When is a car engine green and when isn’t it?

This is not going to be a documentary on how maximising compression ratios or ‘squish’ improves the burning levels within a combustion engine or the use of extra enormous catalytic converters to wash burnt exhaust gases before they arrive at our lungs.

This discussion is how a car manufacturer can become green, when it manufacturers engines.

Car engine makers, which is the best way to go green.

Broadly speaking, today, we can see three different approaches taken by manufacturers looking to become or be seen to be green, while still making an honest living.

They don’t make internal combustion engines, they only make electric models – and somehow avoid looking at the initial stages of the production of motor vehicle batteries and all their inherent mining and exotic material issues.
They lobby their own countries government, in Europe, and ‘adjust’ the time frame agreement which said all production of ICE vehicles would be stopped by data X and only electric vehicles would be produced (see option1.)
They keep making the engines, in their existing engine factory, but sell them to countries who haven’t yet signed up to an agreed move to electric only propulsion.

Now, looking at the options above you may decide that those manufacturers choosing route (3) are, in a way, cheating or going against the spirit of the thing.

You may think that the manufacturers taking route (2) and taking advantage of their huge employment levels and contribution to GDP (a countries overall profitability) to influence circumstances to their own advantage.

And, you may come to the conclusion that option (1) followers are being slightly deluded if they think the running cost, the ownership cost by the driver, is the only ‘green liability’ associated with the cars production.

We all have our own view. Depending upon your country or origin, that may be : Germanic, northern European, stand up Germany, who are running a route (2) programme and intend to continue to continue producing engines ‘ . . . as long as they run on sustainable fuels . . .’

The western European countries, France and Portugal, through the manufacturing plants associated with Renault are focusing on route (3). ‘. . . .lets keep making ICE engines, we can sell them to other countries . . . ‘

And then the Swedish, Volvo in this instance moving to a electric, battery only model. Definitely on paper, the cleanest most planet friendly route.

So which is really the best?

If we all try to step back from the edge, the majority of motoring organisations, press and commentors are generally all of the opinion that the electric, battery only / charge at home or for half an hour at the side of the road, is a bit of a dead end. The Betamax equivalent to the eventually sensible VHS for videos before DVD came along.

Progress. Is it real, is it expensive, is it better.

And while looking at that comparison, how long has DVD been the complete replacement for an old VHS tape. If you look at sales figures, DVD didn’t surpass VHS until the early 2000’s. If we say ‘2004’ then that is only 20 years.

Currently, our chosen medium is live streaming, in the overall picture DVD could also been see as a flash in the pan, certainly when you compare it to the internal combustion engine, which has been around, honed and fine tunes for over 125 years.

Progress. But for who, especially if you spent hundreds of pounds on a VHS collection, then replaced it with a DVD collection, only to find that you can just download them.

As suggested in hundreds of automotive blogs and articles, surely the way forward is ‘going to be’ hydrogen, at some point in the next 10 years. In which case the current drive for electric vehicles carting around a tonne of heavy batteries is looking like the Betamax contender and won’t even reach the dizzy heights of DVD acceptability.

The three main routes mentioned at the beginning of this article only go to show that there is more than one way to look at this problem / opportunity, and not all manufacturers are working in the same direction.

Governments need to stop reacting to ecological news feeds, and ecological campaigners need to, realistically, look at what advances the automotive industry have been able to make in the past 5 years. Think about what they could achieve if they were TOLD that the way forward was going to be Hydrogen.

Cars that can already run on it (see JCB conversions)

Easy / ready built supply points (petrol stations)

Reduced end to end emissions. Let me know which route you prefer. Whoever guesses the right answer and gets a product to market first – that can be marketed, will win the real race.

Have we created a world that is worse than 60 years ago for our children

Have we let our children (and grandchildren) down? – The answer will surprise you

Depending upon how old you are, I wanted to ask – Have you left the world a better place today than when you were just starting school?

As with a lot of things, this discussions has come out of a congenial discussion at the end of a business meeting. And before we all shout “yes it’s better / No, it’s worse”, I acknowledge that we are all connected to every possible piece of information, our TV’s are positively HUGE and the Unions aren’t on strike – oh, wait a minute, yes they are.

Have we left the world a worse place for our children. Does it cost us more to exist today than it did 60 years ago. We use a few comparisons

Really, I’m asking about your childrens, and grandchildrens lives. In comparison to yours.

I read an article this week, that noted that in America in the 1960’s an ‘average’ 2.2 family had one bread winner, one stay at home mum and the family still managed to buy a sensible sized family home, put food on the table, and still pay to put the two kids through college.

Can you do that today? Should you be able to?

Some numbers – I decided to avoid the Governments shopping backet with its various calculations. Boring. Instead I brought it right down to something we are all pretty familiar with – How much you earn in a year, how much did your car cost (on average) and how much did your house cost.

All fairly standard, average figures used. And the outcome . . . . . 50/50 split.

1969. Neil Armstrong had just landed on the moon and I was wearing shorts.

Income / House / Car

£1000 – £4,900 – £1,300

5x wage 1.3x wage

1995. The Spice Girls are just about to arrive.

£4,500 – £55,000 – £4,750

12x wage 1x wage

2023. We are all staring at our phones / tablets / laptops post BREXIT and Covid.

£29,000 – £258,000 – £18,500

9x wage 0.6x wage

House prices – things went really bad in the late 1990’s, when it seems no one could afford to get a mortgage, and they aren’t much better today.

Cars. Honestly, a much bigger drop than I expected, down to just over half of your annual wage.

So the key question – are we going to be ripped off by these hugely expensive electric cars?

Well, even allowing for the expensive Mercedes, Audi, Porsche and Tesla models, a sensible ‘family’ electric car is generally around £40,000. You can get cheaper and you can spend a lot more.

If we add that value to our stats –

2023 Electric cars : 1.3x annual wage.

So for cars at least, and definitely across the large family car brands, if not the German makes, the truth generally is : Your car cost you the same today as it did in the 1960’s!

Do you feel that, perhaps, we should be reaping the cost saving and manufacturing benefits of 60 years technological advance? Perhaps we already are – you can plug it in over night, for a full charge at not a lot of money!

I’m off to order a brand new Volvo EX30 and a long extension cable immediately.

Just don’t ask how safe I think the location of the speedo is.

How SMART is your marketing? Are you tying together email and social media marketing

What is SMART marketing?

In sales and marketing terms its straight forward : Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic (or relevant) and Timely.

Nearly everyone I speak to, associated with sales, is familiar with the specific, achievable and realistic. They are the ones that easily trip off the tongue.

We want to sell more . . . cars . . . over the weekend of Friday 26^th April – Monday 29^th April. Achievable and realistic are sometimes rolled into one -, ‘damn right it’s possible, we have done it before!’

But measurable and timely are getting more difficult as we move further into a digital and GDPR world.

Where are your enquiries coming from. And which source is actually buying from you. — Generating sales or just enquiries

Once upon a time, we put a large advert in the local / regional paper. Probably with a list of cars we were selling on Wednesday, that unfortunately would be out of date by the time Friday came around. (But who cared, we would have other, similar cars by then)

If we were looking for a big push we would hold a Black and White event, a Man from the Factory event, Double Discount. The list could go on, but you get the idea. It needed to sound different to the customer and it needed to say ‘this weekend you will get the deal of a lifetime’.

If we were lucky, the manufacturer of our chosen brand would also be running a smooth and sophisticated advert on ITV or Channel 4. ‘Loosing a fortune is not important to the VW Golf driver.’

Today you have a head start if you are part of a large group, or have a really switched on marketing team. But not every retailer is the same size or has the same respources.

In the past, several boxes of pizza were ordered together with a few bottle of beer and everyone was roped into the showroom to make some early evening calls. Job done. We had people in the showroom and we sold some more cars.

As the salesman hated it – and therefore didn’t try hard to be really good at it – we asked outside companies to make the calls. They did it all the time, so there results were always going to be better.

They may have costed slightly more than the pizza and beer, but then if you sold one more car, it paid for the extra, and everyone was happy.

(Don’t ask about the focus group I was running in a ‘neutral ground’, two room, conference suite, to measure customers opinions. It had to be cancelled mid-session because the ‘sales team’ sat next door, watching the live video feed, decided to order pizza and drink and be loud and derisive after every negative comment)

Today we need to spend much more professional attention on Measurable and Timely if we want to make the most of our marketing.

