Hi DealerElite members:

Only 21 days left until the Digital Dealer Workshops.. 22 until the 10th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition!



We have some great stuff lined up for this year's event. I've mentioned the SCVNGR promotion. We have some really cool prizes! The grand prize is an Apple MacBook Air (courtesy of…

How often have you asked a customer, ‘when are you looking to buy’? 

If you are like most car salespeople, probably a lot.  But how often do you get an honest answer?  I’m guessing the answer is ‘not very’.

Genuine buyers tend to hide the fact that they are looking to change.  They’ll tell you it’s “early days,” or “I’m just looking”.

Different approach

So perhaps we should phrase the question differently as we certainly want to…

Gamification is the use of game play mechanics  for non-game applications . It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors.…

Attention ALL dE Leaders

Why pay and hope you find great automotive minds when you can post your jobs for FREE and know you are reaching the BEST and BRIGHTEST in the industry?



As a leader in the Automotive Industry, you are invited to post jobs for FREE on http://www.dealerelitecareers.com. As part of the fastest growing automotive social networking website,…

Making 'Em Thirsty

     Auto sales, any sales really, is a people business.  It is about identifying a customer's wants and needs and tailoring your product to them.  Too many people who have “Sales and Leasing Consultant” on their business cards are nothing more than paper hat wearing, order taking monkeys with notes in their mouths.  Customer's come to dealerships and give the sales representative a list (an order) of what they…

I recently conducted a 20 Group workshop on Digital Marketing Strategies and all the the dealers in the room had incomplete or inaccurate Google Places data. What was also interesting was that no dealers in the group had more than 15 reviews posted on Google Places.

Once…

We hade a situation at our dealership yesterday and I thought I would share it with everyone in hopes of getting some opinions. One of my salesman took a deposit for a dealer trade. It was a modest deal about $1200 front to back on a lease. He took the deposit on Tuesday found the car and was able to get it on Wednesday. The delivery was set up for Friday. The customer called yesterday and said the dealer he originally went to called him back. The customer told them about the deal he had…

We have a saying at VinSolutions “Bad data in, bad data out”, meaning even with all of the technology we have today, if your customer information is incomplete it is not worth keeping. One of the biggest challenges we have in setting up new accounts in Implementation is getting good data from another CRM/ILM. Every CRM/ILM has their own formats of exporting data and let’s face it; they are reluctant to give you the data you…

 Please see info at :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPG8RUrz_lg

Speaker’s Name: Ronda Lewis          

Speaker’s Title: Used Vehicle Expert and Dealer Advocate, DealerTrack AAX         

Presentation Title: 4 Steps to Used Car Profitability     

Sub-title (a little more explanation of the title – a sentence will suffice):

Using data to make fact based…

What items stand out the most to you in search results? Often pictures and especially video will initially draw your attention more than plain text results. Videos posted to sites like YouTube show up especially well in search listings. Auto dealerships need to take advantage of this free exposure by creating videos of walkarounds, customer testimonials, test…

First. Adding I really enjoy this site and the potential it has to offer.

Second and mostly what my blog is about, ties and stuffy tie downs.

I have seen a lot of suites and ties, stuffy old sales ideas. Times have changed, and to go with, the Consumers mind set.

I think I am going to start a sales seminar on being casual. I would all most bet, that the sales persons leaving the seminar would out sell, out do, and out service each and every customer 2…

Recently I had my car serviced while performing a follow-up visit. I had the oil changed and tires rotated with the Technician suggesting replacement of my air filter. I was proud the Technician took the time to show the filter as everyone knows how important the visual is for selling. At lunchtime I left to get lunch and noticed a noise from the front end of my car. As I pulled out on the highway the noise became worse and I slowed and…

Too many dealerships seem to practice as “faith-based” businesses—not faith in a higher religious power (which might actually help!), but faith that their GM, GSMs, salespeople, marketing, etc. will work as they always have.  That they can somehow resist modern business changes from sales to processes because they have magical faith in people who don’t even know that they…

I am concerned about the radiation they are finding in food and there Automobiles. How are we going to protect ourselves from the radiation they good sending over here when they ship their cars? Is there a plan being put in affect yet, or do we don't care. I am concerned on how they plan (our government) to check for radiation on any item thats coming from Japan, now or in the near future. Can someone help me with this? I have been in the Automotive Business over 30 years and we never had to…