What ever happened to record players? How about Beta tape players? Anyone remember pagers? Here's a good one,typewriters.

One thing is for sure nothing is forever. No matter how useful or advanced, it too will one day be obsolete.

Now in my mid 30's, (o.k. late 30's) I remember thinking how hip and cool my…

Centuries ago, before elaborate bottling processes and wineries, wines were transported in wineskins. It was advised to never pour new wine into old wineskins because old wineskins were contaminated with fermented bacteria. New wineskins lose their pliability as they age and burst when the new wine is poured into old skins, the skins no longer have the…

In an effort to help dealerElite reach 7,000 members and more I have done a little research and with some help from the home office in Barrow, Alaska here are:  The Top 10 Best Things About dealerElite

10) Tons of great ideas from the industry's best that you can steal and claim as your own!  After all * "Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism"

9) Top 5 "posters" each week receive a coupon for a foot massage by Chris Saraceno

8) New subscribers get an autographed…

 He who gets 10 men to do the work of one gets 10 times the return. J P Getty said I would rather have 1% of 100 men's effort than 100% of my own. Jesus started with 12 men and look how big that got. There is nothing better to be successful than prospecting and word of mouth. You agree?

Today is Veterans Day.  Make today more meaningful by committing your company  to proactively recruit and hire veterans throughout the year. Our veterans have a higher than the already unacceptably high rate of unemployment or are under employed, although they h…

Google recently announced a new update to their search engine algorithm that puts a greater emphasis on recently published, fresh content. "This change...promotes fresher results...so that we provide users the most relevant answers to their queries," according to a Google spokesperson.

Regularly updated content has always been a positive ranking factor in SEO, but this announcement from Google makes it that much more important.

So how can your dealership use…

The NCM Institute just posted this article on the Up To Speed blog.  Written by NCM Institute Director and retail operations specialist, Garry House, you'll find a good, basic plan for how to start a personalization program in your store... 

Since the 2011 Specialty Equipment Market…

Everyone knows that Facebook is good for branding and customer relations, but so few in the industry are using it to generate actual sales. Here's a tip that I'll be presenting at next week's AMP UP conference in Vale, Colorado. It's arguably the best single piece of Facebook advice for aggressive car dealers that I've ever given (and I'm doing so exclusively on…

A "twenty something" couple came into the dealership on Tuesday.  Great kids...I follwed the steps of the sale and landed her on the perfect car.  We negociated and came to an agreement.  My finance manager was off that day, so the desk manager ran the credit and decided that my customer needed a cosigner and sent them packing!  I thought about it all night long.  On Wednesday, I went to the desk manager and asked him if I could have a look at the deal jacket.  He said, "Did you get the…

Arthur Ashe, Muhammed Ali, Elvis Presley and Free Booze

It was 1966. A group of West Point cadets was taking a PE class, volleying tennis balls on the courts in the south east corner of The Plain, opposite the old stone library. A skinny, black second lieutenant moved among them offering words of encouragement…

Hi again,

I wanted to post another article, in regards to the partnerships we develop. Paul Long wrote this a while ago, and I wanted to get the opinions of the community. 

Ok, we admit, the subject line is a bit high-minded. And that's not a bit surprising considering the source of it is Dr. Emmett Murphy, New York Times best-selling author of 

"…

vAuto announces the release today of Provision, a powerful used vehicle inventory management engine that will eliminate the pain of finding used vehicles and optimizing inventories for profitability for auto dealers.



“This is a business intelligence break-through for the automotive industry, made possible through our alliance with AutoTrader.com and Manheim,” says Dale Pollak, vAuto founder. “Provision brings game-changing insights and tools to help dealers efficiently and…

Even trainers have days when the message is not about how to sell a car or increase gross.  There are plenty of things much more important than that.  While the passion for training is what drives my colleagues as well as myself, today is different.  Monday morning I will be in a dealership helping hire and train, but today is a day to step back and acknowledge those who contribute so much more.

As a veteran who served as Viet Nam was winding down, I am so much happier at the respect…

For the amount of time spent and effort wasted on finding the magical 3rd party lead provider, the one that nobody has, the one that converts high, the one that is free of charge and the one who will give you ALL exclusivity– have you forgotten about your current customers?  Were they left out of your Digital Marketing Strategy?  Did they even make your budget this month?

Your current consumers are yours, you have gained their trust and business already, you did all of…

So here you are, smiling from ear to ear waiting for that special moment in your day when the be-back bus finally comes!  The…

I recently read an article written by Charlie Polston who works with BG Products Company. In this article he cited a recent JD Power study that rated when the best time to offer additional services. The study found that 37% of the customers would say yes at the time of setting the appointment. This number jumps to 47% if recommendations are made in the service drive or customer walk around intake process. It jumps even higher all the way to 56% if asked during the status call after the…

How can you make sure that the processes you have throughout the dealership are executed every time….. and with every customer?

This has been and still remains one of the toughest things to get accomplished in the dealership.

Every dealership throughout the country has their own processes and procedures when it comes to selling and…