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KPMG’s top tips to maximise a hail sale:

  1. Perform a detailed stocktake before the sale and make sure you know the location of each vehicle. Work out what vehicles you are prepared to sell.
  1. Have a firm and simple pricing policy: Make it simple for your customers and sales team to understand. Discounts should be based on damage and not the type of vehicle. If there are only a few dents you may discount $250 per dent or $1000 per panel if more substantial damage. Be consistent so it makes sense to customers. Better-selling models should not be given less damage discount but less retail discount. For your customers it will be all about the value proposition.
  1. Hail damage discount should be in addition to a normal discount that customers should be able to achieve. If you try to use the damage discount to give less retail discount, customers will smell this a mile away and start to doubt if the sale is genuine. Your sales team will also be more engaged and influential to close the sale if they see genuine savings for customers.
  1. Display all of your vehicles for sale. Open your stock yards and warehouses. If need be rent a space and create a warehouse-type feel. This will only enhance the feeling of wholesale discounts.
  1. Get a war room together and get your people on the phone up to a week out from the sale and make appointments. Role play objections around insurance and questions regarding “how much discount”. This is a sale where the customer is incentivised to visit you.
  1. Price every car on a master list showing RRP (including options), discount, further hail discount, final driveaway price. If you get busy during the sale you don’t want salespeople wanting you to calculate a discount and keep a customer waiting.
  1. Display the price on every car either using a Was/Is hanger sign or with a paint texta on a window/windscreen. Show RRP, discount, hail sale discount and final driveaway price. Show and highlight total discount. Also show discount as a percentage to create value to the customers. Keep these prices off the internet.
  1. Don’t assume you don’t have to do the ‘Road to a Sale’ – remember your customers are still buying a car, not a discount, and they need to be sold on the car first. Also you don’t want to offend your customers by delivering a poor experience. Hopefully they will come back to buy more cars in the future and you don’t want one hail sale event to put them off you for life. Get extra casual staff in for the day if you predict you will be very busy.
  1. Be sure to maximise accessory and finance gross. Advertise special deals in these areas on each vehicle. Make sure payments are on each vehicle sign/window.
  1. When completing a deal, take photos of the hail damage and share with the customer so that there are no disagreements on delivery about the level of hail damage.

Author: Joel Shashoua, director, KPMG Motor Industry Services, is a 20-year automotive industry veteran who has managed hail sales during his career.

By Joel Shashoua

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