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[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPhone]
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DigitalRalph.com just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"#AutoMarketing Pros get their competitive advantage by joining and participating in the Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community at http://ADMPC.com #ADMPC #CarDealer #RepMan #TitleFx"
(taken at Automotive Media Partners, LLC)
DigitalRalph.com just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"Visit and join the ADM Professional Community for a more prosperous 2014! http://ADMPC.com #AutoMarketing #TitleFx"
(taken at Automotive Media Partners, LLC)
DigitalRalph.com just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"Great sunset photo taken from the Internet Sales Dept. Office at Melloy Nissan In Albuquerque. Photo taken by @melloyboy1 at @melloynissan #nissan #automarketing #usedcars #nissandealer #cardealer "
(taken at nissan lovers)
With the ball in Time's Square set to drop soon, it's time to officially put 2013 to rest. To celebrate the year that was, we're going to take a look back at our top 10 most popular Web articles of 2013, and get a look at the stories that got the most eyeballs this past year.
10. 2014 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Cadillac CTS -- November 2013
Our 2014 Car of the Year, the Cadillac CTS, just squeaks into the top 10, beating out our Ford Atlas Concept First Look. The 2014 Cadillac CTS is the second CTS to earn the golden calipers, following the 2008 CTS.
The Cadillac CTS ultimately won Car of the Year because it dominated in our six Car of the Year criteria. In our Car of the Year winner piece, Scott Evans wrote, "In this year's competition, the CTS was forced to directly face down its strongest rivals. Present and fighting for the Calipers were both the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, the old guard of the segment and of luxury vehicles. The CTS demonstrated superior advancement in design, performance, handling, and experience over the other two."
9. 2013/2014 Compact Crossover Comparison-- August 2013
Our 2013/2014 Compact Crossover Comparison Test between the Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester, and Mazda CX-5 was our ninth-most popular article of 2013. So what made our Compact Crossover Comparo so popular? Simple, says Detroit Editor Scott Burgess, "No modern family starter kit is complete without a small crossover." Couple that fact with a controversial last-place finish for a fan favorite and you've got enough hits to put you on this list.
8. 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51 First Test -- July 2013
There arguably wasn't a more important First Test this year than the all-new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51's. The new Corvette Stingray would be the car that either showed GM still had what it took to build a world-beating sports car, or show that the automaker was just going through the motions.
Thankfully, with a 0-60 mph time of 3.9 seconds, and an ability to "laydown hero numbers without soiling the hero's pants," the 'Vette certainly lives up to expectations.
7. 2013 Honda Accord Sport vs. Toyota Camry SE vs. 2014 Mazda6 Grand Touring -- May 2013
Who says a midsize sedan can't be sporty? This comparison test's seventh place finish proves that there are family-oriented enthusiasts out there who want their midsize sedans to offer up a high level of sportiness. Though the Toyota Camry proved to be outclassed by the other sedans in the comparo, both the Honda Accord and Mazda6 offered up high levels of sportiness, while returning the fuel economy, comfort, and refinement one would expect from a family sedan.
6. 2013 Motor Trend's Best Driver's Car -- August 2013
Number-six most-popular (but number-one in your hearts!) is our 2013 Best Driver's Car competition. This year's competition was a good one. It featured everything from the 252-hp 2.0-liter turbo-4-powered Ford Focus ST, to the 640-hp 8.4-liter V-10-powered SRT Viper. After a week of testing (and the World's Greatest Drag Race 3), the Porsche 911 Carrera S was ultimately crowned the winner.
5. 2015 Chevrolet Colorado First Look -- November 2013
If this doesn't speak to how popular the long-neglected midsize pickup segment is, we don't know what will. The 2015 Chevrolet Colorado is the first truly new truck in the segment in years, and it certainly looks promising. It'll offer four-cylinder and V-6 engines at launch, and will be joined by a new turbodiesel I-4 in 2016.
4. 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla Model S -- November 2012
Our 2013 Tesla Model S Car of the Year story makes its second consecutive appearance on our Top 10 Most Popular Web Articles list. Even a year after we named it our Car of the Year, the Model S still commands attention as our first-ever electric Car of the Year winner, and a fine example of American innovation and entrepreneurship.
