Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year: A Message You Must Read

http://stansher.com/

http://dealeretraining.com/

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I did not want to spam anyone and sending out messages to each and every one of you would take years because I just have something special to say to each and every one of you.  I have decided to write this instead.

 

Where do I start?

 

Let's start with the fact that I want to express my gratitude and appreciation for everyone on here, especially my friends and colleagues that communicate with me on a daily basis.  Some of you would be considered as competitors (by some people) while I consider you as a business partner that has helped me stay motivated and on track.  The same people have become great friends and provide great wisdom for a young, thriving, and squire like myself who is just out there working hard and making it happen.

 

It is people like Jim Ziegler who have an open mind and prove to be great friends.  A few years ago Jim Ziegler never knew me or who I was.  Now I talk to him weekly.  He has been a great friend and I consider him to be one of my mentors.  I look up to him and always enjoy speaking with him.  We had a small difference in the past and I did something’s that I regret.  However, I was open about admitting how wrong I was and Jim accepted me for being straightforward, apologetic, and up front.  I look at pictures of Jim and me at another friend's wedding and it warms my heart to know that the Alpha Dawg is my friend.

 

I look at people like Cory Mosley (who is the reason why I got into consulting).  Here is a man who is a few short years older than me who I have looked up to for the past five years because he blew me away when I saw him speak.  I met Cory when I was just becoming an Internet Sales Manager.  Now, we talk on the phone, have dinners, and he smacks wisdom into me.  The man is wise far beyond his years.  I appreciate Cory as a friend and colleagues.

 

This year I have made friends with two new people that are in my circle of friends in the industry.  I was fortunate to become friends with a phone trainer who is an absolute powerhouse and a class act.  This man saw potential with me and has helped me secure a role as a trainer and speaker for the Greater New York Dealer Association.  He has become like a brother to me.  When he sees that I might be wrong he corrects me as if he was an older brother or a father.  We talk everyday and we are very good friends.  We have collaborated on some projects and together make a wonderful team.  Do not be surprised if you see us working together in the future as we feed off of each other’s strengths.  Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about Mark Rodriguez (Auto Client Care).

 

In 2011, I made another friend who invited me to collaborate on projects.  He is another great friend with wisdom to share.  He got me turned on to some great books and has helped shape my thinking.  I want to thank Sandy Cermai (Applied Selling Dynamics) for his friendship, business partnership, and support.  He has made an impact in my life.

 

I need to credit another very special person.  This person taught how not to give up and that anything is possible.  We were very close friends and I even helped him run his company in a very important time of need.  As many of you know we had a falling out.  However, I look back to our friendship and business relationship and I admire him for the skills that I have picked up.  I got involved in public speaking as well as starting my own company because I was influenced by this person.  I learned digital marketing strategies, VSEO, and maybe even just a little tiny bit to make me a better automotive internet sales professional.  Yes, Sean V. Bradley, I am talking about you.  We have been through a lot together through great times and tough times.  His family has been warm, loving, and kind to me (especially after I moved far to be away from home).  His wife Karen is just an amazing person and friend and their kids are great.

 

I want to thank Ralph Paglia and Chris Saraceno for having sites like Dealerelite.net and automotivedigitalmarketing.com.  They have created a portal that allows to not only offering insight to the automotive industry but also a way to connect and build great long lasting relationships.  They have also looked after my well being.  Ralph has always been great to me and I have a learned a lot from him.  Chris has been wonderful with calling me personally and giving some wisdom when needed.  They are both a class act and great friends to have.

 

I have to add to my list people like Joe Webb who has been a close friend and supporter for years.  He is straight forward and has never steered me wrong.

 

Let me be thankful for everyone else out there who has given me an opportunity to help them grow with business as well as a connection for business.  I want to thank all of my clients for helping Dealer eTraining create some momentum and bring value to the dealerships.  I want to thank the Greater New York Dealer Association for having me provide a service that will allow New York dealers to pick up education that is useful to help sell more cars.  I want to thank my family, friends, and friends that I made in the auto industry for being there for me.

