ALBANY, N.Y. – December 16th, 2013 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that its dealership management system (DMS) is integrated with two of the five modules in MOC1 Solutions' Fixed Ops SDS^TM (Service Drive Suite) technology platform. Auto/Mate has completed full integration with MOC1 Solutions' Track and Schedule products and is in the process of integrating with their three remaining modules…

Many people wonder how they can effectively use SMS (text messaging) in the dealership without putting themselves at risk of:

A. Offending the customer with too many messages

B. Being sued for inappropriate use of SMS messaging

In this week's episode of my Automotive Sales & Marketing HOA I shared 3 ways to use SMS at your dealership.

This week's video is below. Tune in EVERY Monday morning at 9AM Eastern to …

I’m not a big fan of redundancy, especially on social media. Under normal circumstances, if you have good plugins and widgets properly placed on your blog, there’s no reason to have others. If you want to annoy me with a blog post, put an inline plugin, a floating plugin, and another one at the bottom. Oh, and throw in a “Share It” widget just in case three ways to…

While marketers and business owners continue to wait on investing in online video marketing content (and developing their strategy), their prospective customers aren't.

We have quickly become a nation of viewers, not readers. 75 million viewers watch online video per day (YES, that is PER DAY) and 40 billion videos are streamed per month (YES,…

What motivated you to start your business?

DL: I have always had a talent for motivating people, and with my years of experience and automotive knowledge, it seemed like a great fit. I’ve always felt our industry needed to change and adjust with the times in order to succeed. However, so many salespersons are still taught the same outmoded sales processes because of lacking leadership. Why?  Because most managers are never taught the value of leadership…

An excellent and valuable article by Andy Rachleff - President & CEO at Wealthfront Inc.

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a significant difference in the way older and younger people see the importance of experts. It’s a classic generation gap.

People in…

When you log into www.gmail.com today, you will be greeted with a new feature that has been long overdue. For years you have been hitting the link, show images.  Today, Google has opted you in to their new feature which allows images to be displayed in each email from any sender without approving it to happen.  How huge is this???…

 …

‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’ originally referred to an ancient Chinese form of torture. It was often used in interrogations and it doesn’t take much imagination to understand how it was conducted.

In the modern business world it has taken on a different meaning. In that context, it now refers to the loss of production, sales and/or revenue over time as…

In the past, the right mixes of traditional and media buys wrapped up in the bow that is your demographic was all it took to catch consumer’s attention and bring them into your dealership. Then Al Gore invented the Internet and everything changed. Not all at once, mind you, but it did and still is. Attracting attention to your business today is more difficult than ever. It…

Finding the right channel partners is essential when starting a new business that relies on relationships. That's why it gives me great pleasure to announce the first Dealer Authority partnership with a long-standing and respected company, Internet Marketing and Consulting Services (…

I admit, I'm a bit of a dork. I love horror movies, I love holidays, and few things are better than a mix of both. (Can you say Silent Night Deadly Night).

That said, tomorrow is Friday the 13th and that means it is a perfect day for horror holiday marketing.

I made a fun video (fun to me at least) and created a special offer for automotive dealers that will "DIE" at 3PM on Friday the 13th (Complete with blood, hockey mask, screams and scary music).

You can watch the…

Many of today’s luxury car brands are promoting their December holiday campaigns. But which luxury car drivers see the current month as a December to forget campaign for their car?



Swapalease.com analyzed all listings of its recent Black Friday holiday promotion, which offered deep discounts to people looking to escape their car lease through transfer. Of all popular luxury brands, Mercedes-Benz saw the largest population looking to escape at 21.6% of total listings. BMW drivers…

The battle for customers in the automotive industry is hyper-competitive. Dealers advertise low price loss leaders and court an Internet buyer with competitive pricing that sometimes results in negative gross deals. Service departments advertise low priced oil changes to both upsell and win a new customer.  Dealers send mailers, direct mail, use traditional and digital…

What? WHAT!?!? There have to be required fields on contact forms, right? There have been required fields on contact forms for two decades. Nothing could have changed so quickly that they have become unnecessary, right?

Actually, they're no longer necessary. In fact, they're a hindrance. Here's why:

People aren't stupid

Seriously,…

General Motors has named Mary Barra CEO recently. This is big news for anyone involved with the GM brand and the automotive industry for that matter. We want to know the DealerELITE community thoughts on this news!

What are your thoughts regarding GM's new CEO, Mary Barra?

With Mary Barra at the helm, what do you…

The folks over at DiGiorno Pizza seem to have given someone their Twitter password and said, “Go for it!” They are engaging people in the Twitter-verse in ways that would make many companies cringe. I’m fairly certain that football fans are in their target demographic so it makes complete sense that they are engaging football fans – both real and fantasy. However, they aren’t just talking to them about stats or complimenting great performances. They seem to have an affinity for trash…

Here are a few scripts that you can implement immediately while speaking with prospects and while working a deal. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! 

Customer on the showroom while working a deal:

Customer: We're going to wait until after…