Albany, N.Y. – October 19th, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that more than 100 of its customers, including dealership executives and managers, attended its annual User Summit. Ten industry vendors also exhibited at the event that was held in Oak Brook, IL near Chicago on October 12th and 13th, 2015. Auto/Mate's User Summit is designed to share the latest features and give in-depth training on…

Mimicking customer behavior is one of the oldest sales techniques in the business. So is finding common interests and building rapport. However, with three generations of car buyers in and out of dealerships daily - Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y - it’s harder than ever for salespeople to accomplish this convincingly, let alone understand what type of experience each…

Can an auto dealership be liable for damages when it transmits a customer’s credit application to several financial institutions through an automated on-line credit application system and the financial institutions pulls the customer’s credit report without authorization from the customer? Does a financial institution need consumer authorization to access the customer’s…

If you have a smartphone, chances are you have Apple Wallet (formerly Passbook) or Google Wallet. These applications are mobile wallets that store, among other things, applications like Apple Pay that enable people to purchase things with their phones. Of course, it's very unlikely that anybody is going to purchase their vehicle by swiping their mobile device. For that reason,…

Turn On-The-Fence Shoppers Into Sales

You need to use Dynamic Retargeting to reach indecisive shoppers. I’ll explain how Dynamic Retargeting delivers highly targeted ads and offers to hesitating shoppers. It worked on me and will help you sell more cars this month!

Remember the good old days when your Facebook audience actually saw the content you posted on your Facebook page? If you’re a social media person, you’ll know what a rush it was to see your content engaged with. As the likes, comments and shares piled up on a piece of content, a sense of satisfaction swept over you for a job well done. Then Facebook intervened…

Today’s American seniors are healthier and have more discretionary income than ever before. Likewise, millennials are the up and coming generation with more purchasing power than any other demographic. The good news for the auto industry is that they are spending and in the market for new cars.

American Seniors

According to US Census data, from 2003 to 2013 the number of licensed drivers over the age of 65 increased by 8.2…

A quick note to provide additional information as it relates to the overall Volkswagen brand. The following insight is courtesy of Swapalease.com, which has been monitoring activity of Volkswagen lease drivers and shoppers considering the brand:

• Number of listings in the transfer marketplace have jumped 20% from Sept. to Oct. (# of people looking to escape their VW lease)
• Number of actual transfers are down -50% so far in Oct. compared with Sept. levels (fewer shoppers…

Everybody wants to maximize their results on repair orders just ask them. The tone of the conversation will change however, when you ask them how they will maximize their results on repair orders. I find it fascinating how…

What's the best way to generate more leads from your website? Contrary to popular opinion, the answer isn't to "get more website traffic." Although a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is key to driving appropriate traffic levels to your website, unless those visitors convert into leads, that's money down the drain.

Before you spend more on search engine…

Traveling is very important for all the people because they need to participate in various events and either it can be personal or any official purpose. That’s why most of the people are planning their travel in advance to avoid the last minute hurry. This is a good way because a well planning can make the journey as the best one and let the people to avoid their tension. Either…

This Week in Social Media with @seekristintweet – News for the Week of October 12

LinkedIn Groups Will Be Made Private

LinkedIn announced the latest updates to Groups including an improved Groups interface on desktop, and…

You asked for it and here it is. THE white paper that delivers the goods on how to leverage sales to this emerging market. You need to understand the differences between Millennial women and women of other generations, like:

• Millennial women travel over 25% further to purchase a car…

From Content Mapping to Content Marketing: Part III—Measuring Content Effectiveness

Now that content mapping has led to effective content marketing, it’s important for you to measure the effectiveness of your overall content. It’s simple to find statistics on how much of an impact content marketing has for a business, but giving an exact number or time frame to measure…

Viral content has been the subject of constant attention. Business, marketers, and the media are fascinated by videos and other types of content that spread like wildfire and generate attention (and business) for the creators.

And while viral content sounds great when thinking only about the success, you also need to understand the pitfalls. It's…

Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports lease credit approvals have crested above 80.0% approvals mark over the last three months, the first time approvals have shown this level of success in more than two years. So far in 2015, the lease credit approvals rate improved to 72.2% on the year.



The lease credit approvals also saw a noticeable jump from the same month a year ago, when just 64.5% of approvals were passed compared with the 80.0% this…

Why You Need To Be Charming

How does your personality increase sales? On this week's Think Tank Tuesday, learn the four steps to be personable (instead of creepy). Understand what being charming truly means, build connections that lead to sales, make more people know who you are, and learn what actions ruin your sales. …

Creating a Plan That Works

Content marketing helps your dealership turn consumers into customers. Content answers the questions shoppers ask, connects consumers to your dealership brand story and reveals the ways your dealership works to make one of the largest purchases a consumer makes easier to manage.  One of the first and most important things your dealership…

I sat down recently with one of our Digital Performance Managers, Kelly, to get an inside look an inside look at her daily life and best practices.

Kelly was asked what she feels as the most important aspects of her job, which she stated, “I think the most important part of my job is helping our clients. We play a role in generating leads for them. It's just…