Just those three words evoke all types of emotions and memories. Those three words bring back memories no matter what age you are now, the model of the car, the cost, the dents the dings, the noises coming from under the hood, how long you owned it, and perhaps most of all ”Man if only I had kept________ what would that be worth today?

The first feeling most people think of…

Service is an "elbow to elbow" people business. As I (we) have traveled and observed so many Dealership Service Operations, there is still one overriding factor that every Customer Service Organization must understand and adhere to. This is people business.…

This one will be different but I am going to attempt to bring "Food for thought" using simple…

Still haunted by the ghost of the 14 million vehicles recalled for faulty floor mats and brake pedals, Japanese automaker Toyota Motors announced today that it would be recalling another 3 million cars – including 67,000 Prius models – due to a defect in…

If you don't PRACTICE THE PLAYS BEFORE PLAYING THE GAME, you WILL FUMBLE the ball.  Our brain learns from DOING, not just hearing.  Practice until you can't get it wrong!  Team up with a buddy and practice the selling steps every day!

When you have a deal with a trade involved, what does your sales rep say to your perspective buyer? " Let me get your trade appraised", or words to that effect.Let's take a step back fore a moment and think about the word "appraisal" and what goes through your customers mind when he/she hears that word.What do you get "appraised"? You get your home appraised or your vehicle gets appraised after it's been involved in an accident.In either case, the appraisal is always lower than the…

A few months ago I wrote a post titled, "How Important Is Price Really?" in which I discuss how there is too much emphasis on price when it comes to vehicle/dealership advertising. If you haven't already…

One of the biggest misunderstandings surrounding social media is that it's a distant cousin of search engine marketing or that it's goals are similar to other forms of internet marketing. This isn't quite true. There are definitely tie-ins; social media can help improve search rankings, it is a valid follow-up component to email marketing, and…

Sydney, the CEO of a mid-size advertising company was sitting in her office, when she got a call from one of her vendors. Her sales rep, Mike wanted to talk about his new offering. Sydney was busy and didn’t have time to talk right then. She was interested in hearing more, but didn’t have the time at that moment. She politely asked Mike if they could…

Welcome to Part 3 of a live dealership case study in which I am working on.  It has been two weeks since Part 2 was published.  I was away in Chicago consulting another client and also handling the Internet Sales 20 Group.  I came home to a major hurricane which slowed things down considerably.  But here is what we were able to…

Oh Magoo, you've done it again!

Who can…

If you've watched my other video's, we have discussed the following:

→ What role gratitude plays in your success

→ What is the definition of success

→ Developing a 99.9% WHY statement

Now we move on to the recipe. With so many people wondering how to be successful, I suggest that success comes from following a process. It's no different than baking a chocolate cake. If you want to end up with the proven result of chocolate cake, you'd…

1. You have no sense of urgency.

Hint: If tomorrows always come, what use is today? There are no tomorrows in the car business. Once your customers leave, you must believe they will never come back. You have one shot to earn their business; your customers may have seen other shows, but they haven’t seen yours. Give them…

There are plenty of articles out there telling you when to post. This is designed to point out the times when not to post.

The goals of most businesses on social media normally fall into two categories: marketing and communication. Many use social media strictly as a marketing tool to get their message out and to encourage others to help them do the…

D on’t fight it dealers. Mobile email is here to stay, "According to a study by Litmus, more email is now read on mobile (36 percent) than on a desktop (33 percent) or via webmail (31 percent), and opens in mobile devices have increased a full 80 percent in the last six months," notes Stephanie Miller in…

Once your Sales Rep has completed his/her job outside(meet/greet,pre-sell info,presentation,demo) they should be initiating a "Trial Preliminary Close".  "Other than price Mr. Customer,is there anything stopping you from taking this vehicle home with you right now?".This trial close will generate one of two responses.If the response is "no,let's see what we can do", then they proceed with your sales process. If not, they will hear either an objection or an excuse. The key to developing an…

The Question: What do Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist, SoBe, AMP Energy Drink, Propel, Mug, and Aquafina have in common with your Sales Team?

The answer: They are all Brands within a Brand! It doesn’t matter to PepsiCo, the parent company, whether your Sales Manager grabs a Mountain Dew or an AMP Energy drink…

Chris and Mike's hot topix this morning on the super storm hit home with me, too. As a vendor/supplier on automotive content based in Delaware I worked through the weekend prior to storm hitting to advance client files.

Today we posted a story on the nationwide impact this storm may have on industry. What do you think?

Entire U.S. Car Market…

Take a look at most dealership websites and you will notice that the vast majority of them are weighted heavily in favor of sales. In fact, if you take a look at their digital fixed-ops content you will notice that it accounts for about 5-15% of the websites real estate. Why do you think that is?

Take this statistic from Google Automotive: 40% of automotive searches are for service, parts, repair, and maintenance. Taking that into consideration and the fact…