Competition in business is usually a good thing.  Sure, we’d all like to have the market cornered, but without a little competition we would perhaps never figure out ways to improve our products or services and keep our customers coming back. 

In an interesting article on Infusionsoft’s “Big Ideas Blog,” a few examples of businesses thinking outside the box were shared. 3Tees is a Singapore based company that prints T-shirts for companies “promoting events with a social cause.” It has a slogan of “You price it. We print it.” The company allows customers to determine the price of the shirts and their pricing strategy has proven successful.  According to the article, the vast majority of customers make genuine offers that both fit within budget and provide an acceptable profit margin. In fact, while the company is willing to reject extreme low-ball offers, they have discovered that only 5% of total bids fit within this category.

One of the biggest reasons 3Tees is successful in their pricing strategy is their belief that, “given enough information and trust,” customers will make fair offers. Allowing customers to make offers for a vehicle purchase is a common practice in sales departments for dealerships. However, the challenges of educating customers on the technical aspects of a given service repair might prove a bit more challenging. In the automobile industry a “You price it. We repair it” pricing model probably wouldn’t go over well, and far be it that anyone would suggest such a thing! 

My point here is that, if the name of the game is customer loyalty, then ultimately, every dealership will have to do something different than what has been done before. Everything changes, especially in our fast-paced world: from implementing new marketing strategies, to offering superior products, or an evolving customer experience. Finding new and creative ways to retain your customers, while still building new business, is an ongoing project, not a one-day or static invention.  Dealerships have a mindset of being notoriously complacent and are often discouraged by management from trying anything that is outside the norm.  How many times do you still see inflated gorillas hawking a weekend sale on the roof of a dealership? Taking a “safe” approach is generally expected and often encouraged in dealerships today. But with overuse of the safe approach, eventually will come diminished results.  You should be thinking about how you can market differently than your competitor down the street. Ask yourself how you can set yourself apart as Cal Worthington did with his stores years ago. While Cal’s approach may have been a bit gimmicky, it worked at the time, and is actually documented in many marketing text books. 

So just think about it. Every so often, it’s perhaps time take a trip up to 10,000 feet, open the doors and look at the landscape of your competition. Try and encourage creative thinking from both your staff and vendors. Unless you are the already the king of the hill when it comes to retaining and acquiring customers, there will come a day when you have to do something just a little different to keep your customers, or lure new ones into your dealership. As a dealer principal or manager, are you willing to take a chance and try a few out of the ordinary ideas to expand your business?