Alphadawg Blog
FOR AUTOMOTIVE PROFESSIONALS
Tips and information from Jim Ziegler.
If You’re Not In, You’re Out
As a professional speaker, writer, and commentator, nothing gives me greater satisfaction than knowing something I did or a thought I expressed had an effect that motivated you to respond and take positive action. When writing my article, “The Elephant in the Room,” for Dealer Magazine’s Sept. Issue, I expected some comments, debates, agreements, and disagreements. But the response was stronger and more strongly emotional. Dozens of dealers read the article and asked me questions. AND the voices I heard loudest were the executive management of the dealerships and dealer principals. It seems that I hit a nerve bringing up a subject that was already on everyone’s mind, but nobody wanted to talk about it until they knew how other people felt. So many of the people I spoke with said, “You know, Jim, I’ve been considering doing that, but it’s a big commitment, and I was wondering how it would work out in my market?” The truth is that
Battle Plan Blab
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Joel Casser, Rico Glover, and Bill Parlaman
Why Are They Leaving?
If you know me, you know that I hate stats. I believe most stats are made up and created by individuals that want to influence the people receiving the stats. I’m not saying you should ignore stats altogether, but you should be skeptical and take a hard look at who is delivering the stats and what their motivation is to make you believe them. Let’s say that turnover in the sales department is out of control, and depending on who you believe, more than 80% of salespeople don’t make it through the first year.Recently, I’ve seen stats published that said we have 112% turnover since the pandemic began. Excuse me, I still have a problem with anything being more than 100%, but I can show you the report. And we’re expected to take these people seriously? After 48 years in the car business, no one has solved the problem. But with turnover so high, why is it that still, no
The Dawg Doubles Down
THE DAWG DOUBLES DOWN … from Jim Ziegler’s April 3rd, 2022 Newsletter, sign up for FREE email newsletter here … CLICK HERE The Alpha Dawg Doubles Down … Jim Ziegler is quiet, shy and introverted, humbled with humility.” … said no one ever. Don’t ask the man a question if you’re Not prepared to hear the answer. In this issue of the Dawg’s Newsletter, Jim Doubles Down on his opinion that the manufacturers are planning to dump their dealers. After the NADA Convention, many dealers returned home more convinced than ever that the manufacturers were planning to sell ‘Direct to The Public’ with the advent of the new age of total BEV Production as they rapidly phase out ICE cars. Some dealers believe the factory is planning to eliminate them. BUT, it appears to me that other dealers are living in a fantasy world and they’re believing that that the manufacturers’ plan include them into the future. “Slap a little cold water in your face
As automakers go all-in on EVs, will they drop franchise dealers in favor of direct-to-consumer sales?
Consumers today have options at their fingertips and while the automotive purchase process has changed to meet these consumer needs over the past few years, what does this mean for the industry in the long run? Today on Inside Automotive, we’re pleased to welcome Jim Ziegler, automotive retail veteran, speaker, and President of Ziegler SuperSystems, to elaborate on a recent article he wrote called “Are Manufacturers Getting Ready to Dump Their Dealerships?” Ziegler’s article takes aim at Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and other automakers that are going all-in on EVs and changing up their production/inventory strategies. Ziegler recalls back to the beginning of February during Ford’s investors call when CEO Jim Farley, perhaps accidentally, hinted at the EV/ICE split. The split wasn’t formally announced until early March of this year. This was shocking to Ziegler and started wondering, does this mean possible separate franchises? Does it mean we’re going to sell directly to consumers on the EV side like Tesla does? Read more and
Are Manufacturers Getting Ready to Dump Their Dealerships?
ARE DEALERSHIPS OBSOLETE? This article is a collection of Ziegler’s opinions and his interpretation of current events as he sees and his conjecture of what it might mean. The Perfect Storm. It all began during the shut-in, locked down period of the Pandemic. We’ll call it the ‘Amazon Effect’. Consumers discovered they could order products and services, even groceries, online which could be delivered to their homes almost immediately, a generation of instant gratification. Even though they’ve only captured a small percentage of retail sales, the new players like Carvana, Vroom and Tesla have captured a growing niche within the market, but don’t lose sight of the fact it’s only a small percentage of total sales nationally, to a very elite clientele so far. In the meantime, several other situations created by the Pandemic occurred. We have a shortage of microprocessor chips and raw materials to build the cars caused by supply chain issues and labor shortages. On top of that,
Flying My New Drone
You should have seen it. It was gliding effortlessly above the rooftops. I even took a few photos of some trees and stuff in the backyard. When I opened that present on Christmas Day, I knew it was going to be a life-changer. Much better than the socks, underwear, sleeveless jacket, Copper Fit gloves, and face masks. The camera is high-quality HD and capable of making movies and putting them right on my Android phone. I felt like a kid in a Dr. Suess book, “Oh the Places We Will Go” (and things I will do with my new drone). I had such great plans for my new drone, which I named “Little Elvis.” The feeling was euphoria. I loved my new drone until… Read the whole article on Digital Dealer here.
Google Your Business
Oh no! Not again, another article about Google My Business (GMB), and even worse, this one by Jim Ziegler, who is not a recognized expert on Google protocols. If we want to hear anything about GMB, we’ll go to Greg Gifford, George Nenni, or any one of a hundred other credentialled recognized agencies and experts on the subject. What could Ziegler say on this subject that could have any value? The answer is, I don’t even pretend to be an expert on SEO or SEM, and everything Iknow about GMB I learned from industry experts and agencies that are friends of mine. This article is not about how to do it but, more importantly, why you need to use and constantly build your GMB. First of all, I want to warn everyone reading this to ignore all of the statistics that you’ve seen, heard, or read on the subject. Nobody has meaningful stats; any alleged research is flawed and biased.
Fake Data Yields Fake Results
Is it possible that Vendors give Car Dealers Fake Data disguised as proof that their products and services contribute to increased sales and profits? In recent years we’ve heard many politicians calling out “Fake News” to the point that almost every debate and speech has people working in the background calling themselves “Fact-Checkers.” Just a few decades ago, there was never a need for ‘fact checking’ because most people sort of trusted the people delivering the information to have some level of integrity. …AND, so it is with the car business. We are deep into the era of data-based sales and marketing, and, without exception, every vendor and manufacturer comes to us armed with volumes of alleged data to validate their every claim. Their data is proof of their value as your partner. Call me a skeptic. Have you ever had a vendor present their data to your dealership that unequivocally proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that their
The Sky Is Falling
Ziegler talks about how your dealership can survive the coming crash In the children’s story of Chicken Little, a paranoid hysterical chick runs through the town screaming that, ‘The sky is falling,’ after an acorn fell on his head. Even though I believe I am the Paul Revere of the auto industry, writing articles and social media posts to warn the dealers of the coming catastrophe, there are many critics saying that I’m actually Chicken Little spreading paranoia and false alarm. Well, all I can say about that to those people is that I stand on my track record for predicting things that actually came to pass. I’ve been ‘right’ as many times as you’ve been wrong. It’s about to crash hard, and in this article, I’m going to give you some really strong suggestions on how not to become a casualty. In the last year, we’ve seen dealers realizing record sales and record profits. Not only are we realizing
What Is … Is
The Dramatic Changes to Make Right Now The time for dramatic changes is now. You have no choice if you intend to stay in business. Resisting the inevitable is stupid. The winners will not just be the ones who go with it, but the ones that embrace it and get ahead of it. There was a time way back in the ’70s when a much younger Jim Ziegler was searching for truth and enlightenment. I’m referring back to my renaissance – what I jokingly call my Hippie Days. Long hair and a generous beard; following my divorce, I rode a motorcycle across the country from Florida to California. Former deejay, bar fighter, and street racer; now here I was sitting cross-legged in a cabin on the Big Sur coastline in the California mountains chanting my Indian Mantra. I was hanging out with the emerging pop psychology gurus and the human potential movement, swamis, and existentialists. It was an exciting time
Did You Bump Your Head?
Did You Bump Your Head? We’re all in this game together, and regardless of which team you’re playing on, never lose sight of the fact that it’s just the game, and in the end, we’re all still friends. In the South where I was raised, there are two veiled insults reserved for someone who has done something you consider to be stupid or someone who says or does something that defies our perception of logic or common sense. Of course, one of those uniquely Southern put-downs is when a person is commenting on something another person has done and in a righteous, condescending tone of voice says, “Bless Your Heart.” While it sounds harmless, everyone in these parts knows you are insinuating whoever you’re talking about isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. And, of course, the other one is, when a person says something that you consider to be insane or ‘moronic,’ and you look at them and solemnly
Saying Goodbye to the Godfather
I’ve heard people say he was a legend, the ‘Godfather of Automotive Digital Marketing,’ and a pioneer in modern BDCs. Yes, he was all of that and more, but to me, Ralph Paglia (pictured) was my friend. It was one of those names, like Cher or Nixon. When someone in the car business said, “Ralph,” nobody ever asked, “Which one?” I’ve heard people say he was a legend, the ‘Godfather of automotive digital marketing,’ and a pioneer in modern BDCs. Yes, he was all of that and more, but to me, Ralph Paglia was my friend. We all go through life taking some people for granted as if they’ll always be there; until they aren’t. Ralph was always there, just a phone call away for anyone and everyone, and then, on December 21, the news spread throughout the industry like wildfire. Ralph Paglia had died from complications of COVID-19. Thousands of people joined in the online tributes, and there were
You Must Adapt to Move Forward
10 Changes Dealers Must Make in 2021 In 1980 John Lennon wrote the song, “Beautiful Boy,” about his broken relationship with his young son. The lyrics he penned resounded and hit so many of us with the raw truth behind the words. Lennon wrote and sang, “Before you cross the street, take my hand. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Although that quote was not entirely original to Lennon, his emphasis on the future uncertainty caused the world to pause and take note. 2020 was a scene right out of our worst nightmare, but also a dawning of a new adventure in automotive. Your perspective depends entirely on how you reacted to what the year threw at you. As we charge forward into the New Year, dealers that are willing to adapt and change, embracing new processes, technologies, and business practices, will crush competitors who chose to ignore the reality of shifting paradigms. In
The Great Dealer Apocalypse of the 2020s
It’s nighttime here on planet Mars, November 15, 2030. I am sitting here speaking to my voice word processor as I am sipping on a Piña Colada, and yes, this is the life. Sitting comfortably on the enclosed balcony of my apartment here at the Elon Musk Villages Retirement Colony on Mars, my wife, Debbie, is in the other room cooking another one of her fabulous signature meals – simulated roast beef and greens. Yes, I am still here. Some say I am immortal. I don’t know if that’s true, I haven’t got there yet. Watching Mars’ beautiful moons, Deimos, and Phobos, lighting up the Martian nighttime sky, is serene and calming. My thoughts turn back to another time as I reminisce about the way it was – and the way it could have been. The following is my perception and personal opinions of the events that happened back then. Read the whole article on Digital Dealer here.
Transformation of Your Dealership – Shifting Paradigms
Ziegler cites his ability to change and evolve as the catalyst for who he is today. That is also your ability – to change direction, adapt, and create a new dealership model. Those of you that have known me through the years, know many of the processes and techniques the entire retail car business uses daily were originally invented and implemented by me. In other words, the stuff we do every day in every dealership, much of it I created. “Old school, I Invented old school…” that’s a fact that can be proven. So, let’s move on to the important stuff. Over the last 43 years in the car business, I have had to throw on the brakes, stop, reverse, and go in a completely new direction. So, I advanced from “old school” to “newer school,” to the “latest school.” Survival and prosperity in our business has always been the dealers’ ability to evolve and change mindset. What I was
Who Killed Cadillac?
I am greatly saddened as I sit here pouring my thoughts into my keyboard. I’ve written numerous articles through the years detailing the fall of Cadillac, an American luxury icon. A voice inside my head keeps screaming, “Why?” I am about to rant an outpouring of my personal opinions, emotions, and perceptions as I have done so many times in years past. It isn’t always negative. I have owned nine Escalades and seven Chevrolet Corvettes. I was a cheerleader for the brand. And I still love General Motors; I am just enraged by their management. When Mary Barra was appointed chairman and CEO of GM, I was ecstatic that they had selected a woman for that position. Four years later, I am scratching my head and saying, “Yes, but not that one.” Uh-oh! The angel on my right shoulder just said, “Ziegler, are you nuts? Talking bad about Mary Barra is sort of like slapping Mother Teresa.” And now the
Never Argue With Stupid People
How is Carvana drawing investors with a losing proposition? The Alpha Dawg blames short sellers and the shortsighted. As Mark Twain once said, “Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” In recent years, the retail car business has been invaded, infiltrated, and infested by armies of idiots, fools, and disreputable vendors, as well as a seedy assorted collection of outright criminals. The one thing they all seem to have in common is a cloak of self-righteousness. They market themselves as the defenders of consumers who have long been abused by evil car dealers. The buzzwords, battle cry, and new-age mantra all promise a better car-buying experience. The plot below the surface has become increasingly transparent. The master plan is to put you out of business. They are convinced they can do the entire transaction online and eliminate dealers — if only the laws were changed and assuming consumers will cooperate.
Robbery in Progress. Somebody Call the Police!
Ziegler blames the ongoing theft of your customers’ personal, private information by nefarious marketers in part on factory co-op programs, which limit dealer choice and vendor competition. Let me begin by pointing out the fact that I was writing and speaking about the corruption in the factory executive ranks long before it came to light. Let me also point out that literally no one else was piping up about it, and I was attacked for doing so. But, as it has many times in the past, history bore me out as new information came to light. I was totally vindicated and the accuracy of what I wrote was verified. I begin with that because it is most certainly going to happen again. This time, it’s an “Emperor’s New Clothes” type of situation: Everybody can see the dude, and we all know he isn’t wearing a stitch, but nobody’s got the balls to say it. I am talking about the manufacturers’
How Can Geeks Be This Bad at Math?
Those of you who have followed my speeches, blogs, social media posts, and articles over the last 25 years know there are two things I really enjoy: The first is crowing about predictions I’ve made when the rest of the industry was going the other way. The second is manufacturers and vendors out for making stupid decisions. In this issue, I get to do both. Told You So Last year, I wrote an article called “Bound to Fail” for the May 2018 issue of F&I and Showroom. To summarize, I said subscription car programs were going to die a miserable death. The main reason? Math. The manufacturers have all made the same moronic miscalculation to chase those mythological millennials. They even convinced numerous dealerships to push their chips in. Jeff Wyler Dealerships in Cincinnati made a major commitment to make subscriptions work, as did the multistate Germain Automotive Group. Read the whole article here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Internet Battle Plan, Teach at the Beach Part 4, Clearwater Beach Florida, March 4th and 5th
See 20 top experts on stage, every aspect of Internet and Technology Sales and Marketing, Phone Skills, BDC Skills, Video Response Experts, SEO/SEM/,Website Conversion, Artificial Intelligence Marketing, Social Media/Facebook Marketing, Google Adwords, Phone Skills, Conversion. The Best Event of its kind. Early Bird Tickets only $250 a student, Dealers and GMs attend Free. Early Bird ends January 25th, act Now. Highly discounted Hotel rooms. Lunch and Breakfast included, with cocktail reception Outside by the Pool first night, open bar and great food with a live Band. SignUp Now on the Website, or call Jim (770) 851-2803 Internet Battle Plan, Teach at the Beach Part 4, Clearwater Beach, Florida , March 4th and 5th. http://www.InternetBattlePlan.com
Jim Ziegler’s The Shape of Things to Come – 2016 Edition
Jim Ziegler shares his thoughts about the future of the auto dealer industry at the annual Brady Ware Dealership Conference.
JIM ZIEGLER’S SALES MANAGER FORUM RETURNS!
YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN RIGHT? ****************** ZIEGLER’S FAMOUS AUTOMOTIVE MANAGERS WORKSHOP The Dawg Sort of Promised to Debbie Ziegler that He Wasn’t Ever Going to Do This Again…. BUT, there is a really HUGE NEED to get this information recorded on Video to Share With Dealers and Managers for Years into the Future. SO! JUST THIS ONE LAST TIME… Ziegler will perform his famous unequaled … SALES MANAGER’S FORUM …. December 12th, Tampa, Florida at IPD Headquarters, 3104 Cherry Palm Dr Suite 230, Tampa, FL 33619DEALERS AND MANAGERS WILL LEARN ************************** How to Hire,Motivate and Keep Qualified Sales People Consistent Sales Processes Setting up your Selling System The Primary Duties of a Sales Manager How to Hire, Fire, Train and Promote DESKING A DEAL: How to “Desk” the Deal How to Present the Figures How to use and measure your CRM How to Setup and Inspirational and Educational Meetings Integrating internet, social media, video, and technology High-profit
Auto Dealer University
AUTO DEALER UNIVERSITY If YOU need training in every department of your dealership, top level, relevant training, YOU need to call David Villa and get a demo on this incredible package. CALL DAVID VILLA PERSONALLY FOR NO-OBLIGATION DEMO OF THE PROGRAM AT (813) 463-4044. THAT’S HIS PERSONAL NUMBER.
The Dawg and Villa
AUTO DEALER UNIVERSITY If YOU need training in every department of your dealership, top level, relevant training, YOU need to call David Villa and get a demo on this incredible package. CALL DAVID VILLA PERSONALLY FOR NO-OBLIGATION DEMO OF THE PROGRAM AT (813) 463-4044. THAT’S HIS PERSONAL NUMBER.
Stupid Is as Stupid Does
When young Forrest Gump first met Jenny, sitting side-by-side in the school bus, she asked him, “Are you stupid or something?” To which Forrest replied, “Mama says stupid is as stupid does.” I wonder what Jenny would have said if she had met little Alan Batey on the school bus — or, for that matter, any of the top executives at General Motors who were involved in hiring Johan de Nysschen to head up Cadillac. Of course, in a bubble of arrogance, supported by an inbred culture, these people think they’re brilliant. It reminds me of the words of Belgian humorist Philippe Geluck: “When you are dead, you don’t know that you are dead. It is difficult only for the others. It is the same when you are stupid.” In June, GM finally parted ways with our boy Johan, but only after he singlehandedly destroyed the last remaining shreds of a great brand that was already on the ropes. Cadillac
THE INCREDIBLE RESULTS OF DIRECT MAIL MARKETING IN SYNERGY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY MARKETING
In this powerful video interview, Jim Ziegler, The #AlphaDawg, makes an unscheduled, unscripted, impromptu phone call to his friend, David Villa, at Imperial Press Direct in Tampa. The problem that started the ball rolling is that so many Car Dealers were asking Jim about Direct Mail Marketing for their dealerships. Some dealers are getting really unbelievable great results with mail, while others are not seeing the benefit. What’s the difference? Jim says, “Frankly, I have little to no expertise on the subject BUT, I do know somebody that does.” David’s company specializes in Direct Mail Marketing married to technology and Social Media to give the dealers a total synergistic approach to reaching their customers on multiple channels. David and Jim hopped on a Facebook Live Broadcast with no preparation or pre-discussion of topic. This is totally ad-lib. CALL DAVID AT (813) 463-4044 This broadcast is Golden. There is so much more today than just mail by itself. Listen to Jim and David
Bound to Fail
They tell us vehicle subscription programs are the next wave of the future — that they are going to round up all those millennials and lead them into dealerships. Volvo, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Hyundai think so, and virtually every other manufacturer is getting set to follow their lead. But lurking in the background are the usual suspects plotting new ways to disrupt the traditional car sales model. So let me go on record today — while the hysteria is still fresh — and say subscription services will crash and burn within the next couple of years. Things will start out nicely, with manufacturers throwing crazy amounts of money at these programs. But then, just as they start to gain momentum, the entire mess will come crashing down under its own weight. Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
Internet Battle Plan XXIV, MOTOWN MAGIC
Internet Battle Plan XXIV, MOTOWN MAGIC IS CONTRACTED AND SET… We are on at Greektown Hotel and Casino in Detroit, August 7th and 8th! Register now: www.internetbattleplan.com Jim and Debbie Ziegler are proud to announce we’re bringing it back to Detroit… August 7th and 8th at the Greektown Hotel and Casino www.InternetBattlePlan.com THIS IS the most exciting content rich conference in the automotive retailing universe. 20 top industry experts on stage over two days, including Jim Ziegler performing his acclaimed presentation… “20 Things I’d Change If I Bought Your Dealership” NEW EXCITING SPEAKERS AND FRESH CONTENT… It was a painful revelation for the Alpha Dawg when I realized almost every conference was putting the same speakers on stage over and over again. SO, Debbie and the Dawg are putting some really new exciting people into the mix, as well as returning experts with all new presentations, techniques, technology solutions and and usable content. NO BREAKOUT SESSIONS OR CIRCUS SIDESHOWS One
ACV Auctions Interview
Jim Ziegler, CSP, HSG, The Alpha Dawg interviews Joe Neiman and Mike Waterman from ACV Auctions about the services and value that ACV Auctions brings to automobile dealers.
20 Things a GM Must Do Every Week
A professional juggler once told me that the only way to learn to juggle six balls at the same time is to try to juggle seven. In today’s retail environment, the position of general manager requires specialized expertise and diversity of knowledge. It is not uncommon for a qualified GM to command an annual income north of $500,000 and into the seven digits; they can virtually write their own pay plan. I know what you’re thinking right now: “What in the hell is Ziegler smoking?” You know plenty of general managers who make good money, but not that kind of money. The truth is that most GMs are not executives. They are glorified general sales managers. Are you among them? There is a reason some of the large public companies struggle with acquisitions of new dealerships and expansion of their brands: There is a huge shortage of executive general managers who can successfully run a large-volume dealership or dealership group.
FIGURES LIE WHEN LIARS FIGURE
THE BOGUS APPLICATION OF ATTRIBUTION AND INFLUENCE I probably speak to more than 100 Car People every week on the phone AND dozens more on the keyboard. What is So Amusing is when Dealer principals and General Managers ask me my opinion of “Attribution” and “Influence”. “Attribution and Influence” are the new age ‘Buzzwords’ of deception some vendors are using to try to act as if they are still relevant and justify their outrageous unjustified prices for selling air to technologically challenged dealers. Is “Attribution” real science or is it “Fake News”? The answer is YES and NO. Read the whole article here on dealerELITE.
IBP 23 – Teach at the Beach III – a Winter Conference, Feb 12th-13th 2018
Jim and Debbie Ziegler are proud to announce we’re bringing it back to the Beach in February… February 12th-13th at the Marriott Suites, Sand Key, in Clearwater Beach, Florida. NEW BLOOD… ******************************* It was a painful revelation for the Dawg when I realized almost every conference was putting the same speakers on stage over and over again. NOT, that these people aren’t talented and they do have a lot to offer, they’re friends of mine, BUT, how many times do you want to watch the same ole movie over and over again. Some of these conferences are starting to look like the movie “Groundhog Day”. It’s a great movie, but we’ve seen it. SO, Debbie and the Dawg are putting some really new exciting people into the Mix that you haven’t seen at other conferences, or at least they’re NOT over-exposed. Internet Battle Plan XXIII (23) is going to be spectacular with a lot of great technology sales and marketing session,
Dynamic Road to Sales and Success “Pay-Per-View” Automotive Sales Training Online
PROUD TO ANNOUNCE ***************************** Jim Ziegler’s Dynamic Road to Sales and Success “Pay-Per-View” Automotive Sales Training Online. HERE’S THE BEST PART… IT’S AFFORDABLE. IN A LOW-COST PAY-PER-VIEW FORMAT THAT ANY SALES PERSON CAN EASILY AFFORD. 10 Years Ago I performed an 8 Hour Automotive Sales Training with a Live Audience of More than 300 Managers and Sales Persons. Since then we’ve sold thousands of copies of this video library for $1500, and thousands more at the reduced price of $595. NOW, for the first time, We have edited it down to the meat, with 100’s of word tracts and closes, processes and negotiating techniques. Slightly less than 5 hours that will change a sales professional’s life immediately. Completely customer friendly and ethical, pure Ziegler original material. AND MANAGERS AND DEALERS … YOU CAN BUY ANY TIME VIEWING OF THE VIDEOS FOR YOUR SALES MEETINGS AND TRAINING NEW HIRES FOR ONLY A ONE-TIME PAYMENT OF $595. There has never been this
Please help my friend
Dear Friend in Automotive: I am writing this letter to appeal to my friends in automotive to HELP my friend Ariel Velazquez. Ariel is an extremely competent Car Guy with skills in every aspect of our business. Ariel lives in Puerto Rico and his life has been devastated by Hurricane Irma. He is fluent in conversational English and very well educated. PLEASE read his resume and see if there’s a place in your organization to employ him. He is a family man with high integrity. His sister in law reached out to me and here is her information, she can contact Ariel….. Here is the message she sent to me… I am trying to help my brother in law Ariel Velazquez find a job at a car dealership as that is his preference and experience. As you know, Puerto Rico was hit with a hurricane that devastated the island. His family is looking to move to the states due to
Ziegler Joins Compliance Summit Roster as Keynote Speaker
DALLAS — Organizers of the upcoming Compliance Summit announced that Jim Ziegler, president of Ziegler SuperSystems, will deliver the event’s keynote address. Compliance Summit will be held Sept. 11–12, 2017, at Dallas’ Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, as part of Industry Summit. In his first-ever Compliance Summit appearance, Ziegler will present “The Shape of Things to Come” at 9:05 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 11. Read the whole announcement here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Sharpen Your Survival Skills
It was only a few months ago that every expert, analyst, automobile industry pundit and alleged researcher was predicting numbers as high as 20 million new-vehicle sales in 2018. What were these fools smoking? They can’t all live in Denver, can they? The Trump election should have taught the world that you can’t trust polls and researchers to tell the truth — especially when they have a vested interest in the outcome and they trade in deliberately false pseudo-information. “There simply aren’t enough customers in the pipeline. We buried them in 72- and 84-month loans with no down payments. They have no hope of getting out in this trade cycle or the next. We refinanced negative equity on three generations of trade-ins. Cheap used cars are going to totally kill new-car sales and the auctions.” Well, enough of that. It’s here. The retail car business is crashing in spite of the soaring stock market. Sorry, Bill Clinton, but it’s not
All Things Must Pass
I once again find myself in a reflective mood. Been doing that a lot lately. People keep telling me the industry is changing, and the disruptors keep taking shots at the dealers and traditional processes. At heart, I am a car guy. But if the truth be known, I still reminisce about the magical days when I was a celebrity rock jock in the ’60s and ’70s. I wouldn’t have missed those times for anything in the world. In those days, being a disc jockey at a major rock station was the coolest job in the world. I think this mood crept over me last week when Gregg Allman died. What affected me most was that he was my age, and I knew him and his brother Duane before they were famous. I met the Allmans in 1969. I was a DJ and they were playing at Jacksonville nightclubs, calling themselves “The Second Coming.” As a rock jock, I had
Sales Rock Stars Still Exist
In an era where manufacturers and hostile vendors are telling dealers to reduce salesperson pay plans, I can name 30 to 40 people off the top of my head who are making more than $40,000 a month selling cars. And they’re doing it in all kinds of markets.These individuals come from all backgrounds, are of different ages, have different makeups, and sell both imports and domestics. But they have two things common: They all became a brand within a brand, a dealership within a dealership. See, these individuals reach out to their communities and generate their own business and manage relationships and referrals. These individuals come from all backgrounds, are of different ages, have different makeups, and sell both imports and domestics. But they have two things common: They all became a brand within a brand, a dealership within a dealership. See, these individuals reach out to their communities and generate their own business and manage relationships and referrals. Read
Join the Battle of Jericho
Little Jimmy Ziegler was only 7 years old, but I still remember it vividly, as if it were only yesterday. It was Grace Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Fla. We were performing a reenactment of the biblical story of Joshua at the Battle of Jericho for the entire adult congregation. We were dressed in robes and head dressings made of towels. Our parents thought we were cute and there were a lot of flashbulbs going off in their Kodak Brownie cameras. I was too young to be embarrassed. I remember thinking, “This is so cool!” Our performance went off without a hitch. We marched around the “city” made out of a packing crate seven times, singing and blowing our plastic horns. “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho … Jericho … Jericho! Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumblin’ down!” After seven times around, we stopped walking, stopped singing, and started yelling. Someone offstage pulled a string and
The New Stooges
If you don’t know who Larry, Curly and Moe were, you might be a millennial. Early in the morning or late at night when I’m scanning through the upper tier of cable channels, I still sometimes come across an old “Three Stooges” short. And I can’t turn away. These guys were masters of slapstick, an art form left over from the vaudeville era. Hard to say which one was the biggest idiot, but I think most fans will agree it was Curly, whose famous “n’yuk n’yuk n’yuk” laugh became a Stooges trademark. This comic trio was so absurd that you felt ashamed to admit you watched them. Of course you did, though. You couldn’t help yourself. The Three Stooges are long gone, but their legacy lives on in the so-called “disrupters” who are trying to wring the profitability out of your operation. The latest acceleration of stupidity into reality is the race to completely automate the sales and F&I process
Don’t Run, We Are Your Friends!
Fasten your chin straps and check your seat belts, car people. The ride is about to begin, and there’s no turning back. Every party has to end sooner or later, and we’re overdue. All the signs have been flashing for months, but too many of us ignored them, and now the reckoning has arrived. It’s sort of like watching the flaming cattle run past in “Mars Attacks!” or hearing the oboe music from “Jaws.” You can tell some scary crap is about to go down. You can’t say I didn’t warn you. And after 41 years in the retail car business, it seems the industry has finally caught up with me. All the so-called experts, analysts, and other assorted clowns who were wearing party hats and predicting perpetual record sales a year ago have done an abrupt about-face. Now they are marching in the other direction and sounding the alarm. Have you recently invested in a multigazillion-dollar, state-of-the-ridiculous modern facility?
The Future Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up to Be
Excuse the bad English, but sometimes it’s just fun to say the word “ain’t.” It takes me back to my redneck roots, before I became the sophisticated, genteel socialite you know and love today. In researching this article, I read dozens of blogs and news items talking about the future of our industry. The overwhelming assorted collection of speakers, writers, reporters, and industry hacks are solemnly predicting cataclysmic changes that will soon shake the foundations of our industry as we know it. Your paradigms will come crashing down around your ears, driven by the Millennial Rebellion, and armed with handheld devices. Well, when it comes to future-casting in the car business, I think you’ll find I have the most impressive track record for accuracy — calling it exactly as it turned out in reality — more than just about any of the other forecasters, futurists, or industry publication editors. In other words, my stuff really happened. Read the whole article
Is Your Quick Lube Driving Away Business?
After 41 years in this business, I must admit I was naïve about dealership service when I visited my local Ford dealership for an oil change. After all, the sign on the building said “Quick Lane.” I was gobsmacked when they told me it would be a four-hour wait for a simple oil change. They spent a fortune building a manufacturer-approved, state-of-the-art quick lube, but there’s nothing “quick” about it. It is embarrassing to me that Valvoline Express can take a walk-in just about anywhere in the country and have them in and out in less than a half hour — and that’s if they’re busy. I knew this topic would require more research, so I called around and tried to schedule a simple oil change with every Ford dealer on my side of town. Just to be fair, I called a couple Chevrolet dealers as well. The answers varied from “We’ll see you in two hours” to “How’s next
Thank you for attending my webinar today
THANKS FOR ATTENDING TODAY’S WEBINAR HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE REPLAY IF YOU’D LIKE TO SEE IT AGAIN OR SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND CLICK HERE FOR REPLAY The DealerOn Webinar with Eliana Raggio today was a huge success… “Jim Ziegler Lays Out the Pathway to Management in the Car Business” VISIT OUR WEBSITE Jim and Debbie Ziegler are Bringing it To Chicago in May with two Dynamic Automotive Management Seminars: May 16th and 17th The Samurai F&I Seminar May 18th and 19th The Automotive Sales Manager’s Seminar No Matter What Your Level of Expertise or Experience, These Events Will Greatly Improve Your Numbers. Just starting out, or 15 years in the Box or on the Sales Desk… you’ll learn new closes, word tracts and techniques that are Not taught anywhere else by anybody. For more information CLICK HERE … or call Jim Directly for Group Rates, information or Dealer Principal Signups (770) 921 – 4440. JimZiegler, CSP, HSG
Welcome to Saturation Nation
It’s a new month and a new attitude in the car business, where sales have noticeably slowed down in recent weeks despite a rising economic tide. I keep trying to tell the industry that the two are not necessarily entwined. The issue here is good, old-fashioned saturation. You can’t keep on pumping 60 million new and used cars annually into a market that only has about 200 million qualified buyers. About every five years, it catches up with us, and all your customers seem to be driving a new (or newer) car. There are a limited number of new customers coming into the market. It isn’t crashing, not by any means. It’s just adjusting. Read the rest of my short article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
Convention and Super Bowl Hangovers
It’s almost more than my heart can stand. As I sit here late at night in my darkened office, the Super Bowl is over and I am emotionally drained and stressed. A week before the big game, Debbie and I returned home from the NADA Convention in New Orleans, optimistic but concerned. I’m still trying to digest all the things we saw and heard at the convention. There’s a lot on my mind. I love pro football, but I didn’t watch for the majority of the season — that is, until I found out my Atlanta Falcons were favored in the NFC championship. When they beat Green Bay, I was gobsmacked with awe and amazement. If I had bet on the game, I’d have taken the Pack. But the Dirty Birds were flying high and it was game on! The Super Bowl was an exhilarating experience for Falcons fans, at least for the first half. How do you blow a
Who Shot the Dealer?
