Today I spent over 3 hours on the phone with Verizon trying to clear up a 4-month disaster-of-an-experience with said company. While on the phone, I grew amazed at my continued desire to be a Verizon customer despite the fact that in all my experiences with Verizon there should be no desire left in me to be their customer.

This is a case of a company with a product so desirable that not even a crappy customer experience can thwart off the customer. It’s called FiOS - Fiber Optic Service.

FiOS is to broadband (cable, DSL) what broadband was to dial-up. It is the most powerful residential Internet service available and it is available exclusively at this point through Verizon.

I will spare you the 3 completely ridiculous separate scenarios I have experienced with Verizon as a customer since 2001, but let there be no doubt that with this most recent one, there are few products, if any, that I would continue pursuing after such horrendous experiences with a company. FiOS seems to cut through the grime and be the exception to the rule that businesses must provide value beyond its commodities.

When it comes to selling cars, dealerships do not have this luxury. Car buyers can get a desirable product from most anywhere and so the stakes are higher for car dealers to polish their message and customer experience. I have pulled away from buying cars from my own dealership customers because of piss-poor customer service and I have gone far out of my way to purchase a vehicle from a dealership that could meet my own levels of expectation.

So if you aren’t selling FiOS, don’t count on your product compensating for a poorly executed customer experience.

New car sales across the nation have generally declined over the past year or so, primarily due to consumer concern and speculation about the US economy. This has resulted in an increase in used car sales for most dealers and so while new car sales quotas may have been a tougher to hit lately than normal, overall sales have been holding relatively steady for many dealerships.

But that is changing right now because of a new challenge being caused by today’s economic crisis - Auto Financing.

With the housing bubble imploding and credit freezes throughout most major banks, obtaining financing for automobiles is becoming more of a challenge now too. Banks have tougher requirements for getting a loan and are not as willing to take as much risk on car loans as they were a few months ago. Naturally, this is impacting car sales.

While data that would reflect this is still coming in, dealers are already feeling it at the dealerships. According to one report on CNNMoney.com, people are still coming in to buy cars, but they are having a more difficult time getting the car they want.

The existential aspect of this is probably good for the American soul because we as a nation have been living above our means now for decades and tougher financing requirements will curb that a bit. Today’s financial situation is certainly a cleaning up or payback hour for companies, government, and citizens. But the health factor is no medicine for car dealers who do not want to see sales declining.

Dealers today will be faced with a choice of putting their dollars into marketing and advertising programs that produce quick results to keep their sales up, or into programs that will carry them into the future. The short-term reactors will probably look good today, but after a few months when things balance out that will not be the case. Dealers that can weather the storm and pursue opportunities that carry them into tomorrow’s (restored) economic times will be the ones in the end that come out on top.

Just returned from a workshop we held today with the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia (Shouts out to Greta, thank you). The workshop concentrated on providing attendees with an applicable technique they could deploy at the dealership using their Blog, Email, SEO, Social Media Networking sites, and Video.

Interestingly, none of the near 30 attendees representing more than a dozen dealerships reported their dealership having a blog. While I am not surprised by this, I do think it hints at the blue ocean still remaining before us in the auto industry of incorporating blog strategies into a car dealer’s Internet Marketing Strategy.

The purpose of our workshop today was to show dealers a real-life way to utilize their blog in their Business Marketing and Advertising plans, the importance of permission-based email marketing, and how SEO must be considered a core part of any online marketing campaign. It was presumed that attendees had already crossed the Internet bridge and the SEO bridge, and we anticipated that many people present would be hoping to learn how to get a blog or start blogging. I confess not clarifying well enough in the beginning that our emphasis was on how to utilize your blog versus how to get one but I am confident people still were able to take something home that was useful.

The message we shared today is one that I have seen evolving in recent years and fortunately being embraced by most dealerships today. It’s the idea of selling a relationship and not a car which really is just Sales 101. But more important than the message is the “How?” and “Why?”. While the idea of selling a relationship and not a commodity sounds good and all, pulling it off is a challenge, especially for car dealers. And that is what we really covered today. Why use a blog and how it can be utilized?

So while the dealer industry is still in its infancy for incorporating Blog Marketing Strategies into their Business Marketing and Advertising plans, it was evident today seeing how much more welcome the idea of using blogs has become for dealers. A year ago I would have been chased out the room for saying the “B” word. Today it seemed we couldn’t talk about it enough.

When the 2008 Cadillac CTS was awarded the Motor Trend Car of the Year I must confess I felt a bit rubbed. Having been a Benz fan for sometime and with Cadillac not really on my radar, I did not see it coming. I was pretty confident the 2008 C-Class would take it this year.

