When I started my retail automotive consulting practice in 1987, I chose to state as my unique value proposition, "Guaranteed 1,000% Return on Investment." During my first few years as an independent consultant, I was shocked to learn that very few of my potential dealer clients had a clue about what this meant. So I would explain that, for example, if the dealer would invest $2,500 in professional fees with me, I would provide a money-back guarantee that I would assist in increasing the…

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Since we initiated the Up To Speed blog, I’ve received numerous emails that suggest that one of the biggest road blocks to retail automotive success is the dealership (or department) culture. Because this is our first newsletter of 2012, I decided it opportune to tackle this thorny issue. “Culture” can be defined as the shared values and practices of the company’s (or department’s) employees, and it’s important because it can make or break your dealership. Business cultures…

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Most of you are probably adding the final touches to your 2012 business plan. At NCMi, we refer to this annual planning process as budgeting. Many experts agree that automotive dealership budgeting is as much an art as a science. Because industry business cycles are not repetitious, a good budget may result as much from experience, sound instincts, and good judgment as from anything else. Nevertheless, a budget is pretty much a view into the crystal ball, attempting to…

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As I’ve written previously, the two most important elements of effective Accountability Management are 1) measuring what you need to manage and 2) inspecting what you expect. In the Service Department, the repair order analysis process is one of the essential steps in executing these two accountability elements.

The R.O. analysis is intended to provide information about Customer-Paid (C-P) sales that is supplemental to that available in the typical DMS. The proactive Service Manager…

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I have always believed there is a valid reason why dealership website designers include a “Used Vehicle Specials (UVS)” page in their master plan. Because if I were a used vehicle prospect cruising dealers’ websites, when I click on “Used Vehicles” and a drop-down appears with one of the choices being “Specials” (or “Featured Vehicles”), I would certainly go there first before taking a deep dive into the overall used vehicle inventory. However, most dealership managers must not think that…

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I've written multiple pieces on how to properly set up and maintain your Google Places listing and account, but haven't touched on the mistakes you could be making, hurting your car dealership online marketing strategy.

Here are the places where you could really screw up your listing if you aren't careful:

Don't use a post office box. Even if this is where you get mail, make sure you use the actual address of your…

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Very few dealers are both aggressive and effective in selling Extended Service Agreements (ESAs) after the new or used vehicle has been delivered. If you are so fortunate to be among this minority, you don’t need to read any further. Since most F&I departments don’t seem to have the inclination or motivation to work these post-delivery opportunities, let’s explore an alternate strategy…structuring a process to have our service advisors aggressively and effectively sell ESAs in…

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Stop giving away additional, incremental sales and gross! Today's NCMi Up To Speed blog discusses how to set up an AS-IS used car sales process in your store.    

 

If you're not in the AS-IS used vehicle business, you should be!

By Garry House, Director, NCM…

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The amount of "best practices" and "tips" involved with social media marketing can be overwhelming to say the least (and yes, I'm guilty of sharing my own).  In the spirit of KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid), here is a short list of Must-Do's for dealerships using social media as a part of their online marketing efforts:

 

Have a Plan: Before starting any…

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It is so frustrating when trying to send a legitimate, valuable email to a customer (future or current), and have it be blocked by a spam filter.  While there are some auto dealers that do send emails that might be properly classified as spam, most dealers who have spam issues are sending real emails to real customers.  Their email campaigns are being inappropriately blocked by various spam filters.

 

Here are some tips to avoid the dreaded spam filter in your customer's email…

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Mary Catherine Curry of Rice Toyota Scion’s sales and service alliance strategy chosen by dealers as 2011’s‘Best Idea’; ADP | Cobalt-sponsored award presented at DrivingSales Executive Summit 

 

 

DrivingSales (http://www.drivingsales.com) today announced that Mary Catherine Curry, Marketing Manager of Rice Toyota Scion, has won the 2011 DrivingSales…

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What if every person who shopped your vehicles on Craigslist were directed to view the same vehicle listing on your Facebook fan page with video?

Cargigi recently released a new Social Media package add-on to their Automated Classified Posting service for $299/mo. that enables dealerships…

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Some of DealerOn's car dealer website customers are incorporating QR codes on their sites, though it remains a technology that’s still maturing.  While others in the industry have debated the benefits of using QR codes as a part of your dealership’s marketing strategy, I wanted to share some tips for running a QR Code campaign if your dealership is going to test this technology.

 

Before you start any marketing…

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No matter how sophisticated or rudimentary your website provider‘s reporting platform is, having Google Analytics on your website is a “no-brainer”.  You want to “trust, but verify” your website provider’s analytics by making sure they are similar to those in Google Analytics.  At DealerOn, we have made it a standard part of our process to create a Google Analytics account for each of our customers’ websites. 

 

Luckily, if your auto…

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Hello everyone, my name is Peter Korallus and I am new to dealerelite and am excited to join with all the experience and knowledge in this group. I was introduced to the site by Grant Cardone and I am ready to brainstorm with people to help me be the best!! We are building a brand new Infiniti store and so i was wondering what are the new trends in dealer builds, in dealer operations and what are some of the new processes out there to make sure we build and perform at the absolute highest level… Continue