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…

According to Black Book® data, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2010-2014 declined -1.5% during September, relatively unchanged from the -1.6% pace during August. Cars declined -2.3% while trucks declined just -1.0% during the month. Average pre-recession annual depreciation was continually recorded between -15% and -18%, and Black Book expects 2015 depreciation near -14.0%.



Compact Cars led all vehicle segments with the highest depreciation on the month at…

Loyalty programs surround us. We live in a world filled with keychains on which multiple little plastic mini loyalty cards dangle. There aren’t many places where we spend our money that don’t offer a rewards program or, at the very least, track our purchases via a quasi-rewards program that only allows us to purchase items at the “loyalty” price, versus the…

I've always heard the expression, "you don't miss something til you no longer have it... ", and I experienced that recently in a dealership I was training.



At the start of the day, management had told me that their weakest performer Steve (not his real name), needed to sell 14 cars this month or he would no longer have a job at the end of the month...



Now I was at the dealership on the 7th of the month and he had only sold 1 car so far... Not a great start. For a…

Based on recent J.D. Power Automotive research, this year, the automotive industry is going to retail over 14,070,000 vehicle units, which is the second best retail sales performance ever.

However, this rate of growth, though positive, is slowing. This year, retail growth will be 510K vehicle units over last year, versus over 710K units of growth last…

Knowing your target audience is essential to squeezing the absolute most out of your dealership’s marketing content. It’s often even more important than the product or service you provide. Your content can easily get lost if you aren’t targeting the correct audience, or …

Why Is Telling a Great Story Important?People remember stories. In fact, even before writing was a preferred mode of communication, stories were being told and passed down from generation to generation. And people remembered them because they were interesting, captivating, and they left pieces of themselves behind to be told again and again. Even with all the modern technology and communication tools of the moment, it’s still important to remember how to…

Hispanic Marketing is Powerful

You already know you need your brand advocates. In fact, in today’s market, their participation with your brand is absolutely necessary in order for others to recognize and engage with your products. Chances are, you have several strong brand advocates working on your behalf on your various social media sites, but how do you go about…

Albany, N.Y. – October 12th, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that StoneEagle has completed integration with Auto/Mate's Dealership Management System (DMS). Auto dealership groups using Auto/Mate's DMS and StoneEagle's web-based applications will benefit from seamless and real-time data updates in both systems.

"Auto/Mate…

At the recent Content Marketing World 2015 event, many of the speakers highlighted the evolution of content marketing and how new interactive technologies create new engagement opportunities.

As more content is posted online, in emails, and presented in webinars to clients every day, it is becoming quite a challenge to reach and create an impact on any target…

Last month, in an effort to maximize recall completion percentages, FCA US announced that it would offer $100 gift cards, or extra trade incentives, to owners of recalled vehicles if they come in and get the work done. This is the perfect opportunity for FCA US dealers to piggyback on this OEM program to increase service revenue and capture more business.…

Let’s face it. Training on any level can be an intimidating and daunting task. Questions like when to train, how often, and who should be involved come up.  What type of training and who should teach and provide it also adds to the confusion.  Most of the time, I feel that these questions become so overwhelming to both business owners and mangers, that the easiest decision  to be made is the one that is made most, and that decision is to do nothing. To do nothing is to put yourself and your…

Great Communicators Have Meaningful Conversations

Creating a culture of strong communication can make or break your dealership.  And great communicators just seem to have a way with people. Strong leaders understand the importance of good communication for building strong partnerships and are able to authentically connect with customers.  People gravitate toward…

A careful review of app data analytics teaches us many things about apps and their benefits to dealers.  The most important lesson to learn is that every dealer that has an app has some sort of consumer activity.  Our goal is to discuss how to measure the success or the degree of that activity and how app stats can impact all areas of your dealership.

Mobile apps for auto dealers are a dynamic and emerging technology.  Since the majority have smartphones and use apps,…

Why Do We Do This?

Zig Ziglar had been a strong positive influence in my life. One of the many statements that influenced me was "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want" This is one of the cornerstones that I have built my personal life on. If you make it your mission to lift other people up,…

There’s no doubt that people are in love with their phones.  As a result, memes and jokes constantly circulate the Internet about how some people no longer participate in “normal” activities because they simply can’t put down their phones. People aren’t reading newspapers anymore - at least not in print - and they’re fast-forwarding through commercials. So where are they? You…