When will I see you again? No, I am not talking about the 70’s pop song, although the lyrics just may fit the content here. I am talking about the continued trend in customer defections from our dealerships. 

Customer’s defect for many reasons and the longer an individual owns a car, the harder it can be to keep that customer. It’s not necessarily because the…

It took a mini-debate with a potential client to bring me to a conclusion: numbers do lie. Conventional wisdom says otherwise, but in the digital age there is a huge gap between seeing the numbers and understanding them in a meaningful way.

I should go ahead and add an addendum to the premise before I begin. Numbers aren't really lying, but they can definitely…

Most business owners are aware that Google offers their business a free "yellow pages" listing, and some know that it is now called My Business. For auto dealers, the importance of an optimized My Business listing will become evident as you read this article but the concepts described here apply to all business owners.

Most every time a consumer conducts a search for an auto dealership, like Orange County…

Swapalease.com, the nation's largest online lease marketplace, compared truck inventory and consideration data from 2014 against 2012 and found that there has been a significant increase in the number of shoppers driving truck leases, and those looking for truck leases. Topping the list is the Chevy Silverado, which has seen a 286.4% jump in Swapalease.com inventory, and an 89.6% increase in shopping consideration over the last two years.



Here are numbers on four of today's…

Tools to Increase Your Business Aren’t Worth Much Without Follow-up and Training

The recent NADA Convention is over. As always, there was plenty of information to gain and a lot of shiny objects being displayed. Dealers and major executives were out with their checkbooks looking for ways to increase their business in 2015. There were countless…

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Internet Sales 20 Group 7 New York, May 18-20 -…

There is a big opportunity that most dealerships are not taking advantage of on a daily basis.  Buying a car is a huge investment.  On average it is the 2nd biggest investment in your clients' lives.    So why is it that our sales teams are not going the extra mile after the car is purchased?  The relationship is not over at this point, it is actually just beginning!…

Automotive News recently carried a story about a lawsuit filed by Subaru of America against one of their franchisees. The lawsuit accuses a Southern California dealership of falsifying 224 CSI surveys in an effort to increase their CSI scores. This was after…

Black Book today announced that Ricky Beggs, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director, will retire from the company effective April 1, 2015. Mr. Beggs has served as the voice of Black Book for the automotive industry since his career began thirty-four years ago in 1981.



“It has been an honor to work alongside Ricky who truly has become an industry legend,” said Tom Cross, President of Black Book. “His legacy of leadership and his dedication to excellence have left an enduring…

Building repair order counts is often not considered until the time your shop is slow which in my view is too late. In this article we will review four processes you can use in your dealership operations to build your repair order counts not only now but on an ongoing basis.

The very first thing that might come to your mind when considering ways to build repair order counts is…

Here at Potratz, we send a lot of e-mails a month. If you want the best e-mail template that is going to perform well, you need to A/B test it. On this week's Think Tank Tuesday, I explain the importance of a subject line and what to stay away from when creating one.…

We’re only two months into the year, and already the marketing world is abuzz with new terms that have been slowly sneaking their way into daily articles and brainstorming meetings.

I was actually reading a Contently article called “…

Hello and welcome to this week’s Used Car Market Report with insights from Black Book. Yes, gas prices at the pump are edging up, plus $.02 two weeks ago, and now a significant $.12 this past week. The national average is still a consumer friendly $2.19. Diesel was more stable and indications are this will be the case this year compared to gas. This past week was the first increase in diesel, at…

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'Win the Game of Googleopoly' Book Signing - Barnes And Noble - New York, NY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALBANY, N.Y. – February 16th, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) today announced its President and CEO Mike Esposito will speak at the INSIGHT15 Customer Loyalty and Retention Conference, March 24th through March 26th at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL. Esposito will present "A Better Way to Customer Loyalty: Focus on Employees First, Customers Second" to auto dealers attending the…

The question most pondered by businesses when advertising is perhaps the most important:

“What is my ROI?”

It doesn’t matter whether we’re discussing television ads, radio, 3^rd party leads,

that gorilla on top of your building, or the contest you’re running on social media; all roads lead back to the ability to answer that…

How long? How long before we get away from the past images of the shyster? The all about me, just in it for the quick buck ? The compassionless shark? .........The answer lies within us.

I've been blessed to have witnessed a rather curious cycle, perpetual in nature, yet new to each generation of car people.

Each generation despises the old car dogs and feel…

For those not familiar with the term “Split Testing,” this refers to testing different marketing approaches to determine which strategy will return the biggest ROI. For example, let's say that you’re doing an email campaign, you could split test your subject verbiage. Example: “10 ways to sell more cars” is your split test A and “Who else want’s to sell more cars?” would be your split test B. You send out 500 emails with the A subject line and 500 with the B subject line, and then you…

Sell Like It Was Yesterday

I have loved the automobile business since the day I sold my first car in 1987.  I remember collecting that commission check, as an 18 year old kid, who was in shock and awe that someone would pay me that kind of money to do something that I loved.  It was a simple time; look out the window, make sure you never miss an up, do the walk around, the demo drive, the service walk and make sure if you cannot…

We all have a myriad of contacts that we consciously (or subconsciously) place into separate categories in our relationships. These categories include family, close friends, business associates, colleagues and acquaintances. Most people tend to act differently depending on which group they are surrounded by at any particular moment. People may relax a little, be more…