DrivingSales, (www.DrivingSales.com), the auto industry's original online community and social networking site, today announced the winner of its inaugural Strategies contest. Strategies and other best practices are an essential part of the DrivingSales experience, as members of this fast growing automotive community get the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and benefit from the shared knowledge of their peers. Members who posted strategies competed for the best rating from fellow members, in a fun competition for sharing best practices. Nathan Scripps, director of sales for Jumpstart Automotive Media (www.jumpstartautomotive.com), submitted the winning sales strategy, entitled “The Long Spiff.” The winning submission challenges dealers to think long-term about spiffs for sales people. Instead of strictly focusing on short-term daily, weekly or monthly sales, Scripps proposes incentives that reward staff members for repeat and referral business. In this way, sales people begin to view customers as life-time clients, rather than just one-time sales. (Visit www.drivingsales.com for the complete strategy.) For posting the winning strategy Scripps will receive a new MacBook Air laptop. "From working with many dealers every day, I’ve got first hand exposure to the ups and downs they’re facing in today’s market," commented Scripps. "DrivingSales offers an ideal forum for dealers and service providers alike to share effective, long-term ideas to help boost sales, cut costs, and more – something that is especially needed right now. It's an honor to be recognized by a group of fellow professionals who are all focused on improving automotive sales and service." Members of the DrivingSales community rate Strategies based on their ingenuity, usefulness and effectiveness. A 1-5 star rating is used, along with written reviews and recommendations on whether or not they think colleagues will benefit from the idea. "There was some stiff competition in this contest,” stated Jared Hamilton, DrivingSales founder and CEO, “with members providing a wealth of creative, proven ideas. The beauty of these strategies is that they offer a quick and easy reference to boost performance, not to mention great ideas for when you walk into your next sales meeting.” The next DrivingSales Strategies contest begins next month, and the topic will be "great ideas and strategies for success in a down economy." The prize will be the new Apple iPhone 3g. Visit www.drivingsales.com to learn more, to post a strategy, and get tactical tips from other automotive professionals.

Automakers are scrambling either to design new models with ground-breaking technology for fuel efficiency, or to integrate the current technology on their next model to get the product out to the consumer ASAP. So, what has Mercury been up to lately?

Not much, by the looks of it. I haven’t really seen any new models or designs that they’re itching to initiate, and Ford Motor Co. is being wishy-washy on the brand’s future anyway, according to Automotive News. It’s seems they’re focused on updating their Mariner Crossover, but isn’t the crossover market at its greatest slump in the US right now? They’re also working through a new hybrid Sedan, due to come out in 2010, but apparently Mercury has no real investments extending beyond next year.

Mercury Dealers, are you nervous? Some say it looks like the brand is fading out. Worried? Share your thoughts here, on DrivingSales.com.

A few years back, the crossover cars were the new thing. Ford Motor Co., Chrysler, and GM all came out with crossover models in hopes to capture the declining market of trucks and SUVs. Is it still working? Not so much. Sales of almost all crossover brands have dramatically dropped, almost 17% in June from their peak this past March, according to NADA. It was a valiant effort and a creative idea to house the truck-like vehicle on a car frame, but those efforts are going out of trend, and the numbers show. Is this a permanent decline? Probably not. The drop in numbers could easily be due to the obvious economic environment and the depressing $4 gallon of gas. The crossover market might be rejuvenated when buyers want that truck or SUV style back, but don’t want to wait for an affordable truck or SUV hybrid option. However, for the time being, it’s another sting for the already-struggling automakers. Thank goodness we can come to DrivingSales.com to learn how others keep up in an unfortunate market.

Salt Lake City, UT, July 16, 2008 - DrivingSales.com, the auto industry's original online community and social networking site, today announced that over two dozen industry experts have become frequent bloggers on DrivingSales.com. Member-generated content is a cornerstone of the DrivingSales community, and the site continues to draw industry thought leaders who are contributing best practices in their areas of expertise.

