Love this

Thanks Brandin! Are there any practices you've implemented in your dealership to help accommodate the culture shift?

No problem Patrick, we share the same outlook on the future of auto sales.  I founded a startup last fall that is projected to be launched in August this year that we believe is the solution to this inevitable reality. It's a win/win for the consumer and the dealer.  There is an incredible amount of detail that goes into the website and app, we want to make sure we get it right. We're calling it BidzAuto. 

Guys I just don't see it. There is no way you can do this with used cars and stats still show that most buyers prefer having the human element when making a purchase as large as this. Everyone is trying so darn hard to go virtual that we're missing the key factor to a sale, PEOPLE. 

We're still incorporating the human element.  We're leaving it up to the client to decide how much of the sales process they want to complete online, so we're leaving that decision on them. Stats also show that people want transparency, convenience, and a faster sales process. It's going to be a controversial subject until someone proves there is a winning formula, and as mentioned in the previous comment, we believe BidzAuto has that winning formula.

Amanda, I agree that the human element is crucial. That's why I prefaced that "selling online" doesn't mean "click here to buy". It means adapting the process to meet the consumer needs.

If your salespeople are incredible that a customer would never get sick of dealing with them, I applaud you on your company culture. Ours is very similar. Customers love working with our techs because they're genuinely passionate about helping PEOPLE, not the specific type of work they do. But even with company culture like this, we still fight the stigma of the automotive world where in generations past salespeople would make a killing in marking up cars and mechanics used shady tactics to charge for work that didn't need to be done. Online transparency exposed this distrust and we find ourselves fighting to reassure people that we aren't any like that.

The stats show that 99% of shoppers expect a hassle, 87% dislike something about the process, 61% feel they're being taken advantage of, 52% feel anxious while at the dealership, and 75% would visit dealerships more if something about the process changed. While stats say that people want a human element, it doesn't mean they enjoy what they're currently being served.

The ideal process still involves a salesperson! But the salesperson should be focused on the customer's best interests and shopping experience, not the sale of the car. An online tool cutting out the busywork makes dealerships more efficient and shows value to the customer's time. It's the perfect marriage of technological convenience and a human element to serve the customer the way they want to be served.

Brandin...I love your mentality and I'm excited to see the things you put out. The tech sounds like the tool this industry needs.

One of our DSES keynotes last year was David R Bell.  He has a book titled Location is (Still) Everything and he makes a case for a brick and mortar establishment, but not in its current form.  He suggests that customers prefer a more "boutique" type of shop, where they can interact with the product at their pace.

I think what we're all saying is that people prefer to shop their way, not our way.  We need to provide opportunities, both online and off line, for customers to shop in a way they feel comfortable.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Serve customers the way they want to be served.

Even if an online solution led to cutting time in the dealership for most customers, there's no reason that same dealership shouldn't have at least two team members available to help in a traditional sales fashion. To go 100% online would still be forcing people to shop our way, just a modernized version.

Hey Bart, location is everything, even on the SERPs!  I was hoping for an ironic twist here, but what goes for a B&M location, goes for top ad positioning or organic page rank as well.  I think the smart people do most of the posting here.  

Patrick is my new BFF.  Seriously.  What Amazon did was cut through all of the layers of BS and said, "Here is a product guaranteed to be the cheapest price online, and you can have it tomorrow".  They scrape the Internet every 20 mins or seconds (I forget) and if they find a lower price, they lower their price for the same product 2-5% from what I experienced.  To filter sales from Amazon (hard to do) a business has to either have some absurd value add or GWP, that Amazon can't offer.  WTS, Amazon's model of lowest price guarantee has too many holes in it to work with used cars since they are all essentially one-offs.  My other new favorite Amanda is correct on this issue.  I wish she'd let me interview her for my podcast.

I just spent the week at NADA observing immense offerings to help dealers track and measure attribution, engagement and sales. It is SO logical that a solution to do the same with dealers' teams should follow suit. The ONE thing that dealers can control is who they put on their team and whether or not they create a culture that regards their value. 

Amazon is amazing, just got a baseball bat for the kids on a Sunday, a day earlier than expected.  WTS, not sure how'd they ever corner the market on used inventory.  Maybe they buy fleets and off-lease inventory en masse, build a big classified like Carmax and go for it.

I ADORE and massively respect Amazon but EVERYONE tries to get into the car game and quickly finds out how challenging it can be. Especially when it comes to pre-owned. 

If anyone is up for the challenge, it's Amazon. I'm sure if you had asked a grocery store executive in 1998 if they could ever see this new online bookseller owning the largest organic grocery store chain they'd say "Selling books is one thing, but selling groceries is a different challenge. They won't succeed." Now that online bookseller owns Whole Foods and sells perishable goods through Amazon Fresh.

