Mercedes-Benz has bought an island and set up shop in the upmarket South West
district on SL (Second Life).

They even have a
blog
style website to highlight their SL efforts. I’m not sure where they are
anticipating Second Life to go but I guess they thought they better jump on the
bandwagon.

I’ve stayed away from second life, it’s hard enough to find time for my First Life.

I wonder if I can get a job with Mercedes-Benz as a Virtual Internet Sales
Manager (VISM..I’m coining that!)? Maybe I can find where
AmyAuto lives and we could
shack up!!

Here is the

Press Information if you want to read it.

3/3/2007 – During the time of my original posting I emailed Mercedes-Benz at the designated email address, asking them a few questions about their participation in Second Life..I have yet to hear back from them…??

3/10/2007 – I have yet to hear from some someone at Mercedes-Benz corp., BUT they have added a new posting to their blog/website about presenting the new C-Class on Second Life. Maybe if someone from Mercedes-Benz reads this I’ll get a new C-Class to drive AmyAuto around in! I hope the front seat reclines enough.

4/19/2007 – WOW..I finally hear something back from Mercedes-Benz. Here is what they sent:

Dear Jeff Kershner,

actually we do not offer the last name "Mercedes-Benz" in Second Life. But you may join the Mercedes-Benz News and Events group in Second Life. If you do so, Mercedes-Benz will be listed below your Second Life name.

At this point we do not offer any services for Mercedes employees, but we will develop our services steadily.

Thank you and best regards, your Mercedes-Benz Second Life Team

How exciting. I wonder how long they will keep up with their Second Life efforts??

AutoTrader introduces their 2007 products and Chip Perry writes a few words about it.

New Solutions for Dealers at AutoTrader.com By Chip Perry

“As customers of AutoTrader.com, you know the Internet is no longer new, and neither are online classifieds. But we constantly work to take advantage of the latest technologies to make it even easier for you to work with us and for consumers to find your cars. This means developing functions and tools to eliminate information inefficiencies during the car-shopping experience and to meet consumers’ demand for rich media experiences, detailed information on vehicles and the most up-to-date prices and offerings on the vehicles for which they are shopping.

Autotrader.com annually delivers new products and services to you to more effectively drive qualified buyers to your dealerships. The suite of 2007 dealer solutions provides you with the most comprehensive means to market yourself to in-market shoppers since we launched our site nearly ten years ago. This year’s dealer solutions include a multimedia center, vehicle brochure, reduced price indicator, integrated vehicles valuation and new vehicle specials. The new features improve the site’s “find Your Dealer” function, an industry-vest service for locating YOU.

Through a new multimedia center within your Dealer community, you now have the ability to upload audio-visual components- everything from your TV and radio commercials to virtual tours of your showroom. Posting this online allows more consumers to view your other means of advertising on-demand. Your radio and TV commercials help introduce your dealership and vehicles to viewers and listeners, and now they can continue to do so to the additional 11 million monthly shoppers who visit AutoTrader.com.

Do you have a brochure about your dealership? A brochure for each car on your lot? A customized brochure for each customer? To avoid clutter and disparate paperwork for car-shoppers, we’re excited to share our new vehicle brochure with you. This customized collateral can be used for both used and certified pre-owned vehicles, and includes pictures of the vehicles and/or your dealership, information on a manufacturer’s certified pre-owned program, maps, directions to your dealership, and an industry-first capability to include a Carfax vehicle history report. All in one customized document consumers can print out in the comfort of their home.

We know you often reduce prices on cars that have been on the lot longer than several weeks. But when the ads are posted online, how do you alert shoppers of lower-priced vehicles to help you move more inventory? Well, to solve that problem, we have another key offering—the reduced price indicator. It notifies shoppers of a reduction in a particular vehicle’s price and eliminates them having to hunt and peck for recently-discounted vehicles. Right next to the vehicle’s listing price is an orange label, “Reduced!”

Finally, to continue our strides toward providing all the resources a car-shopper might need, AutoTrader.com is now also offering an integrated vehicle valuation function with your listings through NADAguides.com. This means you receive more informed and price-aware shoppers, and at the same time this give consumer’s confidence about how much their car is worth.

Even with all of these changes, we continue to look ahead and think, “What’s next? What else can be done to maximize the value of dealerships’ online advertising dollars?” To give you a sneak preview, next month AutoTrader.com will be the first to introduce new vehicle specials to you. This new function will highlight in real-time your specials, such as current and time-sensitive incentives on particular vehicles, such as rebates, coupons and special financing offers. Consumers can even receive e-mails to notify them of your vehicle specials and offers. The new vehicle specials were designed to bring the feel of the Sunday newspaper’s automotive advertising section online. Keep an eye out for it!