"The DrivingSales Blogs are a collection of the best blogs in our business – written by industry insiders who have a valuable opinion to share with our dealer audience,” commented Jared Hamilton, DrivingSales founder and CEO. “Our stance is: if you have value to add, we have an audience to share it with. Having just opened DrivingSales.com to the whole industry last month, we’re thrilled to see so many of the most respected names in the business already on board. We’re looking forward to having more join us in the common months.”

The following is a sampling of DrivingSales bloggers and some of the topics covered:

• Allan Cooper, an industry executive with over 25 years of global professional experience, recognized by JD Power and Associates as an Internet Visionary and Pioneer – on employee retention issues for dealerships

• Dean Evans, seasoned online automotive retailing executive and chief marketing officer for Dealer.com - on tactical ways dealers can capitalize on online retailing and Web 2.0 practices

• Rafi Hamid, industry veteran and former groups director of e-commerce for the Napleton Automotive Group - on all facets of enterprise automotive sales

• David Kain, dealership sales and process expert and president of Kain Automotive training and consulting firm - on efficient and successful retailing and operations.

• Dale Pollak, best-selling author of the pre-owned vehicle sales guide Velocity and chairman and founder of vAuto, Inc. - on pre-owned sales and other retailing strategies.

• The DrivingSales Blogs also include contributions from its editorial staff, including highly popular industry blogger and Internet manager Paul Rushing, and other associate editors who currently work within dealerships, who blog on the typical day-to-day issues dealers face.

• Other topics covered in the DrivingSales Blogs include: highlights from industry events and workshops; information on running “green,” environmentally-sustainable dealerships; as well dealership compliance issues; subprime sales; CRM; and more.

"DrivingSales offers an easy way for all of us in this business to pick up strategic and tactical best practices that we can apply immediately,” commented contributor Rafi Hamid. “Whether you are a new Internet sales manager, an account rep at a vendor, or heading up e-commerce for a large dealer group, DrivingSales is a great way to share knowledge, connect with colleagues, and improve operations.”

Read more about the DrivingSales bloggers at www.DrivingSales.com.

About DrivingSales.com
DrivingSales is a community of automotive industry professionals, networking and sharing best practices to maximize their success. On DrivingSales.com, members post profiles, share sales strategies, and get access to relevant content contributed by industry experts, including blogs, videos, interviews, and more. Members who are dealers rate and review vendors, sharing their experience with the DrivingSales community; while vendors get the opportunity to provide feedback on reviews and showcase their products and services. DrivingSales empowers auto industry professionals to take their businesses and careers to a whole new level of success. Get connected at www.drivingsales.com.

There are all sorts of changes being made in the dealership industry today.  Sales are plummeting this year, more than experts expected; in the mean time, people are scrambling to find ways to draw back the clientele.  A large portion of it has to do with the popular “green” agenda.  Everyone is going green, especially as truck and SUV sales decrease, and the demand for smaller, more fuel efficient cars outweigh the supply.  But what happens when we take a step back from evaluating what we are selling to our customers and focus more on who our customers are? 

 

Who are our typical customers?  Fifteen year old kids hoping to get a massive gift from mom and dad for their sweet sixteen?  Ha! They wish.  How about men shopping for a new car for themselves or their family?  Sounds more like it?  Think again.  In fact, the more common consumer purchasing cars is female.  I’ll say it again: female.

 

For most women, shopping for a car is an uncomfortable experience that they think will end with a brand new car they weren’t expecting to buy at a rip-off price.  But thanks to a group of women from AskPatty.com, an automotive website for women, dealers can now become “certified female friendly.”  That’s right, they’re offering training modules to inform salespersons and managers on how to attract, sell to, and retain the loyalty of female consumers. 

 

Think it borders on a waste of time?  Think again.  Road & Travel Magazine uncovered that women are the purchasers of over half the used car sales in the US and almost two-thirds of all the new cars.   Without knowing how to interact with female customers and understanding their needs, you could be missing out on a large part of your potential business.  Hundreds of dealers across the country are already certified.  Are you?

