Global growth of software companies has introduced many new concepts. Software companies are providing total dealership management and marketing tools with features that include:

* Online Vehicle Inventory Management,
* Website Development and Hosting Services,
* Email Lead Management,
* Market Data Analytics including market pricing research,
* CRM tools,
* Digital Paperwork Systems,
* Vehicle Shipping Integration,
* Integration and Inventory Exports to almost every Automotive website is available.

Sellers, buyers, dealers and everyone engaged in online selling and buying are enjoying these new concepts. Global advancement in the technology is providing the great platform for selling buying concept to grow and generate more easy profits to everyone engaged. This progress in information and technology is providing the tools to save energy and time of the users. Management at all levels is getting easier. Individuals and organizations are working in simpler way, easy solutions to all complex problems of selling and buying.

No doubt directly or indirectly this is leading the world towards great economical growth by giving a giant and single platform for selling and buying concept.

The Automobile as an Economic Staple

If you stop to think about it, almost everyone you know has a car or utilizes buses, trains and the like. This is largely due to the fact that people no longer consider vehicles luxuries, but necessities. And that’s not all. Still more and more persons are buying and using automobiles each year. With the use of various technological developments, it is now possible for different types and models of cars to be manufactured, from the truly lavish to the very low budget. This technological development has led to an increase in competition within the auto industry, leading to more vehicles being produced and more choices being available to consumers. An increase in the amount of choices the consumer has means that there is less of a chance of someone turning down the opportunity to procure a vehicle of their own. This cycle is important, as it is a key component when you consider the growth and lucrativeness of this part of the economy.

Opportunities in related areas

In addition, the convenience of owning an automobile or travelling by one as well as the wide selection of personal vehicles available means that more and more individuals are purchasing cars or utilising other forms of transportation. What this means is that there are also various means of financing such a purchase. Associated industries are therefore benefitting as well but ultimately, the more persons who own a car, the more money is being injected into the industry. With all this in mind, you can just imagine how much money the automobile industry makes each year!

If you are at that point where you are looking for a career, consider something within the automotive industry. As outlined earlier, it is extremely lucrative and still growing, so even in this economic climate, the automotive industry is a very good option.

Single handedly, Hyundai-Kia is shaping the auto industry, forcing competitors to reexamine product offers to build cars that consumers want. The following are some ways explaining how Hyundai is dictating how everyone else should build and sell cars:

Hyundai offers value — Smartly, Hyundai continues to price its cars slightly below competing models, offer sticker prices about 3 to 5 percent lower than comparable models. But, the savings are even more significant because Hyundai cars offer higher content or trim levels than similar models. For example, the Hyundai Elantra offers a six-speed automatic transmission, heated seats and top of the range gas mileage, beating Toyota at its own game. The Toyota Corolla, incidentally is getting updated faster because the current Elantra is quite simply the better car.

Hyundai offers an amazing warranty — What better way to tell customers that you back them by offering a warranty that no else is matching? The Hyundai 10-year, 100,000 mile warranty covers powertrain parts (engine and transmission) and its 5-year, 60,000 mile warranty covers many other Hyundai parts. A 7-year rust warranty also included.

Hyundai guarantees trade-in value — Buy a Hyundai today and the automaker will guarantee what it will be worth two, three or four years from now. This guaranteed trade-in value is something no other manufacturer is offering and is a “peace of mind” strategy for new car buyers. No longer will customers have to worry that a car they purchase today will drop precipitously in value tomorrow.

Hyundai offers excitement — Hyundai has employed a European strategy for selling its cars in America, one that seems to be working. In Europe, Mercedes and BMW sell a wide variety of vehicles, not just luxury cars under the same label, but they wouldn’t dare do that in the United States. Hyundai has taken a bold approach by selling its Genesis and Equus lines under the Hyundai brand and is successfully selling upscale, even luxury models in the same showrooms as its small cars.

Hyundai certainly isn’t perfect, but the automaker has proven that it has the right strategy in place a winning formula other automakers should adopt. Sales of Hyundai and Kia models continued to rise in the Great Recession, a feat only Subaru can claim. All three brands have dared to exploit the market, by giving customers value, reliability and quality, something every manufacturer should keep in mind going forward.

Recently Google (known for their world famous search engine and applications) has experimented with cars that drive themselves. It uses radar, video cameras, and even laser in addition with the Google map information to accurately get to the destination. Although the idea of an artificial intelligence operating by itself seems a little unreal, the results have been surprising.

Google’s cars have driven over 100,000 miles across all types of environments from bridges, highways, and local areas. According to the company, there was only one accident where a driver rear ended the car on a red light. Of course, the technology is still in testing and will need to be tested to see if it is safe to operate. This is exciting news for many people as it can mean things.

