Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands, a luxury dealership established in 2015 just north of Houston, Texas, quickly made a name for itself with exceptional concierge service and customer-centric amenities. These included complimentary lifetime car washes and a dedicated product genius bar, setting a high standard in customer experience. Owned by Dream Motor Group, which also manages several other Mercedes and Infiniti dealerships, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands aimed to rapidly expand its reach in a competitive market. However, as a relatively new dealership, they faced the challenge of building a robust customer database to fuel consistent growth in both sales and service departments.
The dealership recognized a critical hurdle in their digital lead management process. Amy Rothenberger, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Dream Motor Group, observed that their internet sales team would sometimes lose momentum in engaging with potential customers if immediate interaction wasn’t apparent. This highlighted a need for a more automated and persistent approach to nurturing leads. Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands sought a digital marketing solution that could consistently engage prospects with relevant communications, effectively guiding them through the sales funnel until they were ready to connect with the Business Development Center (BDC). The goal was to maintain top-of-mind awareness and personalize interactions at scale, something their existing email marketing efforts couldn’t fully achieve. According to Rothenberger, “We were emailing often, but not at scale, and the content wasn’t as relevant or personalized as I wanted.”
To overcome these challenges, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands adopted Outsell’s Virtual Customer Engagement platform. Rothenberger discovered Outsell through a presentation at an industry conference where an Outsell client shared their positive experiences with the platform. Impressed by the customer’s technology-driven and data-informed approach to personalized marketing, Rothenberger decided to explore Outsell’s capabilities. She realized that Outsell offered a comprehensive solution perfectly aligned with the dealership’s objectives for Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands.
Outsell’s platform enabled Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands to deliver individualized customer experiences through AI-powered marketing automation. Key features included buyer detection, which identifies customers actively in the market to purchase, and inventory mover, which intelligently matches prospects with relevant vehicles in the dealership’s inventory. This powerful combination proved to be transformative for Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands’ sales and service operations. Rothenberger enthusiastically describes Outsell as “a psychic BDC that always knows just what a customer wants and never takes a day off,” highlighting the platform’s ability to anticipate customer needs and maintain consistent engagement.
The implementation of Outsell delivered remarkable results for Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands. The platform became a significant revenue driver, moving beyond a mere cost center. Rothenberger reports that Outsell influences an impressive 70 percent of the dealership’s overall sales and a staggering 96 percent of service appointments. To validate these results, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands utilizes Outsell’s detailed reporting and conducts matchback analyses, meticulously tracking customer interactions to pinpoint the factors influencing successful deals. These comprehensive evaluations consistently demonstrate Outsell’s crucial contribution to their marketing strategy.
Furthermore, analyzing Google Analytics data revealed that Outsell consistently ranks first in driving Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) views for new, used, and Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) vehicles, excluding organic and paid website traffic. This underscores Outsell’s effectiveness in attracting potential buyers to explore vehicle inventory. Based on the outstanding success at Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands, Dream Motor Group has expanded Outsell’s deployment to several of their other dealerships, with plans for continued expansion across the group. The tangible impact of Outsell is further illustrated by the following key performance indicators for Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands:
- 29.8 total linked sales per month
- 373.7 linked Repair Orders (ROs) per month
- 34.6% of linked sales originating from CRM prospects, unsold leads, or service-only customers
In conclusion, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands’ partnership with Outsell showcases the power of AI-driven marketing automation in the automotive industry. By leveraging Outsell’s Virtual Customer Engagement platform, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands successfully addressed their lead nurturing challenges, significantly boosted sales and service appointments, and solidified their position in the competitive Houston market. The results underscore the value of personalized, data-driven digital marketing strategies in achieving measurable business outcomes for luxury automotive dealerships like Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands.
