Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before ridiculous pricing practices caused lots of backlash. Then in 2011, for various reasons things got even uglier. I’m talking legal battles and a mass exodus of dealers. It got so bad in fact, the number of dealers using Truecar dropped from 5600 in 2011, to barely 3,600 by March 2012. After taking a $75,000,000 blood bath, CEO Scott Painter was forced to make some major changes.
Industry News
Let em “buy”
Menu’s – Presenting value and all the options, is in fact allowing them to buy. In 2013 most everyone has a menu “in the deal”. This doesn’t mean F&I is actually menu selling. The truth is still most are “Step Selling” and using a menu to do that. Self-Exam – Is your finance department allowing your clients “to buy” from the dealership? The answer is likely 100% NO, if any viable product you have is less than 10%. It doesn’t matter if you tell me or yourself the menu is in the deal. If less than 10% is a highly probable indicator your manager(s) are likely step selling, using a menu and likely NOT menu practicing buying. Don’t believe me! Well 10% of the people buy anything, right? (more…)