AdAgencyOnline.Net

AdAgencyOnline.Net announced that Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., (AAOL), and host of the blog talk radio station featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time – will be reviewing AskPatty.Com this Tuesday, October 13^th 2009 on the “Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising” show. Philip will be interviewing Jody Devere, the C.E.O. and President of AskPatty.Com, and Patricia J. Roberts, the National Business Director Development of AskPatty.Com. The show will be aired live between 12:00 Noon EST and 12:30 PM EST as an open forum for site visitors to call-in questions in a problem/solution forum designed to share best practices with the trio of automotive advertising experts focused on the unique needs of women car shoppers.

Jody has been a regular guest on WAAOL however this is the first time that Patricia will be introduced to the audience of this free automotive advertising resource networking portal. Patricia provided the following blog posted on http://AdAgencyOnline.Net and distributed to the affiliated offices of AAOL in advance of the show as a thought starter for the automotive advertising agencies that plan to call in questions.

Best Practices for Automotive Retailers on Hiring and Retaining Women

The statistics about the importance of women as a consumer are very familiar to all of us. Women account for 85% of all purchases which includes everything from homes to groceries and control TRILLIONS of dollars of wealth in this country. For those of us in the Automotive Industry, we know how vital the women consumers are to all of us; after all, they represent over 65% of our business. The challenge for all of us is how to make our place of business a comfortable place for women to patronize and purchase our products and services.

It goes without saying that the place where business is conducted must be inviting to both the women and men who come through our doors AND it must also reflect the marketplace in which we do business. Having said that, many of us do not know how or where to find the women we need to hire.

Based on my experience here are some suggestions:

• Create awareness that your place of business is hiring women and what career opportunities it has to offer.
• Visit schools and colleges and participate in career days
• Offer intern programs which will help identify and attract talented people
• Offer scholarships in the name of your business
• Join local women’ organizations
• Invite women’s organizations to hold their meetings in your place of business
• Support women’s events in your local community
• Advertise in women’s magazines or trade publications
• Offer incentives to your own employee for referrals
• Speak at the local Chamber of Commerce to get the word out that you are looking for female employees
• Most real estate agents are women so connecting with the local Real Estate business is another resource for hiring women

The importance of word of mouth in addition to formalized advertising is very critical in attracting women employees so the more you can get out into the community, the better the success of finding and hiring talent.

Make certain that your work place policies are conducive to both men and women.

• The workplace should be clean and neat and an inviting one that works for all employees
• It should be inclusive environment where everyone is treated with respect and valued
• Offer not only full time employment but flexible work place policies such as part time, work at home, team selling, job-sharing for everyone not just women. After all, work life balance is an issue for everyone.
• Have a mentor or buddy system not just for women but for the all new hires
• Post “work week” schedules in advance so that employees can plan their “life week”
• Provide processes that will accommodate for input and feedback for workplace improvement
• TRAIN-TRAIN-TRAIN all of your employees to understand how to treat each other in the work place and also how to treat the female customers when they come into your business establishment.

The important key here is to make sure that ALL employees are valued, are treated with respect, and have opportunities for growth.

Turnover in any is business unwanted and it seems that in the Auto Industry there is a higher percentage than other businesses.

By having policies in place to attract and retain talented employees: it will increase your customer base, reduce absenteeism, reduce costs, improve employee morale, and very importantly it will positively impact your bottom line.

CONCLUSION

This compilation of best practices is my insight into what needs to be in place to attract and engage women but it is also important to remember that companies pursue programs and practices that specifically fit your organization, your workers, and your managers. What is most vital is to harness the skills, talents and hard work of everyone on your team.

Customers want to feel comfortable, respected, and trusted and so do your female (and male) employees.

About Patricia J. Roberts

Prior to joining AskPatty.Com, Roberts was the General Director Women’s Retail Initiative on the General Motors Vehicle, Sales, Service and Marketing Staff in Detroit, MI. She was responsible for programs to increase the number of females in retailing for General Motors. This included the recruitment, training and appointment of female dealers, working with dealers to attract more women into automotive retailing positions, and to provide an enjoyable selling and service experience.

Before Roberts worked in Detroit, she worked in General Motors’ Western Region where she was manager of diversity marketing for General Motors’ Western Region. She was responsible for the development and execution of a strategic plan and the tactics for the diverse markets within the western region.

Roberts joined General Motors in 1967 in the Financial Department with Buick Motor Division. She served in a variety of financial assignments prior to her appointment in a managerial position as a district sales manager in Atlanta. Roberts transferred to Cleveland in 1977 and held the position of car distribution and office manager. In 1979, Roberts transferred to Pittsburgh as the organizational and business manager and in 1983 she became the assistant zone manager for Buick in Boston.

