All Blog Posts (12,642)

Does Your Dealership Ignore Customers?

Does Your Dealership Ignore Customers?

Would you feel comfortable letting shoppers mull around your lot or your showroom without ever being greeted, welcomed or offered assistance? What would the impact be to your bottom line if your sales people took such an approach with your walk in traffic and waited for the customer to approach them?

As disturbing as this is, this is exactly how most stores handle their web traffic. According to Google Analytics, if you do not take… Continue

Added by Maria Espinoza on April 23, 2010 at 3:40pm — No Comments

Do you Ask for Referrals, or Do you Earn them?

It's not a trick question - I really want to know. Here's why I ask: In every sales training meeting, book, or video I listened to early in my career, they always said the same thing - make sure when the customer leaves the lot you give them a big stack of business cards and ask them to send their friends and family your way. Funny thing is - most of these people were my managers, who I found out became managers because they never were able to develop a book of business the right way. I was one… Continue

Added by Tobias Sedillos on April 23, 2010 at 11:02am — No Comments

FULL DISCLOSURE MENU SELLING OR NOT?

Full Disclosure Menu Selling or Not?

You would think with the magnifying glass on car dealerships around the country today, F&I managers would take heed of the importance placed on full disclosure selling. You would think they would understand why disclosing a base payment, the APR, the term and all buying numbers prior to offering other product options is critically important.

Unfortunately, there is still confusion regarding “full-disclosure” menu… Continue

Added by Rebecca Chernek on April 23, 2010 at 11:00am — No Comments

Need to exclude auto dealers from the proposed Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection currently in the US Senate

The legislative alert below explains the urgency for us to make two phone calls to our US Senators. This bill if passed without Brownback Amendment will have a chilling effect to our future business. So, I urge each of you to take two minutes and pick up the phone to call each of two senators.

Legislative Alert Issued By NADA

The U.S. Senate is likely to vote on financial reform legislation as early as next week. The Senate bill would create a new Bureau of Consumer… Continue

Added by Alex Chung on April 22, 2010 at 2:29pm — No Comments

First things first. Sell the appointment!

Hey Everyone!

A neat thing I noticed while training one of the newest members of our net department caught my attention this week. If anyone out there is having anything but excellent results with their new hires this maybe something to look into.

In our net department we have a proven set of practices we follow to get the best results. One of the main ideas we focus on is getting our leads on the phone to sell them on an appointment. Notice I said appointment, not a car. Here is… Continue

Added by Walt Kustra on April 19, 2010 at 11:37pm — 6 Comments

Social Influence, Not Just For Your Sales Department: A Special Finance Perspective

In the auto industry social media can play a huge role in brand management by bringing trust, recognition, and awareness to more than just your sales department. It can also boost your service and parts business as well as highlighting specific aspects of your F&I, such as buy here pay here and special finance, the latter of which will be the cornerstone of…

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Added by David Johnson on April 19, 2010 at 9:23pm — No Comments

Maximizing Ownerbase Opportunities

After reviewing our internet departments sales logs the past few months a very interesting (and exciting) trend caught my eye that I just had to share with everyone.

First a little background. I work for a single point Honda dealer about an hour north of Pittsburgh in suburban New Castle, PA. I run our internet department there which produces about 30-35 sales a month (roughly 30% of our total sales). Out of this number for the past few months I have noticed some of our highest… Continue

Added by Walt Kustra on April 14, 2010 at 1:57pm — 6 Comments

Risk and Reward

Credit availability for subprime customers is still low, but the well is not dry. In fact, there are signs that special finance is making a comeback, with the bankruptcy niche leading the way. Finance sources with an established history in the bankruptcy segment know the payoff is worth the risk. They know those consumers will be relatively debt free at the end of the process and motivated to reestablish their credit.

That makes BK customers an ideal candidate for financing. And with… Continue

Added by Rob Hagen on April 14, 2010 at 1:49am — No Comments

Are your Advisors trained to sell or do they just take orders?

If the Dealer looked at the Service Drive as he does Sales and F&I the service absorption would increase dramtically without writing up one more car. What I mean by this, is that Sales and F&I are measured on a per transaction basis. If these two areas are failing to be at or above guide the Dealer will spend money on training, make pay plan changes and will get it fixed.

A Service Advisor is the highest grossing employee in the dealership and the most undertrained. Yes they… Continue

Added by David Lubertazzo on April 13, 2010 at 8:12pm — No Comments

What's your Service Absorption?

Dear Dealer:

I was talking to one of my long standing clients last week and asked him what the brightest burning fire was at his dealership.

Without hesitation he replied, “Service absorption.”

“Why?” I asked.

