Imagine you’re buying a brand new dealership and in your mind you are thinking, “Maybe I’ll be profitable by the end of this year.” or “I hope to make my investment back in two to three years.”
Then, in your very first month after buying that dealership, you end up hitting your expected pro forma that you were planning to hit over a year from now.
In your first full month at your dealership, you have had the BEST month ever in the trackable history of that dealership.
Fast Forward 12 Months…
Sales at the dealership have DOUBLED and the store is taking market share directly from one of the top CDJR stores in the WORLD, AutoNation CDJR of Spring, Texas.
Fast Forward Another 18 Months…
You open a BRAND NEW CDJR store and set back-to-back sales records in the first months operating out of the new location.
Well, that’s exactly what happened for owner, Josh Wischnewsky of Wischnewsky Dodge.
What Happened (In Under Two Minutes):
In June of 2020, Josh Wischnewsky was on the hunt for a new store, and with his track record at Winnie Dodge, he knew a store just outside the metro area was familiar territory. Josh set his sights on Team Dodge, a CDJR store located in Huntsville, TX.
One thing for sure, Josh knows how to take market share. Since Fountain Forward helped Josh hit first place in his PMA with Winnie Dodge, Josh hired us immediately for his next dealership for consulting, advertising, and to crush a new set of competitors.
We realized that Team Dodge’s digital strategy was virtually non-existent, and Wischnewsky Dodge was a great candidate for our proprietary Marketing Mix Modeling technology.
Immediately upon launching the new dealership, Fountain Forward was able to come in and exploit channels that the dealership and their nearest competitors weren’t even touching.
Instead of putting Wischnewsky’s advertising dollars in saturated and competitive channels, we went “all in” on digital – specifically Facebook – and bet on digital being the best catalyst for growth.
12 months into buying the dealership, Wischnewksy CDJR was averaging 146 units per month in a store that used to average LESS THAN 60.
Wischnewsky became a PROBLEM for the other dealership’s in the area.
Month after Month, Wischnewsky chipped away and ate up market share from ALL store’s in the area.
GUESS WHO NOTICED
The factory. Stellantis.
Josh Wischnewksy set his sights on building a brand new location.
It requires a tremendous amount of effort to construct a new location. After years of planning and preparation, finding the perfect location, and designing the ideal layout, construction broke ground in 2022.
To ensure success and continued growth for the new storefront, Fountain Forward & Wischnewsky CDJR discussed the objectives and sales targets for the new location in Q4 of 2022.
When we heard their objectives, Fountain Forward used our proprietary Media Mix Modeling simulation to put together a new budget.
By the time the new storefront opened, every marketing and advertising resource had already been studied, measured, and allocated for YEARS since taking over Team Dodge.
Since starting advertising with Wischnewsky Dodge, Fountain Forward has been able to attribute 1,018 vehicle purchases worth $4,688,822.28 in total gross at the dealership JUST on FACEBOOK ALONE.
We’ve spent nearly $429,784.07 on Facebook during that time, generating an ROI of $10.91 per dollar spent.
That’s just for Wischnewsky CDJR. That’s not considering $20M+ in annual advertising spend that Fountain Forward manages.
The store officially opened in February of 2023.
Fountain Forward implemented our simulated budget to find and convert more in-market demand into opportunities for the dealership.
That strategy involved doubling down on channels that we knew were effective and profitable, like Facebook and Google. Additionally, we decided to leverage Amazon Display advertising and Streaming Audio to absolutely cover the area.
Since opening the new location, Wischnewsky was able to effectively increase their new & used inventories.
Using Fountain Forward’s Automotive Accelerator, the store was set up for success early in 2023.
In the first two months operating out of the new location, Wischnewsky CDJR set back-to-back sales records.
Sales pulled back slightly in the coming months. But Wischnewsky CDJR has no quit.
Under the guidance of General Manager, Ben Weatherford, Wischnewsky CDJR has found its stride again in August.
Leveraging low APR incentives, Wischnewsky moved every single Gladiator off their lot in August 2023, setting them up for yet ANOTHER sales record and their most dominant month yet in terms of market share.
Here’s a timeline of monthly sales at the dealership dating back to the start of 2020.
For Those That Want To Read More…Key dealership fundamentals:
Every dealership is doing what we’ve mentioned below, but how these work in unison is where money is won and lost.
Every month, you must build your strategy with the below five criteria in unison. If not, you are wasting money. It may be $10,000, or it may be $200,000, but you’re wasting money, that’s for sure.
1. Inventor
a. Does inventory accurately reflect your sales goal?
2. Pricing and Merchandising
a. Vehicles need to be priced correctly and aggressively depending on your objectives. Match the customer you’re trying to sell.
3. Sales Force
a. Are there enough sales people at the dealership? Like really. Like really really… Just asking, for a friend.
b. Are you giving them the correct lead mix? It’s typical for salespeople to waste resources on low quality leads that don’t result in sales. We have more than a few case studies to show how creative sales people can be with garbage leads.
c. Is the sales team aggressive and consultative in hitting lead to appointment benchmarks?
4. Sales Process
a. Is the sales process aggressive and effective? What do you define as success for each individual salesperson?
b. Are customers being reached quickly?
5. Messaging
a. A message is what sets a dealership apart from other dealers in the area.
b. Do customers understand this message in a clear and concise way that touches a pain point?
Team Dodge had the criteria. They checked the boxes. But merely checking them will not max out a dealership’s profits. It’s not possible. You have to have them all in unison.
That is why, the fundamentals are where the money is.
The secret sauce is spending the time to make sure they’re lined up. If you don’t, don’t expect the profits. Advertising is not a one off.
