By: Laura Madison, National Director of Sales at Alan Ram's Proactive Training Solutions

The most frequent question I get asked by salespeople who want to use social media to sell cars is, “where do I start?” Many salespeople want to leverage social…

Hello Dealer Elite Members and friends,

Proactive dealer solutions has just expanded our marketing efforts with the launch of our all new 2013 iPhone app. We also have an version available for Android phones as well. 

Download the Apple iphone one here:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/x/id589627140?mt=8

I will have a link for the Android one soon......

Happy…

Good morning Dealer Elite Members.....

As I travel around North America and speak to salespeople, customers, managers, owners and BDC reps I am always surprised by how often salespeople are prevented from selling vehicles buy not asking great questions.

The situation usually starts after a salesperson has spend several hours with the customer and asks for the order. The customer usually says something like, I need to speak to my wife, my friend, my dad, my…

Good afternoon Dealer Elite Members and associates,

I have been noticing a disturbing trend in retail lately and I am sure it is also true in other areas of the workforce as well. As we become more and more connected with Social Media, Smartphones and the internet red flags are popping up everywhere for me.

Everyone is becoming more and more distracted and this means productivity, focus and results are being affected. Of course this is happening when driving in…

Good morning Dealer Elite Members,

As I travel around North America I have found that dealership staff like customers are convinced that servicing their vehicles at a dealership is more expensive than Hans and Franz, Jiffy lube etc.

The competition has not only convinced our customers they have convinced our staff that we are no longer competitive in the market. This is a huge problem and needs to be dealt with.

Step…

Good morning Dealer Elite members and friends,

In my travels I visit hundreds of dealerships as a consultant and sometime as an observer or even as a consumer. Some of the things I see amaze me, some in a good way and some in a bad way. For example I was touring a series of dealership locations over the weekend and I must say that each dealership had a different customer experience.

It was saturday and it was quite warm so I was dressed casually and I visited…

Good morning Dealer Elite Members,

As i visit retailers of all stripes I find an interesting problem happens again and again. Simply put it prevents the sales, service and part department from creating happy customers and generating more sales service and parts sales as well.

Here are the details:

One: No customer really cares about why a request is not possible.…

Hello Dealer Elite Members,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I as always have been doing a lot of reading, thinking and spending time trying to solve the major problems in the Automotive industry today!

One of the most common and largest problems that I see on a daily basis in addition to "Poor Customer Service" at Automotive Dealerships is their…

Hello Dealer Elite Members,

First of all I am sorry I have not been more active this week. I have been burning the candle at both ends lately and it has been catching up to me. I have also had the opportunity to read several books on retailers who are the gold standard in their industry. One of them is Nordstrom’s and one of them is Apple Computer.

I was able to learn a great deal about why both of these retailers have not only a great reputation but also…

Good morning Dealer Elite Members, True Car is back for a second round.....

As I mentioned in my post last week there are big changes coming in the automotive space. True Car has learned from their past mistakes and hopefully has a little more respect for dealerships this time. Their president a former Nissan executive visited the Auto News office last week and was featured on their site this morning.

Here is the link:…

Hello Dealer Elite Members......

It looks like Auto Trader needs money much like Facebook did a while ago, and you know how that has gone so far!

As I travel around the country ans work with dealers on maximizing leads, traffic and driving more sales I have noticed more and more that dealerships are looking for "FREE" or low cost ways to promote their vehicles. Sites like Craigs's List and kijiji (Ebay), are currently changing the online marketing…

Thank You Dealer Elite Members

First of all I would like to thank Dealer Elite Members and others for taking the time to View my last Blog Post, I appreciate it. I was advised at had been viewed over 700 times so far, my sincere thanks to everyone.......

Now we all know the automotive industry needs to move into the 22st century as quickly as possible. Some of you may ask why, when some of the tactics still work.

Well let me give you some examples from…

Good Morning Dealer Elite Members and Car Guys and Gals everywhere.....

As an industry we have had our ups and downs, our challenges and our opportunities. As I travel around North America I see the whole range of Owners, Managers, salespeople and customers. I also see examples in our industry and in other industry of how we can move the industry forward and change the process for the better. We have spend the last 30 to 40 years conditioning customers that we can sell in…

Good afternoon Dealer Elite Members

Change is one of the only constants in the universe. The automotive world as you all know is overdue for this change as is a number of other retail environments. I was forwarded a very interesting article from a friend today that i think everyone in the automotive retail business should read. BMW who is one of the largest high end car companies in the world is taking the…

Is your dealership looking for more customers in 2012?

The first question is how many of the people who walk into your service drive, showroom and virtual showroom are you aware of and more importantly how are you managing these customers. As I travel around north America and work with large and small dealerships I see the following problems over and over.

One: Most dealers don't have accurate numbers in the following "Basic Areas".

Floor…

As I travel around North America I hear it again and again, the service at the dealership I went to was the problem.

I was on a plane yesterday and had a chance to speak with quite a few "real" car customers and I asked them what there experience has been the last time they were at their local car dealership. Here is what they had to say.....

One: The first person I spoke to said he had called his local Honda Dealership and asked if…