How Cox Automotive’s New Buyer Segments and DataWise™ Can Help Improve Your Sales Process

How Cox Automotive’s New Buyer Segments and DataWise™ Can Help Improve Your Sales Process

Written By AE Staff

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cox Automotive conducted a study that analyzed the types of customers looking to buy vehicles. The study identified five car buyer segments or personas, each with unique characteristics. When dealers better understand these demographics, they can use the information in tandem with DataWise to shorten the path to the sale and greatly enhance the customer experience.

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What is DataWise™?

Think of it as expansion packs for your leads. DataWise verifies and provides vital information on the customer’s demographic. It works by running shopper email addresses through a data lake. Doing this checks not only the validity of the emails but also appends additional information to lead. It allows dealers to see the customer’s age, relationship status, household information, income, vehicle info, and more.

DataWise is the perfect product to help dealers and customers experience a seamless encounter that ends with a sale.


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The 5 Customer Segments

The Guarded

This customer is one of the most cautious of car buyers. They are more inexperienced in shopping for vehicles, so they do their best to stay practical and stick to their budget. This customer segment is gender-neutral and is usually single. They most likely have less than $75k household income (HHI) and are often millennials.

 

The VIP

The VIP customer is one with more confidence. The VIP’s car is an extension of themself. They want a car that reflects their social status more than other traits. These customers are often millennials, more likely to be male, have kids, and put less effort into picking their vehicle. This demographic’s HHI is equal parts above and below $75k.

 

The Informed

The Informed is the most particular segment. The Informed maximize their effort in car shopping, paying attention to meticulous details. This customer prefers the finer things in life and will put in the effort to make sure they receive them. They’re most likely to be a suburbanite, Gen X, and male. This customer segment would probably have greater than $75k in HHI.

 

The Experiencer

This customer is all about new life experiences and learning opportunities. They see buying a vehicle as an educational experience and are very enthusiastic about cars. This customer tends to be millennial and urbanite. They are also usually male and have an HHI larger than $75k.

 

The Straight Shooter

In contrast to the guarded customer, the straight shooter is the customer who knows exactly what they want. This last customer segment is well-versed in the buying process and only purchases a car they can confidently afford. This demographic is gender-neutral and typically comprises Gen X’ers or Boomers who live in the suburbs. Their HHI tends to be less than $75k.


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Using DataWise™ With the Segments

As you can see from the five customer segments, this information can be the key to understanding the goals and motivations of each customer. You can take the info DataWise provides and determine whether they are the straight shooter, the informed, or the VIP. Then you can use that information in significant ways.

Strengthen Follow-Up

The additional customer details can help prioritize your lead follow-up. You can use it to add an element of personalization to capture and impress each customer segment before they move on and buy from another dealership.

 

Help Identify the Best Sales Approach

When you understand your customer before arrival, you can tailor the sales approach accordingly—everything from the most relatable salesperson to assist them to the proper sales approach.

 

Empower Your Sales Team

DataWise instills confidence in your sales team. The extra data helps them identify needs quicker, which raises customer satisfaction. When your team makes faster sales and satisfies more customers, everyone’s happy!


The Proof is in the Pilot

Our pilot study with 500 US dealerships resulted in 20% additional YOY sales per dealership and had an immediate impact. When the dealers focused only on good contacts and reviewed the customer transcripts with extra data, their sales process became much more efficient. This efficiency leads to increased profitability.

DataWise offers a variety of benefits and has so many use cases. The possibilities are seemingly endless, and we want all dealers to be able to harness their shoppers’ buying power.


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