How do your customers perceive your dealership and dealer group?
Do you fit the customer’s desire for how they want to buy a vehicle?
If not, how is that affecting your brand image?
Millennials, the first technologically focused generation, are now the most significant vehicle buying segment. They are primarily digital natives and experts at using their computer knowledge to get things done. Computer-based speed and efficiency are high priorities for millennials and often required before they engage with a company. Historically the automotive industry has forced millennials to go through the traditional purchase process. Covid-19 changed the SALES process to become digital-first.
The focus of driving online leads into showroom visits became useless when showrooms were forced to close. The importance of having a complete lead to the final contract digital retailing sales process became instantly apparent.
Implementing a diverse and branded sales path is more accessible than most dealer groups think, as long as they work with a company that fully integrates lenders. If you don’t have digital integration with your lenders, you don’t have a digital retail path.
What you do have is a digital lead path. A path that falls back into the old traditional process of bringing customers to the showroom as the primary focus.
Look at the difference between them this way.
Would you drive a vehicle 100 miles to a digital lead to try and sell them?
Would you drive a sold vehicle 100 miles to deliver it to the new owner?
Most dealers would deliver a sold vehicle but not take a vehicle to a lead.
Suppose your group has four or more dealerships in a market. In that case, you can brand an online sales path that aggregates all inventory from the four dealerships to start competing with Carvana/Vroom and start upgrading your group brand within the market.
If you have a dozen or more dealerships in a reasonable geographic area, you could easily set up inventory to be available from all locations. You likely already transport vehicles between your rooftops, so why not transport digitally sold vehicles for delivery at the closest location to the buying customer.
Major automotive retailers currently use CreditIQ’s customizable enterprise platform to deliver hundreds of digitally sold deals every month. It’s easy to think differently and look toward the future when you understand the technology that can improve the customer experience and deliver sales today.
It’s time for dealer groups to think bigger than just using a “digital lead” generator on each rooftop’s website. The age of digital retailing is here, and dealer groups need to look at owning the digital retailing experience to protect their brands. The versatile CreditIQ enterprise platform is the perfect place for dealers to start investigating digital retailing ownership.
If you are interested in learning more about CreditIQ’s enterprise automotive retailing platform, please reach out to us at – sales@creditiq.com
