When you begin to speak about customer retention…..when does it all begin???

Customer retention…. starts….. at hello……

From the very first time we greet a customer… whether it is in the service drive…..on the lot…..or on the showroom floor……customer retention starts at….hello…

You have to first put yourself in the…

Beyond increased purchasing power; the time for women to be visibly employed in a variety of positions has arrived, and could well be the next steps to success in competitive dealerships.



As a forward-thinking dealership that is already Certified Women-…

 I am proud to be a salesman, because more than any other man, I and millions of others like me, built America.

The man who builds a better mouse trap – or a better anything – would starve to death if he waited for people to beat a pathway to his door. Regardless of how good or how needed the product or service might be, it has to be sold.

Eli Whitney was laughed at when he showed his…

We have worked with thousands of dealerships all over the world at Proactive dealer solutions. More and more dealerships tell us that the market has changed and that customers are more informed than ever. We agree customers have more access to information then they ever have.

The problem is that having access to information about cars does not mean customers know how to buy cars. Customers have information, but all that means is that they need a more informed salesperson or dealership…

The Official Be One with Vin Giveaway!

5 Easy ways to enter, 5 easy ways to win.

Post "Be One with Vin at DD11" on the VinSolutions' Facebook Fan Page |…

I am writing this post to announce that IntellaCar has completed a successful Pilot program.  Sales consultants using IntellaCar at several leading Toyota Dealers over a four month period experienced the following successes:

• Increased sales volume – 2 to 4 more vehicles per sales consultant
• Higher gross profits – up 30% for sales consultants using Intellacar
• Improved customer satisfaction – up 47%

 …

Over the years, I've had the privilege of spending time with some of the best speakers, trainers, and mentors on this planet.  Many of you know that I count Jim Zieglar as a friend.  We've known each other since the mid 90's and he has always gone out of his way to help me, encourage me and on rare occassions even ask me a question.  Through it all, it's always been fun and educational.

I've been able to spend quality time with Mr. Les Brown and listen to his advice as I was…

 Just had a advertising guy tell me it's our job to get them in . It's your job to sell them. Just here a radio add  that said $69 a month. At the end the words were so fast you could barely understand. It said $3500 down and a was a lease payment  A news paper had a similar add and at the very bottom some really fine print . It stated $3000 down and a 72 month payment to qualified buyers plus taxes tags and so on.                                                                             …

In the first part of this article, we talked about the concept of an all encompassing BDC to handle all of the Departments in your dealership.

The real question is…does your BDC actually DEVELOP BUSINESS??

Does your BDC assist and compliment each of your departments in the store?

Does your BDC help capture…

I do a large amount of my work from home. Whenever I talk to someone about my different jobs, they often like to voice how jealous they are and how much they wish that they could also work from home because they'd love to work in their pajamas. 

...yeah, no. 

I know the majority of you work at a dealership, in your office, but what if your office is at home? At least part time. It takes a special person to be able to work from home, just as it takes a…

Until now, Facebook has allowed advertisers on their platform to target users based on age, sex, interests and location (country, state, and city).  In order to drill down even further, Facebook now allows users to target their ads by zip code as well.

When creating your Facebook ad, just add the zip codes that you would like to target.  Unlike Google AdWords, you can't use a radius to target further, so make sure that you are including any zip codes from which your…

I am often confused by dealerships that place a want ad for a warranty administrator/clerk every 6 months, yet when called on by a reputable warranty submission company, many will state "we do not like to use an outside source..." - well, I wonder exactly what they are expecting when they place a want ad?  Is that not an "outside source" they are seeking?  They are willing to jeopardize hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars by placing trust in someone that they bring in off the…

Before the Internet, automotive dealers had more control of the customer. The only place customers could go for pricing information was the dealership. Now of course they could ask their automotive expert friend or uncle, but they really had no idea how pricing really worked in the automotive industry.

Today with the Internet, and sites that provide invoice pricing customers are more informed then they have ever been. The carmakers also have sites to provide customers will all kinds…

Good Traffic Versus Bad Traffic

Is there such a thing as bad traffic to a dealership? Can any dealership marketing that draws people into your store or onto your lot really be a bad thing?

Yes, yes it can.…

Live for Today

A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper- wrapped package:

'This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package.'



He unwrapped the box and stared at both…

Michael Tyman of Professional Success, Inc. is a leading consultant who works directly with car dealers to help improve their sales and marketing processes. He views…

Let’s explore a simple 3-step approach that will help improve any dealership department.

1. What am I doing now?

Do you clearly understand the road to revenue or process flow from origination to transacting business?

For example, are customers handled the same way every time by every salesperson? How detailed is that instruction? Is every phone call answered the same way? Are the sales techniques the same for everyone interacting with customers? (Note, I’m not…

It is always frustrating when you call a customer and all you get is an answering machine. Proactive Dealer Solutions has been working with BDC's all over North America for years and we have found that a phone blitz is a great solution to this problem.

What is a…

Recently while I was loading clothes into the washing machine (yes I do laundry), my 7 year old son stood there talking about a little bit of everything. In between saying, “really,” and “ah-ha” he confessed to me, “Dad, I’m gonna to be famous and make my own shoes like Michael Jordan.” This struck a chord with me; when did we begin to put boundaries on our dreams? When did we cease to prophetically claim that we would be the most famous athlete, President of the…