Special Internet Pricing?

[Brian D Ferris]

Great Question, endless dilemma, read this:

Maintaining optimal pricing manually is a losing battle. Cars are
volatile commodities. Supply & demand are never constant.

Dilemma 1: If you don’t display prices you might not get any inquiries. If you do show prices then they better be interesting, otherwise you certainly won’t get any response. Catch 22! If you are always forced to open negotiations at your lowest, least profitable price, then how can you ever score a home-run?

Dilemma 2: Pitching “No haggle low prices” sounds tempting to some, but how can one price fit all? Every buyer is not the same. Each has their own unique set of circumstances, priorities, and values; so a fair price for one may not be fair enough for another. What about the less demanding buyers who may have been willing to pay you more!

‘So, - either you lose deals because your price is too high, or you end up leaving money on the table, because your price is too low. Either way, you lose!

How about trying to set aside everything you ever learned about pricing, - just for a moment. Open your mind, step back and watch how two trillion dollars worth of securities get sold every day with no fuss; and always at the best price the market can bear.

Brian Ferris
DealMaker.com
'matching supply & demand'

 

[Oscar Vanderkooij]

Acura does not allow us to list prices below MSRP on any advertising platform, which includes our website and get this, email blasts. In addition, we cannot even offer $500 accessory credit, since this will decrease the MSRP by set $500 according to Acura. No freebies or add-ons unless you add the additional cost of the freebies to the MSRP of the vehicle.

So we have a coupon on our website (pop-up and under) that says:
"Internet Savings Certificate". It is a big converter on our website as it converts more customers then any other form. Last month for example half of our leads (new and used cars - not looking at service/parts etc) came from this coupon. We also sell a lot of cars of it.

The great thing about this pop-up is that it is essentially an iframe and not a true pop-up, so having your pop-up blocker turned on will not stop it from showing. Check out my website for ideas.

Now back to Special Internet Pricing. I think you should never give someone what they want without giving you what you want - you want their contact info! When you have that, you have to give the customer what they want. They want a price, give them a price, because if you do not, they will not be happy. Acura rates our Internet response based on the information we put in our first two emails:
- do we cross sell
- do give a price
- do we mention special offers
- do we brand our dealer
- do we sell the product (awards etc)
- response time

I would tell your GM that you gotta give the customer what they want when they inquire. Now I do not worry about a showroom customer shopping the same day to see whether he can get it cheaper on the internet, because if you have a good crm, your price quote does not go out automatically if it is a customer that has already been in. In addition, if you do not give them what they want, your competitor down the street will give them that Special Internet Price.....and guess what? You just lost a sale!

 

[Stan Sher (blog)]

Do not lower the new car inventory price on the site. Special pricing is for internet customers only. If a customer does not submit a lead, they are not an internet customer. To avoid the problems of having a high gross customer go home and see the car for less money simply do not advertise it on the site. There are many other tools that you can use to get the customer in the door. Start by generating a lead and giving them what they want before trying to get what you need. This is the only real solution.