 

Check out these websites:

http://www.certifiedfemalefriendly.com/

http://www.askpatty.com/

Washed titles on cars that have been previously damaged are becoming a bigger issue with every passing summer of natural disasters, not to mention car accidents in general.  Recently, Automotive News reported that a new VIN database supported by the National Insurance Crime Bureau will help keep track of information needed to harness the continuing title washing.  Although many people and organizations in the automotive industry, including NADA, feel that this is a minimal safety net, it will surely contribute to more stringent records of previously damaged vehicles.    NADA is still pushing for full disclosure of all total-loss vehicles, hopefully the next step in eliminating title washing; however, they aren’t satisfied there.  In the meantime, they have provided 10 helpful inspection tips to educate people in the Midwest and elsewhere (http://www.nada.org/Advocacy+Outreach/LegislativeAffairs/Vehicle+Total-Loss+Disclosure/Tips+-+English.htm).  These tips help guide people on what to look for and specific areas of the car to investigate, offering assistance for both mechanics at dealership or repair shops, as well as individual consumers.    If you’d like help NADA in their efforts to push for legislation to combat title washing, please visit www.nada.org/tld

Salt Lake City, UT, June 9, 2008 — DrivingSales.com, the auto dealer industry's original online community and social networking site, today announced the launch of its first best practices contest. The inaugural event will put the brightest minds in the automotive industry to the challenge of submitting the best sales strategy or spiff. Members of the DrivingSales community will review and rate the strategies based on their ingenuity, usefulness and effectiveness, and the contributor of the most highly rated strategy will win a new MacBook Air. This marks the beginning of a series of contests hosted by DrivingSales, which will be an integral element of the site experience, and will help drive quality content and provide maximum benefit to the members of this unique online community. The contest closes and the ratings will be tallied at midnight on Friday, July 25, 2008. Members are encouraged to post their strategies and spiffs as early as possible in order to receive the most ratings by fellow members before the contest closes. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 30, 2008. "A key benefit of DrivingSales is sharing knowledge and best practices, and the strategy contests are an important part of this," noted Jared Hamilton, founder and president of DrivingSales. "Dealers are competitive by nature, and these contests encourage them to demonstrate their expertise and think creatively to be successful. This is going to be a lot of fun and someone's going to take home a great prize." DrivingSales Strategies is a growing database of tactical ideas and best practices, that have produced positive results for dealerships, and which are contributed and shared by the community. Strategies are designed to help dealers in every discipline and department within the dealership, from increasing profits to cutting costs, hiring, getting higher CSI scores, improving the store's atmosphere, and more. To contribute an idea or strategy, auto industry professionals must first become a member of DrivingSales at www.drivingsales.com, where they can then post their strategy or spiff idea in the Strategies section. Once posted, the strategy will be live on DrivingSales.com, where other members can then provide a 1-5 star rating, written comments, and whether or not they would recommend it to their friends. "The creativity that exists in our industry is amazing. It has long been held captive at individual dealerships; now we have an unbiased open platform to share these great ideas," commented Allan Cooper, a close advisor to DrivingSales and recognized J.D. Power Automotive Internet Pioneer. "Everything from moving outdated inventory to engaging every employee at a dealership in the sales process- sharing best practices is a cornerstone of DrivingSales. The sheer volume of fresh ideas offers dealers instant inspiration." About DrivingSales.com DrivingSales is a community of automotive industry professionals networking and sharing best practices to maximize their success. On DrivingSales.com, members post profiles, share sales strategies, and get access to relevant content contributed by industry experts, including blogs, videos, and interviews. Members also rate and review vendors, sharing their experience with the DrivingSales community; while vendors get the opportunity to provide feedback on reviews and showcase their products and services. DrivingSales empowers auto industry professionals to take their businesses and careers to a whole new level of success. Get connected at www.drivingsales.com.

