When I last talked to Greg Carrasco, he was at Newmarket Nissan setting the automotive world on fire via his brilliant use of social media. Since then, he’s made a significant change. He’s no longer Newmarket Nissan’s dealer principal. He’s instead gone to Oakville Hyundai as their new General Manager. In typical Greg Carrasco fashion, he announced the move on Twitter. That, in typical social media fashion generated some blowback from the trolls that exist in places like Twitter. In short, they accused him of being a traitor for switching from a Nissan dealer to Hyundai dealer. Mr. Carrasco has this response for them. Wayne Gretzky went from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings. Many people called him a traitor. But the reality is that his ability didn’t diminish because he got traded. He simply played hockey someplace else and he was still great. Translation: It’s the same Greg Carrasco with the same skill set, just in a different location. And clearly, the trolls don’t bother him.
So why did Mr. Carrasco make the switch? There’s two reasons:
- Mr. Carrasco was driving 17 hours a week to and from his old job. That’s over a month of driving every year. That takes him away from his family and family has to come first in my opinion. Oakville Hyundai is ideal for Mr. Carrasco as he lives in Oakville.
- Hyundai was the only brand he couldn’t beat in his old job. He could beat Toyota, Kia, Mazda, and even sometimes Honda when he was in Newmarket. But not Hyundai. That gives you a sense of where Hyundai sits in the marketplace. Coincidentally, Hyundai Canada reached out to him to sell their brand knowing the sort of influence he has. One trip to their head office, some discussions and the deal was done.
What’s scary from where I sit is that Hyundai is already a force. Everything I’ve seen from them in the last few years has been straight off the top shelf. Meaning they have a broad selection of quality vehicles that are a good value for your money. Plus I see a lot of them on the road. Clearly they have a big impact in the marketplace already. Now Oakville Hyundai has been around for 30 years. But I have to admit that I didn’t realize that they existed and I have spent a lot of time in Oakville working both for myself and for other people. One suspects that this would be true for people who live in Oakville as well. That’s a shame because one thing that Oakville Hyundai has going for it is that it is one of a handful of Hyundai dealers who are authorized to sell the Equus line of cars which is Hyundai’s luxury line of cars. Yes, I used Hyundai and luxury in the same sentence. Equus is meant to play in same space as the Mercedes Benz S Class as well as the Lexus LS, and from what I know about them, they do a good job of playing in that space. With that sort of lineup, Oakville Hyundai should have a bigger profile. But they don’t. One suspects that this will change with Mr. Carrasco at the helm. His social media presence is going to put this dealership on the map. Not to mention Hyundai Canada as well.
Besides the social media presence, Mr. Carrasco is bringing the same sales process that he pioneered to Oakville Hyundai. His process allows you to buy a car in a pressure free environment which is the exact opposite of what you find in most dealerships. The thing is that, since he’s been through implementing this process once, he can implement the same process again knowing what pitfalls to avoid. That makes life easier in a way as it leaves him time to figure out how to navigate the different systems that Hyundai uses when it comes to ordering cars, quoting service, or doing anything else that needs to be done in a car dealership. Having worked elsewhere with different ways of doing things, it will take him time to get up to speed. But not very long I suspect.
My advice, keep an eye on Greg Carrasco. I suspect that he will not only put Oakville Hyundai on the map, but he’s going to prove that his social media talents as well as his sales methods can be implemented anywhere and others in the car industry, or any industry for that matter, will simply have to follow his lead if they want to keep up with him.
This should be fun to watch.
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@Gregcarrasco: New Place, New Challenges
When I last talked to Greg Carrasco, he was at Newmarket Nissan setting the automotive world on fire via his brilliant use of social media. Since then, he’s made a significant change. He’s no longer Newmarket Nissan’s dealer principal. He’s instead gone to Oakville Hyundai as their new General Manager. In typical Greg Carrasco fashion, he announced the move on Twitter. That, in typical social media fashion generated some blowback from the trolls that exist in places like Twitter. In short, they accused him of being a traitor for switching from a Nissan dealer to Hyundai dealer. Mr. Carrasco has this response for them. Wayne Gretzky went from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings. Many people called him a traitor. But the reality is that his ability didn’t diminish because he got traded. He simply played hockey someplace else and he was still great. Translation: It’s the same Greg Carrasco with the same skill set, just in a different location. And clearly, the trolls don’t bother him.
So why did Mr. Carrasco make the switch? There’s two reasons:
What’s scary from where I sit is that Hyundai is already a force. Everything I’ve seen from them in the last few years has been straight off the top shelf. Meaning they have a broad selection of quality vehicles that are a good value for your money. Plus I see a lot of them on the road. Clearly they have a big impact in the marketplace already. Now Oakville Hyundai has been around for 30 years. But I have to admit that I didn’t realize that they existed and I have spent a lot of time in Oakville working both for myself and for other people. One suspects that this would be true for people who live in Oakville as well. That’s a shame because one thing that Oakville Hyundai has going for it is that it is one of a handful of Hyundai dealers who are authorized to sell the Equus line of cars which is Hyundai’s luxury line of cars. Yes, I used Hyundai and luxury in the same sentence. Equus is meant to play in same space as the Mercedes Benz S Class as well as the Lexus LS, and from what I know about them, they do a good job of playing in that space. With that sort of lineup, Oakville Hyundai should have a bigger profile. But they don’t. One suspects that this will change with Mr. Carrasco at the helm. His social media presence is going to put this dealership on the map. Not to mention Hyundai Canada as well.
Besides the social media presence, Mr. Carrasco is bringing the same sales process that he pioneered to Oakville Hyundai. His process allows you to buy a car in a pressure free environment which is the exact opposite of what you find in most dealerships. The thing is that, since he’s been through implementing this process once, he can implement the same process again knowing what pitfalls to avoid. That makes life easier in a way as it leaves him time to figure out how to navigate the different systems that Hyundai uses when it comes to ordering cars, quoting service, or doing anything else that needs to be done in a car dealership. Having worked elsewhere with different ways of doing things, it will take him time to get up to speed. But not very long I suspect.
My advice, keep an eye on Greg Carrasco. I suspect that he will not only put Oakville Hyundai on the map, but he’s going to prove that his social media talents as well as his sales methods can be implemented anywhere and others in the car industry, or any industry for that matter, will simply have to follow his lead if they want to keep up with him.
This should be fun to watch.
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This entry was posted on April 11, 2014 at 7:57 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.