Yesterday, a good friend of mine, Joe Webb, President of DealerKnows Consulting, posted a news article on his Facebook wall that got all sorts of comments from his friends.

In summary, the article involved a car dealership in Chicago who, on the day after their loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game, fired a salesperson for wearing to work, and refusing to remove, a Green Bay Packers tie.

Article: Packer Backer fired for wearing Green Bay Tie

Most of the discussion centered around whether it was legal to fire this employee for refusing to remove the tie. Some of it questioned this salesperson's right to wear it.

Was the employer justified in firing him?

Did the employee have the right to wear it at work? 

What do you think?

Hot topics and discussions from DrivingSales - Week of 1/17 through 1/23/2011

Joe Webb introduces us to Beauford Beauregard, Car Sales Comedian from the South - LINK

Members respond to an article in Automotive News - "AutoTrader Should Be Paying Us" - LINK

Over 25 comments from people discussing "Running an Ethical PPC Campaign" - LINK

The conversation is still going strong regarding The CarDoll with over 40 comments - LINK 

The CarDoll responds with a message for her fans with a video - LINK

Glenn Pasch says you should "Embrace your Online Reputation - LINK

I don't know about everyone else but it seems to me that GM's decision to create more jobs in Mexico is absolutely bad business. Without the U.S. taxpayer, GM may not have a business at this point.

This seems like a complete snub to Americans, who, last I heard, needed jobs. As of December 2010, the national unemployment rate was 9.1%. 

It may be cheaper to have factories in Mexico and employ Mexicans. Being of Hispanic origin, I have nothing against Mexicans.

The United States still owns about a third of General Motors and is the largest shareholder.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Does GM have any obligation to the taxpayers? Should the United States government intervene - which is its right as a shareholder?

[This post is in response to this article from 1/20/2011]

Charlie Vogelheim welcomes everyone to the 2010 DrivingSales Executive Summit and introduces Jared Hamilton, founder and CEO of DrivingSales, for his keynote speech.

Jared Hamilton, founder and CEO of DrivingSales, continues his keynote speech at the 2010 DrivingSales Executive Summit.

Jared Hamilton, founder and CEO of DrivingSales, concludes his keynote speech at the 2010 DrivingSales Executive Summit.

With today's announcement of the iPhone coming to Verizon, you have to analyze the mobile market and wonder if it's time to embrace mobile marketing (if you haven't already). 

The facts are that 85% (264 million) of the US population (307 million) has a cell phone. 

Smartphones accounted for about 30% of all phones as of Oct. 2010 but that number is projected to overtake non-smartphones in 2011 per Nielsen. That would take the number of smartphone users to 132 million across all cell networks - almost 1/2 the population of the U.S.

Android and iPhone users account for about 1/2 the total number of smartphones in use but the iPhone accounts for 65% of AT&T smartphone subscribers. I'm expecting that the chances that the percentage of Verizon smartphone users who have an iPhone will approach, if not eclipse, the percentage that AT&T has. Assuming this holds true, the iPhone will end up accounting for 86 million smartphones with the Android comprising 30 million.

A large percentage of the US population will have, and be using, smartphones. According to Morgan Stanley, mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage within 4 years (by 2014). 

Getting the picture? This isn't even accounting for web traffic originating via iPads, iPod Touches and Android-based tablets. It also doesn't account for traffic generated through apps.

Bottom line is that you need to have a mobile website and/or make sure that you're existing website is mobile-friendly, at the very least. 

It's time to seriously re-visit a mobile marketing strategy if you don't have one. Don't play catch-up later.

A new sales training service will be available soon that we wanted your opinion on. 

This is a REAL, subscription based service that will be solicited to dealerships. From what we understand, it will offer a short, sales training video on a daily basis for your salespeople to learn from. We have yet to see a finished "training" video so we can't comment on content. 

Is this how our industry wants to be known?

Does this fuel controversy? Further stereotypes? 

Would you subscribe to this? If you did, would it present any issues with your female employees?

Let us know what you think!

If you want to see more "teaser videos", you can visit the CarDoll YouTube channel, their Facebook page, or their website. 

In analyzing the "Top Social Brands of 2010" list put out by Vitrue, you may notice a trend. (Keep in mind that this is a list compiled that includes every brand in existence and their social media presence and activity. That's huge.) The automotive manufacturers have stepped up their social media game.

