Author: Jason Jordham | S&P Global
In today’s competitive automotive retail market, a seamless, data-informed sales cycle is essential for dealerships looking to attract and retain customers. Advanced data analytics are a key component needed for dealers to stay ahead of the competition and align with customer expectations and shopping behaviors.
With the right data, dealers can identify new marketplace opportunities; efficiently target the best customers and prospects; and provide fast, accurate payment options – leading to improved conversion rates and maximized profitability.
S&P Global Mobility finds that three actions — identifying market opportunities, targeting the right buyers, and closing more profitable deals – are key to leveraging data-fueled insights and gaining a competitive edge in selling more cars.
Here’s how each of these steps can help accelerate your entire sales cycle.
1) Identify new sales opportunities.
Discover ways to drive new and used vehicle sales by identifying marketplace trends that can translate into sales potential.
Having a comprehensive view of what’s selling in your market for the competitive set and same-make dealers strengthens your ability to turn opportunities into revenue.
Start by analyzing demand, market share, conquest/retention ratios and customer loyalty. This will allow you to generate sales strategies tailored to your specific market dynamics such as:
o Pinpointing which segments, models and nameplates are in high demand.
o Analyzing competitors who are gaining or losing market share.
o Spotting trends in vehicle migration, customer loyalty and defection.
o Learn about customer demographics and purchasing profiles.
Actionable intelligence to outpace competitors and grow market share
With Market Impact, from S&P Global Mobility, dealers can receive weekly reports tracking demand and market share to make informed decisions that increase your sales of both new and used vehicles. This comprehensive understanding of marketplace opportunities helps you stay ahead of competitors and tackle market challenges effectively.
2) Reach the in-market households that match your inventory
Once you’ve identified marketplace opportunities, the next step is aligning your strategy with your dealership’s inventory. Building audience profiles is crucial, so consider factors like brand loyalty, in market timing, and monthly payment options.
With nearly half of new car buyers switching brands, competition for customers is fierce. To retain existing customers and grow sales, dealerships should start with their first-party data. Job one is to shop your own closet and find the best opportunities in your existing customer base.
A few important ways to save money, minimize waste and create compelling offers are:
- Verify Vehicle Ownership: Check if the consumer still owns the vehicle you have on file. • Ensure Data Accuracy: Fix any gaps in customer data, including addresses, emails, and phone numbers.
- Develop Target Profiles: Use your first-party data to create detailed audience profiles and reach new prospects.
Adjusting and optimizing your audience strategy based on current customer profiles allows you to efficiently target net-new customers and identify the best conquest opportunities from competitive dealers.
Reaching the right customers when they’re ready to buy
Polk Auto Direct, from S&P Global Mobility, is a self-serve marketing platform that empowers dealers to seamlessly build, activate, and track campaigns that target the right buyers, getting better results from their investments.
Polk Auto Direct simplifies audience targeting by offering more than 1,000 segments, covering every profit center, including:
- In-Market Shoppers
- Service Segments
- Financial Profiles/Monthly Payment
- Hybrid and EV Shoppers
- Trade-In and Used
Polk Auto Direct puts dealers in control, empowering them to select the segments that best match their business needs, providing performance reporting based in real-time sales so dealers can see sales lift and buy-through rates for themselves as well as lost sales to competitors.
3) Close more profitable deals.
The final step to accelerating your sales cycle is closing more profitable deals. By offering quick, accurate, and transparent payment options across different lenders, you can reduce the time spent in a dealership, improving the customer experience by closing deals faster while ensuring profitability.
Every year, millions of dollars are lost to errors when desking a deal. Incorrect rates, misapplied incentives, and missed rebates are the biggest reasons for walkaways, skinny deals, and bad customer experiences.
Having the ability to provide accurate payment calculations allows you to offer the best options for your customers while maximizing your dealership’s margins.
A streamlined process that quickly calculates the right customer payment can significantly reduce the time spent in the dealership and improve the overall customer experience. Plus, having dedicated support can help you navigate any challenges that arise.
Provide the best payment option for the customer quickly and accurately while maximizing dealer profitability
With mDesking, from Market Scan, dealers get instant, transparent payment options across nearly all lenders to close profitable deals fast. mDesking stops expensive desking errors and missed incentives and delivers flexible solutions tracking all necessary data classes to deliver accurate deals.
Key features of mDesking include:
- Zip-code granularity
- Nearly all lenders, makes and models
- Inventory search by payment
- Best payment based on dealer criteria
Data-informed decisions
Successful sales cycles rely on a data-informed approach that spans the entire customer journey. By embracing actionable, data-driven insights, automotive dealers can identify new selling opportunities, effectively reach the right buyers for those opportunities, and close deals more profitably. Implementing these strategies will not only enhance your sales cycle but also position your dealership for long-term success in a competitive market.
Meet Us at NADA
With the industry’s best data, we’ll demonstrate how Market Impact can prepare dealerships to operate a successful and profitable business.
Book a meeting with us at NADA on Jan. 24-26.
