Ep. 671 - The Secret Car Sales Strategy Your Competitors Don't Know About
We’re throwing it back to one of the most practical and actionable episodes of MC on the Mic—and for good reason. This strategy is so simple, it almost feels too good to be true. But it's exactly the kind of innovative (not inventive) move that the top 1% in sales and service swear by.
In this solo episode, I break down a three-step framework that anyone—yes, even if you're not in sales—can use to stand out, build trust, and dominate your market. No budget increase, no fancy tools, no permission slips needed. Just your brain, your phone, and about 10 minutes a day.
Here’s what we cover:
Why innovation isn’t about inventing something new, and what that really means for your career
A Facebook groups strategy so human and so obvious, your competitors will never think to use it
The step-by-step for becoming the go-to person in your community, even if you’ve never posted online before
How to create real-world value in an industry that often gets stuck in the "sell, sell, sell" loop
And hey, I get it. Everyone wants the secret sauce. We want the next big hack. But sometimes, the most powerful move isn’t in a webinar or paid ad—it’s in showing up where people already are and being genuinely helpful.
So, if you’ve ever found yourself saying, “How do I get more leads without throwing more money at ads?”—this episode is your answer.
Episode Brought To You By FlexDealer
Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.
Watch The Full Episode
Prefer to watch episodes? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and turn on notifications to get full access to our content.
Episode Transcript
MC: 0:00
(Episode Sponsor)This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
All right, gang, on this episode of MC on the Mic, I'm going to share one of my favorite strategies that's going to blow the lid off of your sales and service business. Stay tuned, okay. So I I'm gonna get to it and I'm gonna lay this out in a way that that is super clear. You're gonna be like, really, cerullo, it's that easy, I promise you. What I'm about to share with you today is that easy.
MC: 0:39
Um, you know, recently we had my man, char Charles Cannon, on the show, and this guy is a juggernaut when it comes to just personal branding and laying a footprint on the community with which he works in to the degree that I don't think anybody in his sphere of influence think about anybody else when it comes to buying or servicing a vehicle, and I think that's kind of the golden nest egg, if you will. We've all kind of coveted being in a position like that, where we are the go-to, where we are the resource, and I think oftentimes, as we do, our human nature always kicks in. We ruin everything, we make it more complicated than it needs to be, and I think that's what excites me about this. I don't know if it's human nature or if I'm just revealing something about myself that I like easy and simple, but what I'm going to share with you today is an inside look, my top three tips that I could share with you that guys like Charles Cannon and Ali Rita and Frank Crenniti and some of these really top performers use as part of their tool chest to absolutely crush their sales and service goals. Now you're probably saying, well, cirilla, why do you keep saying service on the end? I thought this was for car sales people. No fact, this works for every department, for every individual. If you have a brain and a heart and air in your lungs, what I'm going to share with you to dominate today will work All right. So here it goes. I'm just going to lay it out because I love just getting to the point, but I want to start with this.
MC: 2:20
Sometimes, I think in our industry, we misunderstand simple and basic words. For example, you remember the disruption phase we went through? Oh my gosh, disruption. And as I listened to the arguments around this concept of disruption because it was the buzzword we latched onto what I realized is that we were talking about disruption as if it was interruption, not the actual thesis of disruptive innovation, as authored by Clayton Christensen, and it got me thinking. Well, if we're talking about this word wrong, what else are we talking about wrong? And I know if you've been to a webinar or a conference or a seminar, you've probably heard the word innovation.
MC: 3:04
Companies like Uber and Airbnb are brought up and discussed. Look at them they have a billion-dollar business and they don't own a single vehicle. We've all heard things like that, but as I listened to the way people talk about and or perceive innovation, something became clear to me, and it's that we are understanding it to mean invention. We talk about Uber and Airbnb and the likes of those types of companies like they invented something, and so I want to get clear, because what I'm going to share with you today, I believe, is innovative in its truest sense, and it's so simple. It's unbelievable almost. But to get there, I need to share with you why I believe Uber didn't invent anything. In fact, they innovated.
