Warren Buffett is quoted as saying, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” Are you wasting time trying to plug th

Dr. Merlot, my sometimes brash alter ego, and I were finally having a long-awaited meeting with a client, Jim, about the future of his dealerships. Over the last three or four years, Jim had been dealing with a variety of distractions (challenges) in

I’ve long advocated that dealers need to recognize the primacy of the used vehicle department as an engine of growth for sales volumes and profitability across the entire dealership. As a dealer friend puts it, “the used vehicle department is the

How Credit Soft-Pulls Can Save No-Sales and Turn Applications Into Handshakes Bringing a real-time soft pull credit pre-screen into your sales process can not only double your online conversion and dramatically increase your gross profit margins. If

If you’re still stuck in “kill mode” — blasting top-of-mind awareness ads on traditional media shotgun style, keeping up the barrage like you’re in an epic battle, it’s time to put down your weapon, soldier. Today’s marketing warrio

I have a friend that does friends’ tax returns… for free. It’s like Sudoku or a big crossword puzzle for him. And while I’m good at Words With Friends, there are some things (like Sudoku, filing my taxes) that I’d rather leave to the ex

This time, it’s all about trust. Trust contributes to customer loyalty, but how do you get there? How do you effectively build customer trust in your brand so that people come to view your company as an automotive dealership that values its cus

Now that may be a hell of a comparison but if you stop and analyze it, it could go with anything that you are investing in and showing for a return on the investment. It doesn’t matter what it is: whether it is a show pig, a show horse, or a show t

In 2013, we saw the greatest increase in retail auto sales in the last six years. Industry researchers expect this year to follow in the same trend predicting even better sales ahead. With that in mind, now would be a good time to discard some of the