Take a second and think about your car dealership brand, more specifically whether you’ve built your brand effectively over time. Think about whether you have kept your car dealership brand at the top of the car-buying consumer’s mind and how things have changed during the last couple of years.
The basics of car dealership brand-building have remained the same, but the internet has changed how building your brand is executed.
How do you rebuild your car dealership brand?
Bobby Petkov the founder of Mit Mak Motors has significantly changed the internal workings of the car dealership since the first time I met him. For one, he is no longer the DP (dealer principal) and has focused much more on “rebuilding” the Mit Mak Motors car dealership brand as well as focusing on buying and not as much on selling. Because let’s face it, money is made or lost in a car dealership when you buy a car not as much when you sell it.
So why focus is buying cars rather than selling cars?
Looking at the difference between the car dealership brand pre-pandemic versus now. It is clear that most car dealerships went into lockdown unprepared. Following traditional ways of advertising on platforms. Focused too much on retail sales and not enough on car dealership brand building.
Car dealership strategies during crises
Five weeks of lockdown allowed car dealerships to relook their businesses, a chance to sit back and reevaluate. Some changed things, others merely carried on as usual.
But everyone had to be creative because there was a limit to the number of people that were allowed on the dealership floor.
The reality: car shoppers also changed behaviour and got used to not driving around.
What do you do in this instance?
1 – Identify the problem areas
Mit Mak Motors divided the car dealership into four main categories:
- Systems,
- Sales,
- The next innovative campaign and,
- Leadership development
Mit Mak Motors as a car dealership identified ways for the business to grow out of the pandemic including outworking competitors.
2 – Mit Mak Motors realised they had 3 choices:
- The dealership will just survive the pandemic?
- The dealership will close down?
- The dealership will thrive and succeed?
And Bobby chose to thrive and therefore decided to double down.
3 – Ways that you can thrive as a car dealership today:
- Automate and find ways to use technology within your car dealership,
- Have a detailed look at the processes carried out between your staff and customers, and
- Focus majorly on building a car dealership brand.
Mit Mak Motors Results
Mit Mak Motors has grown by over 150% and sells over 400 cars per month. Numbers not even dreamt of pre-pandemic.
They were able to pull through and make the pandemic work to their advantage by changing and digitising as well as focusing on building a car dealership brand.
Maybe it’s time for you to relook at your dealership strategies and let crisis work in your favor.