Right around the time this award was announced, Cadillac began a series of TV ads that continue to this day. Surely you have seen them - a young, styling, attractive individual calmly driving his/her Cadillac through a metropolis view with blurred lights streaking by like a laser. The ads speak energy, contemporary, and style.

Seems Mercedes-Benz wasn’t the only Brand this year to tap a younger market audience. Gotta love the timing.

Last week I ended up renting a CTS during my visit in the Florida Keys. Let me say. That was a nice ride! Weighty, which both I and my wife prefer. Sporty with some pep. Cozy, yet roomy at the same time. And yes, it was styling. We both really enjoyed the ride. Enough to consider it alongside the 2008 C-Class.

Interestingly, the CTS is priced higher than the C300 Sport by nearly $2k. That’s a significant difference at that price range and I grew curious to know how these base prices come to be. Even more interestingly, if you visit Cadillac.com and do a competitor vehicle comparison, the C300 isn’t even compared. Instead, the BMW 335i and the Lexus ES 350 are, and both are priced higher than the CTS.

It’s pretty cool watching the Car Manufacturer brands going after one another. I think MBUSA has more effectively positioned the all-new C-Class in its targeted new markets based on price and overall value. From a marketing standpoint, BMW and Lexus have been far too quiet. When I watch TV, which is about 1-2 hours a night, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac seem to be having a boxing match with their advertising. I love it!

The meat of this article by Arianne Walker in Online Automotive Review is iterated in the final paragraph:

Even though OEMs and dealers have been shifting their marketing budgets online, the data shows that most should probably be accelerating that transition, putting even more money where shoppers - new and used alike - are increasingly going.

These trends are consistent with the recent Cobalt-Polk-Yahoo! study on new vehicle buyer behavior in how it directly and indirectly influences used vehicle purchases.

When I think of car sales, I think of long-term retention. But immediate sales are important to. While you need to invest into new and used car advertising, a primary benefit with investing in to new vehicle advertising is that the investment not only trickles down into used car sales, but it even influences used car sales. That is what the study suggests at least.

This is a key topic today for dealers and providers. Dealers today are cautious of where and how they shift their marketing dollars. It is widely known that the Internet offers the greatest ROI, however establishing your online brand recognition is not an event, it is an establishment that requires years of vision, commitment, and dedication from dealers and their providers.

Dealers must be prepared to take risks and to embrace long-term change in order to meet auto shoppers in advance, but it can be done with the right tools and techniques.

Let’s say for a moment that one of your potential customers desperately wants to buy one of your cars. They’ve come into some money, or they’ve been saving up for years, and all they want to do is buy one of the cars that you sell. Is your website helping or hurting them?

When a web savvy customer is in the market for a new car, the normal first step in their process is to head over to the OEM website to check for statistics, pricing, and model details. Unfortunately, most manufacturer websites are sadly lacking in what these customers are looking for. They’ve got lots of sexy videos and flash introductions, but not much in the way of hand holding or explanation.

In many cases, when a customer doesn’t already know the model they’re looking for, the OEM site doesn’t help them. They’re often forced to search by model at the very least, sometimes even having to input the GT or LS or 123 at the end. Does every single one of your customers know that?

While this is bad news for the OEM, it can be very good news for your auto dealership’s sales.

What many car dealerships seem to forget when designing their website is that people don’t always actively plan to come in. They list their hours and their location and maybe their specials and assume that the information they’re providing is compelling enough to make the customer drop everything and stop on by. Not so.

Take the opportunity to differentiate yourself. Take a good look at your local competitors and your OEM’s site and see what’s missing. Find someone you know who knows nothing about cars — what do they think? What do they recommend? What would they like to see?

If you plan out your automotive internet marketing based on what your customers need — and not what you think they need — you can stop leaving money on the table and make the sale before the customer even leaves their desk.

If you’re a regular reader of this publication, you’ll hear a whole lot about online auto marketing. You’ll hear about email campaigns and blogs and social media. You’ll hear about website design and website functions. You’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about selling cars online.

With all this online selling, where does that leave the salesperson? Does the person selling the car even matter anymore? Does the customer even care?

Yes, yes, and yes.

It’s easy to forget about the role the salesperson plays in the sales process, especially in an age when it seems like every possible transaction is secured online. But the role of the salesperson has never been more important than it is today, and that won’t be changing any time soon.

In “the old days”, the role of the salesperson was broader. They informed the customer about their choices, they educated them, and they held their hand throughout the entire process. The salesperson told the customer what they needed to know.

