This article was written by Steven Banks and was originally published on the NCM Institute Up to Speed blog. 

Have you ever prepared extensively for a certain event only to be caught off guard by an unanticipated circumstance? Maybe you prepared for a recital, fully expecting a Tchaikovsky piece to come out of your fingers but mid-recital a contact lens…

When developing an employee retention strategy, a business must ultimately consider salaries. There’s no doubt that a long-term employee will feel slighted if a new employee joins at a higher pay. Chances are they may even feel slighted if the new employee receives the same wage. In the automotive industry (and business in general), it’s increasingly acceptable to see…

Greetings Friends,  

How are you coaching your team? Most managers pay very little attention to developing a coaching style. If we don't invest time and effort into developing our coaching skills, we have no chance at being great coaches. Great coaching is a must, to achieve real results.

Click the link below and learn how to develop your coaching…

In today’s competitive marketplace, women buyers are crucial for auto dealers' success. Just take a look at numbers and reported growth opportunities in a recent Wall Street Journal article.

It may be no surprise that car buying is an emotional…

When it comes to lease programs, should U.S. Auto dealers take a page out of the Canadian dealer model? National car lease marketplace, Swapalease.com, works with customers in both countries and observed key differences in how lease programs are structured, with particular emphasis on the transfer of ownership elements between individuals:

• Higher lease penetration rate in Canada, upwards of 40% on many vehicles (cars are also more expensive there)
• Leasing transfers…

With NFL football fans gearing up for another season, DIRECTV is once again offering new customers the 2014 NFL Sunday Ticket for free along with deeply discounted prices and an upgraded DVR Genie on several of the programming packages.  What’s the catch?  The special prices are valid for only the first twelve months of a twenty-four month contract. And if you want to…

3 lbs is all that is keeping you from ultimate success. It’s your brain. If it weren’t for our brain, the sales profession would be an easy job. Instead of using our brain as a tool, we use it instead as a weapon-on ourselves. It’s the self-defeating thoughts, past experiences, and bleak predictions that sharpen our blades of self-destruction.

When…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market with data and insights from Ricky Beggs and Black Book. By the time you are watching or reading this used car market insight, whether you are a fan of college football or not, you either attended a game or at least watched some on TV. This great passage of fall has finally arrived. Hopefully you were satisfied with the…

In a recent article published on Marketing Land, an author used the famous concept of Moneyball and applied it to content marketing. If you aren’t familiar with the Moneyball concept, it began when Billy Beane became manager of the 2001 Oakland Athletics. Mr. Beane hypothesized…

There is no shortage of opinions in our industry. Depending on who you ask, they will likely have a very passionate opinion about the three major types of mobile website strategies: responsive, adaptive, and mobile-only. If you ask a website provider, they’ll tell you that the option they have currently available is the best option whether they have numbers to back…

http://www.bradleyondemand.com…

It's as cliche as it comes. The best defense is a good offense. The best offense is a good defense. We've heard it a dozen times in different contexts, not the least of which are sporting events like football. As strange as it may seem, the saying has its most profound meaning when it pertains to car dealers.

Everyone in the car business love to get conquest…

As women become the fastest growing car-buying segment, influencing 80 percent of the car-buying decisions in the U.S., it is imperative for auto dealers to focus their sales strategies towards securing more female customers.

Unfortunately, at times, women have been underserved and do not have fond memories of their last experience. So it all lies on the shoulders of the dealership to ensure that female buyers have the "ultimate car buying experience" when they walk into your…

Most of us know the value of online content, and so many who are not trained writers or editors are straying into the area of blog posting and sharing of others' Web content. Much of it is informational and shared by industry experts, which helps us all.

Some, however, are doing so in a way that violates others' rights and might even land them in court. A professional writer / author / blogger friend of mine was recently the victim of this, with his work not only reprinted without…

First, a mini-rant. It will make sense why I'm starting with a rant before getting to the meat of the issue.

I was on the phone with a social client and their prospective search marketing provider the other day when I was blindsided by ignorance. It wasn't what I expected from a company that came highly recommended for their search prowess, so I called later…

The team at Ramsey Subaru in New Jersey reviews the newly designed 2015 Subaru WRX and STI. The 2015 Subaru WRX features the all-new 268hp Direct-Injection Turbocharged Engine that…

Two years ago while looking for a new digital marketing home I penned this blog post based on my observations visiting prospective employers.  Though I am happily nestled in a progressive and healthy wonderland right now, I find the points that I raise still very relevant in today's automotive digital marketing world:

Any good salesperson knows that the last way you want to greet a customer is with the words,…

 Happy Friday, Auto Dealers! As always, ActivEngage has the top 10 most interesting automotive articles from around the web --RIGHT HERE!

In this week’s post you’ll learn why you might be annoying your sales leads, what space station droplet tests could mean for the auto industry, and much more! Check them out!

10. Now There's a Fitness Tracker for Your…

See what Scott Sparks has to say about the Zeck Ford Service Department!

Their President's Award Winning Service  Department is second to none ! They deliver Award Winning Service through a combination of a Professional Well Trained Staff. A Clean Modern Facility, State of the art Equipment , and Computerized Invoicing, Record Keeping and Information Systems. Zeck Ford provides friendly…