How to Read a Vehicle History Report

How to Read a Vehicle History Report Source: CARFAX

Older cars do not die, they just get resold. If you are buying a used car,
whether from a dealer or someone who put an ad in the paper,
you will want to know as much about it as you can.
Even without anyone trying to deceive you, the vehicle may have problems you can not see
from a simple visual inspection or even a short test drive.

A vehicle history report prepared by a third party is one way to help figure out what you are getting.
Combining information from US and Canadian Motor Vehicle Departments as well as police reports
and other sources, a vehicle history report can give you a comprehensive overview of where the cars been.

Here are some things to look for or look out for when you get a report on a vehicle.
None of these things is necessarily a reason not to buy a car, but you should not make a decision
without asking about anything you see on a vehicle history:

* Many owners. The more driveways a cars been in, the less likely its been lovingly cared for all its life.
Not everyone is as assiduous about car care as you are. Rental cars and former taxis, for example,
will often have undergone a lot of abuse, although they tend to be quite inexpensive.

* Location, location, location, Some parts of the country are more car-friendly than others.
Winter storms (with their accompanying salted roads) can be rough on cars, as obviously can floods,
excessive heat or even sea air. Cars that have been where these are common may have hidden damage.

* Name and description. Be sure the car in the report is the same as the car you are looking at.
Carefully reviewing the vehicle description is one way to avoid various types of vehicle fraud,
like VIN cloning. A cloned vehicle involves using a vehicle identification number (VIN) from a legally owned,
non-stolen vehicle to mask the identity of a similar make/model stolen vehicle.
CARFAX Vehicle History Reports include detailed descriptions of the vehicle, so you can make sure the car you
are reading about is the same as the one you are looking at.

* Suspicious markings. Keep an eye out for records of body work that might indicate a prior unreported
incident or even air bag fraud.

To obtain a Vehicle History Report, visit CARFAX, preferred VHR provider for AutoTrader.com.

Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano
Thomas@Ieracitano.com
www.DigitalCarGuy.com
(229) 251-2462

P.S. Are you 'Advertising' or 'Marketing' ?

Ask me the Difference?

Departmentalize Your Service Department

Departmentalize Your Service Department Thomas Ieracitano | June 25, 2010 at 8:45 pm | Categories: Auto | URL: http://wp.me/pPVUE-i

Departmentalize Your Service Department Your service department is one of the busiest departments in your dealership. Service deals with more customers than any other department on a daily, monthly and annual basis. The service department also sees more potential customers than any other department. These are potential customers who could purchase additional services and parts, [...]

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Departmentalize Your Service Department

Departmentalize Your Service Department

Your service department is one of the busiest departments in your dealership. Service deals with more customers than any other department on a daily, monthly and annual basis. The service department also sees more potential customers than any other department. These are potential customers who could purchase additional services and parts, detailing, accessories, body shop repairs, rental vehicles, and even a new or used vehicle.

Maximizing the service department's profitability is very important for many reasons. New vehicle sales are in need of severe reconditioning, used vehicle prices are higher than ever with vehicles in short supply, subprime financing is in need of a new paint job, warranty labor and parts sales are gradually decreasing and customers are retaining ownership of their vehicles longer because of upside-down positions and the lack of financing. What a mess!

Not really! Now is the time to restructure your service department to maximize sales and profits. How do you do this? Well, you have to throw out what you are doing now. It will not work very well with where the auto repair industry is heading.

First, you need to get into your car with your service and parts manager and drive around town past all of your competition. Not just new car dealers, but all of those independent service facilities, tire stores, oil change shops, Wal-Marts, parts stores, brake, exhaust and transmission repair shops, air conditioning specialists, detailing shops, etc. Now, consider how long each of your competitors have been in business and how many employees they have. When you drive by, look at their doors or windows and write down the hours they are open for business. Count how many stalls they have. Look at how many of their stalls have vehicles in them.

Now go back to your dealership and go to work. No, I don't mean go back to your normal jobs. You don't have time for that. You had better sit down together and review how your competitors are eating your lunch and gradually and silently stealing your service and parts business.

How are they doing this? Very, very easily. They have structured their businesses to succeed based on providing simple, efficient and reasonably priced services to their customers. Compare that to your service and parts department. Yours is fairly outdated for the most part. Ask yourself how many stalls you have devoted to just tires, just oil changes, just brakes, just detailing, just transmissions, etc. Are you really focused on selling this type of repair?

You will need to separate your service department into departments to achieve success and higher sales and profits. You will need a new-vehicle area if you are a franchise dealer. You will need a reconditioning department to be able to repair used vehicles for a reasonable price. Next, you should have a detail department to clean and spit-shine those customer cars. Oh, don't forget your tire, brake and alignment department.

