Don’t compare your car dealership business with the time you worked in a dealership as a salesperson. You didn’t have to try too hard to work there. It wasn’t hard to attract customers, and the lot always had what customers were looking for. Basically, you didn’t have any idea what was happening behind the curtains. Your job was to sell cars. Now, it’s different. You are the owner of a franchise, the boss of everything.
You’re responsible for much more than selling cars. Running an automotive franchise doesn’t mean you build it and customers will come on auto-pilot. A lot of work needs to be done. You are not selling Spectrum Internet plans here, which people will recognize and buy right away.
Secret Tips to Make Automotive Franchise a Success
To maintain success and attract the right customer to your business, the formula is simple – learn more about your market. Perhaps these tips will help:
1: Set Clear Sales Goals
Your dealership might have business goals already. One of them could be to make money by selling more cars. Hate to break the bubble, but this isn’t a sufficient goal.
First of all, you need more goals. Second of all, they should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-specific). For instance, in 3 months, we would like our sales numbers to increase by 5%.
2: Know Your Customers
That’s the key to success. It’s one thing to understand your target market’s broader demographics, but it’s another to know each customer segment in depth. So what more do you need to know about your customers? Their income group, family, age, location, and some other things.
Consider studying the customers who are buying from you. This would give you a clear picture of what type of vehicles they like, how much they can afford, etc. Then, target their groups through marketing efforts.
3: Form of Advertising that Works Best for You
When it comes to advertising, it’s not recommended to keep doing what has always felt easy. Consider opting for different advertising techniques – radio, print, TV, Facebook ads, Google ads, and more. Measure the return on investment brought by each one.
Your focus should be on the ads that are bringing heavy ROI. For instance, if print ads are not attracting customers, you might want to redirect your money to some other form of advertising.
4: Focus on Offering Exceptional Service and Customer Loyalty
Once customers start walking to your franchise and purchase something as well, don’t let them go. The best way to engage with them is via newsletters, coupons, social media posts, and other marketing techniques.
Conquering the marketing with your dealership business is not a one-time thing. If you would like to stay on top, you must continue to integrate all the steps mentioned. Be flexible enough to change your strategy as the market dictates.
5: Get Involved in the Community
It’s pivotal to get your business approved by the local community. One way of doing that is to participate in the activities of the community. You can always volunteer to have your business ventured into various events or offer special deals in your neighborhood. If this applies to your dealership, you can also conduct workshops.
Strengthen the bond between your business and community by taking part in local celebrations. You would be surprised to see how many members of your community show interest in your business.
6: Monitor the Performance of Your Sales Reps
You could be doing everything right, but what if your sales reps fail to offer exceptional support to your customers, you could be losing serious sales. It’s best to pull out numbers and see how your sales representative are performing. For the consistently underperforming agents, consider offering a training program.
Conclusion
Feel free to follow these strategies and do your own research to market your automotive business further. If you’re looking for inspiration, see how Charter markets its Charter TV. Maybe you can apply some of their techniques to your car dealership business.