If you have attended my workshops, webinars or have read my articles over the last several years, you will know I am excited about the direction in which dealerships are moving. Most dealerships have moved beyond their history and are looking with great anticipation toward what lies ahead.
The goal for myself and my organization is to help dealers get a jumpstart on their competitors by outplaying them in their markets. To that end, I challenged my team to share their thoughts on what might lie ahead for dealers based upon advances happening in other industries.
Shifts Ahead
The big shift we see is in the kind of rural lifestyle customer coming into your dealerships. Marketing experts talk about the different groups of buyers and the need to make adjustments in retail and online strategies to attract and keep them. For instance, in another 10 years, the “baby boomers” will range from 61-80 years old. Today, that group represents around 70 million people. They control more than 80% of personal financial assets and account for more than half of all consumer spending. They are not retiring at the rate their parents did and, as a matter of fact, more than 40% are either planning on delaying retirement or choosing not to retire at all.
Create a High Performance Dealership with Bob Clements is a new series brought to you by Yanmar.
Yanmar — Don’t settle for less when you can have more. For example, Yanmar makes all its compact tractors’ major drivetrain components – the Yanmar engine, transmission, and axles — in-house. Because they’re made to work perfectly together, you and your customers get a hardworking machine with more usable horsepower, less power loss, and a smoother, more comfortable ride. Yanmar’s tractors are designed to work as hard as you do for a lifetime. Strengthen your dealership with Yanmar today: AgMarketing@yanmar.com or call 770-877-9894.
What does that mean for you as a rural lifestyle dealer? Over the next 10 years, you have a huge group of potential customers who use the Internet to purchase everyday items, but still rely on “word of mouth” recommendations from their friends to make purchasing decisions for major products. They are not brand loyal, but are “people” loyal. They want and expect exceptional care and are more than happy to pay for it. They will continue to trend toward purchasing extended service plans and insurance, if you have it available through your finance company.
Since the brand is not as important to the “boomer” as the relationship they have with their dealership, focus your website more on the personality of your dealership instead of the brands you carry. While the last recession may have “evaporated” some of their investments, this group wants to look good, live longer and live younger. They are looking for new experiences and will expect the dealers they work with to be on the cutting edge of technology. Your goal over the next 10 years is to create a dealership environment that combines your use of technology with a warm personal touch.
No More Waiting
Over the next 10 years, the willingness to wait in line will become a thing of the past for customers coming into a dealership. I already see a huge shift in people going through self-checkout lines in grocery stores and at mass merchandisers. More of your customers are going to expect self-service as an option at the parts counter or when they drop equipment off for service. Whether it’s the boomers, “gen Xers” (those born between the early 1960s and early 1980s) or “millennials” (those born between early 1980s and 2000), each buying group is perfectly okay using technology to improve the quality of their lives and the speed at which they make purchases and how they interact with their environments.
Don’t fight this, but embrace the change. The upside is that the technology already exists in most of the business management software programs that dealers are using. The change comes in how you train your staff to help a customer in their quest to be more self-sufficient, as opposed to being the person who takes care of them from start to finish.
From the standpoint of parts, customers will go to the dealership’s website, look up the parts they need and place the order for pick up — not unlike what is happening at grocery stores and restaurants. A customer may also use a terminal at the parts counter and look up the part they need, print out a “pick ticket” to get the parts themselves or to hand to the parts person to get the parts for them. The long lines at the parts counter — which actually block customers from the parts staff — will go the way of the dinosaur and be replaced by smaller, personal parts centers.
I see a similar event happening with wholegoods. It only makes sense that dealerships will become more like the online retailer Amazon in the approach they take to their websites and physical locations. Because of the advances and lower costs of interactive technology, customers in the future will go to the dealer’s website, put on their “interactive glasses” and try out different types of equipment. Once they settle on what that best fits their needs, they will order it and schedule either a time to pick it up at the dealership or a time for the dealership to deliver it to their home.
If the customer comes into the dealership, they will walk over to an interactive kiosk, select the equipment they would like to demo and then either sit in a seat or grab hold of the handles and their experience will begin. Once they have settled on the equipment they want, they will log on to the dealership’s app, select their method of payment and determine whether they want to take the equipment with them or have it delivered to their home.
Changing Service
Service departments are already seeing some of the changes that the future will bring. With the continued advancements in battery technology, like the new dual carbon battery from Japan, battery-powered equipment will become standard for homeowners over equipment with engines. No longer will there be a need for much of the basic services required for equipment such as zero-turn mowers, walk-behind mowers or handheld equipment. Electric motors will replace hydraulic pumps and hydraulic wheel motors. Belts and cables will become a thing of the past and troubleshooting will be done with a laptop computer, much as it is done today with EFI engines.
Does this mean that the need for service technicians will go away? Of course not, but the need for a different kind of tech is on the horizon.
I see a bright and exciting future for rural lifestyle dealers who are willing to embrace the changes and make the adjustments necessary to win the customers of the future.
Create a High Performance Dealership with Bob Clements is a new series brought to you by Yanmar.
Yanmar — Don’t settle for less when you can have more. For example, Yanmar makes all its compact tractors’ major drivetrain components – the Yanmar engine, transmission, and axles — in-house. Because they’re made to work perfectly together, you and your customers get a hardworking machine with more usable horsepower, less power loss, and a smoother, more comfortable ride. Yanmar’s tractors are designed to work as hard as you do for a lifetime. Strengthen your dealership with Yanmar today: AgMarketing@yanmar.com or call 770-877-9894.
Post a comment
Report Abusive Comment