Cold calling is now out of the window. If retailers are slightly twitchy, paranoid or have no confidence in how diligently the in-house database had been updated with ‘Do not contact’ notes. Even today, in 2024 I am still seeing client databases that don’t have the option to say ‘Don’t call / text / email this customer’.

Digital marketing rose in parallel with the internet. But now your message is one of a thousand that will bombard the customer this week. Making it difficult to stand out. Buying the back page of the paper anymore knowing that it will sit on a coffee table or side board for a few days attracting a number of subliminal glances is also unfeasible.

So sales teams hit everything. Checked Email lists, BLOG posts, Facebook, Instagram, X, etc.

But what is measurable and timely? Sales exec’s haven’t started to asked customers what brought them into the showroom – they say they do, but they still don’t!

You need to combine the two letters of the acronym and manage them together.

Most email marketing platforms, like our own eSend system, records how many emails were sent, when, who opened them, which ones bounced, etc.

But that’s not really giving you the whole picture. An Outlook user – If you don’t open the email, but read it in the preview window, like more than 50% of email users do, then it will never be flagged to the sending company that the email has been opened or read.

How many times have you seen some vague message in your in box, but entered the details straight into a browser to have a look? Again, no way of tracking that.

There is a lovely phrase in marketing called ‘Bounce rate’, not to be confused with bounced emails which means that ‘at that one moment in time’ your email couldn’t be delivered.

Marketing ‘Bounce Rate’ is the level of customers that visited your webpage, but didn’t go any further. Perhaps they were distracted, your page could have been one of many open on their browser for a couple of hours. In fact Google assumes they have already left if the page is still up after 30 minutes.

So what do you need. Is it really worth spending a tiny amount with someone to show you how to make it all measurable in a timely manner?

Absolutely. You would know :

How many people followed a link on your email, or your google ad’ and ended up on a specific information page you are promoting. The landing page.

When visitors looked, can be tracked down to the minute. And for how long.

Landing page for each message you are putting out there? One for the blog, the email and one or more for social media. It can split up all your enquiries.

Which offers ‘name’ is attractive enough, that users entered that into their Google search.

(Remember to add an information box on your main opening page – something like – ‘Latest Offers’ together with links to the most recent marketing campaigns. – You can track movement)

The more information you know the better. The initial idea, the offer, is only part of it. So is writing about it, texting, email marketing or calling. You need to know exactly who is seeing what you are creating and what they are responding to. If you want to know about marketing A/B testing. Give us a call.

For 30 years out telemarketing approach always broke down exactly what the customers through, and how that affected their buying decision. Google Analytics (#GA4) does the same thing online. But sometimes a retailer needs a little hand holding to set up something that is basically free (from Google) to make money for you.

Give Cymark a call. We can plan bespoke landing pages with your team and put in place Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics that will work for you. We will even do the reports so you can manage the effect.

Marketing is expensive. Don’t waste it.

Spike Milligan's 1930 Austin Heavy Tourer

Spike Milligan : The best car accessory.

As we celebrate, what would have been spike Milligans birthday, April 16^th 1918, we thought we would look at his history with cars.

The main thing to remember, was that Spike Milligan wasn’t really into cars. Possibly because, since he arrived in London at the age of thirteen – having been born in British Colonial India – he worked in and around the capital.

Working as a trumpeter during the evenings didn’t call for a flashy car. Just something you could park easily if the latest gig was too far from a tube station.

"Old Min". Spike Milligan's 1930s Austin Tourer, purchased as a gift by Peter Sellers

Only two cars stand out in period press, The first was the latest, in the 1960’s, ‘new’ Mini (Don’t be confused with the modern BMW Mini, these things were properly small, they made a loss on every one sold, but they were an icon!)

We can really ignore the Mini, virtually every celebrity had one in the swinging sixties, including John Lennon, whose was driven about by a 6 foot 6 chauffeur.

No. The real hero of this story, is the little car that Spike was gifted by his friend and fellow Goon, Peter Sellers. Sellers, unlike Spike was a serial car nut, often buying and selling a new car on the same day, as the whim took him.

The car in question was a small 1930 Austin Heavy Twelve Open Road Tourer Deluxe, that the pair quickly christened ‘Old Min’ after a character on the Goons radio show.

Don’t worry if you don’t have any idea what one was either, most under 30s back in the late sixties had no idea what one was.

Peter Sellars bought Spike the car as a gift, not a whim this time as Spike had expressed an interest on first sight.

The twist comes with Spikes preferred accessory, as per the title.

Only a few weeks after gifting the car, Sellars decided to take the car back – his reasoning, “Spike had left the car out in the rain”, an understandable sin to the international movie star who had a fleet of exotica stored in a dry garages.

But also because Spike had replaced the cars temperature gauge – commonly found at the front of the bonnet on pre- WWII cars – with . . . . a coffee percolator.

In case he fancied a cup of coffee on the way back from a gig we assume. Some people had style without shouting about it.

True to all marketing principles, the car was sold recently at Bonhams (photo above) who maximised the previous owner(s) in all their adverts. A bit like Google Reviews or web site back links? I don’t think so.

5 Major Benefits of Outsourced Telemarketing.

Today, many retailers try to outsource their telemarketing to an expert team. It is the right option for a number of reasons. Do you wonder if outsourced telemarketing can work for your dealership?

A trained and professional telemarketing team for the motor trade.

Cost effective.

Hiring a third party company for telemarketing is one of the best approaches to increase vehicle sales and workshop bookings for both small and large dealerships. When you have a large in-house sales team in the showroom, it becomes too expensive to have a matching bank of trained telesales exec’s to keep up with the on / off demand.

Outsourced telemarketing, with a specialist company is a solid investment and, frankly, it is cheaper than any other marketing method.

Skilled workforce.

The ability to communicate over the phone makes telemarketing successful. Hiring a third party telemarketing expert means that you are getting telemarketers who are well versed and trained in the art of motor trade customer contact over the telephone. Well-motivated and experts in getting results.

Flexibility.

Telemarketing is not only about calling leads, but also shortlisting potential customers – looking to buy within the next couple of weeks from the tyre kickers not really looking to buy until the autumn.

Cymark can dedicate time, flexibly, to make the telemarketing calls when they need to be done. When they are most convenient for your customers and when they are likely to give you the best return. To achieve this you want an experienced and skilled telemarketing company to work with you.

Greater sale conversion.

Successful retailers are linking their internet and telephone enquiries, first to an immediate response sales executive in the showroom, then on to a trained team who can qualify properly, find the hot spots that will convert a prospect to a customer. A skilled customer support representative contacting a customer helps generate a sale and improves the conversion rate for the whole team.

Return on Investment.

A major advantage of outsourcing telemarketing is that both objectives – sales today / sales tomorrow – can be measured from the very beginning. Outsourcing your telemarketing services will both authenticate what your true conversion rate is, from engaging with customers as a third party, and see that identified opportunities are followed up and converted. Every metric and analysis is important and makes the whole sales team generate greater success.

Challenges of outsourcing telemarketing.

Since your telemarketing operation will be handled by a third party company, direct supervision may become a bit challenging. Choose a third party partner with the ability and the correct experience becomes vital. A specialised telemarketing company that offers relevant analysis and metrics is an incredible thing to have.

Language limitations.

Is it right for you? It is important to make sure the language spoken is compatible with the target audience, is this the voice that the customer is expecting to hear? A customer from the north west is more likely to trust either a non-geographic or northern accent. A good third party provider will have trained telemarketers that are clear and professional.

Confidentiality.

Data protection and GDPR are key. Ensure you speak to a third part company that has a long experience of working with, and protecting, your most valuable asset. Your sales data and prospect data.

Do they work with people you know, not flaunting their own customer base may be important, if they preserve the confidence of their own clients, they are likely to preserve yours.

The plan.

Outline what you expect to see from the collaboration. How you expect the success’s and failures to be communicated back to your own management team. Don’t get tied into a long term contract, can you engage the company on a month by month basis. Are they confident enough int heir own ability to do that.

Conclusion.

