Close More Deals with Your Digital Retailing Tools

The pandemic accelerated the rate of consumer adoption for many online shopping experiences, from ordering takeout to buying groceries. Automotive retail was no exception as car buyers showed increased interest in shopping and purchasing cars online. 

In this session, we’ll discuss the new and evolving expectations of your digital retail shoppers. You’ll learn how to adjust your processes, make better customer connections, and close more deals.  

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Marketing in a Cookieless Future

The “Cookiepocalypse” is coming, but is your dealership ready? The digital marketing landscape is about to turn the advertising landscape on its head—while eliminating the tools you’re using today to target customers online. Google and other web browsers have agreed to eliminate third-party cookies, or the little packets of data that websites deposit on your computer as you browse.  

Join Noah Lee to learn everything you need to know to navigate the transition away from third-party cookies while thriving in a new era of online advertising. 

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How to Retain and Resell Current Customers

Your customers’ relationship with your dealership shouldn’t end with the handoff of the keys to their new vehicle. Successful dealerships know how much value there is in maintaining customer relationships after the deal has closed.   

With strong strategies and advanced technology, you can maintain customer relationships that last a lifetime—bringing more value and efficiency to your business. Consider these best practices for retaining and reselling your customers.  

Track Customer Activity and Mine Behavioral Data  
Today’s most successful dealerships know that the key to retaining customers is proactively connecting with them, instead of waiting for the customer to reach out for information about a new vehicle. And while happy birthday and anniversary wishes are nice, they probably won’t cut it in the fierce competition for business today.  

Your dealership probably already has the customer data you need to implement a proactive outreach strategy that provides value to your customers. Leveraging your dealership’s data and technology can help you identify in-market opportunities, including existing customers that may be ready for a vehicle upgrade.  

Look for technology tools that integrate with your dealership website to aggregate data into insights. With VinSolutions, for example, your Dealer.com website data is integrated with your CRM to identify customers who are most likely to be ready to make another purchase.  

Segment Communications and Automate Marketing  
Just as consumers expect a personalized experience when shopping for a vehicle, your customers expect a personalized experience later in their ownership experience with your dealership. But delivering the type of personalization your customers expect can be difficult without the right auto digital marketing solution.   

Consider a multi-channel automated marketing solution, such as Automotive Marketing Platform powered by VinSolutions. This marketing tool enables you to deliver personalized marketing content by leveraging specific insights from customer behavior data.  

Using existing customer data from your CRM, an automated marketing tool segments customers who are most likely to buy, including customers who may be interested in trading in for a newer vehicle. For another value-add, Automotive Marketing Platform can leverage artificial intelligence to identify vehicles of interest and automatically send personalized offers that let customers start the deal process from anywhere on any device. 

By tracking customer online activity, mining CRM data, segmenting communications, and automating your marketing, you can leverage insights to create a car buying experience that builds brand loyalty and creates lifetime customers.  

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Build Brand Awareness at Every Phase of the Buying Journey

Competition for car buyers today is fierce, which means it is critical to keep your dealership top of mind at every phase of a consumer’s shopping and buying journey. But with so many possible paths to purchase, it can be challenging to effectively build and maintain brand awareness for your dealership.  

With the right tools and best practices, however, you can maximize the return of your auto dealer marketing efforts and keep your dealership’s name on the mind of car shoppers throughout their buying journey.  

Identify Shopper Preferences and Target Messaging 

Today’s consumers are spending more time looking for cars online (more than 7 hours, according to Cox Automotive research) and less time at the dealership. Shoppers spend time on several websites, including your dealership website and third-party sites like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. With all that time spent online, reaching consumers with targeted digital advertising is critical to building brand awareness.  

As shoppers browse online, they leave behind clues about their unique shopping preferences that your dealership can use to personalize your car dealership ads. These behavioral insights can help you reach shoppers with targeted, relevant messaging.  

