Looking for an automotive conference that actually focuses on you- The Dealer? Look no further; The AutoConnections Conference and Exposition is where you need to be! For those who aren't familiar with AutoCon, we've got you covered:

What?…

In my career in the automotive industry, I got involved in conferences fairly early. I’ve attended many conferences in my life as an Internet Director, as a vendor employee working a booth to helping with marketing and organization for the conference itself. I’ve done everything from being wined and dined as a dealership employee to doing the wining and dining for dealership…

As the fall conference season approaches for the automotive industry, many vendors miss opportunities for exposure. Owning a public relations agency, my job is to maximize my client’s exposure to their audience. Conferences offer more potential customers for my clients, concentrated in a single place at a single time, than just about any other marketing opportunity. However,…

          In part one of this series of why dealerships struggle, I covered some essential tips of hiring the right team members. Nothing happens until you have the right people. In this article I wanted to elaborate on an element that always exists in struggling dealerships that must be addressed before you can hire the right team members. As simple as this is, the first element in getting the right team is the willingness to let go of bad or less than desirable team members you have…

I came across an article recently by Jeffrey Gitomer that really hit home. In essence, he said that there are countless awards given out for levels of “customer satisfaction” by many companies including the likes of JD Powers, and Consumer Reports. The winners of those…

          In what now can be considered a good selling market and what many predict will soon be a booming market, there are many dealerships underperforming and even mightily struggling. Why? Although there can be many reasons for dealerships that struggle, after two decades of consulting, coaching and training dealerships there seems to be very consistent themes for the struggles. Let’s start with common theme number one – the wrong people.

          There are four…

"Believe in the best … have a goal for the best, 
never be satisfied with less than your best, 
try your best, and in the long run things will turn out for the best."

Frequently, I write about how dealerships (or any company for that matter) need to have efficient, reliable communication tools in place so that all departments can access information at a glance. Quite ironically, one of the largest tech companies in the world, Microsoft, just proved that best practice as completely true.

People rely on Google to access many…

Is your website constantly asking for or taking information from visitors? By providing information to visitors rather than requesting information from them, you can expect to see a rise in conversions and a decrease in bounce rates. Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday and find out how to rethink your web strategy.

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TrueCar Announces 10 Sponsored Scholarships to AutoCon2013!

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There have been a lot of postings and discussions over how best to improve a Sales Organizations performance. I personally have written many of them.…

It starts with the arrival of the customer. They either make connection with the salesperson or not.  There is no middle ground, and there is not enough time to make up for what isn’t working.

One idea to improve sales that most people don’t want to talk about is the ability to recharge your batteries. Salespeople who run on low batteries don’t perform as well as when they are charged up. Recently, I went with my family on a cruise and had a fantastic trip. We went scuba diving in Grand Turks and, during the dive, had three dolphins come up to us and play with us for most of the dive. The dive masters on the trip said it was a once in a lifetime experience to not only see the…

Last week I had the experience of visiting with dealers in a well-known city in New York. I figured that they would be a 21^st Century dealers in tune with all the latest regulations and process technologies that will improve their overall business.  To my dismay, they were not keeping up to date. Much worse is, I observed willfully ignorant sales processes where pencils were being delivered with no concern for their dealer‘s liabilities that management is creating by doing…

Written By: Dennis Kane

 I have seen a significant number of high value claims as a result of contractors or subcontractors not carrying insurance or inadequate limits of insurance.

Examples of high value claims against dealerships include:

• Claim against a dealership’s workers’ compensation carrier or general liability carriers due to an injury of a subcontractor’s employee and the subcontractor doesn’t carry workers’ compensation…

I came across an article recently on LinkedIn by A.J. Jacobs, editor of Esquire magazine, in which he discussed using self-delusion as a tool to becoming more productive. He’s a published author as well and he discussed…

Hi Guys -

I have a 'green' finance person that I want to send away to receive some training in all aspects of F&I.  Can anyone recommend a company that will teach the fundamentals of Menu selling, etc.  I am located in the NW, so west coast would be preferable.

New technology for dealers

Three companies, AutoRef.com, BankHunter.com and ClearMechanic.com, which offer  unique and innovative technological contributions in sales, finance and the  service phase of a dealership’s business.