To stand above competitors, to perform position above industry benchmarks & to make people use services of the dealership, every owner has to think about variety of stuff: inventory management, sales processes, finance area, personnel management etc. And here is when every dealership faces the question: manage all the aspects by themselves or hire consultants for help? There are a lot of discussions on this matter. But it's always better to trust the deal to professionals.
Consultants can help dealerships to increase productivity, provide optimized solutions & add value to the company. There exist a lot of areas where dealerships can benefit from hiring consultants. Take a look at the examples:
- Automotive market analysis & statistics. Knowing your market, analysing data & statistics play is a key role in adjusting with ever changing market and advertising strategies. Consultants can advise you on how to better utilize new trends, review marketing budget & define dealership strategy and structure according to market direction.
- Sales Management. Sales area is the pulse of any dealership. To increase closing ratio consultants can help with developing lasting relationships with your customers, increase not only the quality, but the quantity of generated leads.
- Personnel Management. People are one of the most valuable assets in every company. Consultants can provide effective training programs for employees as well as innovative tools to increase not only customer satisfaction index, but employee satisfaction index too.
- Marketing. By knowing your target audience & advertising on all suitable marketplaces, dealership ensures that they don't just spend money on ads without results. Consultants can help you with getting maximum from your advertising dollars.
- Inventory Management. If dealership doesn't have well-established procedures, it could cost thousands of dollars per month. Consultants will examine current inventory situation & resolve every issue without dumping a huge loss.
- And much more.
If you have decided to try & contact dealership consulting firm, here are some of usual consultant's work steps to help you understand the process:
1) Establish goals of the company. Consultants meet with the dealership representative & find out assuming areas for necessary change & improvements required from the client's point of view.
2) Evaluation. Consultants look on general company processes, day-to-day operations of the dealership, observe management team, sales team or any other required team at work, staff performance, make financial & data analysis across multiple departments within your dealership etc.
3) Develop action plan. After reviewing all dealership's aspects consultants create a plan to fix what is not working, using the best practices & find opportunities that were not detected by owners.
4) Review. Consultants meet the dealership representative & provide them with written report. Together they develop implementation plan & realise it.
5) Follow up. Consultants are available for follow up contacts and visits if required.
Of course, these steps can be changed a bit in each case, there can be less or more procedures but in general all consultants work in a similar way. It's better to make a profound research before you make a decision to work with a particular dealership consulting company. Some consultants have never worked in an automotive dealership & they may not align with the specific needs of dealer’s operations. Find a firm that will focus on your unique challenges in automotive industry.
It's up to every dealership to decide whether to face market fluctuation by their own or to find consultants who will engage dealership in developing solutions, that probably won't even on dealership's radar before.
