BCC

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Everything posted by BCC

  1. Id personally just get a small independant web developer to make you one, doesn't cost a lot for a decent site and saves paying out monthly. I personally think its looks a lot more professional than the template Auto Trader or Clickdealer ones.
  2. I always try and ask the customer what they are hoping to get for it first. Doesn't always work though, a lot just say 'as much as possible'
  3. What sort of cars are you selling? and what value cars?
  4. We work out of an industrial Unit / car park which we have converted into a showroom and forecourt. We don't sell many cars locally, most people travel so I think a roadside location wouldn't benefit us much. I can see how it would help with normal everyday cars though.
  5. Facebook has a number of algorithms which were introduced a few years ago. It will take a while to learn the ins and out of it all but when you have mastered it, it can be a goldmine. Lots of people focus just on the amount of page likes. Some dealers have 50k likes and some have 500, the one with 500 likes may be getting more engagement and traffic than the page with 50k likes. Facebook will only show new posts to people who have engaged with one of your posts within a certain amount of time. You have to entertain and encourage engagement from all of your followers or the posts you want them to see (your cars) won't even show up on their newsfeed. We often post videos and funny clips of things not even related to the cars we are selling. (we even boost these sometimes to people who like the page) Post regularly but do not spam people with lots of boring posts as people will soon get bored. Do targeted boosts to help attract new followers but also do regularly boosts to people who already like the page as they will most likely already be your target market. They should be anyway. Our Facebook page if you want to take a look, www.facebook.com/blakedowncarcompanyltd
  6. Do any of you guys have any drivers under 25 on your policy?
  7. Evolution are quite good for subprime or Neg EQ but will need first year accounts usually. To start with I would just go with Close Brothers. Easy to set up with, decent account managers, use of Jigsaw broker for anything Close doesn't approve. Id avoid Santander, nightmare to set up with and decline most applications other prime lenders would approve.
  8. Cheers guys, will make some calls.
  9. Who do you use for trade insurance? Renewal is coming up and looking to change... trying to find a decent insurance broker.
  10. I don't use Gumtree anymore. I did when we had cheaper cars and it worked well. Its definitely worth having for how cheap it is.
  11. Close are very good with new starters, I would give them a call/
  12. Send us an email and we will add you to our traders email list. We specialise more in performance stock so often trade 'normal' cars on ranging from £500 - £10k info@blakedowncarcompany.co.uk
  13. Thanks for the feedback. The quickest way to build followers is to constantly share your posts in owners clubs and car sell pages, that way you are building up targeted likes from people who have an interest in what you are selling. A few basic tips: Post engaging photos, videos, articles etc which are going to get people to like and comment, even if its not directly related to the cars you are selling. Facebook pages are now set up to only show your posts to people that have engaged with your page. There is no point having 20k+ likes if your posts aren't coming up for 99% of those 'followers'. If you just post boring photos of the cars you are selling constantly people will get bored very quickly. Be tactical about timings of posts, our audience are most active at around 5pm so we aim a lot of attention grabbing posts around that sort of time. It will be different depending on who your followers are and who your target market is. We did do a car giveaway a while back which did help us gain a lot more followers. We chose a Clio Sport as we knew that would attract the right sort of people for our business model, people who have an interest in performance cars and modified cars. We did it as a joint venture with our bodyshop, they painted the car Nardo Grey to help boost their online profile as well as ours. Showing progress photos and posts etc kept the giveaway engaging for the 4 weeks it was live. In my opinion, for a giveaway to work and build the right audience then you have to think of a unique way of doing it, otherwise you have a page full of full time mummys who will more than likely never be interested in buying one of your cars or even engaging in any more posts once the competition is over. You have probably seen that we offer a £100 reward for anyone that shares the post and it leads to a sale. This encourages a lot of people to share the posts which increases your reach and hopefully builds more followers. We have also sold a few cars this way, worth the £100 in my eyes. We had a an open day with a DJ and some food vans which went down really well. Lots of people turned up and it helped get our name out there. We are already planning another one in the next few weeks. People check in and post photos on Facebook which again builds followers. I spent a lot of time reading and watching videos about how to be successful with Facebook, theres lots of good information if you spend the time to research it. We sell around 40% of our cars through Facebook, more so than Auto Trader, ebay or piston heads. We purchase at least half of our stock from people who message the page looking to sell. It really is a valuable tool, hope some of this helps. Good luck.
  14. Could you please send over a link to your Facebook pages, i'm happy to have a look and see if I can give you any tips.
  15. We have just doubled our Auto Trader package, will let you know what effect it has, if any. Facebook is a goldmine though, out of the last 10 cars we sold, 5 were sold through Facebook.
  16. Do you have a link to one of your adverts? We have around 20-25 cars in stock but just have the 7 car package and rotate the cars. I would be more likely to upgrade our package than leave Auto Trader.
  17. We cover all plates on EVERY car including when taking photos. It's much more professional and improves the overall look of the showroom and forecourt no end. It's ridiculous to say its dodgy, theres nothing suspicious at all about dealers using plate covers and if a potential customer is genuinely interested they will get in touch for the reg. We pay £80 for 20 covers so around £4 a piece from a local company. If anyone local to us would like their details just send us a message.
  18. BCC

    radio codes

    We just use one of the code suppliers on ebay, usually around £1-2 and have the code within an hour!
  19. We're quite active on Facebook and find it to be a very useful tool for both buying and selling of cars. Possibly helps our business model more than some dealers due to the cars we sell, performance and modified cars etc. We have also recently started trying to build our Instagram presence, had a few enquires through it but nowhere near as much as Facebook. Will keep building it and see how it goes though. Does anyone use Twitter? I have noticed more and more dealers taking to Twitter. How do you find that? Has anyone had any significant benefits using Twitter for your dealership? https://www.facebook.com/blakedowncarcompanyltd/?ref=br_rs
  20. We are on an trading estate which is very quiet at night, there is noone to hear or see anything which made it easier for them. They climbed over the fence, started one of the cars, attempted to start another one, cut the locks on the gate and drove one of them away all within 5 minutes. UPDATE: Had a call off CID 2 days later to say the car had a dormant tracker last active in 2009. We paid £300 for emergency activation of the tracker. Picked up a reading straight away as the car was moving, police pursuit and the car recovered. Haven't picked it up yet but have been told damage is very minimal.
  21. Unfortunately we had 3 people break into our premises last night and steal a car. A Focus ST. They also tried to take a Focus RS we had but luckily they couldn't get it started after they smashed the window. They climbed over our fence into a gated compound, used a generator and an angle grinder to cut the lock off and drove the car away. We are now trying to beef up secuirty in any way we can. Is there any kind of temporary trackers you can use for stock cars? or any other ideas? Help please..
  22. Congratulations on being nominated for both awards! Great achievement. Sounds like you have a similar sort of set up to us. We started in January of this year, sold 120 cars off my drive! finally moved into a premises two months ago. Much better for us and the neighbours!
  23. Weve been nominated for the Newcomer of Year. Should be a good night! Whos going?