Across all of the Star Wars movies, the evil Imperial stormtroopers have the resources of the most powerful organization in the Universe, the latest technology, cutting-edge weaponry, and endless supplies. Yet in nearly every confrontation with a small band of rebels they never seem to be able to hit anyone when shooting!

How can these untrained rebels…

Why does it take 7 positive surveys to overcome 1 negative one? After having one bad month, why does it take 3 months to get back on track?  Explain to me why I must work with 4, 5, even 8 prospects before finally making 1 sale?

Red ink doesn’t flow faster than black ink-it merely shows faster. The truth is we need red ink moments in life to quickly…

When I was asked last year to develop a social media marketing service, the first question they asked was whether I already had software in mind or if it needed to be built. I told them that the software had already been developed and it was free. This didn’t go over well at first; they’d always used premium social media…

Original post is from Used Car University's Blog and is written by Harlene Doane. 

Dealerships sometimes take the time to look at their sales demographics (e.g. zip codes, age, gender, ethnicity) and adjust their marketing for prospects based on those demographics. No surprise it’s called target marketing.

But does you salesperson do the same with their…

Hello Fellow Dealer Elite members and friends.

It has been a while since I have had the time to put together a blog post of Dealer Elite because it has been a very busy year so far and to be honest I have not had the time. I took a look at the Auto News program today and to be honest was very surprised to see that companies from Chrysler Dodge Jeep Fiat customers are reaching the CEO of the company.

I must say I was also very happy that…

In constant pursuit of keeping up with the Marketing Jones Family, I came across a book by David Cummings and Adam Blitzer called Think Outside the…

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…

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…

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…

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…

I just finished a meeting with one of my long term clients toady and wanted to share some details on how powerful "Accurate" information really is at a dealership.

First of all let me give you a little of the back story on this dealership and the challenges they faced before we started working with them.

This dealership had a service BDC with no process and was essentially a second switchboard handling thousands of calls with limited results.…

The Right Process is the key to success in every industry period.

Most business professionals already know that process is what drives success. most if not all of the worlds most successful companies depend on it. Companies like McDonalds, Starbucks, Disney, Hilton to name just a few. The big challenge facing the automotive industry today is not the "Road to the Sale" it's all the other things we do that are not process driven.

Simple things like…

by Kathryn Carlson