In a recent article, I presented the need for dealers to take a proactive approach to dealership reputation management. The premise of the article was that dealers who are in tune with the way customers prefer to do business should find ways to extol

My first GSM told me that customers would tell me how to sell them – I just had to listen.  I’ve carried that belief with me throughout my career and continue to find that customers – both sold and unsold – are the absolute best source of in

In October, I unveiled an updated ACES (Automotive Continuum of E-commerce Success) chart at the well-attended 9th Digital Dealer Conference in Las Vegas. With the 2011 edition of this popular chart, we asked dealers to focus on thirty core activitie

It is no secret that customers are using the Internet to broadcast their buying experiences, and in doing so, directing customers toward or away from your dealership, many times without you knowing. More and more prospective customers are using feedb

Whether training recruits or re-training “old school” folks, we always warn them of who to avoid, including the waiters!  I mean that in two ways: The sales rep out front waiting on a deal with incomplete tasks on multiple fronts in your CRM rig

In a recent article in Reader’s Digest, the readers were advised to contact the Internet manager at a dealership to get a good deal. I was pleased to see the recommendation since I’ve been a long time proponent of this as a management position an

As we head into the holiday season, this is the perfect time to get focused on creating a more effective advertising message and media plan. I’d like to suggest a two-pronged program that will help you define both: focus groups and message manageme

Being in the industry for 26 years, I’ve had the privilege of talking to, working alongside with and managing some of the best sales people in country. Through the years, I’ve compiled a list of the common characteristics of this elite class of p

With so much focus on generating leads for your dealership, it’s important to recognize that success isn’t measured by the number of leads generated. As always, the bottom line literally is the bottom line; the number of cars sold and total profi