We had another great Presidents Club working session, Optimizing Digital Retailing. We were joined by Matt Weinberg, Michael Cavanaugh and Michelle Denogean to discuss what dealerships should be doing today to leverage the power of digital retailing.

A common theme from the discussion was that automotive retail is in a period of disruption. The unique challenges we face today have forced dealers to embrace digital retailing solutions in order to serve their customers. 

This is the time to evaluate and re-invent our sales processes 

As challenging as this situation is, dealerships are in a good position to take a critical look at their structure and processes and decide what changes should be made to improve operations going forward. Now is the perfect time to evaluate the structure and processes of your dealership. Does it make sense for your store to move away from separate sales, BDC and F&I teams and work towards a one-person model? Ask yourself what goals you are trying to accomplish and what foundation should be in place to accomplish this. 

Mike Cavanaugh recommends dealerships focus on reviews. “Invest in getting good reviews right now. Do your comp plans reinforce this? This is great low cost marketing.” 

With that vision in mind, you can make the needed adjustments to your processes and evaluate your talent to make sure you have the people in place to deliver that experience.

Begin with your culture

Do you have the culture in place to accomplish this?

A common thread in all of the comments was the importance of a strong dealership culture.  You can’t just drop in a digital retailing tool and expect it to work.  Your online and offline processes need to be aligned,

Too many dealerships make the mistake of looking for a technology to solve their problems.  Optimizing digital retailing requires you to build a culture around digital retailing and then find a tool that supports your culture and strategy.

Make sure you have the right people in place

Dealerships today are relying on their people to wear more hats than ever. Having a wide skill set and being able to accomplish a variety of processes is becoming increasingly valuable as dealerships embrace these digital retailing solutions. 

You need to make sure that you have the personnel in place that you can trust to perform these processes. “Define your structure before you can move forward with training and personnel, said Michelle Denogean, “Empower salespeople to do more. Are your sales people flexible enough to do the various tasks required?” Empowering your people to have more responsibility and relying on tools and technology allows you to streamline your operations and improve your team’s efficiency.

“Find the balance of control between dealer and customer,” said Matt Weinberg.  “Focus on the 4 T’s. Trust,Transform, Time, Transparency”

It’s not too late to catch Presidents Club. We will be having more working sessions each day this week that are free to attend. Learn more here.