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Video | Forward-Thinking Sales and Marketing Strategies 

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It’s no secret; personalization is critical to success in automotive retail today. Learn from Mark Vickery, senior director of performance management at Cox Automotive, how today’s most successful dealerships are implementing advanced sales and marketing tactics to deliver the experiences shoppers expect.  

Download our eBook to learn how forward-thinking dealers are driving results.

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Northtown Automotive Delivers Ultimate Car Buying Experience

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Northtown Automotive, based in Amherst, New York, has always been committed to giving customers the ultimate car buying experience: first-class service, state-of-the-art facilities, and the technologies shoppers want. In the span of a few decades, this customer-first philosophy has helped their business grow from a small used-car operation to include 11 dealerships, representing 20 franchises.

Motivated by these values, Northtown replaced outdated, inefficient solutions with connected, customer-friendly technologies, including VinSolutions.

Maximizing Gross and Efficiency with Xtime’s New Estimating Tools​

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Join Will Crouch and Matt Warpinksi, Managers of Performance Management at Xtime, for a walk-through of Xtime’s newly expanded pricing tool. Learn strategies for modernizing your service quoting process and labor pricing strategies to help get away from family pricing, maximize service gross, and dial in a consistent process for getting pricing in front of customers, regardless of who in the dealership provides the quote. Using these tools, a team member can give a detailed, accurate, professional, and compliant written estimate from any chair in the dealership, off-site BDC, or even home office.

Adopt the Sales and Marketing Strategies of Today’s Most Successful Dealers 

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Auto dealers are a resilient group. From margin compression to high vehicle prices and low inventory, there has been shortage of obstacles to overcome in recent years. But the most forward-thinking dealers know how to adapt and thrive. 

As consumer expectations and market conditions continue to shift toward digital, one-size-fits-all marketing and sales strategies are no longer effective. Today’s consumers want personalization, and forward-thinking dealers are adapting to deliver the experiences consumers expect.  

What Your Dealership’s Level of Operational Advancement?  

When it comes to operational advance, dealers can be categorized into three main groups: static, modern, and forward-thinking. Static dealers have limited technology and take a more traditional approach to sales and marketing. Modern dealers use some digital technology, but still rely mostly on manual processes. Forward-thinking dealers, on the other hand, leverage advanced technology. They use integrated auto dealership software, automation, and data throughout the dealership.  

Forward-thinking dealers aren’t only more technologically advanced; they are more profitable too.  Forward-thinking dealers use data to implement specific sales and marketing strategies to attract more customers, manage leads more effectively, and advance their businesses. In fact, forward-thinking dealers experience 64% higher net profit than static dealers, according to the 2022 Cox Automotive Forward-Thinking Dealership Study.  

Marketing Strategies of Forward-Thinking Dealers 

To improve personalization and create messages that resonate with individual consumers, forward-thinking dealers focus on four key marketing capabilities: behavior insights, lead management, content development, and service marketing.  

  • Behavior Insights: Using data from their dealer CRM or website to make marketing more personal 
  • Lead Management: Leveraging the CRM to manage leads and communications 
  • Content Development: Creating personalized advertising and communications to attract new consumers and retain business 
  • Service Marketing: Growing service business through campaigns targeting owners who did not purchase from the dealership  

Sales Strategies of Forward-Thinking Dealers 

The sales process is complex, bringing together many capabilities from both front-office and back-office operations into one workflow. Forward-thinking dealers focus on a few of the following capabilities at a time to streamline and personalize the sales process.  

Front-Office Operations  

  • Vehicle Selection: Providing search filters or vehicle configuration tools to consumers 
  • Trade-in Valuation: Providing value vehicles for trade-in 
  • Trade-in Vehicle Inspection: Inspecting vehicles for trade-in 
  • Trade-in Offers: Proactively contacting customers related to trade-ins 
  • Trade-in Payoff: Paying off or satisfying existing loans on vehicles for trade-in 
  • Credit Decisioning: Determining consumer credit worthiness 
  • Aftermarket and Menu: Providing search filters or tools for customers to shop for aftermarket products/services 
  • Desking: The process used for building deals 
  • Compliance: Ensuring all sales comply with state and federal regulations for transaction and consumer information 

Back-Office Operations 

  • Contracting/Document Management: How a dealership handles the final sales contract 
  • and storage of documents 
  • Signing and Vaulting: Signing final contracts (electronic or paper) in a secure, trusted environment 
  • Registration and Title Management: How a dealership manages and tracks vehicle registration and the process for title management and storage 

No matter what kind of dealership you are today, you can prepare for tomorrow’s challenges in ways that pay off now. Adopt the strategies of forward-thinking dealers to evolve with modern consumers and meet every sales and marketing challenge that comes your way.  

