My firm currently is defending several lawsuits against a dealership filed by customers who entered into “spot delivery” transactions. Spot delivery is the practice whereby a dealership delivers the vehicle on a conditional basis pending the appr

Congratulations! You’ve closed the deal, done the paperwork, taken the trade in, handed her the keys and introduced her to the service manager. (You did take her to the service department, didn’t you?) Now you can relax a bit and wait for the nex

Some 30 years ago, one of my best friends in the car business gave me the greatest advertising lesson of my life. “Appeal to those who don’t think they can afford a vehicle, and watch your grosses grow.” Another of his favorite sayings was “J

At Bass Sox Mercer, we are receiving more and more calls from dealer clients concerning manufacturer advertising programs. The questions range from asking whether a manufacturer can set minimum advertising prices, to whether a manufacturer can enforc

I must share with you that the days of what I refer to as “Rain Ex Sales Reps” are gone! “Rain Ex,” front lobe “yes, yes, yes,” rebuttals, scripts or habits are weak.  They immediately, from first contact, either lump us into the stereot

I have always enjoyed training salespeople, in particular car salespeople and financial advisors. Both industries have a common thread. They are both male dominated businesses. Both industries have a poor recruitment record when it comes to hiring an

In its zeal for maintaining the “brand value” of its new vehicles, Mercedes Benz has initiated a program that verges on price fixing. Under the Brand Communications Guidelines, Mercedes Benz requires each dealer to advertise their new vehicles at

I will admit, some of my more progressive colleagues at Dominion recognized the importance of QR codes far earlier than I. Nevertheless, I’ve become an advocate of this remarkable digital marketing tool and how it can help automotive dealers. Why d

Isn’t it interesting in our industry how much time and effort we put into the new car side of our dealerships?  All the work we put into selling the number of cars that is our market share responsibility each year.  The training we do for our sal