You will have to also mystery shop your competition. This is how you find out all the things you are doing wrong in your service department—like what kind of signage you will need, how to up-sell, how to price your maintenance work, how to advertise to draw new customers to your dealership and what hours you need to stay open to make it convenient for your customers to visit your store instead of the shop down the street. Get the hint?

Retraining yourself, service advisors, technicians, parts counter salespeople and the rest of your dealership will be the toughest thing to accomplish. People don't like change. It will take three to four months of constant attention to your new structure before it is accepted and running smoothly. If your current personnel can't adjust to the new structure, then steal—I mean, hire—the people you need from your competitors. That mystery shopping tour you took through town? Make good use of it and try to attract the best employees of each type of business to work for you. Your training costs will be less because they are already trained and have impressed you. They have a different mentality and are more focused because they have to be where they work now.

Oh, I forgot to mention that new position in your multi-department service and parts department—sales. In the past you have expected your customers to just waltz in the door and provide the sales you need. Now, you have to rely on your staff to provide service sales. Put together a constant and complete advertising program similar to that of the competitor you are trying to run out of business. Monitor all their ads to make sure they don't get the jump on you. Also, don't just have this new salesperson sit in the store behind a counter waiting on customers who walk through the door. Market your new department as a shopping center for all a vehicle's needs.

This new salesperson, preferably the best waitress or waiter you ever encountered in a restaurant, should go out into the community on a regular basis marketing your new departments and their services to all your non-competitor businesses in town. Why someone from the restaurant business? Why not? They normally work crummy hours compared to a car dealership. They can make more money working for you. You don't have to train them in up-selling, customer service and follow-up. They already know how to do this, or they wouldn't be the best where they are at now. They should have no trouble keeping busy just putting the word out in a focused method to everyone in town.

Provide a menu of items so potential customers know what you do and how competitive your store is. Offer a first-time visit coupon they can't resist. Visit all the businesses so the word is out you can take care of all of their needs in a one-stop shopping center and you have changed the way you do business. Keep visiting those businesses until they get the hint you can take care of them. It will shock them at first you are even there, outside of your comfort zone, which is behind the counter.

Your parts department will need to stock the appropriate type of parts to supply all your new departments. This means offering alternatives to your OEM parts for brakes, oil filters, oil, tires, etc., so you are competitive with everyone else in town and are able to offer different levels of service based on the customer's needs and wants. Your internal department will praise you for this.

You will need to change and adapt or die a slow death as all that increasing maintenance work customers need disappears along with any warranty repair work. Remember, you may think you are already there, but you're not if new shops are opening in town and existing shops are still doing great. If your service department sales haven't grown each and every year, you are doing something wrong. Go back to class until you get it right.


Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano
Thomas@Ieracitano.com
www.DigitalCarGuy.com
(229) 251-2462
P.S. Are you 'Advertising' or 'Marketing' ?
Ask me the Difference?

Lost

Let's talk about "LOST" and I am not talking about the widely popular television show that just recently concluded on ABC. I am talking about your lost customers. It all starts with that phone call to unsold customers.

"Hi Jeff this is Jerry with… oh you did, what did you buy?"

How many times have we all heard that conversation? We then conclude with, "Well if you're ever in the market again please give me a call…" and off to our CRM we go to mark that customer as "LOST!"

We've all heard our managers say over-an- over a thousand times, "keep selling until they buy or die." Well the person who came up with that saying is an idiot! It should be, "keep selling until they die." The average person will spend over $300K on automobiles in their lifetime. Big deal, you missed out on a sale this time around. A true salesperson will figure out how to win their business the next time around. If you treat them like a customer they may in fact become a customer.

So how are you going to win their business? Well let's start by uncovering your next opportunity. This is accomplished by asking your customer a few simple questions.

1. How many vehicles do you have in your household?
* Identify total number of opportunities.

2. Of those three vehicles, which one will you be replacing next?
* Identifies who in the family you should be speaking with.

3. Why that one?
* Gives you a good idea why and a strategy.

4. When do you think that will be?
* Identifies your timeline and you you might just find a sale right around the corner.

You now have a timeline for bringing this customer back to your dealership. It's your job to keep your name in front of this customer so when that time comes they'll remember you better than the person who sold them their last vehicle. Here are a few examples of how you can make that happen:

1. Try to get your "LOST" customer using your service department.
* Develop a lost customer service special campaign using your CRM.

2. Send them a monthly newsletter.
* This means you need to get an e-mail address for everyone.

3. Send them a friend invite on facebook.
* Use your facebook page as a social CRM marketing tool.

4. Send them a birthday card and call them on their birthday.
* You should have their birthday from when you scanned or copied their license.

5. Make sure you always have a follow-up date scheduled in your CRM and then execute when that date arrives
* For long term customers there should be more than one follow-up date.

