Today’s customers expect and demand an amazing customer experience. The dealership with the right vehicle and the best experience will ultimately win the business. To deliver the best experience possible, you must maintain expertise about your customers and their shopping behavior.

The average consumer today visits only one or two dealerships…

In the past, a vehicle sale started and ended on the showroom floor. Today, many of the discovery and purchase steps take place online.

Online retail giants like Amazon have conditioned customers to expect timely and relevant communications across channels, plus a personalized buying experience informed by past behavior.

For automotive retailers, meeting these expectations requires different capabilities within your…

Eighty-six percent of car shoppers conduct online research before deciding to visit a local dealership, according to research from digital marketing agency Adtaxi.

 …

Text messaging is the most popular data service in the world. It’s quick, easy and effective. The open rate for texts is a sky-high 98 percent, while email open rates hover at only 20 percent.

The average person looks at their mobile phone 150 times a day. It’s no wonder more than 90% of texts are read within 3 minutes…

New leads are important, and you always want to keep the pipeline full.

Yet, it can cost as much as five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.

Doesn’t it make more sense to spend time nurturing the leads you already have?

 …

The “always connected” shopper trend continues to grow.

In the last year alone, the number of consumers using mobile phones to research vehicles jumped 11 percent. It’s safe to say that 99.9 percent of the people who walk on your lot have searched online with a mobile device or computer.

When an online lead gets handed…

Have you ever seen the show "Naked & Afraid?" Two contestants strip down, head into the wild and basically starve for three weeks until someone comes to pick them up. Every time I see the show, I wonder how the contestants can call themselves survivalists when they can't hunt or find a consistent food source.

Then recently, it struck me that the contestants are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing: surviving.

 …

Do you ever wonder why dealerships and consumers alike are all programmed to buy cars at the end of the month? Asking how this happened is like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg.

For sales teams and managers, the end-of-the-month crunch is a grind. When it's over, it's natural to relax a little before diving into the new month. For consumers, all the commercials and pressure to buy are pushed out towards the end of the month, so many of them are programmed to…

Does your dealership use an external BDC for sales calls? Many managers like to keep control of their sales process in house, but realistically, the majority of salespeople don't have time to place the hundreds of calls necessary every week to keep their pipeline filled.

Additionally, many salespeople lack the skills to effectively engage…

In the car business money has always been used to motivate salespeople. The idea is that commissions are a big enough motivator to drive salespeople to do what they need to do in order to sell a car.

Today we have to question whether this method works on a new breed of salespeople. I'm not referring to…

When a customer leaves the lot without purchasing a vehicle, there's a good chance he or she will never be back. A few may return, but most won't. Does that mean you should never follow up with customers? Obviously not!

The follow-up call is critical and can absolutely save a deal. Even if only one out of ten customers comes back to the store and buys from you, it's worth your time.…

Recently I was waiting in line at an airport, along with hundreds of other travelers. A couple appeared out of nowhere, shoving their way to the front of the line and complaining loudly, as if they were the only people affected by the long wait. When another traveler told them to get in line, the pair acted shocked, as if they had never seen all of us standing there.

I…

One of my college professors was famous for a crazy stunt that he pulled every semester. On the first day of class, he would introduce himself, take off his shirt and jump out the window. A few minutes later he returned to the classroom, calmly put on his shirt and asked, “Do I have your attention?”

 …

At its core, sales is a numbers game. It always has been and always will be. If you’re selling the same product that others are selling, you can only expect to close a percentage of customers that come into your store. In our industry, top performers close 50 to 60 percent of their appointments.

 …

As an industry, we have pretty much perfected the process of following up on Internet leads, but we are far from perfect when it comes to handling inbound phone leads. According to CallSource and IHS/Polk research, 84 percent of consumers purchase vehicles from a different dealership than the one…

The benefits of having a mobile check-in and MPI process in the service department have been widely confirmed. You’ve probably heard all about the three “T’s;” specifically transparency, timing and trust.  

However, one of the biggest unsung benefits is…

Need more leads? Whenever sales are slow, one of the first reactions from salespeople, and sometimes their managers, is to proclaim they need more leads or better leads.

In response, they might run a lead generation campaign which results in a temporary lift in lead volume. The problem is, when the campaign ends, the lead volume drops back to less than…

What’s the definition of multi-tasking? It's doing a lot of things at once, and most often, that means doing them poorly. In fact, research proves that multi-tasking is largely a myth; our brains are not wired to focus on multiple things at once. Studies show that multi-tasking ruins productivity, causes mistakes and dampens creative thought.

Yet, many people keep…

The decision to switch to a new CRM is not one to be taken lightly. On a daily basis, your sales team relies on your CRM for new leads and opportunities, to remind them what needs to be done, guide them through car deals and keep them on track to meet business goals.

 …

Are the headaches associated with bringing vehicles up to certified pre-owned (CPO) program standards worth it? For dealers, there’s certainly more work, money and time involved with finding, reconditioning and certifying vehicles for CPO programs.

On the surface, it may seem like the higher margins don’t really justify the higher cost of reconditioning and manufacturer…