The increasing number of retailers that are opting for outsourced telemarketing is proof that dealerships understand the advantages and benefits. The rapid pace of technology within the motor trade, new products, new drive trains is making showroom executives time ever more precious.

Outsourcing with either an in-house team or outside agency, finding a company that can both save you money, increase your conversion rate and reduce you liability.

Get in touch with us at info@cymark.co.uk or sales@cymark.co.uk to learn how to maximise your conversion rate and be on top of the trends.

Should you teach young drivers how to change a flat tyre

Trying to be a good father.

Having driven for a lot of years, with very patchy mobile phone coverage for a lot of those years, we sometimes forget the basics for our children.

Thursday night made me think. Coming up the A1 through Cambridgeshire in the rain, I got a puncture. I won’t draw you a picture but swearing was involved and so was being soaked through as I had to change the tyre on the side of the road.

Teaching our children how to change a flat tyre.

But it did set me thinking. So over the bank holiday (much to my wife’s amusement) I ran through the steps required to change a wheel with my two youngest children – him 17, her 23. And I can recommend it to every father.

It wasn’t raining in Yorkshire on Saturday (I’m not that nasty), but we had the usual moans of “do I have to. . ” and “I’ll get dirty“, but I think in the end, they appreciated it. Especially when I pointed out, that at best, on the Thursday night before Good Friday even the RAC will take 3 hours to get to you. AND what happens if you’re in one of the few mobile phone back spots.

So . . .

Find where they put the jack. (What is a jack dad?)
The wheel out of the boot.
The small clip to get the wheel nut covers off.
And the wheel brace / wrench.

The questions of where to put the jack I was expecting and able to demonstrate, the wonder at why we had to lock wheels I wasn’t.

Wasn’t it easier when wheel hubs had studs to locate the new wheel? And you remember to slacken the nuts slightly before you jack the car up?

But we got there. Lots of struggling to get the wheel out of the boot, and how you might have to stand on the wheel brace to undo a very tight wheel nut, but they both achieved the end result.

I had considered buying an Easter egg for the fastest time taken, but in the end they both got one.

As a recommendation. Especially if you have a daughter. Buy an 18” length of pipe to go over the wheel wrench handle to make it a bit longer. You don’t really want to be leaping up and down on the wrench at the side of the road.

Oh, and buy an RAC membership!

Does anyone remember the stupidity of certain French manufacturers who put the spare wheel outside the car, underneath the boot floor? Assuming the small latch to release the frame wasn’t seized solid, you had to try and push a deflated tyre and wheel back onto the framework and lift it back up into place while simultaneously trying to put the latch back into place, with one wet, dirty, oily, hand!

You know who you are Renault.

Electric Car, charged in less than 5 seconds.

Zap, and your gone. Really, it’s not a pipe dream.

We have had the technology to store electric car power, that charges in seconds and has 10x the power density of a lithium-Ion battery for years.

The Capacitor.

Are capacitors the real future for the EV cars. They should be.

So why haven’t we heard about it?? Well you have, and you have been using them elsewhere in the house, You have them in your refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave. But there are some limitations – but then, limitations are there to be overcome.

Capacitors, weight for weight hold 10x the power of a lithium battery.

They can charge up, completely full in 2-3 seconds (yes, seconds)

They don’t deteriorate with age like normal batteries.

So why aren’t car makes filling their electric #EV ’s with capacitors? Well Porsche tried a few years ago, but couldn’t slow them (the storage) down enough.

The problem is that a capacitor wants to give you all of its power in one go, or at best over a very short time frame. Not much good if you want it to last 3 hours on a motorway trip. So car manufacturers are looking at ways of using the superb storage and charging benefits of the capacitor while simultaneously slowing down how quickly it wants to give you that power back.

This is the real golden goose. The same power, would weigh a 10th of current EV batteries. How much better would that be to drive. How much more efficient would that be.

PLUS, the icing on top of the cake, they are not made of rare toxic metals or chemicals. A win win?

Ok, so the maximum range is probably only 15-20 miles, because it really needs to discharge that fast. So does that mean it’s a non-starter?

Lets look at the problem another way.

It takes less than 2 seconds to charge up. It can do 15 miles, conservatively, between charges. So if you needed to go 300 miles it would take 20 charges, total – 40 seconds to charge. Ok, that’s not the problem.

But slowing down, stopping etc, that’s the issue.

But what if you didn’t?

Like your mobile phone, you can have induction charging, you just have to be ‘over’ the charger for the energy to pass from the pad in the road to the car.

How about a series of pads at every traffic light, or junction? You’re bound to stop for at least a second in 15 miles!

And motorways or dual carriage ways aren’t an issue. These induction chargers can be any size or shape – they are just wires buried in the road. At 75 mph motorway speed you travel just under 34 meters in those 2 seconds.

Coils buried in the road charge the car while you drive over them #EV Induction Charging — Coils in the road charging your car

Image courtesy of www.researchgate.net / Mya Eaindra Thein

Every 5 miles you could have a string of 30-40 meter induction coils under the tarmac, you would be fully charged every time you went over them.

Major re-wiring of the roads? Well yes, but at the moment we are looking at the re-wiring of our houses and driveways, with no solution for people who live in apartments or even tower blocks.

No home re-chargers. No trouble trying to find a Tesla charging point that’s both working or free on the way home.

Technology. We love it. We just have to think about it a different way sometimes.

This of course is the same as making event marketing calls – It all happens in one week, for an event this weekend – But it can be compared to a steady, week by week, set of marketing calls, that give you a number of solid leads every week. You get the same leads, they are just spread out so you can manage and cope with them. (Plus you don’t need the attractive, ‘huge discounts’, of an event weekend.)

Have a look at our showroom log / enquiry page – Enquiry Maximisation

Apparently AI is already with us. Everywhere.

Do you have an AI Kettle?

Ok, I understand. AI is the latest buzz word.

But do we really need every minor technological introduction or update to be ‘AI controlled . . .’

I was surprised how many mainstream news feeds commented on the Princess of Wales ‘AI manipulated family photo’. What ever happened to the derogatory term – ‘photoshopped’.

Is everything with a computer AI nowadays - what do you thnk

The same applies with cars.

Hardly a week goes by without the latest AI update to improve battery life, charging time, air-con efficiency or route to the pub.

And most of it is basic mathematics. In a little equation. Opps sorry, ‘in a little algorithm,’ my mistake.

We didn’t shout in wonder every time the sat-nav software updated and gave us a different route because the A34 was blocked. No, why? Because it’s not AI. It is created a different result from a predetermined set of parameters, that happened to change.

And that’s what 90% of these purported AI advances are. “The machine has worked it out. It learned!, ooooooh”. Er, no. The parameters of the equation changed that’s all.

AI has to learn the parameters and the initial question. Not just calculate.

But then it does sound good in marketing terms. Something new and shiny to shout about 🙂

We have done a number of campaigns this year where the customer can – “come down and, in addition to the £4,000 discount we’re offering, see the latest AI on the new XYZ EV rocket”

I’m not really moaning. But it does make me smile. As they say, “nothing is new under the sun”, and AI is just the latest way to make something sound ‘new’, and therefore attractive, and therefore worth buying.

Interestingly – If you forget the early paper based systems, would you say the 1987 Toyota CD driven sat-nav, or the 1990 Mazda GPS sat-nav was the first ‘production’ satellite navigation system? What do you think?

I hope you’re all having a busy March.

You’ve never had it so good!

And that’s not just a flippant statement. As you may be aware Cymark has been going for nearly 30 years, and have some pretty long standing retailers within the Motor Trade. So I am being honest when I say that our clients are seeing more new and used car enquiries, per month, than any time in the past 10 years.

So, why are manufacturers throwing lots of money at the job?

We are all familiar with the various brands getting behind the dealer network when we are working our way through a recession or an economic slump. But why are they chasing registrations today?

Well the answer may be slightly more than bragging rights this time.

SMMT figures are really strong on car sales at the moment, but a good percentage of those registrations are from orders taken 6, 9, 12 months ago when cars weren’t available and the electric vehicle world in particular looked slightly brighter.

So while overall enquiries are up hugely, the percentage that are new car enquiries is falling.

I don’t want to be cynical and say its because people don’t like EV’s, but perhaps people don’t like the price they are being asked to pay for a cleaner ride?

