MARKET ANAYLSIS
Are you wanting to expand? Grow your business? As in real estate location, location, location does matter. We can explore market demographics, research trends, media affordability and niche opportunities.
Case in point I recently helped a dealer principal acquire a dealership that had been dormant since closing five years earlier. Though it failed under previous operations, we saw how it could fit their particular operational niche and were able to purchase it for pennies on the dollar.
We purchased it. It was profitable the second month in operation. It has been one of the dealer’s most profitable assets ever since. What doesn’t work for one type of dealership absolutely prints gold for another and vice-versa. I understand our dealerships and direct them accordingly.
PAY PLANS
Now this is a place most dealer principals need assistance. Most dealers are left brained in orientation, extremely analytical and think in black and white with no grey. Twenty groups even promote this type of thinking.
However, many of the best producers of revenue for car dealerships are right brained. You can’t give a right brained person a left brained pay plan. Our people are our biggest and best assets.
I have seen dealers lose tens of thousands of dollars because they squabbled over hundreds on pay plans. I have also seen dealers lose tens of thousands of dollars because they were paying an undeserved inflated guarantee.
I can see the forest through the trees and advise you when to overpay and when not to. I promise you there are times you want to, if only to protect your assets.
DIGITAL VS TRADITIONAL MARKETING
Funny how you’re being bombarded by digital versus traditional marketing sources vying for your dollars. There are disciples of digital, preaching the strength of analytics knowing exactly where your leads are coming from. Then there are those of traditional thinking that are hanging on by a thread telling you the bottom line results are what matter, how many cars over the curb.
Which has a place in your dealership? In most cases both. If you use traditional advertising to drive your digital, you are not enslaved to paying for leads that are being shopped across the board by the large digital providers.
Also, traditional media can often be bought for pennies on the dollar as the competition increases. We often don’t see or ask. The bottom line is that in most dealerships both digital and traditional media have a place, the key is mixing them properly.
NEGOTIATIONS
Sometimes you as the dealer principal are in the best position to negotiate the best possible outcome. Other times it is better for you to remain the good guy and have an unemotional bad guy.
Negotiations can be on major items from buy/sells, to advertising rates, to pay plans. It can also be on minor, but important, things like charitable donations and community service.
Often dealers who are recognized for community service and giving are being hammered on all sides to give. I can show you how to be recognized for community service without giving away the store but providing voice for the non-profits creating a win-win for all. This is what negotiations are all about.
FACTORY RELATIONS VS PROFITABILITY
Our good relationships with the manufacturer are absolutely essential. That said, our profitability is even more essential. The key is to keep the manufacturer in balance while maintaining and improving profitability.
I have found there are times you are able to maintain and even exceed manufacturer expectations while increasing profitability. There are also times that you just need to say no. While differentiating the two are what keeps you up at night, these pieces of the puzzle are what keep me going. I can help you find the balance.