Walden Fleet Services Says Women Not Only Buying 65% of Automobiles But Helping to Wholesale Them
31 July 1997
Walden Fleet Services Says Women Not Only Buying 65% of Automobiles But Helping to Wholesale Them
MINNEAPOLIS, July 31 -- "If anyone would have told me that I
would be selling used cars someday, I would have told them they were crazy,"
said Amy Hendrickson, member of the remarketing team at Walden Fleet Services
(WFS). WFS is a Minneapolis-based company specializing in the remarketing of
automobiles for manufacturers, lease/rental and financial institutions.
With a college degree in hand and more than two years of marketing
experience, Amy is one of many successful women who are part of a new
generation in the auto industry. What's different about this new generation
is the way things are being done. Members of the remarketing team at WFS are
talking to more than 100,000 new and used car dealers on a regular basis. "We
talk to dealers every day not only to provide them with information on the
upcoming auctions of our clients, but to make suggestions to them about when
and where to purchase their inventory," Amy explained. WFS doesn't simply
tell dealers about the sales of their customers, but informs them on market
conditions, conducts surveys, makes comparisons with like dealers, as well as
provides a total market analysis. WFS clients sell over 10,000 vehicles per
month in an industry that is highly competitive for the sale of lease returns,
rentals and late model returns. In order to attract dealers, WFS employs
multimedia strategies such as direct mail, telemarketing, press releases, fax
transmissions and more.
Colette Marcilliat, National Director of Sales at WFS, has played a
significant role in increasing dealer attendance by 15% at factory closed
sales for a major importer. In addition to attending the factory sales and
working with the dealers, Colette serves as the liaison between the client and
the auctions. "The two most important factors to the dealer are turns and
grosses, especially when it is costing the client almost $15 per day to keep
the vehicle on the lot. The bottom line isn't what you pay for the car, but
what you get for it," Colette added. "When a dealer purchases a vehicle from
one of our customers, our three week post-sale analysis will reveal the number
of days in inventory and the average gross profit per unit." Everything is
changing in today's automotive world, including who is providing the
information.
SOURCE Walden Fleet Services
