Stop Using Mystery Shops as Gotchas: A Better Framework
Most dealerships treat mystery shop results like a report card—you get it back, someone gets blamed, and nothing actually changes. That's backward. The real val...
The Follow-Up Book Is Killing Your Sales: A Contrarian Take
You're sitting in your sales manager's office on a Monday morning, and she's showing you the follow-up book for one of your top performers. Ninety-three names. ...
The Trade-In Allowance Paradox: Why Your 'Discipline' Might Be Costing You More Than You Think
The Trade-In Allowance Paradox: Why Your "Discipline" Might Be Costing You More Than You Think Sixty-three percent of dealerships report that trade-in allowanc...
Stop Overcoming Payment Objections: The Contrarian Sales Manager's Guide
Here's something most sales managers won't tell you: your payment objection problem probably isn't a payment problem at all. A 2023 Cox Automotive study found ...
The Broken 90-Day Ramp Plan: Why Calendar-Based Sales Training Fails
Back in 1954, Ford Motor Company published its first formal sales training manual, a 247-page opus that promised to transform any person without a car business ...
Your Deal Desk Is Approving Too Fast (And It's Costing You Money)
Your Deal Desk Is Approving Too Fast (And It's Costing You Money) According to industry data, dealerships that slow down their deal desk approval process by ju...
Why Strict Sales Up-List Rotation is Costing You Deals (And What Top Performers Do Instead)
Most dealerships are doing up-list rotation wrong, and they're actually losing deals because of it. The conventional wisdom says this: establish a strict rotat...
Why the Dedicated Internet Sales Manager Role Might Be Holding Your Dealership Back
You're sitting in a dealer meeting when someone brings up the internet sales manager role. The consensus is instant and automatic: that position is essential, y...
Why Your Phone-Up Conversion Rate Might Be Killing Profit (And What to Track Instead)
You're sitting in your sales manager's office at 8:47 a.m. on a Tuesday. The BDC just handed off a fresh internet lead. The number's dialed. The phone rings. Ri...
Multi-Store Digital Marketing Governance: What's Changed and What Hasn't
You probably remember when dealer groups could get away with each rooftop running its own digital marketing playbook. One store's Facebook strategy looked nothi...
Group Purchasing Agreements in 2024: What's Changed and What Hasn't
Group purchasing agreements are basically the only leverage a mid-sized dealer group has left, and half the groups we talk to are still negotiating them like it...
HR Standardization Across Multi-Rooftop Dealer Groups: What's Actually Changed
Is Your Multi-Rooftop HR Strategy Actually Helping You Scale, Or Just Creating Bureaucracy? Here's the uncomfortable truth: most dealer groups that acquire a n...