2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY Estimates for 2012 are all over the map, and most are cloaked in a waning degree of confidence. How good will your 2012 be? It’s directly related to your sales performance in Q4 of 2011. The following is one of a series of quick posts to help local sales teams get a jumpstart on 2012 … right now.
QUESTION:
Are you really going to miss out on the largest “Turf War” by local auto dealers in modern history?
ANSWER: Chevy, Ford, Kia and Hyundai dealers are saying: “We need to hold on to our sizable recent share gains.”
Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Acura dealers: “We finally have inventory, and we intend to take back our cities.”
Adam Armbruster is a Senior Partner with ESA & Company, an advertising strategy firm based in Red Bank, New Jersey that accelerates profit for local businesses.
2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY Estimates for 2012 are all over the map, and most are cloaked in a waning degree of confidence. How good will your 2012 be? It’s directly related to your sales performance in Q4 of 2011. The following is one of a series of quick posts to help local sales teams get a jumpstart on 2012 … right now.
QUESTION:
How many home services companies need help right now?
ANSWER: The home services industry has become a huge player on the local level — on par with automotive. These companies are pacing against huge Q4 2010 numbers that were propped up by federal and local tax incentives for homeowners.
ADVICE:
Your Q4 opportunity has up-and-left already. But right now your team needs a steady diet of home services calls. Companies are looking to maintain momentum in the market, as the tax incentives were followed by a drop in consumer demand — much like cash-for-clunkers. They need a plan for 2012, and that planning starts today. Create your Top 10 list right now, and get some boots on the ground. Estimating an efficient media budget is simple — contact your ESA consultant for help.
Roland Eckstein is the Managing Partner of ESA & Company, an advertising strategy firm based in Red Bank, New Jersey that accelerates profit for local businesses.
2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY Estimates for 2012 are all over the map, and most are cloaked in a waning degree of confidence. How good will your 2012 be? It’s directly related to your sales performance in Q4 of 2011. The following is one of a series of quick posts to help local sales teams get a jumpstart on 2012 … right now.
QUESTION:
Is your sales team handling objections, or mishandling them?
ANSWER: Quarter Four of any year is marked by more “change of heart” than any other. Advertisers in this mode — evaluating local media — have plenty of questions and objections. The best salespeople realize that there are 5-6 “right answers” that handle about 80% of these objections.
ADVICE: Script your :15s! We’re not talking commercial scripts here — we’re talking objection-handlers. Take the five most common objections and have succinct, 15-second responses for each. Why 15 seconds? Any longer than this and the confidence in our answer takes a nose-dive. You know what these objections are already; we hear them all the time. The answers are right in front of us. This practice will demonstrably increase close ratio during a very competitive 4Q and early 2012. Do it today!
Dave Eckstein is a Partner in the firm ESA & Company. He specializes in highly profitable market share growth for local businesses and gets a kick out of demonstrating a declining cost of customer acquisition.
2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY Estimates for 2012 are all over the map, and most are cloaked in a waning degree of confidence. How good will your 2012 be? It’s directly related to your sales performance in Q4 of 2011. The following is one of a series of quick posts to help local sales teams get a jumpstart on 2012 … right now.
QUESTION:
How many auto dealers are you talking to right now?
ANSWER: How many car haulers have you seen stacked with Toyotas recently? I take pictures of them with my phone as I see them (10 so far on this trip), and it brings a tear of joy to my eye. Hyundai will not let loose their recent market share gains. Ford expects to hire 7,000 people over the next two years.
ADVICE:
Sales teams need to get to all Hyundai and Toyota dealers now; this window is closing as you read this line. Visit every Toyota dealer website, go to new inventory, and see how many cars are listed. Ask the GM or owner if they are at inventory capacity given current web listing — and if not, when the cars are arriving. Recommend that they book schedules and approve scripts in anticipation of a wave of inventory arrival. Caveat: Campaign start date can/will be adjusted based on inventory delivery date.
