Today, I joined a friend of mine for some shopping at Ikea, Lowes, and Target. I'm not a traditional female. That is, I don't know a lot about gardening, color combinations, or, I hate to admit, about cooking. I've made do with pasta, rice, and cereal for longer than I care to admit.

With experience, I've learned to navigate the twists and turns that is Ikea.…

Be the Person You Were Meant to Be

You can be all the things you dream of being,

if you’re willing to work hard and if you believe in yourself more.

Learn from the mistakes of others –…

In this blog post I reference two published research papers that cover a very important topic: Identifying fake online reviews. The two research papers I reference below, start to shed light on how online communities and the search engines will…

I worked at Oracle for a number of years and learned a great deal about Data Mining, Statistical Decistion Theory, Data Warehouses--all the components of Business Intelligence. I look around the Greater Los Angeles Area and where is a true BI--Business Intelligence Solution--at the dealer level? Dealers have, not years, but decades of data, and rather than using it to target specific demographics they still do the same ol' same ol' wasting millions of dollars on advertising, promotions, and…

Your Customers are Mad as Hell, and They Won’t Take It Anymore!!

Conquest and Retention are both driven by the Caller’s Journey

Great new is...we are clearly in recovery. The risk is, as Jack Jackintelle, President of the Rick Case Automotive Group, recently stated in his presentation to the Automotive Leadership Roundtable, is that we go back to reading our financial statements from the bottom up. There has…

A great feature of VinSolutions is the Fulfillment team and their ability to enhance your current marketing programs. The team prides themselves on being One With Vin, and that pride carries over into their work. This is evident in the strong relationships built with each client, the dedication to stay on top of the latest trends and technology, as well as a round-the-clock initiative devoted to their work. It is very apparent they have a ‘your business is our business’ attitude.

You…

Check out this great blog by Joe Cimmino from our graphics team, as he talks about the important role of text in a graphic.

What does it take to create a ground-breaking advertisement? An advertisement that will successfully communicate a message as well as…

We all use traditional methods -- and now increasingly digital methods, such as Craigslist, Cars.com, and Autos.com -- to scout for used cars. Getting the best results can be a challenge, especially in today's economy: it takes consistent monitoring and persistent effort to find quality used vehicles.



Are any of you leveraging alternative methods to add used cars to your inventory? Most auto auction houses have evolved to now offer online auctions, and during a recent search for a…

Add up the number of hours you’ve spent waiting for doctors, dentists, a restaurant table, haircuts and auto service, etc.  That’s a lot of time with nothing to do.  Smart businesses try to keep you occupied while you wait – really smart businesses try to keep you occupied with something that helps them make more money and increases CSI.

I was reviewing customer…

I like you guys. A lot.

What I love about all of us is that we're all from different areas of the automotive biz. We all have one other thing in common (other than the obvious connection to the automotive realm), and that's the desire to help and…

One thing I've learned in my twenty-some years on this earth is that everyone I can meet either "Can do something so incredibly well" or "Can't do THAT, it's too out of my realm."

"I can do that! It's incredibly easy!"

"I can't do that, I never learned how"

"I've done this a million times before.'

"I've never done anything like this."

My answer is always: "Prove it."

Not that I don't believe what people…

Okay, we've figured out where the deals are; see "Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up" my previous blog entry. Here is the scouting reports on various Internet Sales models.

You, Me, and the BDC

Hire a bunch of students, telemarketers, and part-timers and let them call all your leads. Compensation is based on Shows and Shows Sold, etc. By the way BDC stands for Business Development Center. Give out weekend spiffs and realistically they can make another…

Many months ago I hired a BDC rep who proved to be one of the best I've ever had. Her name is Trish Keller, and is a dE member. She possessed very good writing and communication skills, a great personality, and excellent phone skills. But that later changed when she was plagued by something unforeseen and debilitating.

You see, Trish had woken up one day, before we ever met, with a tingling sensation in her left arm. The next day it was completely numb. She since had multiple…

The importance of vital content is immense for all online marketing professionals. The ever increasing popularity of viral content is due to the fact that it can spread extremely quickly and can create backlinks in a breeze without spending much time or effort. These backlinks play a stellar role in generating a huge amount of traffic for the website by improving the search engine ranking of the website. 



It is true that very few contents go viral over the web. However, it is…

For a brief introduction and background...I have been the Used Car Manager at Anderson Honda in Palo Alto, California since October of last year.  I came in fresh off of reading Dale Pollack's second installment of Velocity and even though I'd like to characterize myself as a humble, teachable, smart young guy, I must admit there was a good amount of hubris that I carried into this new position as I thought to myself "how hard can this really be?"  Boy have I learned a lot over the last…

VinSolutions VP of Interactive Marketing, Kendall Billman, will be speaking in Las Vegas, NV May  15 -17 for the 3^rd Annual Automotive Boot Camp. This hands-on conference will provide necessary training and skills development that auto dealers need to run their business in an Internet dominated world, a must attend for auto dealers taking their dealership to the…