To learn more about the strategies and tactics uses by today’s top dealers, check out our guide: The Forward-Thinking Dealership: Sales and Marketing.  

Focus on the Future of Automation

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Most dealerships I talk to are hyper-focused on building a better business for their employees and customers. The most successful automotive groups I work with are always one or two moves ahead. They’re putting in the work to make sure the tools and technology are streamlining workflows so they can focus less on the busy work and focus more on their customers and staff. It’s not always easy. But the tools and capabilities exist to ensure the success of your business—and with the right partner at your side, you can most certainly get there. If you’ve partnered with a DMS who has your best interests at heart, they can help you get there. Here are some of the key areas of focus—in my experience—that will ensure the overall success of your dealership.

Focus On Delivering a Better Payment Process

Simply put, you need to take a hard look at the number of slow, manual processes taking place at every transaction, payment process, and accounting capability within your business. And then modernize it. Conveniences like point-of-sale and contactless payment in our day-to-day life are normal and expected everywhere else—why shouldn’t they be expected within your service lane? If you can both improve cash flow to your dealership via email billing services and get paid faster, why wouldn’t you? I would take this concept one step further (if you’re not convinced) and explain that automation and digitization of payment processes not only will reduce human error, but also creates digital receipts for all your transactions. Everything a dealer can do to protect themselves and improve accuracy is a major win in my book.

Focus on Digital Documentation

As we’ve seen over the past several years in the automotive industry, compliance and security rules are becoming stricter. In my opinion, this trend will continue to the benefit of both the dealer and the consumer. Protecting yourself as a business is going to require you to become more and more diligent as contracts and transactions are digitized. The good news is that, with the right DMS partner, you should have the ability to sync back your data every time you engage with your customers. Whether you’re capturing signatures automatically within the DMS or auto-filling form during the financing process, you’re not only offering more convenience for your buyer, but you’re also creating a (digital) paper trail that helps protect both parties. A secure document management solution will streamline your workflows and simplify your back-office operations. Compliance and fraud risk are real issues that are, unfortunately, a matter of when, not if, they will occur for most dealerships.

Focus on the Data That Matters Most

The daily data battle has long been an issue for dealers. I don’t need to remind you that your DMS is a gold mine of information that can help you make informed business decisions now and in the long run. But knowing which reports to run and where to begin to optimize efficiency without wasting your time can save countless hours. First, if you’re not partnered with a business consultant who has your best interest at heart, I feel for you. A Performance Manager with years of real dealership management experience can hold your team to task on things such as data extraction, KPI tracking, and goal setting. Are you tracking your Effective Labor Rate in the Service Department? How are you managing your contracts in transit in the business office? Are you using Dealertrack Digital Contracting to improve your cash flow? While everyone likes to review information differently, your DMS has the data, and your Performance Manager can help you manage it.

Focus on People Power

In my experience, staff turnover continues to be one of the biggest challenges for dealers, whether times are “challenging” or not. In fact, last time we checked, a dealership will need to rehire and retrain over 80% of its sales team every year. Your back-office team has a difficult job. Hiring and onboarding are only part of their role. If you’re considering optimizing any one key area of your dealership this year, it needs to be your HR and Payroll. Tax laws, compliance rules, and payments get beyond complex the more your business grows. As you add rooftops and expand your business, your needs will grow—and change—consistently. Your investment in this area will pay off immensely if you can integrate the technology you use into your people solutions as you make onboarding more professional.

Technology is never a “set-it-and-forget-it” process. Fortunately, the technology capabilities exist, today, to adapt. My team is constantly learning how to empower our dealer partners and set your dealership up for continued success. If you’re interested in learning how to optimize and streamline, your Dealer Management System for the future, reach out today.

Ready to move your business beyond busy work? Keep your most important initiatives front and center with new solutions from Dealertrack. Learn More.

 

About the Author | Jade Mitchell, Sr. Manager of Client Performance Management

Jade Mitchell is a Sr. Manager of Client Performance Management who works with dealerships to maximize DMS utilization, as well as drive processes and profit improvement. Jade believes that the Automotive Industry is a game of inches in today’s world, so taking a deep dive with our dealers into their financials and processes by using the data that the DMS provides can make a huge impact on their success. Jade came to Cox Automotive in 2019 after working in automotive dealerships for over two decades. He started washing and detailing vehicles when he was only 13 years old which led to him becoming a finance manager at a very young age and spending the next decade in management. In addition to his passion for the Automotive Industry, Jade runs his nonprofit organization: Stay Positive Stay Aggressive Inc, which he established in 2013 to assist local families struggling with medical bills due to life-threatening illnesses. Recently, Jade and his wife Aubrey welcomed their first child into the world so between Dealertrack and daddy duty he is truly working 24/7 these days.