Let me ask you a question: Would you rather have a few thousand disengaged followers or a few hundred raving fans? If your answer was raving fans, stick around my friend! You have an opportunity to position yourself to have an impact on your clients now and in the foreseeable future with automotive social selling.
What is Social Selling?
Social selling is a sales technique that allows salespeople to laser-target their prospecting and establish rapport through existing connections using social media.
Automotive digital retailing has transformed how car dealers sell vehicles. It’s the merging of online tools with traditional in-person customer service to better serve today’s consumer.
Communicating with customers and conducting business online is here to stay, which means that salespeople need to navigate the online world as well as they do over the phone or in-person. For salespeople who want to sell more cars, Social Selling is the next step.
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What has changed in social media for car salespeople?
Ten years ago, it was important to gather as many followers as possible, no matter how engaged you or they were. Algorithms were set to reward those with large numbers of followers, which birthed the introduction of the “Influencer.”
Today, with consumer trust at an all-time low, the trend is to set your sights on a smaller circle of connections who feel aligned with you and believe the things you say!
If you happen to have a large following, is it still cool to brag about how many followers you have? Meh. Unless you’re trying to become an online celebrity, those numbers are what I like to call “ego-metrics.”
When you focus on numbers alone, you end up with a load of random followers. Many of which will be bots and fake accounts…and will never buy from you.
Focus on the quality of your network.
Your network is your net worth. – Porter Gale, Author
My gut tells me you’d rather sell 10+ cars/month via social media with a few hundred connections than sell zero cars with thousands of connections. Am I right?
The number of followers you have does not equate higher sales.
- Selling cars is retail. You’re selling a product that’s used only by people in your immediate area.
- Sales depend on the area where you are and where your followers live.
- Often your followers are not from your town or even your state and certainly may not be in your market area.
- A profile with a large following still has to reach those who are within a close proximity.
For car sales professionals, it’s more valuable to build a smaller, engaged network that will support you, want to hear from you and remember you when it’s time to buy. And now’s the time because there are STILL very few salespeople who have used social media to supplement their lead generation.
Focus on bringing people closer to you through content.
Educating buyers is your key to engaging them. The modern digital buyer is looking for trustworthy information and why wouldn’t you want to be the one providing it?
Share relevant content on the social channels where your customers spend time and where you feel most comfortable or inspired. What is relevant content?
Here are seven content ideas/topics that will attract new customers and help you sell more.
- Advice/”How To”
- Vehicle video tutorials
- What you love about your job
- “What to Expect” during the sales process
- Delivery video
- Recap of your happy customers this month
- Customer testimonial videos
Focus on an automotive social selling success mindset.
You don’t need thousands of followers to succeed at social selling. You can begin to use social media to your advantage today, even if you have only ten engaged connections. It’s about what you bring to the table and everyone wants to connect with a trustworthy car salesperson. They may not need you right now, but they will when it comes time to buy. In the meantime, they can refer you to their friends and family.
Begin building a network that will sustain you through good times and bad. Don’t pay attention to the “sales gurus” who constantly throttle you with bird’s-eye view examples of why you don’t measure up. Most of them just want to be celebrities. You, my friend, don’t care about being famous. You care about being a rockstar in your customer’s orbit.
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