Sharing a really interesting article I came across today on Business Week - the high cost of 'rework and redundancy' in the automotive industry. It is important to stay current on the latest innovations, and investing in research to grow the industry is important. But as this article opines, sometimes it can get out of hand, going from innovative to redundant. The infographic is particularly worth checking out.

What do you all think? At what point should automotive researchers stop…

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Automotive Sales and Internet BDC Expert Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining explains the importance of being proactive in the dealership.  Too many times sales people are wasting time…

This is the continuation of the mini case study focused on the objectives and challenges of building a process to measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client dealership group. Today I’ll be focusing on the vehicle sales departments in general.

The sales management staff had decided that OTDBs needed to be first divided into five major categories: (1) first-time walk-ins; (2) Internet leads; (3) blind phone inquiries; (4) proactive salesperson appointments;…

Several years ago one of my more enlightened and proactive client-dealers said to me, “I know I don’t really need more opportunities to do business; I just need to do a better job of measuring and managing the OTDBs I already have.” He then asked for my help to develop and implement a traffic management process for each of the five operating departments within his multi-rooftop automotive dealership group. Over the next several weeks,…

Over the last fifteen years I’ve conducted numerous dealership sales meetings, at which we perform an interactive exercise called “Who Do You Know?” I ask each salesperson to write down just one name of someone they know in each of about 75 categories that I read to them over a twenty minute period. After the exercise is completed, I inspect the pages and pages of names that they’ve written down and I normally say something like, “Don’t talk to me about not having enough…

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…

At the Sonic Dealer Academy we used an article titled, “Simple Techniques to Grow Your Business,” as a teaching tool. This article was authored by Duane “D.J.” Sprague who, at the time, was the president of Dunning Sprague Marketing & Advertising, a full service agency specializing in generating and retaining customers for the retail automotive dealer. All of us that were exposed to D.J.’s metrics took them at face value. I think many of them, particularly those listed below, still apply…

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…

What is Google+?

Google+ is the latest social networking service that lets users create a personalized online profile to interact with the people in their lives. The idea is to build upon what’s already available from social networking services like Facebook and…

How can car dealerships all over the world get more appointments that show up at your automotive dealership? In order to determine the answer to this fantastic question, we need to look at the problem first.

The problem is: salespeople, managers, service writers, even BDC representatives are not giving customers a reason to return the dealership. They may be calling the customer back, but best intentions rarely get you to the finish line.

The question is what are they…

Appreciation: (n) an expression of admiration approval, or gratitude

I was sitting in my loft office (Yes, it's very necessary for me to call it this. It makes me feel pretty. Pretty awesome.), and one of my clients' relatives came into the office. He said, "You know, Joey really loves your…

I kind of fell into the automotive business. A friend of a friend had a position open in a BDC of a car dealer selling Suzuki and Isuzu. I left a collection agency where I was selling the idea of paying a bill to go to the automotive business where I was selling the idea of making and keeping an appointment to meet with a salesperson. 

I started at the bottom, making phone calls to leads, setting appointments, tracking shows and sales. Then, we brought on a consultant who…

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and the host of an automotive advertising resource / networking portal -- AdAgencyOnline.Net, will be speaking to an audience of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers at the 6th Annual Chrysler Southeast & Southwest Business Center Service & Parts Business Conference. The conference is being held at the Disney Resorts Contemporary…

Automotive advertising agencies frustrated by reduced sales volume and profit margins have been forced to focus on fixed operations vs. vehicle sales to earn their fees. Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and the host AdAgencyOnline.Net, has advised his national network of independent automotive advertising agencies to help their auto dealer clients improve their…