Auto retail veteran Jim Ziegler discusses where the industry is headed in 2022

Early this year we spoke to the President of Ziegler SuperSystems, Jim Ziegler, aka the Alpha Dawg, to get his perspective on the industry’s evolution. Since that time we’ve seen further innovation in digital retailing and sales techniques in response to the industry-wide shortages. Ziegler joins us today to give us an update on the industry and where we may be headed in 2022.

Every time things have changed, like it or not, we are in the Amazon generation says Ziegler. People are looking for instant gratification. He says we have to reach the customer at zero moments, while they’re still on the website. F&I has traditionally been an afterthought. Most customers are making a decision based on payments and finances, not on the price of the car. Ziegler says if customers don’t get the information they need on the website, they move on, and they don’t “be back”. He says we’re going to have to give customers a finance payment, while they’re still on the website and that’s digital retailing.

Ziegler says he’s a believer in digital retailing. In the market, he says, be better than anybody else. Consumers aren’t the ones pulling the trigger online. He says it might be a small percentage of consumers wanting to do the entire transaction online, but it’s still a growing percentage. Ziegler also says to look at the reviews online because they all aren’t good.

You should be marketing, Ziegler says, but he asks, what are you advertising? We still have to motivate consumers to physically come to the dealership. There are many ways to advertise. Ziegler says people don’t know how to sell cars. The biggest thing to advertise is inventory. When inventory comes back to lets, you want to be ready to sell.

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