You can identify and activate these insights by aggregating customer data from your website and CRM to deliver personalized, one-to-one marketing messages relevant to each customer’s interests. 

Use the Right Technology to See Real Results  

In addition to telling you what a shopper’s preferences are, behavioral insights can also tell you when a shopper is ready to make a purchase. With this information, you can use advanced technology to deliver impactful messaging about your dealership at just the right time—as shoppers are forming important opinions about what and where to buy.  

With the right digital marketing technology, you can automatically serve up personalized ads at the exact time a shopper is looking for a vehicle. You can also retarget customers that have visited your website with a relevant ad, and send personalized, targeted emails with automated workflows. 

Leave a Lasting Impression on Your Shoppers  

Every car shopper’s journey is unique, but a few best practices can help you build and maintain brand awareness with the right shoppers. But with the right strategies and technology in place, you can deliver the right messages at the right time—and leave a lasting impression on each individual shopper. 

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Tips for Engaging All Shoppers

Today’s car shoppers are getting to know dealers long before the in-person meet-and-greet and test drive. They are doing online research, trying to find the right car and the right car dealer to do business with. To succeed with modern shoppers, dealerships must be able to facilitate these digital introductions and engage customers on their terms.  

Embrace Flexible Buying Experiences 

Many customers will continue coming to your dealership the way they always have—through traditional in-person visits to your showroom or calls to your salespeople during normal business hours.  

But more and more car shoppers are taking the car-buying process into their own hands. They are researching dealers and vehicles at all hours of the day and night, including times when your salespeople aren’t available.  

To cater to these modern shoppers, it is important for today’s dealerships to implement flexible buying experiences. That means allowing shoppers to browse vehicles on your website, begin the car-buying process, and complete as many purchase steps online as they prefer.  

These flexible buying experiences give your dealership a digital introduction to in-market shoppers and allow them to seamlessly proceed through the car-buying process on their terms and in their time.  

Maintain a Strong Online Presence 

There are more ways to introduce your dealership to modern customers than your website alone. Leverage the power of social media to make your dealership (and your flexible buying experience) known online so that you can grab the attention of in-market shoppers.  

Partner with a competent internal marketing team or a trusted automotive digital advertising agency to keep your online presence strong and coordinated. This can ensure that your marketing stands out and provides customers with consistent price quotes and information across channels.  

A good marketing and website partner can also help your dealership deliver dynamic content to each customer based on their past browsing behaviors, optimizing their experience and personalizing it to their interests every time they visit your site.  

By offering flexible buying experiences and maintaining a strong online presence, you can introduce yourself to shoppers at the start of the car-buying journey and stand out from the competition.   

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Owning Every Marketing Moment

How do you attract and engage customers when every shopper’s car-buying journey is unique?  

This guide, Owning Every Marketing Moment: The New Rules of Engagement, will show you best practices and technology tips to help you personalize your marketing and stay in step with today’s shoppers. You’ll learn how to: 

  • Build and maintain brand awareness 
  • Identify customer interests and buying intent 
  • Make personalized offers 
  • Leverage data to retain customers  

How the Right Partnership and Personalization Deliver a Premium Consumer Experience

By Nuan Openshaw-Dion, vice president operations, Dealer Marketing for Dealer.com

Personalization is at the core of the way we shop and buy. Whether consumers are online shopping for groceries or for cars, they want a convenient, streamlined experience that works for them and happens on their terms.  

That means dealers must adapt and meet the customers wherever they are in their buying journey with relevance and personalization. A shopper who is exposed to personalized content during their visit views more VDPs, submits more lead forms and is more likely to start their deal online.1 

Dealers must ensure that engagement is backed by rich data and tailored insights—powered by the right partnership with the right marketing experts to attract and retain the right customer. Personalization, intuitive search, aggregated research, and buyer reviews are all part of this new wave of digital marketing for the modern dealer-buyer experience. 

