Automotive News - February 4, 2008 - (Page 82) 82 • FEBRUARY 4, 2008 INSIGHT Wild West helps dealer move metal Q Joe, why did you decide to write a book just for automotive salespeople? Michigan retailer spurs sales with wacky TV spots Ryan Beene rbeene@crain.com “How To Sell A Car Today” I dedicated the book to every salesperson who has the guts to work on straight commission. I wrote this book because we get thousands of requests every year from salespeople and managers asking for affordable information on how to sell. That’s why the first run sold out before it was printed! Unfortunately, this industry still runs ads that say “No experience necessary, we train” and then nothing happens once they’re hired. How To Sell to Today’s Buyers! This book will give every salesperson, new or experienced, the information they need to deliver 20 plus units per month with gross profits 50% higher than average. Whether you’re a Manufacturer Dealer Group Dealership Manager If you want to grow in 2008, get a copy for every salesperson in your organization – today! This is the most complete book on selling cars ever written. Other than our own videos on JVTN™ and our workshops, there is nothing in this industry with the complete Joe Verde selling process outlined like it is in my new book. From The Curb To Finance: Handle Price Build Value Close The Sale Overcome Objections I’ve covered selling from A-Z, so new salespeople can get up to speed right away and experienced salespeople can get back on track immediately to sell more units, with higher gross and 100% CSI. 442 Pages Hard or Soft Cover. A M id-Michigan isn’t exactly the Wild West. But a General Motors dealer here uses images of cowboys, horses and ghost towns, and the Sundance name to sell cars and trucks — and has helped other dealers do the same. Terry Hanks, 67, owns Sundance Chevrolet and Sundance Buick-Pontiac-GMC in suburban Lansing. About every six weeks, or whenever GM introduces a sales incentive, Hanks casts himself in a new TV commercial. With his thick mustache, 10-gallon hat and chaps, Hanks hops up on his horse, rides through ersatz ghost towns and jumps into pickup beds. All the while, he touts the savings consumers can pocket at his dealership. “You can have all the product and all the personnel with the expertise,” Hanks says. “But if the public doesn’t know you’ve got it, you’re out of luck. You’ve got to have marketing.” Hanks’ wacky advertising seems to help. In a relatively small and economically challenged market, Hanks says his two dealerships sold 1,815 new cars and trucks and 5,582 used vehicles in 2007, yielding $112.1 million in revenue in 2007. But the Old West trappings aren’t just a marketing pose. Hanging cowboy hats, mounted bullhorns and Western landscapes decorate Hanks’ office. Hanks also owns a riding stable with about 100 horses. Get a horse “I’ve fooled with horses all my life,” Hanks told Automotive News. “But I never made much money at it until I got into cars.” Hanks says his TV spots set him apart from his competitors. “Everybody’s got the same magazine and all of a sudden, here’s a page with a Western theme and a horse,” he says. “It’s a little more memorable.” John Dykstra II is a Lansing-area Ford and Mercury dealer and a friend and former co-worker of Hanks. He says Hanks’ commercials “are geared to blue-collar people” because “that’s who lives in this area.” “The ads are constant, and people will talk about them,” Dykstra says. “Whether people are saying they’re rotten or they’re great, they’re talking.” But Rob Mudd warns against giving the TV spots too much credit for Order today at joeverde.com/store Terry Hanks says his shtick makes his spots memorable. “You can have all the product and all the personnel with the expertise,” he says. “But if the public doesn’t know you’ve got it, you’re out of luck. You’ve got to have marketing.” the success of Hanks’ dealerships. Mudd is president of an ad agency in Cedar Falls, Iowa, that works with dealerships. “That’s the funny thing about advertising — you never know 100 percent what connects with the buyer,” Mudd says. “Maybe (Hanks) believes he can do that by selling himself. But in today’s marketplace, you’ve got to give a person a reason to buy a car. You’ve got to appeal to some sort of economics.” Hanks concedes that high sales volume also gives his dealerships an edge. Sell A Car Today! MANAGEMENT & SALES TRAINING, INC. Terry Hanks Age: 67 Dealerships: Sundance Chevrolet, Grand Ledge, Mich.; Sundance Buick-Pontiac-GMC, Saint Johns, Mich. 2007 sales: 1,815 new, 5,582 used Quote: “To lower inventories is to lower your opportunity. When the corn gets a little thinner, you’ve got to add more acres.” JOE VERDE P.O. Box 267 San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693-0267 (888) 521-2890 Email: info@joeverde.com PRINT TELEVISION RADIO BILLBOARDS JINGLES LOGO DESIGN POINT OF PURCHASE DIRECT MAIL ‘Relatively bad’ In the early 1970s, Hanks and Dykstra worked together at a now-defunct Lansing Ford dealership owned by Dykstra’s father. Even then, Hanks had an outlandish sense of advertising possibilities. Hanks recalls telling his bosses: “We can either be real good and get A lot MORE creative…for a lot LESS money. 800-941-6638 HOUR Turn Around Time! 48 www.TheCarAdStore.com somebody to do it for us, and pray to the Lord they don’t keep upping the price, or we can be relatively bad, get comments and have everybody remember our name. Relatively bad is something we can afford.” So Hanks “just started goofing off on television.” He filmed one memorable commercial on the dealership lot during a brutal winter. He took off his shirt and flung it on a car to show customers how far he would go to make a sale. “He made my father a lot of money,” Dykstra says. For several years before he opened Sundance Chevrolet in 1982, Hanks also was a commercial spokesman for about a dozen other dealerships from South Carolina to California. His Western shtick traveled well, says Hanks’ business partner, Tom Beauvais. “It was mind-boggling, the effect he had,” says Beauvais, a Mitsubishi dealer in Lansing. Hanks’ commercials have portrayed him sitting on toilets and dressing in garish costumes. In one spot, Beauvais says, Hanks’ camel co-star vomited on his face, leaving him with “green bile dripping off his mustache.” “Terry is a unique person,” Beauvais says. “You either love him or you hate him, from a marketing standpoint. Luckily, a lot more people like him than dislike him.” c http://joeverde.com/store http://joeverde.com/store http://www.thecaradstore.com http://www.thecaradstore.com
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