How dealers can get 30+ amazing reviews every month

‍

Let's talk about reviews; you know, the thing that we don't have time for but the customer cares about…
Bad reviews are part of every business. We know that. That's not the problem.

The problem is that dealers need to include excellent reviews.

Like really well-deserved, good reviews because you've probably sold a lot more cars than the reviews you have. Like, ten to one.

You probably see the guys down the street with reviews that are just lights out.
This didn't magically happen overnight! They didn't magically happen on their own. 

There's a formula for this. 

So, if you think it's essential in 2022 to have an excellent reputation, great!

Now, multiply that by 10! 

I had a car dealership moving about 60 cars a month back in the day, and we were doing everything right. 

Everything that means, the customer comes in, here's some coffee, let's do a Carfax, run a frame check, go through all the disclosures, “take it to your mechanic? No problem”, drive it home, sleep on it!
No problem. Whatever… The overall operation was solid. Super solid!

We sold the five-series BMW to an out-of-state customer. The guy calls and says he got a window regulator that went out. We said okay. I need you guys to pay for four window regulators at my local BMW store. We didn't build the car.

“How about we send you a replacement part as a courtesy?” He was like, no, not good enough. “You guys need to pay for all four window regulators. I don't want this to happen again”.

This guy ended up leaving us seven reviews on Google and Yelp from different emails -I don't know, friends or family or whatever else. 
Because of that, our reputation on Google and Yelp dropped to like two and a half stars because we didn't think about reviews, and there were few there to start with.

Because of that, I started wondering how the guy down the street who had been running a junkyard operation had over 300 reviews with a 4.7 rating. 

Finally, we're like; this is bullshit!
‍

We moved over 700 units a year, took care of our buyers, and nobody cared to review the excellent experience. Nobody gave a shit! ‍

On top of that, I got other dealers probably leaving us bad reviews, and this F*@!&# down the street was shining like a Michelin-rated restaurant in Vegas. ‍

DON’T EXPECT THAT GOOD REVIEWS WILL FALL FROM THE SKY…

We had to do something, and here's what we did:

We got our office manager to call every single buyer one to two weeks after they bought the purchase with a super-easy script. Sure, I like reading it off. She had two goals, only two goals. 

First, discover if anything went wrong. If it goes wrong, let us know, and we'll try to fix it with the customer, and we'll probably fix it in our operation. 

Second, If everything goes well, ask for a review. Otherwise, you might get a bad review. It wasn't just about “hey, can you give us a review?”

It went something like this:

Thanks for buying from us. Our sales rep, Jathan, who sold you the car, gets rewarded for delivering an excellent experience. If they say yes, you can email or text the link.

If you're going to add a second link, say, “hey, if you're feeling grateful… fill out this one to Google, Yelp”. 

Awesome!
In less than three months, we took that damn spotlight on Google maps and Yelp. 

BAD REVIEWS COME EASIER; GOOD REVIEWS HELP YOU SELL EASIER!

The next part is essential. It's more important now than it was then.
This enabled us to use this reputation when overcoming price comparisons in objections with similar cars within reason. 

Most buyers hate the dealership process.
We know that you guys know that.
That's how you ease it. 

And now, five to 10 years later, they're not just researching online, they're buying online, you guys know this. 

So, would you eat sushi from a 2.5-star restaurant or pay a bit more and play it safe? And this is just damn sushi!

The problem is its human nature to gravitate to talk about negative experiences.
It's unfair, but that's human nature.
You're not going to change that; we don't need to change that. But you can offset that easily.
You can do it yourself. It's free. You don't have to pay for software or an agency to do it for you. 

Do you want to know this stuff?
This is an opportunity to find out.
What you can fix, where you can fix it. Because you have the time to do it now, build a reputation that will continue delivering massive value as people continue buying online. 

Especially in an unforgiving and challenging market. Like the one, we're in right now. 

EXCUSES WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU; OPPORTUNITIES WON’T!

Many of you guys say, “I don't have time for this; I have real problems; I've got flooring lines coming due, I'm buried in inventory. I got leads fizzling out”.

I hear you. I feel you.
I've been there.
It sucks. 

But know this: If you take a stopwatch, just take your phone, and turn on the stopwatch every time you're doing something super important.
Some stuff there either makes you money or saves you money. 

Do that for a week. 

You're going to see how much time you have open; you're going to see like, “oh, wow, I only did two-three hours.”
You'll see how much time you spend doing stuff you guys shouldn't be doing.
Especially in a time like these. 

What if you sound bad on the phone or have bad English grammar? Fine.
Pay somebody, one day per month, to take care of it for you. 

It's not essential for you right now. Sure.
When it becomes essential, it'll be too late.
And most lots are too late to need more time other excuses? Guys, STOP THIS! 

You can't be in this business if you're incapable of making the impossible happen every damn day. 

How many times have you made the impossible happen? Just get it done. ‍

You'll thank yourself in a month. 

We're in a moment right now. There's this, you know it's the end of 2022. There's this weird bubble happening. Take this time to focus. 

I know it can feel like you know you get to the office.

You're like, I just don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. I'm going to watch Netflix or whatever. 

There is so much opportunity here. 

If you go back to the crisis of 2008, we know there will be winners; we understand that some guys will make way more money than they did during COVID and pre-COVID. 

The only thing we don't know is who. That’s the only thing we don't know. 

Take the time, step back and focus. 

Find one or two things you can fix, and set yourself up.

This will pass. You all know this will pass. It might take us a month, three, six, whatever. You just got to get through it. 

I got a lot more videos on how to do these simple hacks of bulletproof dealerships with what's happening right now.

Deals with sales, discounts with leads, deals with tracking and metrics, and all that stuff. 

Stay tuned!