The truth is, I think, that www.AutoCon2012.com advertising is out of control.  Now, I *do* support www.AutoCON2012.com, but really that's because I strongly believe in the idea that dealers need great chances for education.  And I think the line-up is very, very…

Overview

We often forget the best clients are the sold clients in our CRM's.

The walls are a physical barrier.  The walls also represent a conceptual barrier to many.  The walls, whether physical or conceptual, separate.   And, that is bad!   The           walls act like demarcation lines that shouldn’t be crossed lest you dare enter into foreign or perhaps even enemy territory.  The rules of engagement crossing into or between these walls may be an…

If you have been following my latest articles discussing Google Adwords, you are well aware that Google is testing new ad formats for the automotive industry.  

I have recently discussed the Google Advisor For Cars program which is very controversial.  I recently documented that Google is testing …

I don’t know about you but nothing ticks me off more than a sales person sitting on their a** waiting for the up bus to pull into the lot and hand deliver them a deal on a silver platter. Let’s face it there are more of these untrained, unmotivated just don’t seem to care sales consultants than ever before.…

Throughout my 40+ years in the automotive business, I always thought there would come a time when I would leave and take a 9am - 5pm job with holidays, multiple weeks of paid vacations and other normal job aspects. It never happened. No matter how bad of a day I might have had, I always found myself driving home thinking to myself ow much I loved this business. 

In my years as a mechanic, I love fixing cars. As I rose through management I loved fixing problems with customers,…

Read this latest blog by one of our Account Managers Hayley Berger, as she talks about how important your relationship as a dealership is with your customers.

When we think of intros we usually think of the song a baseball player walks out to, or a little :10 second clip before a TV…

How many times have I asked a sales person, "Have they driven the car?" Do you have any idea how many times I hear, They drove it at the other dealer or they don't have time to drive it or my favorite. They already own one that is three years old.  Really?  You are going to waste all that time on a write up when your chances of closing a deal without a demo…

Twitter is growing quickly as a social network, and as it does, businesses are cluing into the fact that they can connect with a whole new market by maintaining a Twitter account. It can be tough to get the hang of posting on the site, but remembering a few simple tips can help.

• Think twice about automating your tweets. It’s tempting to…

In the city I live in, there is a run down, nasty looking house taking up some prime commercial real-estate that I'm pretty sure every Realtor in town has taken a crack at trying to sell. Seriously! Every couple of months there is a new sign out front from some poor real-estate…

At last week’s semi-annual meeting of NCM’s divisional directors, 20 Group moderators, Retail Operations consultants, and NCM Institute faculty members a good discussion developed around the topic of Service Advisor Compensation. The common questions that several on our staff were seeking answers for were as follows:

1. Has there been any significant change in advisor compensation…

When it comes to our data and how it affects our business, how we can and must make money with it, retail automotive needs to wake up!  We need an "Internet Moment"--but, first, what the heck is that?  Understand that the "Internet Moment" was birthed this way at a very famous company:  The mid 90’s were a crazy time at Microsoft. The Internet was taking off, and it had left…

General consensus in advertising today is usually that the most effective advertising is specifically targeted to a narrow field of people that you want to reach. For years this has been accomplished with complicated technology and it has definitely shown performance improvements from non-targeted to targeted ads. This level of targeting has never been available for…

Is It Time To Reevaluate Your Opinion About TrueCar?

I have seen many issues polarize dealers, and at times energize them during my 30 years in the car business. Very few issues have rallied so many people in the auto industry to cry out than the advent of TrueCar’s advertising…

We all know it's impossible to make every customer happy. There are often confusions in the automotive industry that consumers simply do not understand. They can do unreasonable things to try to get back at the dealership when they perceive that they were not treated properly.

This was a challenge a decade ago and before when word-of-mouth was arguably the most important factor in the success of a dealership.…

Having looked back over nearly two decades of automotive advertising from newspapers to niche auto and RV magazines, I find it interesting that nothing has changed. The methodology and strategy has had no improvements which begs to ask: are the results getting any better or are they continuing to diminish?

One of…

Former General Motors U.S. sales and marketing boss Mark LaNeve has been named chief operating officer at Ford's agency Team Detroit.

Mark LaNeve…

The other day I was reading the latest headlines on automotive advertising strategies, and came across this post:

"Porsche Makes Direct Mail Personal…And A Little Bit Creepy"

Have you all heard about this? An ad agency named 'Low Roche' recently helped one of its clients, a Porsche dealership, get a 32% response rate on a 'mailer' -- using some very…

THE  INTIMIDATION NETWORK ZEROING IN ON CHICK-FIL-A

By James A. Ziegler

Recently I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the concentrated attack on Chick-Fil-A regarding statements made by CEO, Dan Cathy concerning his views on Gay Marriage.

I have seen blogs and social media attacks on Chick-Fil-A stating they discriminate against gays and mistreat gays, which is TOTALLY untrue. Chick-Fil-A has NO policy concerning their gay employees or gay customers.

And, now we’re…