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Watch this video and you will want it really bad!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbZnCGyPneo

http://www.autoedcenter.com/education/seminars/13-11-20-how.php

"How To Sell 30+ Cars & Make OVER $130,000 Per Year" Workshop For The Greater New York Auto Dealers Association

I am not in the Internet Dept any longer as I have decided to get back on the floor after some bad choices, and bad habits accumulated to a "head" in my own career. I am basically starting over on the floor, because I have seen that here where I live, I MUST depend only on myself when it comes to making money.

Anyway, I still observe the Internet Dept and like to talk shop about it always, so I thought I'd throw something out and get your feedback.

My store has 3 Internet folks who get all leads (and Sales Calls - which I disagree with - maybe I am biased) and set up appointments. They are not super stars by no means but they work hard at it as best they can with what they got to work with (I haven't seen ANYONE who still trains themselves at this store).

The process is that they get the customer in and which ever salesman/woman greets the client gets the deal. The Internet guy then comes out and introduces the client and sales person and they go on with the deal.

Well my thoughts about this came after watching a client come in and get introduced to a salesman. I could see it on the clients face that he didn't exactly want to do it this way. His face said, "Man, I thought we were gonna get to work together, now you set me up with a shark?"

I understand the reasoning behind my stores process. It's simple, the internet folks need to concentrate on setting appointments. And let the sales floor close deals. Great! Noted!

Now if it MUST be this way, I think that it would be best for the internet guys to team up with the sales floor so they work with the same sales person every time. To me this would create synergy, as well as competition and this can be explained to the customer up front show they don't get that "shocked" look when they arrive at their appointment.

The way I am describing it, to me, would create not only synergy between the internet person and the sales person, but would also keep some semblance of synergy for the client, when they arrive as well as momentum. And we all know that as Grant Cardone says, "gross comes with momentum"!

I'm not writing to "fix" our internet dept. I just wanted to say what I thought about a specific situation I see here where I work. What do you think?

Image credit: EiE

"If you were me what would you do differently?" Is a question that can provide possible solutions, improvement & insights that may save you from major mistakes, poor results & disaster. Not many people are secure enough in their leadership to ask this question, therefore will experience more major mistakes, poor results & disaster. 

Do you want to be more successful? You can achieve greater success if you begin to follow certain secrets that blow open the doors that are closed for you now. I am comfortable in saying that all people have some closed doors that limit their achievement. What are the doors that I am talking about and how can you open them?

The doors are a metaphor for the gateways to successful achievement. The keys are the secrets that unlock them and allow you move forward faster and with less conflict toward your dreams than ever before.

Key #1 - Energy

Everyone needs physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy to propel them toward their goals. It’s often been said that “fatigue makes cowards of us all.” What do you do that gives or robs you of energy? Make a list of 10 common actions in your day. Next to each, put a plus or a minus according to whether it gives or depletes energy. The mind, body and spirit go hand in hand. If one source is constantly drawing energy it will affect the energy in the other area. Do you ever feel so depleted mentally that physically you are just going through the motions?

Create an action plan to eliminate or greatly reduce all things that deplete your energy. Decide what your tolerance is. Successful and satisfied people create levels of tolerance for themselves and others who come in contact with them.

Key #2 - Enthusiasm

Ethos loosely translated means, “The Breath of God.” This means enthusiasm is contagious. It’s hard to get others excited unless you are excited. Nobody is excited all the time. We all have our ups and downs. What anchor do you have that will immediately connect you to the enthusiasm that you need to achieve the successful level of living that you want? Just by having a built-in and pre-arranged filter that detects when you are not at your peak level of enthusiasm will enable you to make corrections quickly. Without the filters you can become a zombie simply going through the motions until you or someone else makes you aware of your lack of enthusiasm.

Key #3 - Emotion

Do you live with emotion? You don’t have to be drama queen to live emotionally. Emotions are about feelings. Successful people tend to live in the moment. Stress, fatigue and worry detract from the joy of living in the moment. “Worry is paying interest on a debt not yet due.” Everyone experiences levels of depleting emotions that create a false and overwhelming sense of reality. How many times have you heard of people with near death experiences who now live with a greater sense of awareness and emotion?