3. 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray First Look -- January 2013
It's been a good year for cars. This year kicked off with a bang in Detroit -- the debut of the seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The year 2013 is bookended by another American icon; read on to find out what it is.
2. 2014 Mazda3 First Drive -- July 2013
To see a compact car's First Drive command the number-two spot on our 2013 Top 10 is a testament to just how good the new 2014 Mazda3 is. The new 2014 Mazda3 manages to not only be comfortable, spacious, and efficient, but sporty, luxurious, and a technological tour-de-force as well. You don't often find that in a compact car.
1. 2015 Ford Mustang First Look -- December 2013
We told you 2013 was a good year for cars. After being kicked off by the new 'Vette in January, the December debut of the 2015 Ford Mustang closes out the year. A dark horse contender considering it debuted earlier this month, our 2015 Ford Mustang First Look is far and away our most popular story of 2013. Click here to find out why.
DigitalRalph.com just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"Sign seen as you enter a Florida neighborhood... As sarcastic as this sign seems to be trying for, my question is this: Would it have any crime deterrent impact if it were posted prominently throughout YOUR neighborhood? #signs #crime #deterrent #watch #police #burglary #homeinvasion "
(taken at The Ghetto)
DigitalRalph.com just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"Have you been able to open your package of gifts? #gifted #talent #philosophy #leadership #potential #digitalralph #sunset #wordsofwisdom "
(taken at Paradiso Di Entrata)
It's been a fantastic year so far at eMarketer. As we enter the fourth quarter and continue planning for next year, I thought it might be good to review some of the improvements we've made to our research coverage and platform in 2013.
Improving Coverage and Insights
Our goal is to help clients make sense of the fast-changing digital landscape—which is why we collect all the research we can, synthesize it, and provide key insights and takeaways. This year we've taken our synthesis of key trends, topics, industries and global markets to another level, through a number of additions and improvements. Here is a run-through:
o Retail Ecommerce: 2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates
o Multichannel Attribution: What Retailers Need to Know
o The US Retail Industry 2013: Digital Ad Spending Forecast and Key Trends
o Shopping Cart Abandonment: New Ways of Looking at the Purchase Path
o Dynamic Pricing: What Retailers Need to Know About Competing in Real Time
For the first time, eMarketer also developed a series of dedicated reports on big picture trends for each quarter. These have been a smash hit among clients—among our most popular and most downloaded reports published all year. They include:
o Key Digital Trends for 2013
o Key Digital Trends for Q1 2013: Whither the Brand?
o Key Digital Trends for Midyear 2013: The Fragmentation of Mobile
o Key Digital Trends for Q3 2013: How Omnichannel Is Blurring Boundaries Everywhere
o Key Digital Trends for 2014: http://ADM.fm
Better Benchmarks and Forecasts
eMarketer also dramatically increased output of its widely cited benchmark estimates and forecasts. Some of the most popular reports developed by our team this year include:
o US Time Spent with Media: The Complete eMarketer Forecast for 2013
o US Ad Spending: Mid-2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates
o Worldwide B2C Ecommerce: 2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates
o The US Travel Industry 2013: Digital Ad Spending Forecast and Key Trends
o The US Retail Industry 2013: Digital Ad Spending Forecast and Key Trends
Improved research is just part of the story. It's equally critical that this information is easy to access and use. That's why we have an entire product team focused on getting it to you conveniently.
Platform Growth: Easier-than-Ever Access for Users
eMarketer has a long-established track record of making it as easy as possible for users to access, interpret and apply our insights quickly—no matter where our users are in the world, and regardless of whether they're at their desk, in a taxi or on the runway.
That's why earlier this year we launched a beautiful new iPad app, which allows users to read recent eMarketer reports in a simple ereader format. The response from clients has been terrific.
Adam Broitman from Mastercard: "I love eMarketer. I actually have the app on my iPhone and my iPad. I'll thumb through things and look at trends in various markets, and I'll forward them on to the relevant market."
ADM
Our focus on convenience is also why eMarketer invested heavily in network infrastructure and a brand new global data delivery system this year. It's why we doubled the size of our IT and product development teams. The result is faster than ever access for our users in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America—in addition to faster user experience for our users in Europe and North America.
