Buyers would ideally prefer to buy a dealership that has great potential for growth through sales efficiency. This can include factors such as:
- Is your market area growing in population and/or income?
- How much local competition is there in your brand’s vehicle segments?
- Are your online marketing strategies providing good quality leads?
- Is your sales process effective, both in the showroom and online?
- Is your website optimized to turn visitors into buyers?
While the new car department is your dealership’s main showcase and usually responsible for over 50% of sales revenue, it’s important to recognize that, according to NADA, total profits roughly break down to 25% in new cars, 25% in used cars, and 50% in service & parts.
So, attend to the teams and infrastructure in all three departments. If your dealership can show profitability across the board, a buyer can have confidence that the business has its act together. You want all three departments working in harmony, with a sales experience that encourages buyers to choose the dealership as their service & parts provider and vice versa.
As such, the entire dealership should continue to prosper when the new owner steps in.