Jenny.

Tommy Tutone said it in 1981 and many of you reading this know that number. It’s Jenny’s number. And we remember it. Why? Sure, it was a catchy song and has become a staple in early pop music, but it does hold a hidden gem that every car dealer would be thrilled to possess.

For dealerships, customer information is only the beginning of…

Any of you familiar with that classic song from Diana Ross, “Upside Down?” Well, sometimes it’s an apt description of what can be a complicated sales process for today’s car buyers.

There’s a focused shift in the automotive community to reduce friction and create a more seamless experience for consumers from online to on the lot. Sure, some consumers – albeit…

Based on our research, the average Internet Manager, Inventory Manager, Sales Manager, GSM, and or GM spend an hour a day checking out the competition. Sure, an hour a day doesn’t seem to be too long when it comes to understanding the current market place, but what if you have 3 sales managers, 1 Internet Manager, 1 inventory manager, 1 GSM, and 1 GM, you can see the amount of time that is spent each day adds up.

Also, you must consider the amount of information you can truly find by…

Before the Internet people chose who to do business with based on their community and word-of-mouth. There were no review sites. Now, however, review sites are flourishing -- just about every third party listing service has adopted them and there are many stand-alone services too.

Consumers increasingly conduct their research online during their car shopping…

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about Amazon’s entry into the automotive world… something I predicted quite a while ago and covered in previous blogs.

For the moment, Amazon is functioning as simply a new research portal where consumers can find information and…

While the consumer’s car buying journey can include upwards of 24 touchpoints, there are some particular milestone moments in that journey that can define and direct their actions. These moments are covered in a report recently released by Google’s Automotive division, “…

It’s widely accepted that content created by third parties in general holds more value for businesses than content they create themselves. Many have felt that consumers better trusted product information and reviews written by neutral persons. According to new research by Vibrant Media, however, that thought process may no longer be the case, if it ever…

Let’s face it the smartphone has become an epidemic, but what are customers constantly doing on their mobile devices?



Researching Resources

• Kelly Blue Book
• Edmounds
• Black Book
• True Car

* Why are they doing this?

• Want a hassle free buying…

Being different will get you more service business, according to a recent study published by Google. In a study titled “The Road to Winning Drivers: What Drivers Want In the Automotive Aftermarket Service,” Google shared some interesting insights into how service…

In the past, car shoppers understood that they would have to  trade their personal information in order to get specific information on vehicle pricing online. Today, they realize this is no longer necessary. As information has become more widely available and transparent, the consumer’s need to fill out a “Request A Quote” or “Contact Us” form on a website to obtain that…

Every day in North America, millions of people utilize search engines with the intent to find answers to their implied questions, or identify solutions for their problems.  Think about the last search you conducted online. Was it with the intent to find answers or solve problems? Of course it was.These days, anytime I want an answer for something whether it’s who…

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…

A friend shared a story about his pastor, who, wanting honest "In your face" feedback about his sermons, invited two close friends to lunch, gave each a pad of paper and pencil and invited them to “unload" with comments about the things that they did not like about his sermons.” They did.

As difficult as honest feedback usually is to hear, isn’t a truthful assessment of how others perceive us, (personally or as a business), valuable information to…

Partnership provides dealer training and tools to take bigger bite out of $29 billion accessories market and increase dealership accessories sales by nearly $500 per vehicle

San Francisco, California – October 5, 2011 -- izmocars (www.izmocars.com) and Ask Patty (www.AskPatty.com) today announced they've teamed up to provide car dealers with the training and tools…

Many auto dealerships are closing just twenty percent of shoppers who come through the doors, while the remaining eighty percent simply walk away to a competitor. CAR-Research XRM, a single-source CRM solution uniquely branded as; “XRM, Exceeding CRM”, recently released: An Auto Dealers' Guide to Outselling Competition, Increasing Car Sales, Decreasing 3rd Party Leads and Closing more…

This post is attributed to my colleague Tim Rose at AM Magazine in the UK http://www.am-online.com. It poses some very interesting views on the future direction of retail outlets as a result of some major research carried out in the UK regarding solus vs multi-franchise outlets....

"Research from a global automotive consultancy is likely to add weight to some carmakers’ demands for solus dealerships when dealers’ current…