Working with specialized, integrated marketing partners (especially under one roof) is a key driver to converting early-stage shoppers to loyal customers. These partners understand how to balance dealers’ needs to meet challenging, competitive sales goals with consumers’ needs for an intuitive, high-quality experience at every touchpoint. 

A strong partnership between a dealership and their automotive digital marketing partner should do three things—elevate a dealer’s performance through cohesive activity across channels, eliminate the burden of juggling multiple vendors (and a barrage of viewpoints), and maximize their time spent on targeted digital campaigns delivered to the right consumer. 

I’ve seen that the most successful dealers are choosing partners that have the right combination of people and technology across core expertise: automotive digital marketing, data analytics, and customer experience. As the only complete digital marketing provider for the automotive retail industry, Dealer.com has more than 20 years of experience understanding and shaping strategies amidst shifting market dynamics, shopping behaviors, and industry standards.  

With vast amounts of data available around car-buying trends and shopper behavior, it’s imperative to look at customers not just quantitatively but also qualitatively. In each moment there is the right next step to take, and this is where the power of Cox Automotive data comes into play. Cox Automotive’s vast data network, which touches two out of every three car buyers in the U.S.,2 provides deep insights on when to deliver the right message to the right consumer. 

Personalization is critical to the car shopping, buying, and ownership journey. That experience should be immersive, valuable, memorable, and relevant to a consumer. Working with a dedicated auto dealer marketing partner that sees and affects the total process—and that shares the goal of delivering a premium consumer experience—differentiates between dealers barely catching up to those trying to catch their breath. 

A version of this article originally appeared in CBT News 

Sources:  

  1. Dealer.com Study January 2020 – June 30, 2020 
  1. 2020 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study 

Survive the Cookiepocalypse: A How-To Guide

The retail automotive industry has been through a lot in the last few years—a global pandemic, an economic crisis, and a historic inventory shortage. As it always does, the industry came out on top and is in a surprisingly profitable period. But don’t breathe too easy, because the next big challenge is already on its way — “the cookiepocalypse!” Don’t be fooled by the deceptively sweet name — the cookiepocalypse has the potential to upend the way your dealership currently connects with customers. Fortunately, there’s a sure way to protect your business from digital disaster, and it’s already in your possession — your own data.  

What is the cookiepocalypse?  

By now, you’re probably familiar with the concept of cookies — the little bits of data websites deposit onto your computer as you browse the internet. Cookies can be used for a variety of purposes, from streamlining your web browsing experience to tracking your search and shopping history. Cookies are especially important to advertisers because they are essential to target relevant audiences. But cookies also have a downside. Many argue that by tracking users undetected, they violate people’s privacy on the internet.  

Caught between its lucrative advertising business and its commitment to privacy protections, Google has announced that its Chrome browser will stop allowing third-party tracking cookies beginning in 2023. Other less popular web browsers have already started the process of phasing out third-party tracking cookies. That’s welcome news for privacy advocates, but it has many digital marketers preaching doom and gloom about the future of targeted advertising, earning the 2023 date the calamitous name of “cookiepocalypse.” 

What can your dealership do?  

Many of the advertising technologies you’ve invested in rely on third-party cookies to track, find, and reach consumers. As a result, the disappearance of third-party tracking cookies could have disastrous impacts on the effectiveness of your digital ads. Without cookies, you’ll have a harder time reaching your audiences, personalizing their experiences, and connecting online and in-store experiences, especially through retargeting.  

Your dealership advertising will also become much more expensive.  

That’s bad news for both dealers and car buyers because personalization doesn’t just lead to more profits, it also leads to a better shopping experience. Bret Towne, Senior Director of Enterprise Data Products at Cox Automotive recently discussed the importance of personalization in approaching car shoppers. 

“When visitors get personalized experiences, whether it’s personalized specials or listings, we see a 4 times increase in automobile leads, deal pencils and digital retailing. We see a 3.3 times increase in trade-in deals, and a 216 percent increase in conversion rates for those visitors. You want to personalize your digital storefront and make it as relevant as possible for that consumer.”  

