Interview with Sidney Haider
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Tell us a little bit about Add.On.Auto and what you have to offer?
How does Add.On.Auto make it easier for the customers to add the price of those accessories onto the price of a new or used vehicle?
Several ways. First, as most customers finance their vehicles, it is easier for them to make a decision on a product when they see exactly what that product is going to cost them on a monthly basis. Even though it is important to know the overall price of a product, it becomes important to know the monthly price for that accessory. Also, since most of us are emotionally attached to our vehicles, how they look and feel is very important to us. So if a customer is interested in adding an accessory, it becomes even more important as how that accessory is going to look on the car. What we provide is the actual image of the vehicle the customer is buying, and then we provide visuals of the selected accessories on that car so customers can make a better determination when they are choosing a product.
You spoke about emotions. Talk more about the emotion of the purchase for the buyer of that vehicle, and what dealers can do to really sort of capitalize upon the emotion at purchase time.
Absolutely. If anybody had a chance to go to SEMA, they would see that we are a country where cars are still a source of passion. For a lot of us, the car is basically a canvas that we want to paint with our imagination. America has always been the leader when it comes to accessories. We take pride in our cars. For us, a car is not just a commute, it is a statement of who we are. As cars started to look more and more the same, more choices have become available customers want to customize. Because we use our cars for so many different reasons, functionality is a big issue. I may be buying a base trim car, an LE Camry for example, but decide that navigation is important to me. So I want to see what navigation options are available for that car. That's why Add.On.Auto offers a tool that can show you these various options, compare them with other options, and see what they will cost you. If you're financing the vehicle you can see what the payment will be for the accessory. All of which makes it much easier for the buyer to decide to go with accessories that interest them.
Could you give me some success stories for Add.On.Auto?
Absolutely. We have dealerships that are using AOA and are averaging close to $600 plus per copy. We have a dealership up in Boston, Lundgren Honda, and they have a very solid process in place. They are using Add.On.Auto as a presentation tool in the process. Of course, at the end of the day, the success of a dealership is not going to depend on the tool only, no matter how good the tool is. It ultimately depends on its people -- so we help in implementing a good process. The dealerships that do a good job of implementing a strong process are the ones that actually succeed. We are there to help, both as a tool provider and as process trainer. In other words, we provide training to sales people, sales managers, F&I managers, to service managers -- almost everybody in the dealership involved in an accessory process, whether it would be sales or installation. When a dealer is properly trained and they buy into the concept of accessory sales, they succeed quite well.
What about visuals, and some of the various product features?