The Synthetic Warehouse AMSOIL Newsletter
Amsoil Product Marketing & Website Development Help
April, 2013
In This Issue
You need a Website and a Plan
Signing New Accounts
Making Followup Routine
Greetings!
 
This edition of my dealer newsletter features a look into a productive way to start and work your internet presence through a minimum requirement. I also intend to encourage you to test the waters of click advertising.
Just as important we look at using the various reports and account set up and ordering detail.  Please be sure to forward to your downline dealers. Please call, email anytime to further discuss. There are three sections I hope you take the time to read. Hope you enjoy!
 
Sincerely,
 

Ches Cain 
Are you reachable in the mobile world?
Website Considerations 
Working Overtime while you
Tap Into AMSOIL Sales Around The Clock

 

Many new dealers looking for ways to get the word out. When you want to market something look at two things.

 

#1 the most efficient methods to get word out about your product - some may be expensive, some may be free. Often one must take risks but most of the time your peers can help filter these choices. The best results will require more time and patience. Although I think it was awful, my first bypass-filter overview youtube video still gains me sales every month. It was worth the experiment and I had something to further improve. 

 

#2 The markets which the products you carry serve. This is where ideas for #1 come from. We just had a major ice storm which lasted for three days and not one tree in Sioux Falls went undamaged. Half the town has been without electricity since Tuesday. Think of the commercial and retail accounts who would benefit from our products. Because of my establishment, the 100:1 and Bar & Chain oil is selling well. Northern Equipment sends all their generator customers to me for oil too so the ASE 10W30 is always in proper supply.


Planting word of mouth in those markets always pay off later. One trucker recently told me the only high quality grease one can find in an emergency is through AMSOIL dealers.

 

"Hey, nice car!" - Thanks, it performs reliably thanks to AMSOIL!

 

In order to have more time and the budget to reach those local markets (listed at the bottom) why not have a website doing 50% of the work around the clock? It's not tough at all!! It just takes determination or a commitment you will never regret. Let me summarize by telling you about my AGGRAND Page which I paid someone to build, then I populated the material. Through a dozen consultations with the local web developer they made me a multipage site, which was set up so that I had control to make changes and updates. This was done in the fall of 2007. Last month I noticed among dozens of orders in the peak season a REPEAT preferred customer purchase I gained through this site from Waxahachie, TX in the amount of $12,600. I have to ask you, was the website worth it??

 

Note that none or very little of my online success came from mobile devices. VERY FEW dealers are getting aggressive in that area. It's open range.  

 

As you may know I built my AMSOIL Synthetic Warehouse site from scratch. I built it with one thing in mind - ranking high within the search engines. But there are other more fundamental considerations which can save you time and help you to start building your business significantly NOW.

 

Simple site build and proof of its success.

 

#1 - Use a common website builder tool and use the basic training tutorials.

#2 - an outline for a simple structure (basic 1 to 4 pages to get something started). Don't worry about having the best the first time, just get something up you can send people to and most of all your first site should really be one you do on your own..

#3 - knowing you can go back later and work on content, plan a low cost local adwords or pay-per click campaign. There is a way to get the most from your dollar here by quickly re-directing hits to the AMSOIL page.

When your page opens up, it should within 8 seconds do the following for the most basic site:

 

  • Professional heading or well designed logo
  • Lead the customer to what they intended to do - Learn and Buy (easy to find link to the AMSOIL store). A heading that says something like "Buy AMSOIL Products NOW" in the most prominent space.
  • Gain the trust of the prospect (Amsoil material, photo, authorization and article links)
  • Contact info for the site owner. 

 

One dealer for eight years now has ranked on the top 10 in new accounts list using a site as simple as what I mention above. Just a plain two page site but used an aggressive Google and Bing click advertising strategy.

 

I'm working right now to focus my paid listings via Google to a few regional areas for various purposes. This means several areas of the country my ads won't show up. I know where the majority of my sales come from and the majority of the clicks which I pay for which don't perform. I'm eliminating these. If I see someone hitting my ads too often and no sales - I can block that URL so they can no longer be a drain on my wallet. There are so many efficient ways to increase site performance using the pay per clicks. A lot of people don't like them but they do work!

 

I should mention that I have seen many well built and informative sites but you never saw the dealer make direct jobber because the main menu or "Product" links were buried within a monstrous heading or none at all. The simplest site must know the customers attitude. That is "I just want to buy, what is this site? Ahh - click, now I'm at AMSOIL. 99% of the customers who land on my site could care less of what I have to say. By business doubled when I made the first image and menu tabs in my "Buy" page go right to AMSOIL's site. The other 1% I drove in from Dealer ads not intended for sales.  

 

Here is one of our dealers in Tennessee who uses this simple format:
http://www.realsyntheticoil.com/ 

Here's another dealer in the group who built a site in a couple of evenings:
http://motorcycle-octane-boost.com/ (Ranks #2 naturally when looking for Amsoil motorcycle octane boost as well!)

He used this to build and host: http://www.1and1.com/?kwk=19368776 

 

The one who ranks in the top 10 for all those years in new accounts:
http://www.pao-oils.com/index.html - It does pack in the customers through click-throughs but I think he relies on it as they do very little to zero with customer and dealer retention. After expenses it's worth at least $4000 to $5000 per month. Is it worth the time to build a site like that?

