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. Click here to download the full report.

This week’s Black Book Market Insights report shows increased depreciation in luxury vehicles. Trucks as a whole had a greater average depreciation this week as compared to cars. However, two vehicle segments within the truck segment had solid retention and even increased their…

On-demand driver services such as Uber are on the rise. The approaching disruption of driverless vehicles shouldn’t come as a surprise, but dealers need to find a way to keep up with customers who want alternatives to owning a vehicle. It comes down to this: complacency can cause suppliers to lose touch with their customers. To remain successful and compensate for declining…

So many times we talk about using video to communicate your message to your customers. But what’s the right way to make a video? 

YouTube Director will walk you through exactly what you need to do to figure out what type of video will work for you.

This week on Hard Facts, Samantha will show you the steps you need to take after you’ve downloaded the app. Watch the video for more information.…

The hiring process can be challenging. You think you're improving your chances of hiring the best person for the job by carefully reviewing résumés, planning interviews, conducting background checks, and incorporating a personality test into your hiring practice. However, not…

What would you do if a customer was injured at your dealership and you were at fault? I don’t mean serious injury or anything like that. Perhaps just a bump or scrape? Most businesses would apologize or, at the very least acknowledge the mishap to the customer. Perhaps send some flowers or a gift card. You certainly wouldn’t want to ignore it, right?

Well,…

There is a lot of talk going on about car dealership turnover. It seems that everyone has an opinion about it but not a whole lot of solutions. I am going to do some "REAL TALK" in this post because it is time that the sugar coating stops. I have spent a great deal of time between consulting dealers and working for dealers on a case by case basis over the…

Terminating someone is never pleasant and not to be taken lightly. As a former service manager I only had to fire one service advisor -and I did not make that decision lightly. However, in most cases it is the employee’s choice to get fired. What do I mean? Certainly it’s the manager’s responsibility to train employees and develop processes. But anyone with experience…

There are many different approaches to keeping our names in front of our clientele. Here are just some of my quick suggestions;

1) ONE school of thought is not to ask for referrals at the time of delivery. It’s their magic moment, not ours. Besides our customers won’t care enough to send us referrals until they know how much we care about them. Remember, in the long…

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. Click here to download the full report.

This week’s Black Book Market Insights report shows vehicles in the truck segment with much weaker retention values than those in the car segment. However, Sub-Compact Luxury Crossovers in the truck segment have managed to maintain their value since last week.

“So far this…

Your dealership undoubtedly sees a lot of customers each day. Let’s say that each customer who walks into your showroom wears a different color shirt. Over the course of time, you see a trend in that every single customer who purchased a vehicle wears a red shirt. You’d probably start getting excited when you see a customer come onto the lot wearing a red shirt. In fact, you…

Virtual Reality has been quite a craze recently with video gaming and other consumer electronics. However, the high cost of entry and expensive units limited its reach. Even Google’s cardboard VR glasses required smartphones that cost upwards of $700. The Oculus Rift Goggles were even more expensive and required high-end computers to work.

Now, however, Sony…

Your Competitors Are Invading Your Digital Beachfront

They spent thousands of dollars on digital marketing preparing to storm your fortifications because they expected fierce resistance. Instead they find an undefended Google Business Page from which you’re pouring customers straight into their sales funnel. Sound ridiculous? Well…

LENNY GETS A DO-OVER



Those of you who are closest to me, you know that Len Bellavia is one of my better friends in this business. Not only is Len my personal attorney; he is perhaps the best Dealer Lawyer in the business.

You might remember that Len was the attorney that successfully represented hundreds of Chrysler Dealers during their bankruptcy and…

Here's a scenario that unfortunately many dealers are familiar with: your star salesperson is poached by the competition. To add insult to injury, the salesperson takes with him a list of all his--and your dealership's--former customers.

Now your competition is reaping…

In their new book, The Intuitive Customer, authors Colin Shaw and Ryan Hamilton contend that companies that try to fight declining customer satisfaction by lowering prices are going about customer satisfaction the wrong way. Instead, they state that the magic to winning customer loyalty is based on…

Your DMS Data is held hostage and it hurts your dealership financially EVERY MONTH. And it's been happening for years.

How? First, to be clear, I’m NOT a vendor that has anything to do with your data, though I have been--I don't have my own economics in this dog fight, but I do know how this works against you, is what I mean. I’ve seen it for many years now: Several…