Chris Padgett, Vice President of Marketing at Nestlé USA: "I like the ease of finding what I'm looking for and that the information is updated frequently. It's the accessibility and curation that are key—I don't have time to be searching and searching for stuff, so [eMarketer is] probably the fastest route to the kind of information I need from any resource that I have."
While it's important that we make it easy for users to access information, it's equally important that we make our information easy to use. Our continued focus on usability led us to recently launch a new "Compare Geographies" feature, allowing users to create custom charts that compare eMarketer's benchmarks and forecasts on any country or region of their choosing.
And that's just what we've done so far in 2013.
We have an exciting lineup of improvements planned for the fourth quarter and next year—all designed to help you stay ahead as digital media, marketing and commerce become a bigger part of your business. We will continue to pay close attention to your needs, we appreciate your business, and we are honored to serve the best minds in digital marketing and media worldwide.
- Melanie Eisenberg, Vice President, Account Management
By Michael Rees
| All your sales team should be on performance-driven pay plans. That includes salespeople, closers and sales managers—if you want them to perform, that is. But what constitutes a good, well-rounded performance-driven pay plan? And what kind of uproar is going to happen if you start changing pay plans? | |||||||||||
The last thing I want to advocate is messing with your employees' pay plans. If ever there were words that didn't sit well together, those words would be "change" and "pay plan." Sure, you could easily bring valuable employees in to your office to give them a pay increase. However, if you sat them down and said you were going to change their pay plan, they would only think negatively about it no matter how good it may be, so be very careful with this. After selling cars in England for five years, in the early 80s I started selling cars at an Atlanta dealership that was only selling 40 units a month. After a month or two, I became salesman of the month and held on to that title for the next 11 months straight. I was promoted to sales manager for my efforts, but my pay plan left a little to be desired. After two months, I asked to go back on the floor because I had been making a whole lot more as a salesman. A few months later, I was offered the sales manager position again, but this time I negotiated a pay plan that was a percentage of the gross profit of the sales department. Over the next four years, we grew the sales so much that we built a new facility to cater to all the new business. We then hired a new F&I manager, who really changed the way we did business in that department. I imagine you have heard of him; it was the one and only Mr. Jim Ziegler. | |||||||||||
Jim and I really rocked and rolled, as we continued to build the dealership to a record month. We sold 256 vehicles and averaged over $3,000 per copy! Both of us were on performance-driven pay plans, so the more the dealership made, the more we both made. We were ecstatic about this incredible month, especially as we would both benefit personally just as the dealership benefited. A few days into the next month, I was called in to the dealer's office, where the dealer and GM congratulated me on the terrific month, then asked the question: "Do you realize how much money you made last month?" Well, of course I did because I kept impeccable records and always knew how much I was making. They informed me that they thought I had made too much!! Remember, this was a strictly performance based plan, but now we had apparently over performed!! Then came those words I mentioned earlier: "We are going to change your pay plan!" Ziegler had the exact same meeting with the dealer and GM, and that was the last day either of us worked in that dealership. The dealership lost two of their best managers that day because they didn't want to continue to pay for overachievers. My point with this story is that you need to be prepared for extraordinary performance. In fact, you should want to pay big commissions (if you have your people on the right pay plans). If you want to get the most out of your sales team, you have to motivate them with compensation. I do not have a perfect pay plan that works for everyone because every dealership is different and you need to look after your people accordingly. You cannot have the same pay plan for a sales manager whose team sells 300 vehicles a month as a sales manager whose team sells 50 a month. To determine whether a review of your pay plans may be needed, consider the following criteria: To finish, here are just a couple of examples of effective performance-driven pay plans: Salespeople should make a percentage of the gross profit (both front and back) that increases as the volume increases. For example:
