One New Jersey Kia dealership has leaned on staff-made social videos and rapid lead follow-up as it works toward an ambitious sales target. The operators say the approach has helped the store move past 200 vehicle sales in a month.
- The store reports moving more than 200 vehicles in a month under a staff-led social approach.
- Each lead is meant to receive a personalized welcome video, with a five-minute response window.
- The dealership says it ranks eighth among Kia retailers in its eastern region.
A Target and a Simple Bet
The third-generation owner set a target of 300 cars a month and built a rallying slogan around reaching that number. His stated approach is plain: treat customers well, keep things light, and more people will come through the door. Operators say that mindset, along with steady attention to customer care and Google reviews, helped lift the store to eighth place among Kia dealers in its eastern region. The report frames that ranking and the monthly sales figure as the store’s own account of its performance, alongside the practices its operators believe contributed to it, rather than as an independently established cause and effect.
Making Staff Comfortable on Camera
The sales manager brought his own following and an outgoing personality to the store. In his first week he smeared a bagel and cream cheese across his face for a post, saying that a more restrained, buttoned-up version of himself drew no views. That willingness to look a little foolish set the tone for the content that followed. The dealership also worked with an outside marketing agency and produced a video modeled on the MTV Cribs format, walking viewers through the building as though it were a celebrity’s home and making the store itself the subject rather than any single car.
Turning the Team Into Creators
Getting a single manager on camera is one thing; getting the whole sales floor to post regularly is harder. The sales manager set an expectation of 15 videos or posts per person each month and adjusted the pay plan to reward the behavior. Operators say posting picked up once that target was in place, and they view each post as a step toward a relationship with a potential future customer. In their telling, the volume of content matters as much as any single clip, because it keeps the store visible to shoppers who may not be ready to buy yet.
A Fast Follow-Up System
Behind the content sits a structured follow-up process. Every lead is meant to receive a personalized welcome video through the store’s CRM, Drive Centric. To keep those videos getting made, a salesperson has five minutes to work a fresh lead before it passes to the next person in line. New hires go through the store’s BDC training and a boot camp focused on handling leads. The store says its team averaged 18.5 cars per salesperson in the previous month. The report describes this process for the New Jersey operation only; an inquiry about a used Honda Passport at another store falls outside its evidence.
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, the dealership has said it plans to bring commercial production in-house while continuing the social-media approach described in the report. That would give it more control over the content it puts out without changing the underlying strategy of staff-led video and quick personal follow-up.
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