There are times during the year where there are notorious drops in the sales. During those seasons, we usually do not gain new customers and existing ones do not often visit the store. These seasonalities affect all types of companies, not only the ones in the automotive industry, and could be of concern for the salespeople at the dealership. But, how to overcome these situations? And how can your dealership be prepared for the offseason?
As in every other situation, when we are more prepared for extreme cases, we face crises in a better way. Bear in mind to have a plan in advance to when these seasons arrive, as the more planned you are, the better and faster your dealership will face it.
The lowest season is usually after December’s holidays. This is not the best timing to offer a product, as due to the holidays, customers have spent more than usual in the past few months. Here at Engie, we have detected that the months of June, July, August and September, which represent school vacations, could also become a low season for buying or selling a car. To be able to face these low seasons, we have gathered some tips.
Keep constant communication with your customers
The first advice is to be connected with customers and keep your activity with them. Being in continuous communication helps you understand the situation better and how to act in specific cases. In a low season, the clients will probably not be thinking of consuming a product in the short term, since they have to recover financially. But if you manage to provide unique offers, it is more likely that they will be interested in your dealership. We will delve more into this in the next tip. To keep communication, we recommend you to create campaigns, generate good content on social media to capture people’s attention and create occasional activities, such as special offers for specific occasions, back to school, could be a good example.
Special Offers
Our second tip complements the previous one. Being active and staying in touch with your customers will make everything easier. Try to show your customers some empathy and create offers that can be more reasonable for the situation they are experiencing, such as giving them an offer to do a small service. Commit to giving them an excellent price and service, so that they return to your workshop for a second service within the next few months. Possibly the second time they come, it will be for a full service… and this how loyalty is built! You could also plan an offer that is unique and that no other competitor has. Even if there are only a few customers that do have purchasing power during the low season, those few ones could be attracted to a smart offer, so definitely consider doing that. Another advice is to offer a giveaway, either when they buy a vehicle or when they bring it to the workshop. Engie is an excellent option as they will be able to enjoy a free app with their car information such as fault alerts, fuel consumption, among others.
Events
Finally, we recommend you consider holding an event, you could try to make them themed to match the low season, for example, back to school, new year, new car launches, among others. Keep in mind that including activities in which children can participate, or where the client feels exclusive, or where they can relate to the vendors more closely, will help build loyalty ties with your dealership.
It is important to understand that low seasons will always exist, they are part of the cycle and they come every year. Your business will for sure feel a decrease in sales, but, with some small tips such as those we mentioned above, you can make the best out of them and even see their positive side.