Have we just moved people from being consistent new car customers to repeat used car customers?

But is that a problem?

Our enquiry follow up team have been really busy this year, making sure that retailers get the most from their enquiries, with a number of sites saying they were concerned that – if they left it to their own sales team – they would miss opportunities. They just didn’t have enough hours in the day to sort through a mixture of tyre kickers and genuine buyers.

Check for yourself. How many overdue contacts do you have in the DMS. Are they all these used car enquiries or are they new car enquiries chasing the big discounts being offered?

Does the UK get the same EV deal as Europe

Will the UK get a raw deal with EV subsidies?

Depending upon where you are sitting, the amount of subsidy provided by the government can vary enormously.

For a few years EV drivers have been smiling broadly at the £5,000 grant provided in the UK as they glide quietly about in the latest EV. But are UK drivers going to get a raw deal.

Are UK drivers getting ripped off. Does all of Europe get twice as much subsidy as the UK

France in particular, right down to where you live in France and how much you earn can offer the driver over £11,000. There are even subsidies for nearly new cars. (Seeing how much residual values are dropping for EV’s even a considerably lower subsidy is probably worth it.). The whole system is supported by the European Carmakers association the #ACEA.

They are also supporting the process at the other end with thousands of scrappage subsidies. Again depending upon which region you live in.

But aren’t they trying to push French (or European, the Italian and German governments are looking to implement the same EV subsidy model).

The short answer is yes. Of course they are, they would be foolish to give state money away to a foreign manufacturer.

But to do that when the Chinese models are expected to be so cheap is looking difficult. How do you square that circle.

The current guidelines do a couple of things, including an upper level £40,000 on the price of the car. OK for France certainly, an a few German models. Tesla and Porsche miss out, but China should, almost certainly, slide under that bar.

Limit production / manufacturing CO2 emission levels to 14.75 tonnes CO2.

Ok, a few people are looking lost here. We know that the CO2 emissions that the government talk about, for the vehicles running costs. So that they can be compared, mile per mile, to petrol or diesel models.

So what is production CO2. Simply put it is how much it actually costs to manufacture the car. (and the French model is also looking at including the cost of getting that car to the country it is selling it within). The French guide lines have a 14.75t of CO2 limit.

This rules out a lot more models. For example Tesla batteries vary from 2.5t to 16.5t depending upon the model. Add that to the steel costs for the rest of the car and it’s easy to trip over that limit.

A lot of the Chinese models from BYD don’t make it. Even the Chinese manufactured BMW iX3 fails to meet the limit.

Cars transported by sea from manufacturers in Asia

So, are the French pulling up the draw bridge, emphasising the benefits of a small Citroen or Renault (still part state owned). Of course, but then they would be foolish not to.

It might be cheap to manufacturer batteries, or produce adequate steel in China, but aside from the labour rates, they don’t always use the most ecologically sourced materials. Plus you have to transport said car via a costly shipping route, or overland by rail. Both of which have rising costs due to war torn areas of the world.

So what should Brit’s do? We can’t buy small cars made in Birmingham any more. Our best hope is that China builds factories here and uses UK steel.

At the moment the picture is very unclear. But it would certainly help if we had over £11,000 from the government to play with and a few grand subsidy for those nearly new models that are clogging up retailer forecourts.

Your comments would be appreciated.

Cymark, supporting the Motor Trade for 29 years

Cymark. 29 years young

Cymark celebrates 29 years providing no commitment telemarketing and email campaign support to the Motor Trade.

‘My god, you made it to 29 years.’ This has happened a few times this week. Not quite as catchy as 25 years, or 30 years, but 29 years is a long time supporting one industry.

A great thank you must go to everyone who has worked for Cymark during that time. Lots of late nights and hard graft. You laid the foundations for today’s company.

In those decades, we have worked for numerous manufacturers and hundreds of individual retailers, providing successful and cost effective telemarketing and e-marketing for retail sales, local business and LCV sales and database building, aftersales service bookings and post service follow up.

The pandemic brought a lot of changes. Cymark streamlined its processes (we got rid of the big white binders so many of you remember). It’s all online and easily accessible. We still make on-site visits, we want to make sure we are doing it right for your retailer.

Successful industry marketing and comments are included within other blog pages. Make sure you subscribe.

Guy Winter

01423 501234

07711 978908

Have a look at the links across the top of the page for Retail / Service / Sales Conversion information.

The Winner – 12 / 12 Cars of Christmas

We got to the end of our list of 12 Cars for Christmas., these were based upon a combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know

Some great design points. Great performance. Really great performance even winning at Le Mans first time out. And the winner is . . .

Our festive 12 cars of Christmas concludes with a fantastic road and race car. Unbeatable in its day, and certainly hard to match even 30 years on. Now you feel old.

Our previous nomination in 12 cars of Christmas. Who came runner up.

The top four cars are pretty much inter-changeable all of them could have got first place. It would depend upon the day, the journey I had to make and . . . . . well, it had Countach doors and it won Le Mans.

McLaren F1

Built as a road car, that competed at Le mans. Not unusual, but winning first time out with the designer wising he had driven the car to the track to prove its road worthy credentials is.

Phenomenal performance. Uncompromising design and manufacturing. And a cool central seating position cemented its place at the top of our 12 Cars of Christmas. Everything else faster is either a special or heavily overweight.

You need to see one. Compared to many modern hyper cars, the F1 is tiny. You really can chuck it down a B-road. Not something I would think of doing in a Lamborghini Aventador or Ferrari F90.

And you can take TWO friend. Gordon Murry, the designer though that sitting in the middle was the best place for a driver to be. Who am I to argue.

The heat shielding in the engine bay is gold foil. Real gold. Because that was the best product for the job. No compromise. No turbo’s. Apparently better response from a naturally aspirated engine, in this case a 6 litre V12 courtesy of BMW motorsport with 618 bhp.

A bit late to be a poster on my wall. But a 241mph top speed. It certainly ended up on lots of you car fan’s walls.

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

11 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Our festive 12 cars of Christmas continues with and absolute show stopper. It draws crowds today just as it did 50 years ago. the Lamborghini Countach. Could you pick better.

Our previous nomination in 12 cars of Christmas

The top four cars are pretty much inter-changeable all of them could have got first place. It would depend upon the day, the journey I had to make and . . . . . a poster on a 1970’s bedroom wall.

Lamborghini LP500 Countach.

The doors, the performance, the look. Ok, the real reason is the look. Style, complete with a 70s model crawling all over it.

I’m not precious. It doesn’t have to be an early model, the LP400 or the periscope rear view mirror model. But similarly it certainly cant be a LP5000QV or one of the last Anniversary models with more plastic bolt on’s than a lego kit.

The LP500 had it all. The technical advantage – it put the gearbox in front of the engine, right next to your elbow, so the gear change was as good as could be. This did mean that the drive shaft – that went to the rear driven wheels – had to go through a specially made tube built into the bottom of the engine sump. Italians eh.

Oh, and a v12 full bore engine screaming away behind you all the way to the 7,800rpm red line. Power is a little bit vague, depending upon who you ask its between 375bhp and 440bhp.

I remember being told at the time that the mere name of the car, ‘Countach’ means a slightly stronger version of ‘Bloody hell’, in Italian. I have no idea if that is true, to be honest I prefer not knowing for sure.

As an avid 70’s tv movie watcher – and later the video – the opening soundtrack of the Cannonball run made the Countach so cool. Plus the fact you had to had climb out o the car if you wanted to reverse it.

I would say -‘Why don’t we make cars like this any more?’, but we do. Lots of them, all the hyper cars. The trouble is that they don’t stand out like the Countach did. Just like the E-type Jaguar in the early 1960’s, this was a car that made you say ‘WOW’.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

10 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Audi ur-Quattro. 10/12 of our Cars for Christmas. A real world car that could be driven fast no matter how bad the weather. Do you have a better car.

The top four cars are pretty much inter-changeable all of them could have got first place. It would depend upon the day, the journey I had to make and . . . . . well lots of things. In this case, it might be that the weather was bad or it was raining.

Audi ur-Quattro.

The cold, wet forests or Keilder and North Yorkshire, bright lights lancing through the trees behind you as you desperately ran along the gravel track to the next ‘even better’ vantage point. Somewhere else to get showered with grit at 2am in the morning.

