Location-based social media opportunities are everywhere these days, and they’re soaring in popularity. For anyone not familiar, location-based applications allow users to find and “check in” at various spots and share that information with those in their network. There are standalone options like Foursquare, which dominates the field, and other platforms are trying to get into the game all the time. Another alternative is location features…

Back in the 1970's, I cut my teeth in the car business pumping gas and being a mechanics (yes we were called mechanics then) helper. I learned quite a bit and it set the foundation for a wonderful career in the automotive industry. 

One of my early lessons in customer service was provided by my old boss. Our oil change cost $9.95. A quart of oil cost about $1.10 back then. The store I worked at was an Exxon franchise. Now our customer could go into the chain supermarket right next…

In any good automotive seo campaign you need to establish your dealership as a credible industry leading source of information. This can definitely be a handful but there are a few easy guidelines you can follow to make sure that your web content is helping your case rather than hurting it.…

by Adam Ross, Managing Director at Infinite Prospects - Online Solutions for Car Dealerships

There are almost ONE BILLION registered…

http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/it-s-the-internet-manager-s-fault

http://dealeretraining.com/



Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining discusses the challenges that…

NCM “Benchmarking for Success” Workshop Added To AutoCon 2012

AutoCon 2012, the automotive industry’s newest and most exciting fall conference, is pleased to announce that Robin Cunningham, NCM^® Institute faculty member, will be…

In our business helping veterans improve can be a challenge.  

They know what they are supposed to know.  Usually they think they are actually doing it.

Poke around in the cupboards of the average dealership and you will find training cassettes from the 70's, training videos from the 80's and 90's and DVD's from the last 15 years.  You could reforest Colorado's wildfire area with the trees that made the workbooks from seminars that are…

When I was last on the "front lines" in automotive retail, I was fortunate to be a Sales Manager for a Dealer Group that was implementing radical changes to its sales process, marketing, merchandising and customer experience. We adopted VAuto as our merchandising and appraisal tool. We went to a "best price first" concept and we revised the Sales Person compensation plan to reward unit levels and CSI. I will outline the experience from the guest walking into the…

As I travel and talk with managers and dealers I am frequently asked to review and analyze different dealerships sales map's or processes to the sale, it is amazing to me how many overlook the power of the trade in. My opinion is that the trade in is in almost every case the number one secret to the car deal. In all cases, I have always trained sales consultants to look at and review the trade in with the client right after the…

There’s a real human talent in arranging the right pressures (positive and negative), at the right time, on to the right people, to get a desired result.  It’s a hallmark of effective leadership, in fact, and the name “People Chess” is an easy way to summarize this talent.   And we all know its uses in relationships of all kinds, really, both to us by others…

It all starts at the top, the decision makers, the shot callers, the check signers. Recent study shows that these managers, presidents and CEO's don't engage in social media leading to the non-understanding of why it is important.

Using the Fortune 500 list the following was discovered; 70% of all CEOs have no social presence. The percentage that do part take in…

At the conclusion of the NCMi webinar on “Finding the Missing Pieces to Improve Service and Parts Gross Profit,” one of the attendees questioned our recommendation as to the necessity for sub-accounting for automotive dealerships. Robin Cunningham, the NCM Institute faculty member who presented the webinar, suggested that our next Up To Speedarticle attempt to clarify this recommendation. So, here we go!

A meaningful sub-accounting process is a primary ingredient of…

Do You Want More Leads From Your Website? from Potratz on Vimeo.

The 2012 AutoConnections Conference & Exposition (aka AutoCon 2012) is brought to you by Automotive Media Partners, LLC. (AMP). AMP is a company led by Ralph Paglia, Chris Saraceno and Mike Myers who represent the largest online communities for Automotive Professionals.



The conference will start on September 5, 2012 at …

In the automotive sales industry, we sometimes get so wrapped up with adjusting/tweaking our own approach to the sales process (internal critiques) that we often forget to look at how our customers are approaching us with each potential sale.

The cliché, “…it takes two to tango...” comes to mind.

What kind of research or tips do they look for before coming to the car lot?…

It can be a challenge to keeping track of every visit, contract in transit, trade appraisal and every follow up call due. While technology improves our ability to manage these processes, nothing takes the place of a well structured save-a-deal meeting.

Here is…

AutoCon 2012 Announces TrueCar Sponsored Full Ride Scholarship Program

Automotive Media Partners, LLC and First Class Educators are proud to announce the creation of a scholarship program sponsored by TrueCar of Santa Monica, California. TrueCar’s pioneering sponsorship of this program provides the…

Solving the Eternal Sales and Marketing Riddle

For over 30 years I have worked more than 40 hours a week on creating, managing and measuring various strategies and tactics designed to optimize the results from sales and marketing investments in planning, people, tools, technologies, procedures and…