Nowadays, the salesperson no longer holds a position of power. They are not the only member of the relationship with a knowledge of the inner workings of their cars. Customers have access to online forums, OEM websites, the dealer’s own websites, and more. They can read blogs and media publications about your cars and your dealerships. They know as much or more than the salesperson about the specs of the vehicle.

So what is the salesperson’s role in the process now?

The modern car salesperson has a great responsibility. They are directly and intimately involved with the most important part of any sales process. They have the sole power to make or break the deal.

The salesperson is responsible for the close, and for that they can never be replaced. Find good salespeople and keep them, or it doesn’t matter how pretty your website is — nobody will buy.

The internet operates in an attention based economy. Instead of your website visitors giving you money, they’re giving you their time. Of course you’ll eventually want them to give you their money, right now you want to maximize how much time they’re giving you. How do you get them to give more? You have to give more back.

Think about what you can give your web visitors.

Your automotive dealership’s website visitors aren’t there for the good of their health. They’re at your website because they want something. In the case of a business website like yours, they’re looking for information. Give them information and they’ll stay.

Think about what kind of information they want.

There’s a whole variety of information that you can provide for your customers. The spectrum of information varies from simple maps and contact phone numbers to resource guides, maintenance advice, blogs, communities and more. What do you think your customers and potential customers want to know?

Think about how to provide the information.

Perhaps the most important part of the information equation is your delivery method. Certain types of delivery are more conducive to increased visits than others. You want to maximize the number of visits to maximize your brand’s exposure and increase the likelihood that they’ll make a purchase.

For example, let’s say you’re providing a maintenance article. You could put that on one long page or several shorter pages with a hyperlink reading “continued on next page”. If you get them to click, you get them used to clicking. They might just visit your sales page while they’re at it.

You could also publish your maintenance article as a downloadable PDF. You can provide for free if they subscribe to your newsletter. They get the value, and you get a way to contact them in the future.

There are lots of ways to retain the attention of your customers. You just have to get in their shoes, think about what they want, and then give it to them. Isn’t that easy?

The internet has changed everybody, including tire kickers. Tens of millions of people are researching their purchases online before they buy, and that certainly includes car buyers. So how are you supposed to turn these lookers into buyers? How do you convert mildly interested people into enthusiastic customers? Here are some ways to convert search traffic into real life buyers.

Make it easy for buyers to contact you.

Put your phone number — or one of your phone numbers — on every single page of your website. Eliminate any possible reason for customers to leave your website or your page. The internet may be taking over the world, but a large volume of people still want to pick up the phone and call. Make it easy for them.

Make it easy for you to contact your buyers.

The easiest way for you to get into direct contact with your website visitors is email, so find a way to get their email addresses. The best way to do this is to create some kind of good reason or incentive for them to give up their address — give a bonus or promise updates on your specials and sales. Then follow up and send them something right away.

Make it easy for buyers to find you.

Just because you know where your dealership is doesn’t mean anybody else does. Let’s face it, if your customers drove by your dealership on their way to work every day they probably would’ve stopped by instead of checking you out online. Put a map in your sidebar or put directions on a prominent page on your site.

Remember, people’s thoughts follow established neural pathways. If they start their relationship with your dealership thinking it’s an easy and pleasant experience, then that impression will remain throughout your relationship. Help by planting the easy seeds at the beginning and reap the rewards now and in the future.

According to a recent article in the London Turkish Gazette, London police have started to target street gangs who are selling their cars from the street itself. Apparently local residents are feeling intimidated and can’t find a place to park, leading authorities to crack down on the illegal automobile trade.

What does this have to do with your dealership?

When it comes to any kind of illegal activity, street gangs and organized crime are not known for targeting unprofitable niches. They’re getting their cars — their “dealerships”, as it were — right in people’s faces and hawking their wares for all to see.

Can your auto dealership learn from this?

Think about it. How many people in your surrounding area really know what you sell? Granted, they know you sell cars. Maybe they even know you sell Ford trucks. But do they know the benefits of your vehicles? Do they know your price points? Are you really exhausting all of the possible sales opportunities from your area customers, or are you relying on traditional methods of automobile marketing and advertising to do your work for you?

While nobody would advocate intimidating the neighbors and taking away places to park, it is worth taking some time to think about what you could be doing to get yourself, your salespeople, and your dealership on the front lines of the marketplace.

Some things to think about:

Are you asking for the sale?

Are you making it crystal clear what you sell and what it costs?

Are you carrying your business cards with you at all times?

Are you carrying your virtual business cards? Are you capitalizing on online sales and networking opportunities as a part of your brand strategy?

Fortunately for London residents, these particular salespeople are on their way to prison. But maybe we can all learn a lesson from what they were trying to do.