Cars have been my passion since I could walk. I sold my first car at 16 years old and have since moved thousands of cars over the last 30 years. My background is extensive: I’m a former General Manager and was the youngest corporate manager in Carmax history. Way back in 2004, my focus shifted to internet retail back when there was no protocol or playbook for eCommerce. As a very early adopter of digital marketing, I’ve have created a niche in the specialty and exotic market. I credit my success to ONE particular marketing medium: 
SOCIAL MEDIA.

The formula for success is easier than you may think. I think the human element has been discounted far too much in our industry, and I intend to teach the professionals in this business how to create new opportunities while showcasing the qualities that have made them successful over their careers. 

What's unique about me is that I'm not a content creator trying to teach sales, I am a successful sales manager that has embraced social media. This is some of the most effective sales training you can find today.

MY STORY

I'm a happily married father who resides in the Chicago suburbs with two teenage daughters that keep me very busy. When I have time, my hobbies are mostly car related and I love to participate in our car community here in Chicago.  Growing up I was not blessed with a wealthy family but still had an inexplicable obsession with cars. 

When I sold my first car back in 1995, I learned more in that day than I ever bargained for. I was a porter at Packey Webb Ford in Wheaton, IL., a large volume dealership and they had a big promotion going on that weekend. I was washing cars at 9am when the owner approached to ask if I wanted to help out the sales team on a busy Saturday. I gave an enthusiast "YES!".

I ran back home and changed into the same clothing I wore to my 8th grade confirmation and rode the bench til I was needed. Finally had my first customer, a lovely woman looking for a new Ford Explorer. Being the car geek that I am, I presented the car in its entirety and went for a very nice test drive. Once we came back, I had no clue what to do as I had never worked in sales before. I asked her what she wanted to do next and she said “I found the one I want, I’d like to buy this one.”

Somewhat nervously I walked in the building, headed to the owner’s office and told him “I think I sold a car” - he was skeptical but said "Let’s go talk to her."

We walked out, welcomed my new customer and she reiterated that she was buying the Explorer. The boss was still in disbelief. He whispered to me “Did you talk any numbers?” My obvious answer was no. Made a deal at list price, Boss brought the entire sales team into his office to scold them - "The kid is outselling you idiots!"  

He even had the lowest performing salesman handle the entire transaction for me as a lesson and sent me back out on the sales floor. 

Next handshake that afternoon was a young man looking for a new Ford Mustang GT. I enthusiastically presented the car from top to bottom, took a responsible test drive which resulted in a credit application - the first of my career. I watched as our F&I team worked the deal with a few banks as this buyer was young and a little light on credit. He finally got an approval and that was the second set of tail lights I saw that day. I wasn't 18 years old yet so this was my first exposure to what credit actually was. It was truly an educational day.

SOLD TWO CARS ON MY FIRST DAY

At the end of the day, I was in shock. I had sold two cars and avoided the negotiation phase - which was the only step that I was scared of (as we ALL were as greenpeas). Couldn’t figure it out but thought it was just luck. 

After reflecting on the transactions, I knew one thing: I SOLD the product. I presented the car in its best possible light and built value in the design, benefits and features and made the customer WANT to buy the car. 

THAT IS SALES.  Enthusiam and passion go a long way. I feel we have lost a lot of that intrigue and excitement when people set foot in a car dealership today. I’ve trained my teams to function with that specific attitude - price doesn’t matter. When you BUILD VALUE that exceeds the customer’s perceived value, you cultivate a sale and the best chance at retaining a decent profit margin. 

CARMAX DAYS

After college I was recruited into the Carmax purchasing management program. Once I was promoted to my management role at 23 years old, I was the youngest corporate manager in Carmax history . Not sharing this to flex...just to illustrate the saturation of my exposure at a young age. I was on a plane twice a week to buy cars for the entire corporation coast-to-coast. I could spend over a $1M in a morning and get back on the plane to do it again the next day. I’ve actually purchased over 100 cars in a single day - I look back on that and it blows my mind. I have to hand it to Carmax, they are a solid organization that practices everything that they preach. The customer always comes first. Really enjoyed my time there - I considered my time there as “car college”. Not the best compensation but it was worth the education in four years I was there. Carmax is a unique organization and their product definitely isn't for everyone, but I'm thankful for the Carmax experience.

FIRST STEP INTO INTERNET SALES

In 2004, I left Carmax to join a successful Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo dealer group in downtown Chicago and started what became a leading internet sales organization as their very first Internet Sales Manager. We were aiming to create business that didn’t exist prior. Stayed innovative. Google approacted me to join AdWords as a beta user and we subsequently dominated the entire region in short order - much to the frustration of our competitors. I was acually reprimanded by Jaguar for being the top advertiser in the region, outranking nearly every dealership on the internet in their own backyards. The owners didn’t appreciate the reprimand and were somewhat upset with me…I turned the tables and said “All that means is that we are better at what we do than they are.” Being so new to the internet, I had to explain to the owner how we had outranked everyone and the only thing Jaguar needs to hear is “Tough shit, tell everyone else to do a better job.” His frustration turned into a moment of sincere pride. He gladly called Jaguar and educated them. A win indeed.

THE FIRST SOCIAL MEDIA VICTORY

At the beginning of 2007, I joined Lamborghini Chicago/Fox Valley Motorcars as the eCommerce director. While my time there was somewhat short, I had a lot of success there and created my FIRST video to sell a Lamborghini Diablo. I had a buyer in Texas that loved the car but said he needed to drive the car to see the clutch actuation before he bought it - but he had no time to get to Chicago. Thinking "How can I overcome that one?", I pitched the idea to him that I might be able to take the car for a ride and demonstrate the clutch on video then send him a link. “Can’t hurt” he replied.

Grabbed the Diablo keys and my man Ed was armed with a camera. Here goes nothing! Took the car for a quick easy drive, did my first YouTube upload and sent the link.

My buyer from San Antonio called me minutes later and said that’s what he needed to see and was satisfied so we made the deal on what was a $300,000 car at the time, sight unseen. I was able to close the deal by creatively figuring out how to get past his objection with technology - I knew there was something there. After selling a handful more cars through the use of Social Media I knew we had something special that very few had explored in our industry.

In December 2007, I was part of a team that created “Chicago Cars Direct”. CCD started as a team of four guys in a small shared warehouse with another dealer friend. We gravitated toward my videos to sell cars and grew very fast - today there is a catalog of my videos that truly became my signature. See the entire collection at www.youtube.com/chicagocarsdirect

In 2011, I was recruited by Chicago Motor Cars to build a digital infrastructure and streamline the digital sales process. We had a one-year agreement and I really enjoyed my time working with the best sport and exotic cars around. 

Before my time at Chicago Motor Cars ended, I was offered a position to manage an archaic dealer group and rehabbed them back to the #1 new car dealer for the manufacturer in the midwest month after month. As a dealer group we built a new, open-point European dealership where I served as General Manager and oversaw the final construction of our $10M facility. I had the luxury of hiring every employee prior to us opening and had them all trained to my expectations. We were the #1 dealer in the zone within 3 months of opening.  While I was definitely successful in the new car business I'll admit new car experience not my favorite - not my passion. After 5 years I came to the conclusion that that I did not want to manage new car business anymore and parted ways to get back to the part of the business that I love.

THE GAME PLAN

In 2018, I gladly made my way back to Chicago Motor Cars, this time as a Sales Manager and Director of Business Development. The focus of Business Develoment is to “find more opportunities and figure out how to convert more of them”. They had been functioning with the same exact setup I had left them with nearly 6 years prior. Business was slipping for them but we turned it around in 18 months to become one of the most powerful sports, luxury and exotic dealers in the country. I am very proud of that. We became a leader on retail auction sites as well, such as Bring A Trailer and Cars & Bids.

Under my direction, we started over with all of our technology. Fired our CRM company, website company, inventory hosts, and renegotiated all of our third-party contracts. With a blank slate, I used all the tools in my box to put together a well-oiled infrastructure. We added new processes and implemented sales training and performance standards. All of these changes took Chicago Motor Cars from being an respected retailer of great cars to a true world-class organization. In my time there, I have cultivated a clientele that includes famous athletes, rock stars and titans of industry. I've sold cars well into the multi-million dollar range and have had some of the greatest cars in the world find new homes with my clients. I have more stories than I could ever share.

Once our infrastructure was in place, our focus shifted to social media. Our consistent content and exciting posts instantly sent more and more opportunities to our website and we were making content with buyers that may never have known who we are or what we do. Creating those brand new opportunities can be somewhat limitless with strategic processes. You are reaching out to an international audience, all the while you are growing your organic footprint without any additional spend. These opportunities are unique because you've already made your first impression, your job is managing that opportunity and building value to ask for the sale.

I’ve always been innovative and aspire to be a pioneer that is emulated by my competitors. It’s my opinion that if you aren’t functioning outside of the box in today’s marketplace then you are doomed to fail. I am committed to creating an client experience that’s like no other, starting from their first impression to the profit margin made on a client that didn’t come to you looking for the “best price”.

Your social media efforts can hurt you as much as they can help you - and I know the difference. To some this seems like an insurmountable effort, but it’s not. Simple methodology creates a process that brings new channels of prospects that you are not currently cultivating. 

Let an expert teach your people how to grow the skills they already have and drive more traffic to your website and your showroom.

THIS IS THE BEST MONEY
YOU WILL SPEND ALL YEAR

You will not be disappointed.

CHRIS MORAN
Founder - Chris Drives Cars