When you think about all that goes in to creating a professional in the auto industry, what comes to mind?  Usually things like, training, dedication, persistence, confidence and motivation come to mind.  All of these are important and valuable components essential for any professional, but they can't be effective without the one element that ties it all together.  You have to care.  Smarter people than I have…

Last October, I gave the keynote presentation at the AICPA conference in Phoenix (going on today and tomorrow in Orlando). In it, I mentioned the OEMs' continued insistence on of "forcing" expensive facility upgrades on their dealers.

A luxury dealer mentioned after the presentation that his OEM was forcing another expensive and profit draining…

I just wanted to say hello to all the dE members. I look forward to great discussions and all the information this wealth of members can provide. If anyone has questions about my company SMA Alliance, Please feel free to drop me an email.

Thanks and God Bless,

JC

GO CARDS!!!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

The rose, the symbol of love, beauty and romance can teach us a thing or five about social media. I bet you never looked at a rose and thought, wow rose that's deep. But in this post I am going to share with you five insights…

Expectations – we will perform in direct proportion to the way we see ourselves and the way that those whom we respect see us.  The expectations of the individuals wearing the title of salesperson have been evolving as the reality of a new marketplace becomes apparent. The Internet has impacted a great many things about the world that we live in to include how we work.  Gone are the days when salesmen use to go door to door carrying their wares selling them to housewives. Now you have…

MANAGING VS. SUPERVISING (“FARMERS” VS. “RANCHERS”)

Management=Participation vs. Supervisor=Observation…

Excellence in customer service is a goal all businesses should strive to achieve. There are many advantages to a business when they reach the point where great service becomes an everyday offering. The strongest benefits being customer loyalty, repeat purchases and the resulting word of mouth advertising. However, even with strict standards and detailed service programs in place, bad reviews can happen. As much as we would like to be perfect,we can’t be 100% of the time. Employees…

"Outraged - How Detroit and the Wall Street Car Czars Killed The American Dream" is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and on Kindle(links below). For more information, videos, photos and press releases about the book you can visit my website - TammyDarvish.com. We have a full account of the disaster created when the unilateral decision was made to take privately owned businesses away from thousands of…

Google just made a big change in how they will track organic visits to your website.  If a consumer is logged into their Google Account and does a search in Google, and clicks on your link, you WILL NOT be told which keyword they used.

This has a major impact in keyword optimization and web content strategies. Google will still show referral website traffic but not the keywords used in search to arrive at your site.

Here is the official announcement from…

Make sure to…

New ‘card-free’ program eliminates usual loyalty program hassles with turnkey process that allows dealers to focus on selling, rather than implementation

Daytona Beach, FL -- October 19, 2011 – DMEautomotive, the industry leader in science-based, results-driven automotive marketing, today announced a new affordable “card-free” customer loyalty program for auto dealerships designed to eliminate the usual…

Phoenix, AZ – October 18, 2011 – Drive Time, the nation's largest dealership with 89 locations specializing in selling and financing used cars to customers with less-than-perfect credit, today announced it has selected Inilex as its supplier of GPS-based…

Over the last several months, really since speaking at the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa Valley earlier this year, one of the themes that we've been focused on is this:

"What happens on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media pages is not nearly as important as what happens on other people's Facebook, Twitter, and social media pages."

Every few months I…

Grand Theft Auto – How Citizens Fought for the American Dream

May 14 and 15, 2009 – two days in which Chrysler and General Motors, with the help of the government, literally stole the life’s work from nearly 2,000 business owners.

Two years later, the history from the dealers’ perspective of those days are hitting the bookstores. And they are must reads for anyone associated with the automotive retail industry.

The first book out this…

I am asking everyone in the DealerElite community for their assistance!

I am looking to make my return to retail with a Dealer or Dealer Group that could use my expertise.

It has been difficult getting my consulting business off the ground. It was much more difficult than I originally thought it would be.

So I am…

When you are working a deal, how do you direct your sales people?  Do you insist they follow your steps to the sale?  Regardless of whether you have 8, 10 or even 12 steps, you have a specific process to increase the chances of success in selling and retaining that customer for a long time.  So, why don't you do that when…

CAR-Research XRM Enjoys Unprecedented Growth,

Appoints Patrick Kelly as President & COO

Houston, Texas, October 18, 2011, CAR-Research XRM, a single-source CRM solution uniquely branded as; “XRM, Exceeding CRM”, today announced the appointment of Patrick Kelly, formerly Senior Vice…