I have never met anyone 30 years or older that has bought every car and went back for service 100% of the time to the same dealership. Once we face the this fact we can  figure out ways to get them back the majority of the time. Do the sales reps do a service walk every time? Do the sales reps call customers on there birthday. Does everyone really roll out the red carpet like the old days? This is a start.

The great thing about LinkedIn is that there's always something more you can be doing to promote your business, find connections, and drive traffic to your profile. The LinkedIn community is diverse, intelligent, and constantly growing. Successful business professionals are working to leverage their presence in this network to learn from their peers and succeed in their own business endeavors.

In that spirit, here are three easy yet effective ways to have a voice on LinkedIn in order…

Hello I am having some of the Salesman post Craigslist ads. I am looking for some new templates for them to use. What is the best template site to use? I am looking for a free template for them as Craigslist has not been a hot bed for our market. I am aware of sites such as,

• http://dealershipinmotion.com/
• http://www.salespider.com/…

In Google's latest attempt to make Google+ the biggest social network, they've integrated it into your search results.

Of course, this hasn't been done across all Google search results.  In order to see this integration, you must be logged into Google+ (though some have seen it simply logged into Google) and be using their secure search portal at https://www.google.com.  The company is calling this search update "Search Plus Your World" and…

2011 U.S. auto sales figures are hot off the press, and the auto industry is seeing who came out on top. Among the year's clear winners is Paragon Honda & Acura (www.paragonhonda.com) of Queens, NY, which came out as the #1 selling Honda and #1 selling Acura retailer in the country. Paragon was also awarded the industry's coveted Auto Remarketing Certified PreOwned Dealer of the Year award for 2010 for its work in innovative financing and its…

Since we initiated the Up To Speed blog, I’ve received numerous emails that suggest that one of the biggest road blocks to retail automotive success is the dealership (or department) culture. Because this is our first newsletter of 2012, I decided it opportune to tackle this thorny issue. “Culture” can be defined as the shared values and practices of the company’s (or department’s) employees, and it’s important because it can make or break your dealership. Business cultures…

Mercedes, Dodge, Lexus, Lincoln and Chrysler are Top Leaders with Women Buyers

Women-Drivers.com has released its 2011 report showing the top car brands as rated by women. Each year, Women-Drivers.com tracks thousands of consumer reviews with regards to women’s…

VinSolutions unveils their ‘VinCycle’ program for the New Year as their first companywide green initiative.

Overland Park, KS – January 9, 2012 – VinSolutions, an industry-leading developer of Internet-based Customer Relations Management (CRM) and Internet Lead Management (ILM) software, has launched an internal recycling program coined “VinCycling”.  Capitalizing on the New Year, this marks the first sponsored and…

Over the last fifteen years I’ve conducted numerous dealership sales meetings, at which we perform an interactive exercise called “Who Do You Know?” I ask each salesperson to write down just one name of someone they know in each of about 75 categories that I read to them over a twenty minute period. After the exercise is completed, I inspect the pages and pages of names that they’ve written down and I normally say something like, “Don’t talk to me about not having enough…

Man you’ve got a big ole’, good lookin’, juicy But!  To get a But like that, it must’ve taken many years of hard work to get that kind of But.  You’ve made excuses, exceptions, reservations, and countless other adjectives of limitations in an effort to border why you can’t do something. In short, you’ve allowed your But’s to render your…

Dallas, TX – January 10, 2012 – RedBumper, (http://redbumper.com/) a new breed automotive inventory management company, today announced that it will unveil the first true mobile inventory management system at the 2012 NADA & ATD Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, NV, February 3-6.  The new system is entirely Smartphone-centric and enables auto dealers…

2012 is here……and your dealerships soft little underbelly is showing!!!

It is time to modernize your thinking and TAKE CONTROL!!

The time has come to take control of your dealership, your departments, your data and yourselves!!

It’s time to mold “old school basics” with “new school” tools and…

I thought this was awesome!!!!!!!  The concept is the same now a days, stay…

January 6th, 2012 by Kathryn Carlson

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That Negative Review Can Bite Into Your SEO

 By: Brent Albrecht, SOCIALDEALER

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a staple in the majority of automotive dealers’ marketing budgets for 2012. The industry has fully embraced the Internet, so logically dealers are investing additional money in search engine rankings to get their websites seen as much as possible.  However, Social Media and Web 2.0 have changed the landscape, specifically in the way sites like Google…

If you need a reason to register for DMSC 2012 in Las Vegas, I created a list below that speaks for itself.  

The all-star lineup of industry thought leaders, dealer principals, and educators is the basis for my claim that attending DMSC will ensure that you have the guidance to create a winning operations and marketing strategy for 2012.

In addition to DMSC, immediately…