The first suggestion I have is to mystery shop your competition. Most will start with “what’s your name and number in case we get disconnected?” Would you take that seriously? How many times have they heard that? Listen and learn, then compare

In today’s high-performing dealership, the web is the strategic center. What does it mean to be web-centric? It means that everything is built around web-based systems. These web-based systems help to: • attract customers • ensure rapid, high-q

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

The question I’m asked most often is “What advertising mediums should I use, and what percentage of my total ad spend should they be?” Unfortunately, there is no easy ‘one size fits all’ answer. We’ve had more media additions, deletions a

He started out wanting to be an attorney with no intention of being in the car business. Now, Stephen Wade is this year’s incoming chairman of NADA after almost 40 years of being a dealer. He shares with Dealer magazine the numerous challenges the

After speaking with a group of dealers on the benefits of incorporating social media into the marketing mix, one dealer posed this question: “From your perspective, what role does a web site play in advertising?” My response? “Your website is y

As I wrote last month, we all something we’re good at. Perhaps by now, you’ve figured out after all these years I’m not a very good writer (blame the editor) but I’m pretty good at taking the questions I hear most from dealers and helping the

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