"Car Talk" is a platform carefully built by car home to share and communicate with car dealers. Each issue holds offline salon activities in many parts of the country, which is closely integrated with online content reporting. Up to now, it has covered nearly 200 cities across the country, held more than 800 salon activities, covering more than 7,000 front-line managers of dealers. Through in-depth insight into the focus topics of dealers, Car Talk tries to empower dealers to develop their business and promote the progress of China's automobile industry.
30-second speed reading:
Behind the surge in sales at the end of 1 is the "unspeakable secret" of dealers' perennial inventory backlog and price-for-quantity exchange. In the whole year, 265,000 enterprises related to automobile sales were cancelled. ? 2. Some new brands "refuse" to reduce prices, mainly because of the difference between direct selling and distribution, the way that service is responsible for the brand and sales and experience are separated, which provides great reference for the traditional dealer model. ? 3. In order to make up for the profit gap of new car sales, traditional 4S stores can expand and upgrade from after-sales, finance, employee training, customer stickiness, cross-industry cooperation and other aspects.
◆? Inventory backlog, price for quantity? Unscrupulous secrets of dealers
In order to compete for a place in the leaderboard, car companies spread the sales pressure to dealers at all levels; In order to complete the task and sell more cars, dealers have to come up with a series of means such as reducing prices and giving gifts-the traditional 4S shop operation mode has continued to this day. Although consumers did enjoy the price lower than the manufacturer's guide price in this process, it also caused the dealer's long-term inventory backlog and the unhealthy survival rule of exchanging price for quantity. Behind the soaring sales list is the "unspeakable hidden" of dealers.
During the period of 1- 10 in 2020, the cumulative sales volume of passenger cars nationwide was129.26 million, which was 14.26% lower than that in 20 19. Affected by the epidemic, there was a strong bottom in February, but since July, there has been a continuous year-on-year increase. The top manufacturers are Volkswagen, Dongfeng Nissan, Geely Automobile and SAIC-GM-Wuling.
"The retail sales of passenger cars in China will be from 1 to 10 in 2020"
Inventory backlog, dealers are under great pressure.
Judging from the inventory coefficient, in 2020, the national dealers will be above the warning line for 8 months from 1 to 10, and at the same level for 2 months, and the overall inventory level will be higher than 20 19. At the end of the year, with the manufacturers achieving the annual target, the inventory pressure of dealers increased. As far as we know, in 2020, the inventory coefficient of dealers will still be higher than the warning line, especially for some China brands, even as high as 6.
"20 19-2020 national dealer inventory coefficient"
Although FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen are old faces on the sales platform, they are also the most representative "workers" under the traditional 4S shop model. According to Liang Kun, general manager of He Zhong Mingde FAW-Volkswagen 4S store, the overall sales volume of the store dropped from more than 5,000 vehicles last year to more than 4,000 vehicles, down 15%-20% year-on-year. "The epidemic itself has the greatest impact on the middle-end population, which has also caused a serious blow to our brand. Fortunately, the Zhengzhou market is relatively large, and the inventory coefficient of our store is around 3, which is within the controllable range. Although it has not yet reached the last day of 2020, the tasks of the manufacturers are still guaranteed to be completed. " Liang Kun said.
It is reported that the inventory coefficient of a SAIC Volkswagen store in Tianjin once exceeded 4; At the worst of the epidemic, the inventory coefficient of Dongfeng Fengxing Store in Ye Wei, Henan Province exceeded 3. Zhengzhou Nissan Guang Tai Store basically maintained at 2, which is relatively benign. The red line of wholesale volume under the manufacturer's policy has become the heaviest burden in the dealer's operating costs.
The price is upside down, and the more you sell, the more you lose.
As we all know, dealers will get rebates from manufacturers after reaching the task assessment of manufacturers. Although this can bring considerable profits to dealers, it also indirectly causes the phenomenon of crazy warehouse pressing. The final result of inventory pressure is to exchange price for quantity. Price inversion is the normal state of dealers, and it has almost become the last straw to overwhelm them.
