Humanizing Your Dealership

Would you like to know why your consumers are walking-in with their walls up and other dealers are finding it easier to sell?  It’s because you are the stereotypical salespeople behind those walls and the other dealerships no longer have walls because they’ve humanized their team and made them more approachable.  Fortunately for you, there’s an easy fix!

In my opinion, Social Media is the easiest and most incredible way to humanize your business and reach a mass-audience quickly.  Social Media has been known as the “reputation management” or “branding” platform.  But if you believe that is all it is, you are wrong.  Social Media has many uses, especially today.  You can actively engage and converse with your community, and even sell and advertise in new, exciting ways.  (Facebook specifically has created a platform for advertising that is currently the absolute best-use of marketing dollars because of targeting, cost and consumer-quality, since they are clicking through from your own website.)

When engaging with your community on Social Media, do it in simple ways like celebrating birthdays and accolades.  Share fun stories of trades or pets that visit.  Be authentic, with human reactions to local events, sports, weather or the fun people you have working at the dealership.  I guarantee, if I were at your dealership for just one day, I could find something fun to post that happened naturally in the showroom.  A funny quote, a silly song, a genuinely touching moment… these things are all around us, everyday.  All you have to do is take those moments and use Social Media to share it publicly, so your consumers see that you are human, like them.  It really is that simple.

Also, remember to be yourselves.  Be it funny or serious, as long as you are authentic, your community will react positively.  If you are just another dealership that seems intimidating online, you will be left-behind on the forgotten-list the consumer used for pricing.  Build value through your people and experience. Show the community your human-side. This is such a simple step to out-perform the competition…it baffles me how little it is done.  There is no better and quicker way to bring those walls down.  It is very effective to illustrate the individual personalities and dealership persona in a targeted manner on Social Media.  And you can express how easy, friendly, honest, and/or fun the experience will be in your dealership, not only in your own “voice,”  but also through the voices of your customers (their neighbors).

Cultivate a Social Media strategy that incorporates all of the incredible things that you can do to sell more cars, but be sure to humanize your dealership, as well.  Before you know it, with each and every interaction on Social Media, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.  Creating momentum online that includes your community, can be an unstoppable strategy that competitors struggle to keep up with.  I have seen first-hand how a small town dealership can rank highly nationally, or how a single salesperson can outsell everyone by simply humanizing themselves to their audience.  Don’t be afraid to be human.