Colors become brighter, jokes become funnier and experiences become richer. Your level of attainment in emotional living will increase your connection to others. To enrich your chances of success, you have to enrich others.

Key #4 - Humor

Nothing can bond people quicker than humor. Nothing can change your attitude, emotions, enthusiasm and outlook more than humor. Humor releases endorphins in the brain and creates a feeling of euphoria. Humor is an instant-on switch for changing your actions and outlook toward everything you face in your day. Experiencing humor is powerful. Being a conduit of humor for others is power multiplied exponentially.

Key #5 - Persistence

Persistent = consistent. Persistence is perhaps the most common denominator of successful living. Successful people keep moving when others quit. It’s been said that most of success is just showing up. Persistence is the key to showing up when other have quit. History is full of examples and testimonials to the power of persistence. Failure only occurs at the time when you quit. Those who live successfully know the power of persistent pursuit.

Persistent pursuit of goals and dreams creates a powerful sense of living unmatched by anything else. Persistence becomes a life force that creates self confidence for those who execute the power of persistence on a daily basis. In a world where the strong survive, persistence equals the playing field and gives the edge to those who apply its power.

Combining all the keys to success will create a sense of urgency needed for success. Examine the current level of each of the five keys to success in your life and create a personal game plan for successful living.

www.dealersynergy.com 856-546-2440
Re: Internet Manager Best Practices (Aaron Harris Question) - Sean V. Bradley & Joe Cala

You already have the passion, drive, and excitement. Learn what you're missing to become a great salesman. Follow these four steps to success. That's this week on Think Tank Tuesday.

Great managers view themselves as coaches more than managers. There is an old adage: “Lead people and manage things.” There is a fine line between creating and utilizing systems and processes and micromanaging details without emphasizing the power of personal interaction.

Good systems and processes should allow employees to raise their performance by giving them confidence in their direction and lessening the burden of the manager and coach from having to constantly inform people of their expected actions.

The problems and obstacles for mangers and coaches happen when the process is elevated over the players who utilize those systems and an improper implementation training process is used. Great systems with poor people make for poor results. Great systems tied to poor coaching of people in the system results in poor results. Managers and coaches can’t give a process to their players and expect the process to work without consistently motivating and leading the players in the system.

Think of your process like a machine. A machine is created to perform the desired function. Once you create the machine, you test it and know it will work. It fails when the mechanics of the machine break or when the operator has an error in operating the machine. Your business process is much the same.

When you integrate a player into a system, you must explain what they are to do. Next, a coach must explain why the player must perform the tasks required utilizing the desired process. When the why gets strong, the how gets easy. If a player is clear about the why, the process will be performed with maximum results.

The third step is to demonstrate how the tasks and process work. Don’t just tell – demonstrate. If the player believes the process can be executed properly and has evidential proof that his or her coach or someone else can do it in the way that is expected, the player will emotionally buy into the process. The coaches must get the commitment or buy-in for anything to work. Therefore, coaches must have the trust and respect of the players. There is also a second part of the demonstration that must take place. The demonstration phase should move from the coach demonstrating to the player to the stage where the player performs the functions with close direction and inspection of the coach.

The last step of the implementation is never-ending. This stage is continual coaching and inspection. Players must know they are continually being coached, inspired and reviewed in their performance.

Recently, my daughter Erin secured a summer job after her first year in college. She is employed by the J. Alexander chain of restaurants. The process employed by J. Alexander’s is not only a good reference point for the steps of coaching that I have mentioned, but is a reference for excellence.

Erin was interviewed and profiled by three different managers on three different occasions. When Erin was hired, she had to complete detailed training that would make many businesses green with envy. Erin had to train with a study guide consisting of more than 100 pages. Erinhad to pass six written tests just to begin serving as a waitress or as they are called in their culture – champions. She had to be able to recite the company creed. Further training and testing was required to be able to serve on the weekends, which are their busiest days. Before being released to begin her position, Erin had to shadow another trained champion and then switch and have the experienced person trail her. Both Erin and I were amazed at the commitment to process, training and implementation.