“We sold fewer cars 15 months ago, the cars are built better, and we have allowed independents to nearly corner the market on customer pay business. So when warranty business drops off in 3 to 6 months, where is the business going to come… Continue

Added by Melissa Rivera on April 13, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Turn Visitors to Your Website into Real Appointments..

Client~ConneXion is a provider of online engagement solutions enabling Live Chat, Live Web Stats/Analytics, Real Time Visitor tracking and a host of additional functionality to proactively engage visitors on your website.

Added by David Lubertazzo on April 13, 2010 at 4:13pm — No Comments

Boost Dealership Internet Sales This Month With These 7 Tips

This week I was thinking about what I would do if times were tough and I was still on the retail side of the business? What changes would I make in my Internet sales department? So, I decided to put together a list of seven easy to do things at your dealership that will absolutely have an impact on your Internet sales and productivity. This list is compiled to get you thinking… Continue

Added by Todd Smith on April 13, 2010 at 10:57am — No Comments

AutoMax Needs Recruiter/Trainers Now!

Tried to post this under Employment , didn't work.Hope this "Help Wanted" Ad posted as a Blog doesnt offend,not meant to of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36DFDzhivXY

Interested? First do your "Due Diligence" check us out,what we do,get a feel for who we are and what these positions are all about.

This is NOT a job!

Independent Contractor, 35-42 weeks a year, Legit Income 65k-115k ,"Regional… Continue

Added by Craig Lockerd on April 12, 2010 at 3:13pm — 1 Comment

Rule you must know if you buy online with any major auction

Know this rule very very very well in your arbitration guidelines if you buy online! If you dont its not a if but a when you will lose money. Online Without Vehicle Condition Information -Vehicles sold through online channels without a written condition report, inspection, or a disclosure as to the vehicle’s condition, will be subject to In-Lane policies (b) as detailed in this policy. again know it and understand it. Most of us who buy online do it not for only the ease but it… Continue

Added by Jermaine Dublin on April 10, 2010 at 12:02pm — No Comments

Dealership chat solutions. What to consider and what to ask.

Dealer chat is moving from the early adopter stage into the mainstream as more and more dealerships look for ways to increase internet sales and reduce costs to acquire new dealership customers. The dealership's website has the highest potential for increased results and should be the focus of your dealership if you are looking to boost your online internet sales. Here are five areas of concern and some good questions you might… Continue

Added by Todd Smith on April 6, 2010 at 9:53am — No Comments

Future Visions Of The Auto Industry And Automotive Advertising; What Was and What Is - What Is Your Version Of What Will Be?

Auto industry social networks like AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.Com, DealerRefresh.Com, DrivingSales.Com, AdAgencyOnline.Net, DealerElite.Net -- and the list goes on -- all have different rules and protocols to create their unique identities in the auto industry and… Continue

Added by Philip Zelinger on April 3, 2010 at 5:48pm — No Comments

Engaging & Selling Your Lowest Hanging Fruit....The Customers in your Database.

Hello Fellow Car Guru's,

Well, here I am stepping out into the unknown. My first blog! I feel so strongly about the value I bring to dealers everyday, I wanted to talk about it. So...here goes !

When I speak to many dealers today, they are at a loss when it comes to utilizing a proven method of wrapping their arms around the thousands of customers in their data base. Yes, I know that you send letters. Everybody sends marketing pieces which are many times a quick overview… Continue

Added by Suzanne Lucas on March 31, 2010 at 8:17pm — 1 Comment

"It's Time."

Hope this inspires you and your team: I wrote it for the CIADA Insider Magazine this month, and have gotten a lot of nice emails from people saying it has helped them. Wishing you all the best, Tobias.

"It's Time."

I once asked an old man to say something wise,

and the words that unfolded - were a welcome surprise.

He started by saying, "Tell me, son - What is it you seek?"

"Success in… Continue

Added by Tobias Sedillos on March 25, 2010 at 8:30pm — No Comments

To Price, Or Not To Price - That Is The Question!

Every contributing member of Dealer Elite knows the answer - or they should; of course we need to give the customer the price. The real question is when, what and how!

One advantage that virtual showrooms have over real world showrooms is their ability to provide information - including price - more efficiently and in a more transparent manner. The problems start when we don't use that to our advantage as well as the customers who can now change the dealerships that they are… Continue

Added by Philip Zelinger on March 20, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

Women are the major purchasing influence

This is a great article that outlines the huge influence women have in making purchase decisions, cars inlcuded. Several quotes within the article come directly from Ford excecutives and are based on extensive research by the company. For example:

"Statistics prove...Women are directly responsible for 45 to 50 percent of all new vehicles purchased in the U.S, and they have a direct influence of up to 80 percent of vehicles they don’t purchase ..."

Read the… Continue

Added by Cathy Aron on March 19, 2010 at 4:29pm — No Comments