Salt Lake City, UT, June 2, 2008 — DrivingSales.com, the auto dealer industry's original online community and social networking site, today announced that it is now open to all automotive industry professionals for networking, sharing best practices, rating vendors, and maximizing success. Launched in 2003, before any other social networking sites existed for dealers, DrivingSales was created by Jared Hamilton, while a student at NADA's Dealer Candidate Academy, as a way for his class mates to keep in touch and share best practices. By popular demand, the DrivingSales.com community has evolved into a platform where members can post profiles; network; share sales strategies; rate and review vendors; and access relevant content contributed by industry experts, including blogs, videos, interviews, and more. In addition, vendors get the opportunity to post profiles, showcase their products and services, blog, and provide feedback on reviews. DrivingSales will also host regular contests, in which participants can win valuable prizes for taking part in activities such as submitting best practices for all areas of retail automotive sales and management. In keeping with the community spirit, all contest winners will be determined based upon community member votes. DrivingSales is not sponsored by or directly affiliated with any specific company, so content is independent and freely contributed by members of the community. A third generation dealer, Hamilton realized the need for a neutral hub where dealers could get a wealth of unbiased information and learn from each other. "From the beginning, we'veknown the importance of keeping the site free from corporate ownership," said Hamilton. "This will ensure we maintain the grass roots nature of the site, provide dealers with the best content, and a great user experience. DrivingSales was built by dealers for dealers." While at its heart DrivingSales is a social networking site, it has more in common with LinkedIn than MySpace or FaceBook because it is professionally oriented. A key difference, however, is that DrivingSales is customized for the auto industry and devoted to dealers and their specific needs. Further, DrivingSales members can have both public and private networks, sharing only the information they choose. As the community grows, DrivingSales is continuously evolving based upon member feedback and technological enhancements. "DrivingSales.com is Web 2.0 in action," commented Dean Evans, an industry expert, chief marketing officer of Dealer.com, and a close advisor. "As a vendor, I am jumping at the opportunity to get unbiased feedback from dealers and connect with them in a whole new way. As a former dealer and someone who's worked in this business my entire career, I love the idea of easily tapping into the collective knowledge of others in this business. DrivingSales has given us the platform we'veall been dreaming about." About DrivingSales.com DrivingSales is a community of automotive industry professionals networking and sharing best practices to maximize their success. On DrivingSales.com, members post profiles, share sales strategies, and get access to relevant content contributed by industry experts, including blogs, videos, and interviews. Members also rate and review vendors, sharing their experience with the DrivingSales community; while vendors get the opportunity to provide feedback on reviews and showcase their products and services. DrivingSales empowers auto industry professionals to take their businesses and careers to a whole new level of success. Get connected at www.drivingsales.com.

Registering with DrivingSales automatically signs you up to receive the newsletter. You have the option to unsubscribe with every mailing of the newsletter at the bottom of the page. To view previous newsletters, click the "News" icon in the upper right hand corner of any DrivingSales page. The news links to the right include one for newsletters. Selecting that link will allow you to browse previous newsletters.

To rate a company or product that you'vehad experience with, start by reading the Rules and Guidelines, located on the left hand side of the screen. Access the company or product you wish to review in the same way you would if you wanted to read their wiki showcase. When you'vefound the one you're interested in, click "Review," located off to the right. This allows you to access the company (or specific products the company offers) that you wish to review. Select a rating based on a 5 Star Rating Scale (1 = poorest, 5 = best), describe your comments about the vendor, indicate if you are a current or prior customer, and whether or not you would recommend the company or product. Once you'veentered in all your information, click the "Rate it" button. Now you'vecontributed to the vendor ratings! All ratings must be honest and accurate. The system works because the community is fair with one another. Please note that the company rating is the average rating of all the company products. You may review as many products as you have experience with. Remember: Honesty is the best policy!