Historians have put the story to bed and closed the book. I say, however, that only the most ignorant and naïve among us could actually believe that a lone gunman — particularly a bitter, delusional nutcase like Lee Harvey Oswald — could have pulled off the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I just read some interesting memoirs on the topic. Some suggest Kennedy’s widow, Jackie Onassis, actually believed Vice President-turned-President Lyndon Johnson was behind the plot until the day she died. Others say the fact that Oswald himself was killed by Jack Ruby, a low-level Mafia associate, means Kennedy must have had some run-ins with mob bosses. Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
Stop Flushing Those Ad Dollars
To be frank and borderline crude here, most of you dealers are pissing your money away. You are totally ineffective and inept with your advertising dollars. I’m told that automotive advertisers spent more than $4 billion on paid search in 2016. Most of that went to Google. From everything I’ve been able to glean, I am going to estimate that another $3 billion was spent on so-called lead providers. That’s $7 billion in pursuit of the Holy Grail, aka the first page of Google search results. Well, I can tell you from experience that most of you flushed that money down the toilet. In the early 1920s, John Wanamaker created and operated one of the first department stores in the United States. He invented the price tag, among other accomplishments, and coined the saying, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
The Leads Are Weak
Flash back to Alec Baldwin’s classic sales speech in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Everyone remembers when Jack Lemmon said, “The leads are weak.” That was one of the most brutally tense scenes in movie history, ending with the famous line, “Coffee is for closers.” I have recently seen repeated instances where automotive lead provider representatives are beating up on dealers, trying to justify their lack of ROI and the few units delivered from their leads. “The leads are weak,” your managers and BDC employees keep saying. But your lead provider tries to tell you it’s your employees who are weak, not to mention unprofessional and inept. At the risk of upsetting Alec Baldwin, sometimes the leads really are weak. Read the whole article here on AutoDealerMonthly.
It’s a Nerd Meltdown
Marketers have extended Black Friday through Sunday, which leads into Cyber Monday. The entire week following Thanksgiving has become the biggest engineered consumer shopping spree imaginable. In fact, some of the car manufacturers decided the entire month should be “Black November,” extending the sale to 30 days. Customers flooded the showrooms. Then, just when everything was going so well, at around 10 o’clock on Friday morning, the reports started coming in on social media. The car hashtags on Twitter and private car groups on Facebook all lit up at once: VinSolutions had crashed. The panic was immediate and widespread. If you’re not on VinSolutions yourself, you should know it’s one of the premier CRMs on the market today. I would guess that thousands of dealerships use it as a desking tool and console to run their sales departments and BDCs. Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
CPO: Are You In or Out?
It’s going to be the hottest game in town. The question is, will your dealership be sitting at the table or watching from the sidelines? I’ve been predicting for much of the year that used-car values would take a monumental dump in the fourth quarter due to the glut of off-lease and fleet units returning to market. What I didn’t count on was Donald Trump getting elected to the presidency. Yes, I am a huge Trump supporter, believer, and advocate, but, like many of you, I was beginning to buy into the belief that Hillary had him beat. So with the uncertainty came the miscalculation that pre-owned values would drop significantly due to the flood of used inventory returning to an already saturated market. Well, it appears I was wrong — at least for now. Look, I still believe we’re on the path to market saturation, as every prospect out there already owns two cars. Long-term financing and escalating prices
Internet Battle Plan XXI Schedule & Program
View and download the full class schedule for Internet Battle Plan XXI in ATLANTA at the link below! Internet Battle Plan XXI Class Schedule – PDF Internet Battle Plan XXI Class Schedule – Word doc
There’s a Vacancy in Mom’s Basement
Several years ago, I got into a friendly debate with Bill Wittenmyer from ELEAD1ONE. Bill had just performed a dynamic presentation on “How to Market to Millennials” at an Internet Battle Plan conference. In my trademark devilishly antagonistic Ziegler fashion, I told Wittenmyer that Millennials were the most worthless, lazy, know-it-all, entitlement-based, unmotivated generation in the history of the world. I said that most Millennials lived in Mom’s basement on a pullout sofa playing Xbox well into their 30s. Why market to anyone who doesn’t want and can’t afford your products? I cracked up when manufacturers came up with “youth” vehicles like the ill-fated Scion lineup. Millennials didn’t buy them, but old people did, and every unit they moved represented an unsold Corolla. For several years, the factories and dealer groups eagerly hired every new-age jackleg quasi-consultant trainer with a snake oil program on how to sell and market to Millennials. Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
Fasten Those Seatbelts
Did you hear those loud thuds? That was the sound of car sales hitting the wall in September and October. It’s the first week of November, and sales don’t look great this month, either. It’s amusing hearing people blaming the slowdown on pre-election jitters. Once it’s over, they say, everything will be great again. By the time you read this, the election will be over. I’m willing to bet sales didn’t spike up. Hey, I’ve been calling this sales dip for nearly a year now. Now analysts and manufacturers are beginning to accept that the market is reaching saturation. Kelley Blue Book warned 2016 sales will fall short of 2015 levels, and Ford reluctantly admitted U.S. sales are off 10%. I’ve also warned since May that used-car values were going to take a hit in the fourth quarter. Now many dealers are up to their necks in inventory they should have turned for a short loss. Of course, your pre-owned
Objects in the Rearview Mirror
If you’ve never seen Meat Loaf perform live, there is a small vacuum in your life. He is one of the greatest recording artists of all time. His music, lyrics, and powerful message have been a huge influence on my life since the ’70s. His stage presence is unmatched. All his songs evoke powerful emotions and memories, but “Objects in the Rearview Mirror” is the one that totally envelops me every time I hear it. If we are the result of everything we’ve ever experienced, then it’s fair to say we all look to the past to chart our way forward. Meat Loaf says objects in the mirror are closer than they appear, and for the most part, that’s true. But in today’s world, old paradigms are being shredded at the speed of technology. We can no longer count on what has worked in the past as a predictor of future results. Read the whole article here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Harry’s in a Slump
Even the best of us can fall into a slump. But when my friend Harry, a top salesman at his General Motors store in small-town America, messaged me through Facebook a few months ago, I could feel his pain through his words. “Hey buddy, I am in the worst slump of my sales life. I need some Alpha Dawg help, as I am not sure what to do at this point,” he wrote. “I’m thinking of going to Walmart to try to ‘up’ some people in the parking lot. Jim, I cannot quite put my finger on it, and I would appreciate your tips and help.” Well, nobody — and I mean nobody — knows prospecting better than I do. I am the master of generating my own business. “Harry, you’re a rock star. It’s time to get on the phone and start calling past customers and asking for sales and referrals,” I replied. “I also want you to start
The Big Talent Drain
I have been screaming it from the mountaintops for more than a decade now: “When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Now it seems the so-called industry press is finally catching up with me. I have read several recent articles talking about the ongoing talent drain in the retail automobile business. Qualified leaders are becoming incredibly hard to find, particularly for the general manager and general sales manager roles. These days, a GM with any kind of track record can demand stupid money to make a move. Some dealers are putting off buy-sell agreements and postponing acquisitions until they can find a qualified operator. You have to offer a substantial guarantee and a buy-in just to get them to talk to you. You family-owned dealers need to get busy, have more kids, and send them all to dealer school. … Oh, never mind, I forgot. There’s also a real shortage of qualified instructors. (“I used to be a dealer” doesn’t
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Time to Pay the Piper
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Although more legend than truth, it’s based on events dating back to the Middle Ages, around 1284. As the story goes, the German town of Hamelin hired a piper who promised to solve it’s rat infestation by luring them into the Weser River with his magical pipe. As the story goes, the dastardly Mayor of Hamelin refused to pay the piper the gold he had promised. In retaliation, the piper used his pipe to enchant the children of the town. They followed him to Keppenberg Mountain, where they were magically swallowed up. One theory is that the piper was a professional rat catcher, and the children who disappeared were actually victims of the plague the rats carried. The earliest known record of this story is from Hamelin, where the piper’s image was set in stained glass in the town’s now-destroyed church. So, yeah, the pied piper
A Faster Horse
Whether he actually said it or not, one of Henry Ford’s most famous quotes is, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” When he was the president of Ford, Lee Iacocca and his staff played off that legend, finding equine names for new models such as the Mustang, the Bronco, and even the Pinto. The Mustang became the subject of the documentary “A Faster Horse.” Whether Old Henry said it or not, the philosophy permeated the entire industry for the next 50 years. The attitude of the Big Three in Detroit was, more or less, “The public be damned. We’ll build them and they’ll buy them.” That worked fine until the mid-’60s when the imports started coming ashore in large volumes. Better quality cars and trucks coming out of Japan and European luxury brought the Detroit giants to their knees and forced them to try something new. That’s when they actually began paying
Habits of Highly Paid Sales Professionals
In the past 40 years, I’ve interacted with hundreds of thousands of car sales professionals who work for thousands of dealerships in 49 states. Every month, they start over again at zero, with this month’s hero going back to the starting line as a new race begins. Regardless of pay plans and how they are structured, there are always those few who consistently make incredible money, often rivaling the income of attorneys and physicians and other highly paid professionals. It’s not uncommon for top producers to sell 25 to 30 units a month, every month. On the other end of the spectrum are those salespeople who make just above minimum wage. They perpetually whine and complain and make excuses. They can get by and live on that kind of money, but they never seem to dig their way out of the hole of mediocrity. In the middle of the pack, you’ll find salespeople whose income is like a rollercoaster, with
Strangers in the Mall
I was sitting in a big comfortable chair in the mall just outside the second-level entrance to Macy’s department store. I was extremely lucky to have secured one of the big comfortable chairs, because every last one of them was occupied. There was a family of five sitting on the sofa, an old man taking a nap, and, in the chair next to me, a well-dressed, middle-aged man playing with his smartphone. This is the place wives park their husbands while they shop. Most of us have that bored look on our faces that says there’s some place we’d rather be. I played with my own phone for a while until I had seen every post on Facebook and LinkedIn, cleaned up my emails, messaged a few people and even took a selfie. By that point, I was completely bored and out of options to entertain myself. The guy next to me appeared to have reached the same point as
You Can’t Handle the Truth
You’d have to have been in a coma since 1991 if you haven’t seen that clip from “A Few Good Men.” Tom Cruise is grilling Jack Nicholson in court. “I want the truth!” says Cruise, in the role of the smarmy lawyer. Nicholson, playing a battle-hardened Marine colonel, explodes. “You can’t handle the truth!” Classic. No matter what you think about Jim Ziegler, you’ll seldom find anyone who is neutral about me. … Although even my staunchest detractors will agree that my industry forecasts and predictions about the car business have, for the most part, been extremely accurate. I have often made the right call when every other expert and authority in our industry was saying the opposite. History has always seemed to vindicate me when something I predicted rubbed people the wrong way. Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
To Lease or Not to Lease
Writing about leasing requires that I don several hats, as it’s important that I clarify the processes and move dealerships to a better strategic policy. When wearing my sales or desk manager hat, I need to know the best way to present my leasing vs. retail figures to a customer. I also need to know what considerations impact my decisions. I also need to know when to covert a customer to a lease. When wearing my general manager hat, I have to consider what is best and most profitable for the dealership. As a sales professional, I have to consider when and how to present the lease proposition to customers. I also have to know what to tell them. It amazes me when I see that leasing accounts for a majority of sales in some regions of the country, particularly in New York and New Jersey. I mean, leasing used to be more prevalent in the high-dollar luxury stores. That’s
Internet Battle Plan XX Schedule & Program
View and download the full class schedule for Internet Battle Plan XX in Myrtle Beach at the link below! Internet Battle Plan XX Class Schedule
Watch Out for Grizzlies
Life really sucks if you’re a salmon in the Upper Northwest. They’re just trying to get home to start a family. As if the journey wasn’t perilous enough, a long line of grizzly bears is waiting to eat two out of three of them before they get upstream. Poor bastards. Operating a dealership today is sort of like being a salmon. You’re just trying to make a decent living and provide for your family, but there are grizzlies everywhere, all trying to consume two out of three of your hopes and dreams. Unwelcome Competition For years now, I’ve predicted it, said it in speeches and written it in literally hundreds of articles, blogs and social media threads. Now they’ve actually said it and their agenda is out in the open. In a recent webinar on the 2016 Global Automotive Outlook, a person with presumably extensive retail automobile sales experience and qualifications, Lisa Whalen, says manufacturers are probably set to launch
The Lead-Gen Death Throes
They came dancing into our lives back in the mid-’90s and totally transformed our industry. In fact, I recall the first time I saw Autobytel exhibiting at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA)’s convention. I shook my head and said, “That ain’t gonna happen.” Well, it did happen, and we all saw a growing parade of competitors in a vicious dogfight to dominate the space. My hat’s off to the few who prevailed. The real game-changer, however, was Scott Painter and TrueCar. Painter’s business model reflected his thinly disguised contempt for car dealers. Unlike other lead-generation providers, whose primary purpose was to connect car buyers with dealers, TrueCar’s main objective was to set prices and broker deals at a loss for the dealers. We all know how that worked out. But hundreds of other companies followed TrueCar’s lead and got into the brokering business. But the landscape is rapidly changing, and the paradigm has shifted enough to loosen their stranglehold
Alpha Dawg Down
I have visited five cities in three weeks, traveling to the North, South, East and West through some of the worst and most erratic weather of the year. I went from warm weather with pollen raining down everywhere to the snow, cold temperatures and wet, windy weather of the Northern reaches and then back down South again. I’m happy to be back home in Atlanta, but for more reasons than one. Don’t ever take your health for granted, my friends. Sudden illnesses can deliver a knockout punch. I didn’t think much about the sniffles, chest congestion and coughing when it started. I blew it off as pollen allergies or maybe a head cold. In any case, I was busy. I was in Lake Charles, La., working with a dealer and dealership I hold in the highest regard, Billy Navarre Chevrolet. Picture this: There are 50 sales representatives and managers in my class. I’m in front of the room sniffling and
We’re Selling Cars Like Candy Bars
Party on, Garth! Light-vehicle sales showed a year-over-year increase of 8% in February. Of course, that’s coming off of a January in which winter storms ground sales to a halt. Still, statisticians, industry experts and analysts are predicting the possibility of a record-breaking 18.9 million-unit sales year. Of course, that’s assuming nothing goes wrong with the economy, the delicate balance of diplomacy in China, North Korea and the Middle East, the presidential election or any of a thousand other variables that could slam the brakes on momentum without a moment’s notice. But until something happens, we’re selling cars like candy bars. Party on, Wayne! Personally, I have never been so busy and so optimistic in life and business. In a few days, Debbie and I will be flying to Houston for the 19th Internet Battle Plan Conference. After that, I’ll be in three dealerships in two weeks, training and consulting from Tallahassee to Staten Island to Lake Charles. Then I’ll
Solving the Dealership-Life Imbalance
