Over the course of the last month, MRAA has been in touch with thousands of dealers, through one-to-one contacts and surveys that are keeping the pulse of their businesses throughout today’s market place. It became clear in week one that the top concern on their minds was their cash flow. It makes sense — it’s the simple question of whether or not they have enough to pay their bills … and for how long?
But through our charting of every conversation, every email, every question on our dozen-plus webinars to date, and more than 1,000 open-ended responses to our weekly surveys, we’ve identified the five most critical issues on dealers’ minds. I encourage you to think about how your business can support dealers in these areas:
1. Cash Flow
It’s the topic on every business leader’s mind today. How much cash do I have? How much cash will be coming in? And how long can I keep my business running under various scenarios … scenarios created using greater levels of uncertainty than ever before. MRAA responded with a series of webinars to help dealers manage cash flow, but they’re looking for other creative ways their partners can help them through this crisis. It should come as no surprise that three of the other four hot buttons (if not all four) directly impact their cash flow.
Dealer Insight: “Independent dealers are going to be most concerned about money. Cash flow is drying-up and debt payments are due and will soon become the most significant disrupter in their business.”
2. Government Support
The first three stimulus programs are out, and while the Paycheck Protection Program has run out of money, there’s hope that a fourth stimulus may arrive as soon as this week. The programs are directly aimed at helping small businesses – with fewer than 500 employees – get through this downturn, providing for funds that can be applied to payroll, health care benefits, employee compensation, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, or importantly, “interest on any other debt obligations that were incurred before the covered period.” READ: Floorplan financing interest. Read MRAA’s analysis of the stimulus programs here, including an FAQ.
Dealer Insight: “My worries are about my business being able to pay the flooring interest as we go on hold. And as we go back, will there be an economy that will give people confidence to buy? I cannot sit on inventory for long periods of time.”
3. People
There’s a really difficult balance right dealers are striking at the moment. Through the workforce crisis of the last decade, they have worked hard to build great teams. They want to keep them on the payroll. They also have to navigate the risk of people working in a public setting and potentially being exposed to the virus. How does one balance the safety of their employees with the needs of keeping those employees paid? How does a dealership keep employees on the payroll if they are deemed “non-essential” businesses and are not allowed to work? There’s a lot to figure out. MRAA’s Legal Insights Ask the Expert webinar, along with our FAQ on the subject can provide some of the answers.
Dealer Insight: “We work really hard to hire amazing people. We don’t want to be in the position where we can’t employ them. How can I keep our awesome employees if we aren’t working? I need to pay them. How do we balance, we want to keep people safe AND work/stay afloat?”
4. Industry Support
MRAA has heard a steady rhythm, particularly in the early days of the slowdown, of dealers wondering how their partners would rally to support them. While many announcements on that topic have circulated and the support has become clearer (and we’ve included those we’ve gathered on this page), the questions have slowed. Still, like it did in the midst of The Great Recession, the sentiment remained that it will take strong dealer-supplier partnerships to help companies through this crisis.
Dealer Insight: “We need to bring the industry together — manufacturers, dealers and lenders — to all take a breath and think this through. We can win, collectively, and it will help with calming those who are panicking.”
5. Best Practices
This crisis hit so fast and so hard that dealers didn’t have much time to react. And every time they adjusted their business, external conditions changed, and they were forced to react again. Mix in the fact that brick-and-mortar retail’s No. 1 ingredient for success is to have customers swing open the door, and today’s “essential-business-only” mandates make for an extremely confusing and challenging environment. Dealers need answers on how to conduct business under these new rules of retail. Check out the resources and blogs MRAA created to highlight such best practices.
Dealer Insight: “What are creative ways we can float through this time but keep the business somewhat active (while being shut down)?”
MRAA’s Action Guide for Responding to Today’s Crisis is
jam-packed with best practices and resources for dealers.
As dealers continue to navigate these challenges, they can turn to MRAA’s Action Guide for Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis. They can tap into MRAATraining.com – for FREE – which is packed full of best practices and insights. They can access all MRAA webinars that were specifically produced to help them sell, service and market their business during this crisis. They can access numerous best practices and insights on the opportunities available to them today. And if you have resources available for them, we’d be happy to include them on our Industry Support page.