Another popping, fire breathing, rally car that ended up arriving in the retailer showrooms in the 1980’s. Pick 10 valve or 20 valve performance, in road trim there was little difference between them – although the 20v seemed to rev harder. It had a 2.1litre turbo charged 5 cylinder engine. Even the talking dashboard version was cool, even if most owners did turn the feature off.

Starting life as a military 4 wheel drive system, shoe horned into a pretty Audi coupe, the gearbox also had locking differentials, so you could turn the car into a virtual tractor if you needed to.

Once I got my driving licence, I only wanted two cars. The Porsche 911, already covered here, and the Audi Quattro (in red or grey). Neither, I could afford at the time.

Audi did have a 2.2 litre un-turbocharged coupe, using the same engine and body. It was slate grey, It wasn’t the real thing, but it was close. So I had one of those instead.

But the proper version, it had useable performance, almost available to ’every man’, that was more focused on the 50mph to 130mph window. It remains the second fastest – cross country – real world car I ever drove (after the Lancia Delta Integrale, but that was way too unreliable and rust prone to appear here unfortunately).

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

09 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Our festive 12 cars of Christmas continues with the Ferrari 288GTO. Probably the best, and certainly prettiest Ferrari every made. Could you pick better.

The top four cars are pretty much inter-changeable all of them could have got first place. It would depend upon the day, the journey I had to make and . . . . . well lots of things.

Ferrari 288GTO.

No, there is no point in waiting for the rest of the list, the F40 isn’t there.

The 288GTO is that rare thing (and also much rarer than the F40 in numbers with only 272/8 being built) it started its design life as a Group B car. A true road car, made as good as it can be to go racing.

The F40 on the other hand started out as a race car that was then ‘adapted’ slightly to make it road usable. Personally I would like proper door handles, radio and ventilation system. If you search the internet for the 288GTO Evolution (not this model) with its screwed on wheel arches and spoilers you can see the F40 taking shape. The 288GTO is just so much more elegant. You, and your passenger, can drive up to the Savoy, hand the keys to the valet and not feel like an idiot, its a car, not a racing car.

To the untrained eye it just looks like a 308GTD/328GTB, but virtually every part is unique to this GTO. The 2.8litre turbo charged V8 produced 400bhp in road trim, but made the car slightly longer than earlier models sharing the same styling because it was mounted in-line, rather than transverse. And because Grp B, was cancelled the cars were fitted with air-con and full leather.

The F40 is a race car underneath, with no pretence of comfort, the 288GTO is simply beautiful.

Was it a drivers car? Well, Nicki Lauda ordered one. He wasn’t slow.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

What do you want for Christmas?

Santas choice. Do you stock ICE or BEV and PHEV models for Christmas and into the New Year.

In the car world, I think, we would like to know what stock we should be carrying into Qtr1.

In addition to retailers reducing the levels of very expensive stock on the books we also have the dilemma of petrol, diesel or electric and hybrid.

The #BEV and #PHEV models have been looking very unattractive, mainly because retailers were blowing thousands of pounds on the part exchanges they took in. You don’t want to be caught with a £4,000 loss per car.

And the customers know this. It took a few months, but buyers cottoned on to the fact that the electric cars they could smugly show the neighbours are now, potentially, a bit of a disaster area for residual values. At least they purchased the car on PCP with fixed balloon payments.

So no problem them. Well, someone has got to pay and I’m sure the finance houses will keep their rates high long enough to clear any debt. Which might slow the start of 2024.

So what about January and Quarter 1?

We are urging retailers to get their plans in early, our call centre is filling up with fast start events from retailers looking to get 2024 off to a flying start. The hope is that manufacturers come on board with continued deposit contribution offers.

If you have pencilled in either new or used car events for January and February give us a call so we can reserve your campaign a calling slot. Don’t leave it too late like many dealerships did in 2023.

Coming next week – The 12 cars of Christmas.

Customer receiving the key to her new car

The Answer : Conversion rates in the USA

Following on from my earlier article, ‘The Rise and Fall of Used Car Sales’ , I’ve been doing a little digging while on my business trip to America.

You may remember, I questioned the difference in the conversion rates sales executives were seeing in America compared with the UK. American trade articles and websites were telling me that 50%-60% of customer enquiries are buying, continuing to be the norm, and everything was rolling along GREAT.

Car sales executive selling in a showroom

To see for myself, if it really was that much better than the UK – where 20%-25% is the accepted norm – I tried a little experiment.

The mystery shop.

To call it a mystery shop would be misleading. I was actually looking to buy an SUV, I just visited a lot more dealerships than I would normally.

Out of all of them, only 12.5% actually asked me for my contact details. That’s one in 8.

Now the US advertised conversion rate percentage makes sense. If a sales exec is only going to record the name of a customer if they are waving a credit card under their nose, then a 50%-60% conversion makes sense.

But what about all those ‘potential’ customers? ‘Me’ for example. I’m still sat here looking to buy a mid-range SUV, and the phone has only rang once.

The only dealership to ask for my contact number and email address AND actually send me something immediately and follow that up by telephone 24hrs later was the Kia Dealership in St Petersburg.

I will say, all of the staff, in all of the dealerships – with the noticeable exception of BMW – were very polite and professional. They provided all of the information I needed and it was a pleasurable experience.

But I have no idea why the other, 7/8, dealerships didn’t ask for my number allowing them to call me.

Maybe its fear around GDPR and data protection in America. But as I had walked into the showroom, sat in their cars and said ‘I WANT TO BUY A CAR’, I think that covers future contact under legitimate interest.

So it looks like the USA or rather 87.5% of US car dealerships, actually have a 20% conversion rate. They just, collectively, dropped the ball by not asking all of the customers that walk through the door for their telephone numbers.

I was surprised. Disappointed. But surprised for sure.

The rise and fall of the used car market

The Rise and Fall of Used Car Sales

The fluctuation in both demand and used car prices continues its meteoric rise and ‘off a cliff’ fall though Qtr4.

The rise and fall of demand, profit and used car stock during 2023. Do we have too much stock making too little money now

Looking back through various trade articles issued in 2023, this is certainly nothing new. It’s just that previously there was quite an overlap between demand, availability and profit per unit that retailers were able to hold onto.

But is this a return to Qtr4 figures of old?

Mixed opinions, 2/3 of retailers are saying this is what we have always experienced and only a 1/3 saying the problems are due to retailers are now expecting car sales profits to continue month in, month out through the whole year.

Its not surprising that Manheim reported that conversion rates were falling, the ratio dropping a 1/5th on the same period in 2019.

We can however, report that our retailers are seeing a healthy increase in enquiry levels – hugely in the case of used cars from monthly figures over the past 4 years.

And, their conversion rates are holding up strong, but then they are using our enquiry follow-up / lost sale programmes so it is a little difficult to predict how other retailers are fairing.

If you’re conversion rates are not what you’re expecting it then it might be worth trying a sample batch of calls with Cymark. At least you would get a true picture of what your customers are saying.

Back in the market, particularly the UK, the reluctance to take anything electrical in part exchange continues – unless you have an outlet for the car – as their prices continue to fall heavily week to week.

Traditionally stock of the expensive models has always been run down over the winter months, just so you didn’t have to write them down. I think that is still continuing, it’s just that the number of cars that now fall into that ‘expensive model’ category has risen so much.

“Don’t get caught with it”, still prevails.

US / UK Conversion rates.

I was interested, while here in America, that US retailers expect a 50%-60% conversion rate, while in the UK, 25% is the more generally accepted average. It does make me wonder if either the customers are a lot more switched on and margins are lower in the States or – which is my probable leaning – the UK retailers are much better at getting contact details for ‘any customer that enquired’.

All I can say is, out of all the car buying customers I know in America, very few have ever had a follow up call or DM piece relating to a similar car they enquired about 2 months ago (or 6 months or 2 years!).

If you want a little more information about conversion rates and how to keep them strong. Drop me a message below and subscribe to the blog or Cymark on social media.

Greetings from America

I’m currently on my bi-annual work trip to America and wanted to bring you first hand news of current dealerships impression from this side of the Atlantic.

As in the UK, manufacturers are still hyping up the benefits of going electric, but US retailers are confirming that the buying public just isn’t behind it.

