Why Are You Left Out of Conversation?

One of the biggest struggles for automotive dealers is obtaining inventory. Whether waiting for new inventory from the manufacturer, or building out a new strategy for obtaining pre-owned vehicles, you cannot achieve sales goals without products to sell.

At PCG Digital, we have been creating specific campaigns and strategies around vehicle acquisition. A few dealer groups who are part of the CXO Summit have also shared concerns and strategies, but in the end everyone agrees it has to be front and center in your marketing. It has also been stated it must be part of your long term marketing strategy so customers know you will buy their vehicle without them buying one from you.

The idea for this article came from a Tweet is recently saw where someone was asking for somewhere in the DFW area where she could get a value on her car. Here is the tweet.

What next came were a variety of responses to the question. Notice who they did and did not recommend.

Not one franchise dealership was recommended. And notice why they chose CarMax or Carvana. "Buy it on the spot" "Best offers" "Quote in seconds".

So what has to happen in order to break through the customer's mindset in order to have your dealership be an option? A few ideas.

• Have branding on your website front and center that is for buying a vehicle. Do not mix it in with "trade" your vehicle. These are two different strategies and should be approached as such.
• If you can, possibly create a dedicated mobile optimized microsite with a dedicated URL and possible vanity toll-free number. This way you can brand it differently or have the vanity URL be a keyword search. "sellmycarsouthjersey" or "sellyourcar..." or something along those lines. Right now there are companies like "webuyanycar.com" or "givemethevin.com" who are taking a chunk out of this market as well.
• Automated trade values by web or phone. Don't make the customer have to come in for a value. And make sure there are now conditions for the value. That is what competitors are doing. Here is the price with no gimmicks
• Real-time retailing escalation on your website. Remove forms and get to conversations with individuals who can help move the process along.
• Marketing plan to gain awareness across offline, online and in store assets.

There are many other strategies and we will be discussing them at the upcoming Modern Retailing Conference in Palm Beach November 13-15th. This will be a great opportunity to learn from those dealers who are buying large amounts of inventory direct from consumers to help them gain market share in an unsteady environment.

If I can help you in any way, just reach out.