Four digital auto sales techniques for dealers
95 per cent of motor sales are still sealed in the showroom, but 97 per cent of customers choose the showroom online. This means dealerships have to offer something that is immediately attractive, gets the clicks, and starts sealing the deal before the customer arrives at the showroom.
You can only play with prices so much, with customers often suspicious of low ones. The real trick is winning the customer’s interest and trust.
British businesses used to have a terrible reputation for boring the pants off their customers. They kept them waiting, handed them person to person, couldn’t give them a straight inclusive price, made them fill in forms and provide documents, and offered no help dealing with the DVLC, tax, insurance or MOTs.
The world has changed, but some businesses still haven’t learned all the tricks. Here are just four to help.
Target your market
Mums and dads looking for a family car, executives looking for their next Merc and students’ looking for their first car are wholly different markets. Don’t create a one-size-fits-all business image if you want to capture all three markets. If you can’t diversify your marketing, specialise your business.
Have character!
You simply must stand out. If you have the biggest pool of cars, great; if not, highlight something your local rivals don’t offer. Possibilities include buybacks, cashback, student discounts, weekly specials, free oil changes for three years, or better insurance packages. Talking of insurance, don’t forget that you can get great deals on motor trade insurance from brokers such as https://www.quotemetoday.co.uk/motor-trade-insurance. Your uniqueness can be something simple such as sponsoring a local football club.
Re-market
In addition to calling back phone leads, track your website visitors. You may not know who they are, but you know they want a car. You can use Google Ads, Facebook and other online advertising enterprises to put offers in front of previous visitors.
Pay-per-call is better than pay-per-click
Pay-per-click works for the kind of items customers buy with a click but is not so hot for major investments. Customers need to talk to you about cars, so angle your marketing at getting them to call.
The other half of the trick is answering the phone. Use VoIP to provide local numbers, forward calls to the best person within seconds, and record everything about your leads.