jimreidvehicle

Brilliant Umesh, what a great idea! Watch this space!!!!!!!!!

Hi Chris More than happy to help, we love new technology in the Motortrade. Jim

Due to launch tomorrow the Car Dealer Magazine Conference and Expo Event at Silverstone, Facebook for the Forecourt is an excellent series of videos & tutorials produced by Neil & David of Neil Weightman Digital Media. Personally I’m really excited as I have been lucky enough to sneak a preview and feel that EVERYONE can benefit from this Product! I even feature in some of the videos as Neil and I discuss our very own success with Facebook. If you are going to Silverstone tomorrow make sure you grab two minutes with Neil & David at Stand 230 but in the meantime why not click on the link below to register your interest NOW! Keep an eye out for a very special PROMO Code just for our very own Twitter Car Dealers Forum, which will give you a discount over and above the special launch price! http://www.fbfortheforecourt.com/ Kind regards Jim

Lets go for the MFL Direct cars RANT!

I always say there is never a bleak moment in the motortrade, but I thought I would give you an insight in to my day today! 8.20 am Customer calls in to say that she has just collected a free loan car from us, she had driven it to a shop car park before collecting her daughter to take her to school. ( no she's not had an accident) but she is in a panic " I can't get the key in the ignition!! I need to collect my daughter and I can't get the car started" I explained that she had most likely knocked on the steering lock and spoke her through how to use both hands etc etc! But no, she's now really panicking now and can hear her talking to someone else and overheard him saying that it would fit in. So without a second thought I jumped in my truck with the spare key for the loan car and drove the 3 miles to the shop where she flagged me down. As I jumped out she said " it just won't work" he was holding the key in her hand, I asked her to let me have the keys and which point I said well this is the problem, 'what do you mean?" I said "you are trying to start my Peugeot loan car with YOUR Seat Altea key" As she held her hand on her head and said "what a stupid bitch" lets say I didn't suggest otherwise! So I jumped in the truck, drove 200 yards up the road and then thought well if thats her Seat Altea key then how are we going to start the service on hers, so back I went!!!!!!! 9.30 am - I get a phone call from a really good customer of mine who is experiencing difficult with Skoda with his 2 year old Yeti showing signs of Zinc Induction in the paintwork, although the Dealer agrees , the manufacturer rejects the claim, so after 'discussing' the finer detail via Twitter with Skoda last night, Skoda actually called my customer to say that they wee to look at it again !! Result!! and another plus for Social Media 10.15am- Same good customer calls again to say that he wouldn't require Skoda to look at the car paintwork again , as a RangeRover had just reversed into him when he was at Tesco and that the panels damaged were the same ones that required the warranty claim!!!! Can you believe it? Lunchtime:- Received a really odd call from a guy, saying that he worked for a very well known Car Dealership in Edinburgh, but he had broken down and was without his mobile phone and was therefore calling from a phone box in Glasgow, he explained that he was on the way to meet his managing Director, a contact of mine throw Social Media and someone I have also done business with but he wanted me to give his mobile number to him so he could tell him he would be late!!! So why call me , where is the connection, his reason.......there was a letterhead in the car he was driving with my details on it???? Strange or what? I did my best but only gave him the contacts landline at the dealership, I then tweeted my contact, turns out he has no idea who the guy was and that he had no meetings planned for today!!!! WEIRD!! JUST WEIRD!!! 3.00pm- Go into Aberdeen to collect an Audi I had underwritten for a new supplier, as it was the first car we had bought from them I decided to collect and check the car over to drive it home. So met up with the guy in Aberdeen and it was parked on the street side, now this Q3 was priced well behind CAP as the pictures I saw showed that the car had required at least two if not three panels of paint so , I allowed a bit more as i thought if if it need 2-3 panels it may need the wholes side painted. So as I inspected the car on the roadside in mid Aberdeen on a busy road, I ran my finger up the mark on the side of the car only to find that the mark came away with my finger !!! RESULT! So to top the day Phil sold one Andy sold a second and I have been asked to set aside another Q3 for customers from Inverness! So as you can see just another day in the mad world of the motortrade!

