According to Rand Fishkin, Founder and CEO of SEOmoz.org, *there is an increase in blog readership as of late but a dramatic decrease in the amount of people blogging. This sets the stage for a powerful…

It’s been a few months since I have written for SEL. I had to take a short ‘sabbatical’ to hunker down and focus on a major phase of development and updates on our own site.

It’s nice to get back to blogging but I have to admit that I feel a bit off the pace. Writing is like exercise; once you are out of practice the first time back takes longer and…

Do you know the one thing you can do on your dealership's website to increase leads? In this week’s Think Tank Tuesday, I’m going to show you the importance of strong web panels and how they increases customer conversions on your website.

The questions “How do I drive more leads to my website?" and "How do I increase conversions?” are always asked. We’ve done the research so you can implement the strategy in your dealership. You can do it completely free and in house; create custom…

The Truth About 3rd Party Lead Source Providers, Aggregators & Online Classifieds

I hear all the time that “these leads suck”, “those leads suck” etc… The truth is that most of the times it is NOT the 3^rdparty provider, aggregator or online classified that…

Does your car dealership have a plan in place for marketing its service center? You need to encourage people to return to your dealership after their vehicle purchase for service, and you also need a strategy to pick up new leads just for service.

13 Tips for Automotive Service Center Marketing from…

One day a received a call from Paul Sansone Jr., a well known name in the New Jersey car business.   He operates a dealership near my offices and he reached out to tell me about a new product he was developing for car dealers.   I love entrepreneurial passion and Paul has leveraged his lifelong experience in the automotive industry with a cool new…

Fort Lauderdale, FL – July 31st, 2012 – AutoUSA Internet Sales Solutions (www.autousadealers.com) today introduced Payment Pro℠ powered by DriveItNow®, a payment-based conversion tool for auto dealer websites. Payment Pro is a service that provides online shoppers with instant, real car loan payments based on individual credit and inventory eligibility, generating pre-qualified, first-party leads from dealer websites.

With Payment…

Sales leads come in many different forms, yet few sales reps adjust their sales follow-up process to sync with the latest intelligence available about those leads. If not careful, they could be turning qualified sales leads into "not interested" responses or even worse, …

http://www.automotiveinternetsales.com ;

One of my Dealers just forwarded me this official email from Vehix. They sent it to him yesterday... 

Dear Vehix Dealer,

As you may know, Comcast Spotlight has owned Vehix since 2008. As…



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http://www.dealersynergy.com …

I have written about the influence of Jim Lecinski's book "Winning The Zero Moment of Truth" and the data that confirms that consumers are actively researching online during the Zero Moment of Truth prior to contacting a local car dealer.

This first contact, called the…

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 …

Are we all tired of non franchised vendors offering to "save" our clients from us? The more someone tells lies about the majority of new car dealers the more we'll all suffer. Let's not do business with anyone that portrays us as cheaters...thieves.....liars......predators! :-D

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 …

I've started this discussion in a few different places online, and I wanted to get this forum's take on what constitutes a third party lead.

Sitting here writing in my office in Richmond, it never occurred to me that there might be some confusion around that term. I should have gotten a clue when DrivingSales.com eliminated the "Third Party Leads" category from their product listings and …

Sometimes it is not the skills of your people that cause your store’s numbers to flatline.  Sometimes your BDC is fledgling, not because their phone scripts are poor or that the technology is weak, but for the fact that they just don’t see the full impact  their role plays in the organization.

When I train a dealership on-site, the first thing I do is impress upon their BDC and Internet Managers that their daily duties are greater than the tasks built out for them in the…

Now that Dealer Chat services have had a chance to penetrate the business, chances are that you've heard all about the service and its ability to generate high quality automotive sales leads.

Maybe you've already signed on and are already reaping the benefits of dealer chat.

Maybe you're…