Mercedes-Benz announces pricing for EQE sedan, Aston Martin cuts delivery outlook

Inside Automotive:

How to build a dealership where people want to work — Carolyn Liotta
More women are joining the automotive industry and excelling, but it’s still not at the same rate as their counterparts in most cases. Today on Inside Automotive, we’re joined by Carolyn Liotta, Director of People and Culture at VBM Auto Group, to discuss the importance of having more women in the industry and how to recruit them. Watch the complete segment here.

Headlines:

Now that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has officially closed his Twitter purchase, some employees are worried about losing their equity compensation before their stock options are vested in early November, once fired or laid off. Musk and Tesla have been sued repeatedly over claims from former employees that they were fired just before their shares were vested. Musk has already fired top Twitter executives, including the CEO, CFO, and Policy Chief. According to CNBC, Twitter managers have reassured employees that the company’s payroll department would be working to process their vested stock starting as early as November 4. Read More

Mercedes-Benz has announced pricing for its all-electric luxury sedan, the EQE, which is expected to reach US dealerships in the next few weeks. The base model EQE has a starting price of $74,900. The EQE will be available in three trim levels, premium, exclusive, and pinnacle, with three variants per trim level depending on battery size and technology options. Mercedes recently revealed an SUV version of the EQE that is expected in dealerships sometime next year. Read More

Aston Martin says it will deliver fewer vehicles than expected this year due to persistent supply chain issues. The company cut its delivery expectations from 6,600 to 6,200 cars after parts shortages prevented some 400 vehicles from being shipped during the third quarter. The automaker also reported an operating loss for the period that was higher than expected. Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll said in a statement, “Although these headwinds, which are already improving in Q4, have disrupted our near-term financial performance and modestly impacted our full-year guidance, the medium and long-term outlook is robust.” Read More

News & Opinion

How to create more personalized marketing for your car dealership
Identifying, communicating, and converting high-quality prospects is the primary purpose of adding personalization to your car dealership. The personalized marketing options are similar to those of leading companies like Amazon and Netflix, which use data analytics to find the most relevant results for their users. Since they cater to a larger audience, knowing how to personalize the results can quickly boost the process. However, it can be difficult for car dealership owners to know the right way to create a car dealership. Personalized marketing ensures the use of digital technology and data analytics to create results more targeted toward individualized content to the current prospective customer base. Read More

Small changes in F&I questions can yield big results
To sell anything to anyone, regardless of the product or industry, it’s important to master one thing: asking the right questions. In the dealership environment, this is especially critical in F&I, where the entire process can be made up of equal parts anxiety and skepticism. It’s a tough place to sell for sure. F&I managers are tasked with gathering an enormous amount of information to help do their job most effectively. Trainings over the decades have focused on solid selling principles and techniques to help present features and benefits of all products on the menu but how to ask the right questions is something that morphs a bit over time. Read More

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