“Big doors swing on small hinges.” Small things can make a big difference in your sales process. There has been a lot written recently about what I term the “moment of truth” in the sales process. I don’t believe that a sale usually occurs because of one “big bang moment.” Usually, a sale occurs because of a series of very small and simple things that add up to being the difference maker.

If you are looking for 50 closes to take your sales to the next level, you are missing…

Stop the madness! I, unfortunately, might be part of the cause of the recent trends happening on dealer Twitter profiles and for that, I am truly sorry.

For years, I've been harping on the concept that Twitter is something that no dealer should avoid because of how quick and easy it is. There's no huge investment of time required to have a strong Twitter presence. This advice and the…

I have learned a lot during the 25 years that I owned my own business. Shortly before I retired from the salon/day spa, Facebook was becoming mainstream and the discovery process of how it could benefit the business was evident.

 The opportunity to market on every level through client engagement…

Automotive Web Marketing "Really Connected"

 Everyday you wake up and you have your list of reports to update and spreadsheets to fill out with the same old numbers, but what do these numbers really mean? Most car dealerships nowadays have an internal BDC (business development center) and…

Facts tell and stories sell. If you want to become really good at sales, then you must know how to tell your story. People think in pictures and they can and will follow a story. People learn better from stories and become emotionally connected to stories. What is your story and can you tell your story and tell it well?

What makes you who you are? You are different from anyone else. Your life experiences, background and everything about you makes you unique. Unfortunately, if…

COMMUNICATION!

I just got through reading “Is the dealership sales call center obsolete?”on autonews.com. I got the article from Andy Warner on twitter. This article highlights dealers that…

"Second place is a set of steak knives."

When Alec Baldwin's character lectured the sales team in Glengarry Glen Ross, he made it clear that the winner was the one on top, that everyone else was lucky to have a job, and that if they continued to perform the way they did they wouldn't have a job for much longer. The same holds true in social media. If you're not…

Recently, I have been playing around with various tools in order to increase how BDC departments connect with their internet leads.  It has been painful to watch BDC coordinators solely rely on the telephone that the dealership provides.  At one dealership I asked for an investment of a mobile phone and the dealer did not want to do that.  I had to come up with…

There has been plenty of controversy about cars.com and other vendors taking dealers inventory and feeding them to some really nasty anti-dealer sites such as cargurus.com. I believe that Jim Ziegler has done a great job standing up for the automotive retail community by fighting for what is right. I am seeing dealers cancel cars.com left and right while others just…

Advertisers Must Pay Attention to Hispanic Consumers as Rising Trendsetters in 2013…

So, you have a Facebook page for your business. You’re ready to tap into the most powerful social site in the world. You want to get fans, to get people to like your page and hear your messages, to communicate with them in a meaningful way and to help drive more business.

You…

If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you as well? Is that what your mother always asked you growing up? When caught making a mistake or doing wrong, children will always look to point the finger elsewhere. They’ll blame it on a friend, a neighbor, a bully, or an instigator. They were just following someone else’s lead… even if they knew it was wrong. That’s their excuse.…

A common perception of what makes a business successful is as follows: the leader is a genius who has a vision, defines the strategy, and all the employees work to make that vision into a reality.

The reality, however, is far different. In the best-selling business book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t,” by Jim Collins, a team of researchers discovered that the most successful leaders focus on getting the right people on board before they set…

A quick look at the current state of auto retailing would suggest that things are good. Tough times (and a couple of notable bankruptcies) have thinned dealer ranks. Although pressures are mounting, the manufacturers are still demonstrating discipline around production volumes. Most importantly, customers are returning to showrooms.

Add all factors together and the result is that volumes and margins on both new and pre-owned vehicles are strong. So strong, in fact, that many…

The importance of time is something that we must never take for granted.  As we know the time that we have here on Earth is limited and it's imperative that we don't look back over our life when we get older and say "I wish I had of."  I remember like it was yesterday a speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford when he said that we must live everyday like it's our…

1. Educate Yourself

Don’t wait for managers or anyone else to give you the sales education you need. Unfortunately, the automobile industry has been stuck for years in a, “Throw them in and see if they can swim mentality.” Some dealerships take new recruits to a meeting room and have them watch training tapes for a day and expect them to be trained. Neither of these options will increase your odds for success.

Begin a massive self-education program that will…

Yahoo is investing big-time in the social media. The company announced today that it has purchased Tumblr, the popular blogging and social media network, for $1.1 billion.

"I'm delighted to announce that we've reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!," Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, announced on her own…

I’m not a broken record, at least I’m not trying to be. It seems that I’ve covered this topic from different angles a lot lately, but it’s simply that important to understand. In business in general and in automotive marketing in particular, getting more Facebook fans is a very low priority compared to reaching more people.…

There are 24 hours and a total of 1,440 minutes in every day. Successful people just seem to get a lot more done in a day than unsuccessful people. The main reason is successful people keep the main thing the main thing. Success is not an accident.

First, you must be honest about your strengths and your weaknesses. Spend your time in what you are strong at and delegate what you are not. A sales person reading this article may immediately think they don’t have anyone…

Fear Not!

In an article dated May 15th, 2013, Automotive News announced that IRS changes could ensnare dealers who reinsure. (See full article …