Sales & Variable OPS
Reaching the ‘Gotta Buys’
A few years back I authored an article for Dealer magazine exploring the two basic types of customers considering the purchase of a vehicle. The ‘Wanna Buys’ who are interested in trading up for no other reason than they just ‘want to,’ and the ‘Gotta Buys’ whose...
Don’t Forget the Fixed Assets
A few times each year, I ask one of my law partners to prepare a guest article for this column. BSM partner, Robert Bass, has graciously provided an article addressing an important but often forgotten aspect of any franchise sale transaction – valuing fixed assets....
Using Technology to Reduce your Failure Rate
Your prospect database is one of the most valuable marketing tools for determining what you could do to get those few extra deals per month. Let’s say you sell 200 cars a month. If you have a 30% closing ratio, which means you see about 667 prospects. A dealer once...
Your Baggage Affects Everyone’s Journey!
Throughout life, it’s common for people to rush headlong towards a goal and then once they get there be at a loss for what to do next. Finishing school, getting married or arriving at a vacation spot are, some examples. But perhaps there is no more sought after...
Sixty-five Leads a Month per ISM: The Selling Sweet Spot
Phil Cash believes that a good Internet sales manager is more likely to sell 16 units a month if he’s working 65 leads than if he’s working 120. How can that be? Why doesn’t more leads turn into more sales? Phil, the Internet director at San Tan Ford in Phoenix, is an...
Dennis Snyder, Rich Ford
Customer satisfaction is a big deal at Rich Ford. It’s such a big deal, when one irate customer threatened to drive her Expedition through the window of the dealership, Dennis Snyder, Rich Ford’s president, convinced her to come work for the store. Snyder tells...
“Lincoln Dealers” the truest form of entrepreneurship
I have had the privilege in my automotive career since 1971 to see a lot of old brands go out and a lot of new brands come in, with many model changes. I, like many of you out there, suffered in 1980/81 with a Chrysler franchise and all the problems that went along...
GET REAL, NOT MAD! Retention is based on your responses, not your reactions
There are three primary factors in staffing that will shape your business destiny. They are your levels of clarity, empowerment and accountability. Clarity: having well-defined job descriptions AND a 40,000 foot view of your Corporate Play Book, Vision Statement and...
Facebook Should be Sending Traffic to You – Not the Other Way Around
In one of the 20 Group presentations I gave last month discussing how dealers can better leverage social media, I showed a live demonstration of a dealer’s website that for nearly a year has had a direct link to Facebook in their Top Level Navigation. For those of you...
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