I knew it would happen sometime in 2013. I’m glad it happened sooner rather than later.

For a while, many of the smaller bloggers such as myself have been preaching about how search, social, and content marketing are all actually a singular activity that can be broken down into a proper repeatable…

Back when I started my first "Buy Here Pay Here Lot" in the good ole days.

I started my first Note Lot in 1975 when you could buy a good note toter for $700 to $800.

you would sell 30 easy per month with 0 advertising.

Sell the car for $500. Down at $2995.00 to $3995.00 just whatever you felt like pricing the car at that day, and get $25.00 per week.

So you sold a car $500 down your out of pocket is $200 to 300. Dollars so you would recoup your money back…

Traffic is slow, business is weak, the economy stinks and banks aren’t buying. Repeat this mantra 100 times and see how you feel. I promise you that if you replay this message enough, you will believe it as absolute truth and become depressed and desperate. No matter what circumstances are at present, the choice is simple: You choose to win or choose to lose.

The one single ingredient that is always present in any success story is self-determination. You are always…

1. Manage your stores Online Reputation. In todays market more than ever customers decide if they want to come to your store before you even know it. Get in front of your reviews not behind them. Ask for reviews.

2. Inventory display. Change up the layout of your lot moving new and used vehicles around. Make it clean and organized. Sales people need a routine. Twice a month make this part of their job to display your profit maker…

Back when I first started desking deals, the “seasoned” salespeople would tell me, “Let’s do this deal; we’ll make up the gross on the next one. It’s easier to get iron than customers.” I believe there was a change in that attitude in 2008. Four years later, Buy-Here-Pay-Here (BHPH) dealers are still facing the challenge of finding enough choice inventory for their business model while maintaining portfolio performance.

In my last BHPH operation we operated a little different than…

In business, compounding interest is often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” In business, and especially sales, I compare the compounding effect of interest to the compounding effect that occurs with current customers who can become repeat customers and referral machines.

You may have seen examples of how someone can start an Individual Retirement Account when they are 25, invest $2,000 a year and by retirement age they will have a significant seven-figure…

Simplicity can be an automotive dealership’s best friend. Your mission should not only be to save time when engaging your customers, but to have a simple process of connecting with them. The goal of any dealership is to run as efficiently as possible, and a Desking Tool can help you achieve this goal.

The process of creating specials and deals within multiple DMS’ can be less than ideal.  With a proper Desking Tool, installers should make sure that your DMS is linked up with your CRM…

One of the keys to being a true dealership partner amongst a sea of vendors is having the willingness to “share the playbook” with our clients and prospects. This is much more important today than ever before in the world of automotive internet marketing because the changes are happening too rapidly. Marketing professionals and companies must stay on top of…

According to Rand Fishkin, Founder and CEO of SEOmoz.org, *there is an increase in blog readership as of late but a dramatic decrease in the amount of people blogging. This sets the stage for a powerful…

You did it-and you know you did it. You not only let yourself down-you let your family and friends down. Just think of how much you’ve let down all of the people who love you, trust you, and rely on you. You denied any wrongdoing to anyone who would listen until the cries of innocence became silenced. It took only seconds to be singled out in the lineup-the…

According to an AutoNation study, U.S. auto sales are expected to hit the mid-15 million unit range in 2013, thanks to a stabilizing housing market and strengthening economy.

As the positive economic outlook encourages potential clients to consider a new or pre-owned vehicle in the new year, how is your dealership focusing its campaign accordingly? What do you think will be most important to highlight: resale value, safety features, excellent gas mileage? Are consumers looking for…

In 2013, there will continue to be a growing number of people who have their smartphones and tablets handy while watching television. People are multitasking more often now than ever before while enjoying their television time. They are Tweeting, posting to Facebook, and visiting websites all from the comfort of their living…

What's the common image of a salesperson? The big bad wolf.

The big bad wolf seeks and destroys. It's a predator who pounces on its prey, eats the weak and leaves a bloody mess behind. This image makes the job of salespeople a lot harder than it should be. The good news is that this creates an opportunity to kill the wolf and turn the negative into a positive.

If you were to ask 10 customers what they hate about salespeople and the buying experience, you'd get an earful. Take…

Since it is that time of year, here are some ideas for commitments you may wish to make for 2013. As you’ve heard me say many times, “If you measure it and then scoreboard it, performance will improve!” Many of you are probably measuring and scoreboarding some of the following key performance indicators, but I doubt if any of you are measuring all 11 (a “lucky” number) of them:

1. Actual flat rate hour Productivity per Technician against objective on a daily,…

When I was in 1^st grade my Dad took me on a Father and Son campout sponsored by our church.  It was late spring at Lake Tahoe – cold, gray and drizzly.  I spent a lot of time warming by the fire.  We did take a spin on a speed boat but no one would let me drive.  So when one of the dads broke out some boxing gloves and drew a ring in the sand, I was thinking this…