Competition makes the world go ’round. You can either be behind or ahead of it, and if you forget to pay attention to it, your competition completely passes you by.
This is especially true in the automotive industry, where shrinking profit margins mean no one can afford to get into a price war. The dealership with even the slightest competitive advantage can quickly move ahead of the pack, and it might as well be you. Here are three tips to give you a leg up on your competition.
1. Understand Your Audience
Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, so you better pay attention to their behaviors. Establish communication with existing and incoming customers, ask for feedback, and be responsive to their ideas and requests. Your communications can give you valuable insights into buying behaviors and industry trends before your competition can catch on. Offer perks and incentives to get customers in the door (and into your digital communication channels), if for no other reason than to introduce yourself and gather information. The more people you know, the better connected you become to stay ahead of the trends.
2. Predictive Analytics
If you pay attention to sports, you know that competition has become extremely analytical. Advanced stats and metrics rule the day, and if teams don’t pay attention, they fall behind. The same is true in the automotive business. Partnering with a DMS provider to help you set up a system for tracking predictive analytical data is a no-brainer in today’s information-intensive world. But, be careful to choose a provider that will help you process and understand the information, giving you the ability to make faster, smarter decisions and stay ahead of the game.
3. Keep Your Employees
The key to staying competitive might be closer than you think. Your employees are the front line of your business. Their ability to interact with customers and communicate information is central to your success. But, if that information gets lost in translation, it means nothing. Train your employees to keep a lookout for industry trends, and relay that information back to management. Most importantly, give your staff a reason to stick around. Information about your customer’s buying behavior is difficult to decipher when the key communicators keep changing places. Provide your staff with competitive wages, benefits, and development opportunities. Remember, a happy employee is a motivated worker. And, when your employees are invested in your business, you have a leg up on the competition.
You can’t avoid competition – it’s a part of life, and very much a part of your business. But, if you make efforts to understand your customers, stay ahead of the trends using predictive analytical data, and keep your employees happy and motivated, you’ll find that competition has a way of working in your favor.
Download our guide “DMS for the Digital Age” to learn about accessing key metrics anytime, anywhere.