With third-party cookies on their way out, dealers need to be prepared with new ways to engage consumers as they arrive at their websites. Given the current level of reliance on third-party cookies, the transition will be no easy task for most dealerships. Fortunately, the solution is something you already have — your own first-party data, which is now more valuable than ever before. Your dealership doesn’t need a third party to track and store a shoppers’ interactions with your company, and it’s easy to use that information to continue personalizing the experience for that limited set of customers.   

Augmenting First-Party Data 

While it’s about to become the next-best alternative to third-party tracking cookies, first-party data has limitations for most dealerships. Because it can only show how a shopper has interacted with their specific dealership, it gives a fairly limited view of that consumer’s interests and intentions. To be truly useful, dealers need the ability to gather, cleanse, and act upon shopper data, and they’ll need a broader view than their own data can provide. That’s why Dealer.com has developed cookie-less personalization technology. 

Bret Towne explained at a recent industry-wide event, “Dealer.com has been looking to solve this cookie-less problem for a long time now. We’ve been collecting over 26 billion key digital online activities that consumers are engaging in every single year, all in first-party cookie, with zero third-party cookie reliance. We also have a proprietary technology that’s allowing us to stitch together cross-platform first-party cookie activity. We’re able to reliably stitch together all of those digital signals about consumers that gives us a very holistic view about what those consumers are interested in, what level of in-market readiness they are, and ultimately, we can make predictions about what they’re going to do next.” 

It’s easy to see how dealerships that learn to leverage and supplement their first-party data will have a competitive advantage as everyone is weaned off of their reliance on third-party cookies. On the vendor side of this transition, Dealer.com is in a very strong position to enhance your company’s ability to personalize the shopping experience as you move increasingly further away from third-party cookies.  

How Does It Work?  

There’s a clear reason for Dealer.com’s strong position as the industry transitions into a cookie-less world. It’s part of the end-to-end Cox Automotive ecosystem that allows the company to make connections no one else can. At a recent industry event, Noah Lee explained the exclusive process in detail.  

“When somebody comes to the website, we recognize their device ID or IP address or the internet provider they’re coming from and we query our database to say, ‘do we know anything about that shopper?’ We have that info if they’ve visited Autotrader or Kelley Blue Book or if they’re in VinSolutions. And with our unique website solutions, we can show them vehicle- and customer-specific data.” 

More important than how it works is that it really does work. Personalized experiences increase engagement and that’s not going to change with the death of the third-party cookie. Dealers are going to continue to need the ability to learn about consumers and use that information to predict behaviors and customize the buying process. Cox Automotive is doing that today without the use of third-party data, and the technology will become a lifeline for dealers following the phase out of third-party tracking cookies. 

“When dealers have this identity capability powering their digital storefront for personalization,” explained Lee, “they personalize at a rate of 58 percent of visitors. 58 percent of visitors then get personalized experiences to drive up engagement. When we see that dealers aren’t using this technology, only 24 percent of website visits are being personalized. And what’s going to happen when the third-party cookies fully deprecate? That 24 percent will drop down to nearly nothing.”  

Finding a Future Beyond Cookies 

The cookiepocalypse may be on its way, but by now, your dealership is ready for anything. You’re already more prepared than you know for the death of third-party cookies because, in the form of your own first-party data, part of the solution is already in your possession. By adding Dealer.com’s cookie-less personalization technology and its vast universe of shopper data, you’ll have all the tools you need to continue powering your advertising, personalizing the sales process, and making profits. With the power of a powerful automotive advertising agency like Dealer.com in your corner, the cookiepocalypse might not be so apocalyptic after all.  

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Above and Beyond: The Data Behind Thriving Dealerships

By Lori Wittman, SVP Dealer Software Solutions, Cox Automotive 

Challenges and difficulties breed innovation. It’s through adversity that some of our most inspiring discoveries are found. So, for businesses and organizations coming through a long period of adaptation—like the last eighteen months—I commend you.  

