Article
September 2007
One year on…
Amin Saleem writes: “Since the article on AutoeBid appeared the
company has grown from strength to strength".
Although we were not able to carry our growth plans over the last
year due to our previous investment falling through, we now have a
significant business loan as well as angel investors helping to
finally grow the business.
We did previously consult with mentors and considered most of the
aspects covered in their suggestions; we took on board what the
experts suggested and allowed ourselves the opportunity to take
stock.
We took the decision to stop all marketing and advertising
activities in order to be able to evaluate where our business was
coming from as well as spend time in improving the service and make
appropriate changes. Since then the business has continued to grow
without any advertising/marketing spend, predominantly through
enjoying the fruits of previous hard work in marketing the business,
repeat business and recommendations.
AutoeBid has gained new market share by creating ‘Powered By’
solutions for a number of major online portals and will continue to
grow the business by cross-selling our service to existing corporate
clients.
As a result of some of the research we have carried out, we realised
that a large percentage of potential customers were interested in
part exchange as a condition of purchase; we are therefore now
launching a new part exchange solution that will enable clients to
get dealers nationally to bid the price up on their part exchange,
providing a way to guarantee that customers can get rid of their
part exchange and still enjoy a fabulous discount on the new car
they wish to buy.
The new investment in the business will finally allow us to realise
the potential in our unique business model in the UK as well as our
new launch in Germany and an additional 14 countries over the coming
years.”
Expert Views - Money
Andrew
Colwell
Marketing Director, LBM
AutoeBid.com has two main problems with
its website: not enough people are "engaging" (they visit the site
but don't buy) and the firm is not capturing visitor information for
proactive marketing.
Getting engagement is about generating confidence, so the firm
should seek third-party accreditations such as "kitemarks" for its
probity. These should come from national motoring bodies (implying
this is a reputable car dealer) and online payment specialists
(implying this is a reputable e-commerce site). Personal
testimonials would also inspire confidence.
By generating a permission based, opted-in web visitor database,
AutoeBid creates its own prospect marketing database. This could be
incentivised using Air Miles or the like and would generate
information relating to customers’ existing car ownership, or even
insurance. This would allow AutoeBid to email the appropriate offers
intelligently. Customers should be encouraged to update their data
annually and care should be taken not to infringe data protection
laws.
Robin Tidd
Ex-Chairman, CIMA Members in Practice
Amin Saleem needs business mentoring as much as he needs financing.
The target market must be narrowed to those more ready to buy a new
vehicle online. He must identify the relatively few makes and models
that account for the majority of vehicles those buyers acquire. Then
he must strike affinity with the dealers in those models and, more
particularly, with their financing arms so finance can be offered,
effectively through Autebid, with every sale. It is the offer of
finance that drives many young buyers to the dealer – not only
availability of the vehicle.
From a mentoring and financing perspective, Mr Saleem needs a
business angel with significant experience and a strong network in
the auto sector, one who also has an empathy with the internet
sector. He should require access to network, business guidance
(time) and agreed funding (money). Remuneration to the angel can be
part equity and part cash, generated from increased turnover. This
aligns their interests.
Jonathan Sharp
Business Adviser, Business Link Devon and Cornwall
The business model presented by AutoeBid clearly has potential for
success. The difficulty the business faces is purchasing behaviour.
We can assume that many customers who visit the website will not
know how to take part in a reverse auction and may be daunted by the
new process.
Effective customer communication is therefore essential from the
outset. Putting a real-time demonstration on the website, perhaps
giving a contact number for one-to-one advice, will certainly put
customers at ease and build confidence in the process. It’s also
important that customers understand the benefits reverse auction
offers and cost savings they stand to gain.
By turning the new business model into a unique selling point, small
businesses can integrate the benefits of the new purchasing process
with the brand itself. With the cost benefits inherent in reverse
auctions combined with the AutoeBid brand, this brand value can then
be transferred to any product lines planned for the future.
click
here to view other articles |