Comparison between Ford America and Ford UK. Two models shown side by side.

First adopters in urban homes, where location permits, are running two ‘main’ cars having an extra model on the driveway, a petrol for the longer trips and an electric for the commute.

A huge difference in incentive – Over here there seems to be a real mixed bag covering what drivers can get charged for –

Purchase Tax on the car varies state to state and can be as little as 0% right up to 7% of the cars value. Obviously if you live near one of those 0% state borders, it is probably worth making a weekend of it and driving some distance to pick up the car.

Emission Tax? well, no. Not really. There is a gas guzzler tax aimed at the economy of the car itself but not the amount of CO2 that comes out. This is apparently changing in the future, but many owners are sceptical.

MOT. Again, it varies State to State, but even the states that do have a vehicle test, that test is mainly limited to the time the car is sold from a retailer and isn’t comparable to the UK test. For the rest of the States it is definitely buyer beware.

As one owner put it. “Why do I need to buy electric if no one is checking? Sure, I want to help save the planet, but not at that cost.”

This is echoing the message we are hearing back in the UK through our enquiry follow up calls.

The calls are designed to improve the conversion rate of all the enquiries that land at a retailer, which it most certainly does, but the – ‘reason for not purchasing your car’ – response is very enlightening.

The number of customers that don’t really like the hands off, on-line only option is very high in the UK, outside of those customers that will always choose the latest thing, and its the same in America. A lot of disbelief that it will work at all, despite Hyundai ramping up their plans to sell new cars through Amazon.

More and more customers are waiting to see what the future is bringing, some very cheap Asian cars, hydrogen or yet another change in the rules. If Ford America can pull back from building a new electric battery factory in Europe, “there must be something in it”, is their reasoning.

The resale value of EV’s after 7 years is worrying many customers, driving down the used car value and PX prices. Some of the depreciation reported is frightening potential buyers.

One both sides of the pond. We really need to keep an eye on what customers are thinking. Sure, to sell more cars, but also to get a better idea of what our customers are really thinking.

Give me a call.

Have a look > Cymark Enquiry Follow Up

Good News – They were just sleeping

Some good news for a change. The enquiries from Qtr2 and Qtr3, that didn’t buy, are still there.

As the old saying goes – “Deal or Dead”, well they didn’t die. They were just asleep and now they are buying.

We just need to make sure it is from you!

A customer sleeping, still in the market, just waiting to be woken up by Cymark and your sales team.

Having made enquiry and lost sale follow up calls for Motor Dealers for over 25 years we have a pretty good picture of what goes on in the showroom and in the sales exec’s mind.

“It was ages ago. If they still want to buy, they will come back to me.”

Which as we all know is complete rubbish.

We prefer the adage, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”. Well that’s what we do, on your behalf so you don’t have to rely upon a disenchanted sales exec’ doing it.

AND THE GREAT NEWS.

Opportunities are flowing back into the showroom, not just from enquiries a month ago (25%) but from customers that didn’t buy during Qtr2 and Qtr3.

A number of retailers are using these older records much like a mini-event campaign, much lower numbers, but we can work through them. AND the deals are coming in.

Do you have stock you didn’t have in May or June?

Do you have a lower rate finance or contribution support from your brand?

Then now is the time to contact those outstanding customers.

If you want to make sure it happens give Cymark a call or have a look on the website, or the Blog pages for similar updates. Its worth a look –

CLICK TO SEE ENQUIRY FOLLOW UP

CLICK FOR OTHER RETAIL SALE OPTIONS

Head in the Sand – Come on Europe.

Who remembers the 1970’s ? And I don’t mean the weird music and dress sense. I’m talking about the motor trade for both cars and motorbikes.

In the UK, we were proud of our heritage with motor bikes. We built the best. Ok, they were a bit long in the tooth and you didn’t get much. But it was all about image. And no foreign manufacturers from the East could beat that.

But history proved us wrong. We were slow to compete, couldn’t offer the same value for money and, basically, over the next 10 years the British motor cycle industry died.

Has the European Motor Trade got it’s head in the sand?

Have they forgotten the lessons from the British past?

The Europeans make some bloody good cars. Not just the German models, but the British, Swedish and French as well.

But the Chinese are coming.

How long will the European motor industry last if the Chinese arrive with fully electric models from £10,000? It would have to be an amazing European car that could complete with that while costing £40,000.

Remember the buying public. The early adopters rushed towards the latest European Tesla copies, sure they were better made. But you paid a pretty price. Not all drivers will do that.

So, to compete with the Chinese, will Mercedes knock 20% off the price of their cars? Not if they want a stock holders revolt they won’t.

So where does that leave my colleagues in the UK motor trade. The dealers? I expect that a high percentage will move to welcome the likes of BYD and Geely to UK shores and add Chinese franchises to their existing showrooms or replace existing brands completely. If you can’t beat them join them. Do we have any alternative?

Alfa Romeo GTA Corse

The classic Alfa Romeo GTA Corse ages into the Totem GT-electric.

The 1962 Alfa GTA Corse was a classic the moment it was conceived. To be fair, even the picture doesn’t do it justice. In real life the car is tiny. Small but perfectly proportioned.

A modern twist on the fabulous 1962 Alfa Romeo GTA Corse. Now Totem have the all electric version

And today you can get a modern rendering of that car. Watch the video below of the fantastic Totem GT-electric. Performance is staggering. But, so is the noise. Totem have manage to maintain 60’s style with a truly modern build quality and safety features.

Given that the modern version uses original body panels (sourced by Totem) but combines them with the very latest in electric battery and drive train technology you can see why are lucky few are queuing up to be owners in the 21^st Century.

The video is worth watching, so are the links on the companies website (below) they even include a ICE engine sound that is linked to the output of the car. It sounds like a highly strung Italian racing engine is pulling you along.

Like marketing in general. Totem have focused on something that works, something that attracts the buyers and decided to ‘do it again’.

There is no age limit on a good design, be that a motor car, a piece of artwork or an advertising campaign.

If it worked once. It will work again.

In the Motor Trade we routinely run ‘Man from the Bank’, ‘Man from the Factory’, ‘VIP’ style events. Why? because they work.

Cymark is in the fortunate position in being able to provide a telesales and enquiry follow up service that works. A process that has been working since 1995.

Unfortunately not fortunate enough to own either a GTA Corse or a new GT-electric.

All our Motor Trade programmes are here – have a look at <lost sale>, <event appointments> and <email marketing>

Fantastic Totem GT-Electric Images and video c/o www.totemautomobili.com/gt-electric/

Help – Can you produce detailed email statistics?

We are often asked, “can you help us produce detailed statistics, like you do for all your calling campaigns, for our other marketing.”

Are you tracking your email campaigns like your web advertising or your enquiry follow up results — eSend emails flying

We do produce complete marketing results for a number of clients, but you can do it yourself very easily.

Track your email campaigns like your web traffic.

A number of companies completely skip the FREE OPTION of tracking their email campaigns beyond the very basic.

Use Google Analytics to track your email campaigns exactly like you would a pay per click Online Ad.

Plus, if you do it all through Google Analytics (GA4) you can compare and combined the email results with the rest of your marketing – Interest from Facebook, Pinterest, Blog posts.

Tie it all together. It will make your life much easier and is a HUGE step forward from the ‘Sent / Delivered / Bounced / Opened’ responses that are pretty inaccurate. (Does your smartphone open your emails automatically, or do you read the bulk of the incoming email in Outlook without actually opening it?)

Sound like too much work?, Too complicated?, Have a look through the following steps and short video. You could have all this new information by the end of the afternoon.

Why Email Campaigns?

Recognised as the most cost-effective technique to grow your business. Email marketing builds your brand awareness and expands your customer base.

But you need to know which bit is generating you sales.

(for sending email campaigns with eSend click – eSend Email Marketing Platform)

Why Google Analytics (GA4)?

Simply put, because most of your ad’s are through Google – probably – and it is completely free.

You can see both which email generate interest. You can see which landing page they visited. Plus, being free, you can play with it without worrying about wasting money.

So what do I need?

To get this to work you are going to need the following:

A Google account. It can be a new Marketing account, rather than your own.
A Google Analytics account. This is where you will see all the statistics.
A Google Tag Manager account. This is the middle step, between your own website and the analysis.
Aware of URL/ATM codes. Really easy, this is the code you put in your email.

