I ‘had’ given up being surprised by customers within the Motor Trade. But this autumn is really something.

I think most of us are hoping that this positive sales bubble won’t burst, despite lockdowns, social distancing and localised tiers.

But in 32 years in the trade, 25 years with Cymark I have absolutely no idea what is driving customers in 2020.

I am sure I could come up with a load of marketing waffle, to sound coherent, but in reality I hear that many professional versions of – ‘this is what is happening’, that I have given up trying to second guess the market.

For example –

For years, Cymark has been making bespoke event / appointment calls to drive customers into the showroom. Every retailer does it. It’s a good, reliable source of business.

This November we geared up to make a number of calls for a particular manufacturers used car event, scheduled for the 6-9th November. Calls from the 2nd to the 6th.

Then, as we all know, Lockdown 2 arrived, effectively closing the majority of showrooms and access to the stock.

• The dealers were out of pocket, having committed to taking extra stock from the brand.
• We were out of pocket having scheduled everyone to make the calls.

But COVID-19 is COVID-19 and it is better to be safe.

Now the interesting part –

Normally, when we make appointment calls we have a pretty high hit rate and expect to make around 12% showroom appointments. Give or take, we get through to around 75-80% of the customers and get about 12% in through the door. Don’t over sell it, we need these people to turn up!

But, a couple of sites that decided to push ahead with the used event anyway, despite the lockdown.

“We can try virtual. Ask the customer for a time when the sales exec’ can call them to talk to them about a particular car. Then we can do Click and Collect. . . .”

So, we did. The deal on offer was good, but probably no more so than before March, but we were getting much more interest from customers.

Appointments / Time for a call – UP from 12% to 16% across sites.

PLUS – Possible interest and wanted to talk to a sales exec anyway – Another 6%

And these customers bought. With the new lockdown the retailers were able to stretch their event offer window slightly, and the customers put their hands in their pockets.

We were expecting a little kickback when we made the calls, but they were all made at sensible times of the day, and with as little pressure as possible. Just polite and professional.

The customers are easier to chat to, sure they wanted to speak about the summer and COVID in general, but as long as you aren’t chasing a ‘must speak to 12 customers per hour’ target and have the time it works. But then all our calls are like that. No pressure. Just professional.

I hope this continues. Retailer staff are back into furlough, but sites are getting lots of enquiries. Not just from the event calls outlined above, but normal telephone / manufacturer leads, our enquiry follow-up calls and local business B2B prospecting calls are showing great results.

Customers want to buy your cars!

Long may it continue.

Long may it keep surprising me.