I had my first sales job in 2003, working for a very large RV dealership. During the first year, I was fortunate to have a mentor guide me in learning how to sell. In 2004, I took over handling the Internet duties at our location. That's where I discovered my passion for Internet Sales, and I jumped feet first into my role! I taught myself many techniques, and greatly improved my skills of closing over the phone. What I knew from the start was that the Internet, is a whole different ballgame than traditional business practices. You are literally competing with every single other dealer that sells your products, or your competitors products. Dealers are competing on such a larger scale than every before, and it's not going away. At one point, the main office location decided to change things, and have the main location handle all the Internet duties. I was not happy about this, and I ended up in a meeting with the owner, and the Internet Manager. I told both of them that how they were going to do things, and my new role in it. Frankly, didn't fit into my goals. The owner asked me what my goals where. I told him, to be honest with you, to run the whole &%#* thing! Whether it was there, or somewhere else!
About a year later, the owner had sold the company, and was starting a boat dealership. He was 2 hours away from where I lived. He called me, and said that he wanted me to come on board as his Internet Manager. I learned a valuable life lesson from this, when asked, always be direct and honest. It may not seem like the proper thing to do, however the only thing that's important, is being honest with yourself. I worked for his start-up boat dealership, and we did really well. Having creative freedom, provided me with the ability to create a great Internet system. The experience of leveraging the Internet to generate revenue particularly in a start-up without me burden with risk, has provided very valuable to me in this venture.
Recently, I worked for an auto dealership as an Internet Manager. We carried the Rocky Ridge conversion vehicles, and I quickly realized that there was no where for us to exclusively market these online. The other issue I discovered was, the majority of customers had never heard of the conversion company before. At the dealership, I jumped right into creating an Internet marketing program for these vehicles. We did very well with them, however my wheels were already turning for this business. I hatched this business idea in June 2011, and like most things, it's a process getting things to fruition.
When I reflect on my experiences from the dealerships I worked for, it has laid the foundation for what I am doing now. The progression over the years from, Internet Sales, to Internet Sales/Marketing, to Internet Marketing, and now Internet Marketing of my own business, is just a natural progression I guess. The only difference from then to now is, I'm indirectly working for multiple dealers/companies, and not just one. My true passion, is in Internet Marketing. Why? I absolutely love what I'm doing, and the challenges that come with it. Internet Marketing is the area of a business that can have the largest impact on revenue, both positive and negative. For those that aren't sure about getting on board with my service, the auto dealership that I worked for was Ferrario Auto Team. They know what I can do, and what I did. From a business stand point, they are very aware of the direct benefit I am going to provide their dealership with.
No comments:
Post a Comment