There are hundreds of very detailed Google help video’s online to walk you through these three items, but we can recommend starting with –

Google Analytics 4 Tutorial for Beginners (2022) – YouTube

This instructor will walk through using all four steps above, it might take you 40 minutes. But it can save you hours if you are not familiar with Google Analytics.

I now have GA4 and the other bits. What happens now?

You are probably familiar with links within emails. These are the little blue buttons or phrases that you are encouraged to click, which then leaps you forward onto the senders website, normally to show you more information on the item you were interested in.

The leap to the website is the stage most users stop at. But there is so much more.

The URL/ATM code mentioned above lets you add a little bit of description to the blue link. All of which will take you to the same page on your website.

For example –

Link will go to. Harris Tweed Jacket Page.

Google Analytics will show – 317 users went to the Harris Tweed Jacket Page.

With URL/ATM Code –

Link will go to. Harris Tweed Jacket Page.

Google Analytics will show – 27 users went from your Newsletter email.

104 users went from your autumn offers email.

172 users went from your summer offers email.

14 users went from your ‘Not seen you recently’ email.

In fact, once you become used to Google Analytics you can track exactly which of those user types above ran through the whole website, put items if the sales cart (if used) and bought. Or completed a ‘more information’ form.

The links for the above products – all free and not connected to eSend in any way –

GA4. https://support.google.com

Google Tag Manager. https://tagmanager.google.com

URL/UTM. Campaign URL Builder (ga-dev-tools.google)

So what will I see?

Once everything is hooked up above, you go into Google Analytics. Given the amount of data that Google fights through, there is often a delay of a few hours before data starts initially coming through.

We are the first to admit, that Google Analytics can look very daunting to start with. So we have put together some screens, with ‘Click this bit now’ arrows. (Google has a habit of upgrading GA4 all the time, the exact position on the screen may vary from those below, but you should be able to find the steps. Plus you will know what to type into the help screen should you get lost.

The opening Analytics page (demo account shown) shows the overall site traffic. Follow the arrows.

Google Analytics email tracking audiences

For a little more information, have a look at the eSend page on the Cymark website or visit the dedicated eSend website.

Are your order takers aggressive enough to be sales exec’s?

Since Q4 2022 dealership stock have risen back towards pre-Covid levels. In some cases, too much stock. But getting back to normal is not just about stock levels. It’s about attitude.

Over the last 6 months, through our lost sale follow-up calls, we have seen a continuation of the ‘reason for lost sale’ that became prevalent when we had limited stock. Namely – “We didn’t have exactly what they wanted, so they bought one elsewhere”.

Are your order takers aggressive enough to be sales execs. Do they just walk through the process or do they try to close a deal

Speaking to Sales Managers this has not been the whole truth. Quite often we get – ‘bloody hell, we have two of those!’.

The strong sales managers, before 2020, always seemed to know which people in the team were the closers, the working sales exec’s you could rely upon to talk the customer into the car you had. It might not have been the right colour, or the right spec, but – “Today Mr Customer, this is the right car for you.”

Have we been developing teams of order takers? It has been a growing issue for perhaps the past 10 years, but the pandemic brought it on in waves.

True, when the only cars to sell are new cars, cars that aren’t in stock and aren’t available to demonstrate, we built some very good teams of order takers. Explaining the pro’s and con’s of a vehicle that, as yet, doesn’t exist is not always easy.

But has it gone too far?

Our ‘Reason for Lost Sale’ analysis is showing more and more that the real reason your customer decided to buying elsewhere, wasn’t price or availability. They just weren’t closed.

Thankfully our calls are still showing that roughly 55% of customers still haven’t bought any car a month after they initially enquired. Out of those half again are actively looking for your brand now. Today.

So all is not lost.

You just have to know which ones to chase. Which is where Cymark comes in.

Have a look – Enquiry / Lost Sale Follow Up.

#lostsale, #customerjourney

Xenophobia and the Motor Trade

Is the general motor trade, slightly xenophobic? And if it is, has that proven to be a bad thing for the countries that are slightly ‘more’ than others?

Not trying to be contentious, but the motor trade, like its buying public has always been slightly xenophobic, you only have to watch American films covering the last 30 years to see the shift away from Detroit iron to euro boxes as they used to call them over the pond.

The move has certainly been bad for Detroit and Michigan as a whole.

But across Europe, did the British stand out as ‘less’ xenophobic? We welcomed innovative design from our European neighbours with open arms through the 70’s and 80’s at the sad loss of our own Motor Trade. As Birmingham will attest.

Can we honestly say that the Triumph Dolomite or Austin Princess were worse than the Renault 12 or Fiat 128. Or a decade later was the Maestro much worse than a Renault 11 or a Fiat Strada.

Yet, these two countries probably lean towards ‘more’ xenophobia, France is still awash with Renault, Peugeot and Citroen, while Italy is strongly Fiat and Lancia. Have they done better out of a slightly nationalistic stance?

The concerns this week in the mainstream press, with France unwilling to bend over Chinese EV imports into Europe. I can see why. Out of all the European manufacturers producing today, the French machines are likely to be the most competitive against the emerging Asian brands.

I think Italy would be standing firm alongside France, except Italian politics is a law unto itself at the moment.

So where does it leave UK retailers? Over the next few years I won’t be surprised if they embrace the EV’s from China and Korea, we have done it before, we will do it again. Certainly with our handover calls, or service follow-up calls we are not seeing worse customer comments than the more UK established brands.

If new makes drive customers through the showroom door, it can only be a good thing for the retail motor trade. We need products that can be sold, or rather bought by the general public. Not just as a first car, but as a second or third.

The future is rosy, complicated, but hopefully profitable. Retail dealers are very good at finding a profit where there doesn’t always seem to be one.

#ev, #aftersales

4 Years. The Race is on.

Do you need to close as many of those EV opportunities as possible before the latest EV reports reaches the mainstream motoring press?

Just this week, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) answered a simple question, “When will electric cars be cheaper than ICE models?”. We aren’t 100% sure who asked the question but their response was interesting.

BNEF : “Well if you count the whole life costs of the car, you could say that is now. But, looking at manufacturing, we expect EV’s to be just 10% more expensive than their equivalent petrol engine model by 2027.”

Again, more great news for the buying public. At last the future of motoring comes back into the reach of so many small car buyers.

But TODAY, you need to make the most of all those EV enquiries. What if they dry up, waiting for these new 10% cars to arrive.

If Bloomberg are to be believed, and why not they are one of the largest financial institutions in America, then would you pay today, what is roughly a 40% over charge for some models, or would you buy something short term and wait it out.

Sure, there are some exceptions. The new Volvo EX30, when it arrives will be just £34k, only slightly smaller than the existing XC40, but starting price is exactly the same.

A bit like shrinkage in the supermarket, maybe that 10% was the packaging size.

If more manufacturers follow this Swedish lead, then perhaps the 10% models will be here sooner rather than later. However, looking at the other prestige models, the current line up’s all seem to be focused on the more expensive models.

We can only wait.

If you have rising manufacturers targets, that include EV sales you need to convert as many of those EV enquiries as possible with different enquiry management programmes like Cymarks Lost Sale and Enquiry Follow-Up programmes, both improve conversion rates.

Roll on the 10%.

#ev, #volvo, #ex30, #bloomberg

How will EV law changes affect your showroom traffic?

In some ways it a good thing. Pushing back the time line for the mandatory ‘turning off’ of ICE engine cars until 2035.

I always thought 2030 was a bit optimistic, but to be fair car manufacturers grabbed it by the scruff of the neck, invested huge amounts of money and looked like they were on target to achieve it.

But the Government have now moved the goal posts.

Is buying a car a toss of the coin at the moment. Do you buy petrol, EV or a hybrid. Think of the poor soul that is trying to sell them.

Which will definitely affect customer confidence. Is this likely to affect the number of people enquiring about your cars?

Over the last couple of months we have had BMW make a couple of sweeping statements regarding the Electric Mini brand. First, it was being moved to China. With only ICE engine models being made in Cowley. Then 2 weeks ago it announced that the electric models would also be made in Cowley.

This is great news for the Oxfordshire site.

