After a rocky start announcing his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States, Donald Trump has amazed the pundits and blew away a field of Republican candidates that brought an extensive track record to the race for the White House.

Every time Donald said something politically incorrect, the media anticipated he would implode and lose his followers.  It never happened.  While Trump is not without his flaws, the public knows he performs, has accomplished some incredible business goals on a global basis, and will speak his mind.  Yes, the Donald has had some big failures too, but in the real world if you don’t take risks you’ll never fail.  Even Steve Jobs had his failures; remember the Apple Newton and NeXT computers?

Let’s recap: Within less than one year a wealthy businessman, reality TV star, and someone who has never held elected office, is on track to become the Republican candidate for President of the United States. 

How did it happen?  The answer is simple! The political systems in our country and our elected officials have shown a blatant disregard for the principles that our country was founded on.  Their ineptness, disregard for the taxpayers, and burdensome regulations and taxes on business caused a frustration level in the American public not seen since the days when we dumped King George’s tea in the Boston Harbor.  Make no mistake; the revolution has begun to take back our country. 

Auto Retailing in a Fishbowl

What does all this mean for our industry? Many consumers are tired of the traditional auto buying process, crass advertising, insincere auto sales people who say they want to “earn our business,” high pressure finance office practices, and a service department process that rewards people for selling customers products and/or services they may not need or want.   Dealers like politicians in Washington D.C.  need to listen to and observe the trends and shifts going on in the industry and respond to them in order to remain relevant. The internet has made everything transparent so dealers are operating in a fishbowl where very little remains hidden. Every consumer now has a voice!

Auto dealers are not in a comfortable spot. The OEMs have goals that are often vastly different from their dealers. The OEM customer is the dealer who purchases their vehicles, parts, and other services.  While OEMs advertise their products on TV and other media channels they are not focusing on helping or maintaining profitability for any one dealership. The Volkswagen issue highlighted the fact that profits come before ethics. Now the damage is not only a financial loss, but a loss of trust from consumers toward the brand.

The Disruption Continues

Third party solutions like TrueCar and other start-ups are working to devalue the many services provided by local car dealers. Tesla is riding the level of consumer frustration to bypass the franchise system and sell directly to the public. Watch for more disruptors to emerge this year.

Danger of the Status-Quo

When a consumer goes to virtually any new car dealers’ website it says they put the customer first; however surveys still show that 90% of the public do not trust auto dealers.  Why the disconnect? Clearly most dealers have not changed their sales strategy in the last 20 years. Except for adding a Facebook page and an OEM provided website with missing content and a “call for internet price” button things are still the same.

Most dealers ignore these warning signs and trends on social media, because for many, sales are up and profits continue to roll in month by month.  Their attitude is “business is good” why change anything?  Yes it is good, for now, but like folks in Washington found out, the winds of change are coming.

Make the Tough Choices

We need to recognize the changing landscape and adapt our business processes and marketing to bring in customers and retain employees for more than 6 months.  While having a presence on social media channels is a fact of life, spending inordinate amounts of time and money on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram will not help you build your sales and brand on a local level.  They will only drive you away from connecting with your core customers that are right in your own backyard.   

Implement engagement marketing programs, leverage local and regional relationships, re-engineer your sales and service team hours and compensation, and treat everyone with respect.  Initiating these steps along with utilizing technology will insure many more years of growth and profits.

I encourage dealers to take these steps, and remember that your happiest customers are not the mini-deals but folks where you made a good profit.  And since that's the case why are you still focusing on price?

Become a good neighbor and you'll have more happy customers.

Mark Dubis
Carfolks.com