Most auto shoppers start their search on the web but would it surprise you to know that the #1 online destination for women shoppers is your dealership’s website? That’s right, our research lists the top sites nationally that women visit prior to buying a vehicle. They include:

1. Dealership
2. Manufacturer
3. KBB.com
4. Consumer Reports
5. AutoTrader.com
6. Edmunds.com
7. Cars.com
8. Carfax.com
9. Craigslist.com

We also…

Sometimes the difference between making a deal, and missing a deal, is knowing one more thing to say. As a matter of fact, that’s the difference a lot of the time. If you know what to say to the customer, you sell them. If you don’t, your competitor is going to get their chance.

In 1989 or 1990, I was on the road selling workshops. I was visiting a big dealer in Northern California, trying to get him to send his people to an upcoming workshop and making absolutely no…

As Appeared in the June 2014 issue of Auto Dealer Monthly

Everyone knows how important the chain of command is in the military. But during battles, emergencies and other times of duress, it's not always possible to run decisions up and down the chain of command. This is why soldiers are empowered by something called the Commander's Intent. The military commander gives his leaders a clearly defined goal (the mission) and the forces needed to accomplish that goal, along…

Find Out How You Can Win And Keep Service Customers…

Gubagoo study also finds: gradually ramping up value of published offers on dealer websites saves $18,000+ a month

West Palm Beach, FL–June 24, 2014 – With dealerships making record investments in driving traffic to their sites, the website engagement leader, Gubagoo, today released new research on what kind of ad formats and published offers convert at the highest rates (and most cost-efficiently) at dealer sites. An…

Looking for some of our elite here on this site to give me some guidance or suggestions.  I'm looking to hire anywhere from 4-6 official bird-dog reps for me to get some extra business in my name.  My question to everyone is are there "Ad" templates that you guys may have to share, and do you have an example pay structure for me to look at?  I am hoping to have my first 2 reps signed up by next week, just need to know what a fair pay scale may be.  Thanks for all your help everyone!  Keep…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market. I’m Ricky Beggs, Editorial Director at Black Book. There have been so many events happening within the auto industry this past week that have a direct influence on the used car market. A few weeks ago a tremendous group of storms consisting of tornados and tremendously large hail passed right by the Denver airport. Fortunately the track of the…

Blue sky pricing remains very high as pricing floor forms; more sellers enter market; privates dominate, while public spend rises 9% year-over-year, according to The Kerrigan Quarterly Blue Sky Report

Irvine, CA, June 23, 2014 – U.S. dealership buy/sell activity dramatically increased in the first quarter of 2014, according to The Kerrigan Quarterly Blue Sky Report for Q1 2014, which was…

“Ah, to come to the end of one’s life and realize one has never lived.” — Henry David Thoreau

Is life just happening to you or are you living it on purpose? Does your life and income depend upon the direction of the wind? Is it fate? Or will you pull it? You can decide what you want, add some character (doing something you committed to long…

If there's one thing that I've seen in the last 17 years while working on the vendor side of the business, it's that there are often products and services presented to dealers that simply do not deliver what they promise. It's one of the reasons that I partnered with JD Rucker to form our own company. We wanted control to deliver results no matter what, something…

Most dealers recognize the value of their data base of past and present customers.  Many even invest in automated marketing programs that rely on algorithms to target qualified customers and deliver equity alerts for vehicle exchange programs and properly timed service alerts based on factory recommended maintenance to improve customer retention and loyalty after the sale. 

The following potentially missed opportunities to maximize the R.O.I. realized by managing your most valued…

2015 Nissan Versa Note SR is Coming Soon!

The new 2015 Nissan Versa Note SR features design cues of the new Nissan 370Z NISMO Edition. For many car enthusiasts, the NISMO and SR editions of the Nissan lineup have been their focus when shopping for a Nissan. Nissan has taken advantage of this by offering SR and NISMO editions for some of their compact…

This article was written by NCM Institute instructor, Steve Hall and originally published on the Up to Speed blog.

Do you have 60 seconds to gain a service customer? Let me restate that: Do you have a structured 60 seconds to gain this customer? Why the emphasis on…

ARE GM RECALLS STARTING TO HURT SALES FOR GM DEALERS?*****************************************************************************

Initially the answer was NO it really didn't have any noticeable effect. BUT recently I've had a lot of dealers starting to tell me that the customers are beginning to defect because of the repeated bad news and new recalls almost daily. Personally, I think Mary Barra is doing a remarkably credible job…

The 2015 Nissan 370Z NISMO Specs!

Based on the styling, handling and aerodynamics of the GT-R, the 2015 Nissan 370Z NISMO edition features front and rear bumpers designed to balance out the downforce and improve overall handling. The NISMO Red Stripe has been designed into the front and rear bumpers as well as the side skirts and mirrors to give it that iconic…

One of the pain points I frequently hear from dealers is how to acquire frontline pre-owned vehicles for their stores. Having an available solid inventory of used vehicles for customers is imperative. Not everyone will be able to (or even want to) buy a new vehicle. To run smoothly and continuously generate revenue, dealers must continuously acquire vehicles. This provides…

CRM Companies are engaged in an immense battle over market share, but then aren't we all in one form or another? He who has the most customers wins! Or so that's how it would be if simply HAVING them was enough. As each CRM company dives deeply into the data, hoping to extract their next golden goose, the blogs, articles, and paid press releases fly around the nation. They started out by talking about "capturing the data" moved on to "garbage in garbage out" then "big data" and are now…

Swapalease.com works with thousands of people each year looking to escape their lease contract before end of term for a variety of reasons. For the most part, people look to escape simply because they can no longer afford to make the payments, they’re bored and ready for something different, or they’ve had a change in their lifestyle (new baby on the way).

But a new crop of reasons has started to gain traction from drivers across the country. While many of these reasons are unorthodox…