After nearly ten years of driving the same car, I recently bought a new one.
I decided to sell my old car the new way – online.
Having been on the web now for nearly a decade, I have found a lot of inefficiencies remain when it comes time to bridge the gap between generating a lead online and closing a high ticket sale offline.
When it comes to selling cars online there are several options.
eBay Motors and AutoTrader.com were the two resources that came to mind.
Up until yesterday, I didn’t have an eBay account so eBay Motors wasn’t an option. If I recall though, eBay Motors is the largest single used “car dealer” in the world – last time I looked I think they generated $2 Billion in car sales annually.
I have an older Mercedes and because of its limited appeal, I sought the advice of a local used car dealer on how best to go about selling it.
He recommended trying AutoTrader.com.
I set up an account and got my car advertised online within a day and then in the local Auto Trader print publication within a week.
I started getting calls soon after my ad came out and then slowly came to realize some of the aforementioned online lead to offline sale time related inefficiencies.
The internet is great for connecting sellers with buyers they wouldn’t have otherwise likely ever met, however when it comes time to sell something large and physical it presents a whole new set of problems.
Half of the inquiries I received about the car resulted in the callers desire to see and test drive the car.
Well, I am not a car salesman and I don’t have time to drop everything I am doing to go show a car at unpredictable times of the weekday. Scheduling time to meet potential buyers on the weekend is even more difficult.
The problem: How can I “show” my car to prospective buyers without having to take an hour or two of my time to do it?
My answer: Produce a short video clip of the car that shows its condition to prospective buyers and post it on YouTube. Prospects can then “look” over the car without either of us having to physically meet to do it.
I shot a couple of minutes of video and then posted it in my YouTube account.
I also modified both my online and print AutoTrader ads to include “Search YouTube” to see this car.
The video has been up a week and according to YouTube’s insight feature the video has already been viewed over 100 times primarily from searches within YouTube.
YouTube Video Insight:
I have also posted a Craigslist ad for my car. It too mentions viewing the car online beforehand by searching for it in YouTube.
Now whenever I get a call about the car, I ask them whether they have seen it on YouTube or not and then direct them to its YouTube page to see it first before we arrange a time to test drive it.
Using YouTube to preview used cars for sale reduces the inefficiencies of showing vehicles to non buyers while further qualifiing the prospects most interested in potentially buying my car.
I have set a couple of appointments for prospects to test drive my car this weekend.
Regardless of whether the car gets sold this weekend or not, I haven’t wasted my time showing it to someone who hasn’t already convinced me they are a highly qualified –ie., interested – prospective buyer .
Search Marketing Communications 
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