Simply surviving as an organization is an accomplishment. But you and I can probably agree, there are key differences between surviving and thriving. When I look at the data (and I am always looking at the data), most automotive dealerships fall into one of two categories. 

There are dealerships that survive hardships. And then there are dealerships that thrive. So called “thrivers” manage to become both more efficient and more profitable, while static dealerships either stay the same or became less efficient and less profitable.  

For me, understanding what led to these differences in performance is a personal mission. Our dealer partners rely on the experience, insights, and technology we provide to guide important business decisions. It’s on us to dig into the data and discover the difference between the dealers who embrace digital acceleration and those who double down on old habits. It turns out, the data goes deep. 

Our team at Cox Automotive has compiled a report called, “How to Thrive: Best Practices for an Accelerated Digital Landscape.” In it, we reveal insights from interviews and surveys of more than 450 franchise dealerships. The report uncovers the specific strategies employed by dealerships that thrive and how those dealers found success when the industry suddenly shifted to a digitally driven model.  

So why do these insights matter now?  Hindsight is a wonderful tool for discovering why going above and beyond in a crisis is beneficial to the customer experience. It reveals where we exceeded expectations and where we fell short.  

But, in this case, hindsight is only 2020. And midway through 2021, I’m more interested in looking forward. 

Once we are better able to establish a clear pattern that our dealer partners can learn from and follow, only then can we truly provide the insights that make a difference. By focusing on consumer experience and embracing digital capabilities, our entire industry levels up. And it does so in the following four, clear and specific ways: 

  1. Thrivers offer digital options across the experience.  
  1. Thrivers maximize their utilization of data.  
  1. Thrivers invest in their staff.  
  1. Thrivers adapt to customer desires in fixed ops. 

Thrivers Offer Digital Options Across the Shopping Experience 

Along with my colleagues at Cox Automotive, I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for years: “The transition to digital car shopping and buying is coming!” I had no idea how quickly we would be proven right. So, while the recent jump in demand for online and digital retail in automotive wasn’t entirely unexpected, it was certainly accelerated. And frankly, it was long overdue.  

The way we live our lives has been changing since the onset of the internet. Car shoppers had already been preconditioned by other online retailers (think streaming entertainment, same-day shipping, online banking, etc.) to accept and expect a more digitally driven process. Buyers have always wanted to complete more of the process online. Now, with the tools available to dealers and an increase in trust from our buyers, consumers are more comfortable sharing personal financial data with dealers across a number of channels in order to make that happen. 

Thriving dealers didn’t view this rushed transition as a crisis for their businesses. Instead, they jumped at the opportunity. The “How to Thrive” report showed that a full 82% of thrivers agree that offering more digital options to customers is critical to the retail success of a dealership. With digital transformation as a priority, they shored up their systems to ensure they were offering flexible options throughout the shopping experience. They added digital buying solutions and communications channels to give their customers the ability to start and complete the shopping and buying process from anywhere.  

As it became apparent that major shifts would take place, top-performing dealerships began examining their digital retailing ecosystems and identifying gaps in their online shopping processes. In fact, 62% of thrivers improved processes to support selling a vehicle online, compared to only 31% of static dealerships. Customers of thrivers immediately experienced the benefits, taking advantage of the flexibility and convenience associated with seamless remote shopping. Dealers that adjusted also saw the benefits as they got faster at structuring deals, closing sales, and receiving funds. 

I recently had the chance to talk with Linda Crossman, Director of System Operations and Training at Byers Automotive Group, to discuss the findings of the “How to Thrive” report. In our conversation, Linda shared the details of her dealership’s experience improving its online processes amidst last year’s unique challenges. Specifically, Byers Automotive Group refined and even branded its online shopping and purchase process.  

“We actually understood pretty quickly that we needed to change the way we do business because that’s what our customers were requesting from us,” Linda said. “So, we came up with a process that we call ‘The Byers Express,’ which is four easy steps online that a customer can go in and choose their car, choose what kind of financing, and more.” 

