Are you missing a trick at the Motor Show?

Mondial Assistance reveals that despite impactful stands at this year’s Motor Show, most manufacturers failed to follow up potential leads effectively.

Manufacturers and representatives fronting stands at the Motor Show were mystery shopped and rated on a variation of attributes crucial to customer needs, from the initial walk on to the stand through to offering test drives and maintaining contact with prospects after the show.

“Some manufacturers took up to 2 months to follow-up our leads and surprisingly, many failed completely to provide a brochure or call after the initial sales conversation,” confirmed Becky Green, CRM Business Development Manager at Mondial Assistance. “In the current economic climate it is essential that customer communication is both timely and correct. The number of customers for every manufacturer is reducing, so it is essential that customers expressing an interest in products are dealt with efficiently and professionally to make them feel that their custom is both wanted and valued. This will help ensure manufacturers maximise their return on sales and marketing investments. We were disappointed to find that a good number of those manufacturers who did follow-up our leads did so poorly. Letters were addressed to the wrong names, scribbled hand written labels on brochure packets and even some e-mails littered with spelling mistakes.

“Over 500,000 people attend the Motor Show to see, touch and feel, all with an expectation of the product, brand and image. Sadly, it would appear that for many manufacturers the Motor Show did little to maximise their return on investment. With the current climate likely to continue into 2009, the industry might need to rethink their strategies to embrace every opportunity to converge potential leads into sales.”