These percentages need to be retroactive. This means that in order for the big volume salesperson to make real money, he/she has to gross more for the dealership. Sales managers and F&I managers should make a percentage of the gross profit (both front and back) that increases as volume increases. This will vary a great deal according to the size of your dealership. Figure out how much the job is worth; then work out what percentage of the gross profit you are currently doing that figure equates to. Then, as your dealership makes more, the manager is compensated accordingly. This percentage will normally range from 3 percent to 10 percent. If you feel you need to re-vamp some, or all, of your pay plans, spend time to make sure you get it right for all parties. Do your calculations, using "what if" scenarios. You need to be comfortable with pay plans that could make your employees more than they have ever made before as long as that means your dealership makes more. | |||||||||||
[Sent from Ralph's iPad]
President
Automotive Media Partners, LLC
http://AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com
c: 505.301.6369
f: 801.340.8918
RIP PaulWalker just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"The best performance metric benchmarks for car dealers are not industry averages or what other dealers report... The best comparable metrics are what that same dealership reported in previous periods. #AutoMarketing #CarDealer #Metrics #Reports #BDC #AutoIndustry #Automotive"
(taken at Automotive Media Partners, LLC)
Look around you--robots are everywhere. The recent announcement that Jeff Bezos plans touse drones to deliver Amazon orders to customers only underscores how ingrained these not-quite-sentient creations are in our lives these days. Of course, before Roombas and Big Dog became reality, we had to imagine what robots might be like when assembling sci-fi movies and TV shows. Despite their mechanical nature, the robots often ended up having just as much personality as their human counterparts.


Toronto-based artist Scott Park has just created a poster called "Synthespians," which gathers illustrated versions of 66 famous robots from movies and TV shows. "Synthespians" fulfills the dream of a crossover universe where the Voltron robots get to kick it with Robocop and also Dot Matrix from Spaceballs. Seeing all these life-like pieces of metal gumbo lined up together recalls how successfully the various writers involved were able to create distinct characters out of them. And also--sigh--how Michael Bay uses them to blow stuff up.
Are there any favorite robots missing? Let us know in the comments below.
H/t to Blame It On the Voices
http://www.AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com
Ralph Paglia
President
Automotive Media Partners, LLC
www.AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com
c-505.301.6369
f-801.340.8918
Ralph Paglia just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"#TravelLikeRalph and master the art of living out of #airports and #rentalcars in the pursuit of #automarketing #success and #cardealers selling more new and used vehicles... #autoindustry #automotive #carpeeps #digitalralph "
(taken at Mccarron Southwest)

Automotive Media Partners, LLC
www.AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com
Ralph Paglia just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"#GimmeABreak I was walking through a strip mall near S. Rainbow and Tropicana in Las Vegas when I saw this "Car Broker" storefront. Really? This crap is still allowed? I thought we passed laws to put these parasites out of business?!?! #AutoMarketing #CarDealers"
(taken at Tropicana rainbow)
Ralph Paglia just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"One if my FB friends (maybe Eric Miltsch?) posted this caricature that ridicules so-called "Social Media Experts" and self appointed "gurus" who have never learned any technical skills, nor have any formal education in a relevant area such as Communications or Journalism... I got a kick out of it and wanted my IG followers to see it. #SocialMedia #expert #guru #snakeoil #phony #falseprophet #bullshit #fail #cardealers #consulting #scam #ripoff #marketing #automarketing #automotive "
(taken at Smoke Ranch Junction)
Ralph Paglia just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"Taking a break from the debate at the very first iMagicLab Product Advisory Board meeting in Baltimore. #cardealers #CRM #travellikeralph #software #baltimore"
(taken at Baltimore)
Ralph Paglia just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"Brian, Charles and Rob from Melloy Nissan as they start two projects: 1. Nissan 240SX Radical Tuner Build-out and 2. Educating New Mexico Car Owners on Laws that Protect their rights when Insurance claims for Collision work are needed. #Melloy #Nissan #ABQ #collision #cars #cardealers #TravelLikeRalph http://MelloyNissan.com "
(taken at Melloy Nissan)
Ralph Paglia just shared an Instagram photo with you:
"#travellikeralph from #LasVegas to #ABQ and work with one of America's best #Nissan dealerships,(Melloy Nissan) where innovation in #cardealers sales and service process is being made by the third generation of Melloys. #digitalralph #lasvegas #nissan #sellingiron #travel #truck #cars #vegas #dealer"
(taken at Mccarron Southwest)