A brand-new survey just completed by drivingsales.com gives clear insight into why you need to be ramping up your skills for selling to female drivers if you want to excel in today’s marketplace.  That and the fact that female Customers influence 80% of all car buying decisions should bring this home to anyone who makes their living…

There is an old saying that good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.

In the car business we often think of aggression as something used to control the Customer and get them to do what we want.  This kind of aggression is not good and has no place in our industry.  We certainly want to be aggressive…

In order to be successful in today’s extremely competitive Retail Automotive Industry, Customers need to feel more than just satisfied with their experience in your Dealership; their satisfaction needs to exceed their expectations if you want to maintain and/or grow a thriving dealership. 

No matter what the business, customers will have a minimum…

The used car market is flourishing today and when someone goes to a Dealership to look for a previously owned vehicle, they have a dozen questions they would like answered. For some customers, there is hesitation in purchasing a used versus a new vehicle, but the price drop often overcomes their concerns. In order to provide assurance to…

Are you sick of hearing about social media? Is it because you secretly just aren't sure how to use it or don't want to invest the time in it? Well, you are not alone. There are plenty of other car salespeople who have been wondering if they need to jump on the bandwagon or just stick to their traditional method of acquiring new car customers. …

Are you incorporating the auto service department into your sales presentation? 

If not, you should start so immediately! There is a reason why most successful car salespeople make the service department the last stop on their way to the closing table.  Car buyers today keep their cars…

Sometimes knowing what not to do as an auto Salesperson is as valuable as knowing what you should do.   Here are the top 4 things you should NEVER do when selling cars:

1. Never ask the Customer a question that would cause them to tell you a lie

The old adage that “all buyers are liars” is…

Sometimes knowing what not to do as an auto Salesperson is as valuable as knowing what you should do.   Here are the top 4 things you should NEVER do when selling cars:

1. Never ask the Customer a question that would cause them to tell you a lie

The old adage that “all buyers are liars” is…

Yeah that's right, you heard me... I'm talking to you... I'm calling you out.

I'm looking you in the eyes (OK well, not really since you are probably reading this article, but figuratively, I am burning a cyclops type h*** in your face right now) and telling you that you don't stand a chance.

I'm telling you that if…

Do you know the one thing you can do on your dealership's website to increase leads? In this week’s Think Tank Tuesday, I’m going to show you the importance of strong web panels and how they increases customer conversions on your website.

The questions “How do I drive more leads to my website?" and "How do I increase conversions?” are always asked. We’ve done the research so you can implement the strategy in your dealership. You can do it completely free and in house; create custom…

Recently, I’ve been busy out in the field doing what I love most—rolling up my sleeves and working on-site with client-dealers, which is something I don’t have much time for in my position as director of the NCM® Institute. Recently, though, I’ve had the opportunity to work with two exceptional dealership groups who are committed to going “from good to great.”   

I know I’ve been remarkably fortunate, over my 25+ years in training and…

It’s time for a continuation of the mini case study focused on the objectives established and challenges faced in building processes to develop, measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client automotive dealership group. In our article titled OTDB Measurement and Management – Part Two, published on March 20, 2012, I discussed the structure of the vehicle sales department and the general expectations that we defined and communicated to the members of the sales…

It’s probably because of my college training in industrial engineering, but I’ve always been fascinated and challenged by trying to define any meaningful relationships between “opportunities to do business” (OTDBs) and sales results. After a half-century of experience in the retail automotive business, I’ve concluded that there truly are consequential metrics associated with selling both vehicles and service at an auto dealership. 

For instance, do you know how many good vehicle sales…

I am again continuing the mini case study focused on the objectives established, and challenges faced, in building processes to measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client dealership group. Today, my focus is on one of the greatest vehicle sales opportunities that most dealers enjoy, but fail to capitalize on.

At one point during this engagement, I had asked the dealer principal if he was satisfied with the strategies being employed to develop vehicle sales…

This is the continuation of the mini case study focused on the objectives and challenges of building a process to measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client dealership group. Today I’ll be focusing on the vehicle sales departments in general.

The sales management staff had decided that OTDBs needed to be first divided into five major categories: (1) first-time walk-ins; (2) Internet leads; (3) blind phone inquiries; (4) proactive salesperson appointments;…

Several years ago one of my more enlightened and proactive client-dealers said to me, “I know I don’t really need more opportunities to do business; I just need to do a better job of measuring and managing the OTDBs I already have.” He then asked for my help to develop and implement a traffic management process for each of the five operating departments within his multi-rooftop automotive dealership group. Over the next several weeks,…

Over the last fifteen years I’ve conducted numerous dealership sales meetings, at which we perform an interactive exercise called “Who Do You Know?” I ask each salesperson to write down just one name of someone they know in each of about 75 categories that I read to them over a twenty minute period. After the exercise is completed, I inspect the pages and pages of names that they’ve written down and I normally say something like, “Don’t talk to me about not having enough…

I have always believed there is a valid reason why dealership website designers include a “Used Vehicle Specials (UVS)” page in their master plan. Because if I were a used vehicle prospect cruising dealers’ websites, when I click on “Used Vehicles” and a drop-down appears with one of the choices being “Specials” (or “Featured Vehicles”), I would certainly go there first before taking a deep dive into the overall used vehicle inventory. However, most dealership managers must not think that…

At the Sonic Dealer Academy we used an article titled, “Simple Techniques to Grow Your Business,” as a teaching tool. This article was authored by Duane “D.J.” Sprague who, at the time, was the president of Dunning Sprague Marketing & Advertising, a full service agency specializing in generating and retaining customers for the retail automotive dealer. All of us that were exposed to D.J.’s metrics took them at face value. I think many of them, particularly those listed below, still apply…

Those of us who have been around the retail automobile industry will sooner or later find a customer that says your product, store or staff sucks. This usually happens when a salesperson is working the service area and runs into that customer. You know the one who can't wait to unload all his problems on you.

Oddly enough, this person is as good of a prospect as…