 

Look, this business has been wonderful to me.  It is the people that I met and the skills that I have gained that made me what I am.  I appreciate the dealers, the vendors, and the trainers.  We all learn from each other and are all better because of one another.  I will continue to fight for our industry and help make all of your dealerships more successful if you allow me to.

 

oops almost forgot...I have to call out and thank him Grant Cardone for writing some of the most influential and motivating books that have helped me think clearer about the path that I will take.  I want to thank him for what he does.

 

I wish I could write a list but it would have over 2,500 people so let me finalize this by saying thank you for what you do.  I want to give shout outs to Elise Kephart (Sunset Honda), Adam Barish (Route 23 Honda), Keith Shetterly, Lizelle Landino (close amazing friend and PCG Digital Marketing executive), Rob Fontano (Infiniti of Fort Myers), Adam Ross (Infinite Prospects), Maurice Lawrence (AutoTrader), Steve Risso (Teddy Nissan), John McAdams (Team Velocity), Fran Taylor, Eric Gidney, Matt Lamoureux (DealerRater and a very close personal friend for over three years) and many other people.  Thank you for the good that you have done to me.  Let's continue to evolve and provide good for our industry, family, and society as a whole.  

 

This is going to be an amazing Christmas after all.  Reuniting with friends.  Fixed relationships.  New friends in my life that are like family.  Having close ties (personally and professionally) with people that I can call my colleagues (instead of competitors).    Also, new opportunities for 2012 both personally and professionally.  A few days ago I did not think I would end up being this happy.  I want you all to know that I appreciate you all for everything that you do for me.  I appreciate your friendship, support, love, wisdom, and just having you in my life.  This goes out to not only the people I associate with everyday of my life but also the people that are connected with me on here.  I wish you all an amazing Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas to every one of you and a Happy New Year.  Let's finish 2011 strong and get ready to dominate in 2012.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Scott Painter (CEO of TrueCar) speaks to Stan Sher (President of Dealer eTraining)

It was Monday December 12, 2011 and I had decided to take a nap at 4:00 PM as I had just spent an average of 14 hours per day working from my home office.  I actually spent all weekend working on projects and creating more curriculums.

My nap was rather long and I slept until 8:00 PM.  I woke up and looked at my cell phone only to find a voice message from a random phone number in California.  I listened to the message and saw that it was one of Scott Painter's people trying to contact me because Scott Painter wanted to have a conversation with me. 

 

My initial thought was, "WOW, the multi billionaire guru with a Wikipedia page wants to talk to me.  I feel special."

 

I called the gentleman back and set the call up.  I later learned that he was also speaking to Jim Ziegler.  As far as I knew we were the only two people that Scott Painter was talking to.  I had prepared my list of questions and was excited to talk to this person just to see what he has to say.

 

Fast forward to the next day.  I started to think a few things.  I was thinking that maybe I made Painter so angry that he was trying to get his attorney on the phone with a cease and desist message.  On the other hand, I do think great things of myself and I know that I am a very abstract thinker so I was thinking that maybe Painter would be looking for my help to make his product better and stop hurting dealers.  I had spoken to Jim Ziegler and knew that he had a call at 1:30 PM so I was anxious to find out what happened.  So at 5:30 PM (30 minutes before my call I called Jim again).  I learned from Jim that it was a regular Q&A session and that he was offered a trip to California to explore the TrueCar operations.  Jim had spoken well of Scott Painter as he Scott was very professional and seemed to be an easy going person to talk to.

 

Moving on...

 

It is now 6:00 PM and we get on the call.  It was a 55 minute call.  We started the call and Scott had informed me that he might have to get off sooner because his wife was about to have a baby any minute now.  "Congratulations Scott and family!”  I had congratulated Scott.  I also started the conversation by giving him my respect.  I too am a college dropout and I too have visions of doing huge things in the future.  I started the conversation with an upfront from the heart compliment.  Anyone that knows me knows that I have a huge heart.  If I am against what you represent it I will let you know that too.  However, if you are brilliant enough to come up with a huge idea and get to the level that Scott has I have to give credit to where it is due.

