Personas in the automotive industry

An industry in transition: from car dealerships to online shopping

More and more people can imagine buying their new car online. This is a challenge for traditional car dealerships in particular, as they are characterized above all by personal contact and direct advice. In order to survive among the large manufacturers and other automotive companies as a regional car dealer or workshop, a customer-centric approach is more important than ever. But especially when it comes to selling vehicles, car dealership owners tend to run campaigns tailored to all and sundry. After all, almost everyone needs a car. The fact that this not only costs time, but also too much money, only becomes clear when visitors and sales fail to materialize. Especially in a saturated market where dealers compete for sales, mere gut feeling rarely gets companies anywhere. It is better to strategically identify and classify target groups and make decisions on this basis - especially when it comes to sales and marketing. But online car sales can also be challenging for manufacturers. After all, digital car buying is highly complex: users want to assemble their car individually, as if in a construction kit, and expect digital advice in real time if necessary. In order to expand online purchases and make them as user-friendly as possible, they must be adapted as precisely as possible to the interests of the users. The prerequisite: manufacturers must know potential customers in detail - thanks to data-based personas. These are person profiles that are as close as possible to the average customer. The profile contains as much information as possible about existing or potential customers - including demographics, financial situation, living conditions, character, and information about media and consumer behavior. Everything about the persona is data-based, i.e. based exclusively on scientifically sound data.

With the data-based buyer persona, optimize sales processes

The data-based buyer persona is an effective tool that automotive companies can use to optimize sales processes, consultations and marketing in a targeted manner. This increases sales opportunities, turnover in the long term and the level of awareness of manufacturers and car dealerships - both online and offline. With a data-based persona, you know your existing and future customers inside out, you know what they want, and you're always one step ahead of the competition. While you can advise customers in the car dealership in a more targeted manner and convince them with individual offers, personas also help in online sales: The data-based buyer persona is a turbo when it comes to increasing leads and thus sales. The more detailed you know your target group, the easier it is to create an individual customer journey, which is particularly important for car sales.

Reaching qualified professionals with the Candidate Persona

But personas can improve your business not only in sales. Personas are also in demand in the automotive industry when it comes to recruiting specialists. These are not buyer personas, but candidate personas: they represent the ideal candidate for a specific position in your company. No matter whether it's an automotive mechatronics technician, a salesperson or an accountant. Data-based candidate personas are industry- and training-specific. This means that in addition to the data contained in the buyer persona, it also provides information about career factors, motivators and employer requirements that are important to potential candidates. This can give traditional car dealerships an advantage - especially when most candidates are drawn directly to car manufacturers in sales and development. The Candidate Persona enables a tailored Candidate Experience - from the job description to the first contact to the interview and beyond. It helps convince and retain the professionals your business really needs. Thus, the Candidate Persona provides information about ...

1. ... where they approach the candidates, e.g. at job fairs, social networks and vocational schools.
2. ... how to address candidates, which signal words count and how to design job advertisements convincingly.
3. ... what it takes for candidates to choose you, e.g. benefits, training opportunities and working environment.

Service providers such as the Persona Institute create data-based candidate personas for you and derive scientifically sound recommendations for action from them.

Candidate personas for a car dealership | Best Practice

Renowned car dealerships are already working with the Persona Institute's data-based Candidate Personas. The goal of one of our clients was to use Candidate Personas to optimize employee benefits and the tone of voice. With the goal of attracting savvy professionals to their business, the client commissioned two data-based premium personas. Within a very short time, our data experts created two scientifically based candidate personas using artificial intelligence and access to numerous data sets. Thanks to the personas and the playbook with scientifically based recommendations for action, the company was able to align its benefits with the candidate personas and further optimize its approach to new professionals via social networks.