The Company

Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands, located just north of Houston Texas, opened in 2015. The company is known for its concierge service and amenities like free lifetime car washes and a product genius bar. It’s owned by Dream Motor Group, which also owns four other Mercedes and Infiniti dealerships.

The Problem

A relatively new dealership without a sizable existing customer database, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands needed additional help driving leads for both sales and service. Rothenberger found that her internet salespeople would stop communicating with customers and prospects if they didn’t immediately see engagement.

She wanted a digital marketing tool that would automate the process of consistently keeping in front of customers with relevant communications, to keep them moving along in the sales cycle, ready to be handed back over to a BDC when they were in market.

“We were emailing often, but not at scale, and the content wasn’t as relevant or personalized as I wanted”Amy RothenbergerDirector of Marketing & Business Development at Dream Motor Group

The Solution

Rothenberger learned about Outsell at a conference, when an Outsell customer gave a presentation about digital marketing. “I really liked the approach this customer was taking, in terms of using technology and predictive models to personalize email and offers, so I sought out Outsell after the talk,” she says. “I learned that Outsell could do everything I wanted to do for The Woodlands.”

Rothenberger utilizes Outsell’s Virtual Customer Engagement platform, creating an individualized consumer experience through AI-driven marketing automation, complete with buyer detection (for identifying in-market buyers) and inventory mover (for matching prospects with specific inventory that may appeal to them). The combination has proven transformational for Mercedes-Benz of the Woodlands.

“I think of Outsell as a psychic BDC that always knows just what a customer wants and never takes a day off,” Rothenberger says.

The Results

“Outsell isn’t just a cost center, it’s contributing to revenue.” According to Rothenberger, Outsell influences 70 percent of overall sales, and 96 percent of service appointments.

“Outsell provides detailed reports, and I also do matchbacks – spot checks of particular deals where I look at every touch to see what influenced a deal. Outsell has become a crucial part of our overall marketing.”

Outsell also ranks 1st (outside organic and paid website traffic) for new, used, and CPO VDP views when analyzing Google Analytics from the start of the year. Rothenberger has rolled out Outsell at several other Dream Group dealerships and is continuing to expand Outsell’s footprint over time.

• 29.8 total linked sales per month
• 373.7 linked ROs per month
• 34.6% of linked sales from CRM prospects, unsold leads, or service only customers