After an unprecedented period of sales volume growth, the prediction for a flat Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) in the coming years has significant implications for dealerships. As competition for new vehicles heats up, front-end margins will continue to decline, forcing more dealers to focus on back end profitability.…

In my last blog, I discussed how dealerships can lose significant profit by failing to merchandise vehicles efficiently. Simply put, you can’t sell something nobody knows you have. And, with thousands of competing vehicles available to car buyers online, a stock photo or “photo…

There’s a lot of buzz around subscriptions as a new ownership model, with various industry pundits forecasting major disruptions for dealers. I see things differently.

I believe there are several major barriers to subscription growth for non-dealers, and opportunities for dealers to thrive, should subscriptions break through as a significant ownership model.…

Love him or hate him, Tesla’s Elon Musk is brilliant. As both a businessman and a marketer, he has created a loyal following of brand advocates – some of whom don’t even own the products he sells. There are consumers literally willing to wait years just to purchase a Tesla vehicle. He recently launched a car into orbit, which is now on its way to Mars -- the man continues to…

If you work in a dealership, my bet is that you are either celebrating because you exceeded your goals, are breathing a sigh of relief that you met them, or are extremely nervous because you didn’t.

This time of year is generally crammed with reports, RDRs, OEM face downs and…

| by David Metter

Could it be possible that the secret to selling cars in today’s multi-touch, exponentially data-driven society is exactly the same as it was prior to World War II? I know what you’re thinking. This is either a huge stretch or some sort of joke. However, recently…

Innovative startups are always looking for new ways to stay ahead of the competition and one way to do it without breaking the bank is by remodelling your business vehicles with spectacular, professionally designed graphics wraps on your van, truck or car. Research by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America revealed that vehicle graphics remains …

AutoHook has announced they have completed the integration process with the industry’s top leading website providers. Mutual clients of AutoHook and the affiliate companies listed below are now set up to successfully target and incentivize customers to visit dealer showrooms based on any specific vehicle of interest - down to the year, make, and…

Last year it was reported that the automotive industry would experience a shortage of 25,000 technicians in the coming months. This was based on a recent survey that showed the demand for auto mechanics is expected to increase by 9% within five years.

This shortage affects vehicle service operations across the board from boats and RVs to buses. Often dealers…

Imagine feeling ill enough to visit the local hospital. Most of us identify the hospital as the one place that has the combination of diagnostic technology, patient history, the knowledge and the skilled clinicians in one location. In order for physicians to accurately diagnose your ailment, they take blood samples and conduct a multitude of tests. As a patient, it…

As negotiations are an expected part of the vehicle buying process, there are three strategies we advocate doing often and consistently to increase your sales gross and reduce many of deal-cutting concessions.

Depending on how you respond to a customer will determine if you get the deal and how comfortable the customer feels about their experience.

By…

PALO ALTO, CA, January 19, 2017 – Rapid Recon, the undisputed leader in Time-to-Market Workflow™ software and reconditioning center transformation, will reveal its powerful reconditioning management tool, Group Reporting, at NADA ’17 in New Orleans next week. 

Group reporting compiles and indexes in graphical…

Your Turn To Drive's panel of experts discuss What Does It Mean To Have A Vehicle Recall.  In this video, Jim Dykstra of www.vinadvisor.net, Joe Webb of…

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,…

MYTH #1: VDP views are the metric that matters most. 

Since when did VDP views become more important than sales? This is not an attempt to downplay the importance of driving traffic to your VDPs. Reputable evidence…

Not too long ago your service department could rely on seeing customers fairly frequently, but as vehicles have increased in quality, so have the OEM’s suggested service intervals – some are now as much as 15,000 miles between oil changes.

To put this into perspective, in the past, if a customer drove 15,000 miles annually they would visit the dealership on…

DMPs are a topic gaining escalating attention as we head into 2017. A dark cloud of big, irrelevant data still lingers above the automotive industry, just waiting to be analyzed. What are DMPs? For those of you that don’t know, the acronym stands for Data Management Platforms. Think of a DMP…