Remember, the processes and dedication of J. Alexander’s produces a champion who can serve and produce an experience that is measured in small dollars. Your business may produce a product and experience that is measured in many thousands of dollars. Based on your process, training, implementation and coaching, are you a coaching champion?

"The failure to meet the expectations of our customers on line, on the phone & on the lot will cause the customer to eliminate our dealership from the list of potential stores to buy from." 

Unfortunately, our success & failures of this business depend on the ability to satisfy or fail to meet our customers expectations. If our customers expect a certain experience when they contact us in person, on the phone or on a website on the Internet and we fail to meet that expectation you will be crossed off and they will move to the next dealership until they receive the way they expect to be treated. Here are some ways to meet our customers expectations in the car buying process.

1. Online Expectations

When a customer comes to a 3rd Party Site or your own Dealership Website they are expecting to receive a specific experience, information and knowledge. Our ability to meet their expectations will add to their decision to do business with us or not. So what do they expect?

- Good Quality & Quantity of Vehicle Photos. The More The Better.

(Interior & Exterior)

- Prices (Competitive to The Market)

- A Story Behind Each Vehicle of Interest

- Any Specials & Offers Available

- Dealership Photos

- Dealership Sales & Service Staff

- Contact Info

- Map To Dealership

- Ease To Navigate Through Each Site

2. On The Phone Expectations

When a customer contacts your store through a phone contact the customer is expecting to hear something specific to why they're calling and they're expecting to be treated a certain way.

Your attitude, response and voice inflections towards the customer will play a big part in their response. It's also important to answer any questions and ask questions to help lead them down the road to setting up an appointment to come and see the vehicle of interest. What customers expect is:

- To Be Treated With Respect

- To Get Answers When They Ask Questions

- To Be Told Consistent Truth

- To Have A Good Experience With The Person They're Talking To

3. On The Lot Expectations 

When a customer comes onto your lot, they are mostly anxious & not liking the car buying experience. It's important to remember while you're taking the customer down the road to the sale that while you're expecting to make a sale, they're expecting a few things as well. Here are some things they expect:

- To See The Car They Came To See

- To Be Told The Truth

- To Be Treated With Respect

- To Make A Deal & Buy A Vehicle

We have to remember that although the customer may never tell us this, they really are expecting to find the right car, for the right price when they come to a dealership. I would always remind the customer who would be on the fence that the sooner they say yes, the sooner they can start enjoying their new vehicle and end the car buying process. I trust this will help you as you deal with your next customer.  

http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com 856-546-2440

This week's episode is "Always be prospecting". VERY powerful but simple ideas on how to prospect and sell more cars, more often!

Sean V. Bradley recently attended a Jim Ziegler Sales Management Workshop and was reminded of this simple technique to increase sales IMMEDIATELY.

Customers don’t buy vehicles, and sales people don’t sell vehicles. Customers buy solutions to problems they can feel emotionally. Sales people are the conduit that helps customers discover those emotional solutions.

People buy from people. Customers generally do business with people they like and trust. Your customers don’t walk out of your dealership telling you that they bought from you because you are a jerk. Customers can get vehicles anywhere. Most of you are not selling a rare commodity. Therefore the decision criteria of a customer are based upon money, me and machine. However, you are the secret ingredient. You have the power to influence the perception of the customer about you, the machine and the money.

A customer will move through three stages of the selling process – Character/Trust, Emotion and Logic. People have to like and trust you, then they allow you to guide them to emotions that eventually combine with logic. Emotion distorts reality. That’s why everyday customers walk out of F&I and tell you that they did not plan to buy a vehicle today.

The number one reason people buy a vehicle is and always will be confidence. Confidence they feel in the money, me and machine that you give them. Therefore the most empowering decision you can ever make as a sales person is accept full responsibility for every sale made or lost.

Once you accept full responsibility for winning and losing and eliminate the easily accepted notion that it’s about price, you become an incredibly powerful, winning sales person. If you allow one excuse for losing into your subconscious it opens the door for a million excuses. Weak sales people raise skinny kids. Eliminate all excuses such as price and watch your sales take off.

