Anyone in retail car sales learned early on that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Most everyone has at least one story in which they did and lost a sale. If you look, many of today’s millionaires don’t dress like millionaires. Just take a look at Mark Zuckerberg who sports a t-shirt and jeans daily. That being said, in today’s digital world, first…

Many businesses focus on improving customer convenience as a means to expand their reach and volume of commerce. It’s not just Internet companies such as Amazon, but some of the most substantial brick and mortar chains, including Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, Office Depot and several major grocery store chains. Adding options that increase customer convenience…

At NADA many exhibitors hyped their digital retailing solutions to support online vehicle transactions. While no one has cracked the code for a complete, seamless online transaction, there are several great solutions that provide enough functionality to meet consumer demands. After all, consumers are not asking for a 100% “digital…

As front-end margins continue their decline, dealers are more reliant than ever on fixed ops revenue. Fortunately, the opportunity to maximize service revenue has never been greater for dealerships.

In the last decade auto sales have boomed. Factory maintenance programs are driving more initial service visits. Increased CPO sales are creating…

The word “transparency” gets floated around the automotive industry quite often – especially in the last few years. The days of “the invoice is locked in a safe at the corporate office” are gone and consumers have all of the access to data that they need. Yet some Dealerships are still trying to play the game.

I understand that dealerships need…

Dealerships are coming around and increasingly realize the importance of having a good social media presence. Perhaps it’s due to the reach and effectiveness of social media ads, or the ability to stay top-of-mind with customers – both existing and potential. Regardless, dealerships are shifting their focus away from traditional media towards digital and allocating more…

Throughout the history of our automotive industry – and even more so as we increasingly progress into the digital era – dealers have been focused on gaining more leads. Just about every widget and message on dealer websites has one single goal – conversion.

Does your website have 100 annoying pop-ups and 20 different ways to communicate with your dealership?…

According to a recent article in Automotive News, Motorcars Honda in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, believes that the future of franchise dealership profitability lies in efficient vehicle service, and as a result it’s service…

At the recent Adobe Summit, executive vice president and general manager, Brad Rencher, advised businesses that if they wish to survive in the future, they have to become “experience businesses.” He feels this is what will separate market leaders from…

Is data your best friend or your worst enemy?

Why do I ask? Well, if you work in a dealership, chances are good that you either review or are responsible for creating reports on a regular basis. For principals and managers, reports reveal important information such as how many units your dealership has sold this month, how many customer-pay ROs you've…

An associate of mine recently told me an interesting story about their 75-year-old father, who purchased an import, rather than a domestic vehicle, for the first time in over 60 years. This was sometime around 2010.

When it was time to replace his domestic minivan, the first thing my associate’s father did was to check the Sunday paper to see in any big sales were…

Dealers are in for a wild ride. The next 5+ years will be filled with revenue from recall work; a shortage of technicians; shop capacity that can’t keep up with demand; parts availability issues; and, as a result, irate customers.

Recalls certainly challenge consumers’ patience and dealers can find themselves in a constant battle, fighting to put out fires,…

There’s little doubt that the experience provided by auto dealerships in the past has jaded consumers into a stereotype and perception that isn’t necessarily accurate any longer, yet continues to persist. Because of this perception, companies such as Beepi, Carvana and more are creeping into the automotive space and threatening to snatch sales away from dealerships. (how? by…

Last week, AutoPoint headed to the 16^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Atlantic City, NJ. We were very excited to see many new faces that were able to attend the Digital Dealer Conference for the first time as it visited the Northeast. Sessions were all well attended & attendees were very active in the exhibit hall investigating all of…

A recently released white paper based on a collaborative study between Cars.com and GFK, reported that consumers are leaving dealership service in favor of independents due to a lack of trust and price transparency. The lack of price transparency in parts and…

Recently I received an email from a Company called Topseos which showed many of the So called “top” companies for internet marketing.

This site caught my attention because a I've seen their name pop up in search and a well known Automotive Consultant has branding on their website as being recognized by topseos as one of the best so I decided to contact topseos to find out the criteria to be a top ranked Company in an effort to learn how our company…

Most dealerships understand the importance of online reviews, in general, for their stores. Consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to research dealerships before selecting one. This includes researching not only sales-related reviews, but also service.  Yet, most dealerships focus most of their attention on gaining reviews from the sales side and leave the…

The time for transparency has arrived.  There are no more secrets online, and consumers know that filtered and manipulated dealer reviews only confirm that a dealer is not being candid on their website. 

At Carfollks.com we enable good dealers to leverage "the truth" in their marketing to create powerful connections with customers to establish real…

Truecar , Truecar , Truecar ...... blah blah blah .... it has been shoved down our throats now for the better part of the last month and I for one am tired of the crying , belly aching , and worrying about the collapse of an old school dealership world that believe it or not collapsed years ago and is currently in the stages of rebuilding . States are questioning ethics and tatics used , dealers that pay a nice chunk of state taxes (coincidence?) are complaining about DMS data and…

Just saw this article on TechCrunch about CarWoo. One of the main things in this whole TrueCar scenario (other than data) was TrueCar's goal of removing salespeople from the process.

I thought this part of the article was interesting.

"That’s the promise of CarWoo, a startup that looks to take the stressful negotiation tactics and pushy salespeople out of the equation, allowing consumers to buy their car online with a relatively small amount…