Dealerships struggle to connect marketing with sales.
Bill Macdonald, owner of Macdonald Motors CDJR, keeps a close eye on the surrounding dealership. Every month, he reviews the factory sales reports to see how his store stacks up against the competition.
Day after day, month after month, you are left unsure why opportunities are slipping away.
If you’re like Bill… You KNOW there is demand in your area. Look at all the dealerships selling around you! Your store ISN’T getting its “fair” share.
In 12 Months, your store has made a complete turnaround. New leadership has been brought into your store and reinvigorated the culture, and the dealership is allowing data to dictate strategy.
Your market share has doubled, and you’ve become a number three dealership in the state.
Focused advertising is creating and capturing demand for the sales staff, generating an ROI of $7.40 to $1 on Meta/Facebook. And with a reinvigorated sales staff and new BDC, the store is maximizing the advertising efforts by improving lead handling processes, like increasing the lead-to-appointment rate from 2% to 20%.
This is the story of Bill Macdonald and Macdonald Motors Bridgton CDJR, So how did he get here?
Bill focused on 4 fundamental areas to turn the dealership around.
What Happened (In Under Two Minutes):
Bill Macdonald is the owner of Macdonald Motors in Bridgton CDJR.
He decided to partner with Fountain Forward back in 2020 after he had seen a long-time friend and dealer be featured in another one of Fountain Forward’s blogs.
We had just started writing out dealer success stories as blogs, and Bill was one of the first dealerships to reach out to see how Fountain Forward could help his store sell more cars.
Years later, his dealership has turned into a case study. Life came full circle as the dealership has gone from near the bottom of the pack to #3 in the state!
Let Data Dictate Strategy
Back in 2020, Bill hired Fountain Forward to analyze their dealership’s data and make better sales, marketing, and merchandising decisions with Analytics Edge, a bolt-on “Moneyball” back office using data to make dealerships more money.
We realized that Macdonald Motors’ digital strategy was virtually non-existent, and the dealership was a great candidate for our proprietary Media Mix Modeling technology, which we now call the Automotive Accelerator.
Instead of putting Maconald’s advertising dollars in saturated and competitive traditional channels, we went “all in” on digital – specifically Facebook – and bet on digital being the best catalyst for growth.
Additionally, we focused on improving crucial lead nurturing KPIs and CRM utilization.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It took a lot of hard work to make this transformation happen.
Like many dealerships, Macdonald Motors navigated conservatively during COVID. As inventories shrank, traditional yet effective spending was important for Macdonald Motors.
Having months of data mapping out where leads and sales were coming from, we knew exactly where to spend to ensure Bill received the best ROI on his money and sell as many cars as cheaply as possible.
Since starting with Fountain Forward, the dealership has recorded an ROI of $7.40 – $1 on social ads alone.
During this time, the dealership, like many others, was trying to navigate the uncertainty in the industry. But as the inventory started to enter the market again, Bill made another move.
Hiring the Right GM Matters
He brought in Aaron Chase in December of 2022. Straight from the competition!
Going in for the kill!
Aaron is now GM at the store and has been massive for driving the day-to-day operations of the dealership. He’s helped reinvent the culture at the dealership, while Bill has been able to focus on driving other expansions and projects at the dealership.
Month after Month, Macdonald Motors has chipped away and eaten up market share from ALL stores in the area.
Macdonald Motors has become a PROBLEM for the other dealerships in the area. Below is a look at the dominating rise in market share throughout 2023.
Aaron has focused on what they are doing to get customers INTO the showroom. They look at every angle of every lead to find some opportunities to get a swing at the deal. After all, every problem has a creative solution, right?
They meet twice a week outside of the store to discuss the operation. They don’t have time when they are at the stores during the day!
Sourcing Inventory
Aaron has also played a major role in finding creative ways to source inventory. He’s nimble and knows how to act quickly.
Since he started, the store has been taking advantage of getting information early. If Chrysler announces they have 15-20% off of 2023 Ram 1500s, within five minutes of receiving the email, he’s calling other stores to see if they’d give up any of their ‘23 inventory.
They also benefitted from regional programs. If there was a northeast regional special, they would call outside of the region to bring in more vehicles that qualified.
In 2023, they ran out of half-ton trucks! So what did they do? Called a dealership outside of the region. They bought 12, then sold 12. Rockstar stuff!
Improving Lead Handling
Another piece that has been crucial to their success was a massive change and focus on lead handling. Macdonald Motors decided to bring a BDC manager in-house, and they found a hitter.
Before this, Macdonald Motors had a difficult time tracking anything in the CRM. Now, is a focus point for the store. They are scheduling 20% of leads into appointments, and 60%+ are showing while maintaining a 40% closing rate on appointments.
We really have seen a culmination of all these efforts take effect in 2023.
Total sales have increased by 59.62%. Every single month is up Year Over Year.
In Conclusion:
Bill focused on 4 fundamental areas to turn the dealership around.
1. Data Dictates Strategy
2. Hiring the Right GM
3. Sourcing Inventory
4. Improving Lead Handling
Macdonald’s New Media Mix is now allowing the dealership to find and convert more in-market demand. By implementing processes and bringing in talent by hiring quality people, Bill is driving the business Forward. Climbing the ladder on our way to number 1!
This example with Macdonald Motors does a great job of highlighting when done correctly, strong fundamentals can and will propel a dealership. There has been NO SECRET bullet to get to this point. It has been fundamentals, done well, and done consistently.
