Dealerships: Get Used Car Leads and Calls from Craigslist

Worry-Free Craigslist / Facebook / YouTube Posting for Car Dealerships - Get More Leads and Calls from Craigslist

Infinite Prospects can help you generate leads and calls from Craigslist for your dealership. We provide a month-to-month, FULLY AUTOMATED Craigslist posting tool with full transparency and track-ability.

Our service posts approximately 15-25 used cars per day on Craigslist and staggers templates, subject lines, and more. We analyze what time of day the most people are searching Craigslist for the vehicles you have in-stock, then post during those hours to keep your cars at the top of the list, while tracking every Craigslist ad view.

What Happened to Managers Training Salespeople?

Did you watch Car Lot Rescue on Spike TV last night? I did - it was both entertaining and inspiring!

As one who trains Internet Sales Departments in auto dealerships, it reinforced to me that without a well-trained, motivated sales team who have a positive attitude, it doesn't matter how much money a car dealership spends on advertising or how good their business development center is at bringing prospects through the door. The customer experience when they arrive will be lacking. Lack of product knowledge, combined with a lack of sales training from management, seasoned veterans and experienced trainers leads to inferior results and people turning over.

By the way - Claude, the Sales Manager, who Tom ripped into for not training his salespeople, was actually my GSM at the first dealership I worked at, 13 years ago. We had an EXTENSIVE new hire sales training program at the time, in which Claude participated, but ownership had been instrumental in ensuring that it happened.

It wasn't so long ago that salespeople couldn't work with a customer by themselves for at least 4 weeks - until they PROVED they could be a professional, but that practice is now long gone. For those who weren't around the business then or forgot, here's how it worked:

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE ON HTTP://INFINITEPROSPECTS.COM

Adam Ross is the Managing Director of Infinite Prospects, Inc. Adam is a seasoned veteran of the car sales industry who has more than 12 years of Automotive Internet Sales experience on both the dealer and vendor side, and educates car dealerships on maximizing sales and fostering relationships through technology. Adam has thousands of connections in the automotive industry. From lead generation websites, to implementing best practices for following up with prospects and closing appointments that lead to sales, Adam is the person you want to lead you through the technology landscape. He'll help you select the best sales technology for your car dealership, get your team running at top efficiency using the tools necessary for success, and maximize the capabilities of the solutions you already have in place. Contact Infinite Prospects at (201) 448-7253 to speak with Adam.

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Recapture Visitors Who Exit Your Dealership Website

by Adam Ross, Managing Director, Infinite Prospects, Inc.

How many unique visitors does your dealership's website receive each month? 3,000? 10,000? 25,000?

The volume of shoppers who leave your website without completing a form, calling, or any other interaction - and then never return - is staggering; sometimes as high as 75%.

A percentage of those people mistakenly closed the window that they were using to browse the inventory, not really meaning to leave the site, however it's difficult for some to open a new window and quickly find the webpage or website they were just viewing. Others may have clicked on a link to a 3rd party site (like YouTube or DealerRater) that didn't open in a new window, thereby causing a site exit.

What if there were a way to re-engage 20-40% of those folks and bring them back to the website? Actually, there is!

Adam Ross To Speak On Automated Quoting and Craigslist at The 8th Annual Online Sales Success Workshop

Exciting News! Managing Director Adam Ross Will Be Speaking at the Mosley Automotive Training 8th Annual Online Sales Success Workshop on June 19 at the Water Club at Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ.

Digital Marketing Department for Car Dealers... Can it Pay Off?

I originally wrote this blog post (CLICK THIS LINK) almost 2 years ago, titled, "We need to Re-Position and Re-Name The Internet Department," on AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com, but the subject matter is more relevant than ever. An "Internet Sales department" will, sadly, no longer be sufficient for car dealerships going forward. That day is coming sooner rather than later.

As online consumer use has grown, the size of the staff working to capitalize on that



increased usage has remained relatively stagnant. There will continue to be the need for appointment setters responding to leads via email and phone, business development coordinators to make lease retention, unsold showroom and service follow-up calls. However, there is also enough work in marketing a dealership online to occupy one person (or an entire staff) on a full-time basis, in a DIGITAL MARKETING DEPARTMENT without that person having the burden or responsibility of setting appointments or selling cars. Most dealerships assign this role to the Internet Sales department, who are then forced to split their time performing both their original role (calling leads and selling cars) and this new added role of online marketing and keeping up with the latest trends. As a result, most of the time you will both see a drop-off in sales productivity and see a valiant but usually inconsistent attempt at marketing the dealership - limiting yourself in both areas.