Vitrue "analyz(es) online conversations on a daily basis across social networks blogs, micro-blogs, photo and video sharing sites using the Vitrue Social Media Index (SMI)."

A full 17% of the list is from the transportation industry. Ford was the highest ranked automotive industry representative at #11 followed closely by Mercedes (#12) and BMW (#13). General Motors scored the highest increased ranking amongst automotive manufacturers (2nd highest increase overall) jumping 31% from #85 to #54 over last year.

All of the OEMs showed an increase in their social media branding and presence except for Ferrari (-1%), Toyota (-2%), Porsche (-2%), Jeep (-6%), and Kia (-9%).  

All of these brands were on the list last year but the lowest ranked one in 2010 was at #62 (Kia) versus #85 in 2009 (General Motors).

Here's the annotated list of automotive manufacturers and how they ranked in 2010 as well as their 2009 ranking and percentage change. 

#11 Ford (#24 / +13%)
#12 Mercedes Benz (#17 / +5%)
#13 BMW (#20 / +7%)
#20 Honda (#25 / +5%)
#27 Ferrari (#26 / -1%)
#30 Nissan (#37 / +7%)
#35 Audi (#45 / +10%)
#40 Toyota (#38 / -2%)
#45 Suzuki (#61 / +16%)
#49 Volkswagen (#67 / +18%)
#52 Dodge (#57 / +5%)
#54 General Motors (#85 / +31%)
#57 Porsche (#55 / -2%)
#59 Chevrolet (#80 / +21%)
#61 Jeep (#56 / -6%)
#62 Kia (#53 / -9%)

(The complete list can be found here. The Vitrue 100 and, in case you were curious, the missing "transportation" company from my annotated list is Harley Davidson at #71.)

What do you read into these statistics?

Here are the winners of the Vendor Ratings contest!

$100 Amazon Gift Card - Sonja Griesbach, Internet Sales Manager at Woody's Automotive in Chillicothe, MO

$100 Amazon Gift Card - Andrew Rice, General Manager at Courtenay Toyota in Courtenay, BC

Apple iPad - Carey Buck, Internet Manager at Faulkner BMW in Lancaster, PA

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest and from everyone here at DrivingSales -

Happy New Year!

Researching solutions for your dealership can be a time-consuming process. At DrivingSales, we offer the industry’s only vendor ratings system designed to assist dealers in selecting solutions for their dealerships. The annual DrivingSales Vendor Rating Awards are given out annually at the NADA convention. These awards are YOUR awards. YOU decide who wins. Help us insure that the awards go to deserving companies that truly offer outstanding and effective solutions to their dealer clients. 

We want your reviews – good and bad – but most importantly, honest.

Here are samples of some category leaders. Are these rankings accurate in your opinion?

•   Websites

1. Dealer eProcess
2. Nexteppe
3. Dealer.com

• New Car Leads:

1. Dealix
2. Autobytel
3. AutoUSA
4. Cars.com

• Used Car Leads:

1. AutoTrader
2. Dealix
3. Cars.com

• DMS:

1. Reynolds
2. Dealertrack

•  Inventory Pricing:

1. VAuto
2. DealerTrack
3. VINSolutions

These are just a few of the many categories and companies we have available for you to rate. Make your voice heard and reward the vendors who deserve it.

This year, we’re giving away an (1) Apple iPad and (2) $100 Amazon.com gift cards to 3 lucky dealer users who leave reviews for their vendors on DrivingSales and then tweet about it.

For your chance to win, just take the DrivingSales Vendor Rating Survey and leave ratings for at least 3 vendors. Once you’ve completed the survey, tweet out the following:

“ I just rated my vendors on @DrivingSales. Have you rated your vendors yet? http://ow.ly/3pFHd #drivingsales ”

Here are the rules:

1. Ratings must be left between 12/15/10 and 12/31/10. Drawing will be held on New Year’s Day, 2011
2. Participant must be an actual dealership user of the product – past or present.
3. Valid contact information must be included for us to verify the ratings. Your review is anonymous and contact info is only used for verification purposes and ratings must be verified to be eligible for the drawing.
4. Minimum of 3 vendor ratings must be left to qualify for the drawing.
5. Participant must tweet the above phrase in addition to completing the rating certification to qualify for the drawing.
6. Prizes are limited to 1 winner per dealership. Employees and families of DrivingSales are not eligible. Vendors are not eligible to win.