Automotive consulting is a service in which consultants assist auto dealers and manufacturers in enhancing business effectiveness, boosting sales, and reducing costs. This can include dealers, manufacturers, and even vendors selling into the automotive industry.
The objective of the consultant is to improve corporate efficiency, increase profitability, and assist a company in reaching its target objectives, which might range from penetrating a new market to addressing a safety problem. Those who work in automotive consulting typically have years of expertise in the automobile industry.
Dealer consulting is one of the most popular fields of automotive consulting. Car dealerships leverage consultancy services to improve their business practices. The consultant can examine a dealership on-site and make recommendations geared to enhance sales, retain customers, and promote the dealer's service department. Consultants can suggest a variety of improvement opportunities, ranging from the dealership's advertising strategy to the dealership's floor layout.
Sometimes, the parent company of the automaker will hire an auto consultant to provide training at the dealership. In other cases, consultants work directly for the automaker and make sure that the branding and values of the parent company are maintained at dealerships all over the wIn other situations, dealerships will hire consultants on their own because they think there is room for growth.
Providing automotive consulting services to manufacturers constitutes a second segment of automobile consulting. These services might range from enhancing the production line to assisting businesses in establishing partnerships with national governments. Consultants are frequently involved in discovering and collaborating with new component manufacturers to enhance overall operations. They assist the automaker with branding and other commercial activities designed to reach more customers.
While there are many aspects to automotive consulting, the experience for new clients typically follows a designed strategy that allows for candid visibility and clarity in direction. Through this process, all parties can uncover growth opportunities and create the best path forward.
Generally, an automotive consultant will conduct an initial evaluation with the dealer or GM to determine the primary challenges affecting the dealership. Auto consultants seek to understand the dealer's goals and identify any current roadblocks. A skilled automotive consultant can help with strategy, planning, and implementation, whether it's for a single department or a whole dealership group.
The automotive consultant uses established and up-to-date 20 Group composites and NADA performance guides to compare dealer performance to that of similar competitors.
Automotive consulting includes a performance evaluation done on-site with the dealership's management team. By comparing the processes and results of your departments to those of the NADA's best-in-class, you can find operational gaps and untapped profit potential.
Once evaluations have been completed, the automotive consultant will be able to provide a best practice plan that incorporates established and proven strategies from other dealerships. These plans are presented to the dealer management team along with a step-by-step strategy for implementation.
Upon completion of the implementation, the consultant meets with the dealer or general manager to discuss business possibilities and action plans decided upon by the management team. Professional automotive consulting companies will remain accessible for required follow-up communications and visits.
A proven and professional automotive consulting team should use the latest management trends and tried-and-true best practices to help both dealers and OEMs succeed. Working with so many dealers should enable them to streamline a dealership's operations and improve their profitability. By also incorporating retail expertise and knowledge of the industry, automotive consulting firms can help OEMs enhance their profits and, more significantly, their relationships with their dealer network.
At Proactive Dealer Solutions, we take automotive consulting to the next level. Our team has been helping dealerships improve and increase their success since 2001. Composed of industry experts, PDS long ago cemented our role as the foremost authority on the concept of dealership business development. We have established more than 4,000 BDCs throughout the United States and Canada, and we continue to adapt to customer experience (CX) demands in today's fiercely competitive market.
Tiffany Peeler is the VP of Sales & Operations for Proactive Dealer Solutions. Tiffany joined the Account Management team in 2014 and quickly became recognized for driving growth and retention with her expertise in developing and delivering effective coaching solutions. Today, Tiffany leads the sales and fulfillment teams with a laser focus on delivering industry-leading solutions to improve upon the customer experience and radically improving dealership profitability for over 1,200 North American dealerships.
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