together this document to help her dealers when they are preparing their sales staff for an event. It may seem like common sense, but depending on how the calls go that you listen in on--you may need it!

Phone Tips for Event Sales Most people who call will start the conversation by saying, “I got this flyer in the mail, and my numbers match.” You should say, “Great, come on in and we’ll check to see what you’ve won.” They may ask what they have won…. And this is very important You say, “Well, if your numbers match you have won something in the prizes listed on the flyer---It could be the car! We won’t know until you bring your flyer in and scan it here at the dealership.” They may ask if this is a gimmick. You say, “No someone has the winning # for the car—just like someone has the winning number for each of the other listed prizes. If your numbers match, you have definitely won something!!” Do not say—they have to scratch the sticker at the dealership. Scratching it at home is what gets them excited about coming in. Do not say—everyone is a winner or everyone wins something. How special will they feel if they think winning means nothing? AND they truly may have won the car!!! Do not say—“Are you interested in buying a car?” They may get in the car buying mood when they get on your lot, but they most likely will not be on your lot if you ask this question! Just tell them your name and offer to help them scan their flyer when they come in. Think of yourself as a fisherman. You have a baited hook, but if you move to fast, you’ll scare off the fish and never have the chance to set the hook. Good luck and happy selling!!

Automotive Event Sale Tips #3

After Your Sale

• Calculate your traffic. This should be true of any advertising. If your ran your process during the sale, you should know what media brought in each person. MarketVision will do this for you on the mail--but if you ran TV or Radio spots, or some print to support the mailer hopefully those ups were tracked via registration forms & you can see what kind of traffic each media produced.
• Calculate your ROI. If given access to your database, we can take a look at your recent sales and compare them to your sale data quickly to see how many units you sold off the mailer. I can even help you take a look at the other media outlets as well, or it's easy to do this on your own if you've kept good track of the traffic.
• Do your homework for next time. Now that you have your traffic and ROI calculated, figure out what worked and what didn't. Just imagine if every dealership did this every month for all their advertising. Naturally they'd quit doing what wasn't working, and invest more in what was--and be able to keep improving the ROI of their marketing. Right now, while this sale is fresh in your mind start thinking about what you'd do different next time.
• Follow up, Follow up, Follow up! You just had a lot of new traffic to your store. Why not add them to your database so they'll receive future emails & mailers from you? Many dealers also put together final lead lists and pass them out to their sales team. Have a contest to see who can close the most residual business off the event. Make the most out of your initial investment--these are YOUR leads--you paid for them!
• Be on the look out for come backs. The week after every MarketVision sale we send out follow up letters to every person that came in during the event. Be on the look out for these letters to pop up the week after the sale.

Automotive Event Sale Tips #2

During Your Sale

• Follow your process. Whatever that means to you. Whether it is making sure each customer is registered via MarketVision, or it is having the sales people fill out up forms for every person before taking them to the prize board. Making sure all customers have the same great, uniformed experience is so important--and you are sure you're doing all the tracking needed to have successful future events.
• Keep up with the leads. With credit websites, personal websites, phone call logs and MarketVision real time reporting there are up to four different ways for you to be collecting and following up on leads. Many dealers print everything off in the evenings and hand them out to the sales people the following day for follow up if there are down times. Be sure to check out the best ways to follow up with people from each lead source.
• Take the time to train. Heard something you didn't like on the recorded call ins? Notice on your MarketVision report that Sally Saleslady had talked to 24 ups and hasn't moved a unit? Use these concrete examples to help nudge along sales people that have some room to grow.
• Call if you sense something is wrong. Especially with mail delivery. We're on the phone with your local post offices before and during your event. If you feel one market isn't responding or something is off--call sooner rather than later!
• Keep stock of your gifts/premiums. If you are giving something away and realize your supply is dwindling, be sure to call by noon the day prior to order additional gifts. If it's too late we can also provide rain checks so customers don't feel let down.
• Keep the energy UP! Use games, spiffs, and contests to keep the morale up to handle the carnival atmosphere that typically is involved with an event sale.
• And finally, communicate. If you have questions, are having trouble logging in or working the MarketVision kiosk, or really anything at all please call me or Katy so we can help you through it.

Automotive Event Sale Tips #1

I'm starting a series today on tips for before, during and after your direct mail campaigns. Some of these will be specific to Tri Auto clients, but for the most part these should be able to translate to any mail campaign from any company. These tips are based on best practices from other automotive clients.

1-2 Days Before your Sale

• Rearrange the lot. Put your price leaders up front on the road--make sure the showroom is looking good!
• Double check that you received your Ultimate Prep Pack (if it's missing check the service department-it's a brown box with white and green tape that says "event material enclosed")
• Balloon & Hang tag your cars. Hang up all the banners, around the lot and balloon up the cars. Get a sky buster or two - make sure everyone that drives by knows something big is going on.
• Make sure your MarketVision kiosk has arrived. Find a central location in the dealership to get it plugged in and set up.
• Have a meeting with your sales team & reception desk staff. Let each sales person try out the kiosk with one of the sample mailers provided.
• Go over basic phone training so that everyone knows what to say regarding the sale and how to answer questions.
• Test your log in with the Tri Auto website. Make sure you can log in to see the MarketVision data as the sale is happening and to be able to get credit leads over the weekend and after business hours.

• And finally hire this guy to fly over in his balloon and park it on your roof for a few days :)

What else do all of you do to get your dealership ready for a big event? Comments?