I was talking to a pal who’s a consultant to a company making equipment for the armed forces. The sales force is all ex-military. He was describing the salespeople there as ‘shadow boxers’ because...

There are now more than seven million drivers over the age of 65 on Britain’s roads – 19% of the total number of full driving licence holders, according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists. This...

The connected customer is a very different beast from ten years ago, when today’s sales managers and dealer principals were earning their stripes. Looking at the typical buying cycle, a customer goes...

With the start of March just a few days away, all of your sales staff will be busy selling and processing orders ready for the 1st of the month. Sales departments, prep teams and workshops will have...

The results of a survey by What Car? make alarming reading. Only a third of some 48 dealerships visited were able to provide the magazine’s researchers with their choice of test drive vehicle....

New Year is traditionally a time for making all sorts of promises to change. So this month, here are three key stats that show how consumers have actually changed. They come from our knowledge of...

Weins Canada has seen a substantial rise in the proportion of people who turn up for their appointment by adapting an idea from the airline industry. The Ontario-based multi-franchised retailer, which...

The Now Vauxhall group enjoyed a strong September this year, with new car sales up 30% on September 2012 and well ahead of target with around 500 units sold. One useful addition to the total came from...

Good used car performance has always been vital to any successful dealership, but its importance will increase as we go forward. This year’s BCA Used Car Market Report identified a return to pre-...

This year there are four days between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve and many dealerships will have shut up shop because “there’s nothing doing”. Why waste those days? There are plenty of folk who,...

It is an oft-quoted statistic in the trade that a customer today will visit 1.3 dealerships before buying a vehicle, down from seven dealerships a decade ago. And whenever I talk to retailers, they...

Motability was set up nearly 50 years ago to help those with disabilities to cope better with transport issues.  In 2004, Motability accounted for 6% of all new car registrations. Now it is more...

On average, how long does it take for a call from Auto Trader to convert into a sale? It’s actually around five days. What this is telling us is that the car sales cycle has shortened dramatically....

Manufacturers increasingly are trying to control their networks with automated CRM systems, and auto retailers have spent a fortune on them. But the more we automate our lives, it seems, the worse...

It’s just a few days away, but there’s still time to make sure your team is primed to get off to a great start in September and to keep up the momentum throughout the month. The first seven months...

More than half of dealers are failing to recognise the importance of search engine optimisation for their business, according to a recent industry survey. When asked whether they allocated any budget...

Why do we employ sales executives? The simple answer is that as managers we believe certain people have the personality traits to embrace a sales process, work with it and successfully convert...

Often seen as just an overhead, courtesy cars if chosen and specified properly can be your best demonstration cars. Unfortunately though, their selection is often driven by the need to either meet...

One of the best books ever written about the art of writing letters that sell is The Handbook of Direct MaiI, by Siegfried Vögele of the Institute of Direct Marketing in Munich. It is based on a...

Trials of a new finance renewal system at two Hartwell dealerships in the Oxford area have generated 20 highly profitable deals from around 500 qualified leads, which business managers were unlikely...