Timonium, MD – August 22nd, 2016-- Helion Technologies announced today that 75 percent of small businesses have experienced security breaches in the last 12 months, according to a recent survey conducted by Osterman Research. The findings were published in a July 2016 report titled…

Imagine that you are applying for a loan at a bank. As you sit there with the loan officer, you notice that she is using a laptop with an American Ninja sticker on the back of it. You laugh and point, "What's that? Is your bank sponsoring that TV show?" The loan officer laughs and shakes her head. "Oh no," she says, "I'm a…

While lead generation is important, according to this article on Inc.com, many companies would see far greater results (and better, more-qualified leads) if more emphasis were placed on nurturing, engagement, and providing value through content…

Timonium, MD – June 27th, 2016-- Helion Automotive Technologies announced today it has received a UCSE Tier 1 Support Certification from ShoreTel, a leading provider of business telephony and Unified Communications (UC) solutions. As a certified ShoreTel partner, Helion is authorized to work with auto dealers to design, program and implement custom UC systems, provide…

One of the most common frustrations I hear from dealership employees is vendor finger pointing. Have you ever experienced anything like this?

Your inventory management software is not delivering updated information to the DMS.…

Imagine coming into work one day, firing up your computer and seeing the following message pop up onto your screen:

Your files have been encrypted by TeslaCrypt. Your documents, photos, database and other important files have been encrypted. Private…

The well-known book Who Moved My Cheese tells a story about change; how change is inevitable and how we all need to adapt and adjust our attitudes to change...or perish. In the last ten years the most powerful agent of change in dealerships has been technology. Think about how technology, in all its forms, has changed the way your business…

Timonium, MD -- April 25th, 2016 -- Helion Technologies, a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions for auto and truck dealers, announced today the addition of the Rosner Auto Group, based in Virginia and Florida, to its list of clientele. The Rosner Auto Group was formerly an eight-store dealership group with a body shop. In June 2015, the owners decided to sell two stores and split the remainder of the group…

In reflecting back on 2015, I would like to reach out and share my thoughts about how grateful I am to be in a career I love and for that career to be in an industry that I love!  Very few days go by without thoughts of how truly thankful I am to be involved with so many great companies – from the large mainstays to the tech start-ups. And I am also lucky to work with the…

In B2B marketing, there’s no scarcity of brand messages from vendors to dealers. Increasingly, those messages now tend to market how the vendor’s products and services help dealers create a better customer experience, rather than focus on the products or services themselves. But is that a good thing? Certainly dealers now recognize that customer experience is…

An aspiring actress was planning a cross country move from New York to California to pursue her acting career and wanted to work as an Uber driver between auditions. This, of course, necessitated a reliable vehicle - something that she did not need in New York. She had heard of an online used car buying platform, Beepi, but wasn’t exactly sure if she should…

One cost-cutting strategy that should be considered by every dealership is to reduce or eliminate overlap in vendor services. Utilizing multiple marketing vendors, all with overlapping services and all communicating with your customers, is not a good strategy.

This type of overlap can cost thousands of dollars each month. And, perhaps more importantly, it…

Data security is becoming an increasingly public concern as databases from large retailers continue to be breached and consumer information exposed. Congress is holding hearings this week with top data security professionals to discuss how best to prevent future breaches. The concern is so high that Congress is considering implementing…

Christmas is over and New Years just passed. They say the New Year brings positive change and opportunity. Since the big celebration, 2 days have passed and there are 363 days left in the year. So I ask the magic question, "Is your dealership prepared for 2014?”

Being that we are in such a competitive industry that changes by the month it is common for sudden changes to be made at the dealership level. These changes usually involve Budget (spending), Human Resources,…

Recently I received an email from a Company called Topseos which showed many of the So called “top” companies for internet marketing.

This site caught my attention because a I've seen their name pop up in search and a well known Automotive Consultant has branding on their website as being recognized by topseos as one of the best so I decided to contact topseos to find out the criteria to be a top ranked Company in an effort to learn how our company…

STEP 1)

Generate a Client

When I started selling at a little mulch lot after school, I read everything I could get my

hands on. One of the first books I picked up was Joe Girard’s “How To Sell Anything To

Anybody.” Boy was I excited! I was 17 and I was going to somehow magically be able to

select any object, pick out a random person and sell it to them! Well, although there were

some good philosophical points in the book, unfortunately I didn’t ever get the…

The customer / vendor relationship is an important one. Customers rely on vendors for different aspects of their business that affect their bottom line, in one way of another. Vendors rely on customers for income — and a bad experience can lead to a drop off in current and future business.

Following up on the last blog "Who's Fault is it?" this article, I will recommend 10 things that a customer must do to preserve the value of a relationship with the Vendor. And since relationships…

Disclaimer: I must preface this by saying it not intended to make any enemies or friends. This is not meant to hurt anyone’s business, call out how they perform for their clients, highlight weaknesses or put stock in one product over another. This was nothing more than a simple experiment.

I was out to dinner with my wife recently when I ran into an old college acquaintance. Very quickly I discovered that she works in our industry for a startup website provider. I tell her…

If Support…

• Responded with a call instead of silence
• Gave you immediate attention instead of a support ticket number
• Answered the phone immediately instead of a queue
• Has a queue, then you know something is desperately wrong
• Responded with action instead of a timeline
• Categorically ranked your need based on how much it is their fault and handled those first.
• Wasn’t overseas
• Is handled with grace and humility instead…