 

I continued to explain who I was and what my background was.  I had explained to him how I got in to the automotive industry and my experience in retail.  In addition, I talked about my roles in dealerships and how I started Dealer eTraining.  From there I moved onto explaining to him why I am completely against his product (TrueCar) and I gave him at least three real scenarios from when I worked in dealerships as a sales person and a manager.

 

He understood where I was coming from.  Scott was also very professional and knowledgeable with his answers.  He seemed to give me legitimate responses.  I told him about my theory of how I believe he is pricing cars out of the market and how he is hurting the business.  I even compared him to Edmunds where I said, "at least when Edmunds is advertising True Market Value (TMV), the vehicle is priced a few hundred over invoice".  I added to that by saying, "if we were selling cars a few hundred over invoice and you had your pricing fairly structured like that no one would be hurt."

 

When asking him about where pricing data comes in he started to tell me about how when a car gets sold the data is available to multiple sources and how many of them are partners are TrueCar.  When I asked him where he gets these ridiculous low prices to put on the bell curve under "Best Deal" he told that consumers actually provide them with pdf files of their purchase.  This is where I am still puzzled after everything he said to me.  Something here did not seem to sound right.  Why would a consumer give you a copy of their retail agreement?  It is one thing when you survey the customer and they tell you what they paid for the car (which cannot be a fact sometimes).  It is another to have someone takes the time to send you this information.  I had not asked more questions on this because this was the one thing that made me actually want to go and see the TrueCar operations for myself.  

 

The majority of the discussion was exactly like the one that Jerry Thibeau had with Scott.  The only difference is that I literally have 30 ideas that can turnaround TrueCar for the better if in fact this beast cannot be defeated.  I had mentioned two ideas right off the bat.  Here they are:

 

1. Ok if you are going to advertise on the bell curve, "Best Deal".  Can you at least have the decency to omit the sales prices from customers that stole the vehicle?  I mean there comes a moment when a sales manager makes a mistake and we roll a car and lose $2,000 on it and the customer makes out like a lucky bandit.  This is where I assume these figures are coming from.  So I said, "I know Honda does not allow advertising under invoice so why not keep the sales figure legitimate and have some profit in it to keep all things fair".  

 

-Scott told me that his AutoNation people have brought a similar idea to them.

 

2. I had mentioned that if they incorporated reviews and partnered up with a review site.  Take the reviews and incorporate them underneath the prices in the bell curve that they can now offer a lot more than just pricing.  I am talking about value added benefits.  Now the customer has a choice if they want to pay more for a better experience or pay less for a worse experience.  Now that is real transparency in my opinion.

 

-Scott told me that his brother in law is a GM of a Mazda dealer and he was mentioning something similar.

 

What are my thoughts?  

 

My thoughts are that Scott has opened up as much as he is willing to open up.  I still disagree with what is being done with TrueCar and why TrueCar is partnered with some of the current partners.  I also believe that there are a lot of ways that the TrueCar model needs to be reworked.  TrueCar has a lot invested and the commercials are there like AutoTrader.  If they are going to grow and advertise to the public they need to fix the problems that they are creating.  TrueCar needs to follow all state regulations and all OEM regulations.  They should also make it so that whatever is being advertised allows for dealers to remain profitable and actually makes automotive dealers look good instead of bad.  If they want to make innovations to the industry they need to help get consumers respecting dealers instead of plotting against them.  I believe that incorporating other transparent strategies and not basing things solely on price can make a difference.

 

Now the reality is that these things are probably not going to happen if Scott's intentions are really what he made public when he did the videos and presentations.  Perhaps Scott was looking for a way to win me over because I have a lot of influence.  Perhaps Scott did not think before he spoke when he was quoted in the past.  No one will ever really know the truth.  One thing that I do know is that Scott handled the call with me professionally and very humbly and he was great to speak with.  Scott invited me to visit their operations so that he can show me what they do and how they do it.  I know other people have declined.  I am going to accept it.  The reason why I am going to accept it is because I want to see it for myself.  It is an educational experience and it will allow for me to bring back even more thoughts to the industry.

