Does Your Facility Really Make Any Difference to Sales Success?

Motor vehicle dealers quickly learn that skilled employees are the most important ingredient for a successful dealership operation.

So does the facility really make much of a difference? Absolutely, but maybe not for the reasons we expect.

The facts confirm that people—not the facility—are what turns vehicle shoppers already at a dealership into buyers. Compared to the effect of a talented sales team, a facility's role in directly selling vehicles is comparably small. However, facilities are critical to dealership success in five specific ways:

1. Attracting first-time shoppers to the dealership – An eye-catching, memorable, easy-to-access dealership will attract more traffic to the dealership.
2. Turning existing customers into repeat customers – Customers often have a variety of choices for service—both franchised dealerships and independents—and if a service facility is inefficient or uninviting, customers will choose to go elsewhere for service, which leads not only to losing service business, but losing the replacement sale too.
3. Attracting the best employees - The best employees can often choose to work where they wish, so dealerships with subpar facilities will find that they are at a disadvantage when attracting the best employees.
4. Keeping the best employees – Similarly, competitors may find it easy to cherry-pick employees from a dealership with an unappealing work environment.
5. Setting the stage for the products - Last, but definitely not least, think of the facility as a stage upon which to sell a product. We know that the most profitable dealerships are those who establish value for the products they sell, rather than just selling products as unimportant commodities.

Therefore, the answer to the question about whether or not the facility makes a difference to sales success is yes, absolutely, as nearly every dealer will confirm after finishing a major renovation or after moving into a new facility.