Five Reasons Why Dealers Will See Continued Growth in 2012

Considering the state of world events and market conditions, 2011 turned out to be a pretty good year for auto dealers, at least compared with 2010. According to information published by Autodata Corp., total light vehicle sales for 2011 was expected
Mar 14, 2012

Effective Spend Management Strategy for 2012

What is spend management? Spend management is a strategy that innovative companies employ to control and optimize the money they spend. Spend management includes a number of familiar disciplines that are designed to reduce costs, improve efficiencies
Feb 20, 2012

Lenders have Reloaded their Chips and are Playing more Aggressive Hands

I love when the National Automobile Dealers Association convention takes place in Las Vegas, as it did this year. Though I’m much more inclined to spend my time in Las Vegas taking in a show, I like the sensory overload of a walk down the strip or
Feb 17, 2012

Setting your 2012 Spend Management Objectives

All dealerships have the opportunity this month to shape a better and more profitable 2012 by taking some decisive action. For the past few months these articles have focused on reducing costs, checking in on your profitability, identifying a strateg
Dec 19, 2011

Is the Insurance Policy You Have the One You Thought You Bought?

Is the insurance policy sitting on your desk correct? Are all the “Is” dotted and “Ts” crossed? Did all the changes you negotiated and corrections you made actually end up in the policy? I have reviewed hundreds of policy sets every year and
Dec 8, 2011

Image Facilities — If You Build It, Will They Come?

Before the credit crisis, many dealers felt an investment in real estate was relatively riskless. Retail real estate prices had steadily increased for years. Few considered the possibility of a national decline in real estate prices. Manufacturers to
Nov 22, 2011

General Motors’ Putting the Brakes on EBE Facility Requirements

It appears that all the push back from dealers has paid off. At the time I write this article, General Motors is issuing two-year extensions to the deadline for dealers to complete their Essential Brand Elements facility upgrades. It is not yet clear
Oct 31, 2011

Is your Team Playing Aggressive Defense?

It has been said many times that “offense wins games, but defense wins championships.” Following the football analogy within the business context, we could equate offense to the generation of sales revenues and the defensive component of business
Oct 27, 2011

Inspect What you Expect (and Other Clichéd Lessons your Managers have Forgotten)

Last month I visited a dealer-client to conduct a full-day, deep-dive into their digital marketing and Internet sales processes. The store had been reporting erratic results (up a little one month, down a lot the next), which is usually indicative of
Oct 20, 2011