 

Look we all want to see this fail (including myself).  We need to consider how big it has become.  I mean over 5,000 dealers need to cancel.  If we can get them all to cancel then great.  Otherwise, there is a chance this will continue to grow since the marketing tactics and investments have pushed for the massive growth to happen.  If we cannot defeat this gorilla then we need to help create ways to make this gorilla work for dealers without hurting them.  I am proposing to have an open mind here and have a strategy for what happens is we defeat this as well as a strategy for what happens if we have to live with it.  If we have to live with it let's at least consider the options of making TrueCar make changes that benefit the dealers.

 

I am not going soft on your guys.  The negative experiences that I had with them at the dealer level will never change what I think of them.  But it is my mission as a member of the industry to give back to the industry that has provided me with skills, opportunity, knowledge, and training to be a better human being.  This is what Dealer eTraining (my company stands for).  Go to my website www.dealeretraining.com and look on the home page.  I have a section there where the last sentence states, "Dealer eTraining is about the dealership’s success first and foremost.”  This is my signature motto.  Anyone that has worked with me, been trained by me, or has met me knows that I mean well.

 

I welcome thoughts and comments.  When you respond I want you to do it with an open mind.  I have done everything with an open mind and you should too.  Thank you.

 

Stan Sher

Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Reality of Zag.com/TrueCar

Friends,

I send this message as a true friend in the automotive industry.  As
some of you already know it is my mission to help dealers be
profitable and grow their results.


I wanted to reach out to you and send you this message to inform you
of what has been going on with Zag.com/TrueCar and the current
discussion.

I know that a lot of dealers are using Zag.com because they are sold
on the fact that they never pay for a lead and only pay $300 for when
the car gets sold.  The problem is that we give out access to our data.  Zag and TrueCar
pull all of our data including front end gross, trade value, and back
end gross.  Since they go into the database they pull information for
every deal that you did that month.

Now let's think.  Let's hypothetically say that you had an issue with
a deal.  I am talking about an issue where a customer was misquoted
severely to the point where you had one deal that you literally lost
$2,000 on.  This happens at some point or another.  Well now you let
Zag know of that information.  They take that low price and post it on
TrueCars.com as the best price out there.  Now you have customers
expecting to go into dealerships (including yours) to pay that
unrealistic low price.  This takes competition to a whole new level.

So I ask.  Why do we want to let a vendor take our data and use it
against us.  Let's face it, Scott Painter (CEO of TrueCar) has never
worked in a dealership or experienced the pain that we all had selling
cars and dealing with struggles.  He actually has been quoted saying
that he envisions this industry eliminating sales people with this
process.  Here is a man that is out to give consumers transparency
while hurting out business.  I believe in being fair, honest, and
showing transparency.  I do not believe in auto dealers getting hurt
to do it.  We should be playing on even field.  If Zag/TrueCar were
posting realistic figures allowing dealers to make a profit we would
not have any problems.

Check out this Automotive News Article: http://bit.ly/vbMAim

Also, Jim Ziegler has created a discussion on this topic right here
and you all need to read through this because it affect your business:
http://bit.ly/smOaRJ

Here are some more important resources for you to look at: http://bit.ly/jNtK8M

http://bit.ly/bIt4WP

The bottom line.  The automotive business has been great to me.  I
created a solid career out of it.  I learned skills in this business
that I would never learn anywhere (including college).  I have made a
decent living at it.  I started Dealer eTraining to give back to the
industry and help better our industry by providing training solutions.
 When I see a company get started that hurts our industry I care and I
want to see it go away.

As the saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch".  If you
are using Zag because you like the fact that leads are free and you only pay
for the lead when the car gets sold you need to consider the damage
that you are doing by losing money on these deals and letting Zag use
your data to make you look bad in front of your customers as well as
create more tension between competing dealers.  Let's put an end to
this madness.  I propose that whoever is using Zag/TrueCar stop using
them and pass that on to everyone including your competitors.