In 1988, Roberts was appointed to the position of business development manager for GMAC in Dallas. She returned to Buick in 1989 as the zone manager in Charlotte, North Carolina. From 1993 until February 1996, Roberts served as director of strategic marketing and research at Buick in Flint, Michigan. Roberts subsequently was appointed to the position of General Director of Marketing for General Motors of Canada, effective March 1, 1996. In January 1999, Roberts was assigned to the newly structured Western Region as the regional divisional marketing manager for Buick.

Roberts holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northwood Institute in Midland, Michigan and a master’s of business administration from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

About Jody DeVere

Jody DeVere is the CEO and President of AskPatty.com, Inc. with more than twenty-five years of achievement as a successful entrepreneur focused on sales and marketing leadership including ten years developing web based business solutions across diverse industries. DeVere is currently the President of the Woman’s Automotive Association International – the premier women’s organization for women automotive professionals, a member of the Car Care Council Women’s Board , a member of the California State Advisory Board for SkillsUSA, Chairperson of the United Spinal Motor Sports Committee, and a member of the SEMA Businesswomen’s Networking Association and is the Editor of the Car Channel on Blogher.com.JD Power Automotive Internet Roundtable, GYNYDA, NAWBO, Car Care Council Women’s Board, BlogHer.org, SEMA, SEMA Business Women’s Networking Association, Northwood Auto Show and the Association of Automotive Internet Sales Professionals. She has been a speaker with the National Automobile Dealer Association (NADA.org), National Independent Automobile Dealer Association (NIADA.org).

About AskPatty.Com

The Ask Patty.com, Inc. website and blog that Jody heads is a safe place for women to get advice on car purchases, maintenance and other auto related topics. Women can shop for vehicles at their network of certified female friendly dealerships across the U.S. AskPatty.com is a member and 2008 corporate sponsor of the Women’s Automotive Association International based in Detroit, MI, Board member of the UnitedSpinal.org, Member of the California SkillsUSA.org board, on the Women’s Board of the Car Care Council, a SEMA member and a member of the SEMA Business Women’s Networking Group.

AskPatty.com is partnered with several auto industry sites including, but not limited to, NIADA, DriverTv.com, MyCarPage.com, MyAutoLoan.Com, Aware and BlogHer.com.

AskPatty.Com has an established track record in training. The site provides a variety of products and services designed to educate auto dealers and automotive advertising agencies including their highly regarded dealer certification program. Properly armed with the right tools and training dealerships can increase their share of the largest and fastest growing demographic of new vehicle buyers in the US — Women Consumers. The Ask Patty Certified Dealer program was designed specifically for car dealerships to attract, sell, retain and keep loyal women consumers. An Ask Patty certified dealer is a dealer that creates a safe and comfortable environment where women feel welcome and a dealer that makes the experience of purchasing and maintaining her vehicle a pleasant one. Ask Patty trained and certified dealers are held to a high level of customer satisfaction for women consumers.

About Philip Zelinger

Philip Zelinger is the President of Ad Agency Online, LLC and founder of AdAgencyOnline.Net. He invested 25 years as a General Manager and Dealer Principal followed by his last ten years in the automotive advertising industry learning from the teams that he built so he can now presume to teach on forums like AdAgencyOnline.Net. His role as a “Dealer Coach” is enhanced by his hosting a nationally recognized auto industry social networking portal and blog talk radio station – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time. As the author of two books on the auto industry, including “How To Sell A Car – a Career Guide to The Automobile Industry,” he is a recognized authority on market trends and developing technologies with the responsibility of selecting key vendors and applications for his dealer clients as well as forming strategic partnerships for his vendor clients to leverage their shared resources to help them bring their products and services to market.

About AdAgencyOnline.Net and Ad Agency Online, L.L.C.

AdAgencyOnline.Net reviews automotive advertising vendors and new technologies on several blog talk radio shows in addition to the Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising. Other shows include “Lunch With Ralph Discussing Automotive Advertising” and “Automotive Advertising Experts.” The shows attract automotive advertising agencies, auto dealers, auto industry vendors and O.E.M. representatives that listen to WAAOL to find vendors, applications and technologies to maximize the R.O.I. for their automotive advertising dollars.

AAOL is a national network of independent affiliated automotive advertising agencies linked by an online communication / distribution system developed by Philip Zelinger. The proprietary operating system that powers AAOL was designed to reduce fixed and semi-variable expenses for full service automotive advertising agencies. The developing technologies that enhanced the performance of the independent automotive advertising agencies linked by AAOL has served as the role model for the solutions suggested on AdAgencyOnline.Net and represented by AAOL to their affiliated automotive advertising agencies when serving their auto dealer clients.

