If there's one thing that I've seen in the last 17 years while working on the vendor side of the business, it's that there are often products and services presented to dealers that simply do not deliver what they promise. It's one of the reasons that I partnered with JD Rucker to form our own company. We wanted control to deliver results no matter what, something…

Most dealers recognize the value of their data base of past and present customers.  Many even invest in automated marketing programs that rely on algorithms to target qualified customers and deliver equity alerts for vehicle exchange programs and properly timed service alerts based on factory recommended maintenance to improve customer retention and loyalty after the sale. 

The following potentially missed opportunities to maximize the R.O.I. realized by managing your most valued…

2015 Nissan Versa Note SR is Coming Soon!

The new 2015 Nissan Versa Note SR features design cues of the new Nissan 370Z NISMO Edition. For many car enthusiasts, the NISMO and SR editions of the Nissan lineup have been their focus when shopping for a Nissan. Nissan has taken advantage of this by offering SR and NISMO editions for some of their compact…

This article was written by NCM Institute instructor, Steve Hall and originally published on the Up to Speed blog.

Do you have 60 seconds to gain a service customer? Let me restate that: Do you have a structured 60 seconds to gain this customer? Why the emphasis on…

ARE GM RECALLS STARTING TO HURT SALES FOR GM DEALERS?*****************************************************************************

Initially the answer was NO it really didn't have any noticeable effect. BUT recently I've had a lot of dealers starting to tell me that the customers are beginning to defect because of the repeated bad news and new recalls almost daily. Personally, I think Mary Barra is doing a remarkably credible job…

The 2015 Nissan 370Z NISMO Specs!

Based on the styling, handling and aerodynamics of the GT-R, the 2015 Nissan 370Z NISMO edition features front and rear bumpers designed to balance out the downforce and improve overall handling. The NISMO Red Stripe has been designed into the front and rear bumpers as well as the side skirts and mirrors to give it that iconic…

One of the pain points I frequently hear from dealers is how to acquire frontline pre-owned vehicles for their stores. Having an available solid inventory of used vehicles for customers is imperative. Not everyone will be able to (or even want to) buy a new vehicle. To run smoothly and continuously generate revenue, dealers must continuously acquire vehicles. This provides…

CRM Companies are engaged in an immense battle over market share, but then aren't we all in one form or another? He who has the most customers wins! Or so that's how it would be if simply HAVING them was enough. As each CRM company dives deeply into the data, hoping to extract their next golden goose, the blogs, articles, and paid press releases fly around the nation. They started out by talking about "capturing the data" moved on to "garbage in garbage out" then "big data" and are now…

Swapalease.com works with thousands of people each year looking to escape their lease contract before end of term for a variety of reasons. For the most part, people look to escape simply because they can no longer afford to make the payments, they’re bored and ready for something different, or they’ve had a change in their lifestyle (new baby on the way).

But a new crop of reasons has started to gain traction from drivers across the country. While many of these reasons are unorthodox…

Note: Thanks to AutoSuccess Magazine for allowing me to be their guest blogger this week.

A Commentary on the Automobile Business May 2009 By Jim Fisher, Former Dealer and Consultant

In professional football or any professional sport, draft day is one of the most important days of any franchise. This is the day that teams are able to pick from an unlimited amount of talent available to either help their team now or provide a base for the future. All of the excellent organizations put a lot of time and effort into scouting, evaluating and testing the applicants for mental…

This is a commentary that I wrote back in July, 201 and it is true even today.

Let’s list the average priorities for the average Sales Manager by importance.

1. First would be to close a deal or deliver a car.
2. The second would be to make as much gross profit on that deal as possible.
3. The third would be to make sure that the floor is covered at all times.
4. Way down on the bottom of the list would be hire and train…

One of the things that I think became readily apparent when the economy hit the skids in 2008 was the fact that a lot of the people that we call managers, really aren’t. When the economy is humming along and customers are pouring into showrooms, a lot of our deficiencies as an industry are masked. As a manager, as long as we’ve got plenty of customers on the showroom floor, everyone’s happy. Unfortunately that’s not a reality in today’s environment. What sales managers are doing when they…

For years, marketing agencies have used many methods to track consumers in order to increase the likelihood of reaching them. From the very basic – yet still in existence – use of postal change-of-address records, to appending marketing lists for increased deliverability, to today’s use of big data to track consumers, technology is better enabling marketers to deliver more…

The more people that are shopping for a car that you can get in front of your inventory, the more cars you're going to sell. Some would say it's a bold statement. Others would say that it's pretty obvious. Depending on which side of the coin you're on, you'll either need to be convinced or you're already doing it.

Let's start with the disclaimer. Everything…

If there's one thing that gets me riled up when talking to dealers, it's finding out that there are two completely different strategies being applied to their traditional and digital marketing. It made sense a decade ago when the digital age was first coming into existence in automotive marketing. It made a little sense a few years ago when the digital spend was much…