Learn how to build a machine that will predictably and consistently turn total strangers into paying customers and raving fans PART 2
In this second post of the series, I want to review with you the second mental shift required to help you build a simple system that will allow you to predictably and consistently turn total strangers into paying customers, like clockworks, 24/7, every week, and every month throughout the year; so you can gradually sell as many more cars as you want, without limits.
If you haven’t yet read part 1, I highly recommend you do it now, so you have all the foundational elements in the right chronological order.
Let’s dive in…
The Second Mental Shift – Stop Chasing Silver Bullets
The second mental shift required to be able to build your customer acquisition system is to stop chasing silver bullets.
What I mean be chasing silver bullets is looking for a simple and seemingly magical solution to a very complicated problem.
In my experience, silver bullets usually come in the form of these seven pursuits:
Chasing tactics
Chasing knowledge
Chasing tools & technology
Chasing people
Chasing incentives
Chasing inventory
Chasing motivation
Look, turning strangers into paying customers is not easy, and building a machine that will do it predictably and with consistency is almost impossible.
If it were easy, everybody would be multimillionaires!
So sometimes it’s easier to think that the latest tactic from the newest solution provider everybody is talking about might be the quick fix to all our problems. Or maybe it’s a new tool or technology, or that superstar manager, or the next incentive from your manufacturer. Or maybe if you could attend that event or that show, you would finally find the motivation to roll up your sleeves and get it done.
But although every one of these seven components is an ingredient of the overall customer acquisition system, individually chasing them will make you fall into the trap of chasing silver bullets.
Make Sure Your System “Flies” Before Strapping An “Engine” On It
The best way I found to illustrate this second mental shift is with the story of how the Wright Brothers invented the world's first flying aeroplane.
Back in 1903, the race was on all around the world to invent the first plane that could fly and most people became utterly obsessed with “the engine” portion of the solution.
Flying felt impossible, so people started building larger and larger engines with more and more horsepower (silver bullets) and strapping them to ridiculous planes completely ignoring the aerodynamics and the wings (systems).
Well, this resulted in some of the fanciest more powerful engines the world had ever seen, but it also resulted in planes that couldn’t get off the ground and were great to look at but completely useless.
The Wright Brothers took a different approach, while the whole world obsessed with engines (silver bullets), the Wright brothers obsessed with the plane and its aerodynamics (systems).
The brothers first focussed on a plane that could glide WITHOUT an engine, and then when they had the recipe right they strapped an ordinary engine to it and voila! The world's first flying plane was invented.
Now I want you to pause for a moment and let this next point sink in because it's a big one and it's almost the exact opposite to what everybody else out there is feeding you.
Today in the car business and the automotive marketing world, we are repeating the history of the engine obsession.
Most automotive professionals and decision-makers are obsessed with the latest marketing tactic offered by solution providers or the hottest traffic or lead source and are completely ignoring the overall system required to convert strangers into clients.
Most salespeople, marketing managers and dealership managers are obsessed over the latest trick, knowledge, tool, technology, or incentive when in reality they are only strapping a larger and more powerful engine to a fundamentally flawed plane.
Chasing Tactics is The Most Dangerous of All Silver Bullets
Now out of all the silver bullets you could be chasing, chasing tactics is the sneakiest and the easiest to fall victim to. It’s also the most common amongst dealers and automotive sales professionals because when you’re running a campaign, a private sale, sending SMS or ringless voicemails, hiring a call centre to call your customers, dropping flyers or mail invitations, or running ads online; it feels like you have a system.
It’s easy to fall in the trap of booking consecutive tactics throughout your annual calendar or pile concurrent tactics one on top of the other during the month and “feel” like these put together compound to form a system.
But they don’t.
Don’t take me wrong; tactics are part of a customer acquisition system. But they are not the system.
Now don’t feel bad if you have fallen for this silver bullet because I’ve been myself enabling dealers for more than a decade now helping them chase the next tactics month after month. From printing millions of direct mail pieces to producing thousands of video sales funnel who generated millions of views and hundreds of thousands of leads, and everything in between; I contributed to the “quick fix” and silver bullet problem.
And let me be clear; tactics do generate leads and cars sales. The problem is they don’t provide you with a system that will consistently and predictably help you turn total strangers into paying customers and raving fans.
For example, if the tactic is provided by a third party, it’s out of your hands to optimise the results. If the tactic is in the form of an event, you don’t get the benefit of month-long results.
Now third-party solution providers and events can and should be part of your overall system. They can bring a boost of motivation, focus, outside perspective, expertise, and allow you to tweak, finetune and uplevel your system.
But again, tactics are not the system. Chasing tactics will only get you on an emotional rollercoaster with unpredictable results, sporadical successes and many ups and downs.
Don’t Focus On The Components – Obsess About The Overall System
Look, it comes down to this: Chasing silver bullets will not get your sales to “fly”. If you don’t have an overarching system that will predictably and consistently help you turn total strangers from every traffic sources into paying customers and raving fans – you don’t have a business.
So stop chasing silver bullets, that’s the second mental shift.
Can you see how…
Chasing tactics
Chasing knowledge
Chasing tools & technology
Chasing people
Chasing incentives
Chasing inventory
Chasing motivation
…can lead to a “component” obsession and take your focus away from the pursuit of a global customer acquisition system?
Call To Action
I decided to create a program where you now have the ability to work with my team and me to build your own customer acquisition machine; one that will predictably and consistently turn total strangers into paying customers and raving fans.
Imagine having not only the blueprint for building your machine, but access to in-depth knowledge about every stages, access to the same technology I use, access to the same copywriters to write your scripts, access to the same video editors to produce your content, and access to the same toolbox of tactics to experiment within your system.
Imagine having access to like-minded individuals from the car business, who are also building and tweaking their own customer acquisition machine. Imagine being able to ask them questions, and compare your metrics with theirs so you can see if and where there is room for improvements.
No more guessing, no more trying to figure it out, but only black and white answers for every question you might have while putting your customer acquisition machine and tweaking it to perfection.
If you would like to have a conversation with me to see if this program might be something you would like to explore and if you would be a good fit for the program, I invite you to schedule a strategy call using this link: https://www.turbomarketingsolutions.com/apply-strategy-session
Sean Cassy is the Digital Marketing Specialist and Co-Owner of Turbo Marketing Solutions. You can contact him by email here or reach him by phone every weekday at Turbo Marketing’s head office