Gillon (Mr. Natural) weighs in at a slightly heavy 216 lbs. in his Pre-Summer Tour Traveling Showroom Weigh in.

KPA Announces New Automotive Social Media Service

KPA Local Engage is a social media service dedicated to bringing a dealer’s unique brand to their local community.

Lafayette, CO (June 19, 2012) ­— KPA announced today the launch of KPA Local Engage, the first social media service in the automotive industry to include collaboration with a social media expert, localized promotions, and social media management software in one service. Auto dealers…

January 1979 I sold my first car at a small dealership in North Jersey.  Since then, a lot has happened.  I've personally trained over 15,000 sales professionals, written 10 books, spoken literally around the world, and now work with top dealers to fill their sales needs.  I have seen and participated in three "worst ever" downturns in our industry.  Each has taught me lessons on how to deal with the struggles and what to improve on as business gets better.  There was one lesson…

That's right! There are 3 Personal Components you need to have to Succeed in the Car Biz!

ATTITUDE, SKILL SET and KNOWLEDGE!

A strong Attitude will get you through the day even though you may feel like giving up. Attitude smooths out the ups and…

Your dealership needs a positive presence everywhere consumers gather. Social, tv, print, radio, mobile...using every medium short of graffiti on the subway to get your message out makes your brand stronger.

Just because you don't use a particular method yourself (e.g. Facebook) doesn't mean that you won't find your next best batch of loyal customers that way.…

Recently launched SureSale Certified wins major gains for participating used car dealers: an additional 23% or $2,300 gross per vehicle on average

Venice, CA – June 19, 2012 – SureSale Certified, the certified pre-owned marketing program that is changing the way used vehicles are sold, is reaping significant returns for dealers who participate in the program. Launched less than six months ago,…

Sales leads come in many different forms, yet few sales reps adjust their sales follow-up process to sync with the latest intelligence available about those leads. If not careful, they could be turning qualified sales leads into "not interested" responses or even worse, …

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…

Why Marketing Directors Should Choose AutoCon 2012 Over Other Fall Conferences

We understand that Marketing Directors have many choices where to invest their time out of the dealership. We have made AutoCon 2012 the ideal choice for Marketing Directorsfor these reasons:

• AutoCon is a new with fresh ideas and an innovative approach to the conferences…

As we have heard more and more about here on Dealer Elite of late, It's the women who have the power when it comes to buying cars.It's not that they have gotten more power-they have always had it-it's just that we stupid men are finally starting to pay attention.

Mr. Natural's buddy-Gillon-has taken a stand on this, as can be heard and seen below.

True? False?…

It’s easy to become distracted by information junk food at work – especially when your work is the Internet. Last Friday I found myself passing the time at ActivEngage by watching an endless Youtube stream of “Call Me Maybe” mashups. My eyes glazed over as I counted down the minutes until I was free for the weekend. Suddenly I felt my…

Interactive session provides deep dive into social/digital strategies that help dealers sell cars; Early-bird registration now open!

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – June 18, 2012 –Facebook and Google will present at the fourth annual DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES), the most authoritative digital marketing event for innovative dealers.…

Today, a good friend and associate Karry Moore passed away after a brave fight with Cancer at the age of 40.  

Karry Moore (left) and AJ LeBlanc (right) were co-founders of Car-Mercial, a company that serves the automotive industry with cutting edge video marketing and SEO solutions.

I spoke with Karry recently and his passion for…

Last night, AutoTrader filed registration papers with the Securities Exchange Commission to go public. The IPO is slated to start at around $300 million, and will be used to pay off debts, according to AutoTrader.

The company did not indicate how many shares (they will be common stock) or at what price they will be offered. Neither was a date provided, but it should happen before the end of the year.

We had heard rumblings AutoTrader was going to make this move either…

Automotive News!

http://paper.li/ipdmail/1339189680

I’ll admit it. I fear bringing my vehicle in for service as much as visiting the dentist. I recently brought my car in for service, and for some reason, it reminded me of a routine dental check-up. Bear with me on this analogy.

Just like you want your teeth to stay white and strong, you want your car to run in tip-top shape. However, when the time finally comes to go back in for a check-up, you curl up in the fetal position, and softly cry (That’s what I do, at least, you may…

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…

It’s mid-month our  goals are in place now for nearly 2 weeks and many of us can begin to see the…

Let’s talk about the processes, the Playbook’s and All the ABC’s to closing, they all include how to identify and adjust to the natural tendencies of the three main personality profiles within in us all.  In today’s market exclusive let’s stop relying on our dominate traits. Focus more on understanding of what makes our customers tick, utilizing the self barometer technique, mastering the 12 foot rule and the genuine smile. Building confidence from consistent practice and performance, allows…

  As an industry professional for over 23 years and as a specialist in compliance and process management I am no longer surprised when I read of sad stories such as this. For the past 7 years, I and my peers have been at the forefront of promoting Compliance within the entire front end sales process for dealers. The number one risk to a dealer when it comes to Compliance is ambivalence. Compliance today is as much about preserving hard earned capital as it is about earning trust from our…