Welcome to the 1st Annual Colorado Springs Hot Rod Classic at Springs Spree, Saturday and Sunday, June 18th-June 19th, 2011. Father's Day weekend!…

Dealerships are jumping into Social Media and I’m excited. But who’s going to manage the beast? Back when the Internet was emerging, dealers or GM’s would assign someone in the store to handle it ‘in their spare time’. I was one of those. Today, dealers should be cautious

using this same tactic for Social Media. As we found out with the Internet, Social Media is not a fad that will be gone in a few…

Myspace has seen a significant drop in users over recent years, with its traffic dropping by half from 2009 to 2010. Will this move help to bring users back…

Starting this week, Potratz will produce a short weekly video highlighting the latest trends in digital automotive marketing. Think Tank Tuesday will be a fun and informative source of advice…

The social networking and media jungle is constantly changing, and sometimes automotive dealers get lost trying to cut through the bush to

stay ahead of current trends. Although it’s beneficial to stay

knowledgeable in the shifting social media arena, using the 1,000 pound

Gorilla (Facebook) to its maximum potential will provide a dealership

with the biggest return on investment.

As we already know, Facebook is the world’s largest social networking…

Automotive marketers are in the midst of planning their promotions for the upcoming auto show season. These shows are a prime opportunity to reach both casual car shoppers and serious buyers with the latest offerings and even a glimpse into the future. Across the country tens of thousands of curious onlookers will pay for the privilege of being courted by all the major domestic and import brands.

But can the…

I remember sitting in my office at Robberson Ford in beautiful Bend Oregon a couple years ago. It was a day not unlike today, clear but cold. I was having a terrible conversation with a

gentleman who had submitted an inquiry on a pre-owned vehicle. He’d been a mortgage broker for the previous 25years, and, like so many of the real estate affiliated customers I’d been talking to…

As this months topic fits right in with what I do... I am delivering a paragraph or two.

If you really want your internet to provide you with outstanding opportunities to do business, lets think a little bit about our approach. Do you have a BDC or are you still using an internet department? If your using a BDC you are certainly headed in the right direction. A seperate internet department, not so much.

An internet…

Source: CarChat24

1. Enhance Customer Experience. Most car shoppers dread the experience of drudging to the local car dealership to shop for a vehicle. There is a preconceived notion that car buying is a difficult experience. The solution for shoppers to obtain basic information without having to interact face-to-face with a salesman is Internet shopping. That’s right. Car shopping has gone online and shoppers are using your website and…

I’ve just spent 6 of the last 9 days working with 2 very professional sales teams; both from high volume and very profitable Honda stores in the SE; profitable because of their fixed operations and used car departments. 42 different sales team members, consultants and managers alike, went on videotape to…

I was forwarded a blog post by a colleague of mine the other day, thank you Rob, it was titled The 3 Types Of Social Media Strategy, I encourage you to read it before reading this post, it is spot on! In summary, the

author of the post, Tac Anderson,…

Do you feel like you are missing out on something? Are you confused as to what the next step is in making your dealership successful? It’s a different ballgame than it was even just a few years ago. The traditional dealership is dead and you must bury it to prosper in the future.…

You may find this post a bit odd knowing that it is being written by a sales trainer. I believe traditional selling is dead on arrival. The days of hiring and building a well trained sales staff that executes all facets of the sale, follow up, prospecting, marketing, telephone skills and building a database of repeat buyers has for the most part been dead for a while.



Some of you reading this may be shocked or even angry at such a statement and declare that it is certainly not the…

The traditional dealership is dead but some have not had their funeral yet. It seems as though as much as some things change in the auto industry, as many things stay the same. Every week our trainers observe things in dealerships that look and feel like the 1960's.



Let's take a look at some things still commonly observed in dealerships that are outdated and should be changed.



1) Manager towers - High towers built for managers where salespeople go to get their proposal…