The Automotive Retail Shift
The automotive industry on the retail side has been seeing some nice profitable shifts in recent months. Here we are in the hottest-selling part of the year and we are dealing with supply and demand issues. While it is a beautiful thing to watch dealers be profitable and command the market for a change I am worried about what will happen to our selling skills for the future. Right now anyone can be a superstar and gross $4,000 per unit just by showing a vehicle and going through a few steps to the sale.
But what happens when supply levels come back to normal?
How will we be able to maintain the same level of profitability while selling three times more units?
I make it a point to look at inventory at some of the biggest dealerships in the nation to truly understand what our fellow partners are going through. I see Facebook groups that include retail automotive professionals from all walks of life posting pictures of empty lots and explaining how they cannot even put cars into showrooms since they are selling fast. These are scary times because dealers cannot afford to slow down. This is such an expense-driven business that we must continue to progress forward. I even saw a few posts where salespeople complained that their dealership is cutting pay plans because they are paying out way too much money for people that do not deserve it. 
The big question is how do we move forward? We must remember that historically our industry has been resilient through the toughest times and came back better than ever. It will happen again very soon. We are in a business that forces “survival of the fittest” and things will normalize again. Now is the time to think about how we are going to sharpen our skills. Let’s get back to focusing on customer service. Let’s get back to focusing on building our sales and marketing skills. It is time that we take matters into our own hands and take control of our own personal development. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
We must refuse to be stuck in continuing to do everything the way that we always have done it. The automotive retail shift has incorporated new ways for us to sell and acquire vehicles. Technology has given consumers the power to shop and be more knowledgeable than ever before about vehicles and the shopping process. It is time to train, self-develop, and improve how we handle our business. I recommend fifteen minutes of personal development daily every morning by reading a good book and watching some wonderful inspirational YouTube videos.
Additionally, we need to invest in training our people at dealerships. We need to empower our people to use our tools better. It is time to master the CRM and finally use it the right way. It is also time to create a process to use digital retailing tools to improve how we negotiate and talk to our customers. If customers will not start to embrace digital retailing the way that we as an industry planned then we need to once again take matters into our own hands and use these tools to improve our own salesmanship. Opportunities to improve are all around us. Let’s grow!