YUP! James Brown! you next

Thats not luck! thats being in the right place at the right time

GG indeed, I have often wondered the same thing! Would love to see if anyone knows of anyone getting a fine

indeed

going by the quietness I guess no one in the franchise world wants to talk about it!!

GG you can get more details about Neil including his contact details here https://www.neilweightman.com

Now I know there are LOADS of sceptics out there but let me tell you something for nothing, we ARE selling cars via Facebook! It's not been an overnight thing, it's been a carefully constructed strategy, hard work and persistence, but let me tell you, it's now FUN, EASY to carry out and it's now paying OFF! Yesterday (Saturday) I sold a GTD Golf at £14999 from a post on our Facebook page after many Direct Messages with a follower (who had never dealt with us before ) and a Subaru WRX at £28499 which we posted on FB a few weeks back with a GoPro video Road Test by myself again to a brand new customer to us! Not bad for two £13 promoted posts! Certainly much cheaper than AutoTrader. But before you all start logging onto FB to post a few quick adverts, you really need get your strategy right! One of the problems you encounter is the fact that Facebook, like Google continue to move the goal posts so you need someone on your side who knows where to move the goals posts to and that is where we have been lucky BUT you can be too because I have convinced our "goal post shifter' and 'Digital Guru' to share these secrets. It has taken us over 3 years for to get the results we are having now from FB but our man "Neil Weightman' of Neil Weightman Digital Solutions is about to packet and launch what he has taught us so YOU can get those results sooner. Neil is going to launch his 'Facebook for the Forecourt' Package at this years Car Dealer Conference, so if you ever needed a reason to go this is it!

GG I think you have summed that up pretty well. WE been over backwards to help our customers, the amount of extra hours we carry out on behalf of our customers that we don't account for is really scary however it is one of the overwhelming reasons why we gain and retain so many customers. AT have to continue charging for everything!!! Nothing is free! But guess what, the data they use comes from us, what happened before delta point and retail checker, oh yes we found out ourselves, all AT have done has made it easier for us and are now charging us for making it easy! Instead of inviting customers to their HQ to brainwash them and to justify why they cost so much they should in fact be taking the customers they have lost over the years(like us ) to their HQ to show where all our menu used to go! Yes moving from AT is one of the biggest things you will ever do in the Motortrade however there are so many other routes you can use especially Social Media which are much cheaper, ok they are maybe less effective with stock turnover but all the same you will continue to sell cars. I'm sure EVERYONE would agree that it would best if there was just ONE classified used car website in the UK, one one that customers can search for used cars and see ALL the used cars for sale in ONE place, this would make sure your cars were seen and for the customers they know exactly where to look, however this will NEVER happen unless AT represent value for money for EVER dealer. The more cars on the website the cheaper it should be to advertise, obviously this is just my opinion. But like someone has already said on this thread, we all understand price increases that are justified because of better service, wider audience and better products however when we started in 2003 we paid AT £1 per car per week, what is the price now????? Answer this question.............has your margin or profit increased by this amount? I rest my case! OFFER VALUE FOR MONEY ADVERTISING!

We still sell over 400 cars per year and we do not use AutoTrader. We felt that we received better value for money elsewhere. In fact we now sell more cars via Facebook than we ever did using Autotrader. But I do respect Sparky's comments, as no one knows their business better than themselves and you have to either DITCH Autotrader OR embrace it, there is NO in-between.............I think we have all tried that!

Well said Kate Hamer, you are right it's no longer about how many followers or likes you have, it's all about content which is interesting, social, influential and most importantly shareable. We can all spend hours on Social Media posting drivel but that just wastes precious time. You have to understand the reason behind the use of social media and have some strategy and targets. YOUR customers are all on social media so you HAVE to be there to listen to them and communicate to them. Just so you know, I'm making this post just after replying to two enquiries via FaceBook DM's online and it's 6.15pm on a Sunday evening on a bank Holiday weekend! THAT"S what makes the difference. So yes James as Kate has pointed out, don't give up on Social Media, grasp it with both hands, we do and we are very successful at it, Jim