Naturally, as more shoppers began completing more of the process online, dealerships encountered challenges associated with customer communications. Thriving dealers overcame these challenges by embracing an omnichannel communication approach, including text, video chat, and other communications that get tracked in the CRM. More than half (56%) of thrivers use a variety of communication options to align with shopper preferences, while only 32% of static dealers can say the same. Adding or increasing utilization of those channels made the car buying process more personal.  

I was so impressed with the way that Linda and Byers Automotive Group addressed the communications component of digital acceleration.  

“You have to offer up whatever way they feel comfortable in communicating with you,” Linda explained to me. “For some people, it’s going to be text messaging, for some people it’s going to be chat, for some people it’s going to be through email, and some people still like the traditional way of phone. So, we offer up every single one of those options for our customers so they can choose the way they want to communicate with us.”  

Thrivers Maximize Their Utilization of Data 

Dealers continue to tell me how valuable it is to have data continuity across their systems, whether it’s entering information into the digital retailing tool or having access to that information all the way through the signing ceremony. According to the “How to Thrive” report86% of dealers agree that having accurate and complete data is a priority at their dealership.  

The pandemic definitely proved the importance of keeping good data. When a dealership’s sales pipeline begins to dry up, as it can unexpectedly, dealership data can help identify new opportunities. Thriving dealerships leverage their data and their technology systems to proactively identify new sales and service opportunities.  

Specifically, thrivers engage in online activity tracking of consumer web and search history to understand customer needs and interests. This allows them to personalize communications, digital marketing, and the car buying experience for each individual customer.  

Dealerships that maximize their use of data naturally rely heavily on their CRMs. Using CRM data, as well as data from external web sources, thrivers market to customers on a one-to-one basis and communicate with them in a personalized manner. Specifically, they include information about a customer’s current car, potential interests, service history, and current monthly payment. By mining their CRMs extensively, dealers are able to craft tailored messaging that resonates with customers, resulting in quality leads and actual vehicle sales.   

Thrivers don’t just rely on CRM data to identify leads and close deals. They also excel at using cross-departmental data to spot opportunities. In particular, they share data between their sales and service departments, using service and past-purchase records to identify in-market consumers and predict needs.   

Byers Automotive Group is a great example of a dealership that used cross-departmental data to thrive. Specifically, Linda shared with me that at Byers, the data starts with whatever the first contact is with the customer. 

“That data is shared across every one of our platforms,” Linda said. “It’s instantly available in service. It’s in our CRM. It’s in our DMS. It goes over to the portal that we use for credit applications and financing. So once that information is captured, we have that shared across all of our platforms.” 

The advantages of using a more personalized, data-driven approach are clear. Dealerships reach the right audiences for their messages and consumers only receive information that is relevant to them. This builds customer trust, produces more qualified leads, and increases repeat and referral business.   

Thrivers Adapt to Customer Desires in Fixed Ops  

Fixed operations is such an important part of the dealership from a profitability perspective, and our study showed that thriving dealerships are really investing in improvements to their service departments right now. Because fixed ops revenues make up about half of dealership gross profits (according to NADA data from 2020), thriving dealerships have been quick to adapt to customer desires, which recently has meant improving their systems and processes to provide more flexible, transparent service experiences.  

Many of the service changes and improvements made by thriving dealerships could be classified as convenience solutions. Adoption rates of convenience solutions are much higher among thriving dealerships (58%) than they are among static ones (38%). Take this for example: some dealerships began sending quotes and accepting approvals by text. In order to provide a clear explanation of needed repairs and to reduce time on the phone with remote customers, many began including pictures and videos with their quotes. This shift had the dual benefit of building customer trust and improving shop efficiency.  

I loved discussing these findings with Linda because Byers Automotive Group has seen the benefit of making improvements firsthand. For example, the group has implemented multi-media messaging at a couple of stores, and their customers are loving it. I could sense the excitement as she told me about her dealership’s use of this exciting technology.  