Imagine going to work stress-free while you take a nap, work on your project, or even watch TV. Imagine not being tired while driving during a long trip because you’ve been driving for hours. How about being able to drive around at late night after having several drinks? You can say it’s pretty much like having your own personal chauffeur get you to your destination.

If the technology passes the tests and makes it to consumers, it’s uncertain how it will affect the transportation industry. Nobody knows if this technology will leave many cab drivers and taxi companies out of jobs. History has shown that technology has replaced workers as in the case of assembly line factory workers being replaced by systems.

Regardless of how it will affect the economy, the idea of this technology actually making its way to consumers is very exciting. The possibilities are endless with this technology and can make many of our lives easier. The same concept has been tested in the US military where fighter jets as well as patrol cars were tested for fewer casualties in war.

So will cars that drive themselves actually work? The chances are high that it will. As the technology improves, these cars will probably prove to be safe for pedestrians as well as the passengers. We don’t know if there will be a future where nobody has to manually drive anymore but this technology is exciting and provides so many possibilities to everyone.

However, Indian vendors still have long way to go. Says Pawan Goenka, president, automobile sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, “The way in which the foreign players are entering India, the vendors here would be required to not only maintain their quality standards but also increase the volumes to cater to such players. As I see it now, though there are not enough players in India, there is lot of opportunities.” M&M started the full-service vendors after they launched their SUV, Scorpio, and it was only then that they developed the vendor base.

With an investment of over Rs 26,000 crore would be pumped in to India by 2010 will help India to have quality vendors. Though there are many foreign players (vendors), who want to tap this opportunity, but the Indian vendors still have an upper hand.

Another leading player who positions itself strongly in Indian auto industry is Maruti Udyog. The company holds 220 vendors across India who directly supply to the company and out of these, 14 vendors are into original JVs with the company.

Have a powerful vendor base in India rather than importing components from abroad and to make the transfer technology and best practices to Indian vendors, Suzuki Motor Corporation One of the number one companies in aluminium dye-casting, Endurance Group based in Aurangabad manufactures and supplies auto components, such as alloy wheels, suspension, braking and transmission, to all the major two-wheeler and four-wheeler-makers. The company also has plants Italy and Germany. arranged 110 collaborations with Japanese vendors. Sona Koyo, one of the Maruti suppliers is also a supplier to Tata Nano.

R&D teams from leading auto firms have also interacted with the vendors for making the components with right specifications. These vendors have helped Maruti to launch successfully its seven models in less than 36 months.

Detroit was planting the seeds of its own destruction if it didn’t keep up with trends amongst the buying public.

A high demand for cheap attractive models would lead to one of the biggest muckraker stories in the mid 60’s.

In 1965 Ralph Nader published “Unsafe at Any Speed: The designed-In-Dangers of the American Automobile.” He exposed how General Motors and the American auto industry were placing consumers’ lives at risk by failing to design safe cars. Nader especially singled out the General motors’ Corvair which he labeled a death trap.

By the late 1950’s, the Big Three automakers were losing out to a public that was demanding smaller, less expensive cars, and was also increasingly attracted to imports, especially the Volkswagen Beetle. Imports, in fact accounted for 10 percent of all sales in the , exceeding 600,000 a year in 1958. So in 1959 it came as no surprise when the Big Three introduced three smaller models to compete against the imports: the Ford Falcon, Chevrolet Corvaire, and the Plymouth Valiant. These cars, which were cheap to make, and appealing to the consumer would turn out to be unsafe and poorly constructed.

Nader, being a consumer, himself was outraged that the auto industry could get away with murder. So he published his book “Unsafe at Any Speed” to expose the automakers. Millions of people read his book.

For its part, GM was shocked that this young, unknown attorney would attack one of the pillars of American business. General Motors trying to hide from the problem was finally caught, and James Roche, president of GM, was forced to apologize before the Senate Subcommittee on Traffic Safety. Also, thanks to Nader, the Consumer Product Safety Act was passed along with the Freedom of Information Act. This forced the U.S auto industry to redesign and overhaul their automobiles.

After that first import the Indian Auto industry remained static for a long time till Independence. Most of the cars were imported from UK and Europe and the elite consisting of Maharajas and rich business men were the main users. The Mercedes was the car most beloved by Royalty and a lot many of them found their way to India from Germany.

With the dawn of Independence in 1947 the situation did not change much, as the country adopted a socialistic policy and cars were classified as a luxury. With the result that for almost three decades the Indian car industry was at a standstill. The Government banned imports and in the name of self reliance gave licenses only to 3 car manufacturers like Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobiles and Standard motors to manufacture cars in India. The models churned out were obselete and in a controlled economy these car manufacturers thrived.

