World champions like Lewis Hamilton have a number of things in common with the automotive industry, but there is a difference between making it to the top of your game, and simply being a player in a vast field of competition.
So what do they have in common?
Passion and determination?
Yes. They both love what they do. Lewis loves to be the world’s fastest and car manufacturers love to sell as many as vehicles as they can. They are both determined to beat the competition, and in the automotive industry, this determination translates into strategies that not only improve performance but also increase dealer car sales by optimising every part of the sales process.
Team work?
Absolutely, car manufacturers have sales, marketing and support teams, as well as their dealer networks to help them achieve their goals, whilst Lewis has a support network covering every aspect of preparation and competition, keeping him and his car in top condition.
Analytics
Again, this is an area that both benefit from. Lewis and his team have an incredible array of data helping them get the best from their car. And yes, car manufacturers also have a wealth of information to help them sell more vehicles. These analytics are not aimed at providing one silver bullet that makes them champions, but at improving lots of things by a small amount.
Is the all of the information that they have accurate?
This is where I think there is a difference. Champions have access to accurate data and that is what separates them from the competition. If you can measure it, you can improve it.
Think about Lewis and his team. They use technology to gain accurate data on the key elements that are going to help them improve their performance and stop the competition from beating them.
Now think about car manufacturers. Yes they do have lots of data, but is it all accurate?
I don’t think it is, and this is the reason why.
Since the car was invented, car sales has always relied upon humans to sell vehicles to other humans. That is because a motor vehicle is a complex item, it’s expensive and it really needs that interaction between humans to sell them.
Sure, some orders do happen online, but the vast majority of car sales still happen in a dealership.
This means that the manufacturers have to rely upon humans to manually update a number of systems that feed into the melting pot of data that they have to hand. And as we know, computers are only as good as the data that’s put into them.
But how does this effect car sales?
We have all seen sales funnels, and they do work. But only if the data in the funnel is accurate.
Car manufacturers have complex algorithms and indicators to measure the success of their marketing. For example, they have accurate data on how many leads they generate and then pass to their dealers for follow-up.
But the next step is flawed, the process relies upon humans to make contact with these leads and update the lead status within their Lead Management or CRM system. This is where data falters and personal opinions often take over.
Many manufacturers believe that their dealers are not very good at following up sales leads, and yet their systems report that dealers are following up the leads that they receive from their manufacturer.
Why the difference? Humans.
Most manufacturers target and incentivise their dealers to follow-up sales leads. So it makes sense that the dealer should update their systems to say that they have followed up leads, even if they haven’t.
To give an example of the size of this problem, we know from independent data published throughout the industry, that on average around 50% of sales leads are not followed-up in the UK. The situation is worse in most other countries.
Remember, Lewis Hamilton and other top performers in sport or industry simply would not succeed if the data that they had was inaccurate!
Thankfully, this means that a number of manufacturers including Volkswagen, Audi, Kia, and Ford have invested in TrackBack products to accurately measure the lead follow-up activity of their dealers in 30 countries around the globe.
With dealer lead follow-up analytics, TrackBack provides our clients with the insights needed to fine-tune this important step in the sales process and increase their sales performance. Just by having accurate data to work with, we have seen some incredible results.