People in the world of marketing and businesses trying to use social media for promotions almost always face a paradox. It’s like a Chinese finger trap – the harder you pull, the more trapped you can…

I just put an article up on the site.  That talks about the 5 Key Web Properties Dealers keep losing control of that they can't afford to lose control of.  

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Your business depends on your prospects and customers knowing what you wish they already knew.  What is the best way to convey that knowledge during your best opportunities?  Go to our article in the March – April edition of Fixed Ops Magazine for some very effective suggestions.  See you on page 44.…

Many times people say they don’t like to negotiate; yet, they still shop around and never pay full MSRP. Most people act in their own best interest. And most people who say they don’t like negotiating, actually still want to.

There are three things you should always listen to in this business:

1. What people say.

2. What people are trying to say.

3. What they really mean.

Often, what people are saying is they ‘hate’ to…

There’s a saying in online marketing that has been around for a while. “Content is king.”

The truth is this – before the last year, it really wasn’t. Content has always been important, but it wasn’t until recent updates in Google and…

The Nature of Character

~ Michael Josephson

Abraham Lincoln was very concerned with character,

but he was also aware of the importance of having a good reputation.

He explained the difference this…

Hybrid wave raises marketing questions

March 28, 2013 - 2:23 pm ET

The wraps came off of the 2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid Wednesday afternoon in New York,…

Written By: Robin Cunningham

For the last sixteen months I have had the incredible experience of being a lead instructor with the NCM Institute.  I have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of dealership managers in our multi-level classes for general managers, general sales managers, used vehicle managers, service managers, financial managers, and some private dealership training, as…

Please read, share and pass this article I wrote "Are You Treating Customers Like VIP's?" for Fixed Ops Magazines March/April 2013 edition along to everyone you know in customer service. It applies to every Industry we work in, not just Automotive retail. I am confident all of you who read and or share in it will take at least one, maybe several things back to your professional work environment, no matter what you do and immediately improve the way customers are acknowledged, treated and…

Be a professional specialist and not a “Jack of all Trades”

   My father was a farmer and contractor and was very good at both. But the one piece of advice that he gave me was when you had something important that you had to hire someone else to do, be sure that you hire a professional their field and not some “Jack of all Trades” because it will cost you less in the long run to hire a professional, someone that knows what they are doing rather than to hire someone that just  thinks…

Let’s call it what it really is, shall we? Despite efforts by Bing/Yahoo to stay relevant as well as efforts by Facebook and Twitter to enter the search game, there really is only one. For years, I’ve always had to add the caveat when discussing search marketing that “When I say Google, I mean Bing and Yahoo as well.”

I won’t be saying…

Neil Rackham, author of Spin Selling, blows traditional thinking about features and benefits out of the room when he introduces us to the term “advantages.”   Everyone has heard of the first two, but I love what happens to the sales process when the term advantage is infused  into the equation.  As with all points in Spin Selling, Neil clearly defines the word advantage and provides research to define its effectiveness in the sales process.

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Hey guys, I need some ideas on how to creatively sell a car by email, Advice?

On this week's Think Tank Tuesday find out why getting back to consumers immediately is vital to nurturing leads.

My business card has my title on it: Customer Advocate and Internet Marketing Visionary. It's the visionary talking to you right now, and like so many posts I've seen here on D.E. Of late, I think this is going to turn into a question.

Two groups I would like to focus my marketing efforts on are as you can guess are one; Baby Boomers, and two; the LGBT…

In the 1954 classic text, How to Lie With Statistics, author Darrell Huff asserts that there are  hundreds of ways that numbers can lie to you. Statistical interpretation is a subjective business - trends and correlation can be employed by the statistician to support pretty much any hypothesis. Graphs and charts can distort reality. Ratios and proportions can be meaningless comparisons. What we might think as…

Pound for pound, SXSW was a little disappointing this year, at least for search professionals. It's not that there wasn't plenty to do, plenty see, and plenty to hear. That's always going to happen when you're at a conference/festival with speakers…

Enhancements:

▪    Call Logging – Log customer calls, view contact history, add notes and create tasks or appointments

▪    Task Viewing and Completion – View customer tasks, task history and dismiss or complete assigned tasks

▪    Enhanced dashboard - A single view of alerts, tasks and appointments with “sliding icons”

▪    New Customer Dashboard…

Do you know who the author of your blog is? Well, it's mostly likely  you (or a team of handsome ghostwriters cleverly disguised as you), and if you are truly invested in a successful SEO strategy, you're blogging every single day, and even the occasional wild and crazy night. It's easy to get caught up in the flashy blogger lifestyle; the fast women, the loose…

Now that the focus in many industries is on data and behavioral marketing, marketing departments are increasingly better able to pinpoint areas in which they can improve. With the right data, not only can you determine your product’s demographic but now you can discover when and why your customers make that ultimate decision to purchase. That being said, just because you discover what’s wrong, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should share that nugget of wisdom with your consumer.…