Customer’s taste in accessories not within budget? This will help...

When presented with a prospect, one of your first questions will be: “What are you looking for in your new car?” From there you’ll narrow down the type of vehicle, make, model, and a list of features. Features on a vehicle used to not carry much…

Would you go on vacation without planning your means of travel, travel route, booking a hotel, identifying points of interest or activities for you and the family, and the starting time as well as the ending date of your trip?  Unless you were free spirited with no cares in the world, and were part of the Brady Bunch Family, this was not you.  As a matter of fact, since you are reading this blog, you are a “Type A” personality that rarely will walk out of your office without a…

Blood drips red from the wounded vest

Bullets richochet by and time slows down

The air thickens as breath escapes his chest

The senses grow weary with every sound

The eyes of his friend swell up with fear…

Car Accessories Sales Best Practices

Featured Automotive Accessory: Window Tint

Window tint has always been a popular car accessory not just for the look that it adds to the car but also for vehicle value protection and health and comfort of passengers. Here is a word track to point out the benefits of adding window tint…

You have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build or beautify your dealership.  Your advertising budget equals or exceeds that amount.  Your inventory has been posted online, and there are plenty of choices for potential customers to make a great selection.  CSI scores have never been higher at the dealership than they are right now!

So why are your salespeople standing around wondering why there are not any customers to sell a vehicle to?  Is there grumbling going on in the…

I used to be a product demonstrator for Soda Stream last spring in 2011 and I had fun talking about the product and meeting every skeptical question dead on with a great answer. Soda Stream is a product where you make your own seltzer with compressed CO2 and add soda and seltzer flavors. I just started up again this Saturday, March 17 2012 and fell right back into the old routine and was just as knowledgeable and…

by Tamara Lischer

In today’s economic environment the division between success and failure is as clear as it’s ever been. Having the right people, processes and products are essential for a dealership to be competitive. Being a single-point, family-owned business is no longer a unique proposition for consumers in today’s automotive climate. To stand apart from its competition, a…

KPA Speakers Bureau offers speakers with dealership expertise in Environment and Safety, HR Management, and Internet Marketing.

Lafayette, CO (February 28, 2012) ­— KPA, a dealer services and Internet marketing provider for over 4,000 automotive, truck and equipment dealerships and service companies, announces today the KPA Speakers Bureau.

The introduction of the KPA…

by Motyka Johnson

The labor sales potential for any franchised dealer’s service department is first dependent on the units in operation (UIOs) for that franchise in the dealer’s market. Unfortunately, very few of the manufacturers provide this UIO information to their dealers. For a fee, vehicles in operation (VIOs) are available by zip code from R.L. Polk, Inc.

Since there are other estimates used in the calculation of labor…

After hearing all the hoopla over true cars Ive seen nothing from a dealer, writer, or a contributor on why they dont warn about the factory as they are about TRUE CARS. First in my opinion would you give anyone or any company access to your DMS system allowing them to have access to your customer data???? Most dealers service departments are gold mines for sales and there best inventory of customers are there best service customers. Thats because in most cases 50-75% of there service…

Man you’ve got a big ole’, good lookin’, juicy But!  To get a But like that, it must’ve taken many years of hard work to get that kind of But.  You’ve made excuses, exceptions, reservations, and countless other adjectives of limitations in an effort to border why you can’t do something. In short, you’ve allowed your But’s to render your…

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…

Transparency is supposed to cure the excess profit that dealerships make on selling a “commodity”. We’re discussing a platform that promises “upfront pricing” as the “new world order” but cautions “its arrival heralds a bona fide tipping point in automotive retailing”. Transparency offers the customers an “upfront pricing” that is “non-negotiable in an environment defined by net margin compression”

Some say, we don’t want transparency suggesting instead that we prefer deceit and…

Over the last year (plus) there have been numerous hypotheses shared regarding Google Places and the practice of customers entering reviews while still in the dealership or business. The crux of the discussion was whether or not Google was blocking reviews from a common IP address because of the possibility of gaming the system or as some have suggested, because a customer might feel “pressured” if asked to do this review while still at the business location.

Many opinions and…

When you are in the process of showing a customer a product, and trying to close the deal out, there is a good chance you will hear “NO.” Remember when a customer tells you NO, if you have done your job right up to this point, they are really telling you “keep talking I am not quite ready yet.”

The difference between sales people and sales professionals is the ability to overcome customer NO’s and objections. A sales professional will take the NO from the customer and start…

“Spread right, Trips Z-pass 90, X-36, 99 Max protections, Z-option…on two.”

Imagine the complexity of sitting in one of the huddles with of one of the top Quarterbacks in the country.  Imagine trying to decipher the pass route, protection and coverage for an option route.  Now, imagine doing all that without reading the playbook?

Sounds…

For the past three years I have used my account at Compete, Inc. to monitor sites like DealerElite and ADM... The following charts and monthly traffic analysis is provided by Compete, Inc. which is the same marketing research company that Google frequently utilizes to measure and report on website traffic and engagement by Internet users.…

Throughout the day think about how many times an outside influence has attempted to stop your momentum?  One can’t even turn on a radio station without enabler’s who are intent on imposing their agenda; spew their negativity.  Can’t even buy a box of Cap’n Crunch cereal without being harassed by impatient Iris complaining about the cost of her…