Mercedes branch
In the future, the car manufacturer’s authorized dealers will be agents who work on a commission basis – the price sovereignty lies in Stuttgart.
(Photo: imago images/Hanno Bode)
Sometimes Jörg Heinermann feels like a speleologist whose team has only given him a small headlamp as equipment. The head of sales at Mercedes-Benz in Germany knows roughly what is on his customers’ minds; it can therefore illuminate some corners in a figurative sense. But in the depths there is mostly darkness.
The manager cannot say with absolute certainty why, for example, a test drive leads to a sale being concluded, while the next one ends in vain. He is missing important data that is only available to his trading partners.
“That is now changing significantly with the agency system,” explains Heinermann in an interview with the Handelsblatt. Anyone who buys or leases a new car with a star logo in this country has already signed a direct contract with Mercedes. Since Wednesday, however, the sovereignty over customer data has finally moved from the 94 dealers of the brand to the Dax group.
Traders lose independence
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