There is not much discussion on automotive forums  regarding Dealer Management System (DMS) innovation. 

The automotive DMS market is dominated by two companies today: Reynolds and ADP.  

So I ask dealers on this forum:

"Has the dealer community not seen a…

It was the 2011 Driving Sales Executive Summit when I was asked by Joe Webb to participate in a debate about Twitter followers. I had around 100,000 followers at the time and he wanted me to argue for the side of quantity being more important than quality. This made perfect sense…

With over 75 million users, over 6000 photo uploads in the last minute, over 72,000 photos tagged with jump, and over 3 million photos geo-tagged this month. Flickr is quickly becoming an extremely important digital marketing tool because it allows your dealership to market your inventory and brand through a very visually attractive social medium. Flickr can…

Family fears Mac Haik shooting suspect could bond out

SPRING -- As a boy, Rob Kuentz looked up to his dad. He even dressed like him and dreamed of one day working at a car dealership.

“I have pictures of him everywhere he went,” said his mother, Sandy Kuentz. “He had to have that tie on because he was going to sell cars.”

By 30, Kuentz was a supervisor at a Mac Haik dealership. He married his high school sweetheart, Heather, and had…

If you weren’t able to make it out to the 13^th Digital Dealer Conference, you’re in luck! The Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is going virtual December 5-11. In that time, you can check out the vendor programs and services as seen in the 13^th Digital Dealer Exhibit Hall, and also experience the top ten educational sessions on demand 24/7 anywhere with Internet access.

We at the re:member group will have a virtual exhibit there…

A Facebook username is essentially your domain name on Facebook. For instance, ours is Facebook.com/Wikimotive. Much like your actual website domain name, your Facebook username is best when it is just your brand name. Snagging this username (and the accompanying vanity URL) is an important part of your …

Over at Automotive Digital Marketing, there's been a long discussion started by Jim Zieglerabout Carfax and its place in the…

A few months back I attended Autocon 2012. There I learned a lot of new techniques and processes to help bring my dealership to the next level in automotive internet sales. But instead of running home and writing a review right away about the courses I attended and what they spoke about, I decided to wait about writing about what I heard and implement it…

Does Your Dealership Have a Good Incentive Based Marketing Program?

By

Jason Parman

Incentive based marketing can in large be defined as the use of motivational devices such as competitions, games, premiums, and special pricing to promote the sale of a particular…

There's a trend in the automotive industry that is alarming. We hear this scenario played out almost every day and it normally manifests itself into one of two stages:

• Stage 1: The Fresh Tech Hunter - When a dealership is tired of the limitations of their various vendors, they…

Do you feel like you are missing out on something? Are you confused as to what the next step is in making your dealership successful? It’s a different ballgame than it was even just a few years ago. The traditional dealership is dead and you must bury it to prosper in the future.

For years, the car business could be a forgiving business. There was room for a lot of error in a dealership, and yet a dealership could still be profitable. Those days are gone. Dealerships…

     1.13.13.  I’m counting down the days. 

    If you know what I’m talking about, then you’re probably a Chevy Man -- or Gal.

     1.13.13 is the reveal date for the seventh-generation Corvette.…

Small businesses, especially ones that operate locally or regionally, need to be on social media. I don’t think anyone disputes this anymore; it is so true that it has become axiomatic. The problem comes from businesses not knowing what to do once they’re on social media. We’ve published guides here and you can find hundreds (heck, probably thousands) of others…

ActivEngage was honored with another award earlier this week, the Tech 200. Each year, information services company Lead411 compiles a list of the top revenue-producing startups in technology. This year’s list ranks companies…

Brand You: Never Trash Your Competitors

So many of the things that are important are pretty darn simple-minded truisms. And I’ve 

spent the last 35 years of my life stating and re-stating, often in very high volumes, the

obvious.

And so, here goes another one: Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, regardless of the

circumstance, regardless of your personal experience, never…

Our industry and all businesses lost a great innovator and motivator on Wednesday with the passing of Zig Ziglar.Zig was one my "Motivational Mentors"and an individual who could change your thought process with one simple saying or quote.His first book,"SEE YOU AT THE TOP" was one of my first reads in my infancy in the automobile business in the mid-seventies.His simple approach to mental "cleanliness" and daily positive mental attitude helped shape my career and kept me on the right track…

It May Be Time To Kill Your Business Model Before Your Business Model Buries You

Think about this….How often do you readjust your business model? Unfortunately, there are some dealers that are still living off the same business model that they have had twenty years ago. Not to say this is a bad thing but tends to lead to missed opportunities.  

This raises a key leadership question: Why do leaders wait too long to modify or abandon their business models?…

They say timing is everything. In social media, quality of content is almost everything. The rest of it does come down to timing.

This is Part II of the series on timing. Please read…

Facebook makes us smile, shudder, squeeze into photographs so we can see ourselves online later, fret when no one responds to our witty remarks, snicker over who got fat after high school, pause during weddings to update our relationship status to Married or codify a break-up by setting our status back to Single.

- TIME, May ‘10

Source:…