Working Towards the Best When You're Dealing With the Worst

from the desk of Sean Gray:

The recession that has faced us over the last few years has taken a toll on many businesses and ours was no different. In 2008 the recession forced many automotive businesses to close because of the decline in product sales; although we were hit by this dramatically and the business almost went under we were able to rally in order to avoid closing our doors. Of course the question that everyone has is “how did they do it?” Not a surprising question given that the auto industry was the hardest hit industry, mainly because since it requires such a large investment consumers were avoiding purchasing new vehicles and were instead maintaining and repairing their vehicles or simply purchasing pre-owned older models.

The realization that closing the doors to the business was a very real possibility left little time for brooding on the economic situation; instead what was needed was some insight and new ideas to help generate some new business and keep the doors open. While this may seem like a fairly easy task the fact is that, for the most part, the automobile business tends to have a fairly traditional approach. The bottom line was that it was time to come up with some new ways of marketing, selling, but still holding on to our customer’s faith and trust to provide them with quality.

The first place we had to start was with our costs; if customer were avoiding purchasing new cars because of the investment required then the answer was to offer the vehicles at a lower price. Lowering the prices still allowed customers the chance to purchase new automobiles and still generated revenue for our business. The next hurdle, however, was that with the prices lowered it was not going to be necessary to make up for the price reductions in volume. In other words, sell more automobiles.

Needing to sell in a larger volume led us to the next step; advertising. Although there advertising costs were definitely not in a position to be increased it became that much more important to make those dollars work harder and reach farther. Utilizing different means of advertising allowed us to reach a broader audience, this in turn brought in more customers from other areas. The final result of all of this innovation was that our business was able to keep its doors open and we’re still here!

 Sean is the owner of used car dealership cashforcarssandiego.com. A company who will buy your car with cash.