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Like other business plans, the contents of an automobile dealership business plan cover four primary steps towards success. These steps are “opportunity”, “capacity”, “activities”, and “results”.

Opportunity

The industry, customer, and competitive analysis in your business plan proves the opportunity. This should identify that customers in your local market are in need of a dealer of the type you’ve chosen to be because competitors are not fully serving their needs, or because their demographics are changing (more population, richer, poorer, more families, etc.) The opportunity could also be that a certain combination of services by your dealership could improve on what competitors are currently doing. The overall industry situation should look ahead to how the car sales market will be doing six months, one year, or more in the future, when the dealership will actually be open.

Capacity

The experience of the management team, your license as a car dealer, and the financial resources the partners can bring to the table cover the capacity of the entrepreneur to jump on this opportunity. Funders reading the business plan expect that there will also be an element of cash missing from the entrepreneur’s capacity at the moment. Otherwise, they would not be reading the plan in the first place.

Activities

Marketing and operations plans cover the activities the company will engage in to bring in car buyers (and car sellers if you are a used car dealer as well), and run the business as efficiently as possible. As a small car dealer, consider how you can make up for this lack of scale, and the cost savings that come with it for dealer chains, through creativity and hard work.

Results

Finally, the projections of business success and financial section of the plan show the results that you and investors should expect. If results take into account the full costs of the methods you’ve described, and include adequate compensation for staff and key team players, readers will be less likely to question elements on the cost side. If your revenue projections are based on reasonable, researched assumptions about the car buying behavior of your local market, then readers will be more likely to accept this side of the projections as well.

Source by Eric Powers

Sure the “cash for clunkers” program has come and gone, but the incentives to continue buying new cars is still going strong.

The big question about the cash for clunkers program will be whether it served to help revive the troubled automobile business, or whether it just put a lot of people even further in debt. I’m sure we all hope that those who opted out of older automobiles did so for more fuel efficient vehicles and without piling crushing debt onto their pile of obligations. For people who have the financial wherewithal to afford new cars, the good news is that they can still get some great deals, even though the government incentives have vanished.

Automakers have sharpened their pencils and are coming out with tighter pricing on their 2010 models. This means that there are better deals coming down the pike for buyers ready now, or in the near future, to buy new cars. For example, according to Jessica Caldwell, and auto industry analyst, the Chrysler Town & Country is down is priced down by $1165 … The Chevy Equinox is down by $1,825 … and the Mercedes-Benz E350 is down $3,300. And yes there are others following suit.

It’s good news to buyers that the benchmark for price negotiations, the “Invoice” price, for many automobile models has dropped. So if you’re in a position to buy a new car, 2010 will be a good year to negotiate some attractive deals. Of course, the question you still need to ask is, “Is a new car the best way to spend my money?”

Source by Roger Beattie

Modern day business is customer-centric like never before. Whether it is the service sector or manufacturing industry, businesses are paying attention to each and every customer as if they are the only one. The sum total of all methods by which you can interact with your customers and deliver added value to them and build bonds that last, is known as customer relationship management or CRM. You can understand the needs of your existing customers and address them accordingly.

With automotive CRM software, you can take your business, large or small to the next level quite easily.

The main objective of having automotive CRM software is to manage the vast pool of customer data effectively. And the best part is that you do not incur excessive IT consulting costs when you use this type of software! So, you can easily enhance customer relations and easily retain existing customers at a low investment level.

The amount of customer data can be quite large if you run a sizable business. Automotive CRM software allows you to manage the specifics of every interaction with a customer.

With this software you can do the following with ease:

• Keep a track of previous deals
• Follow ups
• Order processing stage
• Appointments etc.

However, you should also know that there are various CRM software packages available nowadays. Needless to say, not all of them are worth their cost. So, you should choose one that has the features you need and applicability to your customer management needs.

The best automotive customer relationship management software allows you to make every customer feel special. This is because you have at your disposal, not just the details of the individual and the deal made, but also finer points about his or her preferences and expectations. Customers stick to those companies which remember them and value them. And since every industry is full of competition these days, you must have something other than your product or service to offer your customers. This ‘extra’ can be achieved by means of the software.

Here are the main advantages of using automotive CRM software:

• Clarification in the process of customer communication. Both you and your customer how to contact each other and follow ups to queries can be done quickly.
• Effective warranty management.
• Updated details of customer and product sold available for use at all times.
• Gaining customer confidence and loyalty. This can also lead to lead generation by referrals.

To sum up, automotive CRM software can definitely put your automobile business on the right track!

Source by Janet Tee