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 you are buying and if it’s a bridge product or a long term solution to the retailing changes happening now and in the future.
- Does the product achieve my customer’s time objectives, online and showroom?
- Can they buy a car in 30 minutes from your website? (click to sale time)
- Can they take delivery of their vehicle at the showroom in 20 min or less – or do you have to rework the deal when they show up? (showroom to delivery time)
- Is the product “Credit First” or “Credit Last?”
- Incorporating a credit soft pull upfront gets the customer a firm offer quote immediately and allows the deal to proceed based on creditworthiness
- “Credit Last” is running credit after the customer decides on a vehicle which can result in low-profit deals, or necessitate a change in the vehicle to get the deal done.
- Does the product quote taxes at a state, zip code, or street-level basis?
- Street-level is ideal for any local tax issues
- Dealers covering about half of the US population are in a state that requires street-level tax calculations for penny perfection. Many more border these states.
- Does the product quote true registration fees based on license plate transfers, previous vehicle registration, plate numbers, or any exemptions?
- Accuracy in these fees prevent broken deals
- Estimated fees limit the potential for full online signing
- Does the product have an F&I sales menu with knowledge of allowances?
- Fitting F&I products into the maximum financeable amount is key to selling more ancillary products at the highest profit allowed
- Knowing which products have to fit within prescribed allowances may be the key to your F&I manager’s lender selection, and your finance presentation
- Does the product require me to change my sales process to their preferred process?
- Simply adding a feature to your current process is a lot easier than training your entire staff on a new process
- If the platform cannot ‘turn off’ parts of their flow, that means you’re going to expose possible profitability concerns
- Does the product have identified mechanisms (the ability) to save deals at any point in the sales process so changes in the quote can be done easily?
- If not, deals and leads can be lost when the customer wants to change the vehicle or details of the finance offer
- Most platforms do this today, but the process has not been friendly or flexible enough for dealers to use in the store, so saving is only part of the battle
Asking and understanding these key questions and how they will affect your sales success is a great start for investigating digital retailing and the changing buying processes of the consumer.
If you’d like to learn more about how CreditIQ addresses the questions above, please contact us to schedule a demo, and we’ll show you our best in class true pencil perfect digital retailing platform.
If you are ready to digitally retail with true pencil perfect digital retailing please reach out to us at – sales@creditiq.com or click below to learn more.
