Dear Roger::
You believe you have a good product, and state that your proposition is
"We can help them gain more from their investment without having to spend
large sums of money on system upgrades." While this is a benefit, is it a
benefit that motivates your buyers? It's important to look at the world
through your potential customers' eyes: What motivates them? What are their
concerns? Their fears? When you know the answers to these questions, you will
know your approach.
How do you get the answers? You conduct a survey of your market. You can do
this by phone or mail (consider offering an incentive to get better response).
Then your pitch becomes how your service will solve their problems, how to
combat their fears.
And when you're doing this survey, find out what trade publications your
customers read regularly (these will be automotive-related, not
technology-related). Choose the one most often read by your clients and work
to get a feature story in that publication for your product. If you're
fortunate enough to get the story, have reprints of it made and send them to
your potential customers with a letter, and let them know you'll be following
up by phone call to request a meeting. (And do so.)
And because, as you say, most of these dealers "will never have heard
of us, and may not even consider using the expertise that we have," you
may want to get your foot in the door by offering the dealers a free service
that they will appreciate. Once they see that you are a quality team, they
will be more receptive to your ideas for improving their business systems.
Best wishes, Roger. Let us know how it goes.
About the PowerHomeBiz.com Guide:
Yvonne Buchanan is a
20-year veteran of public relations, marketing and advertising. She teaches
public relations courses online for career changers, freelancers and students
through The PR Academy