Owning a dealership has a serious amount of perks, but it is a dog eat dog world out there. There is so much competition, and this is only increasing as car manufacturers look to expand into fields they wouldn’t have done so traditionally. As such, making sure your dealership is successful can take a few tips, tricks and bits of advice. Which is where we come in. We’ve spoken to leading dealership owners and former salesmen to provide you with sure fire ways to take the top spot.
Getting Them Through The Door
Car salesmen and women have a reputation, which is why so many people try and avoid walking through the door. As such, getting potential customers in can be your hardest challenge. You have effective salesmen, but not the hook. Well why not try this on for size. Put a used Audi out front with an impossibly low price dangling in the windscreen, a price that is hundreds (maybe even thousands) of dollars cheaper than your competitors. People will be attracted by this deal and come into query it. That’s when you put them off this car and talk about another. Tell them it was owned by a smoker, or has had 12 owners in the past 6 years or, better yet, tell them it was sold earlier that day. That’s when you can show them your range of other cars, better cars, more valuable, bigger and faster cars.
Give Them Some Urgency
On Monday morning start talking tactics with your salesforce, give them some advice on how to close a deal. It may be that your staff often get some interest in cars, but fail to actually close the deal. As such, why not create an atmosphere of interest and urgency. When someone is showing a customer a car, why not have another member of staff walk over and interrupt with news that there is a customer who is interested in seeing that very car. You can even go one step further and have them ask for the keys so that the other interested party can take it out for a test drive. This has been known to work wonders.
Save Some Costs
Most of the most costly outgoings for a dealership can be reduced by renegotiating terms or building better relationships. This could be the cleaning service you outsourced, or the energy bills, or the rotating plinthe you have in your showroom. It could also be the transport costs associated with shipping out sold cars and bringing in the new models. As such, why not improve the dealer transport services you currently use and look to use a more efficient and trusted partner for all future deals and needs.
Advertising Is King
Cars are sexy. There’s no two ways about it, and that means your advertising should be sexy too. Create a story to tell for each of your best selling cars, or your new models. Create a brand. Research the audience these cars are most likely to attract and sell to them. People buy into these forms of advertising. They know that cities are nightmare places to drive, and yet when they see a huge billboard that depicts a bunch of cool friends driving amongst skyscrapes all carefree and smiles, they believe this is possible. So tap into this.
