Get Relatedness

Finding connected-ness through sameness.

This step overlaps Steps 1 through infinity. One thing that frustrates me more

than just about anything when coaching a salesperson is this: We’ll be into the

deal and something is going wrong. The customer all of the sudden wants to bolt

just before or a few minutes after we serve figures. I ask where the client is and

get, “Oh she left already.” The first thing I’ll do is to ask about how the…

STEP 1)

Generate a Client

When I started selling at a little mulch lot after school, I read everything I could get my

hands on. One of the first books I picked up was Joe Girard’s “How To Sell Anything To

Anybody.” Boy was I excited! I was 17 and I was going to somehow magically be able to

select any object, pick out a random person and sell it to them! Well, although there were

some good philosophical points in the book, unfortunately I didn’t ever get the…

Hi I'm a vendor....in the digital space. That's my job. And I love it. I love it because I'm a 27 year retail car guy who's Father was a dealer, Grandfather was a designer for Ford and Step Father designed assembly line equipment. Yes I'm from Detroit...  and I love dealing with car guys and gals. Sure I like it when they buy my product. I like making a difference and I like making sure my company is healthy and our staff can take care of their families. But what I love about the job, really…

Susan Eway, Business Development Manager at Danbury Auto Group (which includes Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Hyundai, and Kia brands) had to face some big obstacles when she first joined the dealership. The Internet department was only seven months old and it…

When you’ve been in the auto business for almost 30 years, you learn to appreciate quality. Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Curt Richards has seen it all. From the sales floor to the finance department, as an Internet Manager, and most recently as a BDC Administrator, Curt oversees the operations of a business development center that supports sales, parts and service operations for 4…

There was a time not too long ago when the live chat icon on websites was both a rarity and a novelty. Inquisitive site visitors would notice the live chat software prompts in the form of a button on their favorite Internet hotspots but would be too scared to click them for one reason or another. Those days are gone now and while thousands of upmarket and progressive…

The other day I was in a dealership speaking with an owner.  He said to me "I have 315,000 VDPs" to which I responded "wow, that it is great".  He then said to me "however, VDPs do not cash checks, sales do".  I was so happy to hear that because here is someone that really gets it.  I am not saying that focusing on VDPs is not important.  In fact it is one of the…

Is your managed live chat solution everything you were promised? Maybe you were sold on the lofty ideal of unprecedented customer service (not mention the huge boost in leads). You loved the idea of making contact with your customers when they are first researching their next vehicle. But after a few months, you’ve noticed that you’re just not happy with the conversations that your outsourced chatters are having on your behalf. Not to mention the leads aren’t exactly flowing in,…

ActivEngage has made perfecting your website easier than ever. With our free newActivEyeMap tool, we can help you find simple ways to improve your dealership’s onlineusability. This technology has already enabled us to help auto dealers make alterations to their sites that get more shoppers into your inventory and planning their next vehicle.…

The Handy Family of Dealerships has been around for quite some time. Established in 1952, Handy Automotive actually started out as Handy Truck and Trailer, a tractor trailer dealership. From this investment they were able to open John Deere farm equipment dealerships in Highgate Vermont. With time, they turned that dealership…

Centreville, VA, (December 18, 2012) - Carfax and ActivEngage, Inc., the most trusted provider in automotive live chat, have teamed up to help dealers provide Carfax Vehicle History Reports™ to online shoppers through live chat. Carfax-subscribing dealers can make extensive vehicle history data available to used car shoppers in real-time during a live chat conversation, therefore creating an elite consumer experience on…

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I feel that being imitated means the imitator lacks the creativity to come up with ideas on their own.

Virtual Sales Associates (VSA’s) has become a popular title in the chat industry lately. ActivEngage coined this term in 2007 and now other chat…

Fellow Dealership Vendors - Would you like the best Live Chat Software for your own website for free? No Problem, just contact me, and I will get you started.

There is no obligation at all to do business with us, just wanting you to see and use what we have created.



This will be our top…

In ActivEngage’s 5 years of operation, we’ve collected a whole lot of data about the buying habits of online shoppers. We use this data to keep our eyes on the big picture, and we’ve noticed a startling trend: More web shoppers are active early in the morning. What does this trend…

30 seconds might seem like a very small amount of time to you – but how long is it, really? Try closing your eyes and counting to 30.

One…

Two…

Three…

In the time it took you to perform this exercise, Google added $30,000 to its revenues, 500 iPhones were sold, and beams of light …

It’s true that the live chat adoption rate is growing astronomically among auto dealers. The ability to greet your online shoppers and walk them around your virtual showroom has proven to be an invaluable technology, driving more customers to physical dealerships and ultimately selling more cars. You know all of this already, but one question remains: Do I manage my own website chat, or…

 …

The world of paid search is never boring especially when Google has been testing new paid "ad units" for the automotive industry.  

I wrote last month about the Google Advisor product (aka Google Cars) and now Google is testing an ad unit that includes LIVE CHAT powered by ActiveEngage.…

I think we have a pretty great attitude in the auto dealer online community. For as long as I’ve been a part of it, I’ve observed dealers helping each other by sharing marketing tactics and Internet strategies. The daily…

As more consumers are using the web to research and communicate with dealerships before they decide to purchase a vehicle, it is important to understand the value of live chat and the power behind establishing a relationship between the…