A friend shared a story about his pastor, who, wanting honest "In your face" feedback about his sermons, invited two close friends to lunch, gave each a pad of paper and pencil and invited them to “unload" with comments about the things that they did not like about his sermons.” They did.

As difficult as honest feedback usually is to hear, isn’t a truthful assessment of how others perceive us, (personally or as a business), valuable information to…

Google has made a major upgrade to the Google Analytics Interface and I will be writing a number of articles highlighting some of the most powerful features that can be leveraged by car dealers.

If you have not taken time to work through then new interface and reports, I strongly suggest that…

We put a spiff on today.  10/10/10/10.  The salespeople were challenged to have all of their appointments in the CRM by 10am.  Any logged appointment who shows is good for $10.  If that same appointment writes, another $10.  If that same write Spots, another $10.  As of 2pm we had 16…

"With today's fast paced world, it's time for our service advisors to upgrade as well.  In order to stay current and successful they are going to have to make a small change with their follow-up."…

Over the last year (plus) there have been numerous hypotheses shared regarding Google Places and the practice of customers entering reviews while still in the dealership or business. The crux of the discussion was whether or not Google was blocking reviews from a common IP address because of the possibility of gaming the system or as some have suggested, because a customer might feel “pressured” if asked to do this review while still at the business location.

Many opinions and…

Women-Drivers.com announced new features to its no-cost brand reputation management tools available to car dealerships. The site connects women buyers and browsers with Certified Women-Drivers Friendly™ Dealers, and allows users to locate…

Important for Auto Dealers….

Adding Video to your existing page is often over looked, this type of digital media can separate your dealership from the next one, realize now that it is such a very important step in marketing your dealership, you can connect with over Millions Video Users, around the world.

Sounds Easy, right? It is very easy, and effective, and can help to SEO your Dealership.

Grab the video icon, and upload your videos daily to different friends pages. …

I have a different perspective about online reputation and ratings for car dealers.  It comes from my days working the line, selling cars, and from eventually managing stores that were consistently #1 in our market.  Our team always knew they were a vital part of delivering an outstanding experience.  The success…

Is The Road to the Sale Obsolete?

A lot of conversation these days by 'New Age' - 'Next Gen' - car people saying the 'Old School' sales processes are no longer valid with today's consumers.

Just the reference to the term  'Old School Car Guy' is an insult designed to  conjure up mental images of an extinct Mastodon being sucked down into the tar pits after eating the last brown shriveled leaves off of the trees. The hidden message in these terms is…

Weighing the high prices of gasoline and the public’s growing concerns about global warming, air pollutants and environmental health hazards, it’s not a surprise that fuel economy is playing a larger role on people buying a car.

To help car buyers make a more informed decision about the cars they buy, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designed a new window sticker full of information about fuel economy. This sticker is on all new cars, light trucks and sport utility…

Optimizing Facebook Marketing for Your Business

Facebook offers many ways to promote your business to its online community. From creating a Facebook Page for your business, to starting a topical group, to launching a targeted ad campaign, Facebook is becoming an increasingly important component of a company’s online marketing plan. Following are some Facebook marketing tactics that can work for your business:

• Share your content. A Facebook presence should be…

Stop giving away additional, incremental sales and gross! Today's NCMi Up To Speed blog discusses how to set up an AS-IS used car sales process in your store.    

If you're not in the AS-IS used vehicle business, you should be!

By Garry House, Director, NCM…

We have been helping Dealerships all over North America for over 20 years now. We have been working with Sales, Service, Internet, and of course Social Media departments as well.

The Fantastic thing about "Most" service departments that we work with now is Dealerships have a large database of customers but they are not "helping" thier customers manage the service of thier vehicles. For example if all your service team did was bring all or most of your active service customers in "one"…

Tracy Myers has made his Cinnamon Challenge famous in YouTube.  You can watch a number of staff members attempt the Cinnamon Challenge and the videos are great!!  Most of them FAIL at the…

Used car prices have run up 20% since January after falling for much of 2009 and 2010, researcher Kelley Blue Book said Monday. And Manheim Consulting, an arm of one of the nation's largest wholesale used car auction companies, says prices are being bid higher than at any time since it started keeping track in 1995.

For…

The experts have been saying it for weeks. Lower your used car inventory now.  AutoRemarketing.com says "Kelley Blue Book calculated that used-vehicle values dropped 2.6 percent overall in October, marking the fifth consecutive month of wholesale declines.

Since peaking in June, KBB discovered used-vehicle values overall have sunk 10 percent with the most pronounced…

Just as successfully building one's dream house requires an architecht to create a blueprint, envisioning a relationship  in it's final form is crucial  in building it successfully. The same holds true  with a strategic buisness relationship.                                                       

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How to get a higher return on your advertising investment

The car business has always been a red or green business when it comes to advertising. After losing about 17,000 new-and-used car dealerships, the auto industry, plus many of the advertising mediums are having to change business models to cope with the changing economic platform. If you plan on being one of the surviving dealerships then you will be re evaluating and changing your advertising model of the future.

I…

 The end of the year can be a very exciting time for people who are interested in the car industry. The weather gets colder, convention centers are getting ready for the big auto shows and fresh models our coming out from behind the scenes. While new cars are coming into the spotlight, last year’s models are being forgotten about.

What does this mean to you as a new…