I recently conducted a 20 Group workshop on Digital Marketing Strategies and all the the dealers in the room had incomplete or inaccurate Google Places data. What was also interesting was that no dealers in the group had more than 15 reviews posted on Google Places.

Once…

We hade a situation at our dealership yesterday and I thought I would share it with everyone in hopes of getting some opinions. One of my salesman took a deposit for a dealer trade. It was a modest deal about $1200 front to back on a lease. He took the deposit on Tuesday found the car and was able to get it on Wednesday. The delivery was set up for Friday. The customer called yesterday and said the dealer he originally went to called him back. The customer told them about the deal he had…

We have a saying at VinSolutions “Bad data in, bad data out”, meaning even with all of the technology we have today, if your customer information is incomplete it is not worth keeping. One of the biggest challenges we have in setting up new accounts in Implementation is getting good data from another CRM/ILM. Every CRM/ILM has their own formats of exporting data and let’s face it; they are reluctant to give you the data you…

 Please see info at :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPG8RUrz_lg

Speaker’s Name: Ronda Lewis          

Speaker’s Title: Used Vehicle Expert and Dealer Advocate, DealerTrack AAX         

Presentation Title: 4 Steps to Used Car Profitability     

Sub-title (a little more explanation of the title – a sentence will suffice):

Using data to make fact based…

What items stand out the most to you in search results? Often pictures and especially video will initially draw your attention more than plain text results. Videos posted to sites like YouTube show up especially well in search listings. Auto dealerships need to take advantage of this free exposure by creating videos of walkarounds, customer testimonials, test…

First. Adding I really enjoy this site and the potential it has to offer.

Second and mostly what my blog is about, ties and stuffy tie downs.

I have seen a lot of suites and ties, stuffy old sales ideas. Times have changed, and to go with, the Consumers mind set.

I think I am going to start a sales seminar on being casual. I would all most bet, that the sales persons leaving the seminar would out sell, out do, and out service each and every customer 2…

Recently I had my car serviced while performing a follow-up visit. I had the oil changed and tires rotated with the Technician suggesting replacement of my air filter. I was proud the Technician took the time to show the filter as everyone knows how important the visual is for selling. At lunchtime I left to get lunch and noticed a noise from the front end of my car. As I pulled out on the highway the noise became worse and I slowed and…

Too many dealerships seem to practice as “faith-based” businesses—not faith in a higher religious power (which might actually help!), but faith that their GM, GSMs, salespeople, marketing, etc. will work as they always have.  That they can somehow resist modern business changes from sales to processes because they have magical faith in people who don’t even know that they…

I am concerned about the radiation they are finding in food and there Automobiles. How are we going to protect ourselves from the radiation they good sending over here when they ship their cars? Is there a plan being put in affect yet, or do we don't care. I am concerned on how they plan (our government) to check for radiation on any item thats coming from Japan, now or in the near future. Can someone help me with this? I have been in the Automotive Business over 30 years and we never had to…

     “There are two reasons people fail in the car business; they’re either lazy or they’re stupid.”  Those were the words of wisdom and inspiration I was given in a letter by my mom's second husband, Phil  when I first got into the business.  He was in his fifth decade in the industry, a dealer principal/owner on the East Coast.  I was a green-pea in the Pacific Northwest.  No pressure, if I fail, I’m either lazy or stupid.  I guess of the two, stupid would be…

OK, the title of this story is intentionally cheesy, but rest of it is real.  I mystery shopped some Dallas Region Ford-Lincoln eCommerce Elite (Top 100 stores in USA for new Ford-Lincoln Internet sales) stores recently and was surprised to discover that their response processes are similar.  This piqued my curiosity, so I called my DMC teammate in southern California to ask him how the  #1 new Ford Internet sales store in the country does things.  Turns out they work much the same as the…

I was fortunate to sit in a dealership advertising planning meeting. Participants included the Dealer Principal, GSM, Internet Manager and representatives from the ad team. All of whom are good folks. However, I have been a bit critical about the efficacy of recent cable ads. This most recent planning meeting did nothing to change my opinion.

After the primary agenda items were addressed, I had the opportunity to engage the ad team members. Although I am definitely not a…

A Car Dealer Call to Arms

 

Sales managers: help your sales staff to gain customer commitment!



When was the last time a salesperson came back from a demonstration drive and told you (the sales manager) that he or she has gained commitment from the customer, so you stacked up a 4Square presentation (or whatever it is that you use) – only to see the prospective customer walking out the door a couple of minutes later?



Do you find this happens quite a lot or even some of the…

Just a quick update for everyone!

The agenda for the 10th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition has been posted. You can check it out by clicking here! This is a great time to start planning your sessions! What speakers do you want to see? What times and days are they speaking at?

Still cooking up some fun challenges for our…

I have always taught that seeing is believing and it is a must to involve customers visually. Seeing is also buying and when customers see their issues they buy more often than not. It is also retaining the customer this will improve trust and never allow the dealership to have integrity questioned. I have been asked how to do this with drop off customers and now believe Chris had a…