All ADM Blog Posts Tagged 'Accountability' (13)

As we work with more and more dealers, we're starting to see some trends in the way that digital marketing is being handled. In some cases, dealers aren't fully aware of everything they're supposed to be getting from their vendor partners. This can be challenging because most vendors that we've seen over the years will only give you what you expect from…

It’s amazing. And I’ve seen it a hundred times. They don’t realize they’re doing it but they still do it. That’s for sure. I heard a salesman with his chest puffed out (as it should be) reliving the story of a terrific job done with the happy new owner of a car. The salesman DID do a great job. These people were cold to begin with and initially he could barely get…

Written By: Dennis Kane

I have seen a significant number of high value claims as a result of contractors or subcontractors not carrying insurance or inadequate limits of insurance.

Examples of high value claims against dealerships include:

• Claim against a dealership’s workers’ compensation carrier or general liability carriers due to an injury of a subcontractor’s employee and the subcontractor doesn’t carry workers’ compensation insurance.
• Claim against a…

Written By: Garry House

Last month I published a blog focused on the difference between good and great automobile dealers, and I promised to follow that up by discussing what we, at the NCM Institute Center for Automotive Retail Excellence, have learned about the differences between some of the good and great processes employed by these dealers. This is the first of those follow-up articles.

Most every dealership manager…

Written By: Robin Cunningham

Most Monday mornings I find myself standing in NCM Institute’s beautiful training facility welcoming a new class of retail automobile dealership managers who have come to Kansas City for formalized training specific to their job responsibilities. After introductions, I tell them something like: “We won’t be talking about what you think you have come here to learn until just before or…

Written By: Garry House

In the first couple of paragraphs in his book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins makes several interesting statements:

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good – and that is their…

Written by: Jeremy Anwyl

A quick look at the current state of auto retailing would suggest that things are good. Tough times (and a couple of notable bankruptcies) have thinned dealer ranks. Although pressures are mounting, the manufacturers are still demonstrating discipline around production volumes. Most importantly, customers are returning to showrooms.

Add all factors together and the result is that volumes and margins on both new and pre-owned vehicles are…

Written by: Thomas Bear

Realizing the dealer/general manager’s day is full of interruptions, if you could wave a magic wand and create the perfect day, what would you do during this day?

Which activities do you wish you did every day? Which activities are the top ten for you to do every day?  Here’s an exercise we use in our 20 Group meetings from time to time that might be helpful for you to realign your daily priorities.…

Written by: Leo Hart

NCM has just completed the spring cycle of 20 Group meetings, each focusing a large segment of meeting room time to the Parts Department. Truth be told, we had not focused on this discipline for a number of years, being more concerned about the variable sales and expense management areas of our auto retail business. Have you ever been broadsided, completely unaware the hit was coming?

As a result of the discussions, a few crises became apparent. One wakeup…

Written By: Garry House

In the second quarter of 2012, the NCM Institute (NCMi®) formed a training partnership with Automotive Internet Management (AIM). AIM has conducted five “Bridging the Internet Sales Gap” training workshops under NCMi sponsorship. After personally auditing two of these sessions and receiving client-dealer feedback from all of the sessions, I’ve become convinced that dealers and their sales management teams need to “raise the bar” on their expectations for…

If you haven’t already done so, it’s that time to review your 2012 performance in detail. In what areas did you fall short of your goals and why? Where could you have generated greater gains and how? Don’t allow January to slip by without these facts in writing and a discussion of how you can best move forward in 2013.

A common F&I pay plan in the automotive industry is known as the grid. It compensates managers based on their per vehicle retail performance and products sold…

At the NCM Institute Center for Automotive Retail Excellence, the training that we provide in our Service Management courses focuses primarily on strategies and tactics. However, we have discovered that the effective execution of the strategies that we teach is most often hampered by an important missing ingredient: most…

In the second quarter of 2012, the NCM Institute (NCMi®) formed a training partnership with Automotive Internet Management (AIM). As of last week, AIM has conducted four “Bridging the Internet Sales Gap” training workshops under NCMi sponsorship. After personally auditing two of these sessions and receiving client-dealer feedback from all of the…