Sales & Variable OPS
Cox Dealer Sentiment Index Improved, But Warning Signs Remain
While the first Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index (CADSI) of 2025 showed a slight improvement in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, the survey was conducted before President Donald Trump’s tariff plan was announced. The U.S. automobile...
The Missing Ingredient With Today’s Digital Deal Jackets
Today's leading auto retailers widely recognize the significance of digital deal jackets in their operations. These comprehensive electronic records have transformed legacy dealership processes, covering all aspects of vehicle sales. However, just utilizing a digital...
Deadline Approaching for DDCE2025 Speaker Proposals
Call for proposals for the upcoming Digital Dealer Conference & Expo (October 14-15, 2025, Las Vegas) are now open! The deadline to submit a proposal #DDCE2025 is April 1, 2025. Accepted speakers will be notified on April 21, 2025. Please follow this link to...
Mastering the Pendulum Swing: Navigating Dealership Leadership Overreach with Precision
In today’s rapidly evolving automotive retail landscape, the interplay between outstanding service and effective sales is more critical than ever. At the heart of this evolution lies strong leadership—a commitment to leadership development, a resilient culture, and...
Auto Industry Improves Response to Website Customers
Pied Piper’s 2025 PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) Auto Industry Study, which measured responsiveness to internet sales leads coming through dealership websites, found the overall auto industry average performance increased three points to 65, the highest average...
How COVID-19 Created a Lasting Supply Chain Void in the Automotive Industry
The COVID-19 pandemic caused one of the most significant disruptions to the global automotive supply chain in modern history. While the immediate effects—factory shutdowns, raw material shortages, and shipping delays—were widely reported, an ongoing consequence has...
More Rooftops Across the U.S. in 2024: Urban Science
The business of dealerships continue on a upward pass last year. Urban Science’s 2024 Automotive Franchise Activity Report (FAR) found dealership grew by 27 to 18,374 in the U.S. compared to the end of 2023. Looking deeper into the numbers shows that the growth was...
Understanding How The U.S. Treasury Views The Use of AI in Auto Finance
On December 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a comprehensive report examining the applications, benefits, and challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the financial services sector. This report expands on the Treasury's previous research,...
Are Dealerships Deceptive or Are They Just a By-Product of a Broken Technology Ecosystem?
Dealerships across the country have come under intense scrutiny in the wake of several Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuits, raising the question: are they truly engaging in deceptive practices, or is something else at play? In my experience working with automotive...
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