Great managers view themselves as coaches more than managers. There is an old adage: “Lead people and manage things.” There is a fine line between creating and utilizing systems and processes and micromanaging details without emphasizing the power of personal interaction.

Good systems and processes should allow employees to raise their performance by giving them confidence in their direction and lessening the burden of the manager and coach from having to constantly inform…

A few weeks ago, Ford managed to accomplish a task that many brands dream about but never achieve… to have an ad go viral. You might think this is a good thing except for the fact that this particular ad went viral for all the wrong reasons.

JWT India, Ford’s…

Adam Orth is one of the creative directors at Microsoft studios. He's not the top of the chain, but he IS important, and he should be aware that his words have weight. Unfortunately (for Microsoft and his own career) he performed a major faux pas on Twitter last night. Let's take a look at what he did and investigate how your …

An excerpt from

The Power of Positive Doing

~  BJ Gallagher

ACTION ALLEVIATES ANXIETY

For many years, I suffered from tension headaches with painful symptoms:

impaired vision, sensitivity to…

As the economy improves and everyone looks to increase market share, dealers are struggling to take advantage because they can’t find enough good salespeople.  As a result, the customer experience suffers, guests are not logged into the CRM, and sales opportunities are missed.  But there are 3 places where good salespeople can be found:

1) YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

If you are seeking a younger, more technologically advanced salesperson you have to go where they are – online. …

This issue exists because dealers don’t know how to appropriately use customization and reporting opportunities available to them.

This happens most commonly because lack of training in the CRM or not knowing where opportunities are being lost.

Fixing this issue is advantageous in multiple ways. First, it would improve customer experience at the store.  Second, it would save more potential deals by involvement of those who need to be in the right place and right…

Let’s first take a moment to let the cover image of this story wear off a bit. It’s pretty freaky, I know. Once that’s done, let’s talk about how the evolution of search marketing has come to the point that we need to use freaky images to get your attention.

SEO and PPC are very different…

Written By: Joe Basil

We just returned from a 20 Group meeting and it was the most invigorating workshop we have ever attended. We completed an assessment of our dealership operations and identified major sales and profit opportunities in all departments. We have benefited from the extensive experience of our facilitator and fellow members. We had the opportunity to compare our operation to other…

I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's the main point, but it's definitely one of the keys. Exposure on social media is an extremely high-potential benefit of having a strong presence on social media sites, particularly Facebook.

There has been a lot of talk lately about social signals for SEO purposes. This is…

http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com

April 2013, Cover of AutoSuccess Magazine “Automotive Digital Training”

NADA says that there are approximately 17,580…

What is Automotive Direct Mail?

An article by BigTimePromos.com

What is Automotive Direct Mail?



Automotive is one market that grows irrespective of seasons or countries. Direct Mail marketing is a marketing strategy adopted by marketers in which large numbers of printed letters, brochures, and printed ads are sent to large groups of consumers. Research shows that over 73 % of buyers are influenced by automotive direct mail which is why this form of marketing is…

Have you made the commitment that automotive sales is your career choice? Unless you commit, it’s impossible that you will take the necessary steps to create the business you desire. Long-term thinking in addition to short-term goals are keys to continued success.

When you first enter into a sales position, 80 percent of your time is spent acquiring customers and 20 percent of your time is spent maintaining those customers. Eventually, with the right efforts, that model…

It's very possible that I'm beating a dead horse on this one, but I'd rather beat a dead one than a live one.

If you hear me speak or read my writing, you'll know that I've been pushing this concept for a long time. This is the last plea I'll be making. It's the eleventh hour, so everything I post going forward on the subject will be tips for…

When Facebook rolled out threaded comments last week, there was a clear lack of excitement from most of the social media blogs. It was a news item, nothing more, for most of them. Cool feature, about time, yadayadayada.…

Some may try to call me out on the title of this post. “Don’t you mean ‘strategies’ plural?”

No. Search and social strategy. One thing. Different processes. Slightly different goals. Same strategy.

As we move forward through the second quarter of 2013, it’s important to understand how the dynamic between…

Who is Jason Becker you might ask?  Before I tell you I want to let you know that the reason for this post is because I am tired of hearing people tell me that they cannot do something or that things are impossible.  I hear it from sales professionals at dealerships.  I hear it from people that I meet in social environments that tell me they are looking for a job after I mention the possibility of car sales.  I even hear it from people in my family who sometimes make excuses instead of…

In a world where content is next to cleanliness (and cleanliness is in fairly close proximity to godliness) it's fallen on a lot of digital marketers to start writing. For some of us, this hasn't been much of a chore. We delight in putting our thoughts down on the page and sending them out for (a very, very small portion of) the world to read. Other marketers aren't such big fans.…

The first step in advancing the productivity of your staff in using the phones is a better understanding in the importance that the telephone can play and how it affects your business. Often a lack of the right attitude is displayed in the treatment towards the receptionist position. The receptionist is usually hired without any guidelines that would be used to hire for an important position. In your dealership do you have personality profiles, set interview questions and guidelines to hire…

Written By: Garry House

In the second quarter of 2012, the NCM Institute (NCMi®) formed a training partnership with Automotive Internet Management (AIM). AIM has conducted five “Bridging the Internet Sales Gap” training workshops under NCMi sponsorship. After personally auditing two of these sessions and receiving client-dealer feedback from all of the sessions,…

Are you engaging your web traffic? Are you interested in getting more leads for your business?

Then you need to learn about Gubaggo. Gubagoo is an “On-Site” Behavioral Engagement & Scoring Technology called the B.E.A.S.T., making “Anonymous” web traffic identifiable through a…