Ad Agency Online L.L.C is focused on discovering and representing new automotive advertising vendors not yet recognized by the mainstream automotive advertising industry. Recent automotive advertising vendors represented by AAOL include; Argistics – AutoTransaXion, EveryCarListed.Com, DealMaker.Com, CityTwist.Com, Bulldog Marketing Technologies, LeadConverter, Gumiyo, Kihon Media, CarFolks.Com, Ai Dealer, Laser Stream Video and Winked-In.Com; to name a few.

For more information on Philip Zelinger, Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., AskPatty.Com or any of the preferred automotive advertising vendors previously reviewed on WAAOL auto dealers and automotive advertising agencies should contact Philip through AdAgencyOnline.Net. Automotive advertising vendors, automotive advertising agencies and auto dealers that would like to be considered as a “preferred automotive advertising vendor” on AdAgencyOnline.Net and/or to hire/join Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. to represent them can contact Philip Zelinger at pzads@bellsouth.net, call him at 888-796-2228 or visit AdAgencyOnline.Net at http://adagencyonline.net. To quote Philip Zelinger, “Help is only a click away!” ###

AdAgencyOnline.Net is a free automotive advertising resource / networking portal that features cutting edge automotive advertising vendors on their blog talk radio station – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time. The online community of automotive advertising insiders leverages various resources on the World Wide Web to maximize the R.O.I. for site visitors. The portal is hosted by Ad Agency Online, L.L.C, a national network of independent affiliated automotive advertising agencies, production partners and select vendors that share their vision to “blur the line between the real world and the newly expanding virtual showrooms” being constructed on the Internet Super Highway.

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and host of the blog talk radio shows on WAAOL explained the shift of automotive advertising onto the Internet. “Automotive advertising professionals recognize that a shrinking economy has forced a reduction in new vehicle sales. The resulting consolidation in the auto industry to maintain profitability at these lower sales levels has not been limited to auto dealerships. Cost cutting measures for existing retail operations include reductions in inventory, staff, advertising / marketing and key vendor expenses across all departments. Unfortunately, even with all of these cuts the fixed and semi-variable expenses associated with most retail operations will still not generate a profit at current sales levels. When combined with the reduced gross profit per unit in new vehicle sales as a result of the distressed nature of the auto industry it is obvious that a new business model must be applied for auto dealers and auto industry vendors to survive.”

Internet based solutions for online car shoppers that replicate “real world” selling processes, coupled with the leveraged resources developed by a wide variety of vendor applications, have provided an answer to those that recognize that the only constant in the auto industry is change. The change that surfaced to offer a shrinking auto industry the best R.O.I. for auto dealers, and the best shopping experience for a used car buyer or a new car buyer, can be found on the World Wide Web. The brick and mortar dealership of yesterday has relinquished its hold on the shopping experience to their online showrooms where new car buyers and used car buyers have turned to get their best deal without the sales hype that drove them onto the Internet Super Highway to shop for a vehicle.

Leveraged online automotive advertising resources, including inventory based websites like EveryCarListed.Com, provide a cost effective way for auto dealers to post their inventory online. Car buyers see EveryCarListed.Com as a “one site stop” where they can get the best deal on a used car and even on a new car. The “free” listings offered to auto dealers have allowed their automotive advertising agencies to extend the online presence of their dealer clients and it represents an online inventory that dwarfs any individual auto dealer or auto dealer group. Similarly, the free listings for consumers in the site’s “For Sale By Owner” section have attracted consumers to the site who may also be looking to buy a car. As a result, EveryCarListed.Com creates a “win-win” scenario for all parties since the site often develops more sales for an auto dealership than they can generate from their own website; and it is hard to beat free.

In addition, cutting edge automotive advertising applications can now replicate real world selling processes. A new solution being offered by Argistics – AutoTransaXion – can meet and greet customers the minute that they visit an online showroom. Their live chat and proprietary two way video platform is described as a “customer interaction” tool that can complete an online transaction or it can be used to simply make an appointment after assisting the online car shopper to narrow down their search to buy a used or a new car or even schedule a service appointment.

Video applications have been developed that automatically convert all of the pictures on an auto dealer’s website into a professional video presentation creating a virtual version of a feature benefit presentation. A more comprehensive video solution is being provided by SiSTeR Technologies – Video CarLot. Their application not only places their videos onto the auto dealer’s virtual showroom and any other linked online automotive advertising site but they also can push them through their dedicated API with You Tube to the search engines to further extend the auto dealer’s foot print on the WWW.

Direct marketing applications that automatically create email and direct mail campaigns pulled from an auto dealer’s database, or a central database of opt in email addresses in the areas surrounding an auto dealership, are other examples of technology driven solutions that are part of the changing landscape of automotive advertising. CityTwist.Com offers an online “DIY” email marketing service that draws on their opt in database of local email addresses to accommodate conquest sales for auto dealerships in their local markets. Bulldog Marketing Technologies has an automated service that delivers customized email and direct mail in both sales and service to an auto dealer’s database that integrates a proprietary filter – Consumer Cleanse. The application resources third party references to determine if a customer has already purchased a vehicle to adjust the message accordingly by converting a lost sale into a service opportunity.

