Once you get over the beauty of the 1970 Dodge Charger in the picture, you might ask yourself, "What does a 45-year-old muscle car have to do with automotive content?"

We've been asked the same type of question multiple times pertaining to content we publish on dealer websites. Sometimes, it's dealers asking. Other times, it's other vendors wondering what…

The most important process COACHING

More Important than the latest greatest technology, the right inventory, advertising, hottest brand, and most importantly, the key to sustained long term growth in today's competitve market.

*Coaching = A training or development process

*5 Point…

On January 11, the New England Patriots faced the Baltimore Ravens in a contest that would dictate which team moved onto the AFC Championship game. Going into the game as heavy favorites to win, the Patriots quickly found themselves losing the game 14-0 quickly. Undeterred, they powered through trading touchdowns with the Ravens for the remainder of the game to ultimately…

When considering the successful use of social media by a business, the first thing that pops into many people’s minds is quantity. Not necessarily quantity of posts, but how big their audience is. Many judge social media success by the number of fans they have on Facebook, or followers on Twitter. If that number is large and/or growing, they feel as if their efforts are a…

Below are some stats from a recent survey you might find interesting from a December online Swapalease.com survey that was presented to 2,500 people across U.S. and Canada.



54.8% of men said they do not look forward to environments where negotiation takes place (66.7% of women).

However, while 32.5% of men said TV shows like Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and American Pickers have made them better negotiators, 78.2% of women said the…

The Seven Most Important Words in Closing

By David Lewis

Whether you are a Salesperson or Sales Manager, your main goal is to close sales.  Everything we do up to that point is all just set-up and preparation, yet so many of us fail when it comes to this final step.  In actuality, we fail approximately 75% of time.   You may ask how I came up with that…

Imagine a customer that is in for a routine oil change at your dealership. As part of the complimentary inspection your store provides, it is discovered that the vehicle’s brake pads are severely worn and it would be unsafe to continue driving the vehicle much longer without replacement.  The service advisor brings this to the customer’s attention. Rather than making the…

Welcome to this week's used car market report, with insights from Black book. The overall market activity and market movement that so non-traditionally trended in November and the non-holiday weeks of December have mostly carried over into the first two weeks of January. The trend that has continued is the steady and consistent fall in gas prices at the pump. Now at $2.21 a gallon, down…

by Jim Leman, Dec. 31, 2014 - Wards Dealer Business

Malware can steal customer social security numbers from finance and insurance department computers.

With malware known as Keylogger placed into a finance and insurance computer by a hacker, a cyberthief may capture every social security…

 Have you ever noticed that all head football coaches seem to say the same thing at a press conference? When boiled down, they invariably say something like "They're a good team; we have our work cutout for us; we'll be ready to play."  That's it! It makes you wonder why there are press conferences anyway-they give no insight into the challenges,…

Its winter time and business is slower than normal I haven't been doing my normal 8-12 cars a month. Never had to be able to drum up my own business before and I'm struggling with making calls and getting people in. Looking for other ideas to help me be a master of my craft. I recognize that I am having a problem and am looking for advice as to how to overcome this. I'm new to this site so I don't know anyone. Any help would greatly be appreciated. it is my goal to become one of the greats…

 In the current economic times, having a business website is crucial for virtually all the businesses. This is more so in the car dealership industry where the majority of the buyers are conducting online searches in pursuit of the best deals. However, having a website is not the only thing that is required as it has to be good and reflect on the search engine results. To achieve this for your auto dealer website, you have to make it user friendly. This is because currently, one of…

We are well into December. It's time to take stock of your year and your accomplishments. It’s definitely time to have fun and to be mindful of what is ahead. As we turn the corner into a new year, 2015, today’s Women’s Wednesday you are invited to take a short, interactive quiz to evaluate where there is room to expand your dealership’s customer excellence. And in doing so, your competitive…

People buy from businesses they like, trust, and know -- which is a big reason why establishing rapport is so important in the sales process, both on the showroom floor and on your dealership’s website.

The number one reason live chat will fail at your dealership…

Why Are Customers So Defensive?                                                                                                                      

By David Lewis

During my training seminars all over North America, regardless of whether I am working with Salespeople,…

I'm very proud of the study our team just released that tracked and graded over 400 Automotive Mystery Shops for 30 days. In the study, we read every email and listened to every voicemail. Also, we graded dealers' REAL response time: that is, the time it takes them to actually pick up the phone and call the prospect. Since we used a valid, working…

L.A. retailer knows the value of a good name

Downtown revival and handy URL steer traffic to Honda store

From left, Sean Wolfington, Ted Bessen and Joe Shuster bought the Honda dealership's assets from bankruptcy court in 2011.…

In ban the box states, an employer can no longer ask a job application about his or her prior (or presumed ongoing) criminal history.

Without the ability now to ask about criminal history, the applicant you hire might be a big risk, to you, your employees and your customers.

Today, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and many states, and even municipal governments view the use of background checks as an unfair hurdle to those with prior…

When we look at texting as it pertains to the car business, it's easy to see that the mobile revolution has people letting their fingers do the talking. It's a method of communication that is becoming the primary way for millions of people in North America. How does a dealership translate this trend into lead generation on their website?

We're already seeing…