Welcome to this week's edition of Black Book Market Insights, with in-depth analysis of used car and truck valuation trends and insights straight from the auction lanes. Click here to download the full report.

This week’s Market Insights report includes data, trends and insight showing a broader decline for the majority of…

For reasons known only to God people still struggle with sales training. Rather than spend hours digging into why that is, I wan too just bullet point the ones that stand out.

• The store changes their process/training too often
• The desk doesn't buy in so they detrain their people every time they work a deal
• The training is boring
• The sales person feels like they can't use it to make money TODAY

Good bad or…

Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports lease credit approvals for May were down -11.5% from the month before, with 69.6% of car lease shoppers gaining approval by the bank to proceed with a car lease transfer compared with 78.6% during April. 



The year-to-date (67.4%) lease credit approval rate in 2015 has performed slightly better than same time a year ago when 65.9% of car lease shoppers were gaining approvals. And despite some…

Some of the finest people I know are in the retail automotive business.  Many of them are folks I’ve met as I travel throughout North America and Canada doing car sales training or teaching our Dealership management training courses.…

We've all heard the phrase, "content is king." The question that you should ask about your content is whether or not it's worthy of being the king of something important or the king of crap. Unfortunately, much of what is pawned off as content turns out to be ruling over nothing important.

I've said it in different ways in multiple articles and videos in the…

In order to decrease bounce rates, if a customer clicks on an ad – whether that’s a banner ad, PPC, email ad or one specifically targeted for a mobile device – it is not a good practice to simply take that customer to your home page. Forcing a consumer to then do a second search for the information promised in the ad is a recipe for failure. Best practices prove that…

Tammy Darvish, Lisa Copeland, Shea Holbrook Headline Inaugural Women in Automotive Convention

The first-ever Women in Automotive Convention will draw upon top female success stories as it assists the automotive community in recruiting, retaining and developing female employees and leaders. Women make up just 17% of…

We live in a business world of information overload. It is a very noisy…

ALBANY, N.Y. – June 15th, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that the data conversion process from a previous dealership management system (DMS) vendor to Auto/Mate's DMS has become so streamlined that auto dealers and dealership employees no longer have to fear major disruptions to their business. One example of many dealerships that have made the transition is University Motors in Morgantown, West…

Urbandale, IA--June 15th, 2015--Flick Fusion Video Marketing (www.flickfusion.com) announced today a new partnership with Chroma Cars (www.chromacars.com), a full-service inventory management, photography, website and digital marketing services provider to more than 300 auto dealerships. Chroma Cars is now offering Flick Fusion's customized, scalable video marketing solutions that allow auto dealers to…

When we first built our company in 2013, we had a big fear. It was a sense of urgency that drove us to make aggressive moves, hire talented people when we didn't have the revenue to support them, and drink lots of coffee to stay ahead of the competition. The fear came from the certainty that automotive social media vendors would catch wind about the true power of…

Steps You Must Take to Guarantee Everyone is On the Same Page

You spend a lot of time in meetings and discussing your strategies. On this week's Hard Facts, Samantha teaches you how to make sure everyone works together to reach your goals and ensure everyone is accountable.

What used car shoppers are looking for most of all is peace of mind. As a dealer, you should be educating your staff, and marketing your vehicles, to deliver that peace of mind. The fact that you spend internal dollars reconditioning trade-ins and from-the-auction inventory should not be withheld from today’s consumers. If anything, sharing this information with them can help improve both your merchandising efforts and customer confidence in their purchase…

Consumers have been showrooming in retail stores for quite some time now and, while many retailers don’t like it, they’ve pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that it’s going to happen.  However, one surprising argument posted in an article by speaker, trainer and consultant, Bob Phibbs, went so far as to make the claim that showrooming is akin to stealing.

In his…

The way you approach a potential customer will have a huge effect on your ability to create rapport, establish a relationship and, eventually, turn that prospect into a customer. Your job is to melt away the defensive wall prospects build around themselves. Melt away, not try to knock it down with a bulldozer which only causes them to build higher and thicker walls. Here are…

While Twitter never grew to truly rival Facebook, it has affected our communication and our culture in the same way. People use Twitter for marketing, to connect with like-minded individuals, network professionally, broadcast news, and discuss…

In a previous article, I provided two very real scenarios that occurred right before Memorial Day weekend and asked readers how they would have handled them. For convenience, I’ve repeated the scenarios again with the actual outcomes attached:

Scenario #1:

A customer…