Automotive News - October 10, 2016 - Supplement - S5

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT Embracing Today's Consumer They've been characterized-sometimes harshly-as technophiles seeking immediate gratiﬁcation, but Millennials are also revered as civic-minded doers who value work-life balance like no other generation. For all the opinions about the Millennials (also known as Gen Y), two facts stand out about the 83 million members. They have recently overtaken the baby boomers as America's largest generation, and they've become a consumer force that auto dealers must change tactics to attract. Scott Gunnell, vice president of Sales Strategy and Development for JM&A Group, suggests Millennials are not tolerant of the status quo and dealers that aren't doing anything to appeal to their needs are at risk of losing their business. "Forget the one-size-ﬁts-all business practices of the past," says Chris May, JM&A's manager of Sales Process Development-a Millennial himself. "Dealers need to be aware that yesterday's model isn't going to work for this growing population of consumers and professionals." May presents the four pillars of the modern customer experience as empowerment, transparency, timeliness and personalization, and in terms of personalization, sales associates need to meet Millennial customers in their space. "They are much more adept at jumping in and out of different communication platforms," May adds. "They will tell you how they want to be engaged and if you're not willing to do so, they'll ﬁnd someone who will." When a car buyer walks into an auto showroom, the dealer staff can expect that he or she has already done hours of online research. According to industry $3ħ<22'££ experts, consumers generally spend 11 to 17 hours collecting information and Millennials are typically on the upper end of that range. Sales associates have been trained to start the interaction at what was once the traditional, linear path to purchase, but Millennials have proven to be much further along in that process. "If you're going to hold them up and not give credit for the research they've done, it will affect trust, so you need to acknowledge where they are in the transaction," says Gunnell. Gunnell also points to the test drive as an example Chris May of the ﬂexibility sales associates need to exhibit when working with Millennials. Today, the test drive is more about validation. Some may have previously rented the make of the car being considered for purchase, and while untraditional, they may "consider test drives as a complete waste of time." Either way, dealers that recognize these behaviors are adapting to Gen Yers in a variety of ways. "We ﬁnd that every dealer we work with has a different strategy on how to engage Millennials," says May. "We see an increase in tablet usage in stores, dealer websites becoming more transactional, and even some dealerships adopting a one-price or single point-ofcontact strategy to streamline the process." Jason Barrie, Dealertrack's vice president of Market Performance, Lenders, Sales and F&I Solutions in Lake Success, N.Y., states that Millennials want to ﬁnd leasing or purchase payment amounts, have their trade-in valued and ﬁll out a digital credit application long before walking into the showroom. "Because of Millennials' buying behaviors, dealers need engagement to start online at the onset of the purchasing path," says Barrie. "Then the process should have a seamless continuation, leading up to signing electronic documents on a tablet to complete the transaction." While digital efforts are aimed to entice Millennials, older age groups have been adopting behaviors of the younger population because those research methods are efﬁcient. For that reason, JM&A considers buying habits of an entire market, applying the marketing and sales strategies to all consumers the same way it gains the trust and draws the attention of the newer generation. "Empowering customers to begin the sales process at home will also help land older buyers," says Gunnell. "It's more of a behavior than a generation and just as common for a baby boomer to use an iPad and other mobile devices." One trait that does seem speciﬁc to Gen Y is the love of leases. Barrie says the number of vehicles leased by this group grew 49 percent from 2012 to 2016. Gen Xer leases grew 2 percent in that period, while baby boomer leases declined by 16 percent. * OCT '16 / JM&A GROUP / 5

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