Do you allow customers to pre-order the hot new releases? Are customers willing to pay more for this privilege? What would happen if you allow all your customers and website visitors to “pre-order” the vehicle they desire directly from the VDP’s of your website? Suppose you think about digital retailing the same way you think … Read more
Have you ever sold a vehicle over the phone to a customer who just wants to pick up the vehicle? (or have delivered) Most dealerships have executed the “remote phone sale” process and have been able to know the exact gross of the deal. That’s what dealers want when it comes to digital retailing. They … Read more
Automotive online retailing comes with some scary issues. (Halloween post) Scary question #1 – Who approves the deal to make sure it’s profitable? Every deal needs decisioning to be cleared for the final sale. Doing an online deal with “automated” decisioning sounds super scary because the customer gets an “approved” deal that has not been … Read more
The new digital retailing world is creating new expectations from your customers and new challenges for your retail processes. The ultimate goal, no matter how a customer decides to purchase, is to build trust and drive confidence throughout the purchase process. Ask these questions of the vendors you interview and you will better understand what … Read more
Most BDC’s were set up to take internet and phone leads to allow the showroom floor salespeople to work the ups that were on the lot. Thus, they became information providers and appointment setters for the showroom sales staff. What would happen if you turned the BDC into a digital retailing sales force? One of … Read more
The allure of a digital retailing process for auto buyers is very enticing. Customers expect a digital retailing experience to be similar to their other online shopping experiences. They don’t understand nor care about the complexity of the automobile sale process and often walk away from digital “deals” when they get to the showroom and … Read more
Dealers work with everyone who wants to buy a vehicle and with the sales process moving online quickly it’s important to define the common term of “Perfect”. There are a lot of vendors touting “Perfect” calculation products that can be confusing to dealers. Perfect sounds great but what does it actually mean? There are two … Read more
As dealerships look to adjust to the new sales processes that social distancing requires, it is important to see the benefits it brings. Here are some basic data points from a dealer group and one of their banking partners regarding online customers and financing. Less than 2% of applications were below the bank’s preset filters, … Read more
If a dealer told you that you will be fired from their store unless you can help them sell a vehicle to a customer 300 miles away and guarantee financing that will be profitable for them, what would you do? What would you do if 50 dealerships said this? 100? That is the retailing and … Read more