But the enquiry levels at the time certainly didn’t reflect that, with an immediate dip in showroom enquiries just after both events.

It looks like the buying public are more concerned about knowing exactly what is happening, slightly less than where the car is made. (which is a little sad).

I suspect that this weeks announcement is likely to worry the customer base even further. Already listening to half the motoring press criticising the move to electric and emphasising the potential financial costs to early adopters. Will the second wave of EV buyers be affected. Unfortunately I think so.

During our enquiry follow up and lost sale telemarketing programmes we have seen a number of customers site that exact reason “I’m unsure about EV, so I’m going to wait a year” and “I decided to buy an old petrol / diesel model to get me through the next couple of years”

Neither response helps the retailer out. Especially if you are struggling for sensibly priced used stock and the manufacturer has given you a solid EV target.

I assume that the government know all of this. The car industry is professional, if the world said – “We want all cars to run on Rape Seed Oil by August 1st”, the motor trade is likely to swear for 10 minutes and then ask “What time on the 1st?”

So it is probably the Government itself that is behind with its forced introduction – we may have the cars but not the infrastructure, and may be wavering in the face of new advances for Hydrogen models. And yet again the Motor Trade is having to pay for it.

Disappointing doesn’t really cover it.

#EV, #motortrade, #lostsales

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

Had quite a sobering reminder this week.

Like most companies we send out email updates, newsletters etc to former customers / collegues etc. We aren’t a retail business, instead a business consultancy within the Motor Trade so my own subscriber list is thousands not millions.

By accident, our admin team sent out this weeks “Have a good September 1st” email, but instead of using the latest subscriber list they picked my own list from Spring 2020.

People looking for work and companies hiring.

58% of my former colleagues and contacts are no longer there. Some 4,500 senior managers in the Motor Trade.

A lot of statistics will tell you that people move every 4-5 years, we have had a pandemic, blah blah. But mainly that is to sell the “updated industry list” they are trying to push.

I know people change jobs, but the Motor Trade is quite a family – sometimes a pretty dysfunctional family -, you might move jobs, but often with the same retailer, or certainly within the same group. You have just moved branch. Or quite commonly, returned to a group you were with originally.

So 58% gone, seeing it in one go is quite sobering. I hadn’t noticed it as we update our database and subscriber lists on a rolling basis, happily we have the telesales staff that can call the bounced emails to update the current managers details each week.

If you’re marketing cars and vans to local business and fleet buyers then your database probably went through the same changes as mine and need to have a chat with our data team to see how we can help. They have been making B2B marketing and research calls for over 25 years, and know how to do it.

I know every time they update my database they generate new opportunities for me to call and introduce the marketing services of Cymark. If we can be of help, drop me an email or DM.

#B2B, #telemarketing, #teleresearch

Mercedes – Spinning like a top!

Ok, my strap line is a little bit more sympathetic than much of the press – “The new Mercedes EQG can turn like a tank”. I’m sure #Mercedes are pleased with that one.

They are referring to the latest all electric 4×4 offering from the German brand which will have 4 electric motors and will allow those on the right of the car to turn in the opposite direction to those on the left. Spinning the car around. . . . like a top.

It all goes to show that Tesla was right – you need a new gimmick to make a new model interesting today – If you want to drive more potential customers into the sales funnel you need to stand out.

#mercedes #G-Turn #salesfunnel #cymark

Sizzling bacon enticing you to buy the product

Can you smell the marketing?

The advert is now over 50 years old, but a lot of senior managers will remember the television advert. Do you?

Way back in the early 70’s a european bacon company took sights on the English market and sold us the sizzle in a memorable way. So memorable that many people, around at that time, will probably announce it before you ask them.

Are you one of them? Do you remember the company?

To save you hunting through Google, I can save you some time. It was ‘Danish’ and they went to the added step of printing ‘~~Danish~~’ along the sliced side in wavy writing. Just in case you forgot.

It was a brilliant TV advert based upon the ‘#Sell the Sizzle, not the steak’ marketing theory started in the 1930’s by #Elmer Wheeler.

The idea was not just based upon steaks, or bacon, or sausages. Instead the concept was to sell the benefits of a particular product. And since you couldn’t sell the attractive benefit of a smell in the 1930’s the next best thing was the sound it makes. Baking was out, not a whisper comes from a slowly rising cottage loaf, but target a slice of bacon, fried egg or browning sausage gently frying conjures up a mouth watering dish.

But that was then. Does the sizzle campaign work in the same way in 2024?

Back then, the UK only had one advertising channel, so the target audience was pretty much nailed in place when the advert aired at 6:30pm on a Wednesday evening.

But with thousands of streaming adverts, BLOG posts such as this one, Twitter posts . . . . the list goes on, and you probably get the message. That sizzle is pretty much washed away with all that background noise.

But it can still work with email advertising. As our partner at #eSend has been seeing month in month out since they opened their doors 10 years ago, if you can find the right message you can induce the potential customer down a series of steps, a journey to your website.

Make it sizzle enough for someone to open the email in the first place.
Make opening sentence intriguing enough to get the customer to open the images or videos on your website.
Using the whole email, give them a reason to click the link and head over towards your site.

Where another level of marketing will take place, with a similar number of steps, enticing the customer to click on the link to ‘Buy this product’

Email marketing can be measured in a number of ways. Google Analytics (GA4) is the favourite for many as it allows you to step away from a fixed email providers stats and track not just the original email campaign but also what the customers did when they actually got to your site.

Don’t be fooled by high click thru rates. Most customers read emails without opening them, and too many sexy sicial media campaigns use #clickbait to get you to just click on the link, only for it to send you to a completely different site than the one you were expecting.

I hope you don’t view the sizzling image of bacon above as #clickbait. This blog really was about helping your marketing stand out from the crowd. It’s about finding out which one of your messages is working best for you.

Do you –

Use Google Analytics or similar to track campaigns?
Do you need help setting something like that up?
Do you send out similar emails to see which one works best? (#A/B Testing)
Do you follow through email clicks to different web site landing pages?

If you want help you may want to give us a call here at Cymark or speak to eSend directly. I have attached the link to their page below.

eSend email marketing

Simple customer journey starts with an interest, purchasing a produc or service through to recommending your company.

Happy Birthday Jack Brabham.

In many sports, lead participants and World Champions are routinely called ‘a gentleman’ of their chosen profession.

Reflective Jack Brabham, three times winner of the Formula One crown and the only person to do so in his own car

There are some noticeable exceptions in Motor Racing, most recently Ayton Senna or even Michael Schumacher probably missed out on that title.

But, while on the track, there was certainly someone else. Sir Jack Brabham AO OBE, (2^nd April 1926 – 19^th May 2024), he was not called Black Jack for nothing.

Even out of the car he was known for being quiet, often staring, sometimes uncomfortably so.

But I must say, I never found that. Jack Brabham, was one of my first customers. Or rather his dealerships in South London were. Normally, I would work closely with the Director of his UK garages, Brian Fowler, – who certainly was a gentleman – but on a couple of occasions met the great man himself, even going for lunch.

And, he was polite, professional and interested in what we did for his company, I was always trying to spin the conversation around, looking for reminiscences about his time behind the wheel, either in a Cooper or one of his own cars. But thanks to both Brian and Jack himself it always returned to the sales calls we were making and the present state of the Motor Trade.

In 1966, he became the only man to win the Formula One World Championship is his own car, one that he helped build with his own hands. One of three he would claim before he retired from F1.

That is certainly a huge achievement, and one that I cannot even imagine ever happening again.

If he was English, I would say he had that Bulldog spirit on the track, but he would probably hit me as a staunchly, and rightly, proud Australian. There are only two drivers remembered for pushing their car over the finishing line of an F1 race.

Jack Brabham pushing his Cooper F1 car the last 400 yards of the American Grand Prix in 1959

Brabham, in 1959 pushed his Cooper the final 400 yards of the American Grand Prix, after it had run out of petrol. One of the many steps to his first world title that year.

The eventual winner, Bruce McLaren even felt, after the race, that Jack had gifted him the win.

(The other World Champion to famously push his own car was Nigel Mansell, also in the American Grand Prix, in Dallas in 1984).

So we say happy birthday Jack. A hero when racing formula one cars needed you to be a hero, It was certainly a pleasure.

CYMARK

CYMARK

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