Great leaders understand more than anything that it is ALL about the people…..

The people… are the driving force of any organization…..

Don’t believe it???

Go ahead and hire some bad ones and let me know how that works…

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Thanks for your intuitive and sincere response. Its interesting the things you said.

As the Internet Director of a department that has three dealerships to deal with, I have my hands full.

I have a staff of three, including myself. All over the internet there are consultant types who would have us believe that they know the answer to: "How do we run an automotive internet department?" They would have us believe that for a fee, they can take all the things we have learned about…

If you're a dealer not satisfied with current performance, these ideas may be useful.

Honesty and Ethics Rankings

A November 2010 Gallup poll asked consumers to rate the level of honesty and ethics of various professions. Nurses, military officers and pharmacists were at the top. Lobbyists and car sales people were on the bottom. (See graph below) There are many highly honest, ethical and good dealers in the business, yet these polling results have…

Chances are, since you’re reading this post, your dealership or company is involved in social media. That’s good - it’s hard to imagine how difficult it will be moving forward for organizations that have not embraced social networking. Although Social Media is relatively new (and certainly exciting), its meteoric growth has unfortunately caught the early attention of the legal powers-that-be.

Despite the widespread use and misuse of social networking at work, 45 percent of all…

Before you begin recruiting, interviewing, or hiring for the position of Internet Manager/BDC/Internet Director, there are three crucial things you must do first.

1)  Determine the hierarchy of the store.  Who will this person, in a new department, be reporting to?  Often anyone from sales managers to salespeople believe they can delegate work to someone in the Internet department while the top stores usually have a director or GM as the only entity that presides over the…

I’ve often wondered what makes salespeople go from optimism to pessimism in such a short amount of time. (i.e. 30 day wonders) When they first hit the pavement, they are full of optimism; I mean they believe every customer is a buyer.  Eventually, they become pessimistic; their speech begins to change; all buyers are liars and all of them are buried or idiots. As…

Mike overy of the BDC experts will show your sales, service and BDC team how to reach more customers. After over 20 years teaching dealers we have found that contact ratios are as follow.

100 Calls 20-30 contacts and 4-8 appointments with one contact number.

These numbers are of course based on a trained BDC staff member calling sales, service or internet customers.

We are asked by customers, clients, owners and sales and…

In a previous blog, I told a story about my father being deaf and how this becomes a superpower for him in business.  (To read more on this back story, please visit “Seeing What People Say”)  I had no idea what a gift my father had given me during my childhood until I became a working adult in a hearing…

What does it take to lead in today’s world??

What are the ingredients that go into making a good leader??

Good question.

First of all, you need to understand the responsibilities…

Small businesses and owners SHOULD understand the importance of branding! What is branding? It is everything your company does or doesn’t do. Influenced, evaluated, judged, compared in the minds of your audience every given moment of the day. This DOES NOT mean that your spending budget needs to double, or you need to get a second mortgage on your home. How about offering the BEST, most Exceptional,  Unforgettable customer experience with some outstanding character? Not just be the…

Now the first thing we need to remember is that certain people gravitate to certain lines of work and for that matter, certain groups. Being a sales person doesn't make you a certain way, being a certain way makes you gravitate toward that line of work. Now if we agree on the sociology of the group, we see why this maybe more of challenge than you think.

The outgoing, friendly person who enjoys making friends traditionally moves toward a sales type of work.

The technical type…

The secret paths on the journey to sales success do not exist.  There are no hidden doorways that inherently lead to a pool of wealth.  The trek requires tenacity, perseverance and commitment and is no place for the weak spirited. The route is littered with mediocre, unfulfilled promise…

You better hope they are!!

For those of you who have been in the car business a while, the service business has changed dramatically over the years. With the quality of vehicles getting better and aftermarket garages getting bolder, we have to rely on servicing vehicles as much as 'fixing" vehicle. 

So to service a vehicle, you need to sell service. 

I've overheard numerous service calls that went along the lines of; "Mr Customer, you need brakes and…

Ask yourself, what true baggage am I carrying on a daily basis that is now a barrier for my growth in my entire life? Everyone has something keeping them back. Get rid of the baggage. Do not allow another day to go by, without seeking out a way to crush the barriers.

Fact: It was a Wednesday afternoon in 1993, a real nice fall day in New England.…

In a follow-up comment to a post I wrote last week about social media web tools, Jared Hamilton asked me about other free tools I’d recommend for dealers and internet managers to be as effective as possible in their daily marketing efforts.  Below are some tools that various team members at DealerOn use or have used in the past.

Compete.com --By entering your website and those of your competitors, you can see site traffic history,…

In a class action lawsuit filed on June 21, 2011 against AutoNation (Santa Clara Superior Court, entitled Lilly v. AutoNation, Case No. 1-11-CV-203569), attorneys are claiming that AutoNation is in violation of the California Labor Code by misclassifying commissioned sales reps as exempt from overtime and, in addition, issuing deduct vouchers post-sale for losses in commissionable gross due to repair or…

Another Coach is working with a SMgr who asks his salespeeps to submit a short activity summary at the end of each day. Not everyone does this and this SMgr is frustrated. Thoughts?

One point is missing. This will only pertain if this isn't a rebellious bunch who don't believe in accountability and it all…