I found this study about how consumers shop for cars from the AutoTrader Dealer Learning Center www.weworkforyou.com. Nearly a quarter of all new- and used-car buyers use multiple devices to shop. Indeed, there's a correlation between everyday device usage and shopping behavior, and it's a trend that's becoming a way of life.…

The Idea:

 Consider doing a Sales Manager Video T.O. I was the GSM at Mills Chevrolet, with the company nearly 20 years before I took my current position with Cars.com. Here's a link…

Greetings, My company  Fixed Performance is hosting a brand new conference call discussing innovative ways to drive your sales team's performance.

Do you want your sales team to consistently sell more vehicles?

Does your dealership have a strong sales process that is always used by the sales and F&I team?

If you answered  any of these questions the wrong way then I implore you not to miss this call!   

This call will be hosted by…

If you're like many who use Google+, you may not check your pages very often. With posting and monitoring tools out there, you might not log into your actual account very often. You should. Custom URLs are now available.

For individual users, you should be getting an email if you meet the minimum requirements. These "requirements" are very…

This is the 2nd article in the series Manage Your BDC like a Call Center:

As call volume increases you will find that your basic phone system is quickly becoming a major source of profit leakage. How can you measure profit leakage in a…

The challenge many businesses face is personalizing themselves to their customers. Businesses try and accomplish this through many methods. They create unique commercials, ad campaigns and other marketing. They can hire a public relations firm to assist them in gaining exposure via various methods. They can also employ many services that help them better connect with their…

If you wanted to build a new dealership, how would you do it? Would you just grab a bunch of nails, screws, wood and material and start? Would you just wake up one day and say, "Today's the day" and go to the home depot and start buying the materials? Would you search the Internet and figure out how to do it yourself? In truth, you know as well as I, that there are a…

I have been fortunate in life in that I have been given the opportunity to have worn many hats.  Having a broad level of experiences in life has given my personality a great deal of depth.  I have always been a marketer in some role or another.  One of these marketing roles was that of an entertainer, in which I marketed what would become my signature brand of “fun, joy and ease" as a singer and…

If there is one thing that you could do to increase your opportunities and profits, what would it be? What if this one thing was free and already available to you? That's this week on Think Tank Tuesday.

Car dealerships love the idea of using social media to reach more people, but often worry that maintaining a robust and growing social media presence is just too much work.  The fear is, and it is a healthy one, that maintaining a large social media presence may not pay out in the end.  There are ways of addressing the time-sponge that social media can be and, in the process, keep your car dealerships cost low.

Consider…

There’s a real beauty to Facebook for adults. It allows us to keep track of things that are happening in the lives of those important to us such as friends, coworkers, family, and those who are distant from us. It’s for this reason that the hoopla about Facebook losing too many teens is being misunderstood by many, including Facebook…

This is the 1st article in the series Manage your BDC like a Call Center

Every department needs boundaries so the employees know their responsibilities.  This…

Zig Ziglar

"Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be."

Do Your Best!

When we do the best we can, where we are, with…

The intention of goal setting is to look toward the future and think of and plan for what you desire. Goals provide hope. My definition of hope is “Having Optimistic Predictions & Emotions.” However, goals can create your biggest stumbling block to getting what you desire.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The only thing that will grow is that which you give energy to.” To focus your mind on what you desire is great. Concentrate on the why? “When the why gets strong…

There are countless articles on how hard it is to create a truly loyal customer and how easy it is to lose one. Creating customer loyalty is a challenge that all businesses face. There are many techniques and strategies that can assist you along this path but, at times, we’re presented with opportunities that can accomplish this instantaneously.

Earlier this…

Strong relationships are similar to spider webs, especially in the auto industry. Multiple threads are must to build an effective web for business – or spiders. If you want to build long-term success in car sales, you have to recognize that these relationships start with one tiny thread, and by creating additional threads through rapport and nurturing with quality customer care,…

If there's one thing that bugs me more than anything professionally, it's when bad marketing people give good marketing people a bad name by continuing to use spam and automated techniques when they simply do not work anymore. It's a plague in many industries, but seems to find its happiest home in the realm of search marketing.

There's a reason for this, of…

Susan Eway, Business Development Manager at Danbury Auto Group (which includes Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Hyundai, and Kia brands) had to face some big obstacles when she first joined the dealership. The Internet department was only seven months old and it…

Think of your attitude as a giant battery. When your battery is fully charged you are happy and productive. When your battery is low you are grumpy and unproductive.

Negative inputs and events drain your battery. Some of these include:

• Arguments – have you ever noticed how tired you are after a big argument? All that negative energy has drained…