You’ve read article after article about the wonders of an online presence and what it can do for your dealership.

While that’s undeniably true, there are liabilities that come with the territory, as well. Your brand’s online identity is a crucial element among your company’s marketing assets. It works night and day reaching audiences with information…

OAK BROOK, IL – July 11, 2012 – vAuto announced the acquisition of Auction Genius, creator of a heads-up display for online auto auctions, and the roll-out of initial product integrations between the companies.

 “This acquisition advances vAuto’s mission to help dealers become more efficient and effective used vehicle retailers,” says Dale Pollak, vAuto founder. “Auction Genius’ intuitive dashboard offers the perfect blend of sophistication and simplicity. Its…

Employees are the life of any organization. We spends hours recruiting, screening and interviewing them. After we have hired them, we spend more time training, coaching and monitoring them.

And when it's all said and done, we like to think that we have contributed to the Dealership's future and had a hand in weaving the very fabric of that Dealership.

And in every Dealership…

At 10 a.m. CDT today, vAuto will be publicly announcing the acquisition of Auction Genius—a company that has developed a “heads-up display” technology to simplify how dealers evaluate and purchase used vehicles at online auctions. This is vAuto’s first acquisition.  

The acquisition…

I think we have a pretty great attitude in the auto dealer online community. For as long as I’ve been a part of it, I’ve observed dealers helping each other by sharing marketing tactics and Internet strategies. The daily…

Many dealership management today when asked if they have a training program, will say yes. In my working with dealers around the country, I have found when you take a deep dive it consists of a random amount of videos to watch, the factory sponsored online training, and managers desperately trying to fill up a calendar week of activities for the new hires.

One key ingredient being overlooked is the crucial 3-4 week period of a new hire to the automotive industry faces. Many of the new…

Award recognizes the most innovative dealership solutions of 2012; competition and presentation at 2012 DrivingSales Executive Summit

Salt Lake City, Utah – July 11, 2012 – DrivingSales today announced the call for entries for the third annual DrivingSales Innovation Cup Award, which recognizes the most innovative…

When an inquiry comes in on a previously owned vehicle, and you do not have one available, what does your internet department do?

Do You Have An SEM Strategy For Service? from Potratz on Vimeo.

Search engine marketing is an excellent tool to increase awareness and profit for your service department. Why focus only on those looking to purchase a vehicle when you can also target…

My Big Bang Theory

The ambiguous act of sales training is responsible for the high failure rate of salespeople everywhere, in every industry. Quit kidding yourself by engaging in activities to achieve a result that you have not yet defined.

For instance, most people refuse to acknowledge that success is an illusion chased by those that fail to identify what it is that they seek. They have never taken the time to clarify what it is that they define as success, yet they keep stating that they want to be…

You've decided to go outside your dealership to get something handled.  After a lot of thought, you realized it would be better to spend money with the right experts and handle things once, than to save money on paper and take your people away from what they do best for you.  Many times that's exactly what you should do.  But how do you know you have the right company for what you really need?      

To help you see how to rate a company or service, I will be using…

Keynote gives dealer attendees deep insight into mobile behavior and sets stage for three days of dynamic and inspiring keynotes; in-the-trenches, cutting-edge profit-building information and peer-to-peer collaboration

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – July 10, 2012 – DrivingSales today announced that the internationally recognized mobile experience expert and digital product leader, Luke Wroblewski, will be the opening…

Alliance revolutionizes vehicle stock photos, blending izmostock’s high quality car images with Maground’s amazing worldwide destination stock photography 

San Francisco, CA – July 10, 2012 – izmostock (www.izmostock.com) a division of izmocars, the world-leader in automotive photography and interactive media, today announced a partnership with Maground (…

Hey guys - 

Check out this blog post authored by ActivEngage CEO Todd Smith about how you can manipulate the Google Search function to your advantage. Your dealership's name is not the only keyword you should be optimizing for!

Read more here: http://livechat.ae/websitefail

Wow, that’s a lot of acronyms, but you know what they all mean, right? Following are four recommendations from John Gilbert, the Fixed Operations specialist with NCM’s Retail Operations division. To increase your effective labor rate (ELR), reduce your cost of sale (COS), and improve your gross profit margin (GPM) on customer-paid repair order (R.O.) sales:

1. Check…

Bank robber, Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks stated flatly,

“Because that’s where the money is.” Good answer. The car business has forever been changed by the Internet. The customer has the invoice, trim levels, and can even quote sales word tracks. On any new car the customer comes with a wealth of information and the strategy to sell and satisfy this customer has brought a revolution in how car dealers do business. Generally selling new cars is not so much about profit…

During my days in the trenches, I have heard many dealers come across this problem in regards to getting “Ghosted” on Craigslist. So, how do you stop it? Why does your post on Craigslist not generate any traffic for you? Is it something you did wrong or is no one reading your posts? Your posts are not showing up on Craigslist at all, why not? If the answers to my prior questions leave you in a baffled state of confusion, then read on. Let’s begin by learning what exactly is “Ghosting”.…