Yesterday I was on my way to a meeting at a dealership.  I had left the home office earlier so I can be at the meeting earlier especially since it was an 80 mile ride.  I was within three miles of the dealership and thirty minutes early.  I had never been there before I relied on my GPS as I always do.  The GPS that I use comes from my iPhone and the software is less than a week old as I just updated the operating system.

The GPS was pulling in an address from Yelp.com.  I got the exact location where the GPS sent me and there was no dealership there.  In fact, it was a bus stop.  I got frustrated because I had been on that road before just not around that section.  I also took a different major highway then I would normally take to get there because of where I was coming from.  I ended up driving around town for 30 minutes circling and looking for better directions and everything that Google and other sources tell me was to be at that same spot.  I decided to just follow my judgment and continue to take that road further for another 3 miles.  I recognized the area and the dealership was down the road from an area that I have been to in the past.  I showed up ten minutes late to my meeting but the meeting went well and everything was fine.

What am I trying to get to?  Dealers, if you got people in place who are in charge of digital marketing especially social, search, and reputation management you need to make sure that your information is correct and always updated everywhere that you are listed.  In this case, the dealership uses a very expensive advertising agency that handles everything for them.  It is really sad that their ad agency has not helped them improve that part of their visibility.  However, this is perhaps the cause of no one ever considering this issue to be as serious as it really is.

Try to imagine that I am a prospect who called in to the dealership and your BDC schedules me as an appointment.  Like a modern day consumer, I tell you that I have a GPS and I will find it without any problems.  Now, I am not there in time for my appointment because my GPS is not taking me where it needs to take me because your dealership did not have the common sense to keep the right information online.  If I figure out where to go quick I will get there but if I do not I will get aggravated and just go somewhere else leaving the dealership with a lost opportunity.

Just like with anything else that you do.  Make sure that you have the correct information and that you are easy to find.  Today’s modern day shopper is looking for a hassle free experience and they do not want to feel like they are “pulling teeth” to find what they need.

I would like to make another note here.  This was not the first time that I have seen a dealer have improper information online with regards to location and address.  This is a common problem.

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As I conduct internet lead mystery shopping to dealers around the country I am constantly amazed at the lack of control that dealers have with their email marketing.  It is amazing to see how many dealers send me follow up email templates that go directly to my spam folders.  What is even more amazing is how many dealers fail to pick up the phone to call me.  But I will leave that for another topic.

I just called on a local Honda dealer in my area about doing some consulting work because they lacked follow up on a lead that I had submitted.  I also know for a fact that their direct competitor is working with another consulting company to be up on their game.  So when I mystery shop the other store I see that they are doing things right to a certain extent.  It is interesting to see how many dealers there are out there that lack proper marketing and follow up processes.  It seems as if the CRM gets installed by the vendor in a "set it and forget it" fashion.  These dealers are sending out emails and wonder why they are not reaching anyone.  The reality is that people try to avoid spam and usually just delete what emails go there.

Dealers need to have a strategy to constantly update their email templates and processes so that emails are sent out properly.  Remember, the goal of an email is to be intriguing enough to get the customer to call you back and increase your connection with them.  At the same time, it is important to stop over complicating things and keep them simple.  I am talking about making your the content is not "spammy" with words like "amazing savings".  The email needs to be compelling, selling value, promote a positive online reputation and be less pitchy.  Give the customer a reason to call you back and replace the impersonal with the personal.

Recently, I learned from Ford Direct an interesting way of creating a subject line.  They taught me to keep simple and to include a phone number.  The phone number allows for mobile users to press on it and call the dealership right away.  This is how it should look:

"ABC Motors 717 515 2200"

Do not include the dashes.  I was told that a subject line that simple is more likely to avoid spam.  I was impressed that I started using it and it has helped my dealers greatly.  This is just one of many strategies that needs to be considered when sending emails.

For more information or training on how to effectively create emails that trigger proper responses and avoid spam, contact me at stan@dealeretraining.com or visit my website at http://dealeretraining.com/

In addition, dealers that want to learn how to incorporate proper emails into their BDC/Internet Sales Processes need to attend my workshop at AutoCon 2012 on September 5-8, 2012 in Las Vegas.

I will also be in attendance at Driving Sales Executive Summit on October 21-23, 2012 which promises to be a real class act event.

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining is a seasoned automotive sales and marketing professional. Here is he talks about closing the sale.

