Things are slowly reopening, and as business picks up bit by bit, the automotive industry hopes to quickly adapt to the new normal. Adhering to Covid-19 protocols could be a challenge while conducting “business as usual”, so there are ways that need to be changed to upgrade your dealership to a new level.
On average there are different app-based solutions to all challenges dealers face, Those numerous solutions aim to give dealers more freedom and mobility.However, if you want to know how you could avoid downloading and familiarizing with multiple different apps, read until the end to hear our secret weapon to conquer all the key areas with just one.
1. Offer builder
Creating an offer is the most important part of car sales. Usually it is time-consuming and stressful, it involves lots of Excel files and different programs that need to be managed.
Creating offers can actually be easy, quick and mobile. Imagine a way you can increase your everyday offers by 4 times without pinning yourself down at your desk.
All the prices of cars, accessories and extras are included in the automotive CRM and everything is easily added. Once you have finished creating your order you can print it out or send it to the customer by email.
2. Chat
Lots of customers are researching and even shopping for cars online now. They are eager to learn more about the potential purchase and the easiest thing to do is to use a chat. Lots of car dealerships are integrating Facebook Messenger, but this has some complications regarding customer not having account or not wanting to use one.
Why not collect customer data automatically from the chat to your CRM for future callbacks, test-drive bookings, offers and so on? You could chat with them and switch from chat to video call so that you can show them a real car in a real showroom instead of sending them stock photos of cars.
3. Document handling
Document handling in car sales hasn’t yet reached the 21st century. There are lots of dealerships who still sign all the contracts on paper and in some cases upload them to the CRM or cloud as pdf scans.
Instead of wasting time on useless paperwork, printing, scanning and chopping the sales process in pieces, opt for a digital and mobile approach.
You’ll have the ability to use template-based digital offers that can be created, edited and prepared while you are having a test-drive or showing a car to the customer. If the customer really wants you can always print it out or send this to their email.
4. Lead handling
Any lead could turn into a lucrative sale, so salespeople need to constantly follow up. Reduce the time spent on finding and contacting leads. All you need are custom forms and tools that collect leads and bring them in front of you.
To make things even more effective, all the data is collected to your CRM and can be accessed by everyone who needs it at your dealership.
5. Test-drive bookings
Managing test-drive bookings is one of the most important parts of car sales. Using Google Calendar is not an option here for that.
Imagine a tool that reduces time wasted on mundane paperwork, while giving you a complete overview of the stock for test drives, so you know which cars are available and which are not.
With a complete overview you can avoid mistakes, overbookings and errors that are prone for classical test-drive booking solutions.
6. Notes
Salespeople need to constantly take notes. They have to stay on top of leads, so they jot down customer info, details about orders, points regarding customer preferences, or notes about a meeting. It’s quite usual to take notes on post-its, on random pieces of paper or some popular apps like Evernote.
The main problem with paper-based notes is that they go missing. If notes are taken in apps that are not synchronized with the CRM, they’ll be forgotten and found days, weeks or even months later than needed.
Instead of wasting time using ten different solutions to take notes, consider using only one that is either synchronized with your CRM or already part of it.
7. Trade-in management
Trade-in is an unavoidable part of car sales, which is usually time-consuming and oftentimes quite inaccurate.
Solution is a trade-in tool that is specifically developed factoring in perspectives of salespeople, the sales manager, and even the appraiser and customer. You as a dealer can fill in required information in the app and take photos of the vehicle to document its condition and damage (if any). All this can be accomplished with the customer standing right next to the salesperson.
The entire process can be managed in your system later, with important paperwork. It has a built-in sales calculator so salespeople can look up average market value, damage repairs, depreciation, desired profit margin, and potential days until a sale.
Your one-stop-shop
If you’re looking to make use of all these solutions mentioned above, you could go ahead and download about seven or eight apps to get your dealership going. This would obviously mean having to learn how to use and manage all of the selected apps.
This is where we come in. Modera gives you one single solution to take care of all of the main issues and help your dealership and salespeople work more effectively. Check out Modera solutions to see, how you and your team can start saving valuable time. If you have any questions, reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help you out.
