You Need to Know How This Year-End Sale Event Mistake Will Make You Look Dumb

Dealerships used to rely on private sale events to drive showroom traffic for a variety of reasons. Their month wasn't pacing where they needed it to be and they wanted an immediate boost in showroom traffic to quickly jump their sales totals. Some saw it as a way to do stealth marketing - where they appealed to a specific group of local consumers without every competitor in town knowing what was going on. Most dealers relied heavily on private sale events because it was the surest thing to consistently drive showroom traffic and they could see the results.

Today dealers rely less on these events because of a variety of challenges. The root cause of those challenges is that the car buying journey has drastically changed the impact private sale events have on your showroom traffic. Car buyers (especially conquest customers) don't want to drive down to your showroom and give you two hours of their Saturday... unless they have already decided to buy.

This December dealers will reinvest in a year-end sale event because if they don't they run the risk of missing out on the consumer mindset that "Now" is the best time to buy. As a marketer and dealer it is always a very busy time of year. The mistake many will make is most year end events will still be using an old school mentality and target all the wrong people. They will waste thousands marketing dollars on people who will NOT give them the time of day.

Online Shopping Has Impacted a Lot More than Just Private Sale Events

The new car buying journey has created a lot of new challenges for dealers. Showroom traffic is lower (at least at the beginning stage of the buyer's journey). People no longer give you the opportunity at the start of their shopping experience to explain why you are better. The internet is oversaturated with dealer marketing which also hurts all of your marketing efforts as it becomes more difficult to rise above all the noise and grab your project's attention.

Car Buyers Don't Need You

Shoppers visit less than 1.4 dealerships compared to over 3 just ten years ago. They no longer rely on you for information about offers & incentives. They’re making decisions before ever contacting a dealership. They aren’t as easily influenced by traditional marketing. Dealers lack the data to determine what marketing delivers the best results. With everything going on it can be overwhelming for a dealer's marketing and sales teams to align.

Deep Data Insights

Old school direct marketing methods focus heavily on targeting prospects based on what they are currently driving. Today, car buyers are open to buying ten to twelve models early in the buying journey. In the past they only considered three to five (prior to online shopping). So, what they currently own (their prior purchase history) is not as important as it used to be. Today, the in-market data is critical. you have to identify in-market shoppers using offline and online data.

You have to find people who have the highest propensity to buy your product right now because they are the only people interested in giving up their time to drive to your showroom and attend your special event.

Find these people and you’ll see a higher percentage of quality traffic show up, and purchase a vehicle.

Data Doesn't Lie

In a recent study of over 1,200 events and 7 million consumers targeted. Consumers who were invited to participate in a private dealership event bought 3.7X more vehicles over a 30-day period compared to people who were not invited. This was calculated based on percentages from customers targeted vs. a control list of customers who would have been targeted, but were not. That means for every 10,000 people marketed to dealers sold 27 vehicles within 30 days... the control group of people who also should or would have been marketed to - only bought 7 vehicles within the same 30 day period.

That's right... events can still work but they only appeal to low funnel prospects.

Low funnel prospects already invested the hours of research online and made the decision themselves to buy a certain product. These are the buyers who will respond to your sales event offer. The key to event success today is the timing of your offer and your ability to narrow down your target audience. You can't afford to send out the old school way of high volume direct mail and email because too many of these prospects aren't ready to buy yet... and let's face it... they don't need you to find out what a good deal is. They can get that info in 5 minutes online.

If you hope to influence shoppers to your dealership instead of the competition, you must target potential buyers at exactly the right time.

So, private sales events can be highly successful if and when you make a compelling offer to in-market shoppers during the critical decision-making moment low in the funnel. Done right, private sales events convince car buyers that the offers and incentives found in your marketing are better than anything they will find anywhere else.

This can deliver a quick high-impact lift in quality showroom traffic and can help create a buying frenzy. These one or two day events are most successful when powered by a potent combination of direct mail, email, and social media and are continually optimized to deliver the best results, time and time again.

A successful private sale event must:

• Identify previous and conquest customers who are ready to buy right now
• Deliver a quick high-impact lift in quality showroom traffic
• Track, test, and measure the marketing
• Align your marketing and sales teams

Scott Joseph is an automotive dealer and CEO and founder of J&L Marketing. With nearly 3 decades of automotive sales, marketing and leadership experience, he helps automotive clients grow predictable sales with his engineered proven marketing process.

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