Is Your Dealership In a Holding Mode?

The word on the street is that a lot of dealerships are in holding mode.

They are holding onto what ever they have to just survive, when they should be “doing everything right to survive.” There is no way to retreat or ride the wave in this down economy. What you have to figure out is how to sell cars in a down economy. I would like to share five valuable tips with you that can help you get through this unstable time. What you have to remember though is that if business is off a certain percentage, then doesn’t that mean that a certain percentage is still buying?

First off, the price of gasoline is what it is. We can either complain or we can do something about it. Most of us have sticker shock. No wonder why the Up Bus isn’t coming by anymore. They can’t afford the gas to come by your dealership. Yet there are still a ton of dealerships hoping that the bus will stop today. What has happened? Change!

Tip One – Change the way you approach your business today and get ready to do activities that you barely have done before. Management Guru Peter Drucker said that companies that change the fastest or react to change the fastest will win out. What retail practices do you need to change more then ever right now? Let’s review:

Inventory control – If you don’t have the right inventory, then you are a sitting duck. You have to find out exactly what your neighborhood likes and buys and then target those type of vehicles for your dealership. You can’t be like other dealerships that say, what we put on the lot is what they have to buy. If you do that today, most likely you won’t last very long. Track it, buy it and sell it.

What about your current inventory? Is it marketable and by that I mean are they all front line ready, looking like they just came out of extreme makeover? If your lot and inventory look like it needs a makeover, get to it right now. Even with the subprime customer, appearance is everything.

Tip Two – Traffic generators. Every salesperson is a traffic generator. Are you setting activity goals for your salespeople or do you have them on the hope plan or are they waiting outside at the Up bus stop? You have to go into attack mode with each salesperson everyday. It makes all the sense to forecast your salespeople’s activities at the beginning of each month and then you have to inspect their game plan everyday.

Managers always tell me, “We can’t get them to reach their goals.” I don’t like “yeah buts,” but if you monitored their daily activities everyday then wouldn’t this prevent them from cramming at the end of the month? Salespeople don’t have bad months, they just have several bad days that add up to a bad month. This is usually caused by lack of management monitoring their daily activities.

Tip Three­ — Outside prospecting – Oh my gosh, are you telling me we have to send our people out to prospect? Well isn’t that how most sales departments operate? You have to CHANGE your mindset and start developing outside prospecting. Have a brochure made up with business cards stapled to them and I would stagger my salespeople with times and city blocks and say, OK this week, hit this side of town, hand out the brochure, get a card and along the way ask for referrals. Then after the mile has been swept, go to the next mile and so on. A five-mile radius is a great start. You have to take SMA –Strategic Massive Action. I know what seven-car Sammy is gong to say along with eight-car Wanda. “We have never done that before. We will quit if you make us do it.” My gosh we are going to miss you Sam and Wanda.

Tip Four – Database management – OK forget about punishing your salespeople to do follow up. How long has their been a problem with follow up in the auto business? Forever. So are you going to let this problem control your income and the business you have committed your life to? Hire an hourly worker to call your customers in your database right now. You only need five or six easy questions. Type them out on sheet, make copies and hold them accountable to calling at least 30-50 prospects a day. If you don’t call your sold or working customers, then stop reading this article, and get out in front and wait patiently for the Up bus to come by.

I have spoken in front of hundreds of Twenty Groups and this same problem comes up over and over again. Why are you letting your people dictate your future? You sweated so hard to sell them, and you barely have to break a sweat to have them come back. Most dealerships won’t force their salespeople to work, because they might quit. You must be willing to change, or you will die. You will wake up one day and say what most of us hear today, “I remember when we used to sell blah blah blah.” What did it cost you to not change? People, profits and many sleepless night.

Tip 5 – Train Train Train – If you fail to train, you train to fail. Wouldn’t you agree that today’s customer is more informed then ever before? You have to surround your dealership with trained management and sales professionals to win the war against today’s enemy. Your enemy isn’t the big dealership down the street, it’s the people inside your dealership. My best dealerships that are riding out the storm, still train, track, manage their salespeople, react to change the fastest, bring in trainers or consultants to help them ward off the enemies of today. We need to sell cars, we need to be at our best ever, we need to go back to the basics of what works. That’s called work.

It’s time to go into TMAN mode right now. Take Massive Action Now. It’s hard to do but worth the effort, I assure you. Success comes from Focus amongst many other areas. The word FOCUS means: Faithfully, On, Course, Until, Successful.

Let’s rack it here, take the best strategies I have given you, sit down with your team, develop action strategies with date lines or timelines. Select a champion who can start and finish a project and then get ready to rollout your TMAN plan and just do it.