Just to name a few of the responsibilities this department could cover better, simply because they can dedicate a full-time effort, rather than a part-time one:

• Monitoring and reacting faster to ongoing changes to Google algorithms effecting search presence,
• Overseeing the online Review Site (Reputation) Management for the dealership
• New Social Networks popping up just in the last year that can't be ignored (Google+ and Pinterest), added to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, FourSquare,  and many others
• Publishing more often to your Company Blog
• Reaching out and sharing best practices across the online Digital Automotive community on sites like dealerElite.net, DrivingSales.com, DealerRefresh.com, AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com, AutomotiveReputation.com to name a few.

My favorite analogy to describe this is: think of your hand. You have 5 fingers - each of them represents a profit center of the dealership (New, Used, F&I, Service, Parts). All 5 are connected to a palm, which ties everything together and makes each finger that much more powerful. The palm is the DIGITAL MARKETING DEPARTMENT. Fingers + Palm = Hand, which can accomplish much more than any one finger or two fingers can.

Compensation would be largely salary-based, with specific goal bonuses for # of check-ins in a certain time period, minimum number of outbound posts, volume of inbound engagements, and other measuring tools currently available that would show increase in reach, popularity and brand awareness. What are your thoughts about this idea?

Please comment below or visit my website to connect with me, Adam Ross, Managing Director at Infinite Prospects, and schedule a no-obligation FREE one-hour consult on your dealership's online marketing strategy.

Improve Your Monthly Internet Sales on InfiniteProspects.com

CAR DEALERSHIPS - IMPROVE YOUR MONTHLY INTERNET SALES!

Visit our All-New, Content-Rich Website at http://www.infiniteprospects.com NOW!

Are you overwhelmed by the multitude of Internet marketing choices?

Infinite Prospects provides expert insight into Automotive Internet Marketing solutions for dealers and sales professionals.

Infinite Prospects Releases its v3 website - (screenshot of homepage)

 Through personal, one-on-one coaching, you will discover:
» Secret marketing techniques for online auto sales success
» How to take advantage of the newest online trends and opportunities
» Insider knowledge to proven processes that increase monthly sales
» How to gain customers' attention through the latest marketing products and services

Learn about how Infinite Prospects can help your dealership sell more cars online. Whether you need on-site sales training and consulting for your car dealership, technology training and consulting, or to guide your team through the follow up and sales process with both automated and manual contacts, Infinite Prospects is there for you. We are authorized resellers for InstaQuote, PureCars, Cargigi, eXteresAuto, AutoE Dealers and HomeNet, to name a few, plus we are Certified in Teaching and Training AVV WebControl. Contact Adam Ross, Managing Director at Infinite Prospects today - call (201) 448-7253 or visit our content-rich website at http://www.infiniteprospects.com. We look forward to your feedback and comments!

Testimonial of Infinite Prospects Consulting by All Star Mitsubishi

Automate Your Inventory Posting to Craigslist with Infinite Prospects

Sample Craigslist Ad

Is your dealership posting vehicles on Craigslist? If so, do those listings direct shoppers from Craigslist to a unique landing page? Where is that landing page hosted?

Cargigi offers dealerships a month-to-month, FULLY AUTOMATED Classified Posting solution starting at $399/mo. for the first Craigslist market, and $299/mo. for each additional Craigslist market.

This service handles everything “from-soup-to-nuts” for the dealership with full transparency, so all you have to do is sit back and answer the phone and emails that come in as a result.

Each ad is image-based with multiple photos, a toll-free number and alternate choices the shopper may also like. Clicking anywhere on that image directs the shopper to an independent landing page of the same vehicle that includes a lead form for the shopper to submit their contact info. Any lead submitted through the form is routed to the dealership’s CRM tool.

The $399/mo. single-market subscription fee from Cargigi includes a Live Market Activity Monitor program so you can track what’s happening real-time with your active listings on Craigslist.

Also included is a unique toll-free number (which redirects to wherever the dealership desires) that tracks and records all calls, enabling you to monitor and listen to those calls online.

For a limited time Cargigi will also include, free of charge, access to the ADAM (Auto Data Automated Management) inventory management system and reporting tool.

Call us today at (201) 481-1424 or Click Here for more information about Cargigi Classified Postings or to schedule your demo test drive. 

