Pub. 15 2016-2017 Issue 1

N E W J E R S E Y C O A L I T I O N O F A U T O M O T I V E R E T A I L E R S I S S U E N O . 2 , 2 0 1 6 10 new jersey auto retailer BY ERIK NACHBAHR D oes your dealership have a goal to sell a vehicle in one hour or less? Most auto dealers would agree that the sales team’s productivity is an important factor in meeting such anambitiousgoal.Manywouldalso agree that it’s important to support the sales team with appropriate toolsand technologies.Whether it’s spending thousands on a newCRM or outsourcing inventory marketing — nothing should hinder the sales process, right? There is one area that the vast majority of dealers routinely overlook-- how their information technology (IT) infrastruc- t ure impacts sales performance and productivity. In today’s dealership, every step of the sales process relies on technology; from how you obtain and respond to leads, all the way through final delivery of the vehicle. Network failures, server and computer crashes, or Internet service disruptions can all have a negative impact on your sales performance. If you want to reduce the time it takes to purchase a car and give your sales team a competitive ad- vantage, follow these recommendations: Replace Old PCs Ask your employees how their computers are and the most likely response is “slow.” This is because many dealers keep their PCs for longer than the intended life cycle, which is a maximum of five years. Just because a PC hasn’t exploded yet doesn’t mean you should still be using it. Slow PC performance has a significant impact on the overall time it takes to buy a car. Today’s sales and F&I managers work with multiple windows and websites open at a time. Activities like streaming auctions, looking up trade-in prices and working multiple deals all require fast processing speeds. Your PC screen is not just a terminal looking out on the Internet. Every time you visit a website, it requires a certain amount of processing capacity on the machine to access that website. In the last few years, richer graphics means that more processing capacity is required. Working on a cloud-based CRM also requires extra processing capacity. When vendors update their software, older communications protocols can become obsolete. Over time this leads to Want to Sell a Car in One Hour or Less? Three IT Tools That Will Help