First of all I would like to congratulate Willis GM in Smyrna, Del. for not only being the AIS dealership of the month, but also for sending in one of the best testimonials I've ever seen in my 10 years in the car business! I must say hats off to the whole crew; and it truly is a pleasure working
with your dealership!
If you missed the bus on having a GREAT November, I hope you wake up before it's too late to have a good December and to end the year with a BANG!
At this time of the year, not everyone has fallen into "holiday mode" and some dealerships are really ramping it up for the season! It's very easy for us to blame the holidays on having a bad last two months of the year. Yes, it's true that Thanksgiving, as well as all the December holidays, fall towards the end of their months respectively. Traditionally - and people that have been in the business for awhile know - we try to get as many deals as we possibly can the first two to three weeks of the month, just in case our numbers aren't what we hope towards the end of the month. However, let's face the facts about the general public/consumer:
- People have saved all year for "this time of the year"
- People are out spending money much "more freely" than usual
- Perception is that the "best deals of the year" are made NOW.
Let's also face some "dealership" facts:
- Dealers are trying to make month-end quotas
- Dealers are trying to make YEAR-end quotas
- There is a lot of OEM bonus money when dealerships hit their goals
-Salespeople that are certified through their franchises, such as Chrysler 5 Star, or Gold certified salespeople, are also trying to hit their goals with units sold to maintain their status and maybe
boost their CSI grades as well.
Bottom line: Let's get some of that spending money into our dealership! We are going to do everything we can as a dealership to make a deal! It's up to you to make sure our potential customers know that!
Wehave to make perception a reality through the phone, and in the showroom, that the BEST deals are in fact made NOW! This is not a myth!
Some dealers will even LOSE money to sell you a car, because it could mean tens of thousands of bonus dollars or incentive money from our manufacturers. I have watched the owner of a dealership that I previously worked at actually lose over $2,000 to make a deal. You say how? That particular deal, made on the last day of the month, was the number 30 new car for the month, and we hit our OEM goal and got $1,000/copy for EVERY new car we sold that month.
Yea,
YOU DO THE MATH! It actually MADE the dealership
$28,000, but the important thing was that our customer that was in the right place at the right time got the
deal of a lifetime.
Moral of the story: We can sit around and blame the holidays for not being busy, or we can create urgency and relay to our customers that this is in fact the
best time to buy a car. I guarantee if you get excited and make sure your customer knows that they will miss out if they wait, you will have a nice bonus check! Or, you can just except that they are going to wait
"until the New Year" or
"when I get my tax return," has anyone heard that one before?
-Andy Fedo
andy@dealersynergy.com
