Auto Retail News

I spend as much time outside of the car business today as I do in it and many of the online marketing professionals I interact with there have recently told me small is cool to customers. Small businesses, they say, have a personality, flavor and sen

We work with multiple dealer groups, and they all have their own preferences on how inventory and leads are routed.  Some have two OEM flags under one roof and share a DMS, others have multiple rooftops and one pre-owned lot with each running their

For the first 100 years of the automotive industry, the main thing you heard about at 20 group meetings, conventions and regional dealer gatherings, was customer satisfaction. With a decline in automotive dealerships and an increase in aftermarket se

Proper documentation has been a frequent theme of my articles. Dealerships face potential pitfalls if they fail to document all customer visits accurately. I have tried to offer readers explanations as to why each and every visit by a consumer should

Interacting with informed customers can be a challenge as dealers try to overcome their concerns throughout the shopping process. In this month’s article, I provide practical tools to help salespeople conquer this obstacle. Please keep in mind that

My dear friend “Jolly John” Pulsifer was greeted by St. Peter on February 19 of this year at the age of 74, with 50 of those years in the business he loved, surrounded by the people he loved. I’m sure the first words out of John’s mouth were

Dealership sales are growing once again and so too are the demands on the dealer’s time, their staff’s time and their financial resources. It seems like most manufacturers have some sort of required image program, requirements for facility upgrad

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami have rocked the automotive world.  Honda has reported, at the time of this writing, that it is still not able to manufacturer the Fit small car, the CR-V crossover and the Acura TSX sedan.  Toyota announced that

Every so often I hear from GMs who insist their salespeople must have the latest, greatest CRM with every bell, whistle and thing-a-ma-ding ever invented. My advice to them is to ask themselves this question: is it the CRM that???s the problem, or is