MC: 3:56
First and foremost, innovation is the assembly of tools and resources that already exist, packaged together in a new and fresh process or a workflow. Well, when you look at invention, this idea of net new creation, I think there's so many people in our industry that are like I'm never going to be able to innovate because everything already exists. This is a good thing that everything already exists. Pat yourself on the back the hardest part of the equation already exists, um. But we get discouraged because we think, well, I'm never going to be able to invent anything. But no, invention is the creation of a net, new concept or thing or product or whatever, taking things that already exist, packaging them in a new and a fresh workflow. So when you look at Uber, what did Uber invent? They didn't invent smartphones. They didn't invent the internet. They didn't invent mobile apps. They did not invent payment processing. They didn't invent ride sharing. They didn't invent automobiles. They sure as heck didn't invent people. What they did do is they assembled all of these existing elements into a fresh and new workflow that was easier, that had less friction, that was easy to understand and, in so doing, not only created a multi-billion dollar company that doesn't own vehicles, but had a happy side effect in which they created a new economy. They were able to put people to work, also utilizing something that most people already have a vehicle and I think that's so fascinating.
MC: 5:48
Well, now you're probably saying, cirillo, get to the point. Well, here's what I want to share with you. What do we know about our industry and our role in the industry? We know we want to grow. We know that we're trying to find things that our competitors are not doing. We're always looking for that competitive advantage. We know that we're trying to find things that our competitors are not doing. We're always looking for that competitive advantage. We're always trying to get a leg up, and we're always wondering well, how much more do I have to spend on Google ads in order to bring this to life? And that's where I want to go slam the brakes. You don't need to spend more on your Google ads. What you do need to do is take action that I'm going to refer to as hand-to-hand combat. If you will Just follow me here for a second and this brings me to the first step when you come in in the morning, I want you to really audit what you do with your time.
MC: 6:41
Do you sit down at your desk? I want you to really audit what you do with your time. Do you sit down at your desk? Do you doom scroll for a few minutes? You go to the coffee machine, you get your cup of coffee, you sit down. You kind of wait for your morning meeting if you're doing that, or a training meeting if you're doing that, and you just kind of you know, huddle with the dudes, grab a smoke, whatever it might be. If you pay attention to how you're utilizing your time, you realize there's actually way more time to do what I'm about to share with you than you might think.
MC: 7:12
So what I would recommend is the first thing that you do when you get in in the morning, over your morning cup of coffee, is go to Facebook, facebookcom, or open the app on your phone. Then you're going to click on the search bar and you're going to type in the name of your city and your state. So for me, I'm near Dallas, texas, so I would write Dallas Texas, I would type in Dallas Texas and I'm going to click enter. What you'll notice along the left-hand side of your screen, if you're on desktop, is, you know, different filters, pages, people, et cetera, et cetera, events, and down near the bottom you'll see groups. Some of you might already know where I'm going with this, so click on groups and what I guarantee you're going to find are dozens and I mean dozens, if not multiples of dozens that's called hundreds, cirillo of groups relevant to your community and if you're like me, what you'll see is groups with 30,000 people, groups with 12,000 people, groups with 500 people, and it'll show you how many posts per day on average are happening in that group. So let's just say I'm going to go to a fringe case for just a second, because they tend to not get a lot of love.
MC: 8:39
You're an RV dealer and you're located in Dallas, texas. Go and search for Texas RVs and go to groups. You're going to see dallas, texas rv enthusiasts. You're going to see go rv in texas. You're going to see things like discover texas, go rving all these sorts of things. Well, what's my point? You are discovering communities of people who are having active conversations about your niche or niche depending, depending on where you're located and you're gonna see how many posts per day are happening there.
MC: 9:20
The next part of this strategy, once you've discovered some groups that stand out to you, is you're gonna join them, join these groups and over your morning cup of coffee, you're going to scroll through the posts and you're going to scroll through the posts and you're going to leave meaningful conversation, continuing level comments on the things other people post. What you will not do is go hot into the group and be like hey, everybody, I'm Michael, I'm a salesperson at ABC Motors and I'm going to be your best resource for buying. That's how you get kicked out of the group. What you're going to do and stick with me here because I'll explain the simple brilliance of this strategy in a minute. You're going to just engage like a real human being on somebody else's content. Hey, does your marketing agency suck? Listen, before we hop back into this episode. I know you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook, but did you also know that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO and hyper-targeted ads that convert? So if you want to sell more cars and finally have a partner that's in it with you that doesn't suck, visit FlexDealercom.