I have confidence that all of these new enhancements will help consumers cut through the clutter, get your vehicles closer to them and higher up on their car-shopping list, and get them onto your showroom floor.”

Any Comments?

Hello,

As a 22 year industry pro I took the past 4 years off from the auto biz.  I have been lured back in by a great dealer with a big sales slide problem.  I agreed to come in and help build his internet department.  What I am hoping you can help me find is some stats that show some industry averages on the internet such as:

• Lead to Appt ratio%
  
• Appointment Kept %
  
• Appointment to sale ratio

I know I need something to base projections on, and I need help gathering some number

Your time and assistance is appreciated.
Jon Hageman II
Internet Sales Manager

Mike Whitty over at Salesperson Inc. shares his view of the 3 different types of basic shoppers and their thought process.

The Click ‘N’ Order vs Click ‘N’ Brick vs Brick ‘N’ Mortar Customer –
Mike Whitty

For the longest time, customers purchased items in one of two ways: either by walking into a store or mail ordering from a catalog. Well, in many cases, the store is still there, but the mail order catalog is slowly being replaced by the Internet. It’s less costly and can be updated more frequently by providing this information on the web, then having our poor mail carriers lug these heavy catalogs around, and reproduce them with the high cost of printing and stamps.

So, to help you understand where your customer future lies in relationship to the Internet, I’ve placed customers into three main categories, and attempted to provide a description of each.

Click ‘N’ Order Customers

Click ‘N’ Order customers usually purchase items based on price, information, and service. A dealership appealing to Click ‘N’ Order customers usually needs to provide all three or be so superior in one facet, like offering special
internet pricing, that they don’t mind less concentration on the other two factors. In reality, many people don’t expect to necessarily save money by shopping online, especially by the time shipping costs are factored into the
final price. They do expect value-added sellers, and they love buying from the comforts of their home. For example, automotive dealerships that have online parts and accessory pages on their websites provide a great deal of information, selection, and customer service through their website and this can appeal to many Click ‘N’ Order customers. Click ‘N’ Order customers expect their online experience to be fast and extensive, painless, with more options than Brick ‘N’ Mortar. If there are any problems with their online experience, they can immediately click away to another website. In a few words, Click ‘N’ Order customers expect speed, flexibility, and options; they are generally very savvy shoppers. Plus, they just have a lot of fun buying things in their pajamas and having them delivered directly to their front door in just a matter of days.

Click ‘N’ Brick Customers

The Click ‘N’ Brick customer is on the way to becoming a Click ‘N’ Order customer, but hasn’t reached the point of feeling comfortable doing financial transactions online. Though they find the Internet exciting and spend a lot of time surfing the web, they feel that putting a credit card online is unsafe. But they do love doing a lot of research to determine what and where to buy. The Click ‘N’ Brick customer will gather all the information on the RV of choice, print it out, and take it right to the dealership to begin the buying and negotiating process. It’s this fact alone that makes the Click ‘N’ Brick customer feel more special than the Brick ‘N’ Mortar Customer when they come into your dealership. They just know more and feel they have the upper hand when it comes to buying a new vehicle. It used to be that salespeople hated to see these customers come into the dealership (like with their Consumer Reports) since they were more knowledgeable with facts and figures than the typical Brick ‘N’ Mortar customer. Sometimes they may even know more about the features of the vehicle and its competition than the salesperson (which isn’t a good thing!)

Brick ‘N’ Mortar Customer

Brick ‘N’ Mortar customers are a slightly different breed. They may not know how to search the internet, or may not even have a computer yet. If they do have a computer, they’re afraid to use it. They can and will take more time enjoying the “shopping experience.” A Brick ‘N’ Mortar customer is not as likely to leave an RV Dealership because there are a lot of customers in the showroom, as an Internet customer will click off your site if they don’t like the experience. A Brick ‘N’ Mortar customer at ABC dealer can’t search 10 other dealerships in 10 other states just to verify that ABC dealer has the lowest price while they are in the showroom. Once a Brick ‘N’ Mortar customer receives personalized attention, it is likely they will come back to the same place again. Brick ‘N’ Mortar customers like to “touch and feel” and are more likely to pick up parts and accessories they didn’t originally intend to purchase when they left home.

The descriptions for each might not be totally accurate with every customer, but I think you can see that there are differences with each, and they each have their own idea on how to shop. Since you already have a process in place for the Brick ‘N’ Mortar customer, it’s time to begin concentrating on the other two for increasing your future Internet sales. – Mike Whitty

Thanks for your article Mike.

Mike Whitty is President and Owner of Salesperson Inc.

Your can contact Mike at
http://www.mikewhitty.com or (800) 453-2787

5 Years ago would you ever imagine this..where will we be 5 year from now? And some still think this has no influence on the automotive retail industry.