Getting your customer’s attention and engaging with them can be a tough task these days. There is so much competition from other marketers -- customers are constantly barraged with messages from every side and in every way.

Social media reach has decreased, digital marketing is ever more challenging and direct mail sometimes goes straight into the trash. This…

DEALERSHIP SERVICE DEPARTMENTS: MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION

As the recession loosens its tight grip on our economy and businesses, vehicle sales have begun to steadily climb nationwide.  As a result, a very important decision is looming for auto dealers.  Many of the customers that are purchasing today are doing so for the first time in several years. As…

By Eduardo Aragon

Sales Pros: If you’re not selling at least 2-6 cars off Facebook a month, you’re doing it wrong.

Dealerships: Suppose you have 10 people on your floor and they sell 2-6 cars extra, each – Facebook is time…

According to Black Book® data, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2010-2014 declined -0.9% during March. Cars declined -0.4% and trucks declined -1.3% during the month, demonstrating the peak of the spring selling season. 

In a sign that overall year-over-year depreciation continues to accelerate, the first quarter of 2016 saw vehicle depreciation of -3.6%, compared with -0.6% during the same time in 2015.

Full-Size Van led all vehicle segments with the highest…

DealerELITE EXCLUSIVE:

Q&A with TrueCar CEO, Chip Perry

Q.  Why did you create the Dealer Pledge?

It was perfectly obvious right from the get go that we needed to do something very significant and very visible and…

Turning Social Media Into Sales

By: Susan Givens

Like Us. Friend us. Share us. Retweet us. Pin us.

Five years ago, none of that would have made any sense. Now, when it comes to marketing, it’s all you hear.

Having a presence for your dealership on social media sites is all well and good — conventional wisdom tells us it’s a mustthese days — but when it comes to converting that presence…

When your corporate DNA is healthy, every component of your business moves forward in harmony.

Check out my article on…

Are You Overwhelmed?



Life in the dealership world is hectic and many times overwhelming for the staff. The emotion of this weighs heavily on the individual with the effects going well beyond the job and into family life.…

Facebook is Changing the Way it Does Video

Facebook is expanding it's video capabilities to include a new features that rival video search engine giants like Youtube and Vimeo. These new features will increase the visibility of videos you share and improve functionality for Facebook users.



Learn about all of the new advancements coming to Facebook on this week's Hard Facts. As always, if you have an idea for an upcoming episode, reply to this…

In a transparent, information-rich world where showrooming is commonplace, a pricing tactic used by many retailers seems strangely shortsighted. For lack of a better term, let’s call this shortsighted pricing practice “Duplicitous Pricing” or DP for short.

Simply put, DP occurs when a retailer posts one price in their store while maintaining a different price somewhere else – like the Internet. Interestingly, the practice of DP didn’t originate with the Web; as it was fairly…

The 2016 NADA conference in Las Vegas proved connections are the single most important factor of this business, and any business for that matter. To lead, you must be able to connect with a team, and from there an audience, and beyond that, the world. The focus should always be on that first fundamental building block – the team…

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 the full…

Don’t Ask Don’t Sell

Without question every dealership wants to improve customer satisfaction and retention. With fixed operations gross profits more critical than ever we must look at ways to insure results. Simple as…

In its first analysis of the top 10 selling car brands of 2015, Women-Drivers.com provides insights into women car buyers’ preferences and experiences. The report includes the top selling brands by units sold including Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Jeep, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, and GMC (in descending order, with sales volume sourced and provided by GoodCarBadCar.net).

The report includes intel about what women have experienced while shopping, buying and servicing their…

One Price Selling – What Are You Waiting For?

Most Dealers are closer to a One Price Selling sales process than they may realize. If you’re an excellent pre-owned dealer you’re basically not negotiating. You must price your cars to market to get leads. On the new car side, the customer is setting the prices. With new tools that allow prospects to literally buy the car from home, negotiating power is shifting to the consumer.

The number…

Planning for Tomorrow, Today

I apologize in advance, as this column is going to upset a number of sales managers.

The biggest challenge most dealerships face is recruiting the Millennial generation who have the right skill sets to become true salespeople. 

There are a ton of qualified Gen Y’ers who could sell cars but choose less lucrative positions because they don’t like the traditional sales process and aren’t provided enough…

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 the full…

Everyone knows or at least, has heard of the giant tech company Microsoft. But little was known of their processes and software architecture this has been so for a long time. Microsoft has been a black box with their software being proprietary and closed. But recently the tech giant has had a change of heart and decided to spice thing up and open up their software a little and let people know some of the magic that…