All ADM Blog Posts Tagged 'auto' (546)

“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…

It took a ripe apple dropping on Sir Isaac Newton’s head for gravity to shoot to stardom. Sales to existing customers are waiting to drop on your head, if you’ll simply look up, maybe propelling you to stardom yourself. 

In every dealer’s existing customer database are bushels of ripe apples ready for picking, if you can present them with the right offer at the right time.  Will you pick them -- or will they fall under another dealer’s tree? 

I want them to fall under…

The data and reports gathered by Black Book this past week pointed out some interesting actions and reactions. One can’t look at the market as a whole and paint the picture of movement with one broad stroke and say it is up or it is down or that it is steady. There were changes within pockets, various segments, or even whether it was significant change within the low end of the quality spectrum or even reacting the same way on the late…

There is no question that there is a hint of fall weather in the air when I stepped out each morning this past week. At my house even a few leaves are scattered around the yard. As the old saying goes, when the leaves fall, prices will also fall. Notice I said a “few leaves”. This means it is still a relatively solid market. Most of the comments included within the Black Book survey personnel reports from the past week indicated an overall softness with a few describing the market as…

It's that time again! AutoUSA is collecting responses to its annual Fall Internet Marketing survey.

Sales Managers, Sales Directors, Internet Sales Managers, BDC Managers, Internet Directors, General Managers, dealer principals and others involved in auto dealership Internet Marketing are invited to…

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…

I’ve started a marketing company for auto sales people, and I already know it will fail.  Why would a company, dedicated to helping auto sales people be more successful be doomed to failure?

1.  Auto sales people don’t stay put, they believe they sell a product and are willing to move to sell the “hot” product instead of recognizing the value lies in the salesperson, not the product. 
2. Auto sales people keep lousy records. They rely on the dealer’s systems and processes…

New TV shows, colder weather, and...INCREASED AUTO SALES?! The fall season is bringing high expectations, and we’re all wondering how long it is going to last. The record of 1.5 million new…

Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports a slight drop off in year-to-date credit approval trends for August compared with July. The average customer credit approval rate at the end of August was 74.5%, down slightly from 75.6% at the end of July. Approximately three quarters of all people looking to take over someone’s lease are now being approved by the leasing company.



With the exception of August data, customer credit approvals have continually…