With the auto industry coming off its worst sales year in decades, automotive dealers are looking for signs that sales will soon improve. They received a partial sign that the slump may be over in December, as new car sales rebounded from the previous year’s sales volume. Still, some dealers are facing a tough winter as the economy inches forward and consumers wade back into the market.
To prepare themselves for improved sales many dealers are looking for ways to capture their fair share of the market. Most dealers have worked diligently to trim operational expenses, improve inventory management and minimize advertising to make a profit with fewer sales. “With the market beginning to gain some momentum, dealers should be looking to improve their staff’s skills and abilities to connect with their current and future customers”, says Stephen M. Harvey, Managing Partner of Innovative Dealership Solutions (IDS). “The dealer today faces a customer that has much more power to make informed decisions, with many choices available for the same product or service. Consequently, treatment and behaviors during initial contact, and throughout the dealership experience, is much more heightened.”
He and his partner have visited many dealerships lately and have experienced firsthand what is lacking in customer contact. As an example, greeting the customer is often delayed to such a point that the customer has built up negativity. So when customer contact is initiated it can become difficult emotionally for all parties. From there, any presentation of sales offerings or proposals over and above their initial interest, become questionable. This makes it difficult to build or continue a relationship that will lead to a yes later in the sales process.
IDS teaches positive customer handling techniques that begin at the initial contact, and last throughout the dealership experience in all the company’s Salespersons, Service Advisor and Support Staff training classes. Their method of teaching is done through modeled learned behaviors, and key words and phrases that promote open ended questioning, that logically leads to the next step in the customer process. This includes reinforcing the little things that an employee can do that encourages customers to want to do business with a company and remain loyal.
Auto industry analytics indicate that as much as 35% of the dealers overhead are employee costs. Now that business is showing signs of improvement, one of the best investments a dealer can make going forward, is to prepare every staff member to maximize every customer experience. “Having employee’s with the mind set of what would make this experience great for this customer”, says Harvey gives them a competitive advantage that is hard to beat, and sets the dealership up for growth. Which today, all dealers look forward to.
Innovative Dealership Solutions is a dealership specific solutions company providing skills training for all employees, operational assessments for sales and services departments, continuous improvement through system and procedure definitions, and consumer loyalty processes, with the sole purpose of growing the dealers business.
For more information on Salesperson, Service Advisor and Support Staff training, Sales and Service Department Assessments, process improvement, and customer retention through NPS, please visit www.idsconline.com or direct written correspondence to 5319 University Drive, #306 Irvine, CA 92612,
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