According to the data of the Survey Report on Dealers' Satisfaction with Manufacturers (20 19) issued by the Automobile Dealers Chamber of Commerce, only 52.4% of the dealers in the whole industry made profits in 20 19. Due to the upside down price, 67.2% of dealers lost money in new car sales. It is difficult for weak brand dealers to turn the situation around by their own efforts. In addition, 70.3% of dealers reported that the market price of their main products was lower than the wholesale price of manufacturers. Among all the products represented by 55.2% dealers, the proportion of products that can benefit from the price difference is only below 10%; Only 9.5% dealers can make a profit with more than half of their products. Throughout the whole year of 2020, according to the survey data of enterprises, as of June 5438+February 65438+July, 265,000 automobile sales-related enterprises were cancelled or cancelled in 2020, and only dealers knew the pressure.
"20 18 Dealer Satisfaction Survey with Manufacturers (Source: Automobile Dealers Chamber of Commerce)"
The general manager of a FAW-Volkswagen store in Nanjing once said that new car sales are often bundled with derivative products to barely make up for some losses of new cars. After-sales profit is the basis of covering the operating expenses of the store. If only from the perspective of selling cars, the whole is still a loss. The general manager of a Beiqi new energy store in Beijing said that if the price of its models is reduced by more than 30,000 yuan, it will definitely be upside down. If there is no manufacturer's subsidy, no store can bear the cost of millions.
◆? How to break the game? Learn from direct selling and deepen management.
What can we learn from the new direct selling model? Pay attention to service and transparent price.
Just when every household shouted "price reduction", some brands did not waver at all-such as Tesla and Weilai, which also revealed the most essential difference between direct sales and distribution models. Direct selling mode directly connects manufacturers and consumers. Manufacturers should be responsible for products, maintain brand tonality, and don't easily affect brand power through discounts. The advantage of this is that the prices seen by the public are unified and transparent, and users don't have to run more 4S stores to compare prices, which is more reassuring.
Another point is the upgrade of service experience. For a small example, many 4S stores have children's entertainment areas, but this area of many 4S traditional stores is purely for "making up the numbers". And NIO from Weilai? House, you can safely leave your children here. There are not only simple entertainment facilities, but also special people to take care of and organize reading activities. What is even more unusual is that they will bring smart watches to their children, and once there is any unexpected situation, they will inform the parents who make an appointment for the phone as soon as possible. This whole process is not only a cold upgrade of intelligence, but also a sincere and thoughtful way to impress car owners.
More and more enterprises began to copy and learn this model of separation of sales and services, online car purchase, offline delivery, so that services are responsible for the brand and can more accurately hit the needs of users. Similarly, there are Weimar Automobile's experience hall (space), user center (store), service house (station) and Weimar E station (point); Sky Center (brand experience store), Smart Choice Space (sales center), Anxin Workshop (service center), Sky Auto Su Jie Station (express outlet), etc.
Of course, the new brands have a common feature, that is, the customer base is small and the management is relatively easy, but there are also many businesses with good living environment for traditional brands. Compared with the pressure from the public in the north and south, Japanese brands maintain a relatively benign inventory, and their profitability is also within a stable range. The general manager of a Lexus store in Nanjing said that the sales of new cars in the store basically belong to the order system, which is in short supply, and the income in the store mostly comes from bicycles. New car sales account for 60-70% of the total revenue, which is a very high proportion.
How is the traditional model profitable? Customer maintenance, flexible financing
From the perspective of traditional brands, brands such as BBA, Lexus and Japanese Big Three can guarantee profits without being affected by inventory and manufacturers' tasks, mainly because consumers recognize brands and products. Li Jinyong, the former president of automobile dealers' chamber of commerce, once said that a fair and reasonable communication mechanism should be established between dealers and OEMs, and dealers should force OEMs to improve their product strength and conduct publicity. Only by letting the OEM hear the voice of the dealer can the problem be completely solved. Especially during the epidemic, it is a benign performance for car companies to adjust their task assessment.
In terms of user operation, in addition to paying more attention to the sales of conventional power grids, special attention should be paid to the management of customer protection. In terms of offline activities, Yang Tingyue, general manager of Henan Zhongtong Zhongyuan Chevrolet 4S store, found that the invitation rate of parent-child and family activities was the highest. In addition to the regular road trip and picking, Chevrolet's unique American cultural organization's activities such as field survival, adult and children's racing competitions are more popular. During the "Double Eleven" period, Zhongtong Zhongyuan Chevrolet Store held three activities under the guidance of the manufacturer's arrangement, and gained more than a dozen orders with good feedback.
