Unless you have been hiding in a cave somewhere, you have heard that the U.S. economy is doing poorly. Housing starts are down, the value of the dollar is down, car sales are down, real estate is down, retail is down, gas prices are up, food prices are up, bankruptcies are up and the sky is falling. What is a person to do?

1. Don't Drink the Cool Aid

The news is sensationalized and fear sells. Things are rarely as good as they seem and things are rarely as bad as they…

It’s Saturday! Blow up the Balloons, blow up the squiggly air man thingy, get your game faces on and get ready. Barely anyone will walk on to your lot today. Any ideas why?

Before you continue reading this article, do me a favor right…

This is less than ten minutes long, and will help you make sense out if our crazy world and even crazier business.  Enjoy!

This concept is so aligned with the the direction of our entire business culture.  Please comment!

As we all know over 90% of consumers are online when researching and deciding which vehicle that he/she want's to purchase which leads to the inevitable that we must fish where the fish are.  Research reveals that effective Internet advertising not only provides dealers with greater reach to car…

The managers in your dealership must have a written job description with clearly defined responsibilities and expectations.

Having specific goals for the department is required. Daily action plans for selling, training, appointments, one-on-one coaching, save-a deal meetings, deal structuring, follow-up, etc will increase sales by 20 percent without spending more for advertising.

If you read biographies of successful people or businesses, one common thread…

Are you a hunter or farmer For so many years, we have struggled as an industry when it comes to follow up. Then, companies like Clients for Life and came along and started sending our follow up letters for us. All we had to do was sign it and mail it. This gave us more time to focus on working with the customers who were on the lot and calling in.

Basically, it gave us the ability to focus more time on hunting for new business and the farming was something we were able to relax on,…

In my 30 years in the business, I have never seen such a lack of civility, leadership and professionalism in the automotive industry. You can find managers anywhere, but developing leaders is a much more challenging task. Managers are integral, but leaders are essential. It does not take character, guts or vision to manage things, but it takes all three to lead people.

Here are common characteristics I see quite often from managers in dealerships…

Traffic is better, sales are up, profits are high, dealers are buying at NADA and the whole world is rosy. Don’t drink the water. I am not saying you should not be optimistic, and I am certainly not an economic forecaster coming with claims of doom and gloom. However, I am saying that your fortunes in the future will have a whole lot less to do with the economy than what business practices you put into place.

There is an over exuberance in dealer-land right now,…

“Big doors swing on small hinges.” Small things can make a big difference in your sales process. There has been a lot written recently about what I term the “moment of truth” in the sales process. I don’t believe that a sale usually occurs because of one “big bang moment.” Usually, a sale occurs because of a series of very small and simple things that add up to being the difference maker.

If you are looking for 50 closes to take your sales to the next level, you are missing…

Often times when I chat with dealers I ask dealers what is keeping them, from getting to the next level of super success I hear responses like:



We need more quality leads.

Or... Cars are bringing brain damage at the sale.

Or... It's hard to find real salespeople anymore man, they just don't breed them like us, you know what I mean?



My answer to these issues are yes, yes and yes...so what. You have to control the…

I have learned a lot during the 25 years that I owned my own business. Shortly before I retired from the salon/day spa, Facebook was becoming mainstream and the discovery process of how it could benefit the business was evident.

 The opportunity to market on every level through client engagement…

We all have listened to the untrained sales professional or Internet Coordinator spend half an hour selling the car to a customer over the phone; and the worst part about it is once he/she gives away all the info the majority of the time you never see the customer show up that he/she was talking to. …

Facts tell and stories sell. If you want to become really good at sales, then you must know how to tell your story. People think in pictures and they can and will follow a story. People learn better from stories and become emotionally connected to stories. What is your story and can you tell your story and tell it well?

What makes you who you are? You are different from anyone else. Your life experiences, background and everything about you makes you unique. Unfortunately, if…

Many sales people tend to always be chasing the next customer and worrying about the next paycheck. The good news is that this is unnecessary and can be fixed forever in two years or less. Sales people can eliminate future sales and income anxiety once and for all.

What’s the key to creating freedom? It’s marketing. If you are a sales person who is waiting for your business to provide an endless funnel of prospects and buyers, you are living in a fantasy land. Even with a ton…

My name is Chuck Brumm, with Peak National Promotions. I have been in the automotive sales, training and management for many years and have a great understanding of all aspects of the business. 

Peak National Promotions is a full service High Impact Direct Mail company that WILL bring traffic through the door and maximize every sales opportunity to it's fullest capacity with or without an experienced staffed customer retention closer. Most importantly, providing…

We all are aware of the fact that we only have a 11-14% connection ratio when contacting Internet leads.  And we also know that the hardest part of the job for Internet Coordinators is getting people on the phone which leads to a very valid point that we must ask and that is are we maximizing…

Do you want to be more successful? You can achieve greater success if you begin to follow certain secrets that blow open the doors that are closed for you now. I am comfortable in saying that all people have some closed doors that limit their achievement. What are the doors that I am talking about and how can you open them?

The doors are a metaphor for the gateways to successful achievement. The keys are the secrets that unlock them and allow you move forward faster and with…

1. Educate Yourself

Don’t wait for managers or anyone else to give you the sales education you need. Unfortunately, the automobile industry has been stuck for years in a, “Throw them in and see if they can swim mentality.” Some dealerships take new recruits to a meeting room and have them watch training tapes for a day and expect them to be trained. Neither of these options will increase your odds for success.

Begin a massive self-education program that will…

There are 24 hours and a total of 1,440 minutes in every day. Successful people just seem to get a lot more done in a day than unsuccessful people. The main reason is successful people keep the main thing the main thing. Success is not an accident.

First, you must be honest about your strengths and your weaknesses. Spend your time in what you are strong at and delegate what you are not. A sales person reading this article may immediately think they don’t have anyone…