CHICAGO -

In the last chapter of our “How to sell to Gen X and Y” series, we talked about the death of the traditional buying funnel — and how our research has revealed a new car-shopping journey.

With car-shopping sites such as AutoTrader.com and Cars.com, the traditional buying funnel has transformed into a circular process, starting with online consumer research and an initial consideration set. Our research tells us that this initial consideration set begins with between three and four vehicles (an average of 3.8 to be exact). Brands in this set are up to three times more likely to be purchased.

How do vehicle makes/models end up in this elite group? Typically thanks to three factors: personal experience; word-of-mouth/friends or family members that own the same vehicle; and brand reputation (e.g. Toyota and Honda = quality and reliability).

Let’s take a deeper look into these motivations with two examples from our research: Trish and Sara.

Trish
•    Lives with fiancé and three children in suburban Chicago
•    28 years old
•    Profession: receptionist
•    Looking for a vehicle that seats five; is comfortable; must feel spacious; is safe.

Initial consideration set: Acura MDX; Kia sedan; Toyota sedans/crossovers

Reasons for initial consideration set choices: She currently has a 2003 Kia Spectra and gravitated toward Toyota and Kia because they are reliable. She won’t consider a Ford because of a bad past experience.

Sara
•    Engaged, lives with fiancé in an apartment
•    26 years old
•    Profession: photographer
•    Looking for a vehicle that is reliable, good-looking and gets good gas mileage.

Initial consideration set: Honda Civic sedan; Hyundai sedan; Toyota Corolla

After a peek into the initial consideration sets of our survey participants, we can begin to explore online activity during this phase. During this time, we didn’t observe so-called “traditional upper funnel activity”—including reading articles and other non-specific online research.

Instead, shoppers explored their initial consideration set through VIN-specific online inventory listings on sites including CarMax, Cars.com, Craigslist and AutoTrader.com. These initial searches were educational, rather than predictors of purchase, and it was rare for a shopper to visit a dealer after this initial phase.

With this in mind, what can you do to influence shoppers during this phase? Despite the fact that dealers and manufacturers have limited influence on the initial consideration set, you can control the content shoppers may see during their initial research.

Start by focusing on maintaining quality online inventory on all of the sites shoppers frequent. Your listings should be educational and point out your differentiators—answering important shopper questions that promote the value of your inventory.

Check back soon for insights on the next phase of the digital decision journey — active evaluation

Editor's Note: To learn more from this series, see Part I and Part II.

Patrick McMullen is vice president of sales at MAX Systems. This blog entry and others can be found at www.getrelevantordie.com.

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