Harness the power of relationships

Article author: Peter Bell
Position: EMEA marketing VP, Twillo

The automotive industry is fiercely competitive. With the industry contributing an estimated £13.3 billion to the UK economy in 2022, the retailer networks that are responsible for the majority of new car sales are all vying for a piece of the pie.

With tough competition on price, convenience and customisation options, there is a major opportunity for retailers to better engage with customers both past and present – and make the most of what they know about them. 

What makes things more complex is the knowledge imbalance that’s often in play between retailers and their potential customers. Many buyers will browse online and come to a showroom already with a clear idea of what they’re after – or even with a specific car they’ve seen in stock in mind. Sales teams conversely might know nothing about them, leaving them at a disadvantage. 

Fully understanding customer needs is vital for retailers looking to stay ahead of the curve. As a result, we are seeing them use emerging technologies to help bridge the knowledge gap and overall help close more sales. Our recently released annual State of Personalisation Report (SOPR) provides insight into the shifting landscape of customer engagement, and how sales teams can keep up – with some useful takeaways for automotive sales teams.  

Do you truly know your customer? 

The average Brit will spend £438,000 on cars in their lifetime – and a vehicle is one of the biggest single purchases that many of us will make. As with other major purchases, it’s something many people are cautious to get right – partly explaining why face-to-face remains the most common form of initial contact with a retailer for more than half of car shoppers. Customers want to experience the look and feel of a car in person and take advantage of services such as 24-hour test drives to assess whether a particular model will work for them.

Further findings reveal that consumers are largely undecided at the start of their car-purchasing journey and buyers spend 59% of their time online researching. The time taken to do this, as well as the investment on the line, means that car sales cannot purely be transactional. Consumers need a personal experience, but the array of options and ease with which they can research means they have more choices to hand than ever before.

With the rise of digital technologies, auto retailers have the opportunity to create truly customer-centric approaches, delivering an experience for consumers that goes above and beyond. Retailers need to invest in ways to better learn about their customers and, in doing so, many are turning to Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and data warehouses to effectively retrieve, clean, manage and interpret the swathes of customer data at their fingertips. By building customer profiles in this way, sales teams can start to build a clearer sense of an individual’s digital history and previous purchases – as well as grouping customers who have similar traits or needs. 

Segmentation to your advantage

Cars, as products, are heavily impacted by life stages and income. There are also business buyers to consider, with companies purchasing hundreds or even thousands of vehicles for their fleet and may only select one or two models using strict criteria. All this makes CDPs the ideal tool for the segmentation and targeting that will help sales teams close more deals, more quickly. 

With generous margins in play, retailers are, of course, keen to maximise the opportunities presented by aftersales and servicing. All too often, however, once a customer buys a car, they are handed over to the aftersales department by a salesperson and those subsequent interactions aren’t tracked. While the motivations might not be there at every price point, there is a real opportunity to have a customer team in place that manages the full experience, backed by a robust CDP. They would help ensure the experience is as carefully managed after a purchase is made as it is during the run-up to one. 

By closely managing the data they have access to – and making it work as hard as possible to power more personalised and convenient services – retailers can start to bridge the knowledge gap they have. They might use a car configurator on a manufacturer’s website, for example – and have a good idea of what specification they’re after, but the retailer won’t know this until a formal order or expression of interest is made. Auto retailers need to build rich profiles of their customers and have capabilities to regularly update and refresh them, so that sales teams are armed with the insights they need to spring into action.

With so many options and specifications, many prospective buyers are unsure where to start with their car-buying journey. It’s here where the advice and perspective from a trusted friend can be very powerful. Though they are a small minority of car buyers, if they are a particular enthusiast and live and breathe cars, they could serve as a very powerful advocate for the buying experience. 

To this end, retail networks may want to consider influencer or review programs. Another good rule of thumb for any strong sales team is to treat every customer knowing they can spread the word about their experience – and act accordingly.

AI as a key competitive advantage 

Once retailers establish means to build unified profiles for every customer – and start acting on that information – the next phase for many will be using it to predict future preferences. 

AI and machine learning’s development have real transformative potential for customer engagement. 89% of business leaders believe that ethically using these technologies will help generate a competitive business advantage, while 59% expect their teams will be using AI daily by 2025.

As evidenced by our latest State of Personalisation Report, the automotive retail industry is undergoing transformation, powered by improved abilities to capture, analyse and predict from masses of customer data. If accompanied by sales teams that are incentivised and motivated in the right way, retailers will find themselves on a path to success.