I remember my first Consumer Reports customer. He came into the dealership looking for a used car, carrying a copy of the magazine and consulting it frequently. If a car didn’t measure up to the editors’ standards, my customer wouldn’t look at

BDC is one of the most incorrectly overused terms in the automotive retail environment. Far too often, the roles and responsibilities of the employees working in these “business development centers” are doing no developing at all. They are simply

The Village Automotive Group in Massachusetts first jumped on the Internet wave in 1999. They were even posting inventory online as early as 1999. E-commerce Director Chris Fousek recounts some of those early days, and shares with Digital Dealer what

I find that most disappointments in the monthly financial statement come from a lack of daily reporting. In fact, I’ve been a long-time hater of our whole month end process. We basically shut down all accounting operations for three to five days wh

The entire history of auto sales has been defined by the dealer’s quest to control the selling process. Pre-Internet, that was straightforward: the customer walked in the door, the music started, and the Four Square Dance began. Today, the customer

It doesn’t matter if your name is on the building or if you’re “just drawing a paycheck,” your dealership’s online reputation is quickly becoming the most important attribute of your long- and short-term marketing strategy. Even if you’re

Please open up your wallet, pull out a $50 bill, walk over to the nearest trash receptacle, and throw away your money. What do you mean ‘no?’ Of course, it sounds foolish, but that is what your sales team is doing with your money right now. There

Golling Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Bloomfield Hills, MI, was one of automotive retail’s early technology pioneers piloting some of the Internet’s first CRM solutions. Owner Bill Golling and General Manager Joe Ellsasser used technology to help create

Are you completely buttoned down in your sales processes to manage the 12 key steps in Internet sales? At my company, for the past three years we have closely studied the Internet sales process. By observing our dealer customers across the country, w