9:33 am, April 10, 2020
- In his second article for Car Dealer Magazine, Sentience Automotive Solutions MD Ali May-Khalil writes about preparing for the day after tomorrow
The big question for dealers right now is simply ‘when will we be open again?’
With that in mind, here are some considerations that we have been working on with our clients n during these turbulent times:
What do you want your business to look like when it reopens? Take this (unpleasant and enforced) time out to evaluate what you would do if you could do it all again.
Allow yourself the freedom to really ask some tough questions of yourself and your business and then challenge what great looks like.
It could be that you will up your digital game, perhaps consider alternative revenue streams, more online sales, more nationwide delivery, increased finance penetrations or focus on growing your social media footprint.
Take a blank canvas and draw out the areas you feel you could improve so that you can begin to work towards them. You know the ones: the things that you know you should focus on but don’t as the day-to-day consumes you.
Do you want your business to look exactly the same as when it closed? What do you admire about your business? What do you think could be done better? Do you need help? If so, what kind? Reflect and consider.
Imagine, it is The New Day 1. What will you have learnt and what must you have ready to be implemented immediately so you are retail ready? What will get the phones ringing and what plan do you have in place to get that stock sold?
Some other considerations:
Your people
What people challenges will you face? Who do you need to be at full-speed and who do you need to slowly re-integrate? Think about those who have had an extended period of time out of the business and the ‘cut and thrust’, what support do they need to ensure they are ready?
Get your yourself and your team in the right head-space now, begin planning for that now and ensure you have adequate resource ready to go. Please do not underestimate the harm this down-time could have done to moral, focus and capability.
Think about retailing
Perhaps, if you haven’t already, think about how you become more of a RETAILER and not a dealer.
Will your model need to be more closely aligned to the retail ‘click and collect’ model than ever before, given the customer buying habits. What do retailers offer that dealers don’t? Well, in my opinion, they offer a retail experience with a transactional outcome. I suggest you move, if you haven’t already, towards that type of process.
Additional revenue streams
A huge focus required on the up-sell of finance and add-ons will be important but, in the right way and aligned to the retailer model I mentioned. How easy are you to do business with?
Measurement
What targets will you set your business for ‘The After’? I suggest a gradual incline so you can remain agile and focused on sweating every inch of your sales process.
Stock
Be careful not to make poor decisions based on the need to ‘sell anything’ and/or cashflow. There are cheaper and better business alternatives than discounting your stock.
Ali May-Khalil is MD of Sentience Automotive Solutions, consultants to the motor trade. Watch their Car Dealer Live appearance below.