Roland Eckstein is the Managing Partner of ESA & Company, an advertising strategy firm based in Red Bank, New Jersey that accelerates profit for local businesses.
2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY Estimates for 2012 are all over the map, and most are cloaked in a waning degree of confidence. How good will your 2012 be? It’s directly related to your sales performance in Q4 of 2011. The following is one of a series of quick posts to help local sales teams get a jumpstart on 2012 … right now.
QUESTION:
Is your sales team poised for a Q4 + 2012 surge?
ANSWER: The best developmental AEs expect 5 or more QUALIFIED, in-person sales calls per week during October and November. This cannot happen unless it is preceded by an equally strong surge of prospecting and cold-calling. No surprise — the phrase we hear most this time of year from advertisers: “Perfect timing … we are setting / reevaluating our media budgets for next year right now.” None of this happens without a little planning.
ADVICE:
Sales teams absolutely need to deliver a peak of selling activity during October and November. Each salesperson should be averaging 20+ cold-calls per week in advance of this surge. That is not a tall order at all — even though many in sales fail to even approach this volume. FYI, the media industry averages just under 12 cold-calls (and under 2 meetings) per week. We can do much better — and need to during this critical window!
Dave Eckstein is a Partner in the firm ESA & Company. He specializes in highly profitable market share growth for local businesses and gets a kick out of demonstrating a declining cost of customer acquisition.
2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY Estimates for 2012 are all over the map, and most are cloaked in a waning degree of confidence. How good will your 2012 be? It’s directly related to your sales performance in Q4 of 2011. The following is one of a series of quick posts to help local sales teams get a jumpstart on 2012 … right now.
QUESTION:
Is your sales team — specifically the developmental account execs — apprised of Q1 2012 avail requests?
ANSWER: This level of activity is a good indicator of how much 2012 planning is afoot. Simply stated, we should be ahead of this activity, because the agencies that are calling the station have already had their planning meetings with their clients for 2012. Waiting until December or January will surely elicit comments such as “Your timing is bad, we just laid in ‘12″. This is client-speak for “If you knew anything about my business — or yours — you would’ve called me in October!”
ADVICE: Be a part of the conversation now, or a victim of the fallout in 2012.
Roland Eckstein is the Managing Partner of ESA & Company, an advertising strategy firm based in Red Bank, New Jersey that accelerates profit for local businesses.
SOUNDBYTES FROM THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY REAL AUTO ANSWERS WEBINAR | ESA & COMPANY The following article is one of a series highlighting the insights from ESA’s Real Auto Answers webinar. The webinar’s panel included Steve Finlay of Ward’s Dealer Business, Adam Armbruster of ESA, and successful auto dealer principals.
No doubt, the auto industry has changed dramatically. There has been more change in the past five years in the industry than there had been for the previous half-century.
That said, what are the big “macro” trends in the auto industry that are evolving now — those current seismic shifts that will become mainstays?
Wendi Egbert of Southtowne Automotive sees the highly-informed auto shopper as the biggest difference today, while Scott Fink of Hyundai of New Port Richey notes that the new energy-conscious consumer base is a dramatic change that is here to stay. Mike Johnson of Hickory Toyota agrees in part with both Egbert and Fink, adding that the efficiency movement will be harnessed by companies and governments that build the solutions that the masses can embrace. Steve Finlay of Ward’s Auto adds his thoughts on the cost considerations for such innovations.
Knowledge of mega-trends like these will serve any automotive dialogue, as will awareness of five other bits of timely auto intelligence. Dealers today are navigating a pace of change unlike any they’ve seen in a long time, and will appreciate real answers to today’s real issues.
Dave Eckstein is a partner in the firm ESA & Company, based in Red Bank, New Jersey. Dave specializes in highly profitable market share growth for local business and gets a kick out of demonstrating a declining cost of customer acquisition for his clients.
Many of us in the media industry have seen clear evidence that auto dealers continue to step-up efforts during the past year. They want their business back. In light of all the streamlining and economic “belt-tightening” they’ve put in place, today’s dealerships stand to be far more profitable than they have in decades.
