The Cost of Now

In business, there’s a premium on “revenue now”.

As business owners, we tend to emphasize revenue today in order to put groceries on the table tomorrow. It’s a strategy that makes sense, who doesn’t need groceries? It also has a way of creating an urgency behind our goals for more revenue.

Every business, especially in the automotive industry, has a goal to make money and to make it now. We are hyper-focused on the need for immediate gratification. We get it. The more cars sold means the more gross earned.

The problem is when the focus on deals today comes at the expense of a better strategy for sales tomorrow. That’s a tradeoff that likely results in a much lower cost per sale.

The vast majority of our daily decisions come at the cost of our ability to build a brighter and better future. When you consider CRMs, lead providers, direct mail and digital marketing — don’t we judge the value of these services, the vendor, or an employee based on how many cars they are responsible for helping us sell today?

Think about it.

The average dealership sees no less than 1,200 customers per month between sales, service and parts. This means 10,000 people per year will walk through your facility and interact with someone who is on your payroll. The best part is, this traffic will come even if you cut your advertising budget to zero!

However, the cost of now requires us to continually spend money and allocate key resources to marketing and advertising. Remember, our need is traffic today.

When everything we do is so focused on generating a car deal today, it’s easy to lose sight of a more valuable asset that we possess. This asset is different from the people you throw money at to earn their business the first time. This asset is eager to engage you. They want to purchase your cars and service.

Next week I will share with you this valuable asset and what you can do to wean yourself from the treadmill of “now” and begin building a sustainable, long-term sales strategy where you win.