Hello Dealer Elite Members,

I have been working with Dealerships all over North America for quite a while now. The thing that amazes me every day is that dealers, service writers, Sales Managers and Sales people fail to capture the information they need to follow up their customers every day.

Step One: Ask Great Questions

If you don't ask the right way you will not get the information you need.

Step Two: Make sure there is a benefit for…

These are the two newest additions to the AutoDealerTarget Lineup.  We added these service offerings in response…

 

Happiness can be attained just like anything else. Do you have a strategy for increasing your happiness?

At the end of the day people want to be happy, more than anything else. This has been a driving force of Man for thousands of years. You want to be happy in your work, your family, your community, your free time and in all your activities. You want more happiness in your life.

 

I have never understood the point of the phrase: “money won't make you happy”, because…

Carfax has a very unique business model.  Tell the consumer they need to ask for a “free” Carfax report from their dealer (who then pays a hefty fee).  The exclusivity…

Google+ has been promoted lately by many in the SEO industry as a "must-do" for local businesses to help their search engine optimization efforts.  While an important tool for SEO moving forward, there are other areas your dealership can utilize to keep your search engine optimization on the cutting edge.

Here are a couple of additional things your car dealership should be keeping an eye on to keep your SEO efforts top-notch as the search landscape continues to change:…

 This Job will pay between $100,000 and $140,000.

Must have Ford Experience

10 years of Automotive Reatail

Must live in Florida

Call Chris Saraceno at 321-960-6133 or email resume to cbskmc@aol.com

What would be the one word to describe what a Service Department needs these days to compete?

There are so many to choose from. However, the one word that keeps coming up when I visit Dealerships across the country is adaptability.

The Dealerships that are doing well, adapt to changing market conditions and Customer demands.

Even if this is your first day in a Dealership, you know that the ability to adapt is the key to Exceeding Expectations.

The dictionary tells…

If your website isn't built on a true content management system (CMS) that allows you to put up pages in minutes without technical experience, don't read this article. It'll only make you jealous.

If you are on one of the various platforms (TK Carsites, Dealer.com, etc) that has a robust and easy-to-use CMS, today's the day to start using it more often. Google (and…

Is anyone reading this old enough to remember travel agents and travel companies?  The Internet eventually killed them and rolled them all into Expedia, Priceline, etc.  I met a travel company owner back when Priceline was just taking off, quite a wake-up call to the travel industry, and he was buying up companies and agents as fast as he could:  He was convinced he was…

USA Today talks to TK Carsites' Richard Valenta and Matt Funk about how dealerships use social media to sell more cars. Before customers visit the inventory lot, they've already visited the dealer's website.

Read the full article @…

How often do your sales consultants or sales managers have to respond like this to customers to whom they’ve just presented or demonstrated a used vehicle?

“Don’t worry about that clunking noise we heard. I’ll have a technician get it fixed in a jiffy.”

“That smell will go away as soon as the carpets are thoroughly dried out.”

“After we do a front end alignment, it won’t pull to the right…

The following article is authored by, and reprinted with permission of, Kenneth Shilson, founder and president of the National Alliance of Buy Here, Pay Here Dealers. 

Franchise dealers enter 2012 with many of the same challenges they have faced for the last 24 months: a) excess facilities; b) needing more vehicle sales; c) declining credit scores of their customers; and d) tougher credit approvals from financing subprime sources. In response, many are looking at…

I was recently retained to "clean up" an automotive group's warranty departments at a few of their locations - they were dealing with aging claims, manufacturer reduction of claim submission deadlines, bottom right hand drawer syndrome - the normal stuff.

As the days went on, I continued to find an amazing amount of infractions to the established warranty policy and procedure guidelines for claims compliance.  I presented my finding to the head honchos and the respective general…

Is there an actual president out there that will help the Syrian People? Enough is enough for crying out loud.  It's a sad time in our history when you're scared of Russia and China.

We have a lobby set in the studio.  Over the years, we’ve had a number of service menu boards on the wall.  Our first menu boards were those with the strips that you slide into slots.  Once we did a shoot where we went online and designed our own menu board from a template, adding in services and pricing, and the company printed off our custom menu board and shipped it to…

If a product or service is priced low, does that mean it has less value?  We've all heard the saying, "Perception is Reality", and to many, a product or service which is priced high, is automatically assumed (we all know what assume really stands for) to have more value.  However after talking with a number of clients and dealers about their current and past vendor relationships, I've found in many cases, its just the opposite, and more times than not, over promising and under delivering is…

by Kathryn Carlson

"You Don't Sell Someone Else's Cars, Why Sell Someone Else's Warranties?"

  I have been in the car business for over 25 years. Going from dealership to dealership I have seen the good, the bad and the apathetic. There are car dealers who are on top of their game, always striving to improve.…