As I approach the completion of my first full year on the vendor side of the car business after spending the previous several years at dealerships, I can say with a certainty that the timing could not have been better. It has nothing to do with me. My circumstance happened the way it was supposed to happen and I'm thankful for that.

The reason that the timing…

As website communication tools go, chat has grown at the fastest rate of adoption on car dealer websites for years. It’s not new, but more dealers are embracing what chat can do for them to engage with people visiting their website.

There are two primary reasons that it wasn’t a fad that died away like so many other website addons over the years. First, it is…

Most dealers understand the importance of customer retention. They’re e-mail-blasting sales messages, sending direct mail, and their salespeople are combing over thousands of client records in their DMS, making phone calls to previous customers and orphan owners. The problem is that many dealers don’t realize that, all too often, those messages fall on deaf ears. Dealerships spend tons of money sending messages to customers that are mostly irrelevant because some vendor promised huge results…

Urbandale, IA--March 17th, 2015--Flick Fusion (www.flickfusion.com) today announced that DealerSocket has selected FlickFusion’s Video Marketing Platform as its primary video marketing platform for their DealerFire website customers. Auto dealerships that use DealerFire as a website vendor will have optional access to the entire FlickFusion video marketing platform, providing them with a fully integrated solution for all their video marketing…

The new Google study reveals insight on the digital impact on in-store shopping. We all know that the growth of smartphones and access to online information has changed the way we shop in stores, but how is this actually affecting brick and mortar retail?

What they discovered:

Today's consumers are more informed than ever before. They want information throughout the shopping process, driving their use of…

Common advice in the automotive industry: "There are very strict rules that dealers should follow when posting to social media, especially as it pertains to timing."

Pop quiz: Who says things like this?

• Companies who post on schedules
• Gurus who want to demonstrate the need for their expertise
• Anyone who wants to automate their…

Regardless what business you’re in the reason we make appointments is to save time. In the dealership world technician time is extremely valuable. However, if you want to grow your business and have consistent customer satisfaction and profits you had better understand the value of your customers time. Click the link to read the full story!…

ALBANY, N.Y. – March 16th, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) today announced that Dave Druzynski, Director of Human Resources at Auto/Mate, will present "Social Media in Hiring and Employment" at the upcoming Innovative Dealer Summit in Denver, CO on April 7th and 8th, 2015. In his presentation Druzynski will share the current laws and practices that impact a dealership's use of social media in the hiring process.…

“We work too hard to come within arm’s reach of the prize only to have our hands cut off just before we seize it. For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there is but one rule – hunt or be hunted.” – Frank Underwood, as played by Kevin Spacey in the Netflix television series, House of Cards.

This quote epitomizes the struggle that car…

There is a purge coming from Facebook and it affects all business pages. Various social media outlets have carried out their own version of “swift justice”. Twitter and Instagram recently purged a lot of fake fans and it seems Facebook is joining in too. So what’s going on exactly? Starting March 12, Facebook will begin to purge likes on business pages that are from…

At virtually every dealership 20 group I address, at least one dealer will ask the question I hear most often with respect to internet sales:

“What’s the best internet sales structure for a dealer today: End-to-End; a BDC; or giving the leads to the floor?”

I’ve been asked this question over and over again since 2009; and until early 2014 my answer was always the same: “Any of those will work, provided you and your sales managers support the efforts.” This was true then and…

Happy Friday, Auto Professionals! As usual, your friends at ActivEngage have compiled the latest, most interesting automotive news stories and blogs from around the Web!

In this edition of the Top Ten, learn why dealerships should welcome customer complaints, how to win over millennials for service, need-to-know trends found in a new study on dealer reviews, and much more!…

http://www.dealerrefresh.com/eliminating-car-dealer-bdc-for-good/#more-15633

Unfortunately, most Dealers don’t have a clear idea on how to find the right sales candidate for today’s marketplace. Compounding the problem is that they employ an old school compensation plan.

The majority of Dealers are still looking for people who are like their “old horses”  – high…

[Photo: Used North - Edmond, Oklahoma - 2004 ]

When I worked at Bob Howard Auto Group from 2004 to 2008, it was like dog years in regard to learning, as there were two new car managers and two used car managers under every rooftop and our Internet Department represented all 14 new car brands. So you can imagine picking up the phone and helping…

http://www.InternetSales20Group.com 856-546-2440

Register For Internet Sales 20 Group 7 In New York, May 18-20 (3 Day Workshop)

At the Internet Sales 20 Group 7 in ‪#‎NewYork‬ we are "Bridging The Gap Between The Showroom And The Internet / BDC". We are going…

A lesson on building your own Digital Network, and getting away from 3rd party vendors!

Most dealerships E commerce managers believe they are at the top of the technology game when they pay for large budgets that serve up ads, based on IP addresses, or cookie based ads. With the age of revolving IP addresses and cookie awareness, this form of advertising is losing ground quickly, no one has a static IP anymore, and consumers do not even pay attention to those…

• Latest NADA and Urban Science stats said new car dealerships sold approx. 16.5 million new and 9.9 million used (retail) vehicles in 2014

• Consumers bought over 600,000 vehicles from TrueCar dealers in 2014. That means using numbers from above; they were directly or indirectly responsible for only 2.3% of vehicle sales last year from new car dealers.
  
  
• 97.7% of  new and used vehicles sold by new car dealers are NOT sold via TrueCar …
  
  

August 30, 2015 - 2nd Annual Northeast Mustang Meet at Salerno Duane Ford.

Venom Stangz, Stang Magazine and…

Finalists, selected by dealer judges from twenty-eight submissions, will compete for

2015 MVI award at DrivingSales Presidents Club conference

Salt Lake City, UT - March 12, 2015 - DrivingSales today announced the finalists of the 2015 DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Competition, which was created to foster the spirit of progress and thought leadership in the auto…

It's interesting to me that the focus of day-to-day business operations in the dealership cover so many topics. The focus might be on customer satisfaction, parts loyalty programs, repair order performance, and the list could go on forever.

What I find intriguing about this is that many times we lose the focus on the primary concern the customer has that brought them into the dealership.…