But wait, this gets better.  Did you know that DealerTrack has stake in this?  Yes, DealerTrack and ALG are involved (http://bit.ly/vKu1VU).  That is right, a company that is supposed to be a dealer partner got involved.  I wonder how much more date is getting leaked in to TrueCar to hurt our business.

 

If you look at the facts you will see that you need to stop using Zag/TrueCar.  I have been saying this for a few years but now I am really speaking out loud about this.


--
Stan Sher
President
Dealer eTraining
Website: www.dealeretraining.com
Direct:             (732)925-8362      
Email: Stan@dealeretraining.com

View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter
View my facebook profile

 

Like Dealer eTraining on Facebook

The Reality of Zag.com/TrueCar

Friends,

I send this message as a true friend in the automotive industry.  As
some of you already know it is my mission to help dealers be
profitable and grow their results.


I wanted to reach out to you and send you this message to inform you
of what has been going on with Zag.com/TrueCar and the current
discussion.

I know that a lot of dealers are using Zag.com because they are sold
on the fact that they never pay for a lead and only pay $300 for when
the car gets sold.  The problem is that we give out access to our data.  Zag and TrueCar
pull all of our data including front end gross, trade value, and back
end gross.  Since they go into the database they pull information for
every deal that you did that month.

Now let's think.  Let's hypothetically say that you had an issue with
a deal.  I am talking about an issue where a customer was misquoted
severely to the point where you had one deal that you literally lost
$2,000 on.  This happens at some point or another.  Well now you let
Zag know of that information.  They take that low price and post it on
TrueCars.com as the best price out there.  Now you have customers
expecting to go into dealerships (including yours) to pay that
unrealistic low price.  This takes competition to a whole new level.

So I ask.  Why do we want to let a vendor take our data and use it
against us.  Let's face it, Scott Painter (CEO of TrueCar) has never
worked in a dealership or experienced the pain that we all had selling
cars and dealing with struggles.  He actually has been quoted saying
that he envisions this industry eliminating sales people with this
process.  Here is a man that is out to give consumers transparency
while hurting out business.  I believe in being fair, honest, and
showing transparency.  I do not believe in auto dealers getting hurt
to do it.  We should be playing on even field.  If Zag/TrueCar were
posting realistic figures allowing dealers to make a profit we would
not have any problems.

Check out this Automotive News Article: http://bit.ly/vbMAim

Also, Jim Ziegler has created a discussion on this topic right here
and you all need to read through this because it affect your business:
http://bit.ly/smOaRJ

Here are some more important resources for you to look at: http://bit.ly/jNtK8M

http://bit.ly/bIt4WP

The bottom line.  The automotive business has been great to me.  I
created a solid career out of it.  I learned skills in this business
that I would never learn anywhere (including college).  I have made a
decent living at it.  I started Dealer eTraining to give back to the
industry and help better our industry by providing training solutions.
 When I see a company get started that hurts our industry I care and I
want to see it go away.

As the saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch".  If you
are using Zag because you like the fact that leads are free and you only pay
for the lead when the car gets sold you need to consider the damage
that you are doing by losing money on these deals and letting Zag use
your data to make you look bad in front of your customers as well as
create more tension between competing dealers.  Let's put an end to
this madness.  I propose that whoever is using Zag/TrueCar stop using
them and pass that on to everyone including your competitors.

But wait, this gets better.  Did you know that DealerTrack has stake in this?  Yes, DealerTrack and ALG are involved (http://bit.ly/vKu1VU).  That is right, a company that is supposed to be a dealer partner got involved.  I wonder how much more date is getting leaked in to TrueCar to hurt our business.

 

If you look at the facts you will see that you need to stop using Zag/TrueCar.  I have been saying this for a few years but now I am really speaking out loud about this.


--
Stan Sher
President
Dealer eTraining
Website: www.dealeretraining.com
Direct:             (732)925-8362      
Email: Stan@dealeretraining.com

View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter
View my facebook profile

 

Like Dealer eTraining on Facebook