Alpha Dawg Mentality: Ziegler Speaks to Dealers and General Managers

1. Pg. 22
Alpha Dawg Mentality
Ziegler Speaks to Dealers and
General Managers
Jim Ziegler
President
Ziegler Supersystems

2. Let’s Take a Look at the Future

4.  Manufacturers do not know how to sell cars, and they’re
never going to learn
The Hard Facts are…
In 2013 we will sell approximately:
o 15.5 million new units
o 43 million pre-owned units

5. There are approximately:
 208,000,000 licensed drivers in the USA for 88% of
adults within eligible age guidelines
 That is up from 193,000,000 a decade ago
 In 1983, more than a third of all licensed drivers were
under 30 years of age
 Today, that number has decreased to less than 22%
 Qualified adults in 1983 under the age of 40 accounted
for more than 50% of all drivers
 Today that number has diminished to less than 40%

6.  There are 234,467,679 cars and light trucks registered to
US Citizens
 In other words, we own 1.27 cars or light trucks per
licensed driver already
 If we are going to continue to sell 58.5 million units
annually, and that number is expected to grow, we will
have to sell a new or newer car to every licensed driver
every 3.5 years
 This is in direct conflict with the fact that the average car
today is 10.8 years old. (Compare that with 6.9 years in
1973)

7. Collectively, all of manufacturers selling product in the US
Market:
• Have forecast their production in excess of 35 million
units
• Around mid-year will make dramatic revisions scaling
their production plans back
• The year-end incentive wars are on
The numbers don’t lie! At some point, we’re going to
reach market saturation…again.

8. In 2007:
 We sold 17 million new units
 We sold 43 million pre-owned units
 This is the all-time record U.S. automobile sales
 If it is to happen again, it won’t be until perhaps 2015
Remember:
 We’re cramming nearly 61 million units a year into a potential
customer base (licensed drivers) of 200 million
 The Internet is the worst thing that ever happened to Car
Dealers
 This is a predicted cycle

9. The internet has not created the sales of one additional unit that we
wouldn’t have sold anyway
The internet has inserted vendors between us and the retail customers
who are taking profits while reducing our profits
 AutoTrader.com has annual revenues of more than $1,037,000,000
 That is One Billion, Thirty Seven Million Dollars annually
 The majority of that billion dollars was paid by dealers out of what
was otherwise your profits

10. Add up all money paid to all of the vendors who are grabbing some
piece of your pie to deliver sales to us that would have happened
anyway
No vendor has ever said credibly they created additional customers
or brought new buyers into the marketplace
“All the Internet has accomplished is redistributing which
dealers get the business.”
It doesn’t matter if we like it, love it, or hate it. It’s here and it’s not
going away. You have two choices, “Grow or Die”

11. If your dealership is underperforming while a competitor across town is
over-performing, there’s a strong possibility they are taking that business
from you with superior technology-enabled sales and marketing
If it’s passive messaging and not interactive advertising, it’s not effective
Contrary to popular belief, balloons are not state-of-the-art marketing
The survivors, and ultimately the winners, are going to be those
dealerships that made the commitment to the personnel, tools, and
processes that will put your company on top

12. Commitments Required:
 Resistance to Measurement
 Customer Relationship Management
 Daily Save-a-Deal Meetings
 The Bottom Line is The Bottom Line

13. The Bottom Line is The Bottom Line
The areas of concern:
 Facility
 Processes and Training
 Staffing
 Inventory
 CRM
 Advertising
 Internet and Customer Communications Department
 Community Involvement
 Reputation Management

14. The Final Factor
…is dealer commitment
You want the numbers? You want to survive and prosper in
this increasingly competitive environment? The only way to
increase your business…or even stay where you are
now…is to take that business from a competitor that
already has it. The Internet is the combination to the vault
and you need to get serious or get out of the game.