The crash of household name Car Craft only highlights the fact that things are still very TOUGH out there in the motortrade despite what the MotorTrade press say! We have just survived one of the hardest quarters since we started in business 12 years ago, but against all odds April has been the best month this year. Just goes to show you can only ever try to predict sales! One of the reasons for starting up Twitter Car Dealer Forum http://twittercardealers.ning.com all those years back was to help communicate what was happening at the sharp end of the business, to help discuss those daily challenges and to help each other save money on costs and help achieve more profit. With footfall down and costs ever increasing it seems that we are never advertising in the correct places or buying stock at the right price, in fact most of the time it feels we are doing things completely wrong, however the reality is , we are all most likely doing the job right, but from time to time we need to be reminded of and encouraged to do things differently. We ALL need help at some point. There is not a week goes past that I talk to at least 2 or 3 dealers from our forum about issues they are experiencing, to run an idea past me or just for a general chat. This all helps. So if you are happy to help others just by receiving a phone call, please post your telephone number as a reply to this thread. Let's help each other :-) Kind regards Jim

James even went to the bother of picking up the phone to me the very next day after I made the posts. Couldn't agree more, Top Bloke he is, and we agreed to disagree if you know what I mean!

Sorry James, not me however I'm sending down my Sales Manager Phil and salesman Andy so you get two for the price of one :-) They are the future of our business so thought it only fitting that I let them see into the future, Jim

GG, I do love your Friday Rants !! Don't stop!

I should really have waited until this article was on the Car Dealer Magazine Website however I feel so strongly about what has been said in this article I have decided to talk out now! For those who have no idea what I'm on about please read Trader Tales on page 108 of the latest CD Magazine first! I will start by saying I don't disagree with all James Litton has pointed out, i.e. the fact that Social Media has changed over the last 4 years on this point agree, however I can't agree with his points about being Nasty & Narcissistic! The majority of FaceBook and Twitter post are very social, yes there are nasty people everywhere but you can't possibly class Social Media as nasty! Yes I feel that there are a number of narcissistic people active on Social Media however this is a very small minority. Social Media has been very good to us, we embraced it back in 2011 and have never looked back, we have made loads of new contacts, customers and friends through Twitter and have found an easy way to sell vehicles through Facebook. As for the statement that he is bored with his Twitter feed being populated of dealers tweeting pictures of happy customers I can't understand, I follow a huge number of car dealers on Twitter and never see this, anyway it's great PR, don't you think? When has good PR and self promotion become narcissistic? I'm more than happy to meet with James to help educate him with the way we feel Social Media should be used as a car dealer and show him that it can work. We have made thousands of £'s of profit thanks to FB and Twitter. Yes, social media is changing and Twitter has changed quite a bit over the last few years however it is still (at least for us) very social and sociable, so I suspect that James maybe following the wrong people on Twitter and FB. To sum up, "You reap what you sow" that goes for Social Media too!

GG I think everyone in this forum will agree with you but nothing is worth putting your health at risk! So take a couple if chill pills pop your feet up and relax for a wee while until you are back on track! I'm sure everyone will joining me in wishing you a speedy recovery Jim

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

AT LAST! I think with a FREE classifies site like this 400,000 cars is going to be a massive under estimation. Roll on August Jim

GreenGiant! Summed up in a paragraph ! It's exactly what they have done! From the outside looking in it will look great but the customers know best! But don't be fooled GG investors do a lot of coal face digging before they invest, trust me I know ;-)

If only it were as simple as that! ROI is the analysis used to ensure it is helping you sell more cars AND make more money,however there is the small issues of overallcost,morals and values. As an industry we have been brainwashed into think we cannot do without AT,they tell us they can't reduce the price per car per week yet today we see them up for sale for an extortionate amount of money,and guess what,we have put them there! It would be great to know that you only had one ,trusted route to market that you knew would sell more cars profitably for you,but that is at a cost to us the dealers! The cost to advertise one car per week 12 years ago when I started was £1,today the cost would be about £15, so has my profit on that sane car now 15x,s more?? NO ITS NOT! Now that's what I call analysis or an extreme shift in ROI.