Direct sales: Mercedes-Benz Austria is reorganizing sales

Direct sales: Mercedes-Benz Austria is reorganizing sales

The new sales model provides for nationally uniform prices for new Mercedes-Benz vehicles throughout Austria. No matter whether you buy your new car online  www.mercedes-benz.at/showroom , by telephone using the Customer Contact Center or from a partner in Dornbirn or Eisenstadt: The purchasing process will be simplified and customers will receive “absolute price transparency”. Customers would no longer have to visit different trading partners to compare prices and could save themselves lengthy price negotiations. Of course, as before, there will also be special temporary campaigns, but they will be the same everywhere in Austria, regardless of location and channel. Customers would also benefit from a larger, nationwide selection of existing vehicles. Personal advice in the showrooms of local trading partners is still possible as usual, as is the arrangement of test drives. The purchase contract can also be signed with the partners as it is today, but the contractual partner for the customer in the future will be Mercedes-Benz Österreich GmbH. 

According to Mercedes Benz Austria, the direct sales model allows us to respond to changing customer needs and offers great opportunities for both customers and contractual partners. By realigning roles and responsibilities, trading partners could in the future take even more care of customers and their needs than before, place the customer even more at the center and thus focus even more intensively on their core business. Modern technologies and changes in customer behavior would open up new opportunities for the distribution of vehicles and services. To this end, the company is working with its trading partners on new offers for its customers, such as direct sales of cars in Sweden since spring 2019. Mercedes-Benz Österreich GmbH will also implement this sales model in Austria for new cars and vans (private and commercial). All activities would be carried out in close coordination with the Austrian dealer association and the contractual partners. 

BIM Harb “Danger: digital sales”

Federal guild master Josef Harb, Mercedes-Benz dealer in Weiz and Voitsberg, tells KFZ Wirtschaft that they have known about the new sales model for a long time. "We have worked together excellently with Pappas for 30 years. The same will be the case with the headquarters in Eugendorf." Pappas has already been the contractual partner for end consumers. From now on, that will be Mercedes-Benz Österreich GmbH. "I never have a negative attitude towards innovations. We will carefully examine the conditions we face and then evaluate them," said Harb to the automotive industry. Harb sees a potential danger in the tendency to increasingly rely on digital sales in the future. But: “I consider our Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler, who is constantly trying to make a name for herself with her generally anti-car attitude, to be a much bigger problem,” said Harb.