10:10 am, August 8, 2022
Dealers should be giving customers personalised videos with every inquiry they receive.
That’s the view of Danny Cooksey. He believes the days of video being a desirable add-on to the sale process are gone – video needs to be front and centre when the customer asks about a car.
‘Every single inquiry needs to be sent a personalised video – it just needs to be the standard,’ he told Car Dealer.
‘Customers are three times more likely to respond to a text message rather than an email, so by sending a video by text or email dealers will see their response rates go through the roof.
‘Personalised videos create a great rapport between the customer and the sales team.
‘When the customer comes into the showroom, they already know the salesperson thanks to the video that has been sent to them. The customer will feel just that bit more comfortable.’
Cooksey is the owner of Vehicles in Video, a relatively new company on the automotive suppliers scene that specialises in making the process of creating videos for dealers a time- and cost-saving one.
More than that, his software means making videos is enjoyable – not a chore.
He began his career in the motor trade as a product genius for BMW, and has had successive roles for dealerships holding Kia and Ford franchises.
Thanks to his earlier product genius experience, Cooksey soon tapped into the benefits of building a relationship with the customer early on in the sales process with personalised videos.
In 2019, he began Vehicles in Video with his father with the aim of streamlining the sales process, allowing salespeople to spend their time on the art of selling without wasting time on complex video creation.
The Vehicles in Video software, or VIV for short, allows dealers to send videos to customers directly at the point of inquiry.
The innovative software allows a personalised video to be sent immediately, but the dealer doesn’t need to waste time in shooting a new video for every single inquiry.
‘Our videos are made up of three different clips,’ explains Cooksey. ‘The videographer would shoot the car as soon as it has come in and then that footage would be saved on to our system.
‘That footage is sent out to every customer inquiry, so the salesperson doesn’t have to worry about having to find the right car keys, moving the car into a suitable location and shooting a new video for the customer.
‘All the salesperson has to do is shoot an intro and an outro, for example, introducing themselves and then closing the video with any follow-up details such as the offer of a test drive.
‘That video can then be sent within minutes of the customer’s inquiry – not hours later like most personalised videos which are shot for every inquiry.’
Cooksey was speaking to Car Dealer in the video at the top of this story. He also spoke about:
– Why dealers have been reluctant to embrace video in the past
– Why the Covid pandemic has made video more important than ever
– How dealers can further personalise their videos with VIV
For more information about Vehicles in Video, visit vehiclesinvideo.com.
