‘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.
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Guy Winter
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07711 978908
Have a look at the links across the top of the page for Retail / Service / Sales Conversion information.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 –
