Getting motivated to make a difference

One thing that always seems to happen after a great conference is I get motivated to do something bigger than the norm. I think it would be safe to say that the Driving Sales Executive Summit created some serious motivation for everyone that was there. The event that the DrivingSales team put together was top notch and the speakers still have me motivated even 4 months later.

Taking projects off the shelf

We all have projects that we are working on all the time. All too often the really important ones get shelved or slowed for the squeaky wheels that roll in front of us. Well, just like everyone I have a few of those projects that have been in the works for some time. One in particular that is very important to me is a highbred of an undertaking started about 5 years ago right before the economy took a dive. Needless to say it wasn’t successful at the time.

The original project was for regional automotive sites that were marketed by radio stations. We called it Regional Autos and had several markets like; Autos In Southern Maine and Autos In Iowa

After not being a big hit the first time around I spent a lot of time evaluating how the formula could be “fixed”. One reason for the failure of course is that radio takes a great deal of time for branding a web address all by itself. More than this though, consumers need to have a good reason to submit a lead on a site other than a dealer’s. Let’s face it, the “big” 3rd party sites have built a name and trust over time and they even have a tough time generating email leads. So to make the regional concept work there had to be a reason for potential car buyers to choose our sites over any others.

Creating a good reason to buy a car online

Almost two years ago my wife pointed out a guy on Facebook by the name of Brian Williams. He was going barefoot in Reno everywhere he went to raise money and documenting it online. The fund raising was to pay for his travel expenses to Kenya where he was going to deliver shoes to orphans. In addition to keeping tabs on his barefoot adventure and contributing a little to the cause, I read his blog and watched some of his videos. The shoes all came from middle school and high school students. See video below.

It turns out that Brian has a plan, and a good one at that. Through his non-profit organization called Think Kindness he teaches kids how to give back.  He travels around the country and speaks at school assemblies, motivating the students to raise awareness and give back to their communities and to the world. He then teaches them how to organize committees to achieve some pretty lofty goals. Some schools have raised over 12,000 pairs of shoes in a two week period.  By the way the art of Thinking Kindness is not just for kids .

I got to thinking what a great fit this would be for the car industry. Car dealers have been giving back to their communities from the beginning of time, but never seem to get the credit where it is due. This is because if you raise your hand and tell everyone what you did, it looses it’s sincerity (’cause your a car guy). I am not suggesting that your philanthropy should be put on a billboard as it is of course good to give even when nobody knows about it. It’s just that I also believe in win win, and if you give to a worthy cause and that cause has the ability to tell the world then you both win.

Also by championing a cause like Think Kindness you are letting the social networking world know that there is more to your dealership than just selling cars. Besides, it’s a great story to tell on your Facebook page and in your Twitter stream.

So back to my little project

What if we built the regional sites again with an emphasis on Think Kindness and local communities? e.g. person submits a lead form, buys a car and $100.00 goes to Think Kindness. Then once a year (or more) Think Kindness creates challenges for the local schools to give back to their communities and the World at large. This is as win win win as it gets; dealer sales cars, kids learn to give back (and teach us old folk to do the same). Think Kindness generates money to help local communities and people around the World etc., etc. etc.

This Years Global Act of Kindness

The last few years have been dedicated to raising shoes, but this year the focus is shifting to water. There are people all over the World that don’t have clean drinking water and Think Kindness is working to make a difference by raising money for life straws. If you are interested in getting more information on this please go to the Think Kindness site at http://thinkkindness.org. You can also see the video documentary of Think Kindness’ first trip to Kenya to give away shoes which is very inspiring.

Currently all the dealerships on Autos In Reno have committed to donating $100.00 for each sold used car in Reno and each new car in Reno so we are on our way.  By the way, we have about 20 sites around the country that have been up for over 5 years and are ready to start creating Kindness. If you are interested, please contact us on DealerTrend.com.

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