When we first built our company in 2013, we had a big fear. It was a sense of urgency that drove us to make aggressive moves, hire talented people when we didn't have the revenue to support them, and drink lots of coffee to stay ahead of the competition. The fear came from the certainty that automotive social media vendors would catch wind about the true power of…

Tammy Darvish, Lisa Copeland, Shea Holbrook Headline Inaugural Women in Automotive Convention

The first-ever Women in Automotive Convention will draw upon top female success stories as it assists the automotive community in recruiting, retaining and developing female employees and leaders. Women make up just 17% of…

Type-A Personalities Versus Type-B Personalities

Most people who work in automobile sales have Type-A Personalities.  They are generally very competitive and career driven and often come across as aggressive and forceful.…

While Twitter never grew to truly rival Facebook, it has affected our communication and our culture in the same way. People use Twitter for marketing, to connect with like-minded individuals, network professionally, broadcast news, and discuss…

Consumers have been showrooming in retail stores for quite some time now and, while many retailers don’t like it, they’ve pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that it’s going to happen.  However, one surprising argument posted in an article by speaker, trainer and consultant, Bob Phibbs, went so far as to make the claim that showrooming is akin to stealing.

In his…

Customers increasingly expect businesses to have a social media presence. The key however, is to not just have a presence, but to then use that presence to interact with customers. When customers engage with you, it’s important to give them an indication that you are, in fact, listening. Of course, to accomplish this, you must be paying attention in the first place. If you…

In today’s fast-paced world, new technology is constantly being developed that provides auto dealers with new and innovative ways to connect with customers. The days of index cards and Outlook as a CRM are long gone. Now we have robust technology that makes it a simple process to connect with customers on many levels, including e-mail, text, chat, video and social…

In a nutshell, the best auto leads are contacts for a high profit, high conversion vehicle shopper, with the highest profit margin. Part of defining the best car leads for dealerships, however, is also determining what they are not.

Quality Auto Leads Are Productive…

Brian Benstock pushes the use of equity-mining software at Paragon Honda because each time it succeeds in getting a leased vehicle back early, nearly every department in the store benefits, especially finance and insurance.

Equity-mining software, sometimes called data-mining software, enables dealerships to spot current customers who are in a good position to get out of the vehicle they have and into a new one for about the same monthly payment.

The software looks at a number…

Making a strong sales presentation is crucial to closing more sales. Here are 10 tips to help you improve yours:

1. Acknowledge your customer’s requests and expectations.

Make sure they know you heard them. If it’s not appropriate to answer a question at that moment, thank them for the question and assure them you’ll answer it in a few moments. Never react as if they are interrupting your “pitch”.

2. Offer what they ask for, not what you…

How do you see yourself when you consider your future? Do you have a dream for your life that you would like to achieve, but don’t know how to get there from where you are?  Are you stuck in the same rut producing the same results every month no matter how hard you try to…

There is never been a better time in history for the general public to have access to vast amounts of information. The Internet empowers anyone who wants to learn so much information and knowledge that was once only available to those who could afford such things.  The…

According to Dataium's most recent benchmark study, the average number of monthly unique visitors to a dealership's website is 6,509. Of those, an average 1.7 percent submit a lead form. Combine that with an average half percent conversion rate for chat, along with phone calls and walk-ins (which are…

What is the most effective way for a dealer to communicate with their customers?  For years dealers have used e-mails and SMSs.  As long as you have an e-mail address and a cell phone, through your CRM system, you can theoretically contact thousands of customers instantly.  Though they lack personal touch and can even seem intrusive they are still relatively effective.  And now that mobile has become the most…

No, I am not crazy and yes I am talking about the well known shock jock known for his outrageous radio show. Howard Stern is a genius for many reasons and they all apply to how you can succeed as a salesperson, manager and entrepreneur.

Let’s examine several of the reasons and the lessons that can be learned. First of all, lesson number one in business is to never be boring. Although, you may not agree with Howard Stern’s humor or persona, he certainly isn’t boring and that…

All Car Segments Declined While Full-Size Vans Increased  

Welcome to this week's edition of Black Book Market Insights, with in-depth analysis of used car and truck valuation trends and insights straight from the auction lanes.

The team of Black Book editors are seeing more signs that the summer slowdown is taking shape. All car segments saw a decreasing change in values this past week, and comments straight from the lanes tell us dealer…

It's painful....

But Do You Consider Yourself Charming?

How do you increase sales as a salesperson? If you're in sales, you better be charming. On this week's Think Tank Tuesday, learn the four steps you need to follow in order to be interpreted as personable, instead of creepy.

• Understand what being charming truly means!
• How to start building connections that lead to…