The car business is tough. The hours are long. We work nights and weekends. If you’re not here, you’re not selling cars. If you’re not selling cars, you’re not making a living. I’ve been in the retail side of this business for 40 years. I’ve seen many things change and evolve, but the extreme work schedule really hasn’t changed that much. Many salespeople and managers find themselves putting in up to 60 hours a week. What do you want, a 40-hour workweek? You already know the answer. “Suck it up, buttercup! We need coverage!” Recently, on one of my blogs, a young car salesman new to the business asked how he could achieve some sort of balance between family life and the demands of the dealership. As is all too often the case, his wife, parents and in-laws are constantly on his back for not spending enough time at home with the kids. Sure, he’s making money — double the
Killing F&I
I’ve been writing about this for years. As a matter of fact, I’ve screamed it from the mountaintops until the echoes rang repeatedly around the industry. I’ve watched it gain momentum as a consortium of vendors, manufacturers and other assorted rogues and pirates dreamed and schemed up a plot to assassinate the F&I department. They’ll sell it to the dealers by promising to reduce the time it takes to complete a sale. They’ll talk about the magical customer experience it creates when the horrible F&I process is eliminated. They’ll tell you any competent salesperson can present and sell the products and make the proper disclosures. You’ll ask who exactly will deliver and disclose the contract and all the documents and get the deals worked. That’s where it gets a little sketchy. But that’s not even the sketchiest part. Let’s look at the real motives behind this slow-motion trainwreck. Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
The Empire Strikes Back
Never let it be said that Nissan is warm and fuzzy with their dealers. I have written about this for years. But formerly loyal Nissan dealers aren’t just complaining to me privately. They’re talking to the media and they’re talking to their attorneys. They’re complaining about perceived abuses and oppressive factory programs. I believe these festering issues may finally have reached the point of an imminent explosion. Say it ain’t so, Carlos! I’ve been listening to complaints and stories from disgruntled Nissan dealers for a while now, and I’ve shared many of them with you in these pages. In article after article and speech after speech, I’ve repeatedly said Nissan was heavy-handed, hard-hearted and totally oppressive in every interaction with their loyal dealer network. Numerous other media outlets have finally caught on, and dealer satisfaction surveys prove Nissan’s problems are not limited to a few disgruntled franchisees. Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
Preventing Sales Manager Burnout
For you sales managers out there, I bet you can remember the excitement you felt when you earned that prestigious title. But that feeling didn’t last long, did it? In fact, it probably came to a grinding halt. But not every manager experiences burnout. I know plenty of sales managers who matured into the position to become super performers. For the rest of you, let me slap a little cold water in your face. If the glamour of the position has faded and your career is paralyzed and stale, I’m here to tell you that you are likely the problem. The good news is you can change that immediately. See, the No. 1 reason sales managers become frustrated and ineffective is they don’t know how to be a manager. You can quickly spot manager burnout by how these individuals refer to themselves. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being a desk manager. I mean, if that’s your dream, then be a
Flock of Turkeys
In November, Debbie and I resumed one of our favorite holiday traditions: Thanksgiving at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee, Ga., about an hour’s drive from Atlanta. It starts the night before the holiday with the “Lighting of the Lodge” and the arrival of Santa Claus, accompanied by hotel employees dressed as Mrs. Claus, Santa’s elves and Elizabethan carolers. The Thanksgiving feast, complete with dueling chefs, is like nothing I’ve experienced anywhere else. And it’s a dog-friendly hotel, so we don’t have to leave Sadie at home. It’s a unique experience that really sets the stage for the holidays. And let me tell you, the holidays couldn’t come fast enough. I had been burning the candle at both ends all year. I hit five million Delta miles. I traveled to more dealerships, association meetings, seminars and conferences in 2015 than in any year since the downturn. All the while, I’m following the industry news and keeping up with
How to GET RICH: Create a life
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Brad Lea, RJ Grimshaw, Electricty hacker, ToTheTop, Gus Skarlis, Acir Brandão Jr, ThekingofMiamiRealEstate, fairperson, Walter @ volordkingdom, Jim Ziegler, and Ken Walls
Battle Plan Blab
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, David, عــلــي الـكتـبيـ., Jennifer Briggs, Elise Kephart , Bobbie Herron, laura davis, Patrick O’Brien, Dickie Travinski, and Justagirlsellingcars
How to Sell Cars and Make Money in the Internet Age
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Local Search Group, Rachael L Chadwick, and Jim Flint
10 Ways to Improve Gross Profit
Do you work for one of those dealerships that believes in this hype about it being impossible to make gross selling cars in today’s market. The manufacturers allows us to mark up new cars 3% to 5%, but then these overpriced vendors promise car buyers savings of $3,500 on a $20,000 car. Manufacturers aren’t completely innocent, however. They continue to ratchet up those stair-step programs that have dealers chasing the money as they unload vehicles at losses in order to meet unrealistic volume objectives (Nissan). Then some idiot said the industry needs more transparency, which really means drop your pants and give it all away. I’m not saying we need to hit home runs on every deal, nor am I advocating for deception to make gross. What I am advocating for is discipline and process, with a smidgen of persuasion and finesse thrown in. The following are 10 ways to do just that. Read all about the 10 ways here
Bobbie and The Dawg, Flash Blab at 2:00 PM Eastern
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Jennifer Briggs, Elise Kephart , Bobbie Herron, and Ashley Mabery
Internet Battle Plan XIX Houston [VIDEO]
Jim Ziegler and Debbie Ziegler and the entire Alpha Dawg Posse are coming to Houston with Internet Battle Plan XIX March 9th and 10th at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Houston, TX. 20 experts on Internet sales and marketing, SEO, SEM, video, youtube, BDC sales, phone skills, website conversion, and much more covering every aspect of Internet sales and marketing for the modern automobile dealership. Experts like Sean V. Bradley, Scott Pechstein, Christian Jorn, Elise Kephart-Adame, Jim Flint, Christopher Herman, Kerri Wise, Brian Barlow, David Blassingame, Jennifer Briggs, Carletta Clyatt, Manny Luna, Eric Miltsch, Bobbie Herron, Erich Gail, and Cody Pitchford. Lunch and breakfast will be served. Call Jim at (770) 921-4440 to register or visit http://www.InternetBattlePlan.com
The Cover-Up
We as Americans have always thought of ourselves as the good guys. That’s because our nation is founded on principles like truth, justice and the American way. So why is it that big companies and government officials seem to be blatantly violating this nation’s laws with little to no consequences? We saw it when Wall Street came crashing down in 2008. And now we’re seeing an epidemic of criminality and cover-ups by automobile manufacturers. Is this behavior new? Is it some breakdown in decency that just recently began to happen, or has this been part of the accepted culture for a long time? Of course, the latest in this long series of dubious activity resulted in General Motors (GM) agreeing to pay $900 million in what was labeled a “criminal settlement” over a cover-up of ignition switch defects. Those defects are linked to 124 deaths. Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
Shop Click Die
I just spent two hours reading 30 pages describing General Motors’ new Factory Pre-Owned Collection, a program designed to open up the automaker’s remarketing channel to consumers through an online portal. GM dealers, you’re about to be royally screwed over on your last real profit center. The “Shop Click Drive” program, the car-buying service consumers will use to purchase the more than 30,000 used cars that will be made available through GM’s online portal, has always stunk of the incompetence, greed, and anti-dealer sentiment that has infected GM at the highest levels, and it’s about to get worse. Your manufacturer is eyeballing control of off-lease, rental returns and other program cars — vehicles with less than 37,000 miles on the odometer — as a potential additional profit center at the expense of their dealers. They’re rolling out the most absurd and ill-conceived program they’ve come up with to date. Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
Jim Ziegler, Chip King and The Call Revu Team Discuss Telephone Best Practices
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Chip King, Holly Markel, and Tom Harsha
Why I’m Getting F&I-Certified
Just a guess, but my observations tell me as many as half of the F&I managers working in dealerships have never attended F&I training classes. I would go so far as to say upwards of 90% of sales managers haven’t a clue as to how to properly disclose a contract or perform the detailed work of the F&I position. Some dealership sales managers think Gramm-Leach-Bliley was a 1960s rock group. (It is a 1999 act regulating financial information-sharing practices and data safeguarding.) I was an F&I manager and an F&I director for several stores. During that time, I attended three major F&I Schools, including the famous Pat Ryan School on Wacker Drive in Chicago. That was intensive. We were in classes up to 10 hours a day for two straight weeks. Read the whole article here on WardsAuto.
MASTERS OF CYBERSPACE.
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Greg Gifford, Jennifer Briggs, Bobbie Herron, and Shaun Raines
Interview James A Ziegler,Techniques / Marketing to produce large conferences
This is a replay of the live broadcast with steven healey and Jim Ziegler
Dawg in the Cat Box
My wife, Debbie, finally took a long-overdue trip to Phoenix to visit her sister. It was an opportunity for both of us to face our fears. She had yet to take a trip by herself since we got married. I hadn’t been home alone for more than 20 years. I arranged for transportation to and from the airport in Phoenix and assured Deb there was nothing to worry about. She showed me how to work the dishwasher and left a detailed list of household tasks. Heck, I thought, I was only going to have to manage the house for five days. How hard could that be? So let’s see what we got here. The pool guy and the gardener will be here Monday. The housekeepers come on Tuesday. Feed the dog. Feed the cat. Scoop out the cat’s litter box … Wait a minute! I didn’t sign up for that! Doesn’t she know I have a weak gag reflex? Read
Why You’re Not Rich
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Xiomara Mosley, Cory Mosley, CSP, Tracy E. Myers, Laurie Aiello, and Sean V. Bradley, CSP
Prospect Holding On Line One
It’s not a new problem. In fact, it’s been plaguing dealerships everywhere for as long as I’ve been kicking around the car business. And no matter how many times I call attention to it, I continue to see it happening in dealerships everywhere: Most deals that are blown and lost forever in a car dealership are lost because someone mishandled the initial phone call. Keep in mind that effectively marketing a car dealership today costs most dealers upward of $500 a unit. Then there is the $300 or more some lead sources charge just to deliver a low-profit deal. But I’ll give it to dealers. They do measure closes and conversions to appointments. What they don’t do, however, is measure deals lost on the phone. How many potential customers call in and can’t get connected? How many are mishandled by a salesperson or the receptionist? I don’t have the stats to back it up, but I believe today’s menu-answering options
Alpha Dawg with Sean V. Bradley ,David Blassingame, and the Gang
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, David Blassingame, and Sean V. Bradley, CSP
Got Your Fahrvergnügen Right Here
In the television version of “The Incredible Hulk” back in the ’70s, Bill Bixby portraying Bruce Banner used to say the show’s famous tagline: “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” You won’t have to read between the lines or guess what kind of mood I’m in as I write this article. The Dawg is in full-on Hulk mode. Unless you’ve been living in a cave without communication with the outside world over the last few weeks, you are aware that Volkswagen has lost equity value of more than $18 billion and is facing government fines, lawsuits and consumer defection because of the company’s deliberate deception and misleading of consumers. The U.S. government may — and probably will — fine the company up to $37,500 per vehicle that qualifies. That is not counting what foreign governments will do. Read the whole article here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Texting Blab
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, Mat Koenig | KonigCo, Scott Pechstein, Bobbie Herron, Christopher Speer, Mike Davenport, and STEVE SIPES
Alpha Dawg F&I Blab
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Jim Ziegler, David Cribbs, Steve Schukei, ben Tate, Shaka Dyson , Justin Collins, and F&IGuy
The Cover-Up
We as Americans have always thought of ourselves as the good guys. That’s because our nation is founded on principles like truth, justice and the American way. So why is it that big companies and government officials seem to be blatantly violating this nation’s laws with little to no consequences? We saw it when Wall Street came crashing down in 2008. And now we’re seeing an epidemic of criminality and cover-ups by automobile manufacturers. Is this behavior new? Is it some breakdown in decency that just recently began to happen, or has this been part of the accepted culture for a long time? Of course, the latest in this long series of dubious activity resulted in General Motors (GM) agreeing to pay $900 million in what was labeled a “criminal settlement” over a cover-up of ignition switch defects. Those defects are linked to 124 deaths. In the settlement, GM admitted it had hidden the defects from both consumers and the
Blab Blab Blab….
THIS COMING FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16TH… It’s going to be Me, The Alpha Dawg, Jim Ziegler and my friends Shaka Dyson and Tony Dee will be performing our first broadcast in a continuing series of educational BLAB Broadcasts by the Jim Ziegler, the #AlphaDawg. For automotive retail professionals, we will be discussing “F&I, High Profitability, and Low Liability”. Featuring three of the best award-winning top F&I Trainers in the known Universe. It will begin at 2:00 PM Eastern time, October 16th, and will continue until we’re finished. HERE IS THE LINK FOR THIS AWESOME BLAB https://blab.im/jim-ziegler-alpha-dawg-f-i-blab Get all the information here at this link!
Elvis Is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself
If you have never read “Elvis Is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself,” do yourself a favor. It’s an incredible book by the late Southern humorist, Lewis Grizzard. You couldn’t live in Atlanta for the last 30 years and not be aware of our hometown boy and the wisdom of his writing. On its surface, the book is about the author’s early life in the 1950s and ’60s, a much simpler and perhaps safer time. Behind the humor lies Grizzard’s reflections on coping with deteriorating societal values. Written in 1984, shortly before he passed away, it remains one of my favorite books. Much of the style and wordsmithing I attempt to put into my writings was certainly influenced by Grizzard’s conversational way of telling his stories. Read the whole article on Auto Dealer Today.
500-Car Pileup
Picture this: It’s August 12, 2035. The time is 7:20 a.m. on Interstate 5 in Los Angeles. Thousands of cars sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, just like any other day. Most of those cars are autonomous, self-driving, high-tech designs. Commuters are drinking simulated coffee beverages and working on their mobile devices, paying no attention to the road or traffic as their self-driving vehicles creep flawlessly toward their pre-programmed destinations. Many of these futuristic vehicles are Uber driverless cars; just make a phone call and a car shows up at your door and drops you off at your destination. Why would you own a car when you can Uber for a small fraction of the car payment you opted against? And since it’s driverless, Ubers are a very cheap ride. Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
Undercover Stealth Car Guy
This was one of those spur-of-the-moment impulse decisions so many people make when the mood is right. Oh, I was going to buy a new car anyway. I had been planning on maybe September or October, but events and emotions caused a shift in plans. I have always taught that people buy emotionally and that logic and analysis is secondary. I am no different. It all started when we drove down to the Florida Panhandle to look at the possibility of buying a condo in Destin. It’s been five years since we visited, and it’s always been sort of a pipe dream to have a condo there. But the wonderful city we remembered has changed beyond recognition. It now features bumper-to-bumper traffic, crawling at 30 miles an hour almost six months of the year and, in our opinion, the overcommercialization has gotten totally out of control. We canceled our vacation after one day. Read the whole article here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Internet Battle Plan XVIII Class Schedule
View and download the full class schedule for Internet Battle Plan XVIII in Detroit at the link below! Internet Battle Plan XVIII Class Schedule
Taking on Water
It’s not a new problem, but the wholesale losses that have crept up on dealers in recent years have many of them caught up in a never-ending cycle of phantom profits, which disappear 60 days later when those trade-ins have to be disposed of at a loss because they didn’t sell. Much of the blame for this epidemic can be directed at stair-step incentive programs that pressure new-car sales managers into selling vehicles at a loss. Compounding the problem are third-party sites that price vehicles unrealistically. And because of competitive pressures, dealers know they risk losing a sale to a competitor if they don’t make a deal. That’s when we start loading up the trades to make things work. Yeah, we look good on our financial statement. Maybe we even hit our numbers and cash in on the manufacturer’s bonus. In the meantime, that trade-in is sitting there and no one is buying it. It’s not a loss yet, but
Gizmos and Gadgets and Apps! Oh, My!
