Depending on the part of the country you are from the title may look nonsensical. I got caught in the trap over the last few weeks of working with some of the tools that I have recently acquired to optimize their use. The short term effect on internet sales was negative. The long term benefits will far outweigh the business that may have been missed during that period. I really don’t think it was missed business as much of lack of concentration in areas that generates leads.

I had turned off PPC campaigns, not worked sites such as craigslist and updating inventory comments to their fullest while optimizing a lead management system. This task was/is a huge task when the system that was in place had not been monitored or optimized in the past. I found over 1,000 leads sitting in our LMCC that had not been contacted ever! This is a huge waste of a resource that the dealership was not even aware that was available to them.

So for the last two week I have been working on work flows, email series and working customers. The short term benefits were low. The long term benefits will pay off in spades. Needless to say it generated some concern from management that the internet department was not doing its job as well as it could have been, because internet sales were slow for two weeks in the middle of the month and I was spending a lot of time on my machine.

After taking the time to explain the process and the net effect for future business it was like a light bulb went off with my boss. The comment I received was your “Gettin’ ready to get ready and you just keep getting ready”. Unfortunately I feel that this process is something that I must personally perform and the net short term effect is negative while the 60-90 day outcome will be highly positive.

After returning to the automotive industry after a nine year absence and taking a position as an ISM you forget about the the car mentality of what have you done for me today from management. As an online affiliate marketer I know that online projects can take up to 90 days to be fully optimized to generate maximum revenue. For example I am putting together properties for Christmas ‘07 for maximum return during that period, when I am not working, the good thing is I have my spouse to help me with product research.

In retrospect I do think they are “Gettin’ It” at the dealership and the support has been there. That coupled with a strong close has generated a lot of support from upper management.

If you have a “product” that you think can help and feel that is the perfect answer for me based on this post please read the about tab. Any links dropped pitching a product in comments will be deleted.