July is the No Excuse Sales Month. Well, they all are, but this one especially. We know you already kicked off your summer sale promotions – some as early as May – so we’re simply ensuring you are maximizing opportunities with these additional tips that drive summer sales right through the fall finish line.
Joint Sales & Service Promotion
Dealerships don’t have walls. They have windows. It’s great that they showcase your newest vehicles from the outside, but customers are inside waiting for service and all they see looking out is the sun setting on a beautiful summer day. Instead, use our Service RO 5% Test Drive Bumper theme to send them a service discount when they test drive a new vehicle. This way, customers can enjoy some fresh air in a new vehicle while you focus on both sales and service retention. Why not fish where the fish are, right?
Host community events
Nine-to-fivers usually spend their workdays indoors. When the clock hits 5:01, you better believe they are seizing every opportunity to be outside. Well, if you can’t bring ‘em, join ‘em. Sponsor or start an annual community event to introduce your friendly staff from the dealership around the corner. Whether it be fundraising for a charity, or filling hungry people’s bellies at a BBQ, it’s always a noble cause.
Hire greeters
Hire people to greet customers? Yes! July is prime time for dealership traffic and you need all hands on deck. Feature these charismatic characters on your website to let your customers know more about the person behind the smile. Not attending to customers within the first 30 seconds seems inconsequential, but it couldn’t be further from the truth for these reasons:
- Customers came to your dealership for a reason and it’s your job to know what that purpose is. Letting them wander without anyone probing for their needs will cost you sales.
- You can guarantee that customers you don’t welcome feel unimportant and it sets a negative tone for their first interaction (if any) with a dealership team member.
Extend summer hours
Salespeople and service technicians are swamped. It sounds like a great problem to have, but a significant amount of traffic can affect the quality of your customer experience. Extend dealership hours, spread appointments out accordingly and enable your dealership to take on more work. It will not only increase revenue, but keep your CSI rating in good standing.
More demo vehicles
Customers (especially millennials) are more informed than ever before entering your dealership, armed with consumer reports, having compared competitor offers, online reviews, etc. What they don’t have access to is a test-drive. Insert salesperson here. Our attention spans are at an all-time low and are accustomed to things being as instant as the click of a button – don’t let your dealership be any different.