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I was just thinking about something that really amazed me about a month ago.  I was out with a friend of mine at a mall doing some shopping.  We were at Macy's and decided to take a look at their collection of sunglasses.  Both my friend and I enjoy nice things and do not play around when it comes to sunglasses.  In fact, I was wearing my $200 pair of Ray Ban glasses and he was wearing his $200 pair of Maui Jim glasses.  We had bought our glasses a year ago at the Sunglass Hut.  It turns out that this Macy's location had their own Sunglass Hut.

We walk into this section of the store and we are greeted by one of the two sales reps there.  This rep was totally on his game.  He made us feel like we were in a high end store (because we were) and like a guest (not a customer).  The other rep was completely different and just did not focus on the job or us.  The professional rep sees that we both have high end glasses and offers to clean them up for us free of charge.  We gave them to him and within 5 minutes our pairs of sunglasses were both shiny and like brand new.

We were not in there to buy anything that day but we just explored.  This rep would open the glass door so I could look at whatever pair I was interested while the other one just stood there.  When it was time to for us to leave, he had started to ask about what we liked in the shop and what we were interested in.  He even went as far to see how we like our sunglasses and to let us know about a fresh shipment of newer styles that were about to arrive.  He shook our hands and we left. 

My friend and I both being ex-car sales people were amazed at the quality of service.  In fact, we were talking about how this guy would be an amazing car sales person.  I said these words verbatim, "this guy should be selling BMWs and making $150k per year and if I was a car dealer I would have been offering him a job right now".

You are probably thinking, "Why do I care about Stan's experience at a Sunglass Hut on an automotive forum?"  Well before you lose interest quickly, please understand that my point is about to hit home really hard.

My point is simple.  I have worked in auto dealerships for over 9 years as a sales person, manager, and now a trainer.  I have worked at a few dealerships and have seen operations that were world class with true professionals as well as operations that were disasters when it came to professionalism.  I am talking about pulling up to a dealership and seeing sales people toss a football around in the parking lot.  Anyone ever walk into a dealership and get an improper greeting?  Let's take it a step further.  A sales person that does not take control of the situation and has to run around back and forth to answer a customer's question.  And to take it even further I would like to add situations that include letting customers go on test drives by themselves (I am guilty of doing this too in the past when I did not know any better).  Do you see where I am going with this?

We as an industry have been losing the lost art of professionalism.  We have forgotten the basics or are not taught this art when getting involved in automotive sales and even business development roles.  This is because the training that has been provided to new hires goes by fast where information is not retained.  That is not the only reason why today's sales professional lacks professionalism on the job.  This is because dealerships are getting more and more employees from the millennial generation that come with a different attitude.  They are technologically savvy, can adjust to the internet and the way people shop for automobiles.  They come with an attitude where they expect things to come to them and do not want to work too hard.  In fact, if you let them make $40k per year they will be content.  Is every millennial like that?  No!!!  Look at me.  I am in that generation and I had a different upbringing.  When most people my age were going to school, partying, and not worrying about the future I was in showrooms working and living in the real world.  Some say I am a 42 year old in a 28 year old body.  I was also raised differently by family and have worked since I was 15 years old.

What about the people that are leaving the automotive industry to either retire or change careers because the business has changed digitally and they feel that they cannot make money like they used to?  The same people that were once great and professional that have become disgruntled by their lower income so they perform at a lower level then they did over 10 years ago.  I am not even kidding, I had this discussion a year ago with a manager at a dealership that is my age.  He was telling me how more managers around our age bracket move up and take jobs as sales managers and finance managers because we are happy making $120k per year as opposed to a 50 year old veteran looking to make over $200k when the business has changed radically in the last 4-5 years.

The reality is that the same success is still possible.  Dealerships are lacking in training and motivation that needs to become a systematic part of their process to provide ongoing training on how to be the best professional out there.  There will be people that leave and not want a part of it but there will be other hungry people that will see how successful a sales person that sells 30-40+ units per month.  In a BDC environment, I always sell candidates on the fact that this position can lead to a very rewarding future if you study and learn your professional.  If you enjoy what you do and be the best at it, you can move up and make a lot of money.

