Is It Important to Begin Thinking Internet for Your Dealership?
I recently read an article that discussed children being able to use the internet before they can even read. One out of four children in nursery school is learning to use the Internet, a skill that even some adults are still trying to master. Adults are more worried about blowing up the computer or pressing the wrong button and erasing all their data. Children, (your vehicle buyers of the future), are more adventurous and more willing to take risks as they learn. And they're learning differently than your current clientele.
23% of kids age 3, 4 or 5 in nursery school have gone online for educational purposes, according to the Department of Education and by kindergarten, 32% have used the Internet in general, typically under adult supervision (your vehicle buyers of the present). Will you be ready for these present and future consumers, and be able to sell them the way they're learning to buy?
Many of us who have made much of our living from the internet are able to see the continual growth, the sea of visitors that are increasing to our websites everyday. My training company has been in business since 1988, and I began selling my training products on the internet in 1995. If I didn't have that additional medium for making money, I truly don't know where my company would be today, especially during down markets when training was slow. It gave me a way to build a virtual business that was open 24/7. And once I made my products downloadable instead of only by mail, it opened up my business to every country outside the United States. I was now visible all over the world, something I could have never accomplished as a small company without the internet. Imagine, order today, have it today. WOW. The internet can progress your dealership the same as with my company, I promise you. But it will take a different philosophy from the way dealerships have done business in the past with traditional brick and mortar.
Dealerships are just on the cusp of the internet phenomenon. Some of you have an ecommerce website, which is an excellent start to bringing prospects to your store. Some of you are using templated sites provided by companies who make it easy for you to have an internet presence. Leads from manufacturers and some third party sites are becoming more prevalent. What you do with these leads and how you handle them is a whole different story. But what you need to realize is that internet selling doesn't stop at making a site, and putting the URL on your business cards and promotional materials. It's what you do with these prospects and the information you receive from them that will be the determining factor for taking even the smallest dealership to that next level of sales and financial success.
What this all means is that our internet world is growing. The number of visitors to your websites today will seem small in comparison to the number of visitors that you will experience in just a few years if you devote your attention to the branding, the optimization and the marketing of your present sites. And more importantly, to develop an internet sales process that will capture this additional business, and create even more "customers for life" then you could ever imagine. The future, truly, can be yours!