I was taking a pleasant Sunday drive down a scenic Georgia highway with my wife, Debbie, and our puppy when, without warning, the Rav4 in the next lane swerved toward us, forcing me onto the shoulder. It’s not cool to piss off the Alpha Dawg. I stepped on the gas in hot pursuit, fully prepared to give some fool a piece of my mind. Believe it or not, I can be a scary individual when the suppressed redneck in me bubbles to the surface. Have I mentioned I grew up on Jacksonville’s Westside and I’m always heavily armed? We caught up to the offending perpetrator and I prepared to unleash a man-sized portion of verbal road rage on them. I rolled down the window and — Whoa! It was just a teenage girl, staring at her phone, texting away with both thumbs and, presumably, using her knees to steer. Read the whole article here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Sales Without End, Somebody Say ‘Amen’
I love optimism as much as the next guy. The last thing we need in our business are perpetually negative people. I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I’m an opportunist, in the best sense of the word. I try to stay rooted in reality and react appropriately for whatever the world serves up. As an avowed opportunist, I’m also a realist. I just read another extremely optimistic article predicting 18 months of increased U.S. sales that will approach 18 million new units before leveling off near the end of 2017. In similar articles I’ve seen, every analyst, economist, and statistician weighed in along with analysts from TrueCar, Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book, as well as other industry insiders and auto executives. Within a few decimal points every one of these experts and analysts were in agreement: We’re gonna sell a boatload of cars and trucks in North America in the next two years. Party on, Garth. Now, I’m
On-Demand Training
Experience the BEST and MOST COMPLETE On-Demand Automotive Training. Call Jim for a demo and presentation at 770-921-4440.
Dealer Socket User Summit
Jim Ziegler, The Alpha Dawg talks about the upcoming Dealer Socket CRM User Summit in San Diego at the San Diego Bayfront Hilton, August 18th-21st, 2015. Jim will be presenting a special session titled “My 50 Best F&I Closes”. http://www.UserSummit.DealerSocket.com
Internet Battle Plan XVIII – Detroit
(770) 921-4440 #AlphaDawg Jim and Debbie Ziegler are bringing Automotive Dealers’ Internet Battle Plan XVIII to Detroit http://www.InternetBattlePlan.com , September 21st and 22nd, 2015. Top internet sales and marketing, SEO experts on stage, mobile and texting, BDC experts, like Sean V. Bradley, James A. Ziegler, Tammie LeBleu from Autoloop, Scott Pechstein from AutoBytel, Greg Gifford from DealerOn, Kerri Wise from TrueCar, Chip King from CallRevu, Erich Gail from the Cardinale Group, Brian Barlow from Pineapple, Gary May from im@CS, Mike Davenport the Louisville Chevy Dude, Elise Kephart-Adame the YouTube Diva from Phone Ninjas, Debbie Ziegler and the Alpha Dawg himself, Jim Ziegler, CSP,HSG
A GM’s Checklist for Profitability
Old school or new school, it doesn’t matter. I live comfortably in both worlds. But I can’t say the same for most dealerships. So I thought I’d provide a checklist designed to help general managers and dealers blend the best of both worlds to dominate in today’s hypercompetitive market. Now let’s get to it. If I were your GM or dealer, what I covered is how I’d run the dealership. If I was the GM or dealer at a competing store, consider this checklist my game plan for kicking your butt. Read the whole article on F&I and Showroom here.
That Ain’t Gonna Happen
It wasn’t that many years ago I was working with a Chevrolet dealership in Maryland training the sales and management teams on techniques and processes. There was one manager in particular — to this day, a great friend — who stands out in my memories from that time. His name is Ray, and he could rain on a salesperson’s parade and deflate their spirit quicker than anyone I’d ever encountered. Now, don’t get me wrong. Ray is a decent guy and a very good manager. But when he saw a salesperson working the desk harder than they were working the customer, he would look them in the eye with a gaze that could turn you to stone and say, “That ain’t gonna happen!” When Ray said that, his tone of voice, his facial expression, his body language … everything about his demeanor chilled the salesperson to the bone. He was in charge and the outcome of the deal was totally
Sergio’s Last Stand
Forever the old-movie buff, sometimes I can’t help but relate fictional film characters to the reality of current events. Errol Flynn was a star before I was born, but I’m fascinated by his old movies. One in particular flashes to mind when it comes to FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne and his seemingly stressful effort to find another auto company willing to merge with his. The movie I’m thinking of is the 1941 epic “They Died With Their Boots On.” The definitive scene in the highly fictionalized film shows Errol Flynn as General George Custer and what was left of his troops fighting to the end as the entire Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations encircle them. If you didn’t know the historical outcome, you’d get the impression Errol Flynn was going to get out of this jam. The auto industry increasingly is getting the feeling Marchionne is up against the wall. You wonder what the outcome will be. Wait a minute,
Packing Heat
Believe it or not, a lot of sales managers still ask me how much “leg” they need to leave in the payment for the F&I manager. In fact, as recently as last month, a manager messaged me to say that his general sales manager was demanding he leave a $30 a month leg in the payment he quotes consumers to help out the F&I department. Regardless of how many years you’ve gotten away with payment packing, I’ll tell you this: If you get caught just once, it will ruin your life and career. Let me repeat myself: You may not offer the customer a financial package with products included — even though you disclosed the existence of those products as being included in the payment. The one exception is if the customer has been clearly told he or she can buy the vehicle for the base payment at the base interest rate without the products. Bottom line, there are no
Did You Bump Your Head?
There’s a running joke in my family that I am our only Yankee, having been born in Philadelphia. But my parents moved to Florida when I was two years old and I have lived in the South ever since. So it truly offends me when people from other parts of the country make fun of Southerners and our way of life. We’re not all Duck Dynasty refugees or Honey Boo-Boo genetic throwbacks. Those people are actors who are deliberately perpetuating a stereotype, and they may be laughing at you even harder than you’re laughing at them. It goes both ways. I never believed for a second that all you Northerners are cold, rude, indifferent gangsters. I am always treated with warmth and respect when I travel to New York, New Jersey and Boston. I have even added a few of your sayings to my lexicon. “Get outta here!” and “Forget about it!” are my personal favorites. In return, I invite
The Vast Research Conspiracy
All it takes to sell anything to most car dealers is a report starting with the words… “Our most recent research shows that …” We are such suckers for misinformation disguised as valid research. All I have to say about that is my own research shows that most recent reports conducted and commissioned by vendors and manufacturers is most likely bogus and definitely suspect. In the last three weeks of March and the first week of April, no less than five monumental research reports were piously heralded and reported in the industry press as dramatic paradigm shifts in the way consumers buy automobiles and the way we sell them. I know, I know. I can hear you from here. “Ziegler, you’re just an old-school cynic and skeptic.” Yes, labeling is one way to discredit the discrediters and silence the opposition. But I can’t be the only one who smells a rat. Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
Showroom Showdown
If it wasn’t obvious to you by now, I am an avid fan of old spaghetti Westerns. In fact, my love of Westerns and their good-vs.-evil themes has inspired many of my speeches, articles and campaigns. And every one of them stress the virtue of standing up for idealistic values. We all know the good guys and admire what they stand for, but the good guys would be nothing without the bad guys bringing the fight to them. They were deceitful and despicable — evil personified, you could say. And nobody did it better than Lee Van Cleef. He played a bit character in 109 Westerns and died in most of them. Gary Cooper killed him in “High Noon,” John Wayne pistol-whipped him in “Liberty Valance,” “The Rifleman” ran him out of town, and Clint killed him in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Heck, even Rock Hudson outdrew and killed him. Van Cleef did live through some of
Let’s Rewrite This Movie’s Script
In the movie “Jaws,” it was Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfus running around warning the citizens that the shark was still out there. Unfortunately, the town mayor dismissed them as alarmists and kept the beaches open until more of his tourists became shark food. Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton tried desperately to evacuate the town in “Dante’s Peak,” but Brosnan’s boss (ironically named Dreyfus) overruled him. Then the volcano erupted. Oh well. In “Volcano,” Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche couldn’t convince the city fathers that a volcano was forming in the sewers under Los Angles until they were ankle deep in lava flowing in the streets. William Holden and Jacqueline Bisset didn’t have any luck convincing the Hotel owners the entire island was going to blow up. Guess what happened in “When Time Ran Out”? The titles, characters and the settings are different but the storylines follow the same pattern. I can relate to it all. Through the years,
GM’s Shop-Click-Drive Jumps the Curb
General Motors says its Shop, Click and Drive initiative is designed to let consumers get online information on vehicles, pricing, incentives, finance and insurance products and trade-in value. Shoppers can pick a vehicle, apply for financing, then get their car. Despite the fact GM is building what I consider to be some of the best products in the industry, it has lost the ball in the sun with this retailing project. Like all manufacturers, it needs to get out of retail. They’re all bad at it. Interfering with dealers has repeatedly led to disastrous results. First, requiring all participating GM dealers to have the same cookie-cutter website vendor is totally asinine. Dealer websites cannot be competitive nor convert consumers effectively if all of them are built, maintained and, supposedly, optimized by the same company. Read the whole article here on WardsAuto.
A Battle Rages
“There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’” is a line from one of my favorite Bob Dylan tunes, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Well, there certainly was a battle raging last month when Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray went before the House Committee on Financial Services to deliver his semi-annual report on the bureau’s activities. We all know the CFPB has been flexing its muscles of late, turning up the heat on dealer F&I practices. So what’s its play? Let’s go back to 2010, when the National Automobile Dealers Association came storming off of the battlefield beating its chest after successfully lobbying for the dealer exemption in the CFPB-creating Dodd-Frank Act. The industry breathed a sigh of relief. But by 2013, finance sources and dealers began to realize the CFPB was stepping outside of the Dodd-Frank’s guidelines by targeting auto loans originated through the indirect channel. The strategy was simple: Regulate dealer practices by going after
Living Under the Volcano
Nobody ever listens to the doomsayers. We’ve all seen the movie a million times. It starts off with the lone crackpot scientist trying to warn the world of impending doom. Nobody believes them until disaster strikes. Remember the dumbass mayor who kept the beaches open in “Jaws,” despite the protests of Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider? Or Pierce Brosnan’s boss, who convinced the residents of “Dante’s Peak” that their volcano wasn’t about to explode? How about the poor man’s Dick Cheney who failed to heed Dennis Quaid’s warnings about global warming in time to respond to the cataclysmic events in “The Day After Tomorrow”? This “It’s-not-going to happen-to-us” mentality is not limited to the movies. Ever heard of Mount Vesuvius, the still-active volcano that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79 and last erupted in 1944? Did you know half a million people are currently living at its base? Scientists believe a major eruption is long overdue. The Italian government has offered
A Dying Breed
I have always said that F&I is the most prestigious job in the dealership. It is important that we never lose sight of the fact that it is a sales position, not just a clerical necessity. We are neither clerks nor the sales manager’s secretaries. That’s why I despise when F&I professionals refer to themselves as “business managers.” It’s such a wimpy-ass title. Business managers are the grumpy heads of dealership accounting offices. F&I managers and directors demand a little more respect and prestige. And right now, they are being asked to adapt to cataclysmic paradigm shifts driven by new technology and regulatory pressure. There are two forces driving these shifts, and neither is going away. First, even though we are kicking and screaming all the way to the slaughterhouse, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will prevail in the end. Yes, finance sources will eventually have to standardize interest rates offered to consumers at every credit tier, probably without
The Convention and the Big Game
I am writing this month’s column a few short days after the conclusion of the best, biggest and most upbeat and optimistic National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention I have attended in 10 years — and several hours after the most incredible, competitive, edge-of-your-seat Super Bowl in recent memory. What a rush! Now, like many of you, when the Alpha Dawg tunes into the Super Bowl, I pay close attention to the new crop of car commercials. Will they be effective, memorable or just a bit too cute? More on that in a moment. First, let’s take a closer look at the 2015 NADA Convention & Expo and some of the ideas — fresh and stale — that floated among the halls of San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Read the whole post here on AutoDealerMonthly.
Mexican-Owned U.S. Dealerships Raise Questions
Am I the only one who hs a fundamental problem with Nissan‘s latest move to bring dealers into the U.S. from Mexico? Initially it’s Texas, California, and probably Florida, Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico, and then the rest of the country. Nissan is promoting Mexican dealer operators to own and run retail Nissan dealerships in the U.S. Now, understand, we’re not talking about American dealers with Mexican heritage. No, we’re talking about foreign-owned companies that currently have dealerships in Mexico. This is one of those times where I think there ought to be a law. I’m not sure if there is a law that prevents a manufacturer from importing foreign ownership of U.S. dealerships. I suspect some American dealers are about to get the shaft bigtime. Through the years, I’ve written repeatedly that Nissan has a reputation of being heavy-handed with its loyal dealers with its policies, stair-step incentives and various programs. Read the whole article here on WardsAuto.
Don’t Fear the Money
The worst day of every F&I professional’s life reoccurs every couple of months. I am talking about the day your dealer and general manager return from their latest 20 Group meeting. Sporting new golf tans and deep frowns, they come storming into the showroom Monday morning and go directly to the dealer’s office. You know what’s coming next. They’ve been locked in a room with 19 other dealers for two days comparing numbers. And well, your dealership was on the right side or the bottom of the sheet in every profit category. Your numbers were all rate profit and your product penetrations were below group average, which means your per-copy average sucked as well. After four or five hours of number-crunching, everyone hit the golf course and your bosses took 18 holes’ worth of jokes and jabs from the 20 Group moderator and all the dealers on the left side of the ledger. By the time they boarded their flight
Giving Up the Ghost Pepper
I’ve been working on this article off and on most of the day, and rivers of sweat and tears are running down my face. No, it’s not from the hard work. It’s the hot sauce. A few minutes ago, Debbie brought me a bowl of her wonderful, homemade-from-scratch chicken vegetable soup. You guessed it: I’m on a diet. New year, new Ziegler —again. Since this was going to be my lunch, I decided to spice it up a bit. What a great opportunity to try out that new hot pepper sauce I just bought! Now, you’ve got to understand, I am a hot sauce aficionado. I’ve been collecting them for 30 years and I own hundreds of bottles of every description. I eat sauces and whole peppers that would put to shame any Vietnamese, Mexican, Korean, Indian or Jamaican brands you can find in your specialty foods aisle. My latest discovery is Dave’s Gourmet Ghost Pepper sauce, made with the
Stepping Up Your Game
Without exception, every sales department in every dealership in the world is underperforming in virtually every profit center. Even the stores that are dominating their market could use more sales, more frequent sales and higher grosses. I know that’s a bold statement to make, but it’s been proven over and over again. Think about it. Have you hired a sales event company to come into the dealership and put on a three-day super sale? These firms will bring in their own sales teams, including managers and closers. They’ll also take over the store’s advertising. Sometimes, they’ll even help the dealership buy inventory to prepare for the event. And it’s not uncommon for these companies to seriously outperform the dealership’s normal business volume, as they typically put up staggering numbers in just a few days. As an observer with no skin in that game, I just watch and learn as these firms deliver high grosses and high unit volume. Read the
We are Entering an Era of CRM Domination
Third party Vendors are waking up to their worst nightmare. The party is almost over and we’re turning the lights on. They are in denial reminiscent of ‘Newspaper Advertising’ a few decades ago. Newspaper was the juggernaut, dominant, over-bearing, dictating, necessary, and way over-priced. At the end of the Newspaper Era, they were screaming they were still effective and still relevant as they could no longer prove heir worth or justify their extravagant high-prices. The Newspaper Advertising moguls were sucked down into the tarpits wheezing their last wheezy gasps, still proclaiming their relevance. NOW – The Paradigm is shifting again. The third-party vendors can no longer justify their rdiculous high prices and can’t document any real results. They’re No Longer selling results, they can’t. They don’t have them to show. So they misdirect with VDPs and SRPs and QRXs instead of showing us real business. AND, they tell the dealers if you’re not selling, it’s your employees fault. WHAT CHANGED? Well
AutoNation Reinvents Itself, Again
For more than fifteen years we’ve watched AutoNation continually redefining their most recent redefinition. Although I generally hold CEO Mike Jackson in high regard, watching the country’s top dealership chain reversing and reinventing itself has been amusing, probably because of the high level of seriousness and intensity those involved place on every move. So, since the beginning I’ve found myself sneering and cheering as they launched every new initiative. You can’t argue with their successes unless you dissect their business-model efficiency to the level of each individual dealership. But Ziegler, their stock is soaring to record levels. Read the whole article here on WardsAuto.