They've already started testing the process selling new Fiats through the site in Italy.  Experts are saying they'll go the Carmax route, but as they grow, I could see them buying dealerships and using them as distribution centers. Eventually, it will hit a level of join or die.

With Amazon Vehicle being a system to help users figure out what vehicle would be best for them, they're already developing a system that would integrate well with "This is the type of car you want, we have this many at your local distribution center or we can have the luxury model shipped there in 2 days."

Amanda, I totally agree with you. Reports last week were dismal at best with Carvana losses of $47 million Q4 of 2017 as reported by Automotive News and Vroom allegedly preparing to lay off up to 50% of its staff (Tech Crunch article). I've worked many dealerships nationwide and Canada helping them implement digital retailing and geo-targeted marketing platforms and those who have been early adopters of these types of tools have increased margins. We can't lose sight of dealership processes and relate to consumers on a personal level. Humans still want human interaction and I think this is the biggest challenge facing mega online dealerships. How will a consumer be committed to a dealership that they have zero emotional connection with? Yes, Amazon is the most amazing company on the planet. But, there's a much different emotion attached to buying small ticket items online than an automobile consumers are normally financing. In my opinion, dealer's will not become obsolete any time soon. But, all dealers, whether independent or dealer group, need to implement a digital retailing tool and provide the consumer with a personal 'experience' from the time they hit the dealers online showroom or website.

Such a great conversation here and I'm so glad Patrick got it going! One of the reasons we created the Dealers Compressed series is BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN THE DEALERSHIP MODEL.  Dealers have been staples of their communities for the better part of a century. They know their customers, they are involved in the same things. 

I believe there is ZERO reason the local dealer shouldn't be able to deliver the very best CX. Period. 

Here's the rub: If they aren't quick to adopt the new consumer shopping preferences and cater to them, they will begin to lose market share. The traditional road to the sale has to be thrown out and a customer driven, flexible process has to be adopted. 

Yes, Beepi died. Vroom isn't far behind. Carvana is losing a lot of money but they are a heck of a lot farther down the road. Soon there will be 5 more and one of them will stick. Amazon will likely acquire brick and mortar because they CAN! 

Bottom line, consumer preference will ALWAYS find a way to the top. At this point everyone has a shot at it and I would argue dealers have the advantage, but that window is closing fast. 

A world whereby Amazon sells everything and eliminates SMB is not healthy for any economy in the long run, and we're almost at that point.

Kelly, I definitely share your opinion! 

Kelly...that's our whole purpose behind the series. We don't want to hit that point. The warning signs are all there...acquiring Whole Foods, acquiring Ring, Toys'R'Us filing for bankruptcy...industries looking to join before they're crushed.

Everyone wants to say that selling a car online is hard, but the envelope keeps being pushed. Someone's going to figure it out and consumers are going to love it. Let's all help dealers figure it out first.

Anyone see the picture of Bezos eating an iguana?  Disturbing.  How they went from selling books badly, to the evil empire of consumerism is a staggering tale.  It seems to me that Bezos is just anti-human enough to make some "political" miscalculation and get blacklisted by the public.  Perhaps it's too much AI vs actual employees, perhaps it's a whistle blower that spills some beans, maybe his space rockets crashes into NYC, who knows.  He makes too much money, has too much power, and has climbed too high...for what good?  Seriously, what good?  So we can get a couple bucks off an eye cream that arrives the next day instead of 3?  I'd be building out inner cities with recreation and job training facilities, investing in  natural remedy research for disease, building artificial limbs for people who need them, buying up huge tracts of property to help endangered species etc.  This guy wants to build his own starships...fine.  Our species isn't going anywhere except earth so, better seriously consider that no one gets off of this raft and we better keep it afloat.  For 39 billion a quarter - you can just leave the auto industry alone Jeff.  

Hey, PB, I want to interview you...email me with your info: Kelly@dealershipnews.com

BTW, the reason we had a record year for car sales last year and in 2015 was because we lost 1.5 million vehicles due to hurricanes.  Show me a big hurricane season and I'll show you...the money!

I'd argue there's probably a less destructive way to raise automotive sales.

Beepi died, but it's founders son got a $600 million payday out of it and he went onto become a billionaire himself! And some of you will make $10 for the appointment and $100 flat if it sells. We're on the wrong side of big money. So when people tell me about some new car website, some hot new gimmick - I know why they are in business.

But gimmicks are only gimmicks when they're something to get a customer in the door and really offer them nothing extra. A new online feature to sell cars more efficiently that actually works would just be good business practice to give customers what they want.