Once your Sales Rep has completed his/her job outside(meet/greet,pre-sell info,presentation,demo) they should be initiating a "Trial Preliminary Close".  "Other than price Mr. Customer,is there anything stopping you from taking this vehicle home with you right now?".This trial close will generate one of two responses.If the response is "no,let's see what we can do", then they proceed with your sales process. If not, they will hear either an objection or an excuse. The key to developing an…

The Question: What do Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist, SoBe, AMP Energy Drink, Propel, Mug, and Aquafina have in common with your Sales Team?

The answer: They are all Brands within a Brand! It doesn’t matter to PepsiCo, the parent company, whether your Sales Manager grabs a Mountain Dew or an AMP Energy drink…

Chris and Mike's hot topix this morning on the super storm hit home with me, too. As a vendor/supplier on automotive content based in Delaware I worked through the weekend prior to storm hitting to advance client files.

Today we posted a story on the nationwide impact this storm may have on industry. What do you think?

Entire U.S. Car Market…

Is your dealership leveraging the power of video marketing?  Today, video ad formats are the most effective way to communicate with consumers during their shopping cycle.  

Video marketing includes direct video posting on YouTube, but that is nothing new. Dealers…

A mistake that many make on social media is that they post things in batches. Rather than spread out the posts throughout the day, they load everything up at once. This poses a challenge for both businesses and individuals because doing so will (a) annoy your fans and followers as you…

Korean rapper/insane man PSY is having a pretty good month. His smash hit, “Gangnam Style,” has become the viral version of the Macarena, coupling a catchy beat with the most ridiculous dance moves that a fully grown adult could conceivably perform. Mimicking and mocking the music video is irresistible…

Well, it looks like Mitt Romney wasn’t able to knock out the incumbent Barack Obama. Whether this news makes you celebrate or despair, there are lessons to be learned from how both sides managed their internet marketing during the campaign. I’ve covered a few of them…

Take a look at most dealership websites and you will notice that the vast majority of them are weighted heavily in favor of sales. In fact, if you take a look at their digital fixed-ops content you will notice that it accounts for about 5-15% of the websites real estate. Why do you think that is?

Take this statistic from Google Automotive: 40% of automotive searches are for service, parts, repair, and maintenance. Taking that into consideration and the fact…

How does your company handle the social media accounts of employees? In the past, it wasn’t really an issue, but every day it becomes more of a problem. Employers want to know about their employees, and employees want their personal lives to stay private. How do you navigate these muddy waters? It’s truly a challenge, one that is only going to become more arduous as time…

This is Part 3 in a 5 part series. Read Part 2 here.

By now, you should have an understanding of the importance of having an individual - preferably the owner, general manager, or…

There's something that can be said about transparency. It's hard as an automotive vendor to be completely transparent. I know because for the first few years that I worked in the industry there were many things in the world of SEO and social media marketing in particular that could not be shared with our clients. It…

This past week, I made the risky move of upgrading to the newly released Windows 8 operating system; Microsoft’s bold attempt at upgrading their OS which has kept the same fundamental functionality for more than a decade. While slightly hesitant to upgrade before a service pack was available, I ultimately chose to take advantage of Microsoft’s limited time $39.99 upgrade offer. Talk about utilizing the "urgency"…

Happy Anniversary!

Last Sunday, ActivEngage celebrated its 5th-year anniversary under the cabanas of Wekiva Island in sunny Florida. We count ourselves lucky – 95% of all businesses fail before they turn 5! To commemorate the…

I don't think I will find an argument for readers that the marketing and compliance knowledge needed to operate a dealership profitability has been increasing exponentially.  The challenge for Dealer Principals and General Managers is how to best keep up with the changes in our industry.

Executives need to be able to have productive conversations with vendor partners which in turn will allow…

Managers and Advisors will find great tips and tricks for goal planning and increasing sales by watching this video

cDemo’s Mi VIDEO wins 2012 Innovation Cup Award; the Development Team for the Walser Automotive Group wins the 2012 Dealer Best Idea Award

Salt Lake City, Utah – November 5, 2012 – DrivingSales today announced the winners of the…