I want to end this article by remind automotive professionals that it is important to be professional.  If it means that you have to take a class on being professional or attend a workshop, do it!  Invest in yourself and your career and you will be a success.  If you are coffee clutching in the showroom and tossing a football, you need to think twice about how serious you are about your career.  If you are yelling across the showroom to communicate and you use foul language in your statements, you need check yourself and consider your actions.  Customers can pick up on these things.  Seriously, automobiles are expensive these days with the average new car being in the $20-30k range.  If you are going to deal with big ticket items, learn how to be a professional.

I invite everyone reading this to share their thoughts and ideas...as always feel free to contact me.

Stan Sher is the founder and President of Dealer eTraining, an automotive sales training company that specializes in sales, internet, BDC, and digital marketing strategy training.  To learn more about Dealer eTraining, please visit http://dealeretraining.com/.  He is also the Vice President of Millennium Business Solutions, a start up company designed to provide 24-7 business solutions to automotive dealerships.  Stan can be contacted by email at Stan@dealeretraining.com.

Picture this scenario...

A high level Internet/BDC Manager gets hired into a dealership that is a goldmine of an opportunity.  This person comes very highly recommended and has a proven track record of building success for every dealership that they have worked with.  It is amazing how during the interview process this person's suggestions and views are not really cared for.  Here is a dealership that gets over 2000 leads per month with an underperforming BDC, very poor customer satisfaction, and untrained sales consultants.

This new BDC Manager starts working at the dealership that builds him a new BDC office with space to fit 10 BDC reps.  The dealership is operating with only 4 BDC reps that cherry pick the leads and do not follow up a set process.  This is because the CRM is not properly set up.  These 4 BDC reps are working 55 hours per week and milking the dealership for overtime with very little focus on performance since the commission plan is poor.  The sales staff is micro-managed and is required to spend an hour a day in the BDC to make random phone calls to random internet leads (only to aggravate prospects) without reading notes on the customers.

What does the BDC Manager accomplish in a 2 month period?

Start with the fact that this person works 50 hours per week.  Also take into consideration that the General Manager is really just a General Sales Manager who takes on way more responsibility than they should.  They handle websites, third party lead providers, and marketing without ever involving the BDC Manager (who has the best automotive digital marketing background in the whole dealership).  Take into consideration that while all of the dealerships that are smart are pulling out of using TrueCar, this dealership embraces it.  They get 1200 leads per month off of ZAG and only sell 30.  They are happy with that and do not care for the fact that 95% of the leads are garbage that clutter the CRM.  When the BDC Manager speaks up, the response that he gets is "look we delivered 30 cars at $2,700 per unit so it is a great resource".

Does this sound like a problematic situation?  So the BDC Manager puts up with it and works with what he has knowing that the dealership only talks about growing but does not want to make changes that will allow for the growth.

So in two months, here is what happens:

1. Pay Plan change for BDC reps.  No more overtime.  No more hourly pay.  They strictly get paid a weekly salary to work 40 hours per week.  The commission plan becomes lucrative.  There is a bonus put in place if the team hits their goals.  This causes issues and struggles because everyone started to complain.  However, everyone has the option of accepting the change and the ability to make more money or pack their things and leave.  Every single BDC rep stays loyal and decides to follow this new plan.

2. As we know it is impossible to manager 2000 leads for 4 people.  The BDC Managers hires 4 more people rounding out the staff to an even 8 person BDC.  Now we are in business.  This stops the cherry picking and starts to push the BDC reps to making more phone calls and appointments.

3. Training.  The BDC reps were all trained to follow the system that BDC Manager has put into place.  It was easier for the new people to learn and develop these new methods while the veterans had to incorporate this into what they were already doing.

4. CRM Process setup.  The CRM was a total disaster.  There was no work plan.  In fact the only leads that were followed up with were the ones that responded back.  Email templates were not clear and everyone just sent out a random email.  This would change as the BDC Manager installed processes and email templates that include 120 follow for internet leads consisting of emails and phone calls.  The emails had fresh, unique, content that triggered customers to respond.  This automatically increased contact rates and elevated to more phone calls.  There were processes installed for following up with unsold showroom customers as well as bringing in service customers to give them an opportunity to trade their vehicle into a new one.

The Results:

Before all of these changes were made, the average Saturday appointment log would have 60-70 appointments booked.  After these changes, an average Saturday appointment log with have between 85 and 104 appointments.  During the week the appointments went from 15 per day to as many as 35 per day.  Towards the end of the 2nd month the total amount of appointments for the store were 610 set and 317 shows.

