Is your dealership flooded with repeat business and referrals, or have you hit a point of diminishing return on the opportunity? These questions drive home a critical point of concern: How do you get your dealership to operate at its full potential? In order for you and your dealership to get out of the lane of mediocrity, close out 2016 strong and storm into 2017, it is critical to pay attention to this article.
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The future is now; we have 3D printers, self-driving vehicles, augmented reality and other immersive technology solutions. The automotive industry is not without its own advanced technology solutions for increasing dealership output to levels otherwise unimaginable. Dealers who are actively using the BradleyOnDemand and/or Money Mind Mapp platforms are seeing profound success. These tools are single-handedly assisting dealers in reducing attrition, increasing gross volume and most importantly, net profits.
BradleyOnDemand is a comprehensive, cost-effective training, tracking and certification platform. Users on this platform are able to access the following types of content on demand: showroom sales, Internet sales, phone sales, appointment setting strategies, marketing and advertising strategies, reputation management and prospecting techniques, just to name a few. BradleyOnDemand’s virtual training platform not only allows for “anytime” access, but dealership leadership can also monitor usage statistics, assign training modules and use certification paths as tools to indoctrinate, train/re-train, promote, demote or terminate.
Alternatively, Money Mind Mapp is a projection, forecasting, and accountability tool that automotive professionals use to map out both individual and dealership-wide sales goals. Users on this platform can effectively identify their monetary needs by “breaking out” fixed costs, situational costs, living costs, incidental costs and investments.
Aside from identifying the baseline financials, users are also able to factor in their tax liability and their ACPC (Average Compensation Per Copy). These resources provide the roadmap for sales professionals to project where they pull their units from (eight ways to sell a car), as well as a tool to track all incoming and outgoing daily opportunities. Sales professionals who utilize these two tools stand out head and shoulders from their peers.
Consider the sales professionals who are selling from 30 to upwards of 60 units per month and generating gross revenues of $200,000 to half a million dollars off of the showroom floor. An example of one such sales professional is Tammie LeBleu, No. 2 Nissan Sales Consultant in the country. She delivered 47.5 units in a month, 400.5 in a year, and generated $390,000 in a year in Bossier City, Louisiana.
Revenue opportunities like this example are commonplace in our industry. Dealerships are also benefiting from technology advances in the automotive industry. Route 4 Cars in New Jersey went from selling 75 units per month to 289 units per month from their Internet department at $2,300 per copy.
In the simplest terms, those numbers represent approximately an $8 million Internet sales department. Utilizing the next evolutionary tool in automotive sales, Route 4 Cars grew from $2 million to $8 million in only one year. The next evolution in automotive sales are technology-enabled resources for the automotive sales professional and the dealership. Think “Cyborg” or consider Iron Man’s suit: part-man, part-technology.
The more accurate analogy would be virtual logic or artificial intelligence. The synergy that develops out of this relationship has the capacity to result in mind-numbing potential earning opportunities. The playing field is currently leveled — are you ready to be upgraded?
In the 2015 Dealership Workforce Study, NADA found that the turnover rate for sales consultants rose from 66.3 percent to 71.9 percent. Sales roles at dealerships experience a one-year retention rate of only 60 percent and a three-year retention rate of 32.8 percent. Aside from much of the turnover resulting from ongoing industry changes applying pressure to sales staff earnings, many dealerships do not apply the right amount of attention to developing employees via training and mentoring. To combat the industry changes, sales professionals must learn to treat car sales like their own business. In order to realize this paradigm shift, sales professionals must have expertise more expansive than only “the road to the sale and product knowledge.” Virtual training platforms like BradleyOnDemand can greatly reduce the excuses dealerships use to cut costs on training their staff.
It is important to note that virtual training is more than just training. When considering tracking, testing and certification as parts of the training solution, the disparity between YouTube and viral videos in comparison to on demand training is expansive. Although much can be learned through alternative video sources, a lack of instructional design and accountability ultimately makes non-on demand video content more of an entertainment source versus an educational one.
Another advantage of virtual training is the “interactive” component, which provides specialized content to the user on the virtual platform. In short, on demand training is designed to not only train your team, but create full accountability, as well. Consider the on demand training solution as an “online university” at the OEM level with focused, fresh and relevant content.
A “Universal Soldier” or a car sales professional in a dealership today needs to not only be proficient in traditional sales, but should also be their own Internet department or BDC. Furthermore, this “Cyborg” takeover can transform both BDC departments for Service and F&I into a superhero-like organization. Ultimately, your dealership can be transformed into a team that can rival the Avengers lineup. Training alone is not enough. The Money Mind Mapp aids sales professionals and dealerships at large with proper projecting, forecasting, action plan creation and daily, weekly and monthly tracking.
Any resource that has the power to revolutionize how the sales professional conducts business has to make your salespeople want to use the tool. Most dealerships struggle with technology, hence the reason that the majority of CRMs and DMSs are not providing the maximum value they were intended to have. The Money Mind Mapp makes the process about the sales professional, so that they develop an obsession — it’s all about them. Technology solutions must be centered around their success, their money, their opportunity and their evolution.
Don’t accept mediocrity. Waiting for things to “magically” change or improve is the wrong approach. Proactivity is the path to ultimate success. In order to close 2016 strong and continue to dominate in 2017, you need to start utilizing all the current technology solutions at your disposal. Become the next evolution in automotive sales.
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For more information go to: www.DealerSynergy.com/Recalculate-Your-GPS-For-Success Or, if you want a free test drive on either BradleyOnDemand or the Money Mind Mapp, please call 267.319.6776 or email me at [email protected] today.
