Today’s Women’s Wednesday focuses on women’s reviews, and why they MUST be a critical, daily and intentional component of your business practice – both with the sales team and in the service drive.

As the #BigDataAuthority on women’s dealership experiences, we have shared that this powerful buying segment will purchase 27 million cars at new and used car dealerships this year. That equates to over 75,000 vehicles a day. What is your share of…

"Never Fear Competition,"

"fear complacency."

You don't have to be in a bad spot in…

There's no question your mindset shifts when your staring at only 2 days left in your month.

When others wilt- you need to waltz. When others wilt under the pressure, electing to sit and accept "It is what it is" as their fate because they only have 2 days left, you take a stand and fight-vowing to dance with every opportunity you can…

The words "big data" have been buzzing around the marketing and advertising world for a few years now. Technology has made it possible to do things with data through analysis and proper utilization that weren't very easy a decade ago. It's a good thing, but it's not enough.

In the automotive industry, we see it used for everything from conquest sales to social…

In our modern world of technology and instant information, consumers are increasingly seeking answers to their questions online rather than asking a business for it. One way that consumers are doing this is through video content they find online. Video content provides many benefits for consumers as well as businesses. In the automotive industry, there are many companies…

Stay Away From The Fried Twinkies!

By: Alan Ram

Quit comparing yourself to the mediocre masses! It seems that so many managers have an attitude like “yeah we’re bad, but we’re really no worse than the rest”.  That’s the equivalent of going to the state fair and comparing your fitness level to the people standing in line waiting for fried Twinkies and chocolate-dipped bacon. Step up your game! Start measuring your performance and…

Just like any business, I have potential clients that I reach out to in an effort to see whether my services are a good fit. Recently, a potential client, who I had been talking to but hadn’t heard from in a little bit, suddenly “liked” one of my posts on my personal Facebook profile. While this does happen occasionally, I have always used LinkedIn as my primary method of…

This post was written by NCM 20 Group Moderator, Wayne George and was originally published on the Up to Speed blog.

Every recall comes with a certain amount of pain and customer discontent. Some of the current recalls that have been announced are extremely volatile. So what, if anything, can you do to keep your entire store’s mindset positive and in a…

If you've spent more than 5 minutes in sales, then you've likely cried out, "These customers are wasting my time," more times than you'd like to admit. And you know what? You're right, they are a waste of your time. Here's why:…

When it comes to training and the development of dealership professionals, what continues to bear true is that the ambiguous expectations of the results that the dealerships are trying to achieve is the primary reason for dissatisfaction and buyer’s remorse. For this reason, I have reinforced to my clients when I consult or train that “what you cannot define, you…

A recent Automotive News article covered the decrease in trained automotive service technicians graduating from vocational schools. Not only are the vocational schools producing fewer graduates in the automotive repair field, but the training they…

I recently read a very thought-provoking article asking this very question; “Is the simple fact that the customer has money enough to make the purchase a determining factor for you?” Too often the customers dealerships try and attract aren’t necessarily the customers they really should be…

As I mentioned in part two of this series, many DMS providers make it difficult for dealers to download their customer database. In some cases, it’s because there are control issues arising between dealers and their DMS (or CRM) as to who…

In part one of this series, I discussed the importance of dealerships using their data effectively in marketing and how, when done properly, it can increase vehicle and service sales while improving customer loyalty. Now I’d like to…

This blog is the first in a series I plan based around how to better use dealer data in marketing to customers. There is a reason that ‘Big Data’ has been a hot topic in the automotive industry for the last few years. Many retailers in other industries are using it quite successfully to target their marketing and offers to their customers based on transactional and…

Here is this week's Used Car Market Report with the latest data from Black Book. It has been an extremely busy week for the Editors at Black Book attending physical auctions and watching other auctions online, while also analyzing thousands of records from remarketing data feeds from all across the country, We even had the opportunity to get hands on insight into a couple of significantly refreshed models that are soon to be hitting the new car market through the franchised dealers. Getting…

This article was written by Robin Cunningham of the NCM Institute and originally published on the Up to Speed blog.

At the NCM Institute we conduct our …

In October, 2013, I posted a controversial article about the differences between responsive and adaptive websites and came to the conclusion that, at that time, properly coded adaptive websites were performing better than responsive…