Running a car dealership today isn’t always easy. Digital transformation isn't just coming — it's already here, changing how people shop for and buy cars. Your customers walk in armed with pricing info, vehicle specs, and competing offers. Expectations keep rising while profit margins on new vehicles and service appointments keep shrinking.
With these challenges, it's no wonder many dealerships are turning to automotive consulting for help. But before you sign that consulting contract, take a breath. While consultants can be helpful in some situations, they're not always the solution you need. There might be better, more cost-effective ways to tackle your dealership's challenges.
Summary
What Is an Automotive Consultant?
An automotive consultant is a professional who helps dealerships improve their operations, increase profitability, and adapt to industry changes. With years of experience in the automotive industry, dealer consultants bring specialized knowledge in areas like sales, service, or management to the table.
Consultants typically work on a project basis, analyzing your processes to spot problems and recommend practical solutions. Depending on your needs, their focus might be on a single department or extend across your entire dealership operation.
Types of Automotive Consultants
The world of automotive consulting includes several specialties, each with unique approaches and areas of focus. Understanding these differences is key to finding the right fit for your specific challenges — or deciding if you need a consultant at all.
Automotive Sales Consultants
What is an automotive sales consultant? They specialize in boosting your dealership's sales performance, from generating better leads to closing more deals. By examining your current sales methods, they help you uncover weaknesses and build programs designed to lift performance across your team.
Working hands-on with your sales staff, these consultants offer automotive sales consultant training on everything from customer interactions to negotiation tactics and product knowledge. Many dealership owners turn to sales consultants when facing declining numbers or struggling with high turnover on the sales floor. Fresh eyes can quickly spot problems in your sales funnel that might be invisible when you're immersed in day-to-day operations.
Automotive Service Consultants
With a focus on boosting efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability, automotive service consultants target what's often the most reliable revenue stream for dealerships: Your service department. Through careful analysis of your workflows, appointment scheduling, and service customer retention, this type of automotive consulting helps you develop a roadmap for improvement.
Service consultants might recommend new technologies, streamlined operations, or comprehensive training for service advisors. They should have a deep technical knowledge of fixed operations like service and parts, which can be harder to find than a typical sales consultant.
Automotive Management Consultants
Taking a broader view of your dealership, automotive management consultants focus on leadership effectiveness, organizational structure, and business strategy. Unlike specialists who work with frontline staff, these consultants, also called automotive business consultants, typically partner directly with owners and managers.
From succession planning and leadership development to financial analysis and operational restructuring, this type of automotive consulting addresses foundational issues affecting multiple departments. A consultant’s outside perspective can be particularly valuable during major transitions like expansion, acquisition, or leadership changes.
Automotive Industry Consultants
When it comes to navigating market trends, industry shifts, and competitive positioning, industry consultants bring the big-picture expertise dealerships need. Drawing from backgrounds in automotive manufacturing, distribution, or high-level retail strategy, these specialists see patterns and opportunities others might miss.
Through detailed market analysis, competitive intelligence, and long-term strategic planning, automotive industry consultants guide dealerships through major decisions. Their recommendations might cover facility investments, expansion opportunities, or adding new brands to your portfolio. By tapping into their broad perspective on where the automotive world is heading, you can make more confident decisions about your dealership's future direction.
How Can Automotive Consulting Improve Your Business?
Dealerships turn to automotive consultants when they're facing challenges they can't solve internally or when they need specialized expertise. The right consultant can bring fresh ideas and proven strategies that have worked for other dealerships — but you don't always need automotive consulting to get these benefits.
Process Improvement
A good consultant can spot inefficiencies in your processes that you might miss. They look at how customers move through your dealership, how paperwork flows, and how departments communicate. For example, they might discover that your finance process is taking too long, frustrating customers who've already decided to buy. Or they might find that your service advisors don't have the information they need when customers arrive for appointments. Then they can recommend changes that save time and improve the customer experience.
Staff Training and Development
Automotive dealership consulting firms often create training programs to improve staff skills and knowledge. They might work with your sales team on better closing techniques or help service advisors improve their customer communication. Good training can boost confidence, improve performance, and reduce staff turnover. When your team members feel competent and successful, they're more likely to stay with your dealership.
Customer Experience Enhancement
Automotive consulting often focuses on improving the overall customer experience at your dealership. They might mystery shop your location, review customer feedback, and recommend changes to make every touchpoint more positive. A better customer experience leads to higher satisfaction scores, more repeat business, and more referrals. It can transform your reputation in the community and set you apart from competitors.
Do You Need Automotive Consulting Services?
Before signing that automotive consulting contract, ask yourself what you're really trying to solve. You might not need a complete consulting service to come in and overhaul your entire dealership. Instead, you might just need a few tailored solutions for specific challenges.
You might need full-service automotive consulting when:
- You're planning major changes like opening a new location or adding a franchise
- Your dealership is struggling financially and needs a comprehensive turnaround plan
- You're preparing for ownership transition or succession planning
- You need to completely rebuild your brand and reputation in the market
- You're merging with another dealership and need to integrate operations
On the other hand, you might be better served by business development center (BDC) services like Better Car People when:
- You're struggling to respond to leads quickly and professionally
- You need to better respond to after-hours leads
- Your staff is overwhelmed by phone calls and online inquiries
- You want to improve show rates for sales and service
- You want to boost customer retention and loyalty
- Your sales or service team needs support with follow-up and appointment setting
Driving Success for Your Dealership
While Better Car People isn't an automotive consulting company, we will look at your processes and help you figure out how to streamline them. Better yet, we then become part of the solution. We help with the challenges that dealerships face like staffing shortages, customer communication, and maintaining loyalty by handling the day-to-day work of responding to leads, booking appointments, and keeping your customers happy.
Our approach is cost-effective because you only pay for the services you need, and we scale with your business. We act as an extension of your team rather than a one-time auto consultant, providing ongoing support that evolves with your dealership. Want to see how we can help your dealership thrive without the hefty consulting fees? Book a quick demo with Better Car People today.