"The most underrated activity in your dealership is your selling process." File this statement in the back of your mind as you read the rest of this article.
Average gross of new cars and used cars continues to go down. We (even me) tend to blame the Internet and the stress that Internet pricing puts on our ability to hold more gross profit. But, wait…is it possible that there’s more to the story?
Have you ever hired a training company to come into your dealership to install a training process? You know one of those 10 step systems that may or may not include an up system, four square or whatever?
I’m thinking you probably raised your hand and answered yes to my little question. I’m willing to bet at the completion of the training that your business improved and you saw an increase in volume, gross or both. I can also bet that over time your selling processes began to evaporate.
The selling process to me is much like my "Life Cycle Management Section" in my used workshop. The key to life cycle management is to recognize a problem car on day one not day sixty-one.
The problem in a lot of dealerships is that they have blinders on when it comes to recognizing that the selling process has fallen apart. Dealerships often say they have a selling process but don’t follow the steps or they don’t have one and just kind of wing it.
The most fundamental aspect of the car business that hasn’t changed since the invention of the closing statement "would you take," is to have a selling process that all the members of the management team understand and believe in.
With all the amazing technology available to us today it would be easy to see how one might view a selling process as the old frontier which is tired, worn out and outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s the old frontier that actually presents the most interesting opportunities to charge ahead of the competition. Attacking and tailoring your selling process with real innovation presents a most unique challenge for the new age of selling that we are evolving into.
Don’t sell it short or should I say don’t cut your selling process short. Maybe now is the time to re-evaluate what you do and how you do it. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs