We are all watching as GM and Chrysler jettison hundreds, if not thousands, of dealerships. Many of these dealers plan on continuing in business as a “Used Car Superstore” or with different franchises, but they need to act quickly and continue to sell vehicles and work towards the next phase of business.

For the remaining dealers who made the cut, they need to send clear messages in their markets to both customers and prospects that they are still in business, still there to serve customers vehicle sales and service needs, and remain active in the community. One way many dealers are leveraging this opportunity is with on site advertising sales events to bring shoppers in the door.

Blow out advertising targeting these events creates excitement, a sense of urgency, and the potential for vehicle shoppers to get really great deals on quality, fuel efficient cars and trucks. Spring and Summer are the perfect time for advertising super sales and with some signs of employment picking up in various markets consumer confidence, while still wary is starting to come back.

Regional banks and credit unions are also helping dealers with incentives and a willingness to write vehicle loans for qualified customers. In addition to having more credit available, GM, Chrysler, and the other manufacturers have ramped up customer incentives to almost obscene levels.

One of the events creating a lot of excitement is auction events. You can use a multi-channel promotion approach that incorporates a Website to bring in Internet leads, a print component to hit the market area in your local area, and then email and onsite teasers to create excitement. Many times dealers will have a multi-day event and invite prospects in to inspect the auction vehicles before the actual day of the auction. Naturally you can sell any of these “auction vehicles” if you have a customer that doesn’t want to risk losing the vehicle to another high bidder.

Make sure all your managers and salespeople understand and really commit to the event. Pre-sale training for the event is critical for everything to go smoothly when the big day comes. On the day of the auction event roll out the red carpet and go all out greeting each customer when they come on the lot. Reaffirm that this auction is indeed a big deal. This validates to the customers that the event is legitimate and builds on the excitement you created in your pre-event auction marketing materials.

You should also put some extra incentives out for your salespeople. Consider a spiff on each customer a sales person registers for the auction and another spiff for converting a prospect into a demo ride. If you have sales teams maybe a friendly competition with prizes for winning team members could move them to put a little bit extra into the event. The goals are to build traffic, increase sales, and have fun. Sounds like a solid plan to me.

Drake A. Baerresen is the vice-president of sales and marketing and co-founder of Turn-Key Events. He can be contacted at 866-476-7748 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .