THE MONTESI STORY


Hello fellow VW dealer:

I write to you today as a fellow Volkswagen dealer who once felt overwhelmed by advertising issues. For years, I would look at proposals from TV stations, radio stations and newspapers and wonder what their value was. Since I didn't know any better, I did what most dealers do: I ran print advertising that did nothing to further our image or explain to customers any other reason to buy from us other than price-the same prices my competitors were running. (Funny, I expected my salespeople to sell value other than price, but I wasn't doing that in my advertising!)

Things are quite different today, and I couldn't be happier.

What happened? Simple. I asked a friend of mine, Chris Angelus, who had been in advertising for years, to take a look at one proposal from a radio station and advise me. His response was quite forthright. "Gary, why not just let me do this for you. Your advertising isn't doing a thing for you except giving your potential customers a ticket to walk into your competition's showrooms armed with your price." And that was the start of his million dollar ad agency.

Let's face a pretty sad fact: No one believes any of the claims many dealers make in their advertising. But with tasteful, clever and consistent advertising, we believe we HAVE communicated we're different, and it makes a difference. Over the past seven years, our grosses are up, and we've more than doubled our sales despite the fact that VW competition in our market is fiercer than ever.

I strongly recommend you take a look at how FirstStar can help you get out of the price trench and into something more productive. If you'd like to discuss this from a dealer's perspective, I invite you to call me.

Sincerely,

Gary E. Montesi
General Manger, Montesi Volkswagen, North Haven, CT.
203-281-0481.