With all the competition in the Automotive World and so many websites, targeted ads and retargeting display ads vying for consumer attention it seems harder than ever to know whether or not your customer will remember you.

How do you set yourself apart from the competition and stay in the customer's mind?

USE COMMON SENSE AND THINK ABOUT USING MOBILE TO CONNECT WITH MOBILE! Niesen did a study in November about Mobile Auto Shoppers and it showed that 49% of…

Collaboration not confrontation

The day starts with an offer that’s hundreds below cost with a trade in that’s thousands away from its actual cash value.  The salesperson spent hours from the initial greeting to the vehicle selection process only to have their bubble busted by a ridiculous offer. Of course, the offer is substantiated by the dealer down the…

I watched a fun video on dealerelite this morning that had a fantastic message about ignoring when another salesperson says 'that guy's been here before' and having the confidence to go and serve that customer and sell them a vehicle in spite of the other salesperson's shortcomings. SO TRUE. 

Something about the video, and many other videos, bothered the hell out of me so I thought, what the heck, let's talk about it!…

Growing up, my sister would call me a dummy. As much as I cringe to admit this, she was right. I am a dummy…..a crash test dummy!

In each incident, I was alone in the vehicle while sitting at a stop light, my standard transmission had been shifted into neutral, my foot was on the brake and I was perfectly still when….WHAM!!! Both vehicles were Japanese produced sports cars and sustained…

In constant pursuit of keeping up with the Marketing Jones Family, I came across a book by David Cummings and Adam Blitzer called Think Outside the…

Recently, I was invited to tour the new facility at my favorite dealership during a service visit.  From first glance, everything appeared to be in the framework of a typical dealership, until I got to the customer lounge.  This space had drawn a crowd in front of a large bank of glass windows.  I was curious about what all the excitement was about.  Did the dealership install an animal viewing area? …

 Is Front Gross $PVR Still a Relevant Metric?

One of our “poster” clients—with super market penetration, great customer retention, strong gross profit production, and excellent net-to-gross retention—doesn’t believe in focusing on front $PVR, at least in his new vehicle department. In fact, his business model is based on $-0- new vehicle “total front gross profit.” But please also understand the following:

• The New…

When making the perfect peanut butter chocolate pie (my all time favorite), there are several ingredients that go in to make the perfect tasting pie. When it comes to selling a new or used vehicle, there are also certain ingredients that will facilitate a sale.

With the pie baking analogy not only do you need the right ingredients, but you also need the right pre baking components in order to make the pie like an oven, baking pans, measuring cups etc. When it comes to…

Unless you're some sort of crazy selling machine, keep reading!

Contrary to what the title of this article suggests, I am not going to write about how to sell less. Rather, I will focus on some of the simple steps to the sale that often go overlooked that prevent more deals from being closed. In vehicle sales, the amount of units you push directly affects the amount of money you collect so it’s crucial to keep yourself in check so that you can constantly strive to kick your sales up a…

I get the privilege of hearing sales people every day when they're talking to customers. Whether it's folks in a dealership, or folks at a restaurant during lunch; EVERYONE IS SELLING SOMETHING!

The problem is, most people just flat suck at selling. Don't get me wrong, there are some really fantastic sales professionals out there but just because your title says "Sales _______" it doesn't mean that you know how to sell.

Many salespeople confuse 'telling' with…

How many times have I asked a sales person, "Have they driven the car?" Do you have any idea how many times I hear, They drove it at the other dealer or they don't have time to drive it or my favorite. They already own one that is three years old.  Really?  You are going to waste all that time on a write up when your chances of closing a deal without a demo…

Becoming involved in your community, church or civic organization will bring rewards far beyond a pay check or a few more car sales.  Those that engage in these organizations for the betterment of their communities will receive great satisfaction for their efforts.

At a local services center, our car club was using money that we had raised to tile and carpet…

“Concentrate…..concentrate….”  The instructors voice is intense and close to my right ear.  I concentrate.  I try to remember the 7 or so things he has just taught me. I squeeze the trigger as slowly as I can.

It’s a little Smith and Wesson M&P compact.  It is at home in the gun safe with a variety of sibling guns used by my husband for trap and skeet shooting.   I take it out every so often and go to the gun club range and shoot at some paper…

...you know how this one ends.

It can be lumped into the category of cliches that you're tired of hearing along with "If you don't love yourself, you can expect someone to love you." and "The grass is always greener on the other side."

Not only is the "If you can't sell yourself, then you can be expected to sell a product" a cliche, but it's also true on more than one level.

Of course, selling anything from a car to a premium iced coffee is…

I want to touch on something I'm starting to see in my dealership. Just a quick summary, I work in a "negotiation-free" store where we display upfront pricing and make buying easier. With that comes some other changes in our culture; sales not paid on gross profit but units, and the way we hire among other changes. The way we hire and WHO we hire is what I want to…

It seems hard to fathom that a person can drown in just over an inch of water. Once the lungs are blocked and the brain is starved of oxygen, cerebral hypoxia kicks in making a person delirious eventually succumbing to death-a great tragedy can occur from something as small as the length of your fingernail. Similarly, salespeople are drowning in a puddle of…

If you were afforded the opportunity to work at a dealership under the guise that you must first invest 25, 50, or even $100,000 would you pony up? If you did elect to invest such a large sum of money, would you even be the least bit curious as to what kind of return you would earn on your investment? Once you’ve finished your latest Sportscenter analysis of…

Ok, so you finished with one of the worst months you’ve ever had-now what. You have two options in this situation; you can hold court on the black top and cry a river to a bunch of guys who don’t really care or you can plan for a better month. Speed is everything to your sales career and you must have two mindsets when navigating through your month: That of a…

It's been said that nothing in life is guaranteed, yet one thing is certain in sales: There will always be objections. In the sales profession, objections are a necessary evil. After all, if there were no objections there wouldn’t be a need for salespeople; thankfully the products do not sell themselves and need advocates like you and me, to favorably demonstrate the…

Car Research, a CRM company, takes an EXTREMELY strong dealer-protective and data-protective stance--essentially, they're first to take a strong public stand that they do NOT share data with anyone and only use the data as a dealer directs. No selling of data! No remarketing to your customers!  No condescension!  ON A DEALER'S SIDE RIGHT OUTTA' THE GATE FOR YEARS NOW AND STILL GOING FORWARD!  WONDERFUL!!!!  Here's their email announcement:

January 18, 2012

You…