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Selling Cars in a Recession
Chip Wynn Motors has been in business 60 years and gone through many tough times and still going strong. Today the
business is run
by Chip Wynn and is doing well in spite of the recession. Chip's sold his Buick franchise a couple of years ago
and his Jeep franchise last year. Today Chip has clean, late model low mileage used vehicles (he calls them Chip
Certified). He is located in Paducah, Ky.
Clay Campbell: How long have you been selling cars?
Chip Wynn: Personally almost 37 years
C C: You’re in a small town of about 26,000 with a county of population of 65,000, right? So
how are you doing in your car dealership?
C W At the end of 2007, the economy started going down, but we’ve had bad times before.
C C You have managed to do well and have used creative ideas to deal with this economy. What all
did you do?
C W We refocused on the customer and on their needs. Right now our clients are not
looking for the $30-40,000 cream puffs that we always have sold. We changed our Inventory very quickly
to meet needs. We brought in valued priced cars that would sell for $200-$250 per month payments.
I personally think the days of a couple having $600 - $800 month in new car payments are over.
We refocused to have more value priced cars to meet the market and that has helped us dodge the economic bullet.
We had a lot of $25-30,000 vehicles; when the economy tanked, people started looking for $10-15,000 cars, so we
made immediate changes. I will always have some higher priced cars, just fewer.
“Toys” were not selling well at all.
Last year, 2008, was the worst summer season in 30 years, for what
I call “toys”. (Corvettes, Convertibles, fancy sports cars, etc)
After going down to the Wizard Academy in Austin Texas, about 4 years ago, I began a whole series of changes. We
just changed our game plan in order to have what the customers need and want. For us, it’s all about the customer.
We immediately took a proactive approach to inventory control. Those that don’t make changes, and challenge the
way they’ve always done things, won’t be around long.
The banks changed their lending policies; therefore we have had to move rapidly to meet those changes. We had
to move the large SUV’s and trucks quickly, in order to get them off the lots. Many of the dealers that kept
those, and kept waiting for people to come in and buy them, have gone broke.
C C: How do you feel what you’re doing, has helped you compete with the other dealers?
C W: It has helped propel us forward. In 2008 we were the second largest retailer in western
Kentucky in used cars. Only second to a new $10 million dealership in our town.
C C: How has your strategy been in advertising? You have made an about switch, right?
C W: We withdrew almost all our newspaper advertising, and we pulled out at the right time. We still do
limited newspaper, but then, they have adjusted the cost, to make newspaper more affordable now. They never did that before this economy went south. We started using radio branding our name and that strategy has worked out well.
The radio strategy has been on an annual basis, and has proven to be very effective; versus the 12 week band-aid that sales people come in and try to promote.
I use the Roy William’s approach - I have learned that you got to hang in there for the long haul. We have been doing our radio campaign for 4 years now. We have branded our name and I use my own voice. We have more of a branding approach; not price and item, but more relationship type ads.
We are strategizing more than the average dealer – that’s the best way to put the pieces together.
You have to stay upfront. I have played it both ways though; ‘built it and they will come’ worked well in the 50 and 60’s, but not today. Now there is so much competition.
Our strategy is; you have to keep yourself out front. We’ve been willing to try different things and some worked,
and some things didn’t. You just have to find the right buttons to push. Some of the other dealers that decided to
stay on the same course…they were nice guys, but they finished last, cause they weren’t finding out what worked in
today’s economy.
C C What about your staff?
C W That’s the other super component of the business - it’s our staff. We have an energetic,
pumped up sales force and we have constant training. Some sales people (90 day wonders is what I call them) the
ones that think that have done it all, seen, it all, etc - they won’t listen. That causes lost sales.
Our sales staff are learning, and wanting to improve. We now have by far the best sales team I ever had. We have
great karma and I don’t want to upset it.
C C Do you have any advice for other business owners out there who are having difficulty today?
C W My advice to other businesses trying to cope in today’s economy is this: First – access your
own business plan. Step back from your business and look carefully at what you are doing. Walk into your business
as a consumer would – what does she see, what does she feel? Are there vultures at the door laughing and
smoking? I would feel threatened by that.
Nowadays, there is a higher level of anxiety when purchasing an automobile. Today’s consumer doesn’t
want to deal with stress and anxiety like that. At Chip Wynn, customers do not feel pressure, stress or
anxiety – that is the key to our great repeat business - 70% of our customers have bought from us before. They
feel welcome, and they feel they are appreciated, and they feel that they are not just another number.
C C They found the open and honest dealer – LOL
C W The fish rots from the head down. Business owners will look at the sales force, the office,
expenses and so forth, but the last thing they do is look at themselves. So I say: look at you - and access
yourself. We had holes that needed to be filled. You constantly got to be on the ball with your customer. You
have to move with the consumer – you cannot lag behind – they do not have to buy from you, they have freedom of
choice.
Do you have enough margin in your life?
by Clay Campbell
I copied this below from Rick Warren’s daily devotional email. It’s always a good read, and helps
me keep perspective in my life. Even if you have read it before; I recommend you read it again. It is
one of the reasons Americans have so many heart attacks. It’s another reason for a 50% divorce rate.
It is also another reason why consumers are oblivious to the unending, constant barrage, of advertising they
are subjected to.
"A lot of people are on overload and headed for a crash. Consider these statistics among U.S. citizens:
- People now sleep 2 1/2 fewer hours each night compared to people from one hundred years ago.
- The average work week is longer now than it was in the 1960s.
- The average office worker has 36 hours of work piled up on his or her desk. It takes three hours a week just to sort through it and find what we need.
- We spend eight months of our lives opening junk mail, two years of our lives playing phone tag with people who are too busy to answer, and five years waiting for people who are trying to do too much and are late for meetings.
We're a piled-on, stretched-to-the limit society; chronically rushed, chronically late, chronically
exhausted. Many of us feel like Job did when he said, "I have no peace! I have no quiet! I have no rest! And
trouble keeps coming" (Job 3:26 GWT).
Overload comes when we have too much activity in our lives, too much change, too many choices, too much work, too much debt, too much media exposure.
Dr. Richard Swenson says, "The conditions of modern day living devour margin. If you're homeless we direct you to a shelter. If you're penniless we offer you food stamps. If you're breathless we connect you to oxygen. But if you're marginless we give you one more thing to do. Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor's office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser because you were ten minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from a gas station and you forgot your purse. That's marginless."
You need margin in your life. When you're not hurrying and worrying all the time, you have time to think. Time to relax. Time to enjoy life. Time to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).
by Rick Warren"
I am putting some margin in my life right now. I am making reservations at a nice hotel and kidnapping my bride of 30 years for a 3 day get away. What about you? Are you just going to say, “Well that’s a nice idea” or are you going to do something about it?
Clay recently presented a seminar for us at the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce and
we were extrememly pleased with the event. Clay is very informative and entertaining and this was the
highest attended seminar we have hosted. One of our members stated, “Thank you for the great presentation
by Clay Campbell. It applied to our business even though we are very specialized and don’t use conventional
radio or newspaper advertising. Great tips and a more than enjoyable presentation.”
Lance Allison
Executive Director
Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce
Perhaps now would be a good time to have a complimentary meeting with a Wizard of Ads Partner. Links to their websites and blogs are listed down the right side of The Wizard Times. Hundreds of their articles with free insightful advice can been seen at www.americansmallbusiness.com 2009 would be a great year to attend a class at the Wizard Academy 21st Century Business School in Austin Texas. What is the Wizard Academy?
See you next week.
Clay Campbell
Wizard of Ads
PS. Need help to attract more customers and grow your business?
