Insignia Group’s James Brooks shares how dealers can increase their bottom line

How are you increasing your sales and bottom line going into the new year? If you haven’t considered personalization and accessories as a source, you may be missing out on many customers.

Insignia Group offers a vehicle personalization system that may provide you with the growth you are looking for. On today’s show, we’re pleased to welcome James Brooks, Chief Product Officer at Insignia Group, to walk us through their solutions and how you can increase your bottom line.

For the past 20 years, Insignia Groups has worked actively with accessory distributors through General Motors and they are currently branching out to more brands. Their core pendency is building normalized data sets because everything lives on the accuracy of data. As customers are shopping for vehicle customization, they can visualize what those parts may look like on their vehicle.

Brooks says not always, will the data include the required set of parts. He says most dealers are focused on their CSI scores. Nothing is going to make a customer more disappointed than being quoted one price and given another. Brooks says they try to get the backbone of the data as strong as they can, to avoid those “gotchas”, whenever dealers are trying to close the sale at the dealership.

When it is a top-down mandate, those are the users they see in their software and services that really shine says Brooks. He says if you’re really going to see success, it’s going to have to come from the top. As they have discovered the best practices over the years, they are trying to build those into the tools. Brooks believes it will become intuitive and simple as possible.

An important part in continuing the customer experience is making sure they have a positive experience their first trip back to the dealership. Brook says if you offer accessories and offer the customer the ability to customize the vehicle to their lifestyle, they’ll take more ownership of it. Often what they purchase in the F&I office will increase because now they have more to protect.

During the pandemic lockdown, Brooks realized the in-showroom sale was not going to be as necessary as it always has been. There are some cultural changes that have happened, that Brooks believes we aren’t coming back from. He says the future of vehicle personalization is moving more towards digital retailing. Unlike traditional models, now it’s a required stop on the path.

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