The Key To Success -Used Car Market 2009
“The Ultimate Auction Experience”
Merlin Car Auctions
The Ultimate Auction Experience
Wednesday 7pm & Saturday 11am www.merlincarauctions.ie
M7 MotorPark @ Junction 10 Naas Road, Naas, Co. Kildare. PH: 045 988 700
It is no secret that the car market has changed dramaticallyover the last 12 months. The rate of change has beenunprecedented, and that rate does not seem to be slowingdown. January has been the living worst for new car sales,and this lack of consumer confidence is also stretching intothe used car market. The theory of the key to success in the used car business is,in my opinion, as follows: The used car dealer should aim to turn the stock 12 timesper annum. W hat this means is as follows, if you sell 360units per year, you should hold 30 in stock at any giventime. There may be some seasonal variations to this, but forthe purpose of this exercise, I will allow you to work theseout for yourself. This theory is great, and sounds simple, but can be difficultto operate in practise. It effectively means that you sellevery car within 30 days, thus maximising your margin,because stale stock makes very little money. The days of the “90 day “ car are gone, as with values falling the waythey have been in recent times, today’s cost, will be higherthan the retail in 90 days time! The buying market has changed substantially in Irelandover the past ten years. W e know that 88% of peopleresearch their car purchase on line before visiting adealership. Your website is the first point of contact (andsometimes the last!) that many customers will have withyour business. Are you 100% confident that your websitereflects your business profile? If not, keep reading…Good design and navigation are crucial. W hen a potentialcustomer lands on your website be sure that they cannavigate through your stock with ease and the graphics onyour site appeal to a wide audience. W hilst pictures arevital to sell your cars, video is the new tool yielding evenhigher results. Keep your stock up to date. At Merlin weupdate our stock several times daily to show new carsavailable for sale. Display your contact details well, veryoften phone and email details are buried within the site.Have a very clear policy in terms of responding to webenquiries, remember that a potential customer may beenquiring at a number of dealerships and a fast replyimplies the efficiency of service your customer will receivewhen they visit your dealership. Content is key tomaximising your search engine rankings by using relevantkey words to your business. Refreshing your content on aregular basis will also improve your search engineoptimisation.
Analyse your web information. Google analytics is a veryuseful tool to manage all relevant information about yourwebsite. Analytics will show you the source of where yourvisitors are coming from, will identify the top referring sitesto your website and will help you to manage your webtraffic. W ith analytics you will be able to monitor the hitson each page of your website and the areas of interest toyour visitors. You will also quickly identify the location of where people are exiting your site. Google Adwords arealso a useful tool to help increase your presence online. Thegreat thing about Adwords is that you only get chargedwhen someone clicks on your ad, unlike the cost of traditional advertising mediums where you pay with noguaranteed return on your investment. You cansubstantially reduce your Adword spend by optimisingyour web content, alt and meta tags, together with regularcontent updates to improve your organic search position.If your website is not driving traffic to your dealership ACTNOW , get online and find an internet marketing companyto optimise your business online. The “90 day” practice should be replaced with a 20/20/20day practise. For the first 20 days, the car should beadvertised at a fair price, having studied the market. If,after 20 days, it has not moved, it should be reduced, tobelow that days average asking price, and should that notwork, do the reduction again, and don’t be shy this time. At60 days, liquidate it through auction and start again. The 20/20/20 day practise assumes certain basic things. These would be that the car is advertised, valeted and welldisplayed and presented. Old newspapers and emptybottles should not be a cause for the car not selling. Itshould start on a turn, without jump leads, and should notrun out of petrol on the test drive! This theory requires action to implement. Set a 3 monthdeadline to clear the old stock. Cash it in and start again,bearing in mind turning the stock 12 times per annum. If you get to 10, you will be top of the class, but strive for 12,it will keep you sharp and across your business.Remember, you cannot talk your way out of a situation thatyou behaved yourself into! Set yourself up for the marketthat exists, not for the market you dream of.Good luck,
Maximise Your Sales Online
From a retailers point of view today, theory is great, but itis very difficult to put into practise. If you are carrying toomany cars in stock for the market you are dealing in,reduce the stock numbers, and do it quickly. Take thelosses and start again. 90% of your showroom traffic knowthe price of the car they want to buy before they visit you,so if you have no visitors, check out your prices, becauseyou will quickly find out that they are too high.
Marketing your company on line is crucial to maximisingsales. Optimise your sales by subscribing to reputable carwebsites. Carlister.ie from Benchmark Ltd is an interestingnew tool, which will enable you to upload your stock tomultiple websites in one easy click.
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