Before you head to your next automotive meeting, equip yourself with five key trends taking form in 2011:
With Japanese auto production limited for the first half of 2011 — Toyota alone is off by about 40,000 units — auto prices on the lot will increase in 2Q and 3Q. GM has already announced a $123 per-unit hike on its models, and according to Ward’s Auto, Ford isn’t planning on using incentives to grab the vacated share left by the Japanese void.
The silver lining of the prolonged recession is that auto dealers have created more profitable operations. With an even stronger focus on margins, they are looking for ideas to continue this trend. Electronic media like local broadcast television and internet serve up efficiencies they can’t find elsewhere.
These five trends have created a unique window of opportunity in the auto category, but act soon — the rate of change in the auto world is frantic!
NOTE: ESA + TVB are presenting an Automotive Webinar, Real Auto Answers, on Friday May 20th @ 11:30 AM EST. Be sure to register soon … we’ll be live in over 200 sites across the U.S.
Dave Eckstein is a partner in the firm ESA & Company, based in Red Bank, New Jersey. Dave specializes in highly profitable market share growth for local business and gets a kick out of demonstrating a declining cost of customer acquisition for his clients.
Banks today are writing less than half of the auto loans they did even a few years ago. They want their business back.
In other words, now is a good time to help the local bank begin to recapture the business lost to credit unions. An even better opportunity exists to help your local credit unions maintain — if not build upon — the momentum they have created in auto lending.
This battle between banks and CUs won’t be ending anytime soon, but the big window of opportunity for local media is right now. They need your plan to make it happen, today!
About a decade ago, before our industry truly began pursuing credit unions as consistent local retail advertisers, credit unions owned about a 3% share of the auto lending market. Today, according to Steve Finlay of Ward’s Dealer Business, this share has ballooned to 22%. (Steve will be presenting at ESA’s ROI2011 Conference in January.)
Banks have suffered from a double-edged sword recently. Not only has their share of auto loans shrunk considerably, but there are also far fewer cars being purchased today. They’ve seen millions of auto loans migrate to credit unions, and many more disappear altogether. You may have noticed they’re starting to make some noise.
You have the plan and the resources to make this happen right now — this window of opportunity won’t be open much longer.
Dave Eckstein is a partner in the firm ESA & Company, based in Red Bank, New Jersey. Dave specializes in highly profitable market share growth for local business and gets a kick out of demonstrating a declining cost of customer acquisition for his clients.
In sluggish times, carpet and flooring purchases are among the most postponable decisions for consumers. This is true even in “not-so-sluggish” times. In other words, your local flooring stores need some help.
With that thought in mind, the time has come to sit down with flooring store owners — as in right now. Two manufacturers, Stainmaster and Karastan, will be heavying up on co-op support in November. Dealers need a solid retail advertising plan to make this money work for them this fall — and the sooner you show them the plan, the more likely they are to put something in motion. It would be a loss — for both you and them — if the money were to go unused or “wasted” on an inefficient media buy.
What plan? You have the plan, both from a media and creative perspective. If not, tap ESA for help. There are a few key essential elements and creative disciplines that work for this retail category, in this market, in this season.
Do yourself and your local flooring dealer a favor … talk with them today. You also may want to jot a reminder that this is likely to happen again in May 2011.
Lynne Edwards is a retail advertising consultant with ESA & Company, an advertising strategy firm that accelerates profit for local businesses.
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About ESA
ESA & Company is the nation's premier retail advertising consultancy. Founded in 1981, the firm works in over 70 U.S. media markets with thousands of local advertisers each calendar year. ESA campaigns are designed to deliver market share gains with a declining cost of new customer acquisition.
2012: THE Q4 JUMP-START | ESA & COMPANY
Adam Armbruster is a Senior Partner with ESA & Company, an advertising strategy firm based in Red Bank, New Jersey that accelerates profit for local businesses.
Wendi Egbert of 
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