April 2010 Blog Posts (24)

Auto Dealer Legal Compliance

http://dealercomplianceconsultants.blogspot.com/

Added by Jim Radogna on April 30, 2010 at 10:23pm — No Comments

7 Deadly Sins Of Live Chat On Auto Dealer Websites

7 Deadly Sins Of Live Chat On Auto Dealer Websites

A poorly executed live chat solution plus a non existent or weak visitor engagement plan will take potentially one of your most powerful Internet sales tools, live chat, and turn it into a disappointing expense very quickly. We have seen these committed time and time again so here they are:

SIN #1

WAITING FOR THE VISITOR TO APPROACH

Keeping in mind that proactive chat produces 500% the visitor engagement and… Continue

Added by Maria Espinoza on April 30, 2010 at 5:36pm — No Comments

Digital Marketing Webinar Targeting Selling Cars Online

Are you looking for clear answers on how to increase sales for your new and used cars online? Join Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Digital Marketing, on May 18th for a free webinar. Space is limited to 100 rooftops so please go online and register today.

If you are not sure if you can attend, please register for a future webinar since the demand for this top webinar will be strong. Car dealers are looking for ways new ways to leverage their most valuable assets: their… Continue

Added by Brian Pasch on April 30, 2010 at 2:38pm — No Comments

The Power Of Why!

As your doors open for business today I want you to ask yourself the following questions. Do my people understand their objectives? Do they understand their pay plans? Are their pay plans and the objectives linked together?

My experience from the stores I have evaluated is that the answer to these questions is no. Most managers give out goals and objectives and get employees to sign pay plans, that’s it. Then, everyone freezes up over HOW to get it done. The overwhelming question”… Continue

Added by David Lubertazzo on April 29, 2010 at 10:56am — No Comments

AdAgencyOnline.Net Reviews Car-Research -- XRM, Exceeding CRM -- For Automotive Advertising Agencies

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and host of the automotive advertising resource/networking portal -- AdAgencyOnline.Net -- announced that he will be reviewing a new CRM platform solution being introduced by Car-Research in a special airing of his blog talk radio show "Automotive Advertising Experts." Automotive Advertising Experts is… Continue

Added by Philip Zelinger on April 28, 2010 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Dealer Chat Persuasion: Capture More Internet Sales

In today’s tough automotive environment every website shopper is an opportunity to turn a browser into a buyer. Your website alone won’t do it. You need a way to put yourself between your website and your shoppers. It is sales 101 to put a product professional in place to explain your vehicles and the services you offer. You do it in your showroom now so you… Continue

Added by Todd Smith on April 27, 2010 at 3:42pm — No Comments

Your online customers are standing in front of you... with their friends and family!

Or at very least that's how all of your dealership personnel should treat them. It reminds me of years ago when CRM tools were the new the rage. Remember that? When seemingly every dealership was racing to buy the best CRM tool with all of the most advanced and ease of use features? Back then I too was selling CRM solutions to dealerships and oft times I used an analogy that seemed to resonate with dealer principals and general managers and it went something like this:

Imagine a cell… Continue

Added by Ron Morrison on April 27, 2010 at 12:02pm — No Comments

Automotive Advertising Agencies Turn To Social Networking Communities To Learn How To Monetize Social Media

Automotive advertising agencies have accepted the Internet as a new media to supplement, if not replace, conventional radio, T.V. and print. However, social media still represents a challenge for many automotive advertising agencies who can't figure out how to monetize it. Philip Zelinger, the host of the popular automotive advertising resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.Net and the site's blog talk radio station --… Continue

Added by Philip Zelinger on April 26, 2010 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

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…

Continue

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