After watching this 60 Minutes bit on The Age of Millennials, I thought to myself- oh great, apparently we are the doom of civilization. Being born in the 80’s lumped me into the Generation Y category, but I felt insulted when we were described as narcissistic praise-hounds that didn’t know how to cope with…

Good morning Dealer Elite Members, True Car is back for a second round.....

As I mentioned in my post last week there are big changes coming in the automotive space. True Car has learned from their past mistakes and hopefully has a little more respect for dealerships this time. Their president a former Nissan executive visited the Auto News office last week and was featured on their site this morning.

Here is the link:…

Early Bird Registration at www.DrivingSalesExecutiveSummit.com

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – June 25, 2012 – DrivingSales today announced that Billy Beane, the focus of the recent Academy Award nominated film ‘Moneyball,’ will keynote the fourth annual DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES)…

Shottenkirks Traveling Showroom was at the Western Illinois Fair last week, and what a blast it was. Perhaps the most fun was the School Bus Demo Derby held on Friday Night. See the video on another post.

I was brought into a discussion today with a dealer who is considering hiring a new digital marketing agency. This is a common occurrence within the automotive community since I offer my advice regarding vendors, products, and services to dealership executives seeking a third party opinion.

This conversation was interesting in that the agency…

The truth is, selling cars and becoming a True Professional is not easy.  Yes, selling cars is easy for some and tougher for others.  With a great desk manager and some superior training you can even make good money, this series is more about how to make great money every day, not just a few time a…

Rusty...One of our Top Salesmen comes out to the fair.

Me and the Magic Bus.

I received a call yesterday from a Dealer that was negatively impacted by the Google Penguin update.  Their organic search traffic is down about 25% and they asked me to take a look at their Analytics and Webmaster Tools.

The frustrating part is that their marketing and "SEO Company" deleted the message inside of Webmaster Tools alerting the dealer that Google had some concerns about the linking strategy used by the dealership.  So without a specific message to go on, I…

The most trusted name in live chat brings the top ten blog posts, trends 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 blogs and automotive stories from around the globe. This weekly edition – driverless cars, a foolproof blog formula, and AutoTrader goes…

Auto Dealer Live click below to listen.

http://www.imperialpressdirect.com/auto-dealer-live-from-06212012/

Join Kendall Billman, Vice President of Interactive Marketing at VinSolutions, for his MarketINSIGHT Webinar hosted by NADA University. Learn what happens behind the scenes of a dealership website. Knowing what and how your consumers search will give you powerful insight to improve your business. Kendall will be presenting data…

Hello Dealer Elite Members......

It looks like Auto Trader needs money much like Facebook did a while ago, and you know how that has gone so far!

As I travel around the country ans work with dealers on maximizing leads, traffic and driving more sales I have noticed more and more that dealerships are looking for "FREE" or low cost ways to promote their vehicles. Sites like Craigs's List and kijiji (Ebay), are currently changing the online marketing…

Read Potratz's latest blog by Felicia Mahabeer as she talks all about different types of selling methods you can use while interacting with potential customers.

What Approach Do You Use?

Have you ever been out shopping and had the salesperson ask you,…

Facebook’s EdgeRank is the elusive, mystical formula that calculates whether your story is interesting enough to be featured on your friends’ newsfeeds. One site compared the EdgeRank to a credit history: It’s important, unique to each user, invisible, and no one knows exactly how it works. Mathematically stated, the EdgeRank…

I have noticed of late that some of us are using dE to blatently use our blog for advertising our product or service. It's nothing to be ashamed of, we all have sales rushing through our blood, and almost can't help ourselves. I understand.

I certainly have something to sell...myself, my ideas, my approach. Writing, talking, sharing photos and videos, and then hearing what you guys have to say...well, this is very important. To know that you all are listening is important to me. Like…

Open this post to see photos

I took a video, but due to a marginal internet connection, I have been having troubles uploading it. Perhaps tomorrow.

I took a bunch of still photos with my phone and sent them to myself, so I'll be able to share them with you here.

We are at the 124th Western Illinois Fair, and there is no doubt that we're here in the heartland proper. It was hot…

I have often said that "where we want to be is in direct proportion to what we do with where we are now".  This statement in my personal life and career has proven to be so…

A lot of dealerships think they are saving money by taking a good sales rep and making him/her a manager and not training them . The pay plans have shrunk for managers over the past year as well . The idea of paying people less and expecting more is a bad choice ranging from managers to internet people . 

 A planed sales training meeting  should be done every day . Very few meetings have the hooting , clapping and hollering any more compared to years ago…