By: Laura Madison, National Director of Sales at Alan Ram's Proactive Training Solutions

The most frequent question I get asked by salespeople who want to use social media to sell cars is, “where do I start?” Many salespeople want to leverage social…

by John Fuhrman – Director of Training, OptionSoft Technology

     Recently, I was visiting with a dealer and the recent rash of articles concerning compliance came up.  As I shared what I knew on the subject and the current climate concerning fines and penalties, the dealer sat back, smiled and said, “I’m good.  We use a menu.”

     Since I was there to train the F&I managers (there were seven), I thought I’d…

    Last time, we spoke about the beginning of the Inbound Sales Call, or the Phone Up at your dealership. We concluded that this is how we should answer the calls:

SMILE WITH A WARM FRIENDLY GREETING OFFERING ASSISTANCE

    Now our…

When it comes to video, most dealerships tend to think of it for purely sales department use, and sometimes in service. From communicating with customers via personalized emails, to live video walkarounds, video is certainly an excellent way to engage customers and increase VDP views. It is also a great tool for the service department to better explain and illustrate service…

As we make our New Year’s resolutions and reflect on 2016, which was a less than perfect year for our industry, filled with recalls and declining consumer confidence due to lack of parts availability to quickly fix these recalls, I thought it may be a good time to look ahead to 2017. In that spirit, I’d like to offer some simple tips that can help improve the service…

January 1, 2017 — The Mar-Kee Group announced that 10-time National Automotive Dealers Association speaker and President of the Mar-Kee Group, David Martin, will present a sales training workshop, “Marketing Opens the Door: Closing Seals the Deal” at the 2017 NADA Conference & Expo. 

"Yesterday's closing techniques will no longer work with the tech savvy buyers,…

There is a lot of talk going on about car dealership turnover. It seems that everyone has an opinion about it but not a whole lot of solutions. I am going to do some "REAL TALK" in this post because it is time that the sugar coating stops. I have spent a great deal of time between consulting dealers and working for dealers on a case by case basis over the…

There are many different approaches to keeping our names in front of our clientele. Here are just some of my quick suggestions;

1) ONE school of thought is not to ask for referrals at the time of delivery. It’s their magic moment, not ours. Besides our customers won’t care enough to send us referrals until they know how much we care about them. Remember, in the long…

Imagine your salespeople starting each day with the most important sales training program available? With The Mar-Kee Group’s new, revolutionary 90 Day Boot Camp, training just got a lot easier for managers…

“There are two things you must do to get anything in life you want,” my father would tell me. After turning 15 1/2, it became time to test this strategy out.

The first part of the deal, I had already nailed; maintaining an A average throughout junior high school. This first condition, I must admit, was pretty easy to do. For years learning, and learning of any kind,…

How do I keep productive at work? What should I do when there’s no floor traffic? Who should I spend time calling? I hear these questions all the time from my new clients.

Although most of us do need a little down time to stay sharp, it should never be more than a very small percentage of our day in sales. Once we accept the fact that we are in control of our own pay…

How far should a salesperson take the transaction before they get someone else involved? When is the right time to make a "turn over"? What is the best way to make a turn? Should turns even be made?

These are questions common to virtually every car training event I've been involved in. My colleagues and I (in the training field) each have our own experiences,…

Role-playing with your sales team will give them the confidence and inspiration to know what to say when handling objections from potential customers. Just like in sports or the fine arts, honing your craft involves practice. Through role-playing, your sales team will master professional and effective responses to the most common objections.

In …

Performing these regularly occurring sales manager activities will insure we are investing enough in our dealership’s most valuable appreciating assets – our people.

● Have a notepad when desking deals 

– Take notes for debriefing our sales associates, don’t rely on memory alone.

● Debrief each deal 

– During a deal is…

I was asked to share with sales managers some of the common desking best practices I’ve encountered across the country. These are things that, when adopted, should help you help your sales people be more effective. I know that most of these things are already being done in your store but it’ll still be a useful review and you may even pick up one or two new ideas.

I…

As we’re helping people with some of their biggest investments, it’s our moral duty to be there for our customers by following up on services they’ve initially declined. Ethical practices in the car business go a long way in retaining customers and increasing referrals. 

You won’t be setting yourself up for disappointment. It’s not a lost cause. Here’s…

How much would your professional life improve if the majority of your new customers were trusting and easy to work with? What would you be able to achieve if you could significantly increase the effectiveness of each and every one of the techniques you currently use? And what would you think if I were to tell you that it’s “easy” to accomplish all of this?

Well,…

It wasn’t too long ago that a mandatory part of the delivery process included the salesperson walking the customer into service, introducing them to a service advisor and helping to begin that relationship between the customer and the service department. Even now it’s a critical question on many manufacturer CSI sales surveys.

But I find that these days many…

Is your sales team committed to giving it their all 100% of the time?   Read how to create and sustain an enthusiastic, professional and committed staff to inspire excellence and close more deals. 

Our dealership motto:

100% of the customers will receive

100% of what we have to…