If price is the issue, what can you do to influence the price or the decision? Practice apples to oranges selling. If everybody else is showing the customer apples, you show them better apples and show them oranges, as well. Always think HFG – Hope for Gain. What is the customer trying to accomplish and how can I apply to their sense of HFG.

How will the first stage of your engagement with the customer set you apart and influence the customer? Most customers decide to buy from you in 15 seconds to two minutes. The decision is made about you long before they ever make a decision about price. Try this greeting: “Hi folks, are you out beginning to look and shop around?” What are they going to say, “No we are just looking and shopping?” Be proactive. Take the objection away up front and make the customer feel at ease while you do it. Nobody else is greeting the customer this way.

Most sales people operate out of the same gene pool. If you do this you eventually become a homogenized, generic sales person. What follows are bad results, lots of price shoppers, low sales, low incomes and eventually a bad case of excuses. Never forget that everything you do makes a difference.

Before any customer leaves, are you and your manager “walking the wheel”? “Walking the wheel” is a phrase I use to remind us to explore all avenues. Bigger car, smaller car, car to SUV, new to used, used to new, demo, longer term, cash back, delay payment, pay off the remaining lease payments on their trade, trade another vehicle, trade two vehicles, etc. How hard do you fight for every sale? Persistent = consistent.

Winning at sales is simply a choice. You can choose to win or choose to lose. Once you choose, you become the sales person you have decided to be at the given moment.

The 2013 Special Finance Benchmarks were announced at the Used Car University Subprime Conference, held last month in Las Vegas. To no one’s surprise, after analyzing tens of thousands of special finance (SF) transactions, the performance benchmarks increased in nearly every aspect of operation from 2012 to 2013. In some cases, the numbers came in at or above all-time highs. These upticks certainly demonstrate an aggressive and competitive battle for market share among auto finance companies.

The chart here supplies all the key metrics that comprise the Used Car University benchmarks, which are calculated at the 75th percentile levels. The following will delve into some of the most important metrics dealers typically look at daily.

Volume and Conversion Rates
We begin with deal volume and the general makeup of dealers’ SF businesses. While both franchised and independent dealers enjoyed a general uptick in volume, franchised dealers grew at a rate of slightly more than 10 percent — all based on new-vehicle sales. In 2012, new vehicles comprised 34.7 percent of a franchise dealer’s SF volume. In 2013, that ratio grew to a whopping 40.8 percent, which shows the strong influence of the captives’ subprime efforts. And their impact on the market is being felt all the way down to “Tier 4” SF customers.

And as unit volume increased, so did both the conversion ratio of showroom opportunities and deal gross profit. This year, franchised dealers converted 37.9 percent of the SF opportunities that made it into their showroom. They did slightly better than independents, which converted just less than 33 percent of their opportunities into sales.

Conversion of most lead types improved in 2013, especially third-party leads. Franchise dealers converted nearly 11 percent of their third-party leads, while independents converted nearly 10 percent — both significant improvements from 2012 and the past four years.

Internet leads also converted well. Independents delivered 14.9 percent of all SF leads they received from their websites, while franchised dealers delivered 14 percent of their leads, just a tick off from last year. 
Phone conversion increased as well. As a group, franchised and independent dealers converted in the mid-13 percent range of all incoming SF phone calls.

One metric absent from this year’s benchmarks is the credit-hotline lead, where customers dial a toll-free number to apply for financing. Such leads have been a staple in the SF segment since the early 1990s. This year, however, marks the first time that an insufficient number of dealers reported credit-hotline usage, making the category’s results statistically irrelevant. Results from the few dealers who reported using credit-hotline leads were all over the map, making it impossible to set a benchmark.

Gross Profits
Gross profits on SF deals soared this year. Unlike the last two years, when there were significant differences in vehicle (front-end) gross profits between franchised and independent dealers, gross profits in 2013 came in close enough to set a single benchmark: $2,235 per SF vehicle sold. F&I (back-end) gross profits did continue to see a significant variance. The franchise benchmarks dipped ever so slightly to $1,056 per SF vehicle sold, while independents improved gross again to $763 — still far short of the franchised dealer mark.

