Yesterday I was on my way to a meeting at a dealership.  I had left the home office earlier so I can be at the meeting earlier especially since it was an 80 mile ride.  I was within three miles of the dealership and thirty minutes early.  I had never been there before I relied on my GPS as I always do.  The GPS that I use comes from my iPhone and the software is less than a week old as I just updated the operating system.

The GPS was pulling in an address from…

Accountability...It is more than a fancy six syllable word. The business dictionary defines accountability as "The obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner." Accountability is not a new tool; it is not constricted to the…

The paparazzo isn’t hiding in your bushes trying to get a picture of you. Media sources aren’t following you on vacation to capture a picture of you in a bathing suit. No need for security when you leave the building. If there is, you have bigger problems!

People don’t have the same passion level for your dealership that they do for their favorite TV stars or sports…

October 23-25, 2012 dealers have a choice of attending Internet Sales 20 Group in Chicago or Digital Dealer 13 in Las Vegas.

When looking at the two events on October 23-25, 2012 dealers have made demands about wanting to avoid "timeshare" sales pitches and to build a network with other dealers.  They got tired of going to massive conferences with…

I was chatting with a social media marketing buddy of mine in Dallas earlier today when he told me a funny story. He knows that I'm in the automotive industry and he found it humorous that two dealers in his area shared the same image onto their Facebook pages at the exact same time. He followed both as he follows many local businesses and checked to see who posted it first and who reshared it.

To his surprise, it…

We don’t promote conferences very often. Those who have seen KPA at conferences know that we attend nearly all of them, speak at most, and engage with dealers as our primary reason for going. These things make promotion of the events challenging as we know that we’re getting a benefit from them so it’s almost like “double dipping” when we promote them as well.

Every…

http://clearmechanic.com/blog/2012/9/a-surprisingly-common-issue-in-cars-infestation-129

It all starts with the right tools; http://ow.ly/dsOHL

The most trusted name in live chat brings the top ten blogs and auto news stories right to you! We monitor industry trends, current events and the auto dealer community every week to bring you the top ten blogs and automotive stories from around the globe. In this weekly edition – email template theft, fake social media reviews, and Myspace makes a…

Everyone wants a more powerful search engine, and that includes the United States Government. As anyone who watched School House Rock knows, our law-making system can be fairly convoluted. That’s why this week the U.S. government is rolling out a new search engine to help the politically minded population research legislation being discussed in the House and…

As reported today by Mashable, Facebook has started weeding out and deleting “bogus Likes caused by compromised accounts, deceived users, malware or purchased bulk Likes..”

I’ve written countless times about why buying Likes is not only useless but bad practice. There are companies whose entire social media strategy is a numbers game. The more Likes you have, the more likelihood that you’ll reach people who…

Early in my retail automotive management career (back in the late 1960’s), I was fortunate to meet a renowned sales and management trainer. His name was Clint McGhee, and his training disciplines and materials provided the foundation of sales success, not only for my dealership, but for many others as well.  Following is one of Clint’s mantras, with which I may have taken a little editorial freedom:

“Avail yourself of every training opportunity.…

Not doing a walk around every car every time?

Not delivering the right word tracks at the right time?

Not asking for the sales, handling the objection?



Then watch this video!

Merely Surviving Isn't Enough

 …

For me, it changes as time goes on. The love for my occupation get's me fired up!

Big motivators for me are looking forward to an upcoming concert, the changing of the leaves, a sporting event on TV and playing with my dogs. What gets you fired up each day?

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In a retrospective presentation on the 2012 SXSW Expo, Jack Morton Senior Vice President, Liz Bigham, said that “engagement counts more and costs less than awareness.” What Bigham means by this statement, a variation on the Harvard…

It seems an overwhelming majority of participants on this network are obsessed with social media channels. While I feel they play a role in a good overall marketing strategy, I wonder if we are putting too much weight on their importance?

Let me ask you this question:

"If a dealership took all their icons and buttons and links to…

Recently Facebook has made an announcement that they have begun developing and testing a mobile ad network. Interestingly they aren’t doing just an on-domain network, like they do now, where you can only buy ad space on Facebook. This ad network will be a real cross domain network. This new development could bring a whole new meaning to the phrase…

Whatever your PROCESS, BE CONSISTENT EVERY TIME with a customer.  Inconsistency (Short cutting) leads to nothing but lost sales.  

Good afternoon Dealer Elite Members and associates,

I have been noticing a disturbing trend in retail lately and I am sure it is also true in other areas of the workforce as well. As we become more and more connected with Social Media, Smartphones and the internet red flags are popping up everywhere for me.

Everyone is becoming more and more distracted and this means productivity, focus and results are being affected. Of course this is happening when driving in…