Last week I was driving down a highway and noticed several state troopers alongside the road in an old service station. One stepped in front of my car and flagged me in to the parking area. The officer quickly walked around my vehicle checking all of my turn signals and headlights. He also quickly checked tire condition and the emergency brake function. He did use me to turn the switches and push the brake and the process took only a few minutes. The trooper also checked my current insurance…

A persons biggest fear is rejection from their peers. A sales person has the same fear when they represent a product they believe in to their peers.

Confidence Sells

Customers, and really everyone are attracted to want to deal with, and be around confident people. It seems like these people, men and women alike never face any kind of objections when they are dealing with their customers. In a sense this is true, and it is because they have earned the trust and…

Most dealerships and businesses in general know that it's bad practice to bad-mouth your competition. That being said, I know of and have heard plenty of salespeople and managers using their online reviews to help close a deal by comparing them to their competitors online reviews. This practice is similar if not exactly the same. You are leveraging negative comments about your competitor left by other people (who you are representing as real - we all know fake reviews exist) to your positive…

(as featured on CarChat24's blog).

Imagine walking into a party that you were invited to and seeing 150 people standing around. They’re dressed in their best, and ready to have a good time and be conversational.

When you walked through the door, people looked over at you, but no one said anything. Surely you didn’t want people to make a huge deal over you entering…

It’s November and the weather is changing, so it’s time to get ready for our slow season. This is the time of year that many of us in the car business often dread because the days are long, quite boring and in the windy city where I live, you can actually feel your brain shrinking after one too many days of snow. However, this is the perfect time of year to do some housekeeping in preparation for spring, your true selling season. This is the perfect time to generate some momentum by taking…

Google announced yesterday via its blog, that it had instituted a feature in Google search and GMail ad transparency. This change will give consumers the ability to see why ads are being delivered (ie. what previous searches triggered the ads) as well as the ability to block ads from a particular company/advertiser. This option is available for all…

Influential people on Twitter get hit up by so many different businesses and organizations hoping that they will help promote their product or service. It's challenging to truly engage with these influencers in a meaningful way that they will appreciate and reciprocate.

Challenging. Not impossible. Here, we discuss ways to engage with them and have…

The AutoDealerTarget Roundtable, hosted by Tom Kain and John Miller is broadcast LIVE every Tuesday night at 10pm Eastern / 9pm Central.



This Week

When: Tuesday, November 1st @ 10pm Eastern / 9pm Central

Join Us: Google Hangout, Live Broadcast at http://autodealertarget.com/roundtable

Featured Guest: +Mike…

The difference between being a bestselling author and starving artist is a fine line we walk everyday…

Word Tracks in our business is a crucial and vital part of our strategy and successes…

However, as important as they are… They only account for 7% of our communication skills!

  This is a topic every manager should address with their…

For the most part, search engine optimization (SEO) is a recognized necessity of running a successful auto dealer website.  Not just in the auto industry, but there are still some hold-outs that think building websites and content to be found by search engines is a little spammy.

According to Matt Cutts, the head of Google's web spam fighting team, his company does not consider SEO to be spam.  "We don't consider SEO to be spam," and SEO is a "valid way to help people find…

Auto industry veteran to focus on implementation of izmocars auto business solutions in dealerships across the country, including AOA which is generating $475 in average accessories revenue increases for dealerships across the country.

izmocars (http://www.izmocars.com) a leading provider of automotive business solutions today…

izmocars’ industry first brings suppliers, re-stylers, installers and dealers together to better coordinate parts updates, pricing, ordering and installation; Supplier dealer orders increase nearly 400% after only two months on network

Las Vegas, NV - izmocars (http://www.izmocars.com) today announced that it will unveil the revolutionary AOA Supplier Digital Network at this week's 2011 SEMA show in Las Vegas. The new…

There are zombies out there right now trying to “manage” your business’ Social Media.  Many dealers are still defining what Social Media means to them and their business.  If you’re not a regular user, it’s hard to decipher what really will work for you.  Some promise success; others scare you into a…

First, let me assert this:  There is NO such thing as “purity and sanctity” of a customer review of a business.  Of ANY business, dealership or not.  Why?

For any review "collector" (Google, etc.), trying to police reviews while thinking otherwise is Pollyannaish and is really an enormous “plate of spaghetti” (whether the reviews were performed on the business’…

Some of the enhancements made over the last week to the G+ platform lead me to believe that they will be launching business and branding pages this week. If not this week I gather very soon. 

In the last week the G+ has introduced What's Hot, Ripples  and a basic moderation tool for G+ hangouts. I have also heard rumors of phone integration or having the…

Good morning,

Like most of you, training is a large part of what I do everyday. Maybe more than most of you since I work with dealers and training is part of my job. Either way in order to manage people, improve what your team does or in order to spend less time micromanaging your team training is critical.

As you may know there are three stages to learning anything in life. The first step is to have an understanding of what the training is about or the Why?…

This is my first day back after a five week road trip.  I had the priviledge of working with some top dealers to help them staff their sales team with trained recruits.  But, that can also be a curse if the dealer simply sends them on to the floor, wishing them luck, adn hoping for the best.  My job and that of many of my colleagues at other companies is to help new people build a solid foundation for each of the dealers to build upon.  In other words, I am only the beginning.

When…

I visited a client at their dealership this past week. After my full day review which included time to meet and train their staff, I was asked by the Dealer Principal: "Just How Far Behind Are We?".



This is actually a common question that I get asked…