Lost Sales

Checking lost enquiries to see if they are still in the market

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?

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.

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

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

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

CYMARK