A downloadable dealership performance directive from DealerMax discusses six “essential online sales processes” that it says are a requirement for the new online sales retail environment.

Dealership support company DealerMax said its team of digital retail experts wrote the guide, titled, “Dealership 2020 Guide: Re-engineering Automotive Retail.”

The team wrote the guide to give dealers a sense of control and focus as the industry sees an urgent need to move sales online. That is where consumers increasingly feel more comfortable, safe, and empowered to shop for and buy cars, the company said.

Consumers will also prefer dealerships’ offering processes that add layers of safety and comfort by bringing them single-source contact, especially in-store.

“In other words, there is a new roadmap to the sale,” DealerMax chief executive officer Jim Maxim said in a news release.

Maxim continued, “Meaning, selling cars remotely, and this guide helps dealers to better grasp several of the concrete steps they’re likely to find necessary on their path to successful online, remote car sales.”

DealerMax has developed a series of weekly webinars that it says can help dealers learn more immediately. The company is also developing enriched content for each process change module. 

Maxim focused on digital F&I in 2003 as chief executive officer for MaximTrak, which he sold to RouteOne in 2016. Because of that, DealerMax said he understands the need to bring different sets of customer engagement processes with technology to end-to-end online car sales.

“This change can be a hard choice for dealers who, before COVID, were convinced people still wanted to come in, look around, and touch a car, even if they didn’t buy,” Maxim said. 

An immediately available download version of the DealerMax Dealership 2020 Guide: Re-engineering Automotive Retail discusses questions such as,       How should you retool your people and reconfigure your customer experience? and What are the techniques, technologies, training needed for commerce during a crisis?

Other questions the guide addresses include:

— What are the critical decisions to make to business processes and sales workflow to transact?

— How will your processes change as you limit your face-to-face time with your customers?

 — How can you position your dealership to survive the moment and become more influential in a post-pandemic world?