Thomas Ieracitano

The Best End of Year Incentives December 23, 2010   The end of year is a great time to buy a new car - especially a leftover model (as long as you don't plan on selling it within 5 years). Here's a sampling of what each car maker has to offer as part of their year-end sales event. Acura - "Season of Reason" offers 0.9% APR for 24-36 months or 1.9% APR for 37-60 months, as well as $0 down payment, $0 security deposit, $0 first month's payment, and $0 due at lease signing on select models. BMW - Joy Sales Event: Holiday Credit of $1,500 on the 1 Series, 3 Series, 5 Series (including the Gran Turismo), and Z4. $2,500 Holiday Credit on the X5, X6, and 7 Series (excluding the 760Li and Alpina). Financing rates as low as 0.9% or no down payment. Dodge - Cash rebates from $750 to $1500 and low-APR incentives on many models based on region. Ford - Year End Celebration sales event: $199/36-month lease on the 2011 Fiesta SE four-door, and a $305/36-month lease on the...

Best and Worst Cars to Negotiate a Good Deal December 23, 2010   Last month was a strong sales month overall, especially for SUVs - 16 of the top 20 fastest sellers were SUVs or crossovers, and the Honda Odyssey brings the total non-car group up to 17.  The only three cars on the list were all luxury models. The fastest-selling non-luxury car was the Chevy Cruze, sitting on lots for only 16 days before being sold. The faster a car sells, the less negotiating room you have on the price. Dealers can't keep the cars on the lot, so why would they sell it at a low price? However brisk some sales of new models were, the lingering 2010s have slowed the average time it takes to sell a new car to 83 days. That's up from 69 days in October and is the slowest of the year. Fastest Sellers (Hard to Negotiate Price) + 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe + 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport + 2011 BMW 535i xDrive + 2011 Nissan Juke + 2011 VW Touareg + 2011 Subaru Forester + 2011 Mercedes-Benz S550 +...

Auto Dealership CRM Systems Work, When Used By Steve Finlay            LAS VEGAS  The head of an 88-store dealership group regularly checks to see if his sales people make follow-up phone calls to prospects, not just send them emails.   One day, while checking his electronic activities log, he noticed one store' s Internet department was skipping the calls. He phoned the manager and identified himself. At first thinking it was a prank call, the manager said, 'Yeah, right.'   When the manager realized who it was, he started making excuses, telling his boss that many customers prefer emails to phone calls.   'Baloney' said the dealer principal, who then got in his car and drove to the dealership for a face-to-face talk.   I said, 'Did you fire him?' Jonathan Ord, CEO of the customer-relationship management firm, Dea lerSocket, says in relating the story.   The dealer replied: ' Heck no, I didn't f...

Nothing matters if a lead is not properly answered. No SEO or SEM, no mobile apps, no 360 degree views of the car on your website, no amount of third party lead-buying matters if you can't get back to a customer right away with a quote. Too often, dealers underestimate this vital "blocking and tackling" step, pursuing all kinds of sexy strategies to gin up lead volume. They fail to recognize that if a lead isn't properly answered, lead volume is meaningless. The arrival of an incoming lead represents "the moment of truth." The point of lead arrival signifies the moment when a customer has decided to put three to four dealers on trial. Who has a fair price? Who has what I want in stock? Who will give me the best service? Who can I trust? How the dealer responds in the minutes or hours after the lead arrives shapes the customer's view of that dealership. The simple fact is, according to a study by the Cobalt Group, that 25% of all leads don't get answe...

The Power of Long Term Follow Up The very first thing I was told when I entered into the world of car sales was "contact them until they buy or die". This was something that was drilled into my brain all through my first week of training and for the first 6 months of my sales career. Upon entering the Internet department I found some veterans did not look at their Internet customers in the same way. They shuffled through their leads vigorously trying to find a sale, and threw away people who were not ready to buy today. Essentially they were cherry picking their prospects. I sat back after my first month and looked at my numbers thinking there has to be more. There must be something I can do with all these leads that everyone else is tossing aside. And guess what? THERE WAS. So, I did research on what happens to prospects; Do they Buy from another Dealer? Brand ? Switch from New to Used, Used to New ? Just not in the market? the best method and process I initiated my plan ...

10 Steps to Selling Your Car Here are 10 simple steps that may help you sell your car. I have tried to cover all the bases, from pricing, advertising and negotiating. And keep this a short and easy-to-follow process. Step 1: Know the Marketplace Is your car going to be easy to sell? Is it a hot commodity, are there many similar vehicles? Or will you have to drop your price? Maybe look at other ways to sell it? Here are a few general 'rule of thumb' to answer the above questions:    * Family sedans, while unexciting to many, are in constant demand by people needing basic, inexpensive transportation.    * The sale of convertibles and sports cars is seasonal. Sunny weather brings out the buyers. Fall and winter months will be slow.    * Trucks and vans, used for work, are steady sellers and command competitive prices. Don't underestimate their value.    * Collector cars will take longer to sell and are often difficult to price. However, these car...

Thank you, Thomas Ieracitano Thomas@Ieracitano.com TheDigitalCarGuy.com Can't Make it Here, We'll Take it There! want a website or an email like this ?   go to http://123BrandMe.com