All Blog Posts (12,622)

What If Nordstrom Ran The Airlines

 

Flying is a part of the job.  Even dealers have to fly to auctions, meetings, conventions, etc.  Over the last 17 years I have noticed a remarkable lack of courtesy, kindness and even basic service toward passengers.  What kind of training are the employees receiving?  More importantly, what type of leadership by management are they seeing?      

I had the pleasure to need to book two trips on a major (U.S.) Air line.  My daughter was taking a trip that took her from…

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Added by John Fuhrman on July 24, 2012 at 9:30am — No Comments

How can a national agency be local in communicating your customer experience?

My name is Nunzio Esposito, partner at GMLV. We are not new to our services, but in the #automarketing arena we are taking an infused approach. This is my first post and although I'm a new-comer to the group, I've been an avid follower for months now. But before I get on topic, let me explain my role in this specific case. I've been acting as an outsourced marketing director for our Honda account, being a catch-all for their marketing spend and also having our group implement the branding…

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Added by Nunzio Esposito on July 24, 2012 at 9:30am — No Comments

P-R-O-F-I-T is a 4 letter word!

Back in the 1970's, I cut my teeth in the car business pumping gas and being a mechanics (yes we were called mechanics then) helper. I learned quite a bit and it set the foundation for a wonderful career in the automotive industry. 

One of my early lessons in customer service was provided by my old boss. Our oil change cost $9.95. A quart of oil cost about $1.10 back then. The store I worked at was an Exxon franchise. Now our customer could go into the chain supermarket right next…

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Added by Jim Mahoney on July 24, 2012 at 6:18am — No Comments

Establishing Your Writing Voice For More Authoritative Quality Content

In any good automotive seo campaign you need to establish your dealership as a credible industry leading source of information. This can definitely be a handful but there are a few easy guidelines you can follow to make sure that your web content is helping your case rather than hurting it.…

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Added by Timothy Martell on July 23, 2012 at 12:55pm — No Comments

Ending Strong!!

The hardest thing to do is getting your TEAM geared up for the end of the month when they are having a bad month. You have to teach them "Short Memory" on the bad things. Learn from them then forget them. What's past is past. You may be the best manager but even you, with all your wisdom and experience, can't change what happened, and you must train your salespeople to do the same thing. Finishing strong is what we always plan to do, but sometimes you have o reset the frame of mind. Sit them…

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Added by Victor E Berkey on July 23, 2012 at 10:19am — 2 Comments

Jim Dance, Auto Industry Leadership Trainer, Joins Keynote Line-up

Veteran auto consultant to help dealer attendees discover how great leaders and great organizations achieve measurably better results

 

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – July 23, 2012 – Jim Dance, is to be among the keynote speakers at the fourth annual (DSES), which is the industry’s most authoritative profit-building event for innovative dealers. Dance’s training is renowned for helping hundreds of automotive dealerships, dealer groups, auto manufacturers and…

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Added by Crystal Hartwell on July 23, 2012 at 8:30am — No Comments

Hello, YOUR PHONE IS RINGING?

The #1 thing that drove me crazy in stores were the phones. I would spend days, weeks, months, planning a marketing strategy to make our phone rings and then I would end up answering most calls myself, setting up appointments, and answering status calls(my least favorite call to get!).

I've watched service advisors look at their ringing phones and NOT answer it. When I saw that, it required, what I called, an immediate training session with the advisor. As like most of you who…

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Added by Jim Mahoney on July 23, 2012 at 6:00am — No Comments

Who's Fault is it?

Customer:

"We'd like to cancel our agreement because your stuff doesn't work! It doesn't do half of the stuff that we need and we don't get any support from you."

Vendor:

"I'm sorry to hear this from you. I understand all the things that you are trying to do, and we do all that and much more. In fact, our records indicate that we have reached out to…

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Added by Todd Katcher on July 22, 2012 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Gross Profits

Today, it is more important than ever to have an ongoing action plan concerning your pre-owned inventory. I'm going to share with you the differences between the dealers who consistently gets 30%+ net to gross compared to the dealer who is just breaking even? The difference is the dealer who gets 30%+ net to gross has better market knowledge, has set themselves apart from their competitors, has a very well trained staff in all…

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Added by Shawn Clos on July 21, 2012 at 9:55am — No Comments

Automating your PPC can boost revenues

Most Internet Managers bite off more than they can chew, including managing a PPC campaign.  Paid search can be an effective way to increase revenue, but the actual process of managing PPC campaigns can also be very labor intensive. Using software to automate some of the overall effort is one way to help manage and track paid search.

