Design. Beauty. Desire. Car makers spend billions of dollars yearly on vehicle design and new model advertising. Beauty product sales worldwide will reach $108.41 billion this year. In both cases, the goal is to cause consumers to desire products.

I have older friends who talk about the big department store Christmas catalogs they’d open across their laps, thumb through, and dream of having so many desirous toys, clothes, and other enticements inside that big Wish Book.  

Slick and visual new-model-year brochures were a car dealership’s best point-of-sale desire-builders for many years.  

See the pattern: Lure the eye and entice the desire.

  This pattern is packaged into digital vehicle portfolios (DVP), the visual, enticing, and descriptive Wish Books grown-ups now use to shop and buy used cars from your dealership. Data show DVPs seal the deal before it starts by building desire, strengthening want by providing evidence supporting the high quality of the vehicle displayed, and building customer trust and confidence in the vehicle by answering typical pre-purchase questions:  

· Yes, this is the specific model – Multiple exterior and interior color photos, mileage statement, VIN, and OEM Maroney Label
·  Yes, this vehicle is dependable and safe – Reconditioning repairs, vehicle history report, emissions compliant, tire tread depth, condition of brake rotors and pads, safety certifications
·  Yes, you can afford this vehicle – online finance tool, calculate your down payment and monthly payments
 
One dealer contacted its customers via email, which gave them access to the dealership's DVP site. Of its 838 mailings, 56% were opened, 64% of recipients replied to these emails, and 47 sales appointments were made. Across all dealers’ use of these DVPs, 57% of your customers who opened your VDP bought a car.  

There can be a curious response to using DVPs within the dealership, and the concern goes like this: “We love how these DVPs increase leads and sales, but these buyers come into the showroom knowing so much about the car they’ve landed on that it sometimes stumps our sales associations.”  

Understandable. You have dozens if not hundreds, of used models for sale – how can even a super sales associate have the details of all these cars in mind to present them professionally to customers? VDP is Wish Books for your sales associates, too. The customer mentions the vehicle of interest, and the associate pops it into the DVP on their laptop or smartphone. Right there are all the details and information they’ll want to discuss with the customer like a seasoned pro.  

Now, associates can quickly access the same information on that vehicle as customers have from browsing their Wish Book. Associates engage customers with greater confidence in their product and presentation knowledge and skills, building transparency, trust, and confidence with your buyer.

The digital vehicle portfolio revolutionizes the car-buying journey. It meets the needs of both dealers and customers with unparalleled efficiency. Its presentation to shoppers reflects a dealership’s dedication to honesty and open communication. For a consumer encountering this tool for the first time, there’s an immediate sense of being more empowered and knowledgeable. This clarity underscores the dealership’s support for your informational needs, pioneering a new benchmark for customer empowerment in the automotive industry.

“Without DVPs that sell cars faster and give us remarkable insight, a used car is just a used car,” Jeromie Allan, partner and executive manager for Gary Yeomans Ford of Daytona Beach.

Seal the deal before it starts by using DVPs to transform buyer trust and transparency and stimulate desire.