Written by: Rebecca Chernek

EMBRACE CHANGE

The glass ceiling for women’s acceptance in the finance industry was shattered over a decade ago.

According to the 2012 Catalyst Census of Women Executive Officers and Top Earners, which counts the number of women in upper management in Fortune 500 companies, women comprise over 18% of all executive officers in the finance industry, and 19% of board directors in the finance and insurance industries in…

AutoNation USA, the #1 publicly-owned automotive retailer, opened its doors as a mega “one pricing” pre-owned operation in 1997. It built elaborate showrooms; county records show one was 218,000 square feet. The showrooms included a café, a playroom and an aftermarket display platform.

Kiosks with computers were placed throughout the store enabling consumers to efficiently check out in-stock inventory or to submit a loan application. Customers were greeted at these kiosks by…

AutoNation USA, the #1 publicly owned retailer, opened it’s doors as a mega “one pricing” pre-owned operation in 1997. It built elaborate showrooms; county records show one was 218,000 square feet. The showrooms included a café, a playroom, and an aftermarket display platform.

Kiosks with computers were placed throughout the store enabling consumers to efficiently check out in-stock inventory or to submit a loan application. Customers were greeted at these kiosks by F&I…

Drive up to a dealership and you will most likely see a lot lizard. Their species is easy to spot. They tend to congregate in front of the dealership, smoking, joking, complaining and waiting to wait on someone. Notice I said waiting to wait on. These lizards are a curious species in how they tend to look for prey. The professional is a different breed. The professional tends to not wait on much or for long. The professional has goals, a work plan and is too busy taking action…

Two things keep people from being successful: laziness and the lack of leverage. The good news is that neither of these are incurable diseases, but they can be if left untreated. Let’s take a look at both and how to get rid of each one.

Leverage creates the tipping point that gets you moving and taking action. Leverage can come from wants, needs, fear, love, hate and other emotional triggers. All leverage points are good if you channel them correctly, even if they…

If you haven’t already done so, it’s that time to review your 2012 performance in detail. In what areas did you fall short of your goals and why? Where could you have generated greater gains and how? Don’t allow January to slip by without these facts in writing and a discussion of how you can best move forward in 2013.

A common F&I pay plan in the automotive industry is known as the grid. It compensates managers based on their per vehicle retail performance and products sold…

5 Compliance Checkpoints

By Gil Van Over

Let me start by saying that the overuse of tired clichés is one of my pet peeves. I detest them in sportscasts, and I’ve grown a little tired of those clichéd lists magazines put out each year with predictions for the coming year. So, I apologize upfront for the list I’m about to share with you now.

Just so I can live with myself, I’m calling my compilation a checklist. I’ll cover the top…

 Is Front Gross $PVR Still a Relevant Metric?

One of our “poster” clients—with super market penetration, great customer retention, strong gross profit production, and excellent net-to-gross retention—doesn’t believe in focusing on front $PVR, at least in his new vehicle department. In fact, his business model is based on $-0- new vehicle “total front gross profit.” But please also understand the following:

• The New…

Think Tank Tuesday- Are You Missing Sales With The Wrong Messaging? from Potratz on Vimeo.

Are you missing out on sales because your marketing message is focused only on price points?  If you're only focused on price, you are not connecting with customers who are…

           Great article, Greg! I’ve been singing in the same chorus, but it seems that other members are either staying home or remaining silent. Both reasons denote an underlying sense of fear or helplessness or ignorance of the real issues.  It’s hard to change “old ways” but not impossible. Change is good.

            However, too many F&I managers are still being lumped into the same crock of criticism; some deserve to be there, but many more don’t. The dealership…

Starving for Attention

I’m sitting in the manager’s office. He’s got the blinds up and is pointing to the showroom floor.

“That’s him – third desk. Ed. When he started, I thought the guy would be a natural. Young, good-looking, knows the cars, knows finance, friendly, great recommendation… I think I must have spent $10K on getting him trained. But I don’t understand him. He’s making me look bad, like I can’t pick ‘em anymore. The other guys are starting to crack jokes.…

Entrepreneurs: They Embody the American Dream

The late Peter Drucker once said, “Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice.” CCI practices entrepreneurship.

Small business owners by the millions are eagerly waiting for the next election to learn how the upcoming years will effect not only their ability to grow and profit, but to continue toward the goals that are infused by their enthusiasm. They want to…

Last week I attended NCM’s semi-annual meeting of all its divisional directors, 20 Group moderators, Retail Operations consultants, and NCM Institute faculty members, who, along with our CEO set aside two and a half days to dialogue about what’s happening around the industry and within the company, and how best to address the needs of our clients.  As usual, it was a great encounter, with far too much agenda content and discussion for the overall time allotted.

One of the topics that…

I wanted to share a story with you all that happened recently. So many times when working in an industry, we forget to look at the best practices of other industries and how we can apply them to our chosen professions.

My wife recently got hooked on blenders and purchased one that, after six months, did not perform to her satisfaction. I was promptly informed that we needed to upgrade. I did not fully understand why we needed to do this and the product she selected…

Very few dealers are both aggressive and effective in selling Extended Service Agreements (ESAs) after the new or used vehicle has been delivered. If you are so fortunate to be among this minority, you don’t need to read any further. Since most F&I departments don’t seem to have the inclination or motivation to work these post-delivery opportunities, let’s explore an alternate strategy…structuring a process to have our service advisors aggressively and effectively sell ESAs in…

In all of the training programs I attended as a salesperson, there was one question that was always brought up.  Can you guess what it is?  Here's a hint.  Every trainer who ever talked about it, called it the stupidest question you can ever ask.  Have an idea yet?  It's the age old - "Can I help you?"  How many of us had that pounded into our heads at every training session we ever attended?  And yet, the reason it's still talked about is that too many people are using it as a…