1. Manage things and lead people.

Processes should be defined and managed daily. People should be lead by example daily. Management by strict control inhibits star performers and eliminates creativity of intelligent people. Feelings of manipulation are caused by strict control. Control, manipulation, and disrespect keep many dealerships from moving to another level of performance.

2. Speed of the boss = speed of the team.

If the boss has a…

Are you looking to go viral today? Do you want the magic formula, the secret spell, that alchemical reaction that will transform your tired old content into a vibrant viral rocket, blasting into the social-sphere of your target audience and sending them over the moon with purchasing-joy? Well...too bad. Buck up buttercup, because contrary to what many of the …

The image above shows the last four Facebook activities by a major car dealership in a metro area. Over three months ago, they abandoned their page. This could easily be a very long post where I go into details about how this is wrong on so many levels, but I'll keep it short because if you're reading this, chances are very strong that you're a savvy dealership…

Yeah, in the most absurd move ever, the FTC has determined that Twitter is not excluded from regulatory laws requiring full disclosure on products or services. TheWall Street Journal reports that any disclosures that would apply to any other advertising also apply to…

It looks like everyone wants to be in the automotive lead generation business. Over the last year I have been writing about Google Cars; a program (in beta testing) to present new car inventory to consumers shopping for a car directly in Google search results.  Dealers are charged by Google on a per lead basis. 

Today, I learned that TRUECar has expanded…

Currently our dealership advertises on both Cars.com and Auto Trader.  My GSM is convinced we do not need to be on both, and that we will sell the same amount of cars if we drop one.  I have a lot of hesitations about this.  Over the past 6 months we have sold 11 cars from Auto Trader and 15 cars from Cars.com; not to mention the cars we have sold from our website due to the traffic from Auto Trader and Cars.com.

Since we are locked in with lower rates with Auto Trader he…

Everyone knows you shouldn't have a spammy site, but just what the heck does "spammy" even mean? We know Google doesn't like it, but it's not as though the word has a hard and fast definition (at least not one pertaining to SEO). Google realizes this, and they have recently put up a new page that illustrates …

Written by: Keith Shetterly



We talked for years in automotive retail about “The Road to the Sale,” and I’m clearly one of the many supporters of that path to sales success. However, too many of us are still on "The Road Less Profited." Why? Because we are not getting more sales (and profits!) from "The Road to Retention”!



Retention sales link the positives of variable and fixed operations together, and their teaming allows each part of the dealership to amplify the other.…

The idea of the NoFollow attribute on links was to help prevent spam from appearing on user generated content sites, particularly Wikipedia. It was intended as a way to tell Google (and eventually all major search engines) that a link was not supposed to transfer any “link juice” to the recipient of the link. In essence, it was designed to…

What an amazing video! Here is proof that compelling imagery can elicit deep emotion. By capturing the essence of father / son conflict and their mutual passion for cars, this Subaru ad connects with viewers on many levels.

Now is a good time to look at your marketing to see how you can use emotion to…

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - "Macro Selling is BETTER Than Micro…

This is part 5 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership.

You've gone through all the steps. You knew that we were going to be talking about brand…

http://dealeretraining.com/

It is Monday evening and you are back from the 2013 NADA convention.  You have travelled across the country to attend workshops and meet with vendors to review the latest and greatest products in an effort to improve your own business.  At this point, you are…

This is part 4 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership.

You’ve made a customer extremely happy with their purchase and exceeded their expectations. They’re smiling, shaking your hand, and thankful that you earned their business. They show all of the…

This is part 3 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that you have step one on the path to building your Brand Ambassador…

In the automotive business, we expect there to be critics. We understand that there are detractors to our business. No one understands the value of “the voice of the customer” better than an automotive dealer. In fact, there’s been a whole business built around “relationship management” specifically for the automotive industry.

Social media has taken this concept…

What is hidden wealth? Hidden wealth is an unused, dormant or under utilized part of your business that contains great value. All businesses have at least one hidden wealth. Even the best businesses in the world contain hidden wealth. The key is to determine your hidden wealth and begin to mine the potential gold that lies therein. All businesses are different. Each business should require their leaders to conduct a concerted effort of introspection and egoless honesty to determine what…

Interdependence — A Better Way, A Higher Way

As children, most of us have heard that we should grow up and learn to become independent. This message was drilled into our minds by our parents, teachers and extended family members alike. What they didn’t know, and…

This is part 2 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership.

We’ve all heard the cliches.

• “Build raving fans!”
• “Word of mouth is the best form of advertising!”
• “Delight your customers!”

These sayings would start to get really annoying if they weren’t 100% correct.…

Can the argument be made that today’s car dealership would increase earnings if they fired all salespeople and implemented a new process from scratch?

Let’s start with creating a BDC. We would hire women between 35-50, pay them $20 an hour to set appointments. Most of these women would be moms with kids in school so getting to the dealership by 8:00am would be no problem.

After the BDC confirms the appointment…