I bet you thought Internet fame means increased sales for your business. Nope. Just ask Chuck Testa. The California taxidermist became an internet phenomenon when he released this comically…

We recently completed a regional NCMi® training workshop in Washington, D.C. titled, “How to Make the Phone Ring and the Door Swing in YOUR Used Vehicle Department.” One of the class exercises was for the attendees to complete a checklist to determine if they operated a “World Class” used vehicle department. Following are the questions that resulted in the most productive discussions: 

• Is the Daily Trade-Walk discipline being diligently followed?

• Is the…

The NCMi faculty members and the NCM Retail Operations field consultants have learned that managers who effectively manage the elements of “controllable profitability” within their respective operating departments normally produce a significant departmental net profit. This, of course, assumes that the majority of dealership expenses (limited-control and fixed) are fairly distributed to each operating department.

Many managers, however, lack the proper focus on controllable…

Industry’s most authoritative profit-building event offers complimentary rooms for meetings of up to 140 dealers, pre- and post-summit

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – June 27, 2012 – The 2012 DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES), the most authoritative profit-building event for innovative dealers, is providing private meeting space so dealer attendees can further facilitate peer-sharing,…

http://www.automotiveinternetsales.com 

Automotive Phone Sales  - Process &…

June 26th, 2012.

Today, Haystack Digital Marketing, one of the nation’s largest full-service advertising agencies and audio visual production company for the retail automotive industry announced its strategic alliance with ActivEngage,Inc., the automotive industry’s premium live chat and real-time business intelligence solution, …

  I really enjoy watching Gordon Ramsey. Almost all of his shows (Hells Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, MasterChef, etc) have a comon theme when it comes to cooking. Keep it simple, keep it fresh. It's as easy as keeping a simple menu to choose from, to the actual food you serve. I've noticed that if you…

Another prediction that I wrote about has come true.  Change is in the air again at Google.  Paid Search just took a big step forward or backwards, depending on how you think.  It's called "Google Cars"

In November 2011, I wrote about a product called "…

We made it to the next round of the Social Madness Contest, but for the first time in the Social Madness contest Vin isn't in the lead. We want to show them that the Automotive Industry has just as strong social media presence as any other industry out there!

If a software company can beat out local beer companies and banks then auto, as a whole must be doing something right. To help keep us in the…

 Yes.... it is true.  You have those things you need to do each morning to get ready for your day.  It is no different than starting your day with positive action at the automobile dealership.

Go ahead, have that cup of coffee. Sit down at your desk and write your to do!  Make sure that it includes the following:

• Review of CRM…

Work the service drive. That’s grist for the weekly sales meeting. The General Sales Manager wants his sales team talking to the service customers. This is smart for a number of reasons:

a) The service customer is familiar with service team and presumably comfortable with the dealership as a whole.

b) The service customer is statistically more likely to buy a car at the dealership where they service their car.

c) There is more information about the service customer and…

June 26th,2012.

Today, Haystack Digital Marketing , one of the nation’s largest full-service advertising agencies and audio visual production company for the retail automotive industry announced its strategic alliance with ActivEngage,Inc., the automotive industry's premium live chat and real-time business intelligence solution, …

One of the questions we commonly get from consumers is, “Will dealers really compete for my car?”.  Of course they will: most dealers have been going to auctions every week for years to compete for inventory with other dealers.  Lately, the auction competition has been fiercer than ever.

Here’s the feedback we’re getting from dealers as to why RollSale has been such a revolutionary and desirable source for their inventory:

1. “I can’t believe it’s free.”
2. They aren’t…

A traveling salesman had come to the end of a long day and was very hungry. He had not made many sales and was feeling a little frustrated with his results. He decided to stop and get something to eat and mull over his next step.

He stopped in town, parked on Main Street and looked around. He found two restaurants side by side.  Above each there was a sign.

The one on the left said “Food, more…

Today, more than ever, online reviews can make or break your month selling vehicles.  We can search for online reputation management companies and we will get hundreds if not thousands of opinions on how to manipulate the system of posting positive reviews.  Many of these companies state that they have a secret to help your dealership look like they are flawless.  This is done utilizing a lot of smoke and mirrors.

Studies by consumer behavior and search experts say that 7 out of 10…

After watching this 60 Minutes bit on The Age of Millennials, I thought to myself- oh great, apparently we are the doom of civilization. Being born in the 80’s lumped me into the Generation Y category, but I felt insulted when we were described as narcissistic praise-hounds that didn’t know how to cope with…

Good morning Dealer Elite Members, True Car is back for a second round.....

As I mentioned in my post last week there are big changes coming in the automotive space. True Car has learned from their past mistakes and hopefully has a little more respect for dealerships this time. Their president a former Nissan executive visited the Auto News office last week and was featured on their site this morning.

Here is the link:…

Early Bird Registration at www.DrivingSalesExecutiveSummit.com

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – June 25, 2012 – DrivingSales today announced that Billy Beane, the focus of the recent Academy Award nominated film ‘Moneyball,’ will keynote the fourth annual DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES)…