The problem:

With 610 set and 317 shows, the dealership as a whole was sitting on only 115 delivered vehicles.  Keep in mind that lead count dropped as Zag/TrueCar made changes.  The leads went from 1200 to 600.  The BDC Manager was happy to have less garbage clutter the CRM.  The customers are being brought in yet the sales department is dropping the ball.  The dealership is starting to have more customer satisfaction problems than ever.  More and more customers email and call to complain.  They are being mishandled.  One of the sales consultants who consistently sell over 30 cars per month is politically tied in with the GM and he gets way with everything.  He skates other sales people and he is the main source of the customer satisfaction problems.

What else?  It is two months into this department being setup.  The BDC Manager still does not have as desk, computer, and phone.  There were times when the BDC Manager had to work out of their very own laptop.  The first month and half there were not enough phone lines.

So the finger pointing starts and the blame goes to the internet manager for the dealership not selling cars.  The blame also states that they are not focused on the job as much as they should be and the results are not there.  The dealership does not know what to do next but thinks that having this BDC Manager is a huge expense so they let him go.

Fast forward one week later after the BDC Manager is gone.  This dealership has no clue to what to do next so they place their 30 car per month sales all-star (who barely speaks English and is the reason for most of the customer satisfaction problems) to be the acting BDC Manager.  This person has no BDC training and has no idea how to manage the CRM and anything about process.  Well that first Saturday, the appointment log drops down to 50 appointments instead of 90.

What is the point?

The point is that dealers need to stop looking for an instant miracle.  If you want to grow and you get someone great give them the chance and the support that they need to make it work.  Stop fighting it.  Control the dealership so that no one else gets in the way politically to make it difficult for the store to grow.  Start focusing on managing the sales staff and fixing all of the customer service issues that come with the problem.  At 317 customers showing up, the dealership should have sold 140-150 units just off the appointments and even more from the walk in traffic.  Yet the blame is still put on the internet manager.  This store does not look back and think "Why did we have to go through 5 and now 6 BDC Managers in 2 years?"  They just dream big and finger point.  Finger pointing and playing the blame game only takes you backwards.  So when you decide that you want to grow and make positive changes.  Stick with them and do not cause action that will make you go backwards.

By the way this is based on a true story and this actually happened within the last two months.  The statistics are 100% accurate.

Does your sales and business development team create valid reasons for the customer to do business “now?” Do you ever wonder how you can move the needle with growing business? The answer is really simple when considering what we have been taught over the years. To be successful in any business, sales professionals need to be aggressive by asking the right questions at the right time.

As a dealer consultant and BDC director, I am always listening to outgoing calls as well as incoming calls. I notice that many calls do not show a sense of urgency. I hear a lot of calls where customer questions are being answered, but there is never a question that comes back to the customer to regain control of the call. I see this on the showroom floor as well when I walk by and listen to sales consultants work deals.

As our industry sees tough times with a shortage of inventory, it is more important to apply these techniques in the sales process. We need to consider what happens if we do not build urgency in the sales process. The consumer may miss out a deal of a lifetime, because the magic question was not asked. This will cause sales professionals a chance to miss a sale for the dealership.

How do we improve this issue?

I have always been an advocate of weekly training through motivational meetings and role playing. The best method of training “urgency” is to create a few power lines that will show full control of the situation. When speaking on the phone lines such as “When can you come in? This afternoon or this evening?” or “How close to right now can you be here?” should be used. When working a deal on the showroom floor lines such as “Are you prepared to take delivery of your new vehicle right now?” should be used. This is a great way to see if you can get a commitment out of the customer.

In order to properly train dealership personnel on this practice management needs to set aside thirty minutes in the morning before the day starts. These thirty minutes will be an explanation of these closes and why they should be used. The best method is to go around the room using repetition and role playing scenarios that will call for these lines. I believe that a continuous training session will improve skills of sales professionals.

The bottom line is that as sales professionals we were always taught the golden rule, “If you do not ask, you do not get.” Start asking your customers for commitment with urgency and watch how many more times you will get. The ultimate goal is to improve our closing ratios, our income, and the success levels of our dealerships. This is a basic technique that needs to be revisited time after time. The basics may sound “old school” but they still work if executive properly.

Stan Sher is the founder and president of Dealer eTraining, a premier automotive internet sales and digital marketing consulting company. For more information, please feel free to call 732-925-8362 or email stan@dealeretraining.com .

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Why do I love the car business?

Why do I never stop being the best that I can be?

