Tips for Your Slowest Month

Stronger Holiday Sales with Four Strategies

Accepting that sales will struggle is a mindset that can be overcome by applying a few strategies during the holiday season. Do not surrender and settle because it is a slower winter season. The holidays offer an opportunity to increase sales with promotional opportunities. Customers need automotive services regardless of the time of the year and are in a mindset to buy. Four recommendations are given for never giving up in the fourth quarter; make December one of your best months with four strategies:

1. Advertise a free winter inspection – one of the best ways to promote service opportunities is with a free multi-point inspection. Customers want to prepare their vehicles for the winter and want to promote reliability through colder months. People that respond to this kind of promotion already believe that something is wrong. That means these customers have a mindset that is ready to buy because they are convinced something is wrong but do not know exactly what it is. Free winter inspection is a great way to generate more service business.
2. Create holiday specials – The holidays are a great time to run holiday specials. Christmas specials can begin in November and run into the new year. A great example of a holiday special is a tire sale with layaway. A second great example is detail service that customers can give away to family members to get their vehicle ready for next spring.
3. Christmas Shuttle – If your service center is close to a nearby shopping center, you can run a Christmas shuttle from the service center to the shopping center. This creates sales promotional opportunities between the dealership and the businesses located at the shopping center. Promotional booklets with coupons and other promotions can be handed out to the customers that use the Christmas Shuttle.
4. Engage Customers – Service managers can increase sales by making 5 additional customer contacts daily. By sending 5 extra emails or making 5 additional calls with customers every day, customers are engaged better and more sales can be generated. Dedicate some time every day to making more customer contacts.