MC: 10:34
Let's hop back into this episode. Why this is so powerful? A most people are not accustomed to having other people engage on their stuff. Okay, that's the first reason why this is brilliant, because if you are the one that engages on somebody else's post, you have immediately unlocked the law of reciprocity, the law of the universe in which you give something of value and get something of equal or greater value in return. In this scenario, you have given something of precious value to somebody else your attention and in return they will give you something of precious value to them their attention Guaranteed.
MC: 11:21
They're going to come and they're going to be like wait a minute, who's this guy? I don't know this guy. And they're going to, first of all, probably reply to your comment, especially if you made it thought provoking or meaningful or asked them a question in return. The same way, you would have a conversation in real life. Then they're going to go and click on your profile and see what you're all about. This is kind of subsection step 2A, where I would say make sure your profile is legit, like good bio, good presence where you work. Most people on Facebook don't put the company they work at. Make sure all that stuff is filled out. So when they come to your profile which they inevitably will they get an understanding of who you are. And now, all of a sudden, you are on somebody's radar that you were not on the radar of before. You have made your presence known. Well, imagine how that multiplies very simply over your morning cup of coffee or your morning lemonade or whatever you drink in the morning, by simply going through and leaving comments and engaging in conversation with people who live in your community, in your city, in your town, in your metro, whatever.
MC: 12:40
The second reason why this strategy works is because it eliminates the negative stigma associated with the car business. Everybody thinks that we just come in hot and loaded every time we do something that all we know how to do is talk about selling cars and moving metal or servicing cars. But, holy crap, there's such a huge opportunity here to join automotive repair groups If you're a technician or a service manager or a parts enthusiast or just a general car enthusiast. To join car enthusiast groups. To join in conversations to share value, because you know, in these groups people are. To join in conversations to share value Because you know, in these groups, people are going to be posting like hey, there's a weird knocking sound coming from my rear three-quarter panel on my 2019 whatever expedition. You can pop in and you can be like hey, I've seen that a lot. I'm actually a technician over at ABC Ford and that can be one of two or three things. If you want to learn more, feel free to DM me or you can ask me here in the comments. I'd be happy to answer and help you out as best as I can.
MC: 13:46
How does that eliminate the negative stigma? Because now you're just being genuinely human, you're offering value, you're engaging in normal, everyday conversations and you might be saying, well, hold on a Cirillo. So let's just say I joined the Castle Guard British Columbia Facebook group and the only thing people want to talk about is local politics or the pothole on 17th Street. Be, be a human, engage, Don't. Don't really get into the politics, I would say, but the pothole, be all over that pothole. Hey, yeah, I found that potholes getting bigger and bigger by the day. You know what I do now and it actually saves me five minutes on my commute I go down to 12th street, hang a left on Broadway and then I hit the main drag. From there People are going to be like, oh well, that's actually a good idea, thanks, and you'll be like, hey, no problem. Then you come back tomorrow and you see what people are posting and you follow the same process.
MC: 14:50
If you're sitting there saying, well, I don't know how to have conversations with people, get the balls out of sales, do yourself a favor. You can see. I look to the side here to see how Joe and Arnold took that advice. Like are they smiling? I work for Joe. My producer's approval always, but it's kind of true, right Like controversial opinion of the day. If you don't know how to have a conversation of people, are you good at math? Go be an accountant, I don't know. Do something where you don't have to have conversations. But if you're in a position where you need to talk to people every day, converse, engage. These are real people in your community. This is not pie in the sky. Followers on TikTok who don't live in the same country. Half the time I wonder if they live in the same universe as us. These are real people in either an enthusiast group ie community or your physical location community. Get to know them.
MC: 16:00
The third reason why this is brilliant, and this might go without saying your competitors will never, ever in a million years, think to do this. How do we know? First way, we know they would have already done it by now. Facebook's what? 20 something years old? They'd be doing it already. They'd be all over these Facebook groups. Heck, they probably would have started their own groups.
MC: 16:27
I wouldn't recommend that at this point. I would recommend getting in on groups that are already active, are already established. You'll feel less discouraged, but they'd be doing it by now. They'd be in these groups, they'd be engaging. They're not doing it. Your competitor down the street that you think is completely dominating. They're never going to think to do this. They're never going to think outside of the 30-day cycle of but. But how does that sell me more cars? That's where their brain's going to go. They're going to get all philosophical about it. What you're realizing is, for every one person that I have a conversation with, 10 others will. At least 10 others will see the conversation happening and not engage yet. Least ten others will see the conversation happening and not engage yet. Or they will engage, in which case now, multiples of people now know you exist. Now click through to your profile to see what you're all about and now know you are a proud ambassador for the dealership you work at that you make a living at um.
