by The Alpha Dawg | Feb 27, 2013 | Jim's Thoughts, NADA, WardsAuto
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...
by The Alpha Dawg | Feb 18, 2013 | F&I and Showroom, Jim's Thoughts, NADA, TrueCar
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...
by The Alpha Dawg | Feb 6, 2013 | Jim's Thoughts, WardsAuto
“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...
by The Alpha Dawg | Jan 19, 2013 | F&I and Showroom, Jim's Thoughts, NADA
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...
by The Alpha Dawg | Dec 21, 2012 | Jim's Thoughts, NADA, WardsAuto
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...
by The Alpha Dawg | Dec 12, 2012 | F&I and Showroom, Internet Battle Plan, Jim's Thoughts, News, Seminars
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...