These changes in the way that auto dealers advertise and sell vehicles evidence the resiliency of the auto industry and they represent the future of the auto industry. For additional information on these Internet based solutions visit http://AdAgencyOnline.Net and request a free automotive advertising consultation from Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. Philip Zelinger represents many of the automotive advertising vendors featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net. Philip can be reached directly at 1-888-796-2228 or via email at pzads@bellsouth.net to discuss the automotive advertising vendors featured on the portal as well as many others pending review on WAAOL. To quote Philip, “Help is only a click away!”

Philip Zelinger, the President of a national network of independent automotive advertising agencies – Ad Agency Online, L.L.C.,(AAOL), – and the host of an online automotive advertising resource portal – http://AdAgencyOnline.Net – has advised his affiliated automotive advertising agencies, auto dealer / vendor clients and the online audience of his blog talk radio station – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time – to attend the 6^th Digital Dealer Conference scheduled April 19, 2009 through April 21, 2009 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Philip has been an invited speaker at the conference since its inception and a number of his vendor clients exhibit their products and services to the diverse group of auto industry decision makers that support the event.

AdAgencyOnline.Net is considered by many to be an online version of the real world platform for automotive advertising vendors offered by the 6^th Digital Dealer Conference. The free portal reviews automotive advertising vendors and new technologies on their site through a series of blog talk radio shows including “Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising,” the “Lunch With Ralph Discussing Automotive Advertising” show and “Automotive Advertising Experts.” AdAgencyOnline.Net attracts automotive advertising agencies, auto dealers, auto industry vendors and O.E.M. representatives that listen to WAAOL to find vendors, applications and technologies to maximize the R.O.I. for their automotive advertising dollars.

The Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising show scheduled for April 1^st 2009 is an encore presentation with Michael Roscoe, the President, founder and owner of Dealer Communications, a multi-media publishing company serving the retail automotive market. Dealer Communications publishes 2 print magazines, 6 weekly e-newsletters, 2 (soon to be 6) e-zines, and produces the bi-annual Digital Dealer Conference & Exhibition.

Philip’s seminar will be discussed during the show along with a recap of the agenda and a partial list of automotive advertising vendors that will be exhibiting at the conference. Philip’s seminar is posted at www.digitaldealerconference.com as follows:

Title: Leveraging Social Networking / Blogs And Internet Applications To Survive In The Real World.

Sub-title : Find customers on the Internet before they find you using leveraged online resources integrated with selling processes and applications linking the virtual world to the real one.

Session description: The Internet has provided problems for some and solutions for many. Learn how to leverage social networking and blogging sites – both your own as well as existing online networking communities – to build online relationships that will mature into service and sales customers in the “real world.” This session will provide solutions to common problems using cutting edge Internet based applications that will integrate your website with proven selling processes at your dealership. Conversion tools, Video applications, Online Transaction Applications and Internet driven inventory management/marketing systems will be discussed and applied in a problem/solution format.

Maximizing R.O.I. is not just an objective; it is a dictate in today’s troubled economy. The applications discussed will provide efficiencies that “blur the line between the virtual and the real world” with leveraged resources from with-in the dealership as well as outsourced services that will improve selling processes in sales and fixed operations.

Ad Agency Online L.L.C represents a growing number of new automotive advertising vendors not yet recognized by the mainstream automotive advertising industry. Most of their vendors and auto dealer clients will be attending the conference as exhibitors, speakers or attendees to listen and learn from auto industry experts that will be conducting a variety of relevant seminars focused on sharing best practices to survive in a struggling auto industry. Some of the more “cutting edge” automotive advertising vendor clients of AAOL that are also featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net as “preferred automotive advertising vendors” include; Argistics – AutoTransaXion, SiSTeR Technologies - Video CarLot, EveryCarListed.Com, DealMaker.Com, CityTwist.Com, Bulldog Marketing Technologies, LeadConverter, Gumiyo, Kihon Media, CarFolks.Com, Ai Dealer, NeoSynergy and Laser Stream Video.

The affiliated automotive advertising agencies and auto dealer / vendor clients of AAOL are suggested to visit http://adagencyonline.net to register for the 6^th Digital Dealer Conference or site visitors are invited to go directly to http://digitaldealerconference.com . Automotive advertising agencies and auto dealers or automotive advertising vendors interested in hiring AAOL or supporting AdAgencyOnline.Net are advised to visit the free networking portal or to contact Philip Zelinger directly at 1-888-796-2228 or to email him at pzads@bellsouth.net. To quote Philip Zelinger, “Help is only a click away!”