MC: 17:32
This is such powerful hand-to-hand I call it hand-to-hand combat but it's human to human and we often overlook this because maybe we're looking for the easy way out, maybe it's easier to spend all of our net profit earnings on more ads to get more traffic, but there's acres of diet b. Brian Benstock, who's been on the show as well, powerful operator says there's acres of diamonds in your own backyard. And that's what I think is so brilliantly simple about this strategy. The people are already there. Facebook is already there, facebook groups already exist, your store already exists, the internet already exists, your smartphone already exists.
MC: 18:16
And you are now an innovator because you are following through on a process or a workflow that will help you dominate, build deeper relationships with real people in your community who are going to buy a car sometime or another, who are going to need service sometime or another. And now you have just firmly planted your feet, or you're planted your stake in the ground, saying I exist here. There is a real soul here. You can trust me, I'm a real cool guy. By the way, I didn't know our kids play on the same softball team and, oh, I didn't know we go to the same school. And now I put a face to the name when I go to the kids Christmas concert or Thanksgiving play or whatever it might be. Real connections with real people, in a way that your competitors will never do it.
MC: 19:05
Now, the last thing I want to leave you with I think this is part three, or this is step number three. Do that for 30 days. Do not talk about what you with I think this is part three, or this is step number three Do that for 30 days. Do not talk about what you do. Do not say you are a car salesperson. Do not do any of that, not because we're trying to be deceiving, simply because I want to throttle what I believe is your carnal appetite to make money and to not know how to do it in any other way, but saying you know, like the wacky, wavy, inflatable, flailing arm tube guy, but after 30 days of engaging and having built some relationships, you're going to pop onto this bad boy, your smartphone, and you're going to open your video app, your camera app, and you're going to open your video app, your camera app, and you're going to film a simple video to finally formally introduce yourself to this group. Hey, everybody just wanted to hop in here. I've had so much fun getting to know some of you in this group. It's cool to see how connected actually we all are.
MC: 20:07
For those of you that don't know me, my name is Michael Cirillo. I work at ABC Motors up in location. I really love what I do. I love being a member of this community. We've lived here for five years, my wife and my kids. We go to school here. I coach part-time for the kids you know softball league or whatever it might be, and I just wanted to say hey and just introduce myself. If you're in this group and maybe you're sitting on the sidelines and you'd like to introduce yourself too, leave a video comment, and if you don't, that's totally cool as well.
MC: 20:38
Look forward to continuing to engage with you guys. It's been fun Post. Watch what happens. Watch what happens. It might be a week from now, or two or six. You're gonna you're gonna start getting DMS from people.
MC: 20:57
Hey, I saw your post a little while back and you were doing a workshop at your dealership about. You know mechanics and are you doing that again? Or hey, my sister and brother-in-law are looking for a vehicle and I was curious if, if you could help them out. Or hey, I'm a local business owner and I think it's so cool what you do. We should collaborate. You're going to get a lot of that kind of stuff, because that's just human nature. That's what we all desire. And, on the back of the pandemic, I can't believe I've even uttered that word. The one thing that shines through from that experience is how deeply and how innate a desire it is for us to connect human to human, how much desire there is for us to actually look somebody in the eye and shake their hand and get to know them. We are designed to connect and in this way you've now become an innovator.
MC: 21:56
Let me recap the strategy Facebook groups find a group, join group, engage with people in a real, human-like way on their posts, their posts, their posts, their posts for 30 days and after 30 days, do a video introduction and continue to engage in this group. Be helpful, be conversational and I promise you people will turn to you as the go to expert in your market for all things car buying and car servicing. All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode of MC on the Mic. I'm trying to make them as practical and tangible as possible. And, gosh, it does not get any simpler than joining a Facebook group. It's available for you right now.
MC: 22:41
Listen, if you're deploying this strategy, I want to hear from you, ask me your questions. You can hit me up on all of the socials and on YouTube. Leave me comments, send me emailsael at the dealerplaybookcom. I would love to hear from you. We're here to help. Until next time, keep that playbook open and dominate.
(Outro) Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new Dealer Playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.
