Will you be singing in the rain or crying from the pain?
In the struggle to survive, we sometimes forget to think and plan ahead. Times are becoming quite challenging, and as a veteran car dealer once told me, "When times are good, we develop all kinds of bad habits, but when times are bad, those habits can kill us."If you haven't been marketing—that is, developing the sales for your business that occur 30/60/90 days out—then start now. This way you will have an umbrella ready when the storm hits.
Then, when the storm passes (and you and your business have survived), don't forget the lesson you learned. Sales and marketing is a numbers game. You have to constantly build opportunities for future sales. Some people in the industry call that pitching and others call it advertising. I call it throwing.
Let's compare pitching versus throwing. When you throw a ball and can hit your target with relative consistency, you are called a pitcher. However, if you can't hit your target better than 50 percent of the time, then you are wasting your time (and money) because you are not pitching; you are throwing. My advice: save your energy and money until you have control.
My baseball coach used to tell me to stop throwing so hard and start throwing smart. That was, and still is, great advice. Remember, the difference between a pitch and a throw is control. The same principal applies in marketing and advertising. If you don't have a specific target, you can never have any control. And if you don't have control, you will find yourself in the same situation as Philadelphia businessman John Wanamaker found himself a century ago when he discovered that half of his advertising was working—he just didn't know which half.
FINDING A TARGET
To find a target, start by asking yourself what your business does differently than the other shops out there. What do your customers have in common? Is it vintage Ford vehicles, domestic pony cars, or Japanese classics, or all of the above? Identify the space your business occupies uniquely in the minds of your customers—and then set out to own it. You can ask your customers to help if you wish. You can do it by asking them to fill out a simple survey form. Keep the form straightforward, make it quick to fill out, and remember, you need to find out what your customers think you are, not what you want to be. Some businesses tend to overdo the survey thing and, as a result, their customers begin to avoid them. Give your customers a graceful way to decline participation (opt out is the buzzword) if they choose.
After your customers fill out the questionnaire, see if their perspective matches yours. Also, ask them to provide an e-mail address and to send photos of their vehicles. These photos will be of use later. The vehicles in your customers' lives are their toys; the passion points in their lives and you need to build a business relationship with both your customers and their vehicles. You also need to understand both the rational side and the emotional side of your customers.
Understand the benefit that you and your product or service offers to your clients. In sales, you start with the feature, then the advantage, and end with the benefit. In marketing, you cut straight to the money and the benefit. Then you cover the features and advantages. One of those advantages should be becoming a part of the community.
When I first started wrenching on cars, I used to love going to the speed shop and browsing through old photo albums featuring all the cars whose owners frequented the shop. Later, if I saw one of those cars on a Friday night cruise, I knew we had a kinship of sorts. I was able to walk up to the owner and start a conversation because I knew we were both spending every extra dollar we had at the same speed shop. This is an emotional benefit. The rational benefit is that I have a brotherhood (in my case) of like-minded hot rodders where I can ask questions and get advice. It all revolved around Carl and his speed shop where we bought parts.
I want each of you to position your business in a unique space relative to your customers, competitors, and the general environment. Develop a sense of community and insert your shop or service right in the middle of it. There are some simple ways to do this.
Start with your Web site. Reserve a space where you can post photos (remember when we asked them to send in photos?) of your customers and their rides. Be certain to send them an e-mail informing them they (and their vehicle) are being featured on your Web site and tell them to tell their friends and family.
Pass out stickers (small ones) with your Web site URL where these cars are on display.
Ask your customers to place the small sticker in one of the windows. The sticker should read something like: "Check out my car at www.davesspeedshop.com/rides." You can then monitor the success by measuring the number of page views and even the time people spend on those pages.
The Internet is a virtual social community. The real streets and venues are the physical community. The point is, develop the community and then you'll have the community developing you. The more you learn about the community, the better you can work your way into their minds and wallets.
Remember when the storm hits, I want you to be singing in the rain (with lots of customers), not crying from the pain of a washed-up business.
