Car Buying and Emotions, Part I

Women shop and buy cars for a number of reasons, but regardless of the reason, emotions are involved in every step. The emotional range can start with excitement about the prospects of a new car, to apprehension when signing papers, to frustration when taking a car in for service.

Why Emotions Matter

During the buying process, your customers will experience a range of emotions. You know this. It is important…

Role-playing with your sales team will give them the confidence and inspiration to know what to say when handling objections from potential customers. Just like in sports or the fine arts, honing your craft involves practice. Through role-playing, your sales team will master professional and effective responses to the most common objections.

In …

Automotive Marketing: An Overview of Current Marketing Trends, Statistics, and Strategies

The auto industry has undergone ongoing and dynamic transformation over recent years.  Connected technologies, changing trends in consumer shopping behavior, digital and mobile channels, longer vehicle lifespans, and consumer mobility behaviors are all impacting how the…

Welcome to this week's edition of Black Book Market Insights, with in-depth analysis of used car and truck valuation trends and insights straight from the auction lanes. Click here to download…

This Week in Social Media

News for the Week of October 24

Facebook Adds New Recommendation Engine and CTA Buttons for Local Events and Businesses

Facebook issued an update to improve the usage of the Events bookmark by adding a new…

Total Dealer Compliance shows the impact of offering a clear complaint resolution has on sales and reputation

Total Dealer Compliance (TDC), a car dealership compliance-auditing firm, today announced key findings from its latest auto dealership survey conducted online in September among 200 U.S. adults age 18+. With over thirty percent of…

Insurance is one of those business costs we all hate paying every month, until the day we actually need it. I'm not an insurance expert so I don't know exactly how many policies a typical dealership has. I imagine it's quite a few when you add up the various property, casualty and liability coverages.

But I do know there is one very important insurance that a lot of dealerships don't…

DataMentors Launches Auto Lease Expiration Data to Power Conquest Marketing

  

TAMPA, FL – October 25, 2016 – DataMentors, LLC, a leading provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Right Time Marketing, announced today the launch of its auto lease expiration data…

Partnership gives mutual dealer clients better accessibility and visibility into operational and marketing data and 3 Birds’ best-in-class consumer-directed marketing solutions

Chapel Hill, N.C., October 24, 2016 – 3 Birds Marketing, a two-time Inc. 5000-ranked automotive digital marketing company today announced a new partnership with ELEAD1ONE, the benchmark in automotive software. The partnership will pair 3 Birds’ powerful integrated marketing, analytics platform,…

People buy everything online these days. Or do they? In reality, there are some items people simply prefer to touch, see, feel, taste, smell, or drive before they consider signing on the dotted line or forking over their credit card. Several automotive leaders have…

Do you know the benefits of car maintenance by experts who are certified by Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce or VACC? These certified members will not only repair and maintain your car, but they will also help you enjoy a safe drive. They know the importance of safety and reliability of a car in transporting you and your family.

The…

Canadians Find YouTube Ads 57% More Engaging Than TV Ads from…

Gubagoo’s latest innovation enables Facebook users to chat with auto dealerships, using Facebook Messenger just like they chat with friends; unlocks new sales channel for auto dealers

Boca Raton, FL –October 21, 2016 – Gubagoo, the fastest growing and most innovative provider of solutions to the automotive industry,…

It's not enough to think about optimizing for desktop and mobile anymore. With voice search, Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are just the beginning.

By the time we reach 2020, over 50% of daily searches will be through voice searches. So how can you optimize your business and brand to get ahead of the curve? Watch this week's Hard Facts with Samantha for more info.…

Going a bit astray from the normal blog of what we can do to change and improve our current processes and offerings in the automotive industry, I’d like to touch on something broader.

I recently participated in a customer service loyalty conference – the FCA MOPAR Parts & Service Conference – and it was wonderful as I watched a sales through service…

No matter what you do in life, it all comes down to getting it done. If your customer comes into the service Department and you write a repair order, it’s basically irrelevant until the vehicles completed and the orders processed. There are a lot of things involved with them such as assigning a technician, addressing the concern and implementing the correction so the…

Do you shy away from giveaways and win-a-prize type mailers? If you’re like most dealers, you probably do. Giveaways are frowned upon for fear of attracting customers who are more interested in winning a prize than buying a car.

Customers come into your dealership daily. When asked if they need help, the normal response is: “No, I’m just looking.”…

Great leaders and organizations inspire people because they are good at explaining why they do what they do. Their why gets people motivated. Their why makes people want to work for that company. Their why makes people want to buy their products.

For auto dealerships, your purpose is your “why buy” or “value proposition” message. The goal of this message is…

One of the biggest challenges facing the automotive industry is the way consumers feel about buying cars.  Their overall dispositions have changed, the reasons they purchase and lease have shifted, and the ways in which they want to buy are moving from the showroom floor to the digital world.  All these things are causing a major shift in the way…