“We’re sending customers pictures of their vehicle, so they can actually see the work needed,” she explained. “It’s not just us telling them. I can email or text it to them and they can respond back, even if they’re in the middle of a meeting, and say to go ahead and approve the repairs. We don’t have to wait like the old days, where we played phone tag back and forth and tried to get the work done through the shop. It’s been a really useful tool.”  

Some dealerships took convenience a step further by rolling out service pickup and delivery options. Recognizing that many vehicle owners were limiting their public contact, thriving dealerships offered service pickup and delivery options at customers’ homes and places of work. In fact, 65% of thrivers offer service pickup and delivery, while only 49% of static dealership offer the service.  

Of course, not all service-related changes were about increasing convenience. Thriving dealerships also worked to optimize their daily shop management. To avoid expensive gaps in their service schedules, thrivers leveraged data to identify and track opportunities for openings. They also simplified day-to-day tasks and reallocated job roles to minimize downtime and optimize the use of service bays. By maximizing their technicians’ time, they made impressive improvements to both shop efficiency and profitability.  

Thrivers Invest in Staff 

Technology and processes play a critical role in driving dealership success. But behind all the software is an even more critical asset: people. Thrivers work hard to keep up with the latest technologies, but they also understand the importance of adapting the way they manage their people. Thrivers invest heavily in their staff to keep them performing at a high level as the industry evolves.  

On its most basic level, this common thriver behavior includes cross-training employees and teaching them how to use new technologies. In fact, according to the “How to Thrive” study, almost half (48%) of thrivers provide opportunities for cross-training while only 27% of static dealerships do the same.  

Thriving dealerships, however, don’t limit their staff-related investments to skills training. They also prioritize employee satisfaction in order to keep morale high and to retain high performers. They hold career path discussions in order to identify areas where employees might be happier or make greater contributions. These dealers understand that when employees see the benefit of leadership’s direction, and they’re growing within their roles, they buy in to what the dealership is doing. This buy-in increases employee (and ultimately customer) satisfaction.  

Becoming a Thriver 

Change is always uncomfortable. Especially at first. The status quo is comfortable, but it doesn’t challenge us to grow. It doesn’t force us to face our shortcomings. It tells us that, “things are fine as they are.” And it catches up to all of us, eventually.  

Facing an uncomfortable truth can be, well, uncomfortable. But, it’s only the first step. And for the dealers I’ve met with, taking the next steps toward adaptation, growth, digital acceleration, and optimization are often less painful than anticipated.  

Linda concluded our conversation with a powerful piece of advice. “Don’t be afraid of change. Step up and move to the next level. It’s so important that we listen to our customers and move to do business the way they want to do business. Everyone will win.” 

I echo Linda’s call to embrace change and encourage you to do the same. Don’t get stuck on the sidelines watching your peers become more successful when you could be the one flourishing. Whatever the market conditions may be, it’s the experience you provide consumers that will drive satisfaction and keep them coming back.  

I invite you to download the full research report and to tune in to my new video series, Dealer Advantage with CBT News. On the latest episode, you can hear my entire conversation with Linda Crossman at Byers Automotive Group. 

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4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing

As consumers spend more time and complete more activities online, the world of automotive retail is changing. Dealerships are adjusting their digital marketing strategies to incorporate new technologies, tools and tactics that attract today’s online car shoppers. And, as with anything new, dealers have questions.  

In this eBook, 4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing, you’ll find answers to key questions that can drive your digital marketing strategy. You’ll discover:

  • How to define your marketing priorities for the digital-first era
  • How to identify the most productive, efficient ways of finding new leads
  • How to overcome challenges and implement your revamped digital marketing strategy

Lead the way into a new world of automotive marketing with innovative digital marketing solutions that attract customers and help you close more deals. A guide to evaluating your digital marketing strategy to attract customers and close more deals.