"Henan Zhongtong Zhongyuan Chevrolet 4S Store"
Of course, in addition to reaching the hard indicators of manufacturers, "losing money and earning money" is also to increase the customer base. With more customers, after-sales can naturally bring profits and make up for the loss of new car prices upside down. The customer churn rate of traditional 4S stores is getting higher and higher. In the early years, consumers have long been tired of the bundled sales model. To fundamentally establish users' trust in 4S stores, we must rely on accumulated emotional communication. In addition, special after-sales services such as BMW's 58-minute maintenance and Red Flag's lifetime free maintenance also give consumers the impulse to "try early".
In addition to after-sales, finance is another big sector that can bring profits to dealers. In order to expand profits, manufacturers have introduced preferential policies for installment loans. For users, financial policies have become more and more flexible, and they can choose the most suitable financial plan according to their own conditions. At first, it was to solve the pain point of young people "wanting to buy a car without enough money". Now 30%-70% of users are willing to choose this financial management method.
In the fierce competition environment, the survival strength of dealers is the most tested. At the moment when product homogeneity is serious, we need to rely on services to enhance our vitality. In the case of the same store rent, personnel, inventory and other costs, even if the profit brought by bicycles is not considered, each car can share the corresponding costs.
It is worth mentioning that dealers of new energy vehicles have less pressure on inventory and profits. As we all know, the key factor to guide the development of new energy vehicles is policy. Recently, taking Zhengzhou as an example, an urgent new policy has aroused widespread discussion: due to serious air pollution, fuel vehicles in some sections of Zhengzhou are restricted to single and even numbers at 7:00-2 1 every day, and the tentative deadline is 65438+23 1, and new energy vehicles are not restricted. As soon as the policy came out, local new energy automobile dealers felt the "sudden" happiness.
According to him, at present, the best model sold in the store is Little Ant, while the sales of Tiggo E and Big Ant, which are relatively expensive, are flat. Jing Bo found that the oil-to-electricity model was not particularly popular. The Tiggo electric version with the same appearance is almost twice as expensive as the fuel version, which is not very pleasing. Users who buy small ants are mainly fresh and convenient, and more than 80% are the second car at home. Slowly, we also found that due to the low cost of use, more and more people began to break away from the shackles of policies and gradually accepted new energy vehicles.
"During the eleventh period, I drove a Tiggo E from Zhengzhou to Beijing, and I only charged it once. The cost of starting at full power is not included. To exaggerate, when 30 yuan arrived in Beijing, the same fuel vehicle needed at least 300 yuan fuel. " Jing Bo said.
Chery Little Ant
In addition to small ants, another "magic car" that has been controversial recently is Wuling Hong Guang MINIEV, especially in some prefecture-level cities in Lu Yu, which is also related to the local low-speed electric vehicle foundation. The starting price of 28,800 yuan can't bring much profit to the manufacturers, but it has a miraculous effect on expanding the market and reputation. The key is to make some contribution to the double score. By visiting dealers in Chongqing, Wuhan, Henan and other places, I learned that there is almost no discount on the terminal price of this car, and there is no need to press the goods, at least the positive profit of the bicycle can be guaranteed.
"Hong Guang Miniev"
Although the vast majority of traditional brands still maintain a consistent business model, it is difficult to completely change, but there are still means of survival and profitability. Summarize five sentences: strengthen communication and seek more help from manufacturers; Online sales, offline special activities to enhance customer retention; Reduce bundling, establish emotional interconnection and increase after-sales profit; Flexible financial policies to solve the practical difficulties of consumers buying cars; Following the policy orientation, new energy vehicles are better.
Editor's comment:
Behind the seemingly fiery year-end promotion is the game between cost and profit. As a key link in the whole marketing chain, dealers have to bear the task assessment pressure of car companies on the one hand, and serve their own users well on the other hand, which is really a huge test for the inherent business model of traditional 4S stores. Reducing the burden on dealers and maintaining a healthy and reasonable market competition mechanism require the joint efforts and supervision of OEMs, supply chains, dealers and consumers. (Text/car home? Weng Meng)