1. Fully Commit To The Market
Fully committing to the new lifted truck market means just that, you commit to stocking X number of units a year. I'm aware that the new vehicle upfitters push an order of 3 units, because that's how many fit on a delivery trailer. The problem with the "trying it out, or dipping the dealerships toe" into stocking the units is that your dealership isn't committing to anything! The units get delivered, and you wait and see how quick they turn. How much effort is put behind retailing the vehicles on your part? If you have them sit on your lot, and hope that they move in a timely fashion. What kind of effort is involved in that? None, and when they sit, and sit, and then you get to the point where you're just giving them away. No harm done there, tried them, and didn't work out. We still have our "bread and butter products", so no real loss. "Let the upfit manufacture know that we tried it, and won't be reordering their products." I've seen this happen at many, many dealerships over the last two years.The current status of the new upfit vehicle market is a mess! Dealers new lifted truck inventory ranges from dealers that regularly maintain 10+ units on the ground, to dealers that have one. Brings back memories of the GM dealer franchise losses during the recession. GM forced out smaller dealers from their franchise because frankly they were costing GM more in expenses than revenue they were generating for the GM products. New upfit manufacturers need to implement minimum yearly stocking amounts per dealer based on the size of the individual dealership. That obviously, wouldn't please some dealers, however having a network of dealers that are stocking product levels in line with their dealership size. Would eliminate the dealers that want to "try it out", and it would create a stronger dealer base for the manufacture. It's the "having skin in the game" philosophy.
2. Recognize The Consumer Awareness Issue
The most glaring problem with the new lifted truck market, is the lack of consumer awareness of the products, and the manufacturers that make them. I know what you're thinking, I said that you need to fully commit to the market, now I'm telling you about the consumer awareness issue with the market. As with anything else in business, you have to look at the risk involved. Because the new lifted truck market is still what I'd consider in it's infancy stage, you won't have a mass group of consumers beating on your doors to buy one. The trade off is the reward for those who commit to the market, and believe in the incredible growth potential of the market, will be greatly rewarded as the market grows.
3. Every One Touches The Truck
One of the easiest things to do as a dealer to move more of these products, and cost you nothing, is to mandate every new truck buyer touches a new lifted truck on your lot. One of the biggest sales features of these trucks, is the manufacture rebates/incentives apply. If you have a buyer that's $40K+ price point, you're missing out on moving more new lifted trucks by not planting the seed, and showing them a new lifted truck. If they are interested, I'd have them test drive a regular new truck first, and then the lifted one. Set a blanket monthly payment amount increase for the new truck, and then the salesperson can tell the customer. "You can purchase this stock truck, or for X amount more a month, get this lifted truck with the full warranty, rebates/incentives, and an additional dealer discount that's exclusively for new lifted trucks !" Even in the end if they go for the stock truck, what's the probability that when they are telling their friends/family about their truck. They mention the new lifted truck that they saw, and was offered? Ah, you're helping to increase the consumer awareness, and connecting your dealership with being the place to go for new lifted trucks! 4. Get Your Lifted Truck Inventory on Conversionsforsale.com, and OnlyLiftedTrucks.com
Taken at face value it would seem that Conversions For Sale is a listing site, however our focus, mission, and goals go way beyond just being a listing site. We are a marketing company that's focus is on the specialty vehicle market. Eventually, we will be representing all the different segments of the market, however our current objective is on increasing the awareness of the new lifted truck market. Of all the segments that make up the specialty vehicle market, we passionately believe in the tremendous growth opportunity and long term sustainability of the new lifted truck segment.When it comes to the lifted truck segment, we are one page one of Google organic search results for lifted trucks. If you look, you'll see that the top results are mostly portal sites. What is the differentiating factor between us, and everyone else, is that we are the only site that has not only segregated the new lifted trucks, but features them, and has new lifted truck dealer listings. Visitors to our sites are looking for specialty vehicles, not stock vehicles.
We are firmly committed to these products, and looking at our site, you'll see that we have dealers that also are committed to the products. We understand the connection and the role our platform plays between the manufacture, dealer, and consumer. We acknowledge the current challenge of consumer awareness in the marketplace, and in addition to our online marketing, we are currently working on developing numerous off line promotions to have the consumers "touch the truck". How much do we want dealers using our platforms to move their specialty inventory? Our business model is based on dealer revenue from listing their specialty vehicles on our platforms. If they aren't moving the units, and then decide to drop them. Both the upfit manufacture, and Conversions For Sale is out of revenue from the dealers. To say we've got a tremendous amount of "skin in the game", would be an understatement!
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