Haters Will Hate
No matter how good you are, how hard you try to run an ethical and decent business, or how much you bend over backward to do the right thing, somebody out there is talking trash about you somewhere to someone. Customer satisfaction in the car business has become little more than survey manipulation. A couple of years ago I was a featured speaker at a J.D. Power Automotive Roundtable in Detroit. During my presentation, I said people don’t buy another car from you because of customer satisfaction. Truth is, people don’t know when they’re satisfied, but they do know when they’re not. And that’s when they get emotional. Think about it. When is the last time you asked to see the restaurant manager so you could compliment the food and the service? Hello! We’re car people. Customers love to hate us. When I train salespeople and managers, I always start off by telling them, “The consumer does not want to
Achieving the Big Numbers
More than 100 dealership managers and industry executives traveled to Industry Summit 2014 in September to attend my super-intensified sales management event, dubbed “Profit Masters.” Bear in mind that the event occurred the day before the magazine’s annual conference. In other words, the people in the room flew in a day early to attend my all-day seminar. Through the years, I’ve developed a reputation for helping dealers achieve the “big numbers.” And based on the enthusiasm, commitment and intensity of the managers in room, it was obvious there’s a need for meaningful and effective management training. Truthfully, I don’t know of many dealerships that couldn’t increase profits by $100,000 a month overnight. To be clear, I’m only talking about the variable sales department and F&I gross, not service or peripheral sales. Now, there are only four ways to increase profits: sell more units, make higher front- and back-end gross profits per unit sold, sell additional products and services like F&I
We’re Not Going to Take It Anymore
Why did the scorpion sting the frog that was helping it across the river even though the scorpion knew that would cause both of them to drown? Because the scorpion couldn’t help it; it was just his nature. Well, that sounds like Edmunds.com. It has stung dealers, again. It apparently can’t help it. The online consumer car-buying service broke out its latest series of ads on YouTube depicting a grocery store cashier trying to get customers to “haggle.” Read the whole article here on WardsAuto.
When the Disrupter Gets Disrupted: The War and Truce Between TrueCar and Auto Dealers
(This article appears in Inc. written by Paul Keegan and mentions Jim as a dealer advocate speaking out against TrueCar.) A few years ago, Scott Painter had it made. He was wealthy, handsome, and smart, a TED and Davos guy who hung out with Elon Musk and Richard Branson. “Everything in my life had gone unbelievably well,” he says. “Just off-the-chart success.” Over two decades, he had started dozens of companies and raised over a billion dollars in venture funding before finally hitting upon his Really Big Idea in 2005: A company eventually called TrueCar would bring price transparency to the sneaky world of auto salesmanship, and give consumers leverage by telling them exactly how much other people were paying for cars. For car shoppers, it was nirvana: no more haggling, no more waiting for that gold-chained salesman to talk to his manager to “see what I kin do.” Instead, you just went to TrueCar.com, typed in your Zip code
F&I Mastermind Seminar – Melville NY – Long Island December 10th-11th
F&I Mastermind Seminar This course is taught personally by Jim Ziegler CALL JIM (770 ) 921-4440 F&I Mastermind is about product sales, processes and procedures aimed at High Gross Profitability with Zero Liability. Taught personally by Jim Ziegler. Featuring Ziegler’s definitive textbook on F&I Procedures – each student receives a 150 page, information intensive textbook – not a workbook. The numbers speak for themselves. We consider this to be the best real-world F&I School offered anywhere by anyone. Your managers will show immediate measurable profit increases; more in two days than most other courses accomplish in a week. The curriculum includes: Advanced Menu Selling Competency, using proven selling methods and procedures: Establishing the demeanor, attitude, and selling skills of a highly polished, professional Financial Manager. This will include a heavy emphasis on selling intangible products. Maximize Unit Sales from the sales of Finance and Leasing options while maximizing profitability from product sales in the F&I Department. This will include a
The Dealer Playbook Podcast: The Secret to Selling More in F&I with Jim Ziegler
Jim “The Alpha Dawg” Ziegler is as close as it comes to a “living legend” as you can get. Jim is the founder of the “Internet Sales Battle Plan” and the “Ziegler Super Conference” two of the automotive industries top improvement workshops. He also is the founder of Ziegler Super Systems, his leading dealer consulting company. Jim Ziegler is one of the automotive industries leading experts when it comes to F&I. He has written many viral articles on the topic and presented the topic in many live workshops. Jim is responsible for massive growth in dealerships across the country and a big part of that increase is from the dealers F&I department. Listen to the podcast here!
Serial Cadillac Buyer Miffed at GM’s Luxury Brand
Sometimes when you’re sailing in open seas on a clear star-filled night you forget to look out for icebergs. Mary Barra is at the helm of the General Motors ship speeding through unchartered seas. She’s competent, as is first officer Mark Reuss. But I have reservations about some crew members. A lot of industry news buzz is that Cadillac’s in store for a big upheaval. No one says what exactly that means. Well, I’ll say it. I have reason to believe the Cadillac Div. is preparing to disenfranchise many of its dealers. Regardless of the reasoning or motivation, it’s déjà vu all over again. A Cadillac revival began in the late 1990s and continued until around 2005. The brand was exciting and edgy, capturing a younger demographic. I personally owned nine new Cadillac Escalades, two SRXs and one of the short-lived XLR sports car in the first 12 years of the new century. (I also owned seven Chevrolet Corvettes.) Read the whole
Every Day I’m Shufflin’
If I were asked to describe the soundtrack playing in the background of my life, it would have to be “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO. You might recognize it from Kia’s “Hamsters” commercials a couple years back, or the oft-repeated chorus: “Party rock is in the house tonight/Everybody just have a good time.” The Kia spots sold a lot of cars and the original music video is fast approaching 750 million hits on YouTube. Some people love the music. Some people love the video. Some people might even love the hamsters. Anything is possible. I love the part of the song when the music stops and the singer says, “Every day I’m shufflin’.” Well, I have adopted that as my personal theme. I used to say I spent every day hustling. “Shufflin’” is more high-energy, more focused and even more intense. In the last three months I have traveled and performed more than I ever have in the 28 years
Bellavia Blatt Scores Victory Against Carfax
On September 29, 2014 Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of over 750 plaintiffs suing Carfax over its anticompetitive practices in the vehicle history report (“VHR”) market. The decision affirmed Bellavia Blatt’s argument that Carfax’s conduct is unlawful under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Judge Nathan’s decision allows the suit against Carfax to proceed to the discovery phase, meaning, Carfax will now have to disclose confidential information about its business dealings and practices. We anticipate learning even more about Carfax’s anticompetitive practices once we have access to key files and Carfax personnel. If you would like to read more about this decision, you can download a copy of an article published in AutoDealer Monthly here. Dealers’ interest in joining the lawsuit has grown dramatically as more and more learn about it. Unfortunately, we will soon have to close the lawsuit to new plaintiffs. If you are interested in learning
WE’RE HAVING A PARTY
5:30 PM, directly following Day One of the Sales Management Super Conference, Tuesday November 11th The Cocktail Reception will be Sponsored by TrueCar featuring entertainment by nationally recognized party animal, deejay and celebrationist, Dan Blankowski. The evening will feature food and beverage and a Karaoke Competition brought to you by TrueCar. It’s Jim and Debbie’s 30th Anniversary and we want this celebration to be over the top!
Who’s Afraid of Elon Musk?
This is man is so incredibly bright he frightens a lot of people across a wide span of different industries. We are so focused on what impact Elon Musk ultimately will have on the car business that we miss the fact he is a super-achiever and a visionary. Don’t shoot the messenger. But I honestly believe he’s going to bust some of the dealer franchise laws in all 50 states. He ultimately will be responsible for manufacturer-direct sales in competition with franchised dealers. Oh, we’ll be kicking screaming, gouging and biting right up until the end. But it’s coming, and after the dust settles, the industry will emerge better for it. Who is this guy Musk anyway? He’s a South-African transplant who made his money as co-founder of PayPal in 2000. Revolutionary at the time, PayPal allowed people to pay online without using credit cards. Read the whole article on WardsAuto here.
A Bustle in Your Hedgerow
In Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Robert Plant sings, “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now, it’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.” More than a light dusting or even a major spring cleaning, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has our industry in the crosshairs, and it’s coming after some dealers with a vengeance. It is targeting dealers who have created allegedly deceptive and misleading advertising. Over the last few years, nearly 20 dealerships and groups have been penalized and sanctioned, with 10 lawsuits filed to date under the FTC’s current campaign. The current scourge was officially announced in a press release on Jan. 9. Using language befitting a military operation, the FTC described the campaign as a “nationwide sweep focusing on the sale, financing, and leasing of motor vehicles.” It even has an official name: “Operation Steer Clear.” You can find the full story under the “News & Events” tab at FTC.gov. Read
Blurred Reality
The 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster “Total Recall” (and its underwhelming 2012 remake) is a futuristic fantasy trip centered around Rekall, a company that sells dreams so real they become actual memories. In the original, after a virtual trip to Mars goes awry, Arnold finds himself in a world of blurred reality as a fugitive, outlaw and revolutionary fighting to overthrow the dictator of a police state. … Or is he? Certainties have been no easier to come by in the wake of the massive recalls that continue to drag General Motors, its dealers and its beleaguered CEO, Mary Barra, down on many levels and in many dimensions. To whom does the moral stigma belong? Who knew what, and when? Who covered it up, and why? Did someone calculate liability losses and legal consequences verses estimated costs of repairs? The government, consumers, dealers and yours truly would like to know. Read the whole article on Auto Dealer Monthly here.
Go Mobile or Go Home
I just returned home to Atlanta after a 2-day speaking adventure in Dayton and Columbus, OH. Still traveling 200 days a year, somehow I envisioned I would have slowed down by now. As I sat in the Delta Sky Club waiting for my outbound flight, I became acutely aware of the behavior of people around me. They suffer from a disease that’s epidemic, probably pandemic. It’s a hopeless addiction and, most likely, incurable. Everywhere I looked, people were standing or sitting with their heads down, fully engrossed by their handheld mobile devices that connect us and give us access to virtually all of the information and knowledge accumulated in the history of our world. Besides that, we use our mobile devices to post pictures, play games, and communicate with strangers on social networks, occasionally research products and even transact purchases. Read the whole article on WardsAuto here.
Defensive Posture
I can’t tell you how many times in my 38-year career in the car business I’ve heard people talk about how everything is changing. Yet, so many things remain the same. Take these customer responses: “Is that your best price?” “I need to think about it,” or “The other dealer offered me a better deal.” They can strike fear in a sales professional, making his or her knees shake and heart palpitate. But guess what? Customers have been saying those things for hundreds of years. But do you want to know what’s really amazing? Well, no matter how long customers have uttered such responses, every new crop of salespeople and managers has fallen for them. See, instead treating them as a customer’s defense mechanism, they treat them like valid objections. Read the whole article on F&I and Showroom here!
Motorcar Marketing Podcast Episode 014: Automotive Marketing From The Alpha Dawg with Jim Ziegler
Hear this incredible episode where Jim offers up some great tips about what dealerships should be doing with online marketing in today’s fast changing marketing landscape. (Clicking below will take you to the Motorcar Marketing podcast page.)
The Car Business According to Bob Dylan
We’ve always known Bob Dylan was a friggin’ genius, but nobody ever realized his early song lyrics would double as cutting-edge future-casting commentary about the state of the retail automotive industry 50 years later. We find ourselves working in an industry that is moving fast, changing shape and morphing at light speed. With all the changes we’re experiencing, it’s hard to get a true bead on what we, as retailers, need to change and embrace. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s an illusion. Most recently, we’re hearing a lot of alleged research aimed at reducing the sales process to less than 45 minutes, including F&I and delivery. Excuse me, but as Dylan would remind us, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Wake up, snap out of it and shake it off! Edmunds and a number of vendors are launching automated F&I programs to offer to consumers. Read the whole article on Auto
The Best-Laid Plans
“Whatever you think is gonna happen may not be the way it turns out.” I think Batman might have said that to the Joker once. Perhaps it was a Dirty Harry quote. Or maybe it was a one-liner subliminally recalled from a late-night rerun of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. I’m not really sure where I heard it, but it’s one hell of a thought-provoking statement. I’ve been in the car business for 38 years. Although it has never been my plan to retire, I really did think it would have slowed down a little by now. But instead, I’m busier than I’ve ever been and more relevant than ever. There’s a lot happening in the retail automobile space, and it seems I’ve just unpacked my suitcase before I find myself back at the airport. I’m giving more keynote speeches to dealer groups than at any time in the last 20 years. I’m also producing conferences, speaking at other people’s conferences and
It’s the Relationship, Stupid
“It’s the economy, stupid” was the powerful phrase that rallied voters during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign. That single phrase focused the nation on one issue and made all others insignificant in comparison. It was a brilliant strategy created by the king of populist political sarcasm, James Carville. And it helped unseat George H.W. Bush from the presidency. Well, I think it’s time we came up with our own tagline and take back our business. Recently, we’ve been bombarded with disinformation and outright lies disguised as new consumer data and research. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s propaganda. As I’ve said before, figures lie and liars figure. Read the whole article here on F&I Showroom.
BETRAYAL FROM THE NATIONAL SPEAKERS ASSOCIATION
Hello Friends and Fellow Speakers. It is with great sadness that I am leaving the National Speakers Association because of what I perceive as treacherous behavior by the current leadership, closed door decisions that should have been voted on by the membership, discussed and debated. This is the First NSA Convention I’ve Missed since 1996 or earlier, not sure. I earned the formerly prestigious Certified Speaking Professional Designation in 2001 only to see the requirements gradually eroded to make it easier, although, still difficult to attain. For years I was in Charge of my local chapter of National Speakers Association Mentor program and I was responsible for helping dozens of professionals launch their careers. I raised a lot of money for my chapter and bore the total expense of the program myself. Never took a nickle of reimbursement. Some of the graduates of my Mentor Programs became the leaders of the organization including several CPAEs. Countless aspiring professionals have called
GM Blues, Sergio Walks the Line, 97-Month Loans
In the 1970’s tear-jerker movie “Love Story” starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw, the title song began with: “Where do I begin to tell the story of…?” Well, that’s exactly how I feel as I begin to write about some incredible things that are happening in our industry. Let’s begin with General Motors. A line from “Love Story” goes: “Love is never having to say you’re sorry.” Well, GM is sorry, as it faces recall after recall. It just announced the recall of 511,000 Camaros. That’s on top of all the other vehicles. Poor CEO Mary Barra. She’s a competent and qualified leader who inherited an awful mess. Read the entire article on WardsAuto here.
We’re Not Dead Yet
In 1897, after a premature obituary for Mark Twain was printed in the New York Herald, America’s favorite writer and humorist responded by saying, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Well, actually, he said, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” And, actually, the Herald merely stated that Twain was “grievously ill and possibly dying.” But, actually, they had the wrong guy. Twain’s cousin, James Ross Clemens, had been ill, but soon recovered. So there was no obituary and Twain was misquoted. But who am I to get in the way of a good story? Requiem for a Dealership It wasn’t all that long ago that a handful of “experts” were prematurely putting wreaths on all our graves. They were making speeches and appearing in the press. Their message was clear: The death of the American car dealership was nigh. They blamed lead providers — not the productive ones, mind you, but the no-account re-resellers that
Are We Not Men?
The first time I saw the band Devo was on “Saturday Night Live.” It was sometime in the 1980s, and they were mesmerizing with their robotic moves, conical hats, darkened goggles and heavily synthesized music. Then there was that chant: “Are we not men? We are Devo! D-E-V-O. We are Devo!” I’ve recently noticed a trend taking hold in F&I offices. Some of our industry’s F&I schools are turning out pre-programmed menu zombies who mindlessly recite memorized scripts devoid of inflection, empathy or personality. Look, I’m a huge advocate of the menu, but what I find lacking in many of today’s F&I managers is the ability to shift gears and deviate from the script. Selling F&I involves a relaxed, empathetic conversation. It’s not a stiff, rehearsed, lecture-like presentation. But when I visit dealerships and observe F&I presentations, I can almost always tell what school produced these guys and gals. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen presentations
Can GM Get Its Mojo Back?