Infinite Prospects is an authorized Cargigi Autos reseller.

3rd Party Landing Page Directed from Craigslist - Click to View in a New Tab or Window and Click Again to Magnify

Tie Your Craigslist Ads to Your Facebook Fan Page and YouTube with Cargigi Autos and Infinite Prospects

What if every person who shopped your vehicles on Craigslist were directed to view the same vehicle listing on your Facebook fan page with video?

Cargigi recently released a new Social Media package add-on to their Automated Classified Posting service for $299/mo. that enables dealerships to do just that! Get more eyeballs to your Fan Page and increase the possibility for “Likes!”

By adding an Inventory section to the dealership’s Facebook Fan Page, Cargigi’s Craigslist ads can now direct every click from the Craigslist ad posting to view the same vehicle on the dealership’s Facebook Fan Page. The Cargigi-sponsored toll-free number appears on the listing as well as a lead form for the shopper to submit their contact info. Any lead submitted through the form is routed to the dealership’s CRM tool.

Cargigi’s Social Media package also includes YouTube video creation and integration. A video is created for each used car by stitching the photos together, adding a text-based intro-and-outro and a Text-to-Speech voiceover description of the vehicle. Cargigi uploads each video to the dealership’s YouTube channel and ties it to the Facebook Fan Page inventory listing.

From now through October 31, 2011, any dealership currently not subscribed to any of Cargigi’s services are eligible to receive a very special offer. When you sign your dealership up for a single-market Craigslist package at $399/mo., we’ll include the Social Media Package add-on FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE - not for a limited time but FOREVER! Save over $3500/year!

Call us today at (201) 481-1424 for more information about Cargigi Social Media integration or to schedule your demo test drive.
Infinite Prospects is an authorized Cargigi Autos reseller.

How should dealerships price new cars online?

As an Automotive Internet Sales Expert, I am often asked:

How should I price my cars online for my dealership? 

Dealerships need to have a strategy for setting markup on new vehicle pricing online. Of course, consumers want to see the lowest price for the car they want. So... give them what they want!

Remember that front-end gross is only one of the many ways to profit from a sale: you also have the Accessories/Warranty avenue, plus the potential of profiting from a trade-in. That doesn't even count the future service revenue or ancillary profit received from any referrals the consumer may send you.

The best practice I've seen, after years of experience, research and thought, is:

Mirror-image the markup and pricing offered in your traditional offline advertising, most often your newspaper ad.

Mirror-imaging your traditional advertising pricing gives the consumer a consistent, trustworthy experience. It's also legally and ethically the right way to treat a customer.

Many consumers shop using a combination of tools: reading offline ads, communicating directly via email, visiting the showroom, calling the sales department, visiting your dealership's website, etc. Shouldn't consumers receive the same price on a vehicle regardless of which channel they use to communicate with your dealership? (That's a rhetorical question).

A good friend and I were discussing the matter and he brilliantly observed, "When a dealership purchases a newspaper ad, they place an offer out there having little to no idea exactly who is going to read the ad, and whether it's resonating. But with a price email you know exactly who is receiving it, and depending on which CRM tool you use, whether they saw that price. Why wouldn't you hit them with the ad pricing?"

What are your thoughts about pricing strategies for car dealerships?

CarGigi Adds A Social Media Package to Its Craigslist Classified Posting Service

What can the Cargigi Social Media Package add to my dealership's presence online?

• Creates an inventory tab on your Facebook Fan Page – now your Facebook fans can view your pre-owned inventory right on your page! We add it as a tab to your existing page! Give your fans more!
• Facebook as Your Craigslist Landing Page -We update your landing page (the click-here-for-more-info link) for all of your Craigslist posts (if you are subscribed to CarGigi’s Craigslist posting services), directing consumers to the same vehicle listing on your Facebook Fan Page Inventory tab. Get more page views and Fans on Facebook!
• YouTube Videos - We generate a video for each pre-owned vehicle from your photos, adding intro & outro descriptive text and voiceover. We upload these videos to YouTube and tie your Craigslist and Facebook listings to the videos.
• Low price! Costs your dealership just $299 per month! 
• LIMITED TIME OFFER - Add a Social Media package to your existing $399 monthly Classified posting service and we’ll give you a second Craigslist market to post into for FREE!

Infinite Prospects is a Reseller for CarGigi.

Call Adam Ross at Infinite Prospects

(201) 481-1424 TODAY!

Or email adamr@infiniteprospects.com.