Page 33 - GIADA-April2017

DEALER INSIGHT

Successful Dealers Avoid Problems,

Plan For Success

BY USED CAR NEWS
There are plenty of ways to succeed in the where else,” Shilson said. “You have to take “Do whatever you can to keep the custom-
used-car business. But a close look at some their hand and bring them to your lot.” er happy and that goes a long way,” said
of the best operators shows they share sev- William Denius, an attorney who special-
eral habits. Successful dealers embrace other technol- izes in auto finance.
ogies to solve their problems. For example,
One of these is coming up with a plan. “All the kind of inventory typical of buy-here, Denius said many disputes between deal-
successful dealers have a business plan for the pay-here lots proves hard to find these ers and their finance companies arise
year,” said Joe Lescota, with the National In- days. Successful dealers use technology when a customer starts griping and as a
dependent Automobile Dealers Association. to broaden their search for the right units result stops paying. “Of course, there will
with which to stock their lots. be times when you do all you can and it’s
This plan must be realistic, which means not enough,” Denius said. “But trying is
including a projection of net profit along They also use tools such as GPS devices to crucial.”
with gross and revenue. control their costs and make their opera-
tions more efficient. So successful dealers are in the habit of
Successful dealers review that plan on a keeping their customers happy, keeping up
weekly basis. Another habit that helps dealers on sever- with change, having a plan and being con-
al fronts is making their customers happy. sistent. n
Dealers must know how each employee fits
in this plan. That means having a job de-
scription for everybody and training them
on how to do those jobs.

One of the most important habits is consis-
tency, said Anthony Underwood, the own-
er of Underwood Mo- tors in Bessemer,
Ala. Underwood said people often want to
change the script just to maintain their own
interest, regardless of how well a business
operates. “Success is boring,” he said.

Dealers need to remember to do what is
best for all rather than themselves.

Consistency is different than not changing.
In fact, another habit of successful dealers is SVR Has Reinvented The GPS Wheel.
accepting change, especially when it comes
to technology. All GPS trackers Locate! SVR provides the ONLY GPS System available that can
help you find your collateral even if your customer has tampered with the device.
Ken Shilson, founder of the National Alli- Compatible with any internet enable device and Voted BEST SMARTPHONE APP!

ance of Buy-Here, Pay-Here Dealers, said it Find out how much more SVR Tracking can do for you besides basic locate. You’ll
was enough a few years ago for a dealer to be amazed at how far we’ve come! Call, Email, Text. We pride ourselves on
have a website and maybe use AutoTrader providing the best training and support in the industry.
to attract customers.
To take our tracker for a spin,
It was a question of putting himself out there Call or Text 770-871-0051.
and having the customers come to him. E-Mail aragps@mailga.net
Visit us online at
“What works today is proactively connect- www.aragps.com ARA GPS
ing with the customer before they go some-
GIADA Independent Auto Dealer APRIL 2017 | 31