Articles by Tom Herald - Professional Consultant and National Trainer

Tome Herald - The longest-running CEO on Wall Street, Richard Fuld, battled for more than a year to contain the fallout from bad bets on subprime real estate loans.

Tom Herald - There are 3.2 billion cellular connections worldwide – 260 million in the United States alone – and with the iPhone’s launch last year, the concept of browsing the Web from a mobile phone has gone mainstream. The future is now and marketersare abuzz about this new trend and the tremendous opportunities it presents.

Q. Do you recommend paying on front gross or a combination of front and back gross profit? Do you feel pay should be based on all deals or just SF deals? If only on SF deals, how do you count an SF deal? What do you feel is the optimum way an SF manager should be paid?

There is a reason for everything and metrics always tell the story. If you measure all the key aspects of your business, compile the data and can understand the language in which they are written, you will have a wealth of information about your business.

Q: With the so many finance companies tightening their buying or getting out of the special finance market altogether, is it worth trying to keep my department going? If so, what is the best advice you can give?

Tom Herald - Numbers never lie. They always tell the story. There is a long-standing debate among car dealers, both large and small, about the merits of a call center, BDC or CDC

Tom Herald - Why do people decide to buy? Some consumers use an intense system of thorough investigation before they decide to purchase, while others are basic impulse shoppers.

A clearly defined sales process will ensure that each member of the team knows exactly what to do, when to do it, and why we do it this way. This detailed process is your “road to the sale” and a strict adherence to it is the best way to avoid the common pitfalls of inexperienced dealers across the country.

Newspaper advertising is expensive and ineffective at branding your business. It is absolutely amazing how much money is wasted on newspaper ads, by car dealers who use it religiously, every week.

“If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” Change is inevitable and it’s going to happen no matter what.