A sales person has to have a certain ego, and confidence about them and they like to win in every deal, but sometimes you have to appear to lose to win the sale.

You never lose in sales when you make the sale.

Our job in sales is to get the customer to bob their head up and down, telling you “we will take it.” This is the outcome we are looking for with every prospect/customer we face. Sometimes we get demanding customers who are so afraid of sales people, they…

Most people tend to focus a lot of their local search engine marketing for their auto dealer website on Google Places.  While it's true that a lot, if not most, of your search traffic comes from Google, it's still important to make sure your dealership is properly optimized for the other major players as well.

Here are…

“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done.

Then they begin to hope it can be done.

Then they see it can be done.

Then it is done………. and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries…

Yeah, I said it:  GM’s Internet lead response measurements are wrong-headed.  The age of pushing dealers to a better 24x7 response time is over, and the results are misleading.  And they are unfortunately too often focusing dealers, and therefore precious resources, AWAY from car sales.  And here’s why. 

First, the…

(Part 4 – Sell them)

In the first part of this 4 part blog, we reviewed how to “assess” what would be your “perfect Pre-owned inventory mix”.

In the second part of this 4 part blog, we reviewed how to “find” your “perfect Pre-owned inventory mix”.

In the third part of this 4 part blog, we reviewed how to…

I use this term alot with my managers and salespeople...I have this on my wall in my office!

I use this as a way to remind the guys that each and every person on our team has to want to be the absolute best at thier craft!

As managers we have this desire to coach things like Negotiating, or closing, or…

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day,” is the first part of an ancient Chinese proverb that explains why the majority of salespeople are not doing so well in our industry. If you think about it, our industry is pretty young, a little over a hundred years old and since its inception, not much had changed in the way that vehicles were bought and sold, until the Internet. Much has been written and said about how it has impacted the industry, but the quandary that we face today,…

If your sales career has hit a slump worse than the New York Yankee's Derek Jeter's "0 for 32" hit-less streak in 2004, let me suggest an affordable seminar available to help get your sales swagger back. In fact, this seminar is offered in nearly every city in America. Can you think of a seminar where you can enjoy a nice meal with a special person, have a glass of wine…

Misdirection – Deflecting the real issues.

Zig Ziglar puts it best when he asked, “Are you a wandering generality or a meaningful specific?” The issue has always been sales or the lack there of, so regardless of the product the primary topic at just about every business meeting is how to get more. The tendency how ever to deal with the urgent vs. the important is a real one especially when your livelihood…

I learned in differential calculus, that problem solving is easier if your start with the solution and work back to the problem.  At first, this is an awkward testament to a person’s ability.  We do not often spend time going backwards in life.  In this case though, I found if I focus on the desired resolution, the pathway to resolving the problem becomes clear.  

Once I have the pathway…

  The power of disappointment is a fine line that separates the Winners from the Losers...    

    The strong minded from the weak minded...

If  harnessed properly it can be a monumentally productive tool that taps into your inner core and unleashes and fuels and even greater drive or desire to rise…

Recently, a new client of mine was surprised that the first thing I did when I came into his dealership was to familiarize myself with the manufacturers Policy and Procedure manual - and by familiarize, I mean that I read it cover to cover.  This has been a process of mine since I first entered into the automotive field almost 20 years ago.  If there has ever been a publication that is released by a manufacturer, which outlines pretty much every expectation they have for each of the…

(Part 1 – Assess them)

Pre-Owned vehicles are the life blood of any successful automotive dealership!

For some dealers, that don’t floor plan pre-owned vehicles, this is where a LOT of cash can be found!

So why is it that some dealers feel that the Pre-owned department takes a “back seat” to the New vehicle…

Do you know the one thing that happens before 100% of the closes salespeople succeed at?  If you discover that secret, you'll see an increase in your own closing ratio, or in your ability to drive your sales staff to repeating successful months over and over.  The real beauty is, once you discover the secret, you have it.  It becomes yours to use any time you need it.

This powerful secret will also work to help you improve yourself, increase your skills and develop your team…

Want to make more sales or maybe just sound smarter?  Then learn which words make lots of people--from your peers, to your bosses, to your CUSTOMERS--cringe.  Spoken or written, these words lose you sales!

Irregardless.  It's a common word now that is most often misused as a synonym for "regardless"--and it is not.  It's a double negative of…

I'm prepping for a big strategy meeting with a dealer group. So I decide to verify my hunch that there is big opportunity in training the call handlers for better Appointment Set, CSI, Retention and all that good stuff. I decide to listen to a bunch of calls from some of the top performing dealerships in the country, to help identify the skill differences and training opportunities.

Then it hit me......How could I have missed this for so long?? 

The…

About the 1st Automotive ZMOT Study

I've been profoundly impacted by a free book called "Winning the Zero Moment of Truth" by Jim Lecinski.  As a result of reading this book, I have created training materials, online workshops, and planning materials for car dealers on this…

Mark Zuckerberg and others announce revolutionary and supercool changes to Facebook.

According to Zuck in his introduction to the keynote:

• A record 500 million people used Facebook the same day. We’re connected now. The next era will be defined by the social apps that use these connections.
• PROFILE: The profile is the heart of the FB experience, and people invest a lot in their profile. The old 2004 profile: how you introduce…