The son of India Gandhi Sanjay must take some credit for where India is today. In late seventies and early eighties he experimented with a small car called the Maruti. An untimely death in an air accident put paid to his dreams. But the government stepped in and invited Suzuki of Japan to make small cars. These cars were a runaway success and the earlier manufacturers of the obsolete cars fell by the wayside. In due course premier and Standard shut shop and only the Birla Hindustan motors is barely surviving.

However the monopoly continued and Suzuki had a field day in a controlled market. But things changed in 1991 when Dr Man Mohan Singh ushered in an era of liberalization. India which for decades had been a poor cousin of the bigger players suddenly became a hot market. The big names like Toyota, Honda, GM and others entered into the market.

Things have developed further with the Dilip Chhabria Design Pvt Ltd (DC Design) competing with Pininfarina and Bertone, the Italian standard in international car designers. Thus concept cars, prototypes and limited-production custom made models are also available.

Presently, availability of finance at relatively low rate of interest as well as availability of new models has stirred the demand for vehicles and a strong growth of the Indian automobile industry. Cheap labor and low production cost have resulted in the best of cars from Skoda and not forgetting the Mercedes and BMW to enter India. Foreign investment norms and import of technology have benefited the automobile Industry. The production of total vehicles has increased phenomenally and will touch 10 million in the next couple of years

However a look at the global auto industry shows that all is not well. Recession is rearing its head and the auto industry is ailing. The gap between the manufacturing capacity volume and the assembly volume is growing by the day and has the worried the manufacturers. This has led to cut throat competition in the industry. Cost reduction initiatives have become the rule in the industry today. This is where India scores. Cheap labor and better infrastructure hal attracted a lot of manufacturers to India.

The automotive Industry in India is now working in terms of the dynamics of an open market. The Government of India has reversed its decades old policies and is now keen to move ahead.They would like to create a business environment conducive to the growth of the auto industry. India is heading towards becoming a global Auto hub.Truly a revolution has taken place.The future can only be bright.

In the midst of such a shocking 12 months, what does the industry do to create a transformative working and healthy model? Is there enough ‘forward thinking’ in the minds of the multi-generational industry leaders and dealer owners that can shift this industry into the marketing giant it once was? Are there enough players to transcend the old ways of doing things with a new paradigm that mirror today’s sophisticated and transparent buying options now available to 21st century consumers?

To help get a jump start, here are six transformative new business practices that will shake up the old and offer the auto industry an opportunity to land squarely on all fours.

1. Lose the ‘tude, Dude

Car buyers have very little interest in negotiating. In fact, most loathe it. Women, for example, often have powerful positions at her workplace. While an estimated 80% of women initiate and motivate the family car purchase, many of those women expect their significant other or, the nearest man, to go with them to the dealership to ‘buy the car’.

Women-Drivers.com, a consumer rating web site connecting women to women-friendly car dealers, reports that even as women account for 54% of new car purchases 62% of them visit the dealership with another person, and, 78% of the time it’s a man – even when the car is exclusively hers.<

The classic days of piranha car salesmanship are over. The one -liners like “Hey little lady, what can I do for you today?” or ‘This deal is good today only’ or the ‘I have to check with my manager again on this”, or, my all time favorite “Let’s wait until your husband gets here.” – are coming to a close.

With traditional WOM (word of mouth) now being expressed in social networking platforms, as well as car dealer rating websites like Women-Drivers.com or Dealer Rater.com the days are numbered for the old-school car salesperson.

So, what can the new rules of engagement be for the salesperson?

* Treat consumers respectfully. Don’t assume anything about anyone coming through your doors based upon their looks, clothes, age, style, marriage status and depths of wallet size. Ever.
* Debates ensue about whether female or male customers are to be treated the same or differently at the car dealer. Here’s the skinny.
* Women use more words than men in a given day and are more social with a need to share more frequently – in words and in writing. So, when a woman comes into your showroom, listen (which actually means, stop talking). Listen to what she says, not what you think she said or what you think she meant. Speak with her, not to her.
* Don’t waste time going back and forth taking every single line item and pricing request to the manager. As a sales advisor, you are the expert and should be granted the responsibility to make the call. Customers are busy and being held ‘hostage’ for an hour or two is simply a waste of time. In our today world of ‘I am so busy’, working professionals and parents are not interested in wasting their number one precious resource- time. Be a solutions provider.
* No smoking outside, or standing around in the parking lot with colleagues.

