Mom used to say, rather emphatically, “Don’t watch so much TV, you’ll ruin your eyes!”  That was back in the day of 3 channels when I would watch a ½ hour after school.  Fast forward to today when the average American spends 33 hours a week watching video on their various screens.  That’s like a full time job. 

Nielsen reports that internet video viewing is up 22%…

When someone says something to you, do you listen? I don’t mean do the words pass through your hearing canal, but do you listen to them? Do you allow the words to enter your brain and form a clear vision of what is being said to you? If you haven’t put this much thought into this, then there is a very good chance you aren’t listening to the things…

I like Facebook. It’s a nice place to check up on my friends, and see what’s going on that day.  I also check Twitter occasionally. Social Media is a great way to share pictures and news pertinent to me, but there’s one thing I don’t go on these sites for, and that’s to be sold on something.

I recently read a blog post on Hanafin Loyalty’s website, titled ‘An Open Letter to Millennials’ (you can find that blog post…

Studies show that the average salesperson is into negotiations within 3 minutes of saying hello.  Three minutes and they're talking numbers and hoping to close a deal.  What's amazing is, I heard that exact statistic when I went to my first sales training seminar in 1980.  So, nothing has really changed in over 30 years. 

Think about it this way.  Some of you have been reading my articles since I began.  That being the case, could you send me a check for $1,000?  You've received…

Although this subject has been at the center of some very insightful debates recently, my opinion is a strong YES!  F&I departments in automotive dealerships should be playing a major role in the overall social media strategic plan, especially on Facebook™ and Twitter™. After all, the financial business office serves the public in so many beneficial ways; first as a…

I recently found a great article that discusses very specific things businesses should be doing to help their Google Places Listing improve its ranking.  Bizible, a start-up that makes local marketing software for businesses, conducted a pretty scientific attempt to determine how best to improve the rank of your Google Places Listing.…

You arrive at your dealership and notice that the outside is appearing a bit drab.  To fit with the brand and the neighborhood, you determine that a great paint job would do wonders for the entire building.  So, you make the decision.  Here are your choices:

• You call the top commercial painters in the area and get an estimate.
• You hire a couple of college kids give them a truck to pick up paint and turn them loose.
• You pull your managers off the desk and other…

It takes work and your best results, whenever possible, is to prospect for the best producers outside the dealership and find them yourself. Cell phone sales people in the malls, shoe, suit, furniture, electronics such as computers & TV's, home appliances, insurance, real estate, marketing reps such as B2B, Mary Kay/Avon, and telemarketing sales people who sell memberships, credit cards, time shares, etc. are among some of the better choices. The…

Closing is a breeze when….

ROR, mental ownership and a commitment from your sales consultant to help people feel good about buying the right thing and the ultimate perception that they didn't pay too much. It is essential to adjust the steps and ensure the psychology of human instincts and personality types are addressed from the first…

The Escape Hatch: (When you’ve closed all the doors…and they still get away.)

Objections – reasons or arguments that are offered in disagreement, opposition, refusal, or disapproval.

Every day of every week “objections” stand in the way of sales people reaching their goals…hitting their…

Back in my home country of Jamaica, at certain times of the year the caterpillars would go through the evolution process where they would conceal themselves in cocoons to be transformed into beautiful butterflies. During the final stage of this process, they would break the tip of the cocoon and squeeze themselves through a tiny h*** and fly away. One year my friends and I found some of some dead on the ground because they were not able to pull themselves out of their shells. So, in our…

Bless my father''s south African farmer knowledge and the desire to understand the concept of "digital marketing".A true reminder of how early we "learn" and develop our own human character in life.

A few minutes ago my father called me from South Africa and as the conversation went on my father once again inquired about my career and job. My father asked "Lizelle, I know you sell services and  that you are in sales.I know you are in the automotive business and…

It comes down to 3…

Like it or not, sowing and reaping is a real principle we all live by. Everybody on earth, every profession is under the law of sowing and reaping. The law of sowing a reaping can be either good or bad. For example, take the high school student who maintains a high GPA- staying up late at night in order to complete assignments and prepare for tests; that…

According to a recent Credit Suisse report, Smartphone sales are expected to reach the 1 billion mark in 2014! An estimated 472 million smartphones were sold globally last year, accounting for 31% of all mobile devices sold.

(You can read the study here if you're interested: http://reut.rs/IlSEMU).

A lot of the demand is driven by China and the cheaper smartphones now flooding the mobile market. Global sales of smartphones will top 1 billion…

My unofficial definition of attention (before I go look it up in the dictionary) is something like this: ‘any action that’s purpose is to generate a response from an intended or unintended recipient.

Now, dictionary.com’s definition- “at•ten•tion: the act or faculty of attending, especially by directing the mind to an object. “ I guess I didn’t do so badly, but I really think the second part of the official definition syncs with mine, and also my point to the rest of this…

J.D. Power and Associates and the National Automotive Dealers Association estimate that almost 10% of all dealerships have converted to one-price selling over the past three years.

It is apparent that our industry is under a major restructuring phase and serious consideration needs to be applied in the area of training our automotive…

Most dealerships already have the ability & traffic to double their sales within a 6 to 12 month period but are not firing on all the cylinders that make it possible- and all 6, commonly referred to as the 6 P's, need to be in sync to achieve these results.

Over the next several blogs I want to share with you the 6 P's and how our team achieved these results, and to offer ideas you may want to consider.…

I have a saying that goes something like this, ‘What you cannot define you cannot measure; what you cannot measure you cannot reproduce; what you cannot reproduce, you cannot control or manage.’ I came up with this quote while designing the K-Method Systems & Processes to explain why most salespeople and the businesses that they work for are continually at odds when it comes to expectations and the results being produced. What I have come to realize as the ‘norm’ for most people is that…