Automotive Sales & Leasing Professionals: The 2022 Difference is You
As a motivational sales speaker who closely tracks automotive sales and leasing trends, I tell my many friends in that industry, “Nothing in automotive sales is ever a given, you must be the difference maker.”
In a January 27, 2021 Forbes magazine article entitled Top 10 Global Automotive Trends, 2021, transportation writer Sarwant Singh stated:
“Frost & Sullivan’s mobility team has already revised its 2020 light vehicle sales forecasts from previously projected figures of 73.6 million to 77 million, although this still represents a fairly steep 15.1% year-on-year decline. More promisingly, we anticipate a brisk 8% year-on-year rise in sales in 2021, with the industry on track to overtake 2019 levels by the end of 2023.”
However, in a year-end Forbes article (December 27, 2021), writer Jim Henry offered a more somber outlook: “December [2021] makes it six months in a row U.S. auto sales fell below the year-ago month, according to Thomas King, president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Power.” In fact, many dealerships experienced miserable end of year results.
The 8% sales projection at the start of the year appeared to hit half of expectations. However, the challenges don’t begin and end there.
Automotive expert and writer Jack Highmore wrote (January 12, 2022):
“By [the end of] 2022, NADA expects to sell 15.4 million new cars. This represents a 3.4% increase from 2021…however, most analysts overestimate[d] last year, and almost everyone is confident that car production will not recover until late 2022 or early 2023. This is about the same pitch we got at the beginning of 2021.”
If There is Confusion…
If you have a sense of confusion as to the number of new car sales and leasing deals we can expect in 2022, you’re not alone. Why? Because there are so many unknowns and uncertainties. Chip shortages, supply-chain problems, high prices and online purchases are just the start of the problem. While profits rose on existing inventories, as we all know it didn’t necessarily mean a phenomenal year for everyone.
At the start of 2021, there was blind, almost giddy optimism that everything in the automotive industry would wildly rebound. Optimism is a good thing for any salesperson to have, but it doesn’t mean (as we all know) that car sales will be automatic – that everyone walking through our physical or virtual doors will place an order.
Competition for what inventory is available is intense. Morgan Corn, writing about the online sales picture in the automotive industry for ABC News, found (March 28, 2021):
“Young people in particular want to purchase or lease a vehicle by using their cellphone. Online becomes a portal to a showroom. When consumers come to dealerships now, they’re there to buy.”
She is only partially right. Salespeople must be committed to the sales process as never before. This is especially true with electronics. Those so-called “young people” might come through your dealership portal and you might have inventory available, but they are a sophisticated, highly technical audience. You must be determined to offer answers and solutions to their questions as never before.
Selling and/or leasing new vehicles will require a dedicated, straightforward mindset. Unless you have the grit to deliver their specific answers, customers will move on to dealerships that will provide them with what they need.
In short, car sales in 2022 will require you to be a difference-maker as well as go-to expert. It can mean a good return in an uncertain time or disappointment. Do you have the vision to overcome any challenges the year will offer?
To contact Scott Burrows, Automobile Leasing & Automobile Sales Motivational Speaker for a virtual or in person presentation, please reach out to him through this new website or his office at: (520) 548-1169
