Any dealer will tell you that sales don’t pop up spontaneously. For every sale that takes place, a myriad of tiny occurrences leads to that moment, building momentum until a prospect finally takes the leap and signs the dotted line.
Yet even these influences that nudge the customer along the path to their purchase are not random happenings of the universe. Each moment of nurturing occurs deliberately, strategically, and informed by one thing: data.
As data analysis grows in sophistication, it becomes an ever more critical component to driving dealer revenue. It can be used at every stage in the marketing process to aid in prospecting, cultivating opportunities, and retaining customers, all while forecasting trends and outcomes so each campaign may focus in tighter on the target and acquire higher lifetime value customers.
Here we’ll examine how data may be applied to prospecting, conquests, and after-sales to build a more effective, systematic campaign. Let’s start at the very beginning: finding the initial opportunities.
Data for Prospecting
The more information you have, the more accurately you can project trends and forecast customer habits. By combining your own customer data and information from list sources, you come up with a wide pool from which to create predictive models.
Models are formed based on what you already know about your current customer base, and on what industry trends are communicating. For instance, from your own data you may be able to conclude that business owners within certain industries are more likely to purchase from you, and you can even determine when in the lifecycle they will be likely to start searching for new equipment. But you will also need to adjust your expectations based on outside influences like the economic climate.
Based on these data trends, you can form predictive models of your ideal customers – personas that represent on a small scale the various types of customers you see most frequently and that carry a longer lifetime value.
Once you’ve developed personas, you have a much more specific view of your customer base. From there you can create a marketing experience that is tailored to the motives and pain points of each persona. With tailored marketing sent to a narrower audience, you both heighten your campaign’s effectiveness and create a personalized experience that demonstrates that you understand your customer’s needs.
Data for Conquests
Data is not only useful for finding and developing prospects, however; it’s also your best bet for discovering potential conquests.
For example, in the heavy duty or commercial vehicle industry, vehicle registration and mileage data play a pivotal role in identifying conquests. These tell you your brand’s market penetration (thus showing you open regions of opportunity) and which vehicles are aging (thus showing you specific customer potential). Armed with this data, dealers can identify fleet owners whose vehicles are due for replacement and get a foot in the door with a timely offer.
With the right marketing at just the right time, you can plant the seed in the customer’s mind that may give them incentive to switch to your brand. Then, by following up with stellar customer service and after-sales offers, you solidify the relationship and gain a lifelong customer.
Data for Retention
Once you’ve converted a customer, the next step is always getting them to come back to your dealership for service. But before your customer retention strategies can begin, it’s helpful to get some understanding of how much of the aftersales market you’re actually capturing. For consistency, we’ll again take the example of commercial vehicles.
First, you need to examine the vehicle research data for your region. Take a look at the number of vehicles under your brand umbrella, and categorize them according to mileage. Next, you already know that vehicles require a number of services on a mileage-based service schedule. Pull your own customer records to show how many vehicles you provided services for at these designated mileages, and compare these numbers to the segmented list of total brand vehicles within the region. Does the number of services you provided match the number of services that were needed in your region? Our guess is, probably not.
This can show you how well you have penetrated the market (or not). Additionally, if you really want a hard number on dollars lost, take the average customer pay of the services in question, and then multiply it by the number of services you missed. For instance, if your ACP is $2,000, and you missed out on servicing 400 vehicles, that’s $800,000 that your dealership did not gain in after-sales revenue. That’s a heavy blow for any dealership, and it shows just how critical data is in targeting for after-sales.
By keeping abreast of products in your area and their maintenance schedules, you can send automated messages through your CRM or dealer marketing program to win back former customers and retain new ones. A conveniently-timed, valuable offer again gives you the opportunity to sell your dealership to the customer. Strategic marketing, combined with outstanding customer service, regular customer satisfaction surveys, and continual attention to improving customer experiences will boost the lifetime value of your customer base and positively impact your bottom line.
The Data-Led Dealership
With the barrage of information people are exposed to each day, many businesses attempt to make themselves heard by being louder than everyone else. However, with focused, direct targeting and timely messaging, you can cut through the clutter rather than struggle to be heard over it.
Proper targeting and timing can only be achieved through detailed data analysis. By adopting datacentric strategies, you become more able to anticipate needs and penetrate your local market, and thus achieve increased sales, higher customer LTV, and a more profitable dealership.
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