"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties; or you alter yourself to meet them," ~Writer, Phyllis Bottome.

For those of you that know me, or if you have followed my blogs for a while, you probably know that customer service is a passion of mine. I genuinely…

Networking is essential and goes beyond the limits of the internet. Yes, you will need more than to sit behind a computer and make online connections if you really want your networking strategy to work and deliver the expected results. This is where you need an offline networking event. The networking event can help you to make very important connections for…

Did you know the customer data sitting in your DMS is the most valuable asset you own—even more valuable than your real estate and inventory combined? Yet I don’t know any dealers that have a budget or defined strategic objective to invest in, increase and maintain the value of this asset.

When you have comprehensive customer data, you know something…

In a recent blog, I wrote about how content marketing is more of a long-term play.

In addition, to attract an audience, it is vital to offer more than purely sales content and “buy now!” messages. Consumers are constantly bombarded with these salesy messages.…

Department Managers have an enormous impact on your Dealerships Profitability. That impact can either be positive, or negative. The choice is really up to you. We would never let the coach on the field without a playbook and a strategy, yet as an industry we let our managers “play” every day without the skills and support to manager their teams. Ask yourself “do I have a…

Who is the most important person in your dealership? Every time I ask this question I get different answers ranging from the dealer, to various members of management…

I've been asked this question so many times, so I decided to put together my own personal guide to share. Do with it what you will. Accept it, challenge it, modify it, it's at least a starting point. It's attached as well. Enjoy!

PDF…

In the auto industry, there are many pieces that make up the whole market -  from manufacturers to dealers to parts suppliers to distribution and transport to the financing of all these operations on many different levels. I come from the banking side of the industry. Specifically, how new car franchises and private dealers "floor plan" both new units from manufacturers or used units from auctions, dealer trades or trade ins.

One of the biggest inefficiencies in a dealerships…

In my last article, I discussed what a Public Relations firm does. One of those tasks, which I hope you never need but is important to understand, is crisis management. Not every company is going to go off the deep end like…

Does your car dealership have a plan in place for marketing its service center? You need to encourage people to return to your dealership after their vehicle purchase for service, and you also need a strategy to pick up new leads just for service.

13 Tips for Automotive Service Center Marketing from…

Ok, so you finished with one of the worst months you’ve ever had-now what. You have two options in this situation; you can hold court on the black top and cry a river to a bunch of guys who don’t really care or you can plan for a better month. Speed is everything to your sales career and you must have two mindsets when navigating through your month: That of a…

Most recently there has been a bold new wave washing over the automotive dealership landscape. Beginning with TrueCar, whose CEO bragged about using data to eliminate dealerships and  lower profits below True Cost. He arrogantly taunted us with claims of "Transparency" which has become the "Buzz Word" of every vendor using our own data to virtually put us out of business, to steal our customers information, and sell it, pass it on to their affiliate companies, and otherwise resell it to…

I've been seeing a lot of posts lately about upcoming fall conferences and events. These posts are typically not altruistic. They're written by people with vested interests in specific events, whether that's because they're a speaker or they're the host. Now it's our turn.

For people interested in learning and are considering attending one of these events and aren't sure which to attend, I've created a graphic comparison of the three events specifically being held in October 2011 that…

In a class action lawsuit filed on June 21, 2011 against AutoNation (Santa Clara Superior Court, entitled Lilly v. AutoNation, Case No. 1-11-CV-203569), attorneys are claiming that AutoNation is in violation of the California Labor Code by misclassifying commissioned sales reps as exempt from overtime and, in addition, issuing deduct vouchers post-sale for losses in commissionable gross due to repair or…