Just because you’re eager to take advantage of all of the latest online services available to auto dealerships doesn’t mean that the entire game of selling vehicles has changed. With the latest series of online applications, designed specifically for dealership websites, you can bring all of the marketing and sales strategies of your sales team to the online forum – in fact, you’ll gain an enormous advantage by doing so.
The Beginning of Online Auto Sales
In the past, most websites offered by companies that sold large products – such as vehicles – served as nothing more than a flashy tech-savvy advertisement for online customers. Originally, the entire purpose of a dealership website was geared towards enticing the customer to travel to the dealership.
They may have displayed inventory and advertised special sales deals, but the point was to reach new customers, to convince them to choose that dealership over another, and to encourage them to pay a visit to the physical dealership location.
More Recent Developments
Once better technologies developed, auto dealers were anxious to take advantage of the enormous profit to be made through online shopping. The difficulty was that the entire end-to-end sales process for vehicles still took more than the internet could offer given the available technology at the time.
Powerful Lead Generation
At this time, online marketing apps were designed as powerhouses for lead generation. This allowed a more committed customer to enter the physical dealership and the sales team to gather more information on that customer before they even arrived. As dealerships incorporated better online services into their websites, such as live chat, the entire purpose of the dealership’s online presence changed from mere advertising to a place where the process of facilitating sales could begin.
Live Online Chat
Bringing your dealership website into the twenty-first century all begins with an auto dealer live chat service that allows your sales team to communicate directly with online customers. The live chat customer experience begins with an online greeting on your website so that customers can experience that welcoming feel of your physical dealership location.
Online chat operators get the process going in order to weed through casual browsers and find potential new customers who are serious about making a purchase in the near future. That’s when your sales team can choose to step in and join the conversation.
Live Video and Photos
In order to better facilitate the process of retaining customers and boosting the generation of powerful leads online with live chat services, salespeople from your dealership can promote special offers via live chat and texting software. They can also expand on these offers by sharing high-quality digital photos and video directly to the customer.
If you haven’t already contacted a dealership internet marketing solutions specialist, then you may already be falling behind the competition online. Get in touch with a professional today to learn more about how you can immediately boost your auto sales with the help of online sales software.