Serving The Tri-State Area
Industry News
Z.M.O.T. – Zero Moment of Truth?
What is ZMOT? Google it! Never mind I’ll just tell you.
ZMOT – That’s when the customer (buyers) decides to:
- Come to your dealership!
- Call your dealership!
- Contact you by email!
It’s a buyer telling you he or she is ready to meet you and have you fill their needs and want and they are ready buy a vehicle! It’s the moment of truth!!!
Today’s dealers mistakenly still refer to these customers as “Leads” or “UPS”, they not Leads or UPS they are “Buyers”.
Some reading may say I’m crazy.
“If you change the way you look at things; things will begin to change.”
Do you know what happens before they come in, call or contact you?
The spend 18.5 hours online, BEFORE ZMOT.
18.5 hours before you or your staff ever see them, here their voices or get an email.
You see years ago before the internet and when newspaper ruled they weren’t “buyers” they were “ups”, “phone ups” and “leads”. We just haven’t changed our mindset. Suggest to you maybe we should.
Why?
What you now know is today buyers go to only 1.4 dealership. Meaning if you don’t sell that buyer when they contact you the next guy 100% will. It’s just math.
If they contact you they are buyers!
We can get them to contact you as we know what they are doing for the 18.5 hours before you do.
Ok…….we know everything and thus we can have them to your dealership at ZMOT!
Are You Meeting Car Buyers Too Late?
It’s the car buyer your team may hate to see. He comes in with a glint in his eye and a fist full of papers. He looks around, essentially daring a sales associate to approach him.
(We know that the “he” may well be a “she,” but for this example, he’s a “he.”)
He’s been doing his research for weeks or months. He’s checked prices on a half-dozen web sites. He’s spent hours in front of the computer getting ready for this visit.
His only question is “price,” and, so far as he’s concerned, the only correct answer is “lower.”
It’s now or never. If he doesn’t become a customer now, he’ll probably just move on to another dealership.
Not the greatest position to be in. You’ve spent thousands of dollars on sales training. You’ve adjusted your service hours for the customers’ convenience. You even give them doughnuts and coffee. And now none of this matters, because this first—and possibly only—encounter with this customer is way too far down the purchase model. The good news is that this armed and obstinate buyer wasn’t always that way.
Several years ago McKinsey & Company described the model for buying a car. It begins in a relatively low-key mode: the initial consideration where the buyer is absorbing dozens or hundreds of messages aimed at him; the active evaluation phase where the buyer seeks out information for specific brands; and then closure. That’s when he’s ready to pull the trigger and isn’t really open to new ideas.
However, the first two phases—initial consideration and active evaluation—are all about information and persuasion. He’s passively, then actively absorbing what he needs to make an informed decision.
The problem is that you met him much too far down the purchase model. In their white paper on ways to deal with this kind of customer, Booz & Company offered four suggestions. They are:
- Build marketing strategies and tactics that address where and why consumers shop.
- Identify differences in consumer behavior across product categories, and off-line vs. on-line shopping occasions.
- Differentiate marketing messages and promotional offers between price-conscious consumers and those who place greater value on brand and convenience.
- Engage the shopper along the full path to the purchase.
All of these are important, but undoubtedly the most important one is number four. You can’t do anything to influence this future customer if you don’t know who he is—or if you meet him when his mind is already made up. Ideally, as soon as he begins to consider a car and long before he knows he’s a customer, you’ve already identified him and know enough about him to speak to him on a one-to-one basis.
This helps to level the playing field. He has all sorts of information about you: your advertising, what your customers say in online reviews, and what anybody who’s ever been through your doors tells him. If you can identify him and reach him at the appropriate times, you get to be a part of this conversation.
Advancements in technology in the 21st century give us tools for unprecedented precision in marketing. No longer do dealers have to send scattergun messages into the marketplace and hope that some of the anonymous recipients show up at their doors. We’ve come into the world of data-driven marketing. It takes what the techies call “robust data sets,” turns that data into information, and then into messages that resonate with the customer, providing bits of influence along the way that result in a sale.
It is, as Booz & Company said, a matter of engaging the shopper along the full path to the purchase. And it’s the most effective way to prepare this shopper to meet his dealer.
And that, in turn, is the most effective way for the dealer to make the sale and some profit.
Wouldn’t be Nice Auto Marketing 2016
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stop paying for points, spots, dots, reach and frequency altogether? We are not here yet but getting closer every day!
Wouldn’t it be nice if your marketing dollars where directed to just SALES and not EFFORT? We have been living in this space virtually alone since 2001!
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could convert your AD SPEND an AD INVESTMENT and know your dollars are being used just on SOLD and DELIVERED vehicles? We’ve been here since 2001 also!
Wouldn’t it be nice to have your marketing company get paid the same way your sales staff does as a variable cost? Yes, that’s us as well!
By the numbers
• 37 Local Dealers have ordered 10,000 SALES, with us to date.
• We have sold so far for those 37, 6500 cars and trucks and counting.
• Of those 6500 sold the 37 dealers have ONLY PAID for the cars SOLD and DELIVERED. They didn’t pay for reach frequency spots dots or points.
• These 6500 deals generated $13 Million in gross profit, and a ROI of 500% for these businesses.
• Of the 6500 burning gas, 4600 of those customers where CONQUEST SALES.
• We are creating a competitive advantage for those 37 dealers and they have EXCLUDED 11 other dealership, who cannot buy this program and massive advantage from us.
These 37 dealers have already made the switch from Blockbuster to Net Flix.
When will you?
