I love to talk, which is why, I suppose, I’m in this business. I love talking about all of it. I’m always being asked 'which dealers are doing what' to increase sales and gross. I debate about which new makes and models will excel this year. I offer my ideas on how the new consumer-finance bureau czar will affect our business. I look forward to making phone calls to chat about Tom Brady or Tim Tebow…before getting to my point, how I might help a dealer improve his or her processes.  All my talk can seem productive, but there are times…. ….when I hear a whisper of that old proverb, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” Why is that so hard to do, restrain the lips? Why is this advice so hard to apply after we present th...

  How Should We Play?   By Kurt Kubicki   Stating the obvious, the car business -- like the sports we love – can be a hard-fought win. Winning means playing hard, playing smart and playing from a heart of greater discipline, commitment and expectation than the other guys do.   In other words, in this battle to sell and service cars, every play must count or we’re creating a lot of activity that in the end doesn’t really matter.   Whether in football or selling cars, we waste time and energy – and blow opportunity – when we forget the basics of the game, the consistent obedience to continuous practice of the fundamentals.   The answer to the question, ‘How should we play?’ is, of course, with purpose, with focus and with precision. To win consistently, we must learn how to make every opportunity count to win customers’ hearts and close more business.   We can learn much about t...

  No doubt, things like bad breath can be a turn off. However, most of the time a customer walks without buying isn’t because of halitosis across the desk.   For sure, sales associates must attend to personal hygiene matters, dress appropriately for the market and clientele, and communicate in a respectful and gracious manner to everyone, especially customers.   So why then do customers leave without buying? Are the reasons they give to our sales staff for walking the real ones? It’s kinder to the ego to believe they left to check with a spouse or for other excuses than for the “Real Reason versus the False Excuse.”   While many believe the highest percentage of customers leave due to lack of time or that they need to speak with another decision maker, a recent study found that the real reason is that there was some problem in the sales process, commonly known as the “Road to the Sale”.   At 27%, Sales and...

  An in-depth report based on interviews with 250,000 customers of more than 250 dealerships tells us customers most often walk without buying because we wandered off or away from our Road to the Sale.   We’d like to believe customers’ excuses for not buying – “It’s not in my budget” or “I'll be back tonight with my wife" – but the facts say differently.   A report by an Unsold Research Call Center found that 27% of customers who left without buying did so for reasons within dealership management control. Ouch!   Here’s what real customers said about why they left a dealership without buying:   •           Rude and disrespectful treatment by sales personnel •           Sales staff not being knowledgeable about product or financing information •   ...

  Industry stats show that 80% of your ups will walk without buying. Yet if you can re-contact them within 48 hours and address their real reasons for not buying, the evidence shows you’ll get 33% of them back into the store and convert approximately 67% of them into sales.   For many dealers, this extra effort to pursue shoppers who left, and convert them into be backs, can net you up to 50 or more additional units per month. In any economy, that’s great incremental business!   Here’s how you can enjoy this success at your dealership:   Determine to pursue every unsold. Build this objective into your sales plan and your pay plans. Devise a process for ensuring this pursuit; here is where using a CRM to scan or enter contact information on every up is going to be a critical step. Without complete customer data in the CRM, it can be impossible to really measure and understand who was an up and who wasn’t – and what...