We recently had a chance to catch up with Mark Olson, General Sales Manager and Internet Director of Findlay Kia, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Olson, who was also the cover story on our March issue of CBT Magazine, Has been leading one of the best dealerships in the country. So it makes the most sense as a high volume, high grossing dealer, that we asked him what he thinks today’s dealers should be focusing on for 2018 and beyond to maximize both sales and gross profit.
“Stop focusing on what everyone is telling you to focus on,” Mark says straight out the gate when talking about autonomous vehicles and they could affect dealerships. Mark does believe the self-driving cars will play a role in the future but not for some time. So for now, and hopefully for the foreseeable feature, he recommends that dealerships refocus on what dealers do best, selling cars.
A part of that refocusing, Olson shares, is that dealers understand their Dealerships should not take on the Amazon sales models. “Everyone is trying to be like Amazon but this isn’t a roll of paper towels… why are we taking the excitement out of this”, says Olson. “I think we need to bring excitement back to the dealerships… I think we need to get back on track, not everyone wants to do everything online”.
Those words coming from Olson, A New York native who has been overseeing Findlay Kia’s Internet and Sales for years now must mean something, after all, he has proven himself to be quiet internet savvy. So we asked him what dealerships can do to maximize their online platforms without taking away the very thing that makes consumers want to come to a dealership?
As you could imagine his answer includes making sure your dealership is visible online, telling our Jim Fitzpatrick, “ I like the idea of deep linking and going into these forms, when people start really looking for a car and really researching, LotLinx has the ability to pick them up and serve your car to them. You can’t make that up”.
