Buying a car by stages is nothing new now, but in fact, this sales method has led the development of an era, and this seemingly novel sales strategy is of great significance in the history of automobile development.
It is a well-known truth that sales are the starting point of all commercial activities. In today's competitive economy, how to sell products better is directly related to the survival of enterprises. From the first day as a salesman, Iacocca knew that there would be no business without promotion, and he broke the traditional promotion mode and did things in new bottles of old wine, which directly made him successful.
After Iacocca joined Ford, he quickly became a regional manager by virtue of his intelligence and ability. The company recently launched a Ford 58 car, but the sales situation at that time was not optimistic, especially in Philadelphia, where the sales were extremely poor and the situation dragged on.
Faced with this situation, Iacocca was worried. Iacocca, who worked as a salesman in Philadelphia for several years before, did market research and promoted cars at the same time. He gained a lot in this investigation. It turns out that the residents in this area don't want to buy a car, but they have low income and no spare money to buy a car except for the necessary expenses of life.
After research, Iacocca thinks that the previous sales methods have greatly restricted the development of the company, and only change can have a way out. So he decided to break the traditional way of selling and designed a flexible way to buy a car for this consumer: first, he paid a deposit equivalent to 15% of the total car price, and then he paid $58 a month for the next four years, so that the car would belong to the customer after four years.
This method has great advantages. It enables low-wage consumers to buy cars. In addition, he matched an eye-catching and attractive advertisement for this purpose:
"As long as you pay $58 a month, you can have a new Ford 58." The advertisement immediately touched the hearts of millions of consumers.
In just three months, the sales of this new car in Philadelphia soared, and soon it jumped from the bottom of the ranking to the first in all regions of the United States, so Iacocca was valued by the company's top management.
Iacocca's superb skill in changing the traditional sales mode lies in his grasping people's psychology of paying attention to near profits, and promoting that a new car can be bought by installment payment for only $58 a month, which is undoubtedly very attractive to people and has achieved success.
Iacocca's sales skills are unique, and he can always find new methods from old routines. His process of planning and selling Fengshen cars is a classic in sales cases.
After Fengshen automobile was manufactured, Iacocca found through market research that although most people were very satisfied with this car, many people were worried that they could not afford it. After detailed investigation, Iacocca set the price of this car at 2000 dollars, which is a very low price.
When all the preparations were completed, Iacocca began to advertise. On the first day of the listing of Fengshen's new car, according to the established plan, he arranged 180 authoritative newspapers to publish a full-page advertisement of Fengshen, aiming at highlighting the quality and low price of this car.
On the advertising screen: a white Fengshen car is driving. On the top right, the headline is "Accident" and the subtitle is "Selling price is 2000 dollars". Not counting this, Iacocca specially invited the editors of major newspapers to make a big fuss about the new car in Detenans. He provided a "Fengshen" car for the competition and invited 200 journalists to interview him personally.
Iacocca's genius lies in his clever use of racing activities. In fact, he launched a publicity campaign with great advertising charm. Afterwards, hundreds of newspapers and magazines rushed to report the grand occasion of Fengshen racing.
Iacocca not only satisfied the momentum of the media, but also extended the carefully planned publicity strategy to the TV field. From the beginning of Fengshen's listing, major TV networks repeatedly broadcast Fengshen automobile advertisements every day. Fengshen cars were also exhibited at the busiest 17 airport and 360 holiday hotels in the United States. Stimulate people's desire to buy in the form of physical advertisements, choose the most conspicuous parking lot, and erect giant "Fengshen" billboards to attract passers-by.
After the above plan was put into practice, Iacocca also sent advertising leaflets and objects to millions of car owners across the country. This move is to achieve the purpose of direct promotion, and also shows the company's attitude and determination to serve customers faithfully.
Iacocca's advertising campaign was very successful. Within a week after he implemented the above steps, "Fengshen" sensationalized the whole country and became all the rage.
On the first day of Fengshen's listing, tens of thousands of people flocked to Ford's agency to buy or book, which greatly exceeded the original advertising target of 8,000 vehicles. Later, the sales figure increased to 200,000 units, which achieved unprecedented success.
This impressive achievement made Iacocca the "father of Fengshen automobile" in one fell swoop. Because of Iacocca's well-planned success, he was promoted to the general manager of Ford Group.
Iacocca's practice is very instructive. Although people realized the important role of advertising at that time, few people made advertisements so overwhelming and few people advertised through competitions.
Iacocca's success mainly lies in his breaking the traditional thinking. Faced with the situation that low-income people can't afford to buy cars, Iacocca launched the strategy of installment sales, and the advertising method was also ingenious, which aroused people's strong interest. This new bottle of old wine, the way of doing things, really played a magical role, so that Iacocca succeeded in life.
Traditional ideas often bind people's thinking and make people act according to the rules; Finding a new breakthrough in the old routine can make things surprisingly successful.
In real life, we often encounter problems of one kind or another. Whether these problems can be solved smoothly depends on the ways and means to solve them. Conventional means sometimes fail, and it is necessary for handlers to take a detour strategy according to the specific situation, take a detour, take it by surprise, and then succeed in one fell swoop.
Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Soldiers are also cunning." Sun Tzu's art of war is also suitable for handling affairs. When encountering problems, try to avoid head-on collision. We might as well detour and take action when others are unprepared, which is likely to solve the problem in one fell swoop.
Once, an important foreign guest successfully concluded his friendly visit to China and decided to return home via Shanghai. To show friendship, a grand farewell banquet was held in a hotel in Shanghai.
Out of respect for the distinguished guests, an extremely precious kowloon cup was used at the banquet. In addition to exquisite workmanship and high quality, this kind of wine glass will suddenly glow after drinking. There is a pearl in Longkou hovering on the wine glass, which is very strange. The foreign guests were full of praise for this, clapping repeatedly, holding cups and fondling them. May be a little drunk, the foreign guest unexpectedly conveniently put a kowloon cup in his briefcase. This incident greatly embarrassed the reception staff: this set of kowloon cup is a national treasure, with a total of 36 sets. It is really a pity to lose one set.
What shall we do? kowloon cup is a national treasure. We must get it back. The other party is a very important guest. Not only can you not beg by force, but it is not even appropriate to ask in person. In this extraordinary situation, if we want to find kowloon cup, we must pay attention to strategy.
Therefore, the relevant personnel held urgent consultations, and finally came up with a good idea when they learned that China's magic show was included in the following entertainment activities.
At the beginning of the magic show at night, only one shot was heard, and suddenly one of the three kowloon cup on the table was missing. Just when the audience was greatly surprised, the magician came to the foreign guests with a smile and said politely, "I have replaced that precious kowloon cup with the guest's briefcase!" " The foreign guests had to open their briefcases and let the magician take out kowloon cup.
There is a solution to everything. If you are not active, you will be sideways, just like asking foreign guests for kowloon cup. Since it is against etiquette to ask him to beg, we should take advantage of it and return to kowloon cup by magic show. This can not only recover the national treasure, but also damage the self-esteem of foreign guests, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
When doing things, you will inevitably encounter obstacles, failures and bumps. Under such circumstances, if you go forward bravely and fight hard, not only can you not solve the problem, but you may even hit your head. It is better to sneak around, make a detour, attack when it is unprepared, and solve the problem easily.
In ancient history, the Goths and Huns attacked from the side and defeated the powerful Roman Empire, while the Mongols attacked from the opposite side and were invincible in Eurasia. Nierma Chemical Company in Patel, India made a detour and finally developed and grew.
In the 1960s, Patel started his own business. At first, Patel used his professional knowledge and simple equipment to produce a washing powder in his own home. The cost of this washing powder is extremely low, but the effect is very good. Patel named it Nima.
Although washing powder has been produced, how to sell it has become a mountain in front of Patel, which seems insurmountable.
In India at that time, housewives of wealthy families in cities were the main buyers of washing powder, but these housewives with purchasing power were all looking for the brand of surf brand washing powder produced by large multinational company Dastain Levell. Dastain Levell is so powerful that Patel will definitely throw eggs at the stone if he wants to compete with him. Patel also knew this, and he decided to find another way, instead of confronting Levell's business in Dastain, to look for opportunities in areas it didn't value.
It wasn't long before Patel discovered this opportunity, that is, the customers of Dastain Levell Company were only housewives of wealthy urban families, but ignored the middle and lower classes, who accounted for the absolute majority of the population. So Patel took this as a breakthrough and put customer orientation in the lower middle class who could not afford expensive washing powder.
Patel's vision is really unique. This is a market with great potential and no one has set foot in it. After finding the sales target, Patel immediately made a sales strategy and made a heavy blow.
Patel's sales strategy is simple and clear, only two, that is, small profits but quick turnover and launching new products. Patel has always kept the price of Nierma washing powder at about 1/3 of the price of similar products, which is acceptable to the middle and lower classes. Under the management idea of small profits but quick turnover, Nierma washing powder quickly opened the market and became the first choice for middle and lower class housewives to buy daily necessities. While making small profits but quick turnover, Patel did not forget to launch new products. In the years after the launch of washing powder, Patel successively launched a large number of laundry soaps and soaps. As soon as these products were put on the market, they immediately triggered a buying craze.
With the continuous innovation of products and the development of the company, Nierma Company slowly began to establish its own market position, and posed a serious threat to Dastain-class companies in many fields. At this time, Dastain Levell was still in the dark and unaware of it.
By 1988, after more than 20 years' efforts, the sales volume of Nierma brand laundry has reached 500,000 tons, occupying an absolute market share, while the sales volume of surf brand washing powder of Dastain Levell Company is 200,000 tons. Only then did Dastain Levell wake up from a dream and found that Nierma's products had posed a serious threat to them.
After finding out the enemy, Dastain Levell tried to fight back and try to regain its lost market position. But at this time, Nierma Company is no longer a toddler, and its products have occupied an important position in the minds of consumers, and it has sufficient funds and considerable strength, and is fully capable of confronting Levell Company in the market.
After several contests, Nierma Company has not been defeated, but has grown stronger. Dastain company has to face the reality of failure.
Patel's victory is a good example, he provided us with experience in handling affairs:
When doing things, if you can't win head-on, then take action from the side and attack quickly while the other side is unprepared, so that you can succeed.