Seasoned salespeople can predict what a prospective customer wants in a vehicle after a few minutes of conversation. But in an era of online shopping and research, automotive marketers often lack the advantage of face-to-face buyer interaction. Instead, you’re forced to segment vast numbers of customers and prospects into fairly generic groups, which zaps your ability to make targeted offers that actually win new business and drive positive ROI.
That’s all changing. Today, specialized, detailed buyer insights around wealth, lifestyle, income and employment are available to help you better understand consumers and what motivates them to buy cars. When that data is then merged with industry analytics, you can build an even bigger picture of buyer behaviors to help you deliver more customer-focused messaging, offers, terms and service.
Estimated total can play a role in the vehicle type and special features that a segment of customers—ages 35-50, also referred to as Generation X—will likely choose when buying a car. The data is intriguing, with distinct vehicle types and features clearly linked to estimated income levels.
In terms of the highest indexing car types for Gen X households by income tier, the analysis revealed the following preferences.
The chart below lists the top three features that households within each income tier in this generation are likely to have in their vehicles.
Now imagine if you could access this type of pinpointed information and build an entire marketing and sales campaign around it? You could not only target prospective buyers by the vehicle they’re more likely to buy, but you could then call out unique features that may matter most to them.
Well, the truth is you can do all this and so much more. With the seamless access dealerships have to big data and analytics through qualified dealer service providers, it’s really the tip of the iceberg. You can more confidently know what buyers likely want in a car, if they’re more likely to respond to your offer, and you can even know if they’re likely in the market for a new vehicle. What’s more, once they walk into the showroom or service department, you can then access even more data with their consent that can help save them time and money (think: instant income and employment verification) while also creating a fast, seamless customer experience.
Regardless of what stage of the buyer lifecycle you’re focused on—from lead acquisition and sales through underwriting and servicing—there’s always opportunity to improve efficiency and profitability, as long as you understand your buyer and focus on their needs. The data is out there to help you know what matters most to them, and the sooner you reach out to your service provider to find out what insights are available to you, the better it will be for your prospects, customers and your bottom line.