Adding the front and back ends together, total deal benchmarks for 2013 come to $3,291 per SF vehicle sold by franchised dealers and $2,998 for independents. That’s a significant increase over 2012 and the past five years.

Marketing Spend
For the second consecutive year, SF advertising expenses still remain inefficient compared to past years. Franchised dealers actually reduced their ad cost per vehicle sold to $436, while independents crept up to $360. Additionally, ad expenses as a percent of gross profit still dropped for both sides due to the significant increase in deal gross profits.

Investment in advertising media varied significantly between franchised and independent dealers. Franchised dealers, who spend more money overall, tend to direct more of their ad budgets toward broadcast and digital than independents. They drive the customer to the phone or dealer website and then work leads through a call center or business development center (BDC). Only 11.5 percent of all the total opportunities received by franchised dealers are customers who walk into the dealership. As for independents, more than one in four customers walk into their stores before first contact.

Results also revealed that franchised and independent dealers amped up their broadcast media spends this year. Forty-four percent of franchised dealers spend money on radio advertising, and for those who do, that medium represents 73 percent of their entire SF advertising budget. TV is also in play. It’s used by nearly one in three franchised dealers, representing 54 percent of their ad budgets.

Whether franchise or independent, one thing is for sure: The numbers add up to increased success and penetration into the subprime credit market. While deal conversion and gross profits have not quite returned to 2007’s peak levels, they are not far off. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to see SF benchmarks reach all-time highs in 2014

Source: http://www.autodealermonthly.com/article/story/2013/09/shifting-into-high-gear.aspx

Over the past decade, advertising budgets across the country have been increasing in the automotive industry. A new eMarketer report projects that the US automotive industry will spend $5.07 billion on paid digital advertising in 2013, with that total rising to $7.80 billion by 2017.

As budgets increase so does the number of channels in which those ad dollars can be spent, making decisions about where to spend your dollars extremely challenging. One important channel that should not be overlooked is mobile advertising on Google.

For the first time, smartphones are currently on pace to outsell standard feature phones. To say that the mobile car-shopping population is growing is an understatement. A J.D. Power & Associates study found that the percentage of US vehicle shoppers who have visited an automotive website via a smartphone grew from 17% in 2010 to 31% in 2012.

This increased access to smart mobile devices in the hands of potential car shoppers is a largely untapped opportunity. Especially when you consider that mobile shoppers are proven to convert better than desktop shoppers.

A recent study of Nissan's digital traffic found that mobile car shoppers are 30% more likely to submit a lead than their desktop brethren. These potential customers tend to be on the go, in more of a rush, and looking to gain information--- and sometimes take action--- as quickly as possible.

If you're not advertising and promoting your brand to roving car shoppers, that will help you build a strong mobile brand

Here are four mobile musts for your dealerships website and ad campaigns that will help you build a strong mobile brand.

1. Consider Your Mobile Shopper's Experience

Before even thinking about advertising to drive traffic to your mobile site, you first need to get the site ready for proper viewing. The goal should be to make a simplified version of the full website that is user friendly and intuitive for your mobile shoppers.

First, make sure graphics and all content load quickly. Mobile users have limited time and attention spans. Aresearch study conducted by user experience expertsAkamai shows that mobile website bounce rate increases drastically if a site takes longer than 6 seconds to load.

Your next step should be to consider the varying screen sizes of mobile devices. Verify that appropriate formatting is in place to make the content appealing and easy to navigate while viewing on phones and tablets.

2. Appeal to Mobile Search Traffic

Now that you've streamlined your mobile site, it’s time to put yourself in the mind of the mobile shopper. Ask yourself:

What searches would a mobile shopper perform, and how can I utilize that search information to drive relevant traffic?

The user experience when performing a dealership search is different on a phone or tablet than it is on a desktop. For one thing the potential buyer is using a touch-screen, and therefore is less likely to type a long search query. Shorter searches mean that the keywords you need to bid on need to be very precise. It would be wise to consider possible shortenings or abbreviations. And be sure to avoid using keywords that are overly broad that will end up attracting irrelevant clicks.