Know that keyword expansion and bid and budget management are kind of the two priorities in paid search management.  Understand the manual process will…

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Added by Larry Barditch on July 20, 2012 at 4:01pm — No Comments

New Jersey Digital Marketing and Technology Seminar with Don Graff Automotive Consulting

INFOGRAPHIC:
Your Dealership's Digital Assets: Are They Serving Your Customers Right, Before They Come Into The Showroom?
Dealership Digital Marketing Infographic
As the tastes of the social generation and their shopping behaviors change, so must the areas in which retailers promote themselves in order to make the most of their advertising dollars and bring in new business.
Potential customers have started to evolve from simple website browsing to using mobile. With 18% of…
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Added by DON GRAFF on July 20, 2012 at 1:47pm — No Comments

VinSolutions Announced as Platinum Sponsor of AutoCon 2012

VinSolutions Announced as Platinum Sponsor of AutoCon 2012

Automotive CRM vendor will also exhibit the latest CRM technology, sponsor a cocktail reception and present a keynote address.…

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Added by DealerELITE on July 20, 2012 at 1:41pm — No Comments

NCM Benchmarking for Success Workshop Added To AutoCon 2012

NCM “Benchmarking for Success” Workshop Added To AutoCon 2012

 

AutoCon 2012, the automotive industry’s newest and most exciting fall conference, is pleased to announce that Robin Cunningham, NCM® Institute faculty member, will be…

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Added by DealerELITE on July 20, 2012 at 1:18pm — No Comments

How Do You Tune Up Veterans?

In our business helping veterans improve can be a challenge.  

They know what they are supposed to know.  Usually they think they are actually doing it.

Poke around in the cupboards of the average dealership and you will find training cassettes from the 70's, training videos from the 80's and 90's and DVD's from the last 15 years.  You could reforest Colorado's wildfire area with the trees that made the workbooks from seminars that are…

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Added by Michal Ann Benedict Enders on July 20, 2012 at 10:30am — 4 Comments

Help wanted?

Service manager needed. Last one quit over pay. Candidate must have proven record of poor CSI and lack leadership ability. Poor selling skills a must.



Did you ever get to the point while reviewing resumes and doing initial interviews, that an ad like the one above was the one you actually posted?



When I began the service drive part of my career at a dealership, the prevailing idea was that you can either sell or be good with customers. I started as one of 11 advisors at a… Continue

Added by Jim Mahoney on July 20, 2012 at 7:43am — No Comments

This Is The Way Your Dealership Needs To Do It...Maybe.

When I was last on the "front lines" in automotive retail, I was fortunate to be a Sales Manager for a Dealer Group that was implementing radical changes to its sales process, marketing, merchandising and customer experience. We adopted VAuto as our merchandising and appraisal tool. We went to a "best price first" concept and we revised the Sales Person compensation plan to reward unit levels and CSI. I will outline the experience from the guest walking into the…

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Added by Joe Pistone on July 19, 2012 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

Engaging on Twitter the Right Way!

Fellow Tweeps! Are you using tired of using Twitter and not seeing the engagement you would like? I’ve found some statistics to help you! Between December 11, 2011 and February 23, 2012, Buddy Media analyzed user engagement on more than 320 Twitter handles of the world's largest brands to determine what works and what…

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Added by Ketty Colom on July 19, 2012 at 9:21am — No Comments

Trade-In "The Secret To The Sale"

As I travel and talk with managers and dealers I am frequently asked to review and analyze different dealerships sales map's or processes to the sale, it is amazing to me how many overlook the power of the trade in. My opinion is that the trade in is in almost every case the number one secret to the car deal. In all cases, I have always trained sales consultants to look at and review the trade in with the client right after the…

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Added by Shawn Clos on July 18, 2012 at 10:06pm — 17 Comments

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