2. Change the Pricing Paradigm

Humans are such creatures of habit. And ‘industries’ are just enormous groups of humans, so as a natural extension, industries have habits, too. But as societies and customers shift and evolve, so, too, must industries.

Back in the day of buggies, men negotiated for their horses. And, so, it went for cars. In the 1970’s and 80’s, the divorce rate started to climb, women were entering the workforce in non-traditional roles, and families started having fewer children. The long standing dance of negotiation that is 100 years old simply is out of context today.

While many customers love haggling, the truth is that a ‘good deal’ is completely subjective. Most consumers truly have no idea what the qualitative value of a good deal is.

Saturn and Scion are clear about the writing on the wall. Short of collusion, the industry can simply flip the switch. Go to one price shopping. OEM’s can build in respective margins; dealers build on theirs, and add in any other hidden cost that may need to be absorbed.

Dealers still will still have sales, rebates, coupons and trade-ins as ways to market and keep competition strong. One price shopping will save the dealerships’ time and increase efficiency. Think about how well a car company will do if they market themselves as the brand that guarantees customers can buy a car in one hour(1). Paperwork included.

Why is it we are OK with a six percent or $12,000 sales commission payment to our neighborhood realtor on a $200,000 home, but not a flat fee of $1,000 – $1,250 (4.-5.0% commission) when purchasing a $25,000 vehicle?

3. Shift the Employee Make-up & Compensation Model

The current physiological make-up of car salespeople does not mirror that of the car buyer. Specifically, in 2007, 93% of all car salespeople were men. While women buy 54% of all cars, they request 65% of all mechanic work done at dealerships. It’s great that women are the ones fielding the customer service calls at dealerships, and, to a high degree managing the Service Centers.

But that is not enough.

Build the sales force up to 50% women – and hire more minorities Encourage more women in executive and managerial posts; from the Board of Directors to sales and product managers, including General and Sales Managers at the dealer level.

A dimple in this old boy’s club occurred in early October when General Motors announced that Susan Docherty was elevated to Sales Chief. Bravo. Keep the dominos bumping.

The annual turnover for an average dealership sales team is 100%. There is an overwhelming cost to this. According to The Total HR ToolKit for Auto Dealers published by John Putzier, President of Auto-Motivation.com, “Between lost productivity, recruiting, selecting and training, the calculated cost to replace a $40,000 salary is almost $50,000.”

Pay salespeople a decent wage, a commission or bonus structure, provide benefits to them and make them happy enough that they are respected by the business, and they won’t shift gears to another dealership or another industry after 10 months on the job.

4. ‘Small’ does not have to mean ‘Frumpy’

What is it about smaller cars in our country? Must the industry continue to make smaller vehicles look like full or mid-sized cars, only downsized? There are younger and more eco- and cost-conscious consumers just waiting to buy smaller cars.

Provide small or compact sized vehicles with their own design cues, and offer the consumer an alternative to a matchbox on wheels. Much like the 2003 Mini Cooper S introductions, create a smart look, with a safe and technological sound product at an affordable price. And, mitigate the mini-me’s.

5. More Moms & Abs in Ads

Sexy women have been used in all traditional media to sell cars since the dawning of this enterprise. Margery Krevsky’s 2008 book “Sirens of Chrome: The Enduring Allure of the Auto Show Models” is a remarkable photograph collection of how automobile companies have used thrilling and glamorous women to sell cars. Whether in the sexy TV commercials or at the international auto shows, this age old use of ‘Sex Sells’ is still in play today.

With so many women buying cars today, it’s time for advertising campaigns in the automotive industry to bring on the boys and balance things out. Inject a few more hot men who are not necessarily NFL types speaking forcibly into the camera. Begin using men to appeal to the female buyer. Soccer dads, too.

And, add more moms- regular moms, too. Of different ages and flavors. Let her see herself in the ad-driving, with her children in tow, as she really is. And please, please show moms who are doing their marketing driving other vehicles other than just the sacred mini van.

6. Get off your High Horse (Power)

The electric carriage came almost 60 years before Fords’ Model T.

Yet, the electric car has always been a step-child. With America’s addiction to gasoline, we ignored its benefits and distilled any opportunity for mass appeal, until, of course, most recently. Toyota with its Prius and the Chevrolet Volt are the front runners and favorites in this small arena.

Tesla Motors and other auto companies are coming on strong. Tesla will not be moving to Detroit anytime soon; in fact, they won’t be moving there at all. They see themselves a much more technologically advanced, sophisticated company – and so are headquartered in Silicon Valley.

Tesla has recently received two sources of funding: one from the United States Department of Energy, and a second from Daimler AG who purchased 9% of the company to get a big foot in this new auto frontier.

