The all-new vDealer System provides marine dealers
with the power and tools to take their marketing and customer follow-through
way beyond just having an on-line presence that focuses only on selling
their inventory.
More and more, boaters use the web to gather information about the boats
and motors they want to purchase. Now dealers can expand upon this usage to
promote their services while improving their customer satisfaction and
retention.
“It is important for dealers to use the great marketing capability of
the web to provide information about the boats in their inventory” said
Larry Thompson, VP of Marketing/Sales for FishingWorld.com, Inc.. “At the
same time, it’s just as important to promote the brand of their dealership
and what it stands for. This is the basis for customer loyalty. The
dealership will be there long after the sale of a boat from their
inventory.”
“What makes the vDealer a complete system and really moves it beyond
just a web site is the Contact Management part of the system” added
Thompson. “With sales shrinking, it is going to be more important to give
each prospect and each customer the attention they expect today. We have
developed an easy to use Contact Management System that keeps a centralized
file of prospects and customers with their current interest level, automatic
reminders of next contact dates and of special follow up dates. It is also
a sales management tool for those organizations that have multiple
salespeople. Marine dealers have told us that it is not unusual for some
prospects to take as long as two or three years to make their purchase. It
is very easy for those prospects to be forgotten. It is just as easy to
forget the customer who has already bought a boat, but who is a great source
of referrals or who will be ready to buy a new boat in the next few years.
Doing a better job of converting prospects into customers and then taking
care of customers into the future is now a lot easier for the dealers.”
The vDealer System is the outgrowth of the Marine Dealer system
introduced by FishingWorld.com over two years ago which has been used
successfully by a number of boat dealers. “We have learned quite a bit
about the on-line consumer during the past two years.
While many have been
concerned about the consumers shopping the different dealers looking only
for the cheapest price, the reality is that consumers are generally looking
for a specific boat that meets their desires and they really value prompt
attention and customer service. It is amazing how many dealers have made
sales because they were one of the few who responded promptly to inquiries”
pointed out Thompson.
“We don’t see many signs that the customers are
visiting multiple sites to ask for quotes just to get the best price. The
most consistent characteristic that we do see indicates the customers have
researched a specific boat and they are now interested in purchasing that
specific boat.
This means that well stocked virtual showrooms are doing
their job of answering a lot of initial questions and delivering customers
that are focused on and generally already sold on a specific boat.
Increased prospects and sales efficiencies are the products of a good web
presentation. The bottom line is more sales and better profits”
FishingWorld.com, Inc. offers the vDealer System. The FishingWorld.com web community was founded in early 1995 and is one of the most popular fishing communities at which more than 400,000 user sessions produced over 6
Million hits while users clicked on more than 800,000 pages during March,
2001.
For additional information and a Demo Tour of the system, contact
FishingWorld.com, Inc. at 903-882-8877 or at [email protected].
By: Fishingworld staff
