WE ARE ENTERING AN ERA OF CRM DOMINATION



- BY JAMES A. ZIEGLER, THE ‪#‎AlphaDawg‬

Third party Vendors are waking up to their worst nightmare. The party is almost over and we're turning the lights on. They…

What's the most creative reason you've heard from a customer who is leaving your dealership lot without purchasing? Sure there are the typical, "have to check with my spouse," and "have to pick up my kids at their soccer game." Then there are the more atypical reasons: "I have a dentist appointment," or "My mother-in-law's in town." If it's one of the latter, warning bells should be ringing. Who would rather go to a dentist appointment or visit with their mother-in-law than buy a…

When was the last time you tried calling into your own--or another--dealership? Chances are high that the phone went unanswered, you were put on hold, routed into voicemail or were told that the sales or service person you're trying to reach is out to lunch.

The latest data collected from our call center agents is overwhelming: car dealers are missing way too many sales and service opportunities from lost phone leads. Behind showroom ups, these are the highest value inquiries…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Clearwater, FL--October 13th, 2014--AutoLoop today introduced Engage^TM, a call center solution proven to engage customers and increase sales and service profitability for auto dealers. Building on twenty years of call center experience obtained in the 2014 merger with CAR-Research XRM, AutoLoop Engage uses USA-based agents to manage all…

CRM Companies are engaged in an immense battle over market share, but then aren't we all in one form or another? He who has the most customers wins! Or so that's how it would be if simply HAVING them was enough. As each CRM company dives deeply into the data, hoping to extract their next golden goose, the blogs, articles, and paid press releases fly around the nation. They started out by talking about "capturing the data" moved on to "garbage in garbage out" then "big data" and are now…

What Were You Thinking?

       It has often been said that the questions are the answers when it comes to selling anything.  The better you become at asking questions, the more success you’ll enjoy.  The key is asking the right questions.  But, you can’t teach every question for every situation.  Otherwise your sales people will never leave the training room.

     There is one question that I believe fits any situation and it provides…

A few weeks ago, I was training a ten-store team while facilitating some very ground-breaking and paradigm-shifting conversations about the phone. The Director of Operations preached to a team of new hires—some thoughts most dealers have become all too familiar with:

“We’ve been flying by the seat of our pants too long,” said the director to the newbies. 

“Pick up the phone, find out what they want and…

So what about Aristotle?  Aristotle’s the Art of Rhetoric contains the ‘Three Means of Persuasion’ which are Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

1. Ethos - The moral cause to agree or the audiences perceived character/reputation of you
2. Pathos - Emotional, can be either negative or positive, fear of loss > fear of gain
3. Logos - The logical justification to make a choice, the cold hard facts, figures, specs and…

As I was talking strategy with a good friend of mine who is a GM of two rooftops we got into a discussion about which strategy is most effective in the automotive internet sales world i.e. coordinators vs. floor sales people making the calls. 

We all know that the hardest part in the Internet Dept. is getting people on the phone.  As you know you have…

Strong relationships are similar to spider webs, especially in the auto industry. Multiple threads are must to build an effective web for business – or spiders. If you want to build long-term success in car sales, you have to recognize that these relationships start with one tiny thread, and by creating additional threads through rapport and nurturing with quality customer care,…

It makes sense, and many dealers might suspect, that buyers are willing to travel farther for their car deal than in years past, and those suspicions have been confirmed - again. 

A follow-up study by Autotrader.com to their 2012 White Paper, Have Internet, Will Travel, confirmed this month that “two and a half times more car buyers traveled distances of 30+ miles to purchase a vehicle…

If not you could be losing a significant amount of revenue and market share! Dealerships across the country lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a year because they are not operating at their full potential. If you can't honestly answer the above question with a resounding yes, then take…

Automotive Web Marketing "Really Connected"

 Everyday you wake up and you have your list of reports to update and spreadsheets to fill out with the same old numbers, but what do these numbers really mean? Most car dealerships nowadays have an internal BDC (business development center) and…

DID YOU AUTHORIZE YOUR INVENTORY TO BE POSTED ON ANTI-DEALER OR HOSTILE WEBSITES?

5:00 AM and the Alpha Dawg is on the…

An additional area of concern is within the CRM Inventory Tool. In our experience, not every store uses the Inventory Tool to its fullest capability.  The basics of having pictures, custom comments, pricing, aged inventory, hits, leads, etc etc, should excite every dealership sales manager within a store.  All of this extremely valuable information is essential to not only helping drive leads to your store, but also managing and caring for existing leads and converting them to…

Hello Fellow Dealer Elite members and friends.

It has been a while since I have had the time to put together a blog post of Dealer Elite because it has been a very busy year so far and to be honest I have not had the time. I took a look at the Auto News program today and to be honest was very surprised to see that companies from Chrysler Dodge Jeep Fiat customers are reaching the CEO of the company.

I must say I was also very happy that…

Have you heard?

“Automotive Sales Professionals are Terrible on the Phone”

..... Really??

So, I had yet another in a long series of epiphanies regarding the business I love as I continue to get older and more exposed to the wise….

Ask most anyone….you will hear that the better the sales representative, the worse they are at handling inbound and outbound calls effectively. And some degree that may be…

Five Important Benefits for Car Dealerships with High Performance Business Development Centers (BDC)

1. Accountability:

First and foremost and good, functional BDC center should be able to provide your dealership with accountability. Being able to accurately track numbers and statistics though not the primary role, is an…

Good afternoon Dealer Elite Members and associates,

I have been noticing a disturbing trend in retail lately and I am sure it is also true in other areas of the workforce as well. As we become more and more connected with Social Media, Smartphones and the internet red flags are popping up everywhere for me.

Everyone is becoming more and more distracted and this means productivity, focus and results are being affected. Of course this is happening when driving in…