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…

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…

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…

Fran Milbower http://www.bdcexperts.com our Director of Fixed Operations has developed a great tool that will help you and your team become more productive, more organized and reduce the service status update calls as well. We all know that customers who have a vehicle in your shop right now call your dealership for updates several times during the day. This fact makes our service BDC team and your service advisors very…

Fran Milbower Director of Fixed Operations for Proactive Dealer Solutions has some great thoughts on "texting" for the dealer body. If your store needs a list of email addresses for the different cell phone companies we can help.

As director of Fixed Operations, Fran has helped hundreds of dealers grow their service department. If your store has a service BDC already and wants to take it to the next level or you have your service advisor team taking the calls, we can help.

Your…

Dealerships everywhere are looking for ways to cut themselves to a profit. Let me save you and your accounting team some time. The only way to change things is to start capturing more of the business you are loosing and generate traffic and sales for your dealership.

Sales

Even the best automotive salespeople close only 15% to 20% of the people they speak to in a given day or month. In addition most stores don't have a…

Mobile phones are everywhere, be it a regular phone or a smart phone. It's almost like people have them attached to them. Based on this fact it's no surprise that your team should be collecting multiple numbers from customers and potential customers.

We have found in most dealerships that we work with that in most cases only one maybe two numbers at best are in your database or CRM. Now if you staff has asked correctly one of these numbers should be a cell phone. This information is…

Years ago in dealerships all over the world, the dealers were to only way to get pricing. Customers did not have access to invoice pricing, shipping cost, etc. The simple fact is that today this is just not the case any more. I hear dealers all the time talk about the "good old" days when customers did not know so it was easy to make money.

I also hear a great deal of blame as well being tossed around. It's the manufacturers fault, it's my competitions fault, it's the salespeople etc.…

As a automotive industry professional with lots of years under my belt, I must say I have heard a lot of tactics, techniques and the spin of course. I have been hearing Sales Managers, trainers and others for years talk about taking control of the customer.

Talk is cheap and just saying “take control” of your customers does not make it happen.

Here are a few tactics that not only make logical sense they actually help you “take control” and sell more cars….

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