automotiveMastermind’s Matt Leone on the best ways car dealers can scale their businesses

Scaling a business whether it be two car dealerships or twenty, is a large undertaking, and it can easily become overwhelming. On today’s show, we welcome automotiveMastermind’s Chief Operating Officer, Matt Leone, to share his insight on the best ways car dealers can optimize their growth strategies. 

automotiveMastermind takes a two-pronged approach to the industry. The first prong is leveraging the best data science to predict consumer behavior and help car dealers engage customers through different distribution channels in terms of marketing. The second prong is conquest, which aims to help dealers acquire more customers in their sphere of influence. The company is also exploring how to maximize incentive dollars for dealers and zero in on customers lower in the sales funnel.

For dealers who are ready to scale their business, Leone says it’s a great time for car dealers to look at their growth strategies due to strong economic conditions and increased profit margins. The first thing to evaluate is whether or not it is the right time to scale your business. Ask yourself- Is my car dealership in a good position to scale? Leone also recommends having some tailwinds behind you to support operations. Be sure to take a holistic approach and assess your buildings, collections, processes, training, and especially the people.

Recent events like concerns over the Delta variant and inventory shortages have challenged dealership culture. automotiveMastermind focuses on putting customer needs first and reacting quickly to those needs. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, automotiveMastermind repurposed its account management teams for BDC support. Inventory shortages led the company to pivot from helping car dealers sell cars to helping them acquire cars.

It’s crucial for car dealers to interlock their teams as well. If dealers focus on just one aspect of the business, then they will never achieve that interlocked performance and will miss out on the fly-wheel effect. Selling cars is a team sport, Leone says. It is critical for teams to be in sync and to communicate well, particularly when the business is growing. 

The power of automotiveMastermind comes from the data they acquire along with its parent company IHS Markit. The company has a robust selection of car history data, consumer data, and broader industry data in their environment, to learn more about the consumer. The highly tailored and customizable marketing strategies from this data lead to much more attribution and effective ad spend. 

Additionally, automotiveMastermind is aiming to ensure that they stay in front of the best possible data from the best possible sources in 2022 to achieve five things, including:

1. EV marketing
2. Data integration
3. Vehicle acquisition
4. Service marketing
5. Dealer group management

The company is committed to drilling deeper and triangulating data sources to garner the best accurate, real-time data. Similar to helping car dealers scale, Leone is focused on scaling automotiveMastermind’s business as well to keep up with its dealer portfolio.

To learn more about automotiveMastermind, visit www.automotivemastermind.com.

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