All ADM Blog Posts Tagged 'auto' (555)

 “The more things change, the more things stay the same.” This quote can be an accurate reflection of most industries. With all the massive changes underway in the automotive industry, the majority of the industry operates in much the same way as it did 50 years ago.

One small part of an industry begins to change and reaches what Malcolm Gladwell termed in his book the “tipping point.” That tipping point allows the change to gain momentum and become norm for an industry. This…

Everyday managers walk into their dealerships in the morning and start their day with tasks or TO-Do list items. Unfortunately, those items rarely involve direct interaction with their sales team. The ultimate place for managers to be is in front of customers and salespeople.

Salespeople need interaction and input. If a manager allows a salesperson to direct their own day by their own design without input and coaching, the results will often be lackluster and will lead to…

The average dealership hires a salesperson and, after a brief introduction of paperwork, allows the salesperson to begin talking to and selling to their customers. Some dealerships may send the salesperson to a meeting room to watch a series of perfunctory training videos and then cut them loose on the showroom floor to sell. Either way, the day of unleashing an untrained salesperson on a well-trained customer is dead.

The days of counting on a steady stream of traffic and…

Every year at the NADA Convention, the exhibit hall is full of CRM and BDC companies displaying their wares. Dealers spend massive amounts of money in a frenzy to buy the “magic button” CRM or BDC solution for many reasons. Unfortunately most of those reasons aren’t valid. Putting great tools in the hands of below-average people with below-average processes and little-to-no accountability equals a waste of money.

Let’s look at some of the underlying reasons why dealers buy…

The traditional dealership is dead, but some have not had their funeral yet. It seems as though as much as some things change in the

auto industry, as many things stay the same. Every week our trainers observe things in dealerships that look and feel like holdovers from the 1960s.

Let’s take a look at some things still commonly observed in dealerships that are outdated and should be changed.

1. Manager Towers

High towers built for managers where…

Based on the Black Book reports, data collected and phone calls this past week Black Book expects there are a good many auction managers and personnel tuning in to see if the overall market mirrored their individual auctions in relation to activity, sales conversions and price retention. To keep the suspense down, don’t think it was anything you personally did or didn’t do to get the results you got. I guess if there is one exception it might be from a sale out on the west coast. The Brasher…

Every salesperson is really in two businesses: the people business and the marketing business. If you are great with people but don’t have any customers to demonstrate this quality to, you’re in trouble. Marketing must become the No. 1 function of any business, including sales. Marketing precedes sales.

Begin to think in terms of leads, not sales. You need marketing that will generate leads. Most salespeople think only in terms of advertising. Salespeople either wait…

“Big doors swing on small hinges.”

Small things can make a big difference in your sales process. There has been a lot written recently about what I term the “moment of truth” in the sales process. I don’t believe that a…

ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat brings the top ten blogs and news stories right to you! We monitor industry trends, current events, and the auto dealer community every week to bring you the top ten blogs and stories from around the…

“The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken” – Samuel Johnson

If you were to follow around the most successful salesperson you know for a week and then follow a failing salesperson for the same amount of time, the differences would be glaring. It boils down to successful habits. What you do habitually in small incremental actions adds up to huge differences in results by the end of just one…

What's the common image of a salesperson? The big bad wolf.

The big bad wolf seeks and destroys. It's a predator who pounces on its prey, eats the weak and leaves a bloody mess behind. This image makes the job of salespeople a lot harder than it should be. The good news is that this creates an opportunity to kill the wolf and turn the negative into a positive.

If you were to ask 10 customers what they hate about salespeople and the buying…

When last week started I was thinking what the activity and market would be like for the entire week. I was looking at gas price trends, the fact that used inventory continues to increase and even thinking about the time of the year. While spending time with some key, leading auto lenders from captives to national banks to some regional players, the effort is sure being made to make it easy for the dealers to complete the sale of both new and used inventory.



Fortunately the budget…

Michael Jackson and Billy Mays passed away in the same week. The passing of Billy Mays made the news but Michael Jackson dominated it. The underlying message sent from the media is that entertaining is good and somehow noble, but selling and marketing is bad. My question for you is the following: Do you allow this flawed thinking to keep you from being successful in your sales and marketing?

The news coverage of Michael Jackson life was largely reverential and fit for king,…

No, I am not crazy and yes I am talking about the well known shock jock known for his outrageous radio show. Howard Stern is a genius for many reasons and they all apply to how you can succeed as a salesperson, manager and entrepreneur.

Let’s examine several of the reasons and the lessons that can be learned. First of all, lesson number one in business is to never be boring. Although, you may not agree with Howard Stern’s humor or persona, he certainly isn’t boring and that…

Contrary: opposed, opposite in nature, altogether different.

Several Indian tribes had warrior societies called Contraries or Contrary Warriors. The contraries were different in nature as well as actions, and were thought to be wise men. While being in the automobile business my whole adult life, I have observed and been a student of some of the more successful dealers in the business and have found that a lot of those dealers take a contrarian approach to their…

Facts tell and stories sell. If you want to become really good at sales, then you must know how to tell your story. People think in pictures and they can and will follow a story. People learn better from stories and become emotionally connected to stories. What is your story and can you tell your story and tell it well?

What makes you who you are? You are different from anyone else. Your life experiences, background and everything about you makes you unique. Unfortunately, if…

A friend of mine has a saying: “The only thing keeping you from your goals is the bullcrap story you keep telling yourself.” As hard as those words are, I find them to be very true. My question for you is, what is the bullcrap story you are telling yourself about you and your business? It’s time to rewrite your story.

Everyone has built-in limitations in their brain. Everyone is conditioned through the teachings and messages we receive from parents, teachers, preachers,…

It has been a busy week, but not overly active in the number of necessary adjustments. At 1450 vehicles adjusted per day throughout the last week, this is the smallest number since back at the end of August. As a comparison, the number of changes this past week is almost 640 per day less than the average daily change of 2090 per day for the entire month of October 2012.



With the smaller number of changes, how is the value change level reacting as compared to last week and even…

Most Internet marketing experts will agree that driving traffic to your website results in the most valuable leads you can get – if you can convert visitors into leads.

Just like the old adage, “volume is vanity, gross is sanity,” your website…

Digital Signage is a very complex industry with hundreds of moving parts. From Servers to Software to Monitors to the never ending world of technology, Digital Signage is not a simple business. And either is the auto industry.

The most common question a new inquiry asks is -- "What makes your system different?" In a word -- EVERYTHING.

The best way to look at what the Digital Dealership System system offers, is to look at the general image of digital…