Dealers decide the best dealership vendors of the year at DrivingSales.com, helping their peers choose and spend wisely in 2013

Salt Lake City, UT – November 27, 2012 – Eligible and verified reviews and ratings that determine the 2012 DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards will close on December 31^st, DrivingSales announced today. The Company encourages dealers who have not yet rated their vendors…

Are you taking advantage of Social Media for Referrals?

Have you ever looked up your dealership at www.socialmention.com? If you have never done this, pause and take a moment to do so now. Now that you have looked up your dealership does it come…

Change. Change can be a scary and powerful word. A word that many of us say that we embrace yet when it comes down to the brass tax we end up putting off the decision that brings about change. You often say, “I’ll wait till after the first of the year,” or “ We will try something different in a few months.” Does this sound familiar too you? Everyone sometime or…

There is a privacy notice that seems to surface from time to time on Facebook, usually when a new security update is rolled-out.  I’ve been seeing it all over the place the last few days, and while it seems that most people are posting it just to be safe, others seem to believe that this will truly protect their content. Facebook users, especially businesses,…

This is Part 4 in a 5 part series. Please read the previous posts first or none of this will really make any sense.

• Part I: The Key to Search and Social in 2013 and Beyond…

Just because it’s mobile doesn’t mean that advertising laws and regulations don’t apply! The need for a prominent disclosure of terms and conditions and a privacy policy in mobile apps is rapidly evolving, and dealers are at risk if they are using an app that doesn’t comply.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the state of California are…

Fisker Automotive has hired former GM Marketing boss Joel Ewanick to be chief of global sales and marketing for the maker of Fisker's luxury plug-in hybrids.

Ewanick, 52, will replace Richard Beattie, 58.

NEWS FROM vAUTO:

The Provision Suite: We’re renaming Live Market Suite to the Provision Suite (Pricing, Appraising, Provisioning and…

Author James Allen wrote, “Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him;” although the essay was written in 1902, it remains a timeless proverb 110 years later. If circumstances could be grown in a garden, it would be harvested on the blacktop. In sales, we are inundated with circumstances-both personally and…

I am going to cut to the chase here because your time is valuable and reading on and on....and on the ramblings of a “expert” is not really how you make money.  I will show you how to DOUBLE your business and it is no joke.  With no reservation I will tell you I have done it time and time again.  It takes two main ingredients and a commitment to the “success recipe”.  

The ingredients are the hardest to find really.  I have walked away from many a deal…

If you're a retailer of items that are often purchased as gifts, holiday advertising makes total sense. You're competing for a portion of the most lucrative sales season and getting the word out about the deals, products, and sales that you have going on at your store is important.

If you are not a retailer with holiday items for sale, don't try to take…

This Thanksgiving h oliday we traveled up to see relatives that we haven't seen in a long time.  What was most refreshing for me this trip wasn't the break from work and rest, as it normally is, but instead a conversation I had with my nephew who has just entered the industry.  We talked about all that he is learning and his goal to work his way up.  He's currenlty training…

The talk these days is all about “transparency”.  Since consumers are doing tremendous amounts of research BEFORE visiting a dealership, since they are so well-informed, since they know what they want, dealers need to be transparent about everything.  One cannot argue with the data.  According to studies by R.L.Polk/AutoTrader and Google/Shopper Sciences:

• The average car shopper starts the process online, spends
• 19 hours doing research, and
• References 18…

What boxer would step into the ring without having studied his opponent? What coach would take his team onto the field without have watched game films of their competitor? One of the key differences between being a champion or an “also-ran” is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your rival. The same is true in business. The ability to scout your opponent and then use this information to design and implement a solid game plan is critical to your dealership’s success. As a professional,…

If you listen to the SEO experts, then you know that the industry is ALWAYS about to experience a significant shift. Usually this is just an algorithm update from Google, but sometimes it’s bigger than that. Sometimes, people predict changes that will truly alter the fundamental…

I know it's the heart of football season and the beginning of basketball season, but baseball is the sport that truly helps to illustrate this particular post. On social media, not all times are created equal. It's important to know where and when to place your pitches to let your fans and followers hit home runs for you.

There have been…

Some people have a misunderstanding about what is seen and heard through social media. It's happening on two major fronts: personal communications and business communications. Both are completely separate, but the fact that the same basic premise popped up from both angles made picking out this blog topic a no-brainer.

I was talking…

Some people seem to have all of the luck, don’t they?  We read and hear stories of those lucky people who caught their big break because they happened to be in the right place at the right time. Seemingly overnight, “mis” no longer preceded their…

#1 Korean singing sensation Psy has unseated pop idol Justin Bieber on the YouTube charts.

“Gangnam Style” officially became the most-viewed video in YouTube history Saturday, beating out previous record-holder, the Biebs’ “Baby.”

Clocking in at 805 million views, the video that spawned invisible horse dancing bests “…