The DrivingSales Community has been clamoring for more, more, and MORE content!  In response, we’ve hired an outstanding team of Community Editors.  We searched high and low for a team of industry leaders that are passionate about the automotive world and have a thing for social media, and we’ve found them.  Please welcome the following individuals to the DrivingSales team: 

Marc McGurren is the Internet Director for the Jerry Durant Auto Group located in Weatherford, TX.  He is a graduate of Angelo State University (BBA, 2001), Dallas Theological Seminary (MA/BS, 2003), and the NADA Dealer Academy (2010). He is currently pursuing his MBA at the University of North Texas. Most recently, Marc was awarded the Driving Sales Innovation Cup at this years DrivingSales Executive Summit for his mobile platform for engaging after hours customers at the point of sale.  You can follow him on Twitter at @marcmcgurren.

Jeff Cryder is the Digital Communications & Marketing Director at Lebanon Ford. He’s a recent graduate of Miami University (OH) with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications with a minor in Political Science. He’s @cryderja on Twitter and yes, fully realizes it’s a difficult handle to verbally decipher (Think deutsche, cryder-ja!). You can also find him on Facebook, Linkedin and Foursquare. His many interests include but are not limited to: politics, sports, gaming, traveling and of course the ever changing automotive industry. You can get to know Jeff on a personal level on his blog, JEFFCRYDERSMULTIPLEPERSONALITES or simply shoot him an email cryderja@gmail.com. 

Bryan Armstrong has tagged himself as an “Average Car Guy" for years, yet the results he has been able to achieve are anything but average. He has been published and quoted in multiple Automotive media, presented at multiple Conferences, and won Digital Dealer Conferences' coveted "Most Innovative Dealer Group e-Commerce Director" for his work with the Dahle Group in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2009.  Most recently, he helped turn around Menlove Toyota Bountiful and when it sold in February, he enjoyed some time with his family. He recently accepted the e-Commerce Director position for VW Southtowne in Utah and is invigorated by taking yet another group to new heights.  Follow him on Twitter: @bryancarguy.

Nicki Allen is one of the premier new generation dealers.  She has been around the automotive business her entire life and has been fully hands on since 2006.  Her knowledge of technology and how this relates to the dealership has garnered her national attention.  Her social site, “Grinding Gears with Nicki,” has picked up national prominence and she is a mainstay at her Mazda and Chrysler NADA 20 groups.  She currently sits on Mazda's Internet Advisory Board and plays an influential role with many other industry companies. Nicki interacts with hundreds of dealers and industry leading companies every year to keep her and dealerships on the cutting edge of technology.  Follow her at @nickigears on Twitter.

Jim Bell has been in the automotive business for 14 and a half years. Jim has worked in sales, Finance, as a Sales Manager, and currently is the Internet Performance and Marketing Director at Don Ayres Honda in Fort Wayne, IN. He has experience with not only Honda, but also has worked at GM and Volkswagen dealerships in the past.  He's also @jimbthecarguy on Twitter so be sure to follow him. 

As you can see, all of these individuals are full-time dealership personnel and have the same goals as the rest of us:  to make stores profitable.  They’re committed to keeping this community a place where people can discuss and engage in conversations that will help everyone get to and stay at the top of our industry.   So keep an eye out for their posts and get ready for some fresh content coming to a computer screen near you.

When DrivingSales posted earlier this month that we’d be hiring a few dealership professionals to contribute quality content, we had no idea what to expect.  In the end, we were amazed at the number and quality of applications we received, making the review and decision process incredibly difficult.  We’d like to thank everyone that expressed interest and submitted applications, and we’re stoked at the amount of enthusiasm our members have in keeping DrivingSales a relevant and thought-provoking community for dealers.  

DrivingSales sincerely apologizes for the inaccessibility experienced this morning.  Our website host, MediaTemple, underwent system-wide interruptions, and although they worked as quickly as possible to resolve the issue, it caused our site to be down for about an hour. 

Although we spent the first part of the morning pulling at our hair while not being able to log in, we're glad the community is back up now, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. 

Let the conversations continue!

Creating rules for online communities can be a tricky thing.  What code does the community live by?  Which of those rules does the community dictate?  We at DrivingSales have been having one such debate for weeks:  should we allow anonymous postings?  We’ve never had a problem on the site with anonymous postings before.  We’ve always required transparent identities for the sake of keeping the community legitimate.   Then, low and behold, an anonymous profile was created yesterday and began generating controversy… er, I mean conversation. 

So before deciding whether or not we allow anonymous comments or keep with forcing identities on members, the question must first be what benefits does anonymity bring to the community?  What drawbacks does it generate?  Of course, we could argue that forcing identities increases the quality of the content posted because people’s reputation is directly linked to it, but it also reduces the number of comments, restricting potentially explosive discussions.  Perhaps individuals who don’t feel confident enough in their comments might refrain from contributing, no matter how relevant and dynamic their input might be.  However, having transparent identities also allows us to reach out to the particular leaders that our community is made of for advice on best strategies.

Weigh in on the discussion.  We’d love to hear what you think and what you’d like to see on the site.  Why is transparency in identity important?  How could we benefit from anonymous postings?  Tell us where you stand on the debate and then what you want done about it.  We could:

        A)   Allow anonymous posts,

        B)   Continue with forced identities,

        C)   Have some sort of moderated anonymity.  DrivingSales could build the technology to allow only dealers to have the ability to choose if they want their identity shown (so vendors can’t bash others), or maybe allow anonymous comments that have to be approved by the DrivingSales staff before posting, or

        D)   Have a better answer?  Share it!

It's conversations like these that define how our community works.  Tell us what you think (identities required… at this point).

It’s contest time!   Grant Cardone is looking for someone who has what it takes to close a sale.  You think you’ve got the meanest close?  The hardest one?  The sure-fire one?  Submit it at http://closethesaleapp.com/contest/ where you can find more contest details.  After you’ve submitted your best close, get your friends to vote for it so you can move on to the next round (you can’t just submit the close, you’ve got to work it!). 

One Grand-prize winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip to seem him speak at his new “Closer’s Seminar.”  Training videos, books, and other prizes are up for grabs too, so submit your close for a chance to win them.  The first round ends this Friday, so get in there, submit your close, and encourage your friends to vote to see if you move to the next round. 

BONUS:  Grant Cardone is reserving 5 spots into the next round exclusively for DrivingSales members with the highest number of votes, giving you a greater opportunity to advance through the contest.  One of many perks of being in the DrivingSales community.  Good luck!

It’s time for our Annual Dealership Marketing Survey! 

DrivingSales is collecting data on marketing strategies throughout dealerships with the intent to analyze and distribute information on common marketing trends that result in bigger business and better bottom lines for you.  This won’t be just a report with pretty charts and colorful graphs (although there will bet plenty of those).  These reports will contain tangible evidence to help your dealerships create action-oriented strategies and goals, and make your dealership more profitable – all with just 10 easy questions at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DrivingSalesMarketingSurveyApr2011

And no worries, it’s completely anonymous and confidential, so no store’s data can be associated with its name.  Of course, it’s all free of charge, and the more data we have, the more reliable and valuable the results will be for you.  So thanks for your participation and we look forward to delivering you information that you can use!