General Motors is on the ropes, knees buckling, as it takes repeated body blow. The recalls keep coming. And the federal government’s $35 million fine is only the beginning of a series of escalating payouts before all of this passes. Someone told me GM will be fine. After all, it is sitting on a $35 billion cash reserve. Well, I seem to recall that is almost the identical reserve GM was sitting on when Rick Wagoner took the helm not so many years ago. It took less than a decade of losses to burn through that before the automaker entered bankruptcy. I’m not predicting that will happen again, but Mary Barra inherited the whirlwind when she became GM CEO this year. At least a decade or more of cover-ups and admitted misdirection falls on her. It’s too bad the reckoning arrived on her watch. GM just announced an additional four recalls affecting another 2.5 million vehicles. It announced five recalls
Total Recall
Close your eyes and pick a number between 13 and 500. Got it? Okay, now go before Congress and tell them how many deaths were caused by a defective ignition switch in your vehicles. I don’t envy Mary Barra. In a few short months, she went from newly minted General Motors CEO and media darling to the impossible position described above. She has been forced to order the recall of at least 2.6 million vehicles for the ignition switch problem and, weeks later, another 1.5 million units that could suffer a loss of power steering. Worse yet, we don’t really know how many ignitions switched to the ACC position and disabled the airbags in vehicles that crashed. The manufacturer has linked 13 fatalities to the defect. The Center for Auto Safety, a public interest group started by Ralph Nader and the Consumers Union, puts the count at more than 300 people based on federal data. So, yeah, GM is facing
Stonewall Mike Jackson Takes a Stand
Wondering what the heck was going on, my wife Debbie came running into my office with a panicked look on her face. Her concern turned to anger when she realized the yelling in the room was a celebration, not an emergency. No need to call 9-1-1. The thunderous noise was just me cheering as I was bounced up and down in my chair as I read the latest online industry news. Through the years, AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson and I have strongly disagreed on many industry issues. Other times, we seem totally in sync. Although I’ve never met Jackson face-to-face; he is a major industry force. I pay attention when he talks. Sort of like the old TV ad: “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen.” The article I was reading quoted him as saying AutoNation dealerships are putting the lead-generation industry on notice. The country’s largest dealership chain no longer will pay perceived high prices to third parties for leads
Show Me the ‘Ups’
A recent conversation with a dealer reminded me of that scene in the movie Jerry Maguire when Cuba Gooding Jr. screams into the phone, “Show me the money.” The dealer was sputtering with rage after meeting with representatives from one of these online car-buying sites, which he said was directing his customers to other dealers through its online financing tool. According to the dealer, the “pricks,” as he called them, claimed the company was not a lead provider. Instead, they referred to their company as an information-based website designed to provide consumers with pricing, aged inventory and market comparisons. Those reps got one thing right: The company isn’t a lead provider. Folks, it’s time we take another look at what I think is a major rip-off being perpetrated against car dealers, who are paying these companies to provide low-quality leads they resell to other dealers. In fact, Jerry Maguire should be an example to all dealers. If an alleged lead
Staying Power
Erosion can affect every aspect of your dealership, from staff and processes to the very foundations of your business. The Alpha Dawg wants you to keep fighting. In every training situation I have ever conducted, I have repeated the same words to every audience: “In the car business, we don’t have a ‘knowing’ problem, we have a ‘doing’ problem.” It’s amazing how many times dealers, managers and experienced sales professionals will sit in my seminars and say, “I knew that.” Of course they did. Regardless of what they’re saying, nobody is actually reinventing the car business. I spend more time reminding my students about things they should already be doing than teaching things they don’t know. There is still a basic, proven road-to-the-sale process. There are things customers say and things we say in response. Through the years, the process has evolved and modernized to become more customer-friendly and transparent. New technology has made more information available and the manufacturers
I’ve Seen This Movie Before
I could swear we’ve seen this movie before. Or something a lot like it. Different actors but the same plot and basic script that has played out many times. It’s a rerun that conjures up visions of a squirming Ford CEO Jacques Nasser testifying before Congress in 2000, and later Ford having to admit that he “misspoke” under oath when he said Ford hadn’t tested the tires of Explorer SUVs during the rollover debacle. Call me a conservative, but isn’t “misspoke” sort of a New-Age polite liberal synonym for “lied”? Nearly four decades in the retail automobile business and I can recall dozens of instances where manufacturers appeared to have scrambled to conceal or cover up known defects. Read the whole article on WardsAuto here.
The Power of Attraction
January was an emotional and physically challenging roller coaster for Debbie and me. The month started with my Internet Battle Plan conference. Then I had two in-dealership consulting visits before traveling to New Orleans for the National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual convention. The month also saw my hometown of Atlanta become paralyzed by an ice storm, but that wasn’t the worst of it. See, my January ended with the passing of my mother on Jan. 31. And throughout everything, including my unexpected trip to Jacksonville, Fla., for my mother’s funeral, there was one constant that kept everything in perspective: Our expanded family and circle of friends on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were there in real time with support, friendship and genuine love. It’s one of the reasons Debbie and I were able to hit the ground running once the calendar flipped to February. Read the entire article here on F&I Showroom.
Auto Dealer Monthly: The Green Leaves of Summer
I was watching television last week, sort of aimlessly flipping through the menu of channels, all 800 of them. You know the drill. I usually stop when I reach the upper tiers with programs from India and China. Then I start going the other way until I reach Channel 3. It’s hard to find good TV these days, even with all the choices, unless you’re a big fan of “Duck Dynasty,” “Honey Boo Boo” or three channels’ worth of “Law & Order” reruns. In the course of my endless, mindless journey across the vast expanse of the Comcast universe, I stumbled upon two different versions of the same movie, “The Alamo,” playing at the same time on adjacent channels. Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton were playing Sam Houston and Davy Crockett on one channel, while John Wayne and Richard Widmark starred as Crockett and Jim Bowie on the other. I had watched a few minutes of the Duke’s version
F&I Showroom: Off With Their Heads
A recent event made me think about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, the foul-tempered personification of blind fury who screams, “Off with their heads.” Of course, the Queen of Hearts is just a figment of Lewis Carroll’s imagination, and I’m certain he never met the Korean executive team over at Hyundai. Hyundai and its sister nameplate, Kia, have burned through some of the best and brightest executives in the industry. One of my best industry friends, Finbarr O’Neill, was the first to lead Hyundai out of the wilderness and into the mainstream. No one seems to remember his two predecessors, Robert Parker and Doug Mazza. They were abruptly replaced, and O’Neill is generally credited for taking brand perception from junk to quality. If you are a top-performing corporate hero at Kia’s and Hyundai’s North American operations, history tells us you’ll probably be marched off the plank with the first misstep. Read the whole article here at F&I
Auto Dealer Monthly: Second Half Comebacks
Fiction is filled with stories about second-half comebacks. Rocky always gets his ass kicked for at least the first three rounds before he reaches deep down and pulls out a win. Come on, admit it. We all thought Ivan Drago was going to kill him. The turning point came when Rocky’s corner man shouted, “You cut him! You hurt him! … He’s not a machine, he’s a man!” This past NFL season featured countless comebacks, but the most amazing of them all has to be the November 24th showdown between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. I was feeling embarrassed for the Patriots and their fans after Denver scored 24 unanswered points before halftime. Just when it looked like their punter might pass out from exhaustion, the Patriots rallied in the second half and pulled off a 34-31 overtime victory. Well, your competitors are not machines, and they sure as hell ain’t the Denver Broncos. You can bring
Wards Auto: Give Jim Farley a Break
When Shakespeare wrote “Much Ado about Nothing,” he could have been referring to the feigned outrage following Jim Farley’s remarks recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Let me preface that Jim Farley, Ford’s global marketing chief, is my friend and one of my personal marketing heroes in our industry. Fortunately or unfortunately, he has more personality and a better sense of humor than 99% of the auto executives we deal with regularly. When he loosens up and says what’s on his mind, he usually assumes he is in the company of friendly people who are in tune with his cordiality. In other words, you can dress him up but you can’t take him anywhere. In chatting with the media, he may assume he is dealing with people who get what he is about, opposed to swimming in a pool of piranhas looking for sound bites and key phrases, in or out of context. Okay, here’s a piece
NADA in New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll… Again
There’s something magical and mystical about New Orleans. I lived there for a year once. I was only 20 at the time, and every day was an adventure. Of course, I celebrated my 21st birthday on Bourbon Street. Young, dumb, intoxicated and … Well, you get the picture. Every fourth year, the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) rolls back around to “The Big Easy” and I find myself filled with anticipation. The New Orleans conventions are always the best. I’ve attended every single one since 1987. I remember conventions in Atlanta and Dallas before they settled on the rotation between San Francisco, Orlando, Las Vegas and New Orleans. San Francisco is okay, but I never cared much for the conventions in Orlando. I am totally burned out on Vegas. But I still love New Orleans, where the only rule is to laissez les bon temps rouler — let the good times roll! From the food, to the atmosphere, to the
Helter Skelter: An Industry on the Brink of Revolution
I am writing this article to issue a warning to automobile dealers and virtually everyone who is employed by the retail automotive industry. Please bear with me and read this article in its entirety. The deeper meaning of the story at the beginning will become abundantly clear later in the text. It was Nov. 22, 1963. I was sitting in Mr. Crohn’s chemistry class, bored out of my mind and wishing I was anywhere else. A burst of static from the PA system interrupted the lecture. It sounded like somebody was trying to tune in a radio station. The static cleared up and a voice announced that President Kennedy had been shot. No details followed. I sat there in class with 30 other 16-year-old kids in total shock. Some of us were crying. I know I did, briefly. We were scared. Was this the beginning of World War III? We began asking questions that have never been answered. Kennedy had
10 Ways To Save Lincoln
Never has there been a more dedicated band of starry-eyed optimists than the surviving Lincoln dealers. These brave souls have jumped through every hoop and swallowed every bitter pill the manufacturer served with hardly a whimper. They put up the money and built the upgraded facilities, separated their showrooms, and upped their game in anticipation of the rivers of milk and honey in the Promised Land. Of course reality always trumps fantasy. Truth is, it just ain’t happening. I don’t think it’s ever going to happen if Lincoln stays on the current course. Please remember, I love Ford. I regard Alan Mulally, Mark Fields and Jim Farley as personal friends. This is not mean-spirited Jim Ziegler talking here. Read the entire article here on WardsAuto.
10 For the Chairman Episode 45
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Beware the Future
If you were to ask 1,000 people what James Bond looks like, most Baby Boomers would describe one of the actors who played him in the ’60s and ’70s, most likely Sean Connery. Some old timers might say it was Barry Nelson, who played James Bond in the 1950s TV series. Members of Generation X would describe Timothy Dalton or maybe Pierce Brosnan. I haven’t got a clue who would describe Daniel Craig. Great movies, but he just doesn’t look the part. The point is, time goes on, even though we all tend to get stuck in an era we lived through. I always get a kick out of a story Paul McCartney tells from when he first met his daughter’s new boyfriend back in the ’80s. The young man politely asked McCartney: “Didn’t you used to play in a band?” It’s OK to remember or even to love the way things used to be, but it is essential for
Our Trip in Star Citizen
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Awesome Gallery Post
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Post Format: Quote
Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet. Mark Twain Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Super Duper Audio Post
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AWESOME WORDPRESS THEMES
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Summer 2011 in Brooklyn
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Jim Ziegler Returns to Atlanta with Two Dynamic Seminars
F&I Mastermind Seminar – Dec. 10-11 – More info.>> The F&I Mastermind is about product sales, processes and procedures aimed at High Gross Profitability with Zero Liability. Taught personally by Jim Ziegler, featuring Ziegler’s definitive textbook on F&I Procedures – each student receives a 150 page, information intensive textbook written by Jim Ziegler – not a fill-in the blanks workbook. Lifetime Free Repeats, and as always, Dealer Principals Attend at No Charge. The numbers speak for themselves. Our track record for measurable results and immediate increases is legendary. We consider this to be the best real-world F&I School offered anywhere by anyone. Your managers will show immediate measurable profit increases and product sales increases. As modern as today, your managers, regardless of experience level will learn more in two days than most other courses accomplish in a week. The curriculum includes: Advanced Menu Selling Competency, using proven selling methods and procedures. Establishing the demeanor, attitude, and selling skills of a
True Concern: Looking Back on TrueCar Controversy
One of John Lennon’s most relevant and thought-provoking lyrics can be found in the song “Beautiful Boy.” It goes: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Recently, that brilliant thought resurfaced, and its deeper significance was revealed to so many of us who missed it the first time around. See, after 38 years in this business, I am amazed at the evolution of the automotive retail industry. But I’m even more astonished when I look back at all of the failed concepts and revolutionary new trends that fizzled and went nowhere. By the time I shut down my offices in 2008 and brought the business home, we had been in huge corporate offices for more than 20 years. As I write these words, I can vividly recall standing by a dumpster overflowing with thousands of files, folders and documents we had accumulated over the years. We had filing cabinets filled with failed projects and ideas
Why Am I Under Investigation?
No challenge in life ever seems to show up at a convenient time. In my case, when you’re scrambling 200 days a year doing speaking engagements, as well as writing and consulting, you’re already spread thin. Never one to whine, the only answer has always been to deal with it, whatever it is. I just came off an intensive summer schedule. I produced several successful conferences and I was a featured presenter at the National Speakers Association convention in Philadelphia. During all of these appearances and heavy schedule, I was in intense pain. In actuality, I needed knee surgery immediately back in June when the condition became acute overnight. Honor, commitments and professional reputation mean a lot to me. So, I made a calculated decision to schedule the surgery for September 9 after I returned from a road trip. I had been taking wheelchair rides in airports and driving electric power scooters thorough the hotels. Two days before the surgery,
Indestructible, Invincible and Bulletproof
I’ve been kicking around on this planet for more than 66 years now. I’ve taken every challenge and dare head-on. Nobody has ever thrown down a gauntlet I didn’t pick up. I’ve lived my entire life with the theme from “Rocky” playing in the background. You might say I am the ultimate competitor, the last gladiator. That’s not to say I’ve always won. I haven’t. But regardless of the challenge, the idea that I might lose has never occurred to me going in. Call it focus, conviction or self-confidence; winning has always been the result of preparation, work ethic and an intense desire to achieve. There’s nothing I can’t do, and winning is automatic. If you’ve read my recent articles, you know I am having total knee replacement surgery on Sept. 9… Read the full article on F&I Showroom here.
Jim Ziegler Returns to Detroit for Two Dynamic Automotive Seminar Events
Jim Ziegler, the Alpha Dawg, is bringing the F&I Mastermind Seminar and The Automotive Sales Manager/Desking Seminars to Detroit in October… October 15th -16th The F&I Mastermind Seminar October 17th – 18th The Automobile Sales Manager/Desking Seminar Both Events at the MGM Hotel Casino – Detroit No matter what level of experience, these events will take your sales and profits to new levels. Ziegler is the best in the business and events like this rarely come to the upper midwest. Your managers will learn new word tracts, techniques, and the best up-to-date processes in F&I and Sales Management, including how to work a deal as only Jim can teach it. Complete with latest sales and marketing innovations. Ask about special hotel rates for Ziegler Seminar Attendees. As always, Dealer Principals attend at no charge, regardless if you bring paid attendees with you or not. Sign up now at www.ZieglerSeminars.com or call Jim directly with credit card in hand at (770)
Competing Spurs Overreaching
Flying home from Las Vegas again. Another successful Internet Battle Plan Conference. I’m already planning the next one. Each time these events come to a close, I find myself in a most creative and innovative state of mind. This is when I usually reach back and find the inspiration to do new things and go to new places in my life and business. As usual, my opening conference speech was a flow of consciousness. For more than 37 years now, I have never given a speech that was scripted, rehearsed or totally prepared. It drives association executives and meeting planners crazy when I just walk up to the podium and start speaking with only an idea of what I am going to say. But it is easy for people and companies to misstate things. The Ford C-Max controversy about misstated Environmental Protection Agency fuel economy is a symptom of something. I predict other auto makers are going to be spotlighted
No Time to Hurt
I have always been a sucker for music with a message and a story, especially tunes sung by individuals who lived a life that gives them the right to tell it. Being from the South, I was a Johnny Cash fan before the rest of the world caught on. In fact, if you get enough pop into me, you might even hear me sing one of his tunes in my best Johnny Cash impersonation. The last tune Johnny recorded was “Hurt” in 2002. It was a cover of a song written by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. Both versions are powerful, but there’s something special about the music video of Johnny singing the tune. With the love of his life, June Carter Cash, looking over his shoulder, Johnny can be seen singing while the video flashes to scenes from his life. June ended up dying within a few months of the video’s making and Johnny died before it was
2013 National Speakers Association Convention Review By Sean V. Bradley – PHL Chapter Member
2013 National Speakers Association Convention Review By Sean V. Bradley – PHL Chapter Member
NADA Convention Keynote Speaker Pick Raises Ire
I’m paralyzed with disbelief that the National Automobile Dealers Assn. has scheduled Hillary Rodham Clinton as the keynote speaker at its annual convention in January. Let me make it crystal clear: This is not an attack, but rather a criticism of an organization I love but I feel has lost its way on many levels. Before some dealer readers knee-jerk in response to what I say, consider this: The NADA is your national organization. It is your first line of defense against legislative and special-interest threats to the franchised dealer system. We need to support and strengthen NADA, and if necessary, reinvent it. This is not about Hillary Rodham Clinton, her philosophy, politics or qualifications. We all have an opinion of her. On my Facebook page, I posted my opposition to her speaking at the convention. That triggered nearly 200 posts in less than an hour. Liberals and conservatives, many of them dealer principals, began arguing. Originally posted on WardsAuto.