Why do I go through the ups and downs of the industry?

Why do I try so hard?

One answer in a few parts...

1.  The Experience.  The Experience.  The Experience.

Part A:

I am talking about 8 solid years of dealership sales, sales management, and more recently consultung experience.  I have met some interesting people from all walks of life.  There have been great influences and not so great influences.  There have been people that went from green pea sales people to top notch consultants (myself included lol).  There have been sales people that gave up and left the industry.  I seen people leave the industry (or try to leave) and end up coming back.  It is like a disease (good or bad).  We get sucked into it and we can never say farewell (because we are just so good at it).  It is a thrill and fun to see.

Part B:

This is my story.  I am that man that tries to do everything right.  I go to NADA, Digital Dealer Conferences, and so many other events.  I learn as much as I can and I apply it.  This helps me develop some new ideas.  I sold cars.  I built multimillion dollar Internet/BDC departments.  I am great at what I do.  I continue to research and create best practices that pay off in the end.  I have seen rejection from foolish vendors that do not think I am capable of selling to dealers (only because I have too much dealer experience).  I have built successful internet departments that make a lot of money only to find out that I am making too much money.  I have also traveled the country and consulted dealerships and dealer groups.  There are moments in my life when I tell myself, "enough is enough, time to move on and put these 8 years of hard work and adventure behind me".  Every time I do that, I look at all of the other avenues and they just do not excite me the way this industry does.  So I continue to grind and make the best of it and never give up (because I am a survivor and I love the challenge).  Again, this is an adventure that I would have to say is like a roller coaster ride.  Not to mention, I have made some seriously great life long friends that have become personal friends.  I have also made some phony friends that really just smile and pretend (Yes we have some shady ones too).  That is fine because I learned to read people and really see them for what they are with their actions.  Sometimes, politics is the name of the game.  Even still, I am glad I know these people because my experience gets that much bigger.

Part C:

Yes THE EXPERIENCE.  I came to the conclusion that I will forever continue to do what I do and as I gain experience so will the opportunities that lie ahead.  I take what I learn and I run with it.  For example, I am launching a business outside of the automotive industry that involves me doing everything that the automotive industry has taught me.  That is right, everything these blogs, magazines, and conferences taught me I took with me and it is on the way to pay off big.  At the same time, my plan is to continue doing what I do best which is to help dealers be successful.  I love the car business and I love watching dealerships grow with the times. These days, I am looking to better myself and to help better the community around with me with fresh ideas.  This is why I love DealerElite, Automotive Digital Marketing, DrivingSales, Digital Dealer, InternetSalesManagers.org, and so many more.

Part D:

What would happen if I choose a different path in life at 20 years old?

Well, I would have finished my college degree.  I would have gotten a $30,000 a year job as a school teacher.

I would not have finance in order.  I would be in a lot of debt.  I would not be getting a brand new car every few years.  I could not learn the real business world.  I would be living in fantasy land on the morals of what school books try to instill.  That is not the end of the world.  However, I learned one thing.  I cannot truly experience life until I have experienced the ups and downs of life such as hardships, success, business development, motivation, amongst other things.  Did I mention, I made in my first selling cars more then a school teacher with 5 years experience?

I will finish my college education as I am not far from having a degree.  It will be just to make my parents proud and to have that piece of paper.  After all, ethics say that a piece of paper really make the man that I am.  I learned that in reality, it is not what you know but who you know.  But for those to want to see my $70,000 Degree that does not teach me reality of life.  Great, have a look at it when I get it.  Whatever makes them happy.  I just know that I will continue to be me and I will always be the best at what I do.  My experience and my skills are constantly growing and this will never stop.

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What an event!!!

Incredible!!!

I just got back last night from spending a long week in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I always like to recap these events when I get a chance.  Here we go:

I started my trip to San Francisco on February 1, 2011 where I was fortunate to bypass the bad weather and flight cancellations in Philadelphia.  It was unfortunate that I was unable to spend time in NAPA with Digital Marketing Strategies conferences as I was visiting my family.  I heard a lot of great things and look forward to being a part of the next one.  This week was special because I was able to accomplish a lot not only in my business life but also my personal life.  I met my beautiful 18 month old niece and visited family that I have not seen in years.  I was also able to spend time with very old friends that I have not seen in years.