3. Enhance Your Campaigns

Enhanced Campaigns in Google Adwords is a powerful feature than can help you organize your different mobile campaigns and set your mobile bids to ensure your ads perform better. Think about the size of a mobile screen and how important it is for mobile ads to rank high. On a desktop there are ten ad positions that take up close to one third of the screen, while phones and mobile devices might only feature three ad positions that occupy 50% of the screen.

That's some valuable real estate right there! This monopoly on screen space is another reason why mobile ads tend to have higher click-through rates.
And in case you were wondering... Yes, Google has effectively monopolized the mobile search market. According to Global StatCounter, Google's mobile search market share was 96.9 percent as of May 2012. This alone is more than enough reason for dealers to embrace Enhanced Campaigns in their mobile strategy.

4. Optimize Your Landing Pages for Mobile

Potential phone and tablet customers deserve the same experience as desktop shoppers. Directing users to designated landing pages with strong, relevant content--- and not just dropping shoppers on the home page--- is a big part of providing that seamless experience. These landing pages should be mobile optimized, easy to navigate and in line with the site’s overall style and layout.

These steps may seem basic, but there are still brands out there that ignore the simplest things that make the biggest impact on their dealership advertising.

What steps have you taken to make sure your advertising is reaching the growing mobile shopping community?

Source: http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1970539%3ABlogPost%3A503012&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

This is where we're heading folks.  Very, very exciting...

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2304590/Google-Starts-Indexing-App-Content

The managers in your dealership must have a written job description with clearly defined responsibilities and expectations.

Having specific goals for the department is required. Daily action plans for selling, training, appointments, one-on-one coaching, save-a deal meetings, deal structuring, follow-up, etc will increase sales by 20 percent without spending more for advertising.

If you read biographies of successful people or businesses, one common thread always seems to be a strong sense of passion fueled by big goals. When you write specific goals down on paper, you are committing yourself mentally, emotionally and physically to the attainment of those goals. Do your dealership and your employees set the long and short-term goals? As the dealer, have you committed your dreams to paper for the month, six months, a year, five years, 10 years, 20 years? Speed of the boss, speed of the crew, if you make the commitment, your employees will, too.

Once you have set your goals, plan your specific actions to reach them. Write a specific action plan for when to train, what to train on, who will conduct the training, how long the training will last and your expected goal of improvement for that area. Post a training schedule for the month and make it a monthly priority. Training is not a sometimes activity. It’s an everyday requirement.

Set goals for appointments and make action plans to reach those goals as a dealership. This requires goals and action plans for each sales person as to their activities to set daily appointments. Strive for and monitor appointments and watch your sales increase.

Every sales person should be coached daily in a one-on-one session. Set a game plan for who does this, when they do it and the expected results. Items covered in those sessions should be their sales pace in relation to their goals and their percentage of success for total seen contacts, demos, write-ups, closed and deliveries. Those items should be monitored for both yesterday’s traffic and month-to-date totals. Each sales person should have a day planner. The sales people should be required to have a plan for their day that is broken down into an hourly focus. To-do lists and follow-up systems should be reviewed for both sold and unsold customers. Review yesterday’s traffic for each sales person, walk back through what happened and listen for clues that would show breakdowns in their sale process. These activities alone can increase your dealership’s sales 20 percent.

To make more money, each morning the managers hold a save-a-deal meeting in the F&I office to review yesterday’s sold and unsold traffic. All deals in F&I should be reviewed. Review approvals to see if they have been delivered and if not, why? If delivered, have they been booked out and turned to the office? Review finance turndowns for reasons why and any possibilities to approve those deals. Review dealer trades and the status of those deals. Review heat sheets and contracts in transit for deals not funded and deals that have missing items, such as titles, etc.

It takes increased effort and focus to improve your sales 20 percent. Many dealers just increase their advertising in hopes of increasing sales, and in turn, make their sales people traffic junkies. The percentage of gain in bottom line and long-term benefits is what you are seeking, not short-term fixes. The first step is to get rid of the notion, that there are good and bad months. You either have good or bad goals, game plans, actions and reviews of actions. Good or bad months are directly attributed to those items and are not luck.

"Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude." 

