We all know that the name of the game is lead generation. It’s all about the lead and ensuring a constant flow of leads into your pipeline.
But for today’s blog, I want to focus on the old saying that the best leads comes from word of mouth.
While this does have some truth to it, it often leads dealerships to fall into what I call, "the word of mouth trap." And new dealerships are the ones who suffer most from this syndrome.
New businesses will get a rush of leads right off the bat from their clients and existing friends’ networks. While these referrals are great, many new businesses continue to think that word of mouth will be their single best marketing tool.
Forget it. Once that initial rush is over and you’ve done all the work you can for family and friends, it’s like somebody turned off the faucet. Suddenly your appointment schedule is empty with no way to generate leads — if you have no plan in place.
The truth is that marketing is not a one-time event that happens when you start a business. It’s unlikely that a business will ever make it on word of mouth alone.
Marketing is something that needs to happen consistently. Water dealerships need to face this fact every day of the year, and make sure they have a long-term marketing strategy in place that includes outreach via several different types of media, including direct mail, telemarketing, online presence, branding and networking.
