Hardware Advances: Smaller Size, More Power

Smaller Size, More Power

This month the hardware side of the Digital Dealership System made some moves. Maybe they were jealous of the Custom Scene Creator or content deals made by the other departments or maybe it was just the right time and the availability of products. And with the new products, come a reduction in cost to the customer and an increase in power and support. That's not an easy combination.

The standard media…

Have you ever met someone who moved 30 vehicles per month who didn't have a solid plan in place? A salesman is NOT going accomplish their goal of 30 units per month by waiting for "ups" to walk into the showroom. You need to be proactive instead of reactive. Are you? 

If you/your dealership is mostly selling from fresh…

When my wife and I were in the process of potty training our toddler; CORRECTION: When my wife was in the process of potty training our toddler (I liked to think of myself as the fan that cheered him on from the bleachers), we tried a million different “strategies” to get the idea of going potty to stick in his head.



After every successful potty-going…

By Robert Cannon

When I was young my father bought a Ford Galaxie Sunliner. Bright red and a convertible to boot. I loved how it looked and I also loved how fast it was. My father was a dentist and so the only tools around our house were for probing and poking inside the mouth and not the engine of a car.

I did not learn about the inside of the car…

In business, there is no such thing as writer’s block. It doesn’t exist. Erase the phrase from your mind. You see, in any business, there are so many potential stories to be told that one should never run out of them even if they’re blogging daily. More importantly, this isn’t like writing a novel. It’s not professional journalism. You’re not writing a column. On a…

Written By: Russell Grant

From speakers at NADA workshops to automotive manufacturers in trade publications to vendor product advertisements online, everyone is talking about how big data is changing the future of marketing in our industry. But most of the GMs I talk to aren’t nearly as concerned with the marketplace and the direction it’s taking, as they are with their business and where it’s going. They want to know two things—how can big data save me money and how can it sell more…

Successful marketing requires the ability to track and analyze and deduce, it's what makes the industry exciting. Businesses are always clamoring for more analytics tools from the services they use, and now Pinterest is delivering an interesting new tool, sure to be a boon for any SEO…

The focus of your digital strategy should be on driving the maximum number of clicks to your web site. Is that statement Fact of Fiction?  Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday and find out.

There are still many in the search engine optimization industry that are fighting the concept that Google (and Bing) is taking social signals into account at a high level when determining search rankings.

These people fall into three categories:

1. Those who haven’t…

I collect vintage sales training materials and included among the items I've collected are many of the old phongraph record and filmstrip materials.

I was looking through some of these the other day and found one that the box it should from Chevrolet in had never been opened and that got me to thinking.

I have found there is resistance by dealers and dealership managers to spending money on training. It is understandable when much of the time the materials are…

This day didn’t seem much different than the other 196 school days. I mindlessly walked my 5 year old daughter to class, stooped down to kiss her goodbye and turned to walk away until one of her classmates called out to me, “Look what I drew!” Toothlessly grinning from ear to ear, she proudly showed me her drawing- a drawing that only the artist could interpret its rendition. Giggling as I marveled at her masterpiece, with Ooo’s and Ah’s, Lacy proceeded to grab a clean…

It is impossible to restrain and if unleashed it will spread like “wild fire”! What am I talking about...? [Passion] or should I say Pass-it-on? It is contagious…it breeds the must have ingredient in success and that is MOMENTUM!

Let’s talk about the importance of momentum --- often called The Big Mo ("Big…

1. Manage things and lead people.

Processes should be defined and managed daily. People should be lead by example daily. Management by strict control inhibits star performers and eliminates creativity of intelligent people. Feelings of manipulation are caused by strict control. Control, manipulation, and disrespect keep many dealerships from moving to another level of performance.

2. Speed of the boss = speed of the team.

If the boss has a…

Are you looking to go viral today? Do you want the magic formula, the secret spell, that alchemical reaction that will transform your tired old content into a vibrant viral rocket, blasting into the social-sphere of your target audience and sending them over the moon with purchasing-joy? Well...too bad. Buck up buttercup, because contrary to what many of the …

The image above shows the last four Facebook activities by a major car dealership in a metro area. Over three months ago, they abandoned their page. This could easily be a very long post where I go into details about how this is wrong on so many levels, but I'll keep it short because if you're reading this, chances are very strong that you're a savvy dealership…

Yeah, in the most absurd move ever, the FTC has determined that Twitter is not excluded from regulatory laws requiring full disclosure on products or services. TheWall Street Journal reports that any disclosures that would apply to any other advertising also apply to…

It looks like everyone wants to be in the automotive lead generation business. Over the last year I have been writing about Google Cars; a program (in beta testing) to present new car inventory to consumers shopping for a car directly in Google search results.  Dealers are charged by Google on a per lead basis. 

Today, I learned that TRUECar has expanded…

Currently our dealership advertises on both Cars.com and Auto Trader.  My GSM is convinced we do not need to be on both, and that we will sell the same amount of cars if we drop one.  I have a lot of hesitations about this.  Over the past 6 months we have sold 11 cars from Auto Trader and 15 cars from Cars.com; not to mention the cars we have sold from our website due to the traffic from Auto Trader and Cars.com.

Since we are locked in with lower rates with Auto Trader he…