Data Wars
Recent events are giving me flashbacks to Jim Ziegler, the hippie, circa 1973. Yeah, I’m talking about the long-haired, bearded, rock ‘n roll deejay. The Vietnam War was winding down and the country was polarized politically, culturally and philosophically. There was a popular bumper sticker that read: “Love Your Country, Fear Your Government.” As the country becomes painfully aware of the consequences of the abuse of “Big Data” by formerly trusted politicians, I believe we’ll see the data aggregators regulated and reeled in. Politicians are targeting citizens with in-depth surveillance. They’re using the IRS and the Department of Justice to punish and retaliate against people with differing political views. The amount of data on private citizens amassed and processed by our government for political purposes is a growing scandal that will not go away. Read the entire article here at F&I Showroom.
Flat Fees Would Work for Auto Loans
I was expecting this conflict more than a dozen years ago, which was the first time I began talking about it. I’m seeing dealer associations and their lobbyists getting ready for battle. And I predict this time we’re going to lose. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has turned its focus on dealer finance reserve, the percentage-point amount dealers add to an auto loan’s final interest rate as compensation for arranging the financing.. Most notably dating back to the class-action suit brought against Penske’s Covington Pike Toyota in Memphis in 2003 and other cases in the 1990s, we’ve seen a series of lawsuits alleging racial discrimination concerning dealer markup of interest rates. Read the whole article on WardsAuto here.
To Catch a Fox
We are rapidly approaching the day when all of the nation’s car dealers will walk out to their henhouses and discover all their chickens are gone. I have been warning you for years this was going to happen. I’m sort of the Alpha Dawg version of Paul Revere. Did you listen? Did you take action? Or did you naïvely wait for your dealer associations to march onto the battlefield to protect you? If you did, then you’re in the majority. Unfortunately, you’re going to get exactly what you deserve. After all, who let the fox in the henhouse to begin with? Return of the Firebrand I have spent the past few months spearheading a campaign to focus dealers and industry people on another issue dragging your stores’ profits down, stealing your business, and using your own inventory to divert your customers to other dealerships. Read the full article in F&I Showroom
Dealers Object to Sales Leads Routed to Competitors
Some dealers think they are paying for exclusive leads when, in fact, they are getting ones that are passed around and re-sold. A while back, I heard from a dealer complaining about Cars.com’s relationship with a company called RoadLoans. It since has become quite a stir. A lot of dealers have weighed in. Here’s their beef: A consumer searching Cars.com clicks a particular dealer’s paid-for used-car listing. A lead is submitted to that dealer. Meanwhile, the consumer is asked if he or she might be interested in RoadLoans financing. If so, click here. But if the inventory-listing dealer is not a RoadLoans client, the lead submitter receives digital marketing about buying vehicles from other dealers who are. I met with Cars.com CEO Mitch Golub and Vice President Alex Vetter in February, and was assured the situation would be fixed. But it hasn’t been, in my opinion. Read the whole article at WardsAuto.com
DealerOn Webinar: How to Double Your Sales in Half the Time
A webinar featuring Jim Ziegler talking about his legendary sales and follow-up skills. In this session, the legendary Jim Ziegler discusses sales, prospecting and customer follow-up. In this content-rich 1 hour webinar, Jim shares word tracks, techniques and organization strategies that have earned him the title “The One-Man BDC”. Originally posted: http://www.dealeron.com/webinar/events/how-to-double-your-sales-in-half-the-time/
Lies – Threats – Intimidation – Personal Attacks
The Alpha Dawg talks about the Cars.com issue heating up.
Ball of Confusion
Am I just stuck in time, or is the entire world caught up in an endless replay? It just seems like nothing is unique or new these days. It’s all just recycled news made by new players. I write that after watching a YouTube video of one of the greatest tunes, “Ball of Confusion.” It was recorded by the Temptations in 1970. And like today, that was a turbulent time. We were caught up in a prolonged war, the economy was in depression and there was unrest in the streets. Here’s a verse from the song: “The sale of pills are at an all-time high. “Young folks walking ‘round with their heads in the sky; “The city’s ablaze in the summer time … “And, oh the beat goes on … “Evolution, revolution, gun control, the sound of soul. “Shootin’ rockets to the moon, kids growing up too soon. “Politicians say more taxes will solve everything, “And the band played on
Jim Ziegler and Tim Martell Talk Cars.com Controversy | Wikimotive Podcasts #1
Jim Ziegler and Tim Martell discuss the Cars.com controversy. When a consumer submits a lead on a paying dealer’s inventory, is it wrong for cars.com to feed the consumer the competition’s inventory too?
It’s 9:00 AM. Do You Know Where Your Inventory Is?
The Data-Pirates may be at it again. Check and see for yourself. Are renegade vendors putting your proprietary inventory on other websites you did not authorize? Do they have a legal or contractual right to do this?
Jim Ziegler is Concerned About Cars.com
Jim Ziegler has long been dealer advocate as well as a consumer advocate. In this video Jim expresses strong personal opinions about the recent conduct of Cars.com, a lead generation company in the automobile business. Cars.com, in Ziegler’s opinion, is creating confusion and distrust between their dealers and consumers. From a pure business viewpoint, Ziegler believes Cars.com and other similar vendors are blatantly double-crossing their loyal advertisers and doing the consumers a dis-service. His blog on ADM is receiving thousands of concerned visitors. Jim’s friend Brian Pasch has taken a counter issue in his blogs and videos.
Battle Lines Drawn
There’s nothing the human race loves more than a war of epic proportions. Whether the battle is rooted in the struggle of good vs. evil, or the need to save the world from total destruction, we are drawn to it like moths to a flame. There’s nothing better than when the human race defeats the aliens bent on total annihilation of our species. Of course that ain’t gonna happen as long as we have Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum willing to fly a nuclear weapon into the mother ship. In the real world, there was Y2K, the Mayan calendar and Judgment Day, as predicted by Family Radio President Harold Camping. These events never came to pass, and business as usual prevailed. Read the full article in F&I Magazine.
Cleaning House, Ford CEOs Pay, Chevy’s Slogan and Chinese Drivers
Another milestone achieved, Zach moved out last week. Again. Parents with grown children will appreciate that we love our son dearly, but he now is in his early 20s, and it was time for him get his own place. I hope the fireworks display in his rearview mirror didn’t offend him as he drove off. Now, we have another guest room in the house and redecorating was in order. Well, what the heck, while we’re at it, we might as well go through the entire house and get rid of all of that junk. When we closed the offices five years ago, we brought home a lot of stuff, including chairs, tables and computer monitors from the dark ages. I had a huge Dumpster put in our driveway. Debbie and I spent a weekend filling it to overflowing. Then some of the neighbors came by and asked if we were throwing out all that. Before we knew it, 20 people
The Showroom Shuffle
Was it really all that long ago that “The Macarena” swept the world by storm and people were performing it everywhere? Of course that was before the rise in popularity of social media and a truly interactive Internet. In today’s news, and with the aid of Internet acceleration, “The Harlem Shake” has become an overnight international phenomenon. Best described as drunken spastic, spontaneous line dancing, The Harlem Shake went viral in February 2013 and continues to gather momentum. If you’ve never heard of it, do yourself a favor and Google it right now to save yourself the embarrassment when it comes up in a future conversation with your friends or colleagues. I must admit that I am more than amazed, considering the flamboyant and overt emphasis on promotion, that more dealerships haven’t already released their own YouTube versions of The Harlem Shake. I bring up The Harlem Shake as an example of how trends go viral globally and instantaneously at
Jim Ziegler Reflects on Lessons He’s Learned in the Car Business Over the Last 37 Years…
…And why the Internet is the worst thing that’s ever happened to car dealers. THESE ARE THE BASE NOTES FROM JIM ZIEGLER’S KEYNOTE SPEECH AT INTERNET SALES 20-GROUP IN DALLAS LAST WEEK… Performed by Jim Ziegler, CSP, HSG at Renaissance Hotel, Dallas, Texas, 3/19/2013 First of all let’s look at some of the lessons I’ve learned from 37 years kicking around in the car business… Manufacturers do not know how to sell cars, and they’re never going to learn but they will continue to interfere and meddle in the retail process. About the time they finally realize that their theories don’t work, they retire and here comes the next batch trying the same old tired crap that didn’t work for the guys that just retired. According to the most recent census and government statistics, there are approximately 208,000,000 licensed drivers in the United States. As an aggregate number, reputable forecasters that predict our sales are saying we will sell 15.5
The Alpha Dawg Jim Ziegler Challenges Car Dealers to Fix CRM Process!
Hear the Alpha Dawg speak this past week at Internet Sales 20 Group in Dallas about CRM processes.
Unconventional Convention Observations
Debbie and I have attended every National Automobile Dealers Assn. convention since 1987, and I have given a speech or conducted a workshop at almost every one of them. Since I first walked into a dealership in 1976 and told the sales manager I’d like a job as a car salesman, I’ve seen a lot of changes, especially in recent years. Some of these changes have been natural while others are being forced by auto makers and vendors furthering their own agenda. I always smile when they piously point to the customer experience as an excuse for their actions. You’ll hear buzz words like ‘transparency’ and other new-speak. This year’s NADA convention in Orlando, FL, was exciting for me because of the high-energy attitude and dealer optimism rising like the phoenix from the ashes of despair from the last five years. Read the whole article at WardsAuto.
One Last Thrill
It was slightly after dark on a September night when two buddies and I climbed the fence behind Duval Ford in Jacksonville, Fla. We hopped over with our fingers crossed, hoping no dogs were hanging around back there. No, we weren’t burglars or vandals. The year was 1964, and we were just three high school kids trying to get a sneak peek at the new Ford Mustang. Every dealership in the country taped newspapers to their showroom windows so you couldn’t see inside, and the new inventory was parked behind the dealerships covered with tarps. A year earlier, when the ’63 Corvette coupe — the one with the split rear window — debuted, I climbed up the side of a car hauler at a truck stop just to lift the cover and sneak a peek at the front end of the redesigned ’Vette. Every year, new-car introductions, no matter the manufacturer, were an event — a celebration shrouded in strict
I Hear Distant Drums
“Distant Drums” with Gary Cooper has always been one of my favorite movies. It is sort of cowboys-and-Indians in the Florida Everglades during the Seminole uprisings; an Eastern Western, so to speak. In the film, you faintly hear the war drums far away. It conjures up a sense of foreboding and the inevitability of a showdown. I’m seeing something similar in the auto industry. Sales of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and alternative-powered vehicles are a fraction of U.S. light-vehicle sales. The public is not going along willingly, so it appears the government will try to force-feed us these vehicles. And, of course, auto makers are charging into EV development and production. Mark Reuss, president of General Motors in North America, predicts EVs still are the “wave of the future.” I’ll go along with that, to a point. But they’re certainly not in the near future. Look at sales of the extended-range Chevy Volt EV. They tripled in the past year.
Jim Ziegler is coming to Detroit – Orlando – Dallas – Moscow, Russia!
Hi, this is Jim Ziegler with a lot of exciting news. Just returned from Houston where I was a featured speaker at The Digital Marketing Blitz that was tied into the Houston Auto Dealers Annual Car Show. You know it’s still a thrill after all of these years to watch an audience leaning from your expertise. It’s what drives me forward. Just a week ago we were wrapping up Internet Battle Plan XII in Atlanta and, just a month before that, in December; we were performing Internet Battle Plan XII in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Internet Battle Plan events featured sixteen experts on every phase of dealership Internet sales, marketing, and phone skills. The audiences from the dealerships are giving us rave revues and testimonials about the results they’re getting. Dealer Principals always attend free. http://www.InternetBattlePlan.com Now I’m back in Atlanta for a few days getting ready for the NADA Convention in Orlando. I have a feeling this will
Stupid Is as Stupid Does
The movie opens with a feather wafting whimsically in the breeze. The picture then fades to a scene with a General Motors executive sitting on a bus stop bench telling a nurse next to him his life story. Then, in a very British accent, he tells her that life is like a box of chocolates. The best part of this make-believe movie is when the executive begins telling the nurse how he and his friends turned one of the greatest companies in the world into “Bubba Gump Motors.” Unfortunately, I liked the ending of “Forrest Gump,” the 1994 film starring Tom Hanks, a lot more. As you can probably tell, I have a few things to say about what I now refer to as Bubba Gump Motors. See, I made a few predictions back in the spring of 2011, and, sadly, they’ve come true. In March 2011, I had the privilege of visiting a magical, one-of-a-kind place: Marc Heitz Chevrolet
Lots of Pants on Fire
Call it “the Pinocchio Syndrome.” It’s become an epidemic. More and more auto makers are stretching the truth. I noted last summer how rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, in order to boost sales figures, were reporting deliveries of new cars that hadn’t left dealer lots as such. Mercedes field representatives urged dealers to take delivery of discounted cars, sell them to their loaner fleets, even if only for a day, and then retail them as pre-owned certified vehicles. BMW did much the same thing, only the cars went briefly into the demo fleets before being moved to the used-car lots. Reportedly, BMW offered dealers up to $8,000 on the hood to make this happen. Since I started paying attention to it, I was amazed to learn those industry practices aren’t uncommon. Toward the end of any month, dealers of various brands get calls from factory reps telling them to “punch some units” or essentially report new-car sales that really didn’t happen.
Juggling Chainsaws
I was spellbound. I was in a state of disbelief. I was totally mesmerized. I was one of the 5,000 people in attendance at the National Speakers Association’s annual convention. This year’s event was held in Phoenix, and on the main stage were two men dressed in tights and tutus. They were 15 feet apart, dancing a comedy ballet while juggling gasoline-powered chainsaws. One false move meant somebody could lose an arm. The act is called “The Passing Zone,” and these two guys hold five Guinness World Records for juggling everything from live chainsaws and flaming torches to bowling balls to razor-sharp sickles and daggers. I decided to kick off this month’s column by relaying this experience because, well, I feel like I’ve been juggling chainsaws for the last three months. See, I’ve been to Las Vegas seven times this year. My most recent trip was in October to deliver a keynote address to the 500 auto accountants, controllers, office
CarFax Gets Its Facts Wrong
I have a problem with data pirates who use dealer information against us, damage our reputation and cause consumer distrust. To me, CarFax is high on that list. Let’s look at what this vehicle-history firm does. It tells consumers its reports are free but charges dealers for them. So, if a dealer asks customers to pay for the report, they look at you like a criminal. CarFax runs TV ads featuring deceitful car salesmen hiding the truth until the little Car Fox character shows up and sets the customer straight. This sets up CarFax as the Consumer Protector battling the Evil Car People. The company uses dealer data to tell customers what to demand for their trade-in, based on what CarFax says is the value. So, here we have another vendor setting prices and limiting dealer profits and charging dealers while it rummages through their customer information. We give them data and pay them to take it from us. But
Dealers Pitch in After Sandy
“Aftermath” is a word describing circumstances following a disaster or defeat. The word can emotionally set up a person for bad news. Hurricane Sandy delivered devastation. We knew it was going to be bad, but few could have envisioned the extent of the damage. Two weeks later, many people still lack power and some basic needs. Many have lost their homes, cars, possessions, keepsakes family photos, everything. Take a moment and let that sink in. They’ve lost everything. A week after the monster storm, a nor’easter blizzard buried much of the Northeast in snow. These people got pounded and then hit again when they were down. I checked the headlines to see if a plague of locusts was coming next. I had scheduled an Internet “Battle Plan” conference in Atlantic City with 150 people scheduled to attend in early November. I found myself scrambling to reschedule it for mid-December. As I was calling those Northeast dealerships, I began hearing about
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