Once upon a time a strong wood-cutter asked a timber merchant for a job. The timber merchant was happy to oblige. The pay was good and so were the work-conditions. Therefore, the wood-cutter was determined to do his best.

The timber merchant presented the wood-cutter with an axe and showed him where to work. The first day, the wood-cutter brought eighteen trees.

"Congratulations!" the boss said. "Go on working like that."

Motivated by the boss's words, the wood-cutter tried harder the next day, but he could cut down only fifteen trees. The third day he tried even harder but cut down only ten trees. Day after day, he brought fewer and fewer trees. "I must be losing my strength," the wood-cutter thought. He went to the timber merchant and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. "When was the last time you sharpened your saw?" the timber merchant asked. "Sharpened ? I have had no time to sharpen my saw. I have been busy trying to cut trees," said the wood-cutter.

This story can relate to us in our industry through a number of ways. Are we too busy selling cars that we never have time to personally sharpen our skills in life. If you never take the time to do this, you will find yourself beginning to burn out. If you never take the necessary time to sharpen your skills and yourself you will have nothing in the reserve to give out.

Here are some ways to sharpen your skills:

1. Visit Websites That Will Support & Train You

Find sites that assist you as a dealer to help arm you with training, resources, and relevant practices to apply to your daily life in the dealership. Automotive Digital Training

2. Find Industry Current Sales Professional Trainers

This industry is changing all the time. We should never think we know all there is to this business no matter how long we have or haven't been in it. Search the web and look for reviews regarding the different trainers that are out there. Also contact other friends in the business and see the results that the trainer delivered to the store after they left. Dealer Synergy

3. Go To Conferences & Seminars

Attend conferences and seminars that will help you in the area of time management, processes, sales training and people skills. These are so valuable for your business and life in general. Franklin Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Internet Sales 20 Group

4. Sign Up For Webinars, Newsletters and Industry Emails

Go to different industry websites like AutomotiveInternetSales.Com, KBB.Com, Edmunds.Com, WeWorkForYou.Com, AutoMotiveNews.Com, Dealerelite.com, DealerRefresh.Com and sites like these to stay current on what's happening in the industry.

5. Continually Keep A Good Attitude

Your attitude is your posture, your mindset and your state of being. It can be seen on your face, in your words and how you respond and act towards others. Before talking with a customer make sure you do a check up from the neck up before you take the next up. Stay positive and keep a good attitude. Your attitude will ultimately determine your altitude. In other words, your attitude determines how high you go.

I trust this helped and if you need to contact me please don't hesitate. Be blessed!

SCHENECTADY, NY- This month, DealersEdge featured a webinar on the “Tricks of the Trade” for search engine marketing. Nan Mossey, Director of Digital Marketing at Potratz, led the event which featured advanced insights on implementing and optimizing paid search campaigns. Many were in attendance as she covered detailed strategies on effectively using Google Adwords, Bing/Yahoo! and other search engine marketing services.

Mossey has over 20 years of experience in automotive marketing and is fully certified in all aspects of SEM including Google AdWords Certifications for Search, Display, and Analytics. She has administered several apprenticeship programs as head of Potratz’s digital marketing and has thus attributed to the certification of over 18 individual members of the Potratz team.

During the webinar, participants were supplied with proven tactics for improving campaigns and statistical data referencing industry trends in the world of digital advertising. Mossey presented attendees with the tools necessary for establishing campaigns and best practices for optimizing performance. Attendees gained exclusive insights on the ins-and-outs of display advertising and retargeting, keyword optimization, and bidding strategies along with many other vital areas in campaign implementation and management.

 “I really enjoyed getting a little bit more in-depth about aspects of search engine marketing that people had heard about, but had little exposure to," said Mossey regarding the webinar.

 The live webinar was one of several held by DealersEdge that featured the Schenectady advertising agency, which specializes in everything from digital and traditional advertising to website platforms.

I was invited to be a guest lecturer for an entrepreneur class at the University of Cincinnati. In the question-and-answer portion of the program, the professor asked me to sum up what I felt was the most important message I could stress to the class. My reply was one word – ACTION.

