That question often depends on who you ask.  Salespeople will talk about the dealer up the street or across town who is absolutely giving the cars away.  F&I will talk about lenders who seem to favor other dealers and cost them deals.  Managers will discuss factory incentives, advertising, and the like.  But is that what we're really up against?

 

After 33 years in the business and over 15,000 salespeople and managers trained, I think there's more to competition than we…

Following is the latest Black Book pricing data on the used-car market. Additional analysis and chart information can be found here.



It was an interesting week regarding the market values. Sure the softening trend continued. The car segments were overall at very close to the level of the previous 4 weeks, at -$31 this past week. The lone increasing segment in the cars was the Premium Sporty Cars (PSC) at…

January 1979 I sold my first car at a small dealership in North Jersey.  Since then, a lot has happened.  I've personally trained over 15,000 sales professionals, written 10 books, spoken literally around the world, and now work with top dealers to fill their sales needs.  I have seen and participated in three "worst ever" downturns in our industry.  Each has taught me lessons on how to deal with the struggles and what to improve on as business gets better.  There was one lesson…

     All this technology is becoming very popular around and among dealers.  Sales people can pull up apps and show customers all the details about a particular car in stock.  Customers can shop and research before they get to the dealership, and an Internet staff can track web visits and initiate contact with potential customers.  All at the speed of light.

     Thanks to the innovation of Steve Jobs and Apple, we can "i-anything" we want.  But there is one important ingredient to…

Addy's Harbor Dodge in Myrtle Beach, SC has just jumped into the top 5 of all Dodge dealers in the US.  It just shows that having the right programs, the best managers and top sales people, will make great things happen.  We are pleased at this great dealer's success and even more thankful that we have been along for the entire ride.



When we first came to Addy's they had 8 sales people and were doing average numbers.  Rod Ricciardi had just become the GM and brought with him a…

Dealers looking to expand their online brand visibility must consider retargeting.  

If you are not familiar with retargeting, here is the synopsis.  

Any consumer that visits a dealership website ONCE, can be tagged so that when they leave the dealership…

Dealers United Announces First Deal for Members: SEO Services from KPA

KPA beat out more than 30 other SEO vendors to be given the opportunity to present their best offer to Dealers United members.…

The FTC recently singled out 5 dealerships for something that I suspect hundreds, if not thousands of dealerships has done. Essentially offer to  “pay off the trade no matter what you owe”

If we were to say in response to the FTC’s actions that we never meant to mislead anybody or mislead any consumer, that’s not who we are….. I say, that is exactly who we are.  If there was no validity to the claims of the FTC then why would we back down? In the instant case, who ultimately…

As some of you may know, I served as the director of ecommerce for the Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE: ABG) a few years ago. One of the most rewarding things about working for a publicly-traded MegaDealer Group was the ability to not only negotiate from a position of strength (we had over 120 franchises back then), but also the luxury of relying on a team of experts to help us always select the best of the best providers of any product or service.

While our process was exhaustive (we…

Auto dealers eager to boost website conversion and Internet leads are increasingly using dealer …

by Motyka Johnson

Right now, automotive dealerships across the globe are seeking ways to sell more vehicles in a market that appears to be on the upswing.  2012 will see a majority of dealerships dedicating more resources to their …

To: All Maryland Dealers

 

From: Peter Kitzmiller

 

Re: TrueCar/Zag

 

Date: January 4, 2012

 

It is the opinion of MADA that any vehicle referral program which requires a dealer to pay a fee only upon the sale of a vehicle violates Maryland's dealer licensing law. It is MADA's understanding that this is TrueCar/Zag's pricing structure.

 

Maryland licensing law is very clear.

 

In order to be a licensed dealer you must have a physical…

Are leads from live chat really leads?

If you are the general manager of a dealership that has never used automotive live chat service or software, you’re probably…

You cannot manage what you can’t measure.  As more and more consumers flock to your dealership website, you must focus your attention to optimizing the ease of which your prospects obtain information about you. …

ActivEngage was honored to have its CEO and Co-Founder Todd Smith featured as a keynote presenter as the Ignite! Dealer Summit. Todd’s workshop highlighted more than 17 easy to use and powerful online tools and …