Keyport Kia harnesses the power of social media to drive sales past 200 per month

Sansone Jr’s Keyport Kia in New Jersey has achieved significant sales growth by prioritizing a personality-driven social media strategy over traditional advertising methods. By hitting a milestone of over 200 sales per month, the dealership demonstrates how "fun and light" digital content can effectively generate leads and improve regional market rankings. This approach underscores a broader trend in the social media sector where retail businesses utilize platforms to build direct, authentic relationships with consumers to drive high-volume transactions.

Paul Sansone III, a third-generation dealer known as PS3, launched the "Road to 300" (#RT300) initiative to scale Keyport Kia’s operations through aggressive social media engagement. Partnering with the agency Social Butterfly, Sansone and sales manager Billy Sherman have moved away from traditional marketing in favor of high-energy content, such as dealership tours inspired by MTV Cribs. This strategy has successfully positioned the business as the No. 8 Kia dealership in the eastern region, proving that a lighthearted digital presence can yield substantial commercial results.

To ensure the strategy translates into sales, the dealership has restructured its internal operations to incentivize content creation among the staff. Sales manager Billy Sherman adjusted the employee pay plan to reward specific digital behaviors, setting an expectation for each salesperson to produce at least 15 social media posts or videos per month. This focus on individual branding is supported by a rigorous BDC training and "boot camp" where staff members learn the dealership's culture and how to effectively work leads generated through these digital channels.

The dealership's social media efforts are further supported by a high-speed lead management system that utilizes the Drive Centric CRM to deliver personalized welcome videos to potential buyers. Salespeople are required to engage with leads within a five-minute window or the lead is moved to another representative, a process that helped the team average 18.5 car sales per person last month. As the dealership continues to grow, Sansone III intends to double down on this model by bringing commercial production in-house, further cementing social media as the primary driver of their marketing and sales ecosystem.