Hiring Lessons From The NFL Combine

Over my years in this business I have come to know Mark Tewart, Sean Stapleton and Joe Webb as the true friends and professionals they are in representing and caring about the success of auto dealers

In my opinion, just listening and learning from them alone is worth the price of admission to the Insight 15 Customer Loyalty & Retention Event.  As someone who helped bring about dealer…

3 Ways To Measure Up For Sales Success In 2015



How do you improve your results in 2015?



With every year, comes New Years resolutions (most of which you’ve probably already broken by now), new goals, and new plans to make this year your most successful year yet. But saying great things, writing up fantastic goals and having them plastered all over your desk won’t automatically give you new success.



In a main shopping strip in the area I…

What Makes a Person a Leader

Often we tend to think that people are born Leaders and destined to rise to the top because of their personality or genetic makeup.  Over the past thirty years our experience has proven that quality Car Sales Training and Dealership Training Courses can raise anyone’s potential to…

Knowing the difference between social media and social media advertising will save you thousands and help you sell more cars. On this week’s Think Tank Tuesday, I explain what you need to know about developing an effective and comprehensive social media marketing strategy that will optimize your ROI and stop wasting money.…

In the world of performance endeavors, when the opening horn sounds, or the preverbal curtain goes up...It's Showtime.  Time to focus on the job at hand....helping a customer to be a customer in your dealership.  Whether they are buying a vehicle, getting their vehicle serviced, or stopping in for any reason...they deserve the very best…

If you still aren’t sold on the importance of video marketing, it only takes a brief glimpse into recent news to illustrate just how important video is in marketing. There are many news stories relating to acquisitions, statistics and trends, which highlight the increasing importance – and value – that platforms of all kinds are placing on video content. The common thread…

Hello and welcome to this week’s Used Car Market Report with insights from Black Book and Ricky Beggs. Well, the word is officially out that Ricky Beggs' time at Black Book is limited. The final day will be April 1, 2015, and no, that is not an April Fool’s joke.



Black Book will be producing a new report that will benefit you each and every week. It's called Black Book Market…

When will I see you again? No, I am not talking about the 70’s pop song, although the lyrics just may fit the content here. I am talking about the continued trend in customer defections from our dealerships. 

Customer’s defect for many reasons and the longer an individual owns a car, the harder it can be to keep that customer. It’s not necessarily because the…

It took a mini-debate with a potential client to bring me to a conclusion: numbers do lie. Conventional wisdom says otherwise, but in the digital age there is a huge gap between seeing the numbers and understanding them in a meaningful way.

I should go ahead and add an addendum to the premise before I begin. Numbers aren't really lying, but they can definitely…

Most business owners are aware that Google offers their business a free "yellow pages" listing, and some know that it is now called My Business. For auto dealers, the importance of an optimized My Business listing will become evident as you read this article but the concepts described here apply to all business owners.

Most every time a consumer conducts a search for an auto dealership, like Orange County…

Tools to Increase Your Business Aren’t Worth Much Without Follow-up and Training

The recent NADA Convention is over. As always, there was plenty of information to gain and a lot of shiny objects being displayed. Dealers and major executives were out with their checkbooks looking for ways to increase their business in 2015. There were countless…

There is a big opportunity that most dealerships are not taking advantage of on a daily basis.  Buying a car is a huge investment.  On average it is the 2nd biggest investment in your clients' lives.    So why is it that our sales teams are not going the extra mile after the car is purchased?  The relationship is not over at this point, it is actually just beginning!…

Hello and welcome to this week’s Used Car Market Report with insights from Black Book. Yes, gas prices at the pump are edging up, plus $.02 two weeks ago, and now a significant $.12 this past week. The national average is still a consumer friendly $2.19. Diesel was more stable and indications are this will be the case this year compared to gas. This past week was the first increase in diesel, at…

Sell Like It Was Yesterday

I have loved the automobile business since the day I sold my first car in 1987.  I remember collecting that commission check, as an 18 year old kid, who was in shock and awe that someone would pay me that kind of money to do something that I loved.  It was a simple time; look out the window, make sure you never miss an up, do the walk around, the demo drive, the service walk and make sure if you cannot…

It’s Officially the Women Buyers Era...

OEM’s are increasing their advertising towards this powerful buying segment. Smart dealerships are too. Women bought an estimated 13 million cars at new car dealerships last year; an estimated 35,000 vehicles a day.

How many female “up’s” are converting to buyers at your store? If you aren’t tracking that number yet, we suggest you start accounting for sales by gender. The upside of your gross profit potential is tied to this.

The…

It seems as if every big event nowadays is live tweeted by brands seeking to gain free marketing on the back of these popular events. This last Super Bowl saw brands literally setting up war rooms filled with social media professionals, graphic designers and even lawyers, simply to post content in reaction to real-time events. For most events targeted by brands in this…

 Are your managers and sales associates well versed in the art of the T.O.?

I double dog dare you to visually inspect what you expect. If your team flunks these 7 steps YOU ARE MISSING LOTS OF BUSINESS! There are no reasons only excuses. This is 100% controllable. Managers must get back in touch with the "sales" side of "sales management."…

In the movie Field of Dreams, a ghostly voice tells Kevin Costner's Ray Kinsella character, "If you build it, he will come."

The first question you'll want answered is, "What is it?" In the movie, the 'it' was a baseball field, but it was actually so much more than that. In…

Phone Up Dialogue

Most car Salespeople are unaware of the value that phone ups bring to their business.  The phone up is the most reliable source for Customers who will end up buying a car.  Because of this it is…