At a sales seminar I was giving, I was going over low- to no-cost marketing strategies designed to increase leads for sales people. At the first break after the marketing section, one of the sales people in attendance who had fl own across the country to attend, got on the phone and called a list vendor I had suggested during the class. Before the break was over, he purchased a large list for a small cost, created an outline and had begun to write the letter based upon proven copy writing techniques and marketing strategies. Afterward he was able to express the value of the campaign to the dealership management and they agreed to cover his costs of his campaign.

At the end of the day, I was having a conversation with the promoter of my seminar and I asked him how many people would take action on that one idea. His answer was few, if any, other than the one sales person. He asked me why I thought that was the case, and my answer was simple and scary – I didn’t know.

From my days as a general manager and leader of people in dealerships to my now many years of training, consulting and sharing with people in dealerships all over the world, I have constantly been stumped by the lack of action by the masses. The truth is indisputable that a small minority will move through their fears and excuses and begin to take action on the necessary steps for success.

In the last few years, I have begun to unlock and share some of the secrets to taking action and achieving success. Unfortunately, even when I share these ideas and suggest simple steps that can guarantee massive self-improvement and eventual success, I know that most people are comfortable being comfortable. Even when that means being comfortable with below-average results. Is my statement negative or just recognition of reality?

Successful people create their own reality. Most people who would take the time to read articles like this are part of the minority of action-takers. For your action takers, let me share just a few ideas on action, the reasons for a lack of it and some corrective measures.

1. Write down the first 20 ideas and teachings that you learned about money. Did you hear these typical messages? “What do you think we are, rich?” “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” “We can’t afford that.” “Money is the root of all evil.” You are more influenced by early learning than you might believe. Many ideas and messages you hear from TV, teachers and even parents are negative and rooted in scarcity. The root of the word scarcity is scare. When was the last time you saw a movie or TV program in which the rich guy was the good guy?

2. Are you clear in your goal of what you desire? Have you written it down? Less than 5 percent of people will ever write their goals and begin to focus on their desires and action plans to get there. Clarity of thought creates questions that bring answers.

3. When you write a goal, you are making a conscious choice. Your actions, however, are often directed by your subconscious messages. Often the goals you have chosen with your conscious thought and the actions you take directed by your subconscious are in direct conflict and opposition. This is why at times you can feel such an enormous state of struggle. The only way to get past the struggle and create positive action is to remove the negative and opposing messages and images in your subconscious. When you write your goals, what are the limiting thoughts and feelings that pop up that are implanted in your subconscious? Once you have identified them, rewrite them to erase the limits and negatives. Create a conscious and subconscious that acts in unison.

4. Write down your top five largest fears. Fear can be described as false evidence appearing real. We can escalate fears or goals to reality. Both are simply a choice. What are your most dominant thoughts? Do your thoughts lean toward action, achievement, success and abundance or toward lack, scarcity and fear?

Only through action can you make the necessary mistakes that will lead to success, rewards and happiness. Nobody has ever sat and watched their way to success.

Social Networking for Business does Work! I needed to mention that first to my readers and help them move beyond what may have already become an impossible or even expensive venture. I have been working with social and networking sites over last decade and in the last five years I have been implementing and testing a series of strategic processes and procedures designed and profitable for the Automotive Industry on a local dealer level. Today I want to bring to the attention of those who are or those who desire to utilize Social networking for business and need to see a return.

The process and the message can be the beginning of your success or the start of your failure, our approach to social networking and how we choose to market and/or advertise effectively must not contain any traditional type platforms that we may have had success with in the past. We have entered a new Paradigm and the Rules For Engagement Have Changed, I have monitored other industries, their do's, their don'ts and how they play by the rules inside this new Paradigm and many of us have taken an approach as a consumer…..here is where we go wrong!! The true connection must come through a chosen message to your customers and then that message must be placed everywhere your customers and potential customers are located online.

The viral marketing effect or the principals’ of viral marketing, for which many have already experienced success, can be manually implemented to work for your business, connecting your message and moving it across the internet, has become the end result of SCD and ASMN. The processes I have introduced to The Automotive Industry is a science, but a controlled and manageable science that can be taught, monitored and profitable through technology and the human element.

Dr. Harold Elam Jr
Bleecker Automotive Group