The average salesperson will talk to 50 customers per month. Over a 4 year period that equates to roughly 2400 customers you will have entered in your CRM. Figure two vehicles per household and you're talking about 4800 potential opportunities sitting in your CRM that are assigned to you. If the average person buys a vehicle every 4.1 years; in any given year you'll have 1170 customers who might be making a purchase that year. If you were to break that out by the month, you're talking about roughly 100 customers who might be making an automobile purchase in any given month. How many of those customers do you think you might be able to sell if you were doing all the right things?

Every time you delete a customer or mark them as "LOST," you're depriving yourself from a future opportunity. If you're not buying what I am sharing with you, then in four years from now you'll still be looking out that window for a fresh customer's selling your 8-10 cars per month. The country is littered with 10 year veterans who are doing just that. The people I meet who are selling 30 plus vehicles per month all have several things in common and here they are:

1. They don't take fresh ups.
* Closing ratios on appointments are 50% versus 20% for fresh customers. This is working smarter.

2. They have developed a solid book of business.
* Using a CRM or a card and file system.

3. They follow-up with their customer base (sold & unsold).
* This all starts with good phone and marketing skills.

Next time you're about to mark that customer as "LOST" in your CRM, think about what I wrote and do what's right for you and your dealership.

Especially now when every customer is crucial to your success.


Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano
Thomas@Ieracitano.com
www.DigitalCarGuy.com
(229) 251-2462
P.S. Are you 'Advertising' or 'Marketing' ?
Ask me the Difference?

Lost

Let's talk about "LOST" and I am not talking about the widely popular television show that just recently concluded on ABC. I am talking about your lost customers. It all starts with that phone call to unsold customers.

"Hi Jeff this is Jerry with… oh you did, what did you buy?"

How many times have we all heard that conversation? We then conclude with, "Well if you're ever in the market again please give me a call…" and off to our CRM we go to mark that customer as "LOST!"

We've all heard our managers say over-an- over a thousand times, "keep selling until they buy or die." Well the person who came up with that saying is an idiot! It should be, "keep selling until they die." The average person will spend over $300K on automobiles in their lifetime. Big deal, you missed out on a sale this time around. A true salesperson will figure out how to win their business the next time around. If you treat them like a customer they may in fact become a customer.

So how are you going to win their business? Well let's start by uncovering your next opportunity. This is accomplished by asking your customer a few simple questions.

1. How many vehicles do you have in your household?
* Identify total number of opportunities.

2. Of those three vehicles, which one will you be replacing next?
* Identifies who in the family you should be speaking with.

3. Why that one?
* Gives you a good idea why and a strategy.

4. When do you think that will be?
* Identifies your timeline and you you might just find a sale right around the corner.

You now have a timeline for bringing this customer back to your dealership. It's your job to keep your name in front of this customer so when that time comes they'll remember you better than the person who sold them their last vehicle. Here are a few examples of how you can make that happen:

1. Try to get your "LOST" customer using your service department.
* Develop a lost customer service special campaign using your CRM.

2. Send them a monthly newsletter.
* This means you need to get an e-mail address for everyone.

3. Send them a friend invite on facebook.
* Use your facebook page as a social CRM marketing tool.

4. Send them a birthday card and call them on their birthday.
* You should have their birthday from when you scanned or copied their license.

5. Make sure you always have a follow-up date scheduled in your CRM and then execute when that date arrives
* For long term customers there should be more than one follow-up date.

The average salesperson will talk to 50 customers per month. Over a 4 year period that equates to roughly 2400 customers you will have entered in your CRM. Figure two vehicles per household and you're talking about 4800 potential opportunities sitting in your CRM that are assigned to you. If the average person buys a vehicle every 4.1 years; in any given year you'll have 1170 customers who might be making a purchase that year. If you were to break that out by the month, you're talking about roughly 100 customers who might be making an automobile purchase in any given month. How many of those customers do you think you might be able to sell if you were doing all the right things?

Every time you delete a customer or mark them as "LOST," you're depriving yourself from a future opportunity. If you're not buying what I am sharing with you, then in four years from now you'll still be looking out that window for a fresh customer's selling your 8-10 cars per month. The country is littered with 10 year veterans who are doing just that. The people I meet who are selling 30 plus vehicles per month all have several things in common and here they are:

1. They don't take fresh ups.
* Closing ratios on appointments are 50% versus 20% for fresh customers. This is working smarter.

2. They have developed a solid book of business.
* Using a CRM or a card and file system.

3. They follow-up with their customer base (sold & unsold).
* This all starts with good phone and marketing skills.

Next time you're about to mark that customer as "LOST" in your CRM, think about what I wrote and do what's right for you and your dealership.

Especially now when every customer is crucial to your success.


Thank you,
Thomas Ieracitano
Thomas@Ieracitano.com
www.DigitalCarGuy.com
(229) 251-2462
P.S. Are you 'Advertising' or 'Marketing' ?
Ask me the Difference?