 

Now, if you are really determined to work AMSOIL full time and want to be in the top 20 dealers my best suggestion is to first invest in top tier website development software, then enroll in a website development course. Another way is online. I found several "Introduction to Dreamweaver Online Courses" you can take for little money. Of course you will want to have a 3rd party book on the software too but it works and will make you an impressive income if you plan well.    

 

Hand this prospect your card and a tube of grease - He'll thank you and call you back.

 

The last note on development - I can look at 200 Amsoil websites and can find serious fault or something overlooked on 197 of them. Mostly that's regarding missing HTML text which search engines pick up or very poor keyword/title balance. But with a simple 1 to 4 page site mentioned above with a smart pay per click campaign you can override what most don't know.  

 

So I'm here to help you consider the options and I can even provide you with a wealth of keywords via spreadsheet to get your pay per click campaign going.

 

A web presence is key as your first step to make AMSOIL a household name in your area.

 

 

 

 

Signing New Accounts & Processing Orders

Here's some help on a subject I get a lot of questions about. First, if you have an account which will qualify as a Commercial Account (End user of product or Farm), or a Retail on the shelf Account (Re-seller of AMSOIL products) it's best to sign them up right away so you can lock it up under your dealership and avoid just selling direct or through a PC account. The commission and cash commission is many times higher than when you sell direct. You can sell to them from your inventory but be sure to replenish your supply as I do with a "Group Shipment". When I make my inventory order I also separate what my accounts took away as a separate order using their account number which is stacked on to my pallet so my shipping rate remains the best.

Now, if you have an account which you cannot deliver to, you need to know they do get different rates. Also commercial accounts accrue purchase discounts over a 12 month period. Retail and commercial accounts both get 1/2 rate or free shipping depending on the totals. This is a good incentive for AGGRAND buyers. Also under $1000 order you should consider putting together or suggesting your receiver use freight collect - not AMSOIL's shipper.

The above is all summarized among these three ordering sheets - just know they are there in the dealer zone under "Business Tools - Literature - Price Lists".

Here they are as well for your convenience:

Retail Ordering & Shipping

Commercial Ordering & Shipping

Dealer Ordering & Shipping (I've memorized this one but the shipping rates hang on my screen so I can quote totals in seconds)

As for signing up new accounts, this can now be done online. No charge to the account, you should review the forms online so you know what is required. You need to have the sales tax forms ready if this is a farm (aggrand) or for resale in their business. Include their account number on the sales tax form, have them sign it then fax or email it back.
If all is done correctly you can have the account number back within 24 hours. You pay $6 which covers the mailing of material to the account such as price list, etc. I order extra g-3500 price list to send to them or hand to them immediately. I am never without a stack of 10 or so price lists.


Are your AMSOIL customers this happy?
Grow - Follow-up; Grow and then Follow up! 

All of the top 200 dealers have one thing in common. They have a balanced business. Each one of them may have a totally different way at growing and retaining. They sell product direct, they have at least a handful of various accounts under commercial and retail, they are not only adding PC's but they are keeping up with them and they place a high level of importance into dealer training, sharing ideas (Local meeting, phone conferences, youtube training videos, Facebook page or newsletter) and they started doing something when they identified that they wanted their business to work.

 

The key is being aware of your true active customer base and exploring ways to keep them active!!

If you don't know you have them, you'll fail!

 

I wanted to mention this because last week one dealer who expressed he didn't want to pay the fee for the Premium zone ($10) then later discovered there were a number of customers and PC he didn't know about. And another recently found a new dealer in his group he didn't know about. A long time dealer who I know doesn't read these newsletters has completely ignored his downline so I try to keep it alive and they now call me for help. He signed up 20 or so dealers and has one aggressive dealer who is now really taking off. I have sort of stepped in and enjoy chatting with him but the others in this particular group are dropping off which is expected.

 

If you don't at least make some attempt to send a hello or thank you to these accounts, PC or Dealers they will go away. But it's a business so you'll only get out what you put into it. Well I should say thanks to AMSOIL's quality, I've been lucky. I have one commercial account in North Carolina who buys $700 to $2500 consistently every month since 2002. It happens to be a large air conditioning maintenance company and I sort of got lazy on that one..  

 

Thanks to the Excel "Label" reports (Premium Dealer Zone) I was just able to single out all my Aggrand "CR" (Catalog or Online Retail) customers from last year and send a special offer of a cash rebate for their next online order. I have others sorted from that spreadsheet grouped by AMSOIL product category so for example I can remind my customers in our region about a shipping offer and reference material, my Bypass customers about a filter offer or diesel oil upgrade, etc.. Many of these are online customers which I have never spoken to but searched their ordering history via the reports. I did one on the MPHD and subsequently saw the sale of Metal Protector increase. It works!!

 

You need to recognize for example any preferred customers who should be locked in as commercial or retail accounts. This will not only save the account some money with better shipping rates and accrued purchase discounts, but your earnings also increase. I just found two yesterday. The call alone will be worth it. Who doesn't mind saving money??

 

Your go-getter prospects or those dealers you signed up which you were sure would become your star player, discussions with veteran direct jobbers seem to show the one issue which separates their level of success is whether or not they saw this as a $500,000 business as a $30 business. Are you sharing with them the possibilities? Do you lead by example? And that's my job - to convey to you all the possibilities and show you the window of opportunity. There's a BIG effort out there and from my seat I do see AMSOIL becoming a household name!

Ches Cain
Amsoil Direct Jobber
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