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Pick your seat in the store.
Thirty-plus guides is a lot. So here's the short list for your role — one tool to put a real number on the table, then five reads in the order I'd hand them to you.
Path 1 of 6
Dealer principal or GM
You don't need to run the campaigns. You need to know which ones are working, and where the store is leaking.
About 28 minutes of reading, total.
- Start Lead leak calculator Put in your monthly leads and response time. See how much gross slow follow-up is costing you every month.
- 1 The dealership marketing report that fits on one page Fourteen pages of impressions and engagement rate. Nobody reads past page two, and they are right not to.
- 2 Why your 5:40pm Friday lead never gets called back Speed to lead is a staffing and process problem, not a CRM problem. Here is the shift schedule that fixes it.
- 3 How to split a $5,000 dealership ad budget Brand, conquest and retargeting each do a different job. Most stores overspend on the one that was going to happen anyway.
- 4 Ask ChatGPT about your dealership — then read this What assistants say about your store, where they get it, and the six fixes that change the answer.
- 5 Should you price match a competitor? The math most dealers skip Matching a competitor's price feels like the safe move. It's rarely the profitable one, and the math is simple once you run it.
Path 2 of 6
General sales or sales manager
Most of the gross lost online is lost after the lead arrives. These are about the handoff from screen to showroom.
About 25 minutes of reading, total.
- Start Marketing scorecard Six statements. Tick the ones that sound like your store and get a straight read on where deals are leaking.
- 1 Why your 5:40pm Friday lead never gets called back Speed to lead is a staffing and process problem, not a CRM problem. Here is the shift schedule that fixes it.
- 2 Why texting a lead works better than calling it first A call that goes to voicemail is a dead end. A text sits in an inbox until someone is ready to answer it.
- 3 Mystery shop your own store in fifteen minutes Submit a lead, call the number, text the store. Score what happens next against this rubric.
- 4 Your lead form is asking for too much Name, one contact method, the vehicle. Everything past that is the store asking a stranger to do work first.
- 5 Should you price match a competitor? The math most dealers skip Matching a competitor's price feels like the safe move. It's rarely the profitable one, and the math is simple once you run it.
Path 3 of 6
Internet or BDC manager
Your job is turning clicks into appointments. Start with the pages shoppers land on and the first reply they get.
About 27 minutes of reading, total.
- Start Lead leak calculator Put in your monthly leads and response time. See how much gross slow follow-up is costing you every month.
- 1 Your vehicle detail page is the real homepage Search sends people to the car, not the store. Most VDPs are a template nobody has read since the site was built.
- 2 Why texting a lead works better than calling it first A call that goes to voicemail is a dead end. A text sits in an inbox until someone is ready to answer it.
- 3 Your website is probably too slow, and it's costing you leads Shoppers browse on their phones, on cellular, on the couch. Most dealer sites are slower than they will wait for — and every vendor plugin makes it worse.
- 4 Retargeting without following people around for six months The shopper who looked at one Tucson in March should not still be seeing it in July. Three settings fix it.
- 5 Facebook and Instagram ads that don't feel like a car ad A carousel of stock photos with a price overlay gets scrolled past in half a second. Native-feeling creative doesn't.
Path 4 of 6
Marketing manager
Local search, social and your own database do more than most paid campaigns. Build the habits first.
About 28 minutes of reading, total.
- Start AI visibility check See what an AI assistant tells a shopper about your store — including whether it knows you exist.
- 1 The Google Business Profile checklist most dealers skip Twelve fields, three habits, and the one category setting that quietly keeps you out of the local pack.
- 2 What to actually post to your Google Business Profile Most dealers either post nothing or post the same inventory feed every day. Both look identical to the algorithm.
- 3 Short video that actually sells cars A ninety-second walkaround with wind in the mic gets four hundred views and no leads. Then the store decides video doesn't work.
- 4 The best dealership content isn't made by the dealership A real customer's delivery photo, shared with permission, outperforms almost anything a marketing team produces on purpose.
- 5 Email marketing is old. It still beats every lead you buy. Why the oldest channel in the building outperforms the newest one, and the five sends every dealership should have running.
Path 5 of 6
Service manager
You see more customers than the sales floor. Your reviews and your lane drive repeat business for the whole store.
About 29 minutes of reading, total.
- Start Review score calculator How many 5-star reviews it takes to reach 4.5 — and what one 1-star review really costs you.
- 1 Your service drive sees more customers than your sales floor Most dealers market to conquest prospects and ignore the owners walking through the service door every day.
- 2 Service-to-sales: turning the appointment list into trade leads Every equity customer drives into your service lane twice a year. Here is the handoff most stores never build.
- 3 How to raise a dealership review score without begging A simple ask process for sales and service, plus response templates for the reviews that sting.
- 4 What to do about a review you think is unfair Getting it removed rarely works. The six weeks spent trying are six weeks it sits there unanswered.
- 5 What to actually post to your Google Business Profile Most dealers either post nothing or post the same inventory feed every day. Both look identical to the algorithm.
Path 6 of 6
Used car manager
Every day a unit sits costs you. These are about getting used inventory found, trusted and sold faster.
About 31 minutes of reading, total.
- Start Ad budget planner Enter your monthly spend and store type. Get a starting split across search, conquest, retargeting and social.
- 1 Merchandising used inventory so it doesn't just sit there Two identical trades, priced the same. One sells in a week. The other sits for two months. The difference is almost never the car.
- 2 Your vehicle detail page is the real homepage Search sends people to the car, not the store. Most VDPs are a template nobody has read since the site was built.
- 3 Ranking for “used cars near me” without buying the keyword The organic side of near-me search: proximity, prominence and the pages that make you the obvious answer within a 40-minute drive.
- 4 Inventory pages that rank instead of expiring Model-line landing pages, internal linking and what to do when a unit sells.
- 5 Should you price match a competitor? The math most dealers skip Matching a competitor's price feels like the safe move. It's rarely the profitable one, and the math is simple once you run it.
Rather skip the reading?
Send me your store name. I'll look at it like a shopper would and tell you which of these matters most for you.