How to Understand & Measure Dealership Performance

April 28, 2023

automotiveMastermind

Dealerships of every size and type are undoubtedly familiar with metrics and dashboards. A significant portion of their daily routine is likely spent reviewing dealership performance reports and data, whether it’s their:

CRM
DMS
Sales platform

However, are the metrics your dealership is tracking relevant to your daily decisions? Are they providing actionable and useful insights beyond tracking how many deals have closed?

Sales and marketing teams are increasingly looking to metrics like loyalty rates and market penetration to help measure dealership performance, but these insights still only scratch the surface. To truly understand how their dealership is performing, dealers need to analyze their sales data, personnel reports and market data to assess their success from all angles.

What if the dealership’s dashboard not only indicates where they have been and where they need to go, but also helps them understand how to get there and where to begin? In this post, we will provide tips for taking dealership reporting to the next level, including:

– Understanding dealership performance

– Assessing all performance levels

– Types of data to be reviewing

Understanding Dealership Performance

Before tracking and analyzing specific metrics to understand your dealership performance, it’s crucial to first define what “success” means. Clearly outlining what success looks like at your dealership helps give clear direction for your team to follow along the path to success.

Different types of dealerships may have different goals based on their business models, target customers and market demands. For instance, a luxury car dealership may prioritize hitting quotas on high-end vehicles, while a used car dealership may focus on selling off older inventory to make room for new stock.

Based on your greater dealership goals, look for defined key performance indicators (KPIs) that help track your progress and determine the areas where improvements are needed. It’s important to consider both short-term and long-term goals, as well as how these goals align with your dealership’s mission and values.

To identify the right KPIs for your dealership, consider factors such as:

Sales goals
Customer satisfaction
Employee retention
Overall profitability

It’s also important to consider both short-term and long-term goals, as well as how these goals align with your dealership’s mission and values.

Regularly reviewing your KPIs can provide valuable insights into your dealership’s performance and signal areas that may need attention such as:

Low sales performance
High employee turnover
Low customer satisfaction

By identifying these areas of concern, you can work to address the root causes and implement changes to improve performance.

Remember: In addition to tracking and analyzing metrics, it’s also important to communicate your dealership’s performance to your team. By sharing performance data and progress towards goals, you can keep your team motivated and engaged in working towards success.

Assess All Performance Levels

At dealerships, performance is commonly measured by tracking various metrics, such as auto sales targets, conversion rates and gross profit margins.

These metrics are important for a variety of reasons:

Sales targets help provide a clear and quantifiable objective for the sales team to work towards.
Conversion rates, the percentage of potential customers who end up making a purchase, are crucial in determining the effectiveness of the dealership’s sales and marketing strategies.
Gross profit margins provide insight into the dealership’s profitability and financial health.

However, looking solely at sales data isn’t enough to measure the overall success of a dealership. By looking at automotive sales performance metrics across all departments (such as sales, finance and service), leaders can:

Gain a holistic view of their dealership’s operations
Identify areas of strength and weaknesses
Make data-driven decisions to optimize their business

Other important metrics to consider include customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and retention rates. By analyzing a variety of performance metrics, dealership leaders can gain a more holistic view of their operations and make informed decisions to drive growth and success.

For instance, by analyzing sales data alongside customer feedback and employee performance metrics, leaders can identify areas for improvement in customer service and employee training that can help drive sales growth.

Analyzing their performance from all angles can also help dealership leaders identify trends and make informed predictions about future performance. By analyzing historical data alongside current trends, dealers can identify potential areas of growth or risk and make informed decisions about resource allocation and strategic planning.

Additionally, it is critical to measure a dealership’s performance accurately and thoroughly to identify areas that need improvement and to maintain long-term success. Measuring performance from all angles ensures that the dealership is not overlooking important metrics that may impact their success in the long run.

Types of Data

Dealership leaders can gain valuable insights into areas of strength and weakness and make informed decisions to improve operations and drive profitability; this is done by tracking and analyzing data from a variety of sources, including:

Sales
Marketing
Market data

Sales Data

While conversion rates are a commonly used metric, it’s important to go beyond this and look at more comprehensive sales metrics. For instance, tracking per-sale profit can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of pricing strategies, while analyzing salesperson performance can help identify areas where additional training or coaching may be needed. Similarly, departmental performance metrics can help leaders identify areas where improvements may be needed to streamline operations and improve overall profitability.

Marketing Data

Looking at overall marketing ROI can help dealers identify areas where marketing their marketing spends are paying off and where adjustments may be needed. Additionally, tracking metrics, such as open rates and overall marketing engagement rates, can help identify:

Which marketing channels are most effective
Which offers and messaging are resonating
Which campaigns may need further attention

Market Data

Assessing your dealership team’s performance compared to competitors in your market is crucial for success. By benchmarking their performance against the top 5-10 dealers in their AOI, marketing data enables dealers to identify areas of opportunity and develop strategies to improve. This can involve analyzing data such as:

Sales per employee
Average transaction price and
Customer satisfaction scores

By understanding how your dealership compares to others in the industry, you can set realistic goals and track progress towards achieving them.

Finally, it’s important to measure your dealership’s overall impact on the broader market. This can include tracking metrics such as market share and customer satisfaction ratings, as well as analyzing the effectiveness of recent marketing campaigns or other initiatives. By keeping a close eye on these metrics, dealership leaders can ensure that they are making a positive impact on the market and driving long-term growth and success for their dealership.

How Can Mastermind Help

Mastermind’s Performance Insights provides in-depth dealership reporting and attribution. This includes detailed analytics on individual salesperson performance and departmental performance to help dealerships identify top performers and areas for improvement, as well as provide data-driven decision-making opportunities.

Mastermind’s Market Impact dashboard takes this one step further, enabling dealers to compare their performance with other dealers – as well as across high-level make, model and segment benchmarks – regardless of brand. Since Market Impact sources information from sales and registration data, this gives dealers a more complete view of both new and pre-owned data by standardizing markets across the nation.

With these automotive dealer marketing insights, dealers are empowered to:

Reduce customer defections
Increase customer loyalty
Identify new opportunities
Optimize their inventory based on what is selling best in their market

SUCCESS STORY:
Nourse Chillicothe Ford Sees Consistent Boost in Business with Mastermind

Conclusion

While dealers often measure their success according to closed deals and conversion rates, simply tracking basic metrics and sales figures isn’t enough to compete in today’s market. Dealership leaders need to go beyond surface-level data and dive deeper into their sales, marketing, and market data to uncover valuable insights and make informed decisions.

To understand and measure their performance, dealerships should track a variety of metrics across multiple departments to gain a comprehensive view of their operations. By analyzing data at all levels, including sales, marketing and market-level insights, dealers are empowered to: