One night a little over 2 years ago and armed with my laptop, I sat on my couch and investigated why so many good car dealerships had negative online reviews. I took one brand and one state, California, and looked up each store’s… Continue
Added by Kathi Kruse on May 12, 2011 at 3:21pm —
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One night a little over 2 years ago and armed with my laptop, I sat on my couch and investigated why so many good car dealerships had negative online reviews. I took one brand and one state, California, and looked up each store’s… Continue
Added by Kathi Kruse on May 12, 2011 at 3:21pm —
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One of the best things we can do to prevent a poor performance month is to have strong margins in our fixed operations. If your overall parts department gross profit as a percentage of sales is below 35% place some attention to your margins. My suggestion is that parts gross profit margin to service customers is at 42%. Use of a parts matrix program might need to be used to achieve this result. I recommend a matrix…
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Added by Rob Gehring on May 11, 2011 at 6:41pm —
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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people… Continue
Added by Lizelle Landino on May 10, 2011 at 10:56pm —
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Former General Motors Co. CEO Robert Stempel, an engineer who led the development of the catalytic converter but was ousted in a boardroom coup, died Saturday in Florida, He was 77.
Added by DealerELITE on May 10, 2011 at 10:04pm —
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Join us on Thursday, May 19th for one of the most popular sessions from the 10th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition. This session had almost 250 attendees. People were 3 deep in the back of the room and some were even sitting on the floor. Check it out.
Join us for…
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Added by Arnold Tijerina on May 10, 2011 at 2:30pm —
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In real estate it is location, location, location. In the retail sales world, it is perception, perception, perception. Every one of your consumers wants to have a individualize experience when doing business with your organization. I like to call it the “Disney” experience since Disney has set the benchmark in customer service. It might be a…
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Added by Stephanie Young on May 10, 2011 at 10:30am —
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Business has begun to pick up. You've lost some people due to the previous year's slow down. You've added a franchise. You want more coverage. All of these are legitimate reasons to begin a hiring campaign to add sales people to your team. But, other than the cost of advertising, are you prepared for the "real hidden cost" of hiring?
There are two directions to take when beginning a campaign. You can go for experience or you can train new salespeople in the style of…
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Added by John Fuhrman on May 10, 2011 at 9:00am —
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Without spending too much time stuck on memory lane, I look back on some of the first cars I sold when I started in the business. There was a bill-of-sale, odometer statement for the trade-in, maybe a bank contract, and a buyers order. That was the entire paper process. You finished the deal by putting a stock tag on the trade (No FTC labels back then).
Within the year, there were added papers to verify that neither party tampered with the narrow gas tank h*** that was now standard…
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Added by John Fuhrman on May 10, 2011 at 8:14am —
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When I'm not obsessively checking in over here at Dealer Elite, I have a side hustle during the day. Well, for now
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As I've mentioned in blog posts prior, I call leads, talk to people, and set them up on appointments for interviews. Basically exactly what I did in the BDC for the 4 years I was there.
The script at my current job is..... well, lacking to say the least. I've tried to sit down with management and tell them that it doesn't allow…
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Added by Katie Colihan on May 9, 2011 at 10:30pm —
3 Comments
Hey folks! I have recently been asked to be the sole member of our new "service sales team". The concept sounded great, and I was all for it, until it actually was put into action. For many and most dealerships, I fully support the idea. We use the angle of having equity in your current vehicle, so getting a brand new vehicle for no money down, and we can lower your payments. Good idea right?
Heres where I run into a snag...we used to be a Saturn dealership. Now we are Buick/GMC. …
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Added by David Bucey on May 9, 2011 at 2:39pm —
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The New Digital Automotive Marketing Strategy Gets Bold About Branding
In 2011, a sexy dealer website means creating a stand-up-and-take-notice brand. “It’s time to smash the cookie cutter,” Andy Largent, Product Manager at ADP Digital Marketing said. “To do that, you need to think beyond the brand foundation provided by your…
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Added by The Cobalt Group on May 9, 2011 at 2:30pm —
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One of my very good childhood memories is Mom writing Granny (her Mom) letters and Mom also getting letters from Granny. Mom and Dad had moved us to Ohio for the better life that came then from factory work, so at the time we were far away from Granny back in Tennessee. The telephone was still expensive and unreliable way back then, and Granny's phone was also a…
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Added by Keith Shetterly on May 8, 2011 at 12:30pm —
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I read a disturbing headline in Automotive News this week saying “Facebook-Fun But Sells Few Cars.” I’m sorry Automotive News but I just have to rebut your argument. Social Media DOES… Continue
Added by Kathi Kruse on May 6, 2011 at 7:01pm —
7 Comments
The newest keeping up with the Jones’s marketing trend is Social Media Marketing. Social Networking has found a home in American Capitalism as the twenty-something crowd has become a strong demographic in today’s enterprise. Business hours have been replaced with 24/7 virtual access to your dealership. Social Media Marketing has become a channel for customer support, service and satisfaction. …
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Added by Stephanie Young on May 6, 2011 at 1:30pm —
1 Comment
Social Media is not kids play any longer. Social Networking has found a home outside of the college dorm and into main stream capitalism. More and more businesses globally are adopting Social Media Marketing Plans. Social Media is one of the newest tools available to the global economy, but how does it affect your business? Why should you invest some of your marketing resources in the…
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Added by Stephanie Young on May 6, 2011 at 1:30pm —
9 Comments
10) We were all born of women, consider the pain, anguish and toil endured for you to just be here; in other words, if nothing else, do it for your mom dummy
9) You can't just buy every female customer and co-worker roses and jewelry to make up for stupid things you say like you do with your wife or girlfriend- get it right
8) Girls stopped having cooties a long time ago, it is safe to treat them as human now
7) Every woman is somebody's daughter
6) Women…
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Added by Brad Alexander on May 6, 2011 at 12:34pm —
5 Comments
If a General Manager had 50% of new or used car inventory aged at over 7 months without a sale, life would not be pleasant. Many dealerships have this concern in their parts department and are not even aware of it. Let’s look at some operational guidelines that will improve your parts department in every aspect. Every month end should generate a parts summary report that is given to the parts manager. This report contains some valuable information most General Managers never see. An…
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Added by Rob Gehring on May 6, 2011 at 10:03am —
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There are a number of good reasons for operating an ethical and legally compliant dealership, not the least of which is staying out of a courtroom. Perhaps the most important - and most often overlooked - reason is increased customer satisfaction. There are times when an employee may feel that he or she came out the winner by bending the rules a little, but what about the dealership’s reputation? What about the customers who were mislead? It seems like there might be some losers in the…
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Added by Jim Radogna on May 5, 2011 at 7:15pm —
6 Comments
1) Hire some women! Women buyers will, on average, prefer to buy a vehicle from another woman when they can--and women salespeople are awesome. By the way, women salespeople will do a great job with male buyers, too.
2) Smile and understand their power. Lots of women are on their own and…
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Added by Keith Shetterly on May 5, 2011 at 4:00pm —
3 Comments