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Winning in a Down Market
People need cars in an up market or a down market. It’s just part of life. The way to win in a down market is to continue to stay top of mind with your customers. The worst thing to do is the ostrich effect. The following 4 steps are how we survived the “Financial Crisis” and avoided being one of the thousands of dealerships who were forced to closed their doors.
1. Tighten up your processes – “get back to the basics”
a. Time and time again in a winning environment everyone looks good, it’s the real practitioners that look to win in every market environment – that stick to this basic philosophy all the time.
2. Make sure your ad dollars are being maximized.
a. Most dealers look to cut their ad budget, but in a down market you have to go on the offense in this scenario and look to shuffle money to maximize rather than cut your budget.
3. Get better on the phones.
a. If you do not have a Business Development Center(BDC) make sure your floor and internet sales people train more on the phones and selling the appointment. They should be training daily and working their power base.
4. Continue to treat your people and your customers with respect.
a. Every customer who walks through your dealership should be treated like gold because they are. The dealers who forget this lose time and time again. The people who you employ should be treated well and trained daily. The stronger and happier they are, the happier your customers are.
If you can follow these simple steps you can avoid losing market share or worse, going out of business
