A word to anybody using service contracts facilitated by the National Vehicle  Protection Services (Interstate, American Guardian, Marathon, NASC). I have a customer that I witnessed try to cancel a contract and actually had the company hang up on him instead of cancelling it. .One guy was extremely rude and argued with him for ten minutes and then transferred my customer to another CSR who argued for another ten minutes and then just hung up on the customer. I have never in twelve years…

You cannot manage what you can’t measure.  As more and more consumers flock to your dealership website, you must focus your attention to optimizing the ease of which your prospects obtain information about you. …

As the TrueCar debate rages on, one thing is certain: there is going to be increased scrutiny on auto sales practices by a number of state regulatory agencies. While TrueCar has a number of challenges to overcome and may be forced to alter their business model, the real concern is how these legal issues may affect dealers. Several state authorities have indicated that they will hold dealers responsible for any violations. It’s important that dealers are aware of these issues and protect…

At the end of June 2011, the Federal Reserve Board finalized new rules to regulate the interchange cost for check/debit card sales in accordance with the Durbin Amendment.  Beginning Oct 1, 2011, the cost of signature and pin based Visa and Mastercard check/debit card transactions was lowered to 0.05% and $0.22 per transaction.

What does this mean for your dealership?  A typical new auto dealership generates approx 3,000 check/debit card transactions per year averaging $200 per…

Imagine, just for a moment, you and each of your representatives were able to save one deal a day.  How much easier would each month, quarter and year be?   How much less scrambling at the end of the month might there be? Scrambling means shortcutting, less follow up and cherry picking.  So to “BDC or not to BDC” seems to be the question these days.   My recommendation to most is to utilize my Hybrid BDC© Methodology.  This can be done with a small group…

We all have one week of work before 2011 becomes a collection of files to be stored away.  Sure, we'll go back and get some things for this years taxes.  Perhaps even take a look at some trends that occurred during the year.  But what are the things that will make 2012 a better year for you?  Chances are, there will be talk of improvement, higher numbers, better grosses, and maybe even a reduction in expenses.  But, it will all fade before the Christmas decorations are taken down.

In…

I've written multiple pieces on how to properly set up and maintain your Google Places listing and account, but haven't touched on the mistakes you could be making, hurting your car dealership online marketing strategy.

Here are the places where you could really screw up your listing if you aren't careful:

Don't use a post office box. Even if this is where you get mail, make sure you use the actual address of your…

Join the group Credit Acceptance Dealers

I created this group to help existing Credit Acceptance dealers as a medium to share information, resources,tools as well as ask and answer questions.  The goal is that by sharing this information best practices will be established in order to help grow your business and succeed with the Guaranteed Credit Approval program.

I encourage all MAM's and their DP's to join as, like with our DPE's, the sharing of information from 1 DP to…

ActivEngage was recently honored to have its CEO and Co-Founder Todd Smith featured as a keynote presenter as the Ignite! Dealer Summit. Todd’s workshop highlighted more than 17 easy to use and powerful online tools and …

CarChat24 will provide hosted Free Advanced Auto Dealer Chat Software for (“All Car Dealer’s NEW or Used”) after final Beta testing. Expected release in late January to early February. Hosted Advanced Chat software designed for Car Dealers FREE!

Anyone interested in this always free version should go to the appropriate URL below to register. Once we launch we will send a link to all the registered Always Free users. It’s that simple,…

I received this email about eight hours ago from an employee of DealerTrack.  They asked me that I kept it discreet so I will not be mentioning who it was that sent this to me.  It is amazing that DealerTrack's own employees have certain opinions about DealerTrack selling ALG to TrueCar.  Does it mean that DealerTrack's own employees are against this deal too?  I know that I myself could not work for a company that would allow something like this (no matter how much money I was getting…

41% of B2B marketers say that producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers is their biggest content marketing challenge. Read more here....

Now that Google+ is open to businesses, many are trying to figure out the best way to utilize this new social media portal (including DealerOn).  I’ve gathered some of the more common mistakes that businesses are making to shorten the learning curve for auto dealerships.

Like all other social media sites, not posting on a regular basis can hurt your marketing efforts.  Consistently providing visitors with quality, worthwhile content is…

We are now signing up new dealers that are looking to grow in the subprime business segment and maximize their share of the backend profit that they usually give to the finance company.  You sell the vehicle, we give you an advance that maximizes each customers unique credit situation.  We then give you the largest share of the pie on the backend and regularly bonus you along the way. We are the indirect lending arm for the nations largest chain of privately owned subprime financing…

Google made big changes with Youtube recently.  It is not all funny kids, and silly dogs anymore.  It never was really...at least not for me and my clients...but this recent change makes it even more important to be on Youtube.  

3 Big Mistakes Getting Started Using Online Video Marketing:

1. Take your existing commercials and throw them on Youtube.  Online video is not the same and requires more entertainment value and less sales pitchy…

The next time someone relates a story to you about their attempts in contacting someone at your website in order to resolve an issue or just simple inquiry, listen to their tale. At some point, the phrase "I finally got hold of a living person" is usually used. That's because when you get a hold of a real person, there's a decent chance that you'll get results(read: leads). Don't your customers deserve easy access to a live person as well?

DealerOn.com, the premier auto dealer website provider is expanding its executive team to further accelerate the steady growth trajectory of its business.  DealerOn, Inc., a leading online marketing company serving the retail automotive industry – today announces the appointment of Gerard J. (Jerry) Petrotto to the newly-created position of Chief Sales Officer.…

The Dealer Behind Dealers United

By Matt Buchanan

For those who know my family’s history in the automotive space, you know that we’ve seen this business from two distinct sides: first, as a good-sized group that enjoyed preferred terms and pricing from vendors; and now as a tiny Private Dealer with just three stores struggling to keep costs in line, while having virtually no negotiating power with even the smallest of providers.

I can tell you it…