Every once in a while the old tired debate of whether cell phones cause brain tumors or not arises.  It usually ends with two sides split; one saying they have proof that they do, while the other says they have proof that they don’t. Personally, I can tell you I do not know who is right or wrong in this case.  But one thing I do know is that cell phones do cause severe cases of rudeness.

I cannot believe how many people will stop in the middle of a sale, presentation, meeting…

 It started for me early.  Social selling that is.  I was working on a project for a hospital charity about a dozen or so

people turned out.  Painting the walls in the old building and the guy next to me, in conversation, asks, “What do you do for a living?”.  Of course I said I sold cars…  About an hour later as we were “admiring” our handy work… another…

Designing your sales process to focus more on your customer’s needs and wants and less on you can help you be more successful. It lowers the customer’s natural resistance and can help you sell more and make more profit. There are 10 key ingredients to making this happen.

A Positive Attitude

Much has been written about the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and I will not rehash all of that here. A positive attitude is your armor against…

Rory Vaden has a great weekly podcast called "The Servent Selling Podcast," that you should check out. Toward the end of his May 21rst podcast (go to minute 36:25 mark), he offers the "7 Truths About Closing the Sale."

I took some notes and shared with my sales team and thought you may find useful to share with your team. It's only 10 minutes long and made for…

The key to achieving good ROI with social media and social marketing lies in the business understanding of how to correctly use CRM as a process and not just software. The secret is in their understanding of the R in CRM as a process for establishing meaningful relationships. The challenge however, is that as businesses seek out technical solutions as a means of automating…

The knowledge that dealership professionals possess is inadequate to do the job for which they are hired. These individuals receive the bare minimum training necessary for them to interact with clients during the in-dealership sales process and in most cases, no more. This approach to professional development is wreaking havoc on all of the other processes that…

“You have to decide to love it first. Then the reasons to love it will appear.”

— Jeff Sterns

Let me open with this: you have every reason to feel proud of yourself. First, you are open to looking at yourself and this shows accountability. Second, when you get really good at this and make terrific money and tons of…

Process improvement programs from TQM, to EDGE, to EXCEL, to CEE & more…all these acronyms represent the manufacturers’ commitment to proactively impact the customer experience across their diverse distribution channels. The objective for all is the same; implement systems & processes that will equip their dealers with tools and strategies, which they will in…

Whether you are a football fan or not, unless you have been living in a cave you have probably heard a lot about Johnny Manziel and Tim Tebow.  What Tebow and Manziel have in common is that both are former Heisman Trophy winning college quarterbacks.  What they both also have in common is that they are both very much hated and reviled by so many.

From the outside looking in, they are polar opposites in many ways. Tebow is publicly very religious and Manziel is not. Tebow is…

by Steve Conner

Responding to your customer’s interest in your vehicles consistently and with the right persistence is a very difficult task for sales managers at most dealerships. According to recent research published at the Harvard Business Review, over 30% of leads are never called at all. There are four parts of the published research to digest and learn from to apply solid policies to your dealership’s lead management program.

The following parts of the study include best…

What single piece of evidence can you present to a potential customer that will separate you from the competition? Before you answer that question I want you to think about the “purpose and not the result.”

Technology can be a great neutralizer in the effort to differentiate one sales person from another. Statistics according to a recent article in Automotive News…

In case you missed the live broadcast yesterday you can check out the show with @marktewart on U-Stream bit.ly/19lRwWd

No, I am not crazy and yes I am talking about the well known shock jock known for his outrageous radio show. Howard Stern is a genius for many reasons and they all apply to how you can succeed as a salesperson, manager and entrepreneur.

Let’s examine several of the reasons and the lessons that can be learned. First of all, lesson number one in business is to never be boring. Although, you may not agree with Howard Stern’s humor or persona, he certainly isn’t boring and that…

I had the luxury of being able to watch a rookie sales manager T.O. his first customer and it reminded me of a few things I've learned along the way.



He was our top salesperson for a few years and took a promotion to management recently. He's good at what he does and it was natural for him to go out and perform his first T.O. When he went out there, he went with confidence and purpose. He wore his best smile and greeted the customer professionally. Where he was located in 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…

 Ask most people to describe a sales person, and likely as not, you'll find yourself deluged by words like "huckster," "snake oil peddler," "fast talker," "con artist" and, of course, "untrustworthy," "arrogant" and "dishonest."

Those of us who work in sales and know ourselves to be fine, upstanding people may wonder exactly what we ever did to earn such an enviable…

Broke and in search for a new beginning, Swen Nater’s parents made the decision to leave Holland and start over in America. Unfortunately, not everybody was invited to make the trip. His parents made the grueling decision to only take his baby brother-leaving Swen and his sister behind to live in an orphanage.  Out of the 60 orphaned children, Swen’s parents were the…

Are you a hunter or farmer For so many years, we have struggled as an industry when it comes to follow up. Then, companies like Clients for Life and came along and started sending our follow up letters for us. All we had to do was sign it and mail it. This gave us more time to focus on working with the customers who were on the lot and calling in.

Basically, it gave us the ability to focus more time on hunting for new business and the farming was something we were able to relax on,…

Often times when I chat with dealers I ask dealers what is keeping them, from getting to the next level of super success I hear responses like:



We need more quality leads.

Or... Cars are bringing brain damage at the sale.

Or... It's hard to find real salespeople anymore man, they just don't breed them like us, you know what I mean?



My answer to these issues are yes, yes and yes...so what. You have to control the…