Dealer Spike

06/02/2026

We're deep in summer selling now. ☀️

June is when busy season stops being a forecast and starts being a stress test. And the metric that tells you whether your store is passing or failing? Speed-to-response.

Here's the uncomfortable part: when your team is buried, the inquiries that should be your easiest wins become your most expensive losses. Because while you're working the floor, the shopper who messaged 45 minutes ago is already on the phone with your competitor.

The first dealer to respond usually controls the conversation. That hasn't changed. What's changed is the cost of forgetting it in June.

Reset the standard this week:
✅ Reply within 5–15 minutes
✅ First response confirms availability
✅ Offer two specific time slots to visit
✅ Have a real plan for after-hours inquiries

The fundamentals don't care how busy you are. They reward the dealers who execute them anyway.

📘 Read the full State of the Dealer 2026 report: https://okt.to/0AxUle

05/29/2026

Busy season math:
More traffic. More inquiries. Same team. Same hours in the day.

Something has to give — and for most dealers, it's response time. The problem? That's the one thing buyers notice immediately.

A shopper who waits an hour for a reply has already messaged your competitors. A shopper who waits a day has already moved on.

The dealers winning spring buyers aren't the ones working harder. They're the ones with a plan for who responds, how fast, and what the first reply actually says.

Speed-to-response isn't a sales tactic. It's the whole sales tactic.

📘 Read the full 2026 playbook: https://okt.to/nHEdlO

05/21/2026

May is passing by, and so is the busiest stretch of your year.

Quick reminder for every sales team out there: the first dealer to respond usually controls the conversation. 🎯

When inquiries are stacking up, the temptation is to "get to it later." But later is exactly where deals go to die.

A simple standard your team can run today:
✅ Reply within 5–15 minutes
✅ First response confirms the unit is available
✅ Offer two time slots to come in

That's it. No magic. Just discipline that turns curious shoppers into customers walking through your door.

📘 Get the full State of the Dealer: 2026 report: https://okt.to/qTlSMi

What's slowing your response time down right now? Drop it in the comments. 👇

05/18/2026

The "show the price vs. hide the price" argument has been running in dealer back offices for a decade. We asked five dealerships across the country to settle it.

What they landed on has less to do with negotiation than you'd think. Google and AI search tools now treat priceless listings as incomplete — so the store playing it safe with "Call for Price" is quietly losing discovery before a shopper ever sees them.

Read the full breakdown: https://okt.to/M7wly4

If you're OEM-restricted or just not comfortable publishing your own number, Best Price is the move. Abby from our Customer Success team shows you exactly how to set it up on a unit listing 👇

05/15/2026

We're going live TODAY at 10:00 AM PST. Still time to join us: https://okt.to/Q2MDNy

The High-Performance Recipe: Digital Marketing That Fills Your Lot — paid search strategy for dealers, built on data from 6,800+ dealerships.

05/14/2026

Tomorrow at 10 AM PT — Digital Marketing That Fills Your Lot. https://okt.to/3167Fa

Bill Koehn and Hayley Hollen are breaking down what's actually working in paid search right now for Powersports, Marine, and OPE dealers — and a 4-question check you can run on your own ad account this week.

If your ad spend is climbing but your leads aren't, this one's for you.

05/12/2026

If your paid ads are costing more and bringing in less, you're not alone — and you're not stuck.

The dealers filling their lots right now aren't running some secret playbook. They've built a paid strategy that fits their market and they run it with discipline.

Join Bill Koehn and Hayley Hollen on Friday, May 15 for Digital Marketing That Fills Your Lot — a no-fluff session built for Powersports, Marine, and OPE dealers.

You'll walk away with a four-question check you can run on your own ad account this week.

10 AM PT / 1 PM ET · Free to register

https://okt.to/GlsAQu

05/08/2026

One week out.

2025 was a tough year to run paid search as a dealer. CPCs climbed. CTRs dropped. Budgets felt every hit.

We're not waiting for the market to fix itself in 2026 — we're sharing what's actually working right now, pulled straight from the dealer accounts where we're seeing it in action.

On May 15, Bill Koehn and Hayley Hollen break down how high-performing dealers are building paid strategies that fit their market — their vertical, their competition, their buyers — and getting more out of every dollar they spend.

Real data. 6,800+ dealerships. One week to register. 👉 https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8867059254670675806?source=facebook

04/29/2026

The "show the price vs. hide the price" debate? We settled it — by actually asking dealers.

We sat down with five dealerships across the country and got their honest take on pricing strategy. Turns out, the dealers turning inventory fastest aren't hiding numbers — an average 83% of their units have pricing right on the page.

Why? Because in 2026, a priceless listing doesn't protect your margin. It just makes you invisible.

Our new blog breaks down exactly how dealers are balancing transparency with negotiation leverage — and the creative workarounds OEM-restricted dealers are using to still rank in AI search results.

Worth a read if you're still on the fence about what goes in that price box. 👇
https://www.dealerspike.com/blog/pricing-vs-negotiation-how-dealers-can-have-both/

Dealer Spike sat down with five dealerships across the country to discuss pricing strategies. Here’s what they told us — and where they landed.

02/13/2026

Reno-bound for Trailer Tech? Come see us at Booth #203 — we’ll have live heat-press hats and quick walkthroughs you can apply right away.
We’re showing practical fixes that turn more “just looking” shoppers into real inquiries with clearer inventory paths, intent-driven FAQs, and trust signals buyers notice.
👉 Schedule a Demo: https://okt.to/2eISgd