Smartphones have changed the way car dealerships have to think about merchandising their inventory. We’ve spoken at length about how modern car buyers engage in the practice of showrooming at your dealership. It’s a fact that as many as two-thirds of your customers are comparing your inventory to one of your direct competitors while standing on your lot.
That’s the new reality of the digital car-buying era. More people than ever are using mobile devices to shop for cars, and if you aren’t careful, it can put you at a disadvantage.
But what if you could reclaim the power of a smartphone and use it to improve your sales process instead of letting it undercut you?
Not only is it possible, but it’s easy when you’re partnered with MAXDigital. Find out how you can put the power of MAX in the palm of your hand.
Keep Smartphone Shoppers on Your Lot with MAX Digital Showroom
J.D. Power’s 2015 New Autoshopper Study says that customers who use mobile devices on your lot are searching for:
- Model information
- Inventory listings
- Special offers and incentives
These are the exact questions your own website should answer, and if you work with MAXDigital, it already does.
Our inventory merchandising software runs every vehicle in your lot through a content generation engine. Recall that we let you promote specific equipment and options packages for each car to demonstrate its value. We then create a unique vehicle detail page that lists out your comments plus all the key features, options, warranty information, and vehicle history.
The page also compares your list price to the car’s original MSRP and current market value. It will even give customers pricing info from third party sites like Edmunds or CarGurus. And because online reviews matter so much, your score on DealerRater is included on the page along with your personalized branding details.
Speaking of price, our inventory management software will also update the price of featured cars based on OEM promotions.
So if all of this information is already on your website, how do you remind your customers while they’re at your store?
The key solution MAXDigital offers your dealership is the ability to create custom window stickers. These window labels display a lot of the information discussed above, but they differ from basic stickers because they link customers directly to your website.
Each MAX window sticker has 3 ways to get mobile shoppers to your Digital Showroom:
- Direct Link: A shortened URL for the listing that customers can easily enter into a mobile browser.
- SMS Text: When a customer texts this number, he or she will receive an SMS message with the link to that car’s listing.
- QR Code: Customers who have a QR reader on their phone can scan the window sticker and be taken directly to the listing.
The stickers connect shoppers to the most recent and relevant information on every vehicle on your lot, and your digital showroom never closes. That means people browsing your lot after hours or on Sunday are not disadvantaged. It’s even helpful for customers that are “just looking” while they wait around your service center.
Lastly, as a bonus to you and your staff, you’ll only need to print one sticker per car. Customers have access to dynamically updated pricing in your Digital Showroom, so there’s no need to reprint a window sticker just because the price changes.
Arm Your Sales Team with the Information and Data They Need
We’ve looked at how the consumer-facing side of the Digital Showroom can make your buying process more transparent for customers at your dealership. Now let’s talk about how MAX Digital Showroom helps you merchandise inventory on the sales side.
In a previous post, we talked about how easy it is to take and upload photos of your inventory using the MAX Mobile App. Giving customers an authentic visual of the car they’re interested in is one of the most important steps of any dealer’s merchandising process.
The real benefit of this mobile platform is the sheer volume of data that every member of your sales team can access on the move.
Who is more effective: The sales associate who has to return to their desk every time a customer asks for details on a different car, or the one who can quickly access that information via the smartphone or tablet they carry with them at all times?
MAX Mobile makes it possible to instantly evaluate a customer’s trade-in just by entering the VIN. If the car matches your dealership’s brand, you’ll even have fast access to a full list of trim level details and option packages straight from the OEM database. Quickly view pricing analysis and jumpstart your appraisal process.
The biggest advantage MAXDigital gives your sales team is protection from double discounting. After you’ve already put a competitive price on a car based on market data, you don’t want to be put on the defensive by a customer who expects you to drop the price further.
Our app turns every member of your sales team into a mobile product expert. If a customer wants to try and negotiate you down from the listed price, you have access to complete pricing analysis based on historical and real-time market data. You can also quickly review the car’s trim level, engine, and other equipment details that reinforce the value of that model.
There’s a reason you listed the car at that price, and MAXDigital wants to help you stand your ground and Stop the Drop. When shoppers come calling with phone in hand, you and your team will be prepared as long as you’ve got mobile inventory merchandising from MAXDigital in your pocket.
Get a free evaluation of your dealership today, or schedule a demo for any of our products. All of us at MAXDigital are excited to see how we can help you.
