What used car shoppers are looking for most of all is peace of mind. As a dealer, you should be educating your staff, and marketing your vehicles, to deliver that peace of mind. The fact that you spend internal dollars reconditioning trade-ins and from-the-auction inventory should not be withheld from today’s consumers. If anything, sharing this information with them can help improve both your merchandising efforts and customer confidence in their purchase…

Consumers have been showrooming in retail stores for quite some time now and, while many retailers don’t like it, they’ve pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that it’s going to happen.  However, one surprising argument posted in an article by speaker, trainer and consultant, Bob Phibbs, went so far as to make the claim that showrooming is akin to stealing.

In his…

The way you approach a potential customer will have a huge effect on your ability to create rapport, establish a relationship and, eventually, turn that prospect into a customer. Your job is to melt away the defensive wall prospects build around themselves. Melt away, not try to knock it down with a bulldozer which only causes them to build higher and thicker walls. Here are…

While Twitter never grew to truly rival Facebook, it has affected our communication and our culture in the same way. People use Twitter for marketing, to connect with like-minded individuals, network professionally, broadcast news, and discuss…

In a previous article, I provided two very real scenarios that occurred right before Memorial Day weekend and asked readers how they would have handled them. For convenience, I’ve repeated the scenarios again with the actual outcomes attached:

Scenario #1:

A customer…

Auto/Mate is conducting its third annual survey about online information resources. As auto dealership employees, where do you get your industry news? How do you rate the various trade publications, social media networks and industry trade shows as information sources you can trust? We want to know!

This survey has fewer than ten questions and can be completed in less time than it takes to finish your cup of coffee. Participants who complete the survey will be automatically…

In today’s fast-paced world, new technology is constantly being developed that provides auto dealers with new and innovative ways to connect with customers. The days of index cards and Outlook as a CRM are long gone. Now we have robust technology that makes it a simple process to connect with customers on many levels, including e-mail, text, chat, video and social…

The Problem



We are getting calls from dealerships all across the country and they are increasing by that day regarding their need for technicians. Unfortunately, the solution to the concern doesn't have an immediate reward and is generally not the answer that they want to hear.



The Solution



The…

Welcome to this week's edition of Black Book Market Insights, with in-depth analysis of used car and truck valuation trends and insights straight from the auction lanes. Click here to download the full report.

This week’s Market Insights report includes data, trends and insight showing a broader decline for the majority of car segments, and even many of the truck segments. Smaller cars are leading the weekly…

Want to Boost Your Sales? It's Easy

Knowing the difference between social media and social media advertising will save you thousands and help you sell more cars. On this week’s Think Tank Tuesday:

• Learn the difference between Social Media and Social Media Marketing.
• Optimize ROI by using social media the right way.
• Develop a comprehensive…

Type-A Personalities Versus Type-B Personalities

Most people who work in automobile sales have Type-A Personalities.  They are generally very competitive and career driven and often come across as aggressive and forceful.…

It’s no secret that dealerships have been in a crazy race to the bottom in terms of profit per vehicle. Consumers are always looking for the best deal and automotive Internet resources are providing them with more ammo to negotiate with. Dealers have been complaining for years about decreasing profit margins on vehicles, blaming manufacturers for lowering margins and…

Brian Benstock pushes the use of equity-mining software at Paragon Honda because each time it succeeds in getting a leased vehicle back early, nearly every department in the store benefits, especially finance and insurance.

Equity-mining software, sometimes called data-mining software, enables dealerships to spot current customers who are in a good position to get out of the vehicle they have and into a new one for about the same monthly payment.

The software looks at a number…

Last week, Automotive News published an article called “Auctions Focus on High-Quality Vehicle Images”, which emphasizes the importance of providing customers with a better online shopping experience. The article discusses Manheim’s new Enhanced Vehicle Imaging (EVI) system, which includes pan & zoom technology, a condition heatmap, and up to 15 high-res images. Using this more robust merchandising technology, Manheim saw a 26% increase in bids and received $132 more per…

All dealerships get leads that originate from the Internet. Not all dealers, however, are equal when it comes to how they handle these leads. Ever wonder why some dealers are able to close Internet leads at 12+ percent, while others struggle to reach 6 percent? The reason has everything to do with how these leads are handled – from speed of reply to the content in the reply…

Making a strong sales presentation is crucial to closing more sales. Here are 10 tips to help you improve yours:

1. Acknowledge your customer’s requests and expectations.

Make sure they know you heard them. If it’s not appropriate to answer a question at that moment, thank them for the question and assure them you’ll answer it in a few moments. Never react as if they are interrupting your “pitch”.

2. Offer what they ask for, not what you…

In a nutshell, the best auto leads are contacts for a high profit, high conversion vehicle shopper, with the highest profit margin. Part of defining the best car leads for dealerships, however, is also determining what they are not.

Quality Auto Leads Are Productive…

YouTube is giving their customers the opportunity to go ad-free. But don't worry! On this week's Hard Facts, learn why this WON'T have a huge impact on your video strategy