Once Friday 2/4/11 came around, I was ready to get to business.  It started with my checking in to the NADA convention and getting my pass.  It was not easy getting to my hotel at first because the cab drivers in San Francisco are all mean and nasty.  They stop to offer you a ride and reject you.  It took five tries until someone actually helped me.  After checking in to my room, I decided to go explore the area.  I quickly met up with my very good friend, Matt Lamoureux from DealerRater and we started hanging out.  We went to Yoshi’s for a planned meet up with a lot of our friends (Dan Moore, Dara Moore, Joe Webb, Eric Miltsch, Ralph Paglia, Larry Bruce, Michele David, Jim Ziegler, and so many more).  We enjoyed a great dinner and social experience.  A bunch of us went out and stayed out late to have a great evening.

Saturday started off with walking around the convention hall exploring different vendors and catching up with old friends.  I enjoyed a few business meetings throughout the day where I met with some powerful minds in the industry including the very amazing, Paul Potratz.  I am always enjoying his posts on different sites because they are informative and creative.  The day brought a lot of meet ups including my friend Stan Thomas (eCarlist) who I get to see once in a while back home.  I was impressed with the new platform of eCarlist and how well the system works.  It was also amazing to see what my friends over at VinSolutions had come up with.  When I saw the VinLense, I saw an absolute game changer.  This team keeps coming up with out of this world invention.  It was great to catch up with Sean Stapleton, Kendall Billman, Joe Little, and a bunch of other talented individuals from the VinSolutions team.  As always, I hung out with my friends Joe Webb (DealerKnows) and Matt Lamoureux (Dealer Rater).  I got to see Gary May (IM@CS) and catch up with him as well.  It was also great to see my friends at Autobytel. 

As the day concluded, I went to the eCarlist party and networked with some other bright minds in the industry before heading out to the eBay party.  I hung out with good friends from IntelliPayment and got to discuss some great BDC strategies for their product.  The party was a hit where I once again hung out with VinSolutions and Autobytel friends.  As the night was coming to an end, I hung out with DealerOn friends (Ali Amirrezvani, Amir Rezvani, and Jeff Clark).

I continued a similar pattern on Sunday with more meetings and more exploration of different vendors.  I was looking for products that I can work with in my line of work.  I was able to meet some more interesting people that I can do work with.  It was great to spend time with Steve Risso and Ted Bessen (Teddy Nissan).   I used to work for them as their Internet Director and here we were at NADA walking around.  I really respect them both and admire them for the work they have done with their store.  I still think it was one of the best dealerships that I have ever worked for.  It was Super Bowl Sunday so I ended up at the PCG Digital Marketing/Colorado Dealer Association/TK Carsites sponsored Super Bowl party.  I got to connect with Ed Brooks from vAuto as well as Tom White Jr. (Suzuki of Wichita).  I also hung out with many industry friends.  It was great to catch up with Brian and Glenn Pasch (PCG Digital Marketing), Tim Martell (Wikimotive), Arnold Tijerina and Jared Hamilton (Driving Sales), Michele David (Esserman Nissan VW), Brent Wees (Dashboard), Matthew O’Such (PCG), JD Rucker (TK Carsites).   I was happy to see many other friends.  I want to thank the sponsors for a wonderful Super Bowl Event.

As soon as this party ended, a bunch of us went to AT&T Park the always amazing DealerTrack party.  I got to hang out with my old friend, Adam Ross (Infinite Prospects) as well as Gene Kociuba (Classic Cars) and Dave Adams (also an ex Dealer Synergy employee).  It was like a meeting of the NJ automotive internet sales gurus.  We toured the stadium and mingled.  The night ended with me catching up with the usual bunch from the dinner at Yoshi’s.  I also saw my friend Rechelle Gryparis (IMN Loyalty Driver).

We concluded NADA with more meetings and walking around.  This was my chance to see any vendors that I missed seeing before the show ended.  I had lunch with my old friend Maurice Lawrence (Autotrader).  Maurice was my Autotrader rep at a previous dealership that I worked with.  I ended that day catching up with more family friends.  I even got to catch up with the one and only, Chris Saraceno (Kelly Auto Group/DealerElite).

I have to say that this was one of the best conventions that I have been to in a long time.  There were a lot of great products to explore.  There was a great attendance which allowed for better interactions.  San Francisco was a lot of fun and a great experience to not only get business accomplished but also visit my loved ones.  I look forward to the upcoming Digital Dealer Conference and the future NADA conventions.  It was great to see all of my friends once again.