Tesla has real challenges, but its vision is that the electric vehicle (EV) be mainstream in the next decade. China alone has over 200 companies creating and working on electric vehicle’s (EV) batteries, cars and charging infrastructures.

I know old habits are hard to break – both for consumers and especially, a long enduring industry. But, it’s a new day. As the industry sits ‘idling in the service center’ (so to speak) waiting for the recession to pass, its time to take a look at some new best practices that can be long lasting and difference -making to build back a healthier, more vibrant car business.

The biggest buzz seems to have sprung form the Meryl Lynch report, and the idea that they couldn’t rule out bankruptcy for the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, General Motors. At the same time the company’s stocks fell to a 54-year low. And all of it occurred at a time when GM reported uninspiring sales figures (i.e. 265,937) in June this year.

In order to avoid bankruptcy, GM would need to raise $15 billion in cash as has been said. While the company hasn’t responded to the report, but it thinks that it’s got enough cash for 2008 and that it would take the required measures if needed.

However, it’s not just GM that took the hit, Toyota’s sales also came down by over 21%, while Ford’s figures showed a drop of 28.1%. For the most part the mechanism seems to be the same, that is lower demand for gas-guzzlers owing to high fuel prices.

Meanwhile in Canada the trend has been replicated with the auto sales plummeting by 5.7 percent from last year to reach 159,500 vehicles in June. The drop is significantly higher than the 0.5 percent fall in May.

So How Long is it going to last?

Predictions were made earlier as well, wherein it was said that things could begin to look up for North America by 2009. However given the present trends, some experts feel that for the North American industry revenues could decline in 2008 and 2009. And that we could see increasing losses as the year-end approaches.

The Big 3’s focus seems to be on their trucks, which they make big money off of from sales and repairs. everything about their trucks are costly and they are only now attempting to make them more fuel efficient. What confuses me is that these CEO do not listen to their customers and I am not even in shock that they are doomed to fail. But, there is a bright side though out this gloomy economic situation. These auto industry workers like me and my father are now able to actually take out life into our own hands. We now have the time and ability to learn something new and to make good money. The problem is that most people refuse to learn a new thing. After my release from the auto industry in June 23 2008 I stumbled upon a simple concept, work at home. But, what exactly does working at home entail? if you are like most people you are skeptical about working at home because of the massive amounts of scams that are available upon the internet and I will admit I have been scammed multiple times. However, most people need to fail before they can succeed.

Now here’s the good news. I have discovered a website that actually works. its simple, powerful and effective. Get this: no selling, no picking up the phone, no cold calls, no distribution of products are resources, no scams, no broken promises and best of all we guarantee you to make money if YOU ACTUALLY WORK. I have provided a 30 day marketing guide with audio and videos to get anyone to make money weather you know how to use a computer or not. It’s so simple its scary. It will eventually be an automatic money making machine. I can teach you how to get your first sales within 24 hours and how $250,000 in your first year is 100% possible. I am a 24 and I have been doing this before the auto industry lay off and to be honest I was going to quit before they released me because I was already supplementing my income and within 6 months of this program I was able to match my yearly income. it took me 6 months to match my the pay cheques of the auto industry. This is an amazing opportunity and should never be missed.

Ill give you a snippet of how I have done it but first I would like to reassure everyone that this is the REAL deal and you will not get another type of opportunity like this one. You will find other opportunities on the internet that promise success but do they have my track record? NO. Here is the deal, I am looking to make 100 millionaires by 2012 which give you more than enough time. I will show you effective and free marketing strategies that the competition overlooks. I will show you how my sales team will close all sales for you and deliver your products without every having to contact you and best of all we will give you a cheque on the 15th of every month.

I have personally made hundreds of thousands of dollars within my first year of business. I own my own business, I work on my own time, I work at home and I work on my own schedule. I don’t need to call in sick to work and the best part about everything is that the internet has no down time which means that you are constantly making money and advertising while you sleep. That’s just the beginning. Not only do you make money on your sales but you also make residuals on your employees. If you sell 52 products in 1 year, which works out to about 1 sale a week, you rank in $250,000! Is that out of reach?! HELL NO! Always be skeptical about opportunities that cost nothing or too much. Think about it like this … even if only 1% of the population is interested you only need to advertise to 5,200 people. Think about that. If you are still working in the auto industry they must have at least 5,000 employees. You can make hundreds of thousands even before you leave the auto industry. You can open up your own business and be successful within a single year. Your second option is to get another job and hope for a $1.00 raise after a year.
My website has been making hundreds of people like you thousands of dollars online by working at home.