Data driven marketing and Sales.
The marketing world has changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time. Newspapers, glossy magazines, awareness campaigns, sponsorship deals and can anyone remember bus backs?As something that takes a large chunk of a dealers overallspend and in some cases prescribed by OEMs as a % of sales turnover are we measuring the results we get back in enough detail?Seen by many as the main driver of footfall and deals, marketing companies are coming up with ever more inventive and cutting edge ways of spending the allotted budget. As well as the aforementioned traditional streams of customer contact print etc, more elaborate web sites are now the norm with live chat, interactive video and customer testimonials all seen as must haves.
This is before we enter the realms of Google add words, CRM and showroom promotions the myriad of social media platforms, Facebook, various blogs and now influencers who are earning hundreds of thousand dollars per post. Sales leaders are pushed to the edge by sales teams demanding "we need more footfall, we need more leads" Spend, spend, spend. We all focus on the numbers of followers, the reach of message but in reality do we spend enough time focusing on the results, true media response.In simple terms do we measure ,what we spend, were we spend it and what return do we get in terms of response, test drives, offers made and ultimately sales. Do we use this information to shape our forward activity and spend? Do we measure our internal conversion rates from enquiry?Do we have a cost per enquiry by channel, cost per test drive, offer and sale? Ultimately we need a reporting structure in place to provide the accurate data we can then use effectively to shape our future activity and spend. This before we consider are we maximising on every enquiry we are already generating and are we focusing on all the opportunities we have hiding away in our own CRM and database systems. Do we ensure all customer enquiries are responded to quickly and in a timely fashion, do we have templates for all our email responses well written and giving a positive first impression to a potential client? Do we have standard telephone answering scripts answering the phone with enthusiasm and creating that great first impression and setting the future tone of the relationship? Is every enquiry second faced by management in a professional manner, are lost sales really lost? This is before we look at finance renewals, service customer follow ups, customer referral process etc. etc. Marketing is a major weapon in the sales war we are fighting every day, but please consider what we can achieve using our own data and controls so we can spend our precious and hard earned marketing budget wisely and ensure we are getting the results we deserve. DATA DRIVEN MARKETING.
As a real time example of how accurate data can work for you. I was with a dealer sales manager and a sales executive came in the office with a hot lead (existing client) that was looking for a specific model colour and mileage 2 year old car and they had a nice 4 year old similar model to PX. The response was to search the various sales platforms and manufacturer web sites. One car was located at a dealer but as it was great stock so there was no margin to make the deal viable. We asked the question "have you searched your own database see if you sold a similar car to a client two years ago ? "The search was duly carried out and three very similar cars popped out the system. The client expressed interest in one of the cars. The owner was contacted explaining the dealer had a client looking for a car like theirs and if they were interested in trading it in for a new model they would be able to do them a great deal. The deal was done or to be accurate both deals. But as they say there's more!When the question was asked of the sales manager about the four year old PX
"if they are an existing client do we know who purchased there last PX ?" The manager duly looked on the system and came up with a name. The sales executive contacted the client and asked if they had been happy with the car as the previous owner had just traded a similar car in and would they like the first refusal to purchase it? A deal was duly done. A hat trick, with no real spends on marketing. Great for ROI (average days in stock 0). Great for customer retention and great for customer satisfaction.
This was only possible because the dealer CRM was up-to-date and accurate. The customer details had been entered correctly; even a change of address picked up on a service visit.The vehicle specification and accessories were all entered. The preferred method of contact mail and number were accurate. The mileage, last service and reported VHC work was recorded to enable the sales manager to calculate possible reconditioning costs. A regular customer contact cycle was in place nurturing the dealer client relationship. A DATA DRIVEN SALE.
Bernard Wharam. MIMI.
RDA International/AnyData