For 2011 Mercedes-Benz USA held a “Beyond the Walkaround” Competition for salespeople to test our product knowledge, presentation skills and customer interactions. I competed at the Market Level and Regional Level to advance to the National Finals held in November in New York City at Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan. The four finalists, one each from the Northeast, Southern, Central and Western Regions presented the ML-Class to the Exectutive Management Team of Mercedes-Benz USA as well as our Learning & Performance training team. I placed second at the National Level this year and was presented with this unique trophy by President & CEO Herbert Werner and VP of Sales Mike Slagter. It was an honor to represent Atlanta Classic Cars and the Southern Region at the National Level. It was a great experience and I will certainly put the product knowledge and sales skills to use! Thank you to everyone who organized this great competition.

Mercedes-Benz USA was one of only 40 companies to receive the distinction of being a J.D. Power 2011 Customer Service Champion.

Five key customer “touch points” are measured  - people, presentation, process, product and price – to identify companies that excel within their own industry and also stand out among all 20 major industries that J.D. Power evaluates.

Ernst Lieb, president and CEO of MBUSA, says “This is an important confirmation of the extraordinary effort we have undertaken with our dealer partners over the past few years to ensure that we are delivering the very best experience to our customers.”

JD Power has announced that Mercedes-Benz had the highest, new car buyer, customer retention rate of any brand in 2009. 66% of Mercedes-Benz owners who purchased a new vehicle bought another Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz also ranked in the top 10 of all the major JD Power syndicated surveys for 2009!

1st in Customer Retention

3rd in Sales Satisfaction

6th in Initial Quality

6th in Product Appeal

9th in Customer Service

9th in Vehicle Dependability

That is a well rounded ownership experience! And we are moving up every year!

JD Power has announced that Mercedes-Benz topped the charts for customer retention in 2009! This study measures the percentage of vehicle owners and lessees who replace a previously purchased new vehicle with another from the same brand.

Our loyalty increased 8% over last year to 67% overall! In these tough economic times it speaks to the value of the brand that 2/3rds of our owners come back time after time!

The study says “Mercedes-Benz has steadily improved its customer retention rates during the past five years, and in 2009, has achieved the highest rate ever attained by a manufacturer since the inception of the study,” said Festekjian. “In particular, customers cite the resale value and appearance and styling of Mercedes-Benz models as primary reasons to remain loyal to the brand.”

You can read the full J.D. Power report here.

The DVD of my presentation that won me the 2010 E-Class Walk Around National Championship has finally arrived. This is a 15 minute presentation, tailored to a client interested in Technology, and my goal was to get the maximum points on the scoresheet. This isn’t how I would normally present to a new client in the showroom but it is a great way to pack in a lot of information! I hope you enjoy it!

If you enjoy this video, check out my presentation from 2007 when I won the 2008 C-Class Walk Around.

So…Dieter Zetsche wasn’t actually there, but MBUSA President and CEO Ernst Lieb was one of the judges for my presentation!

This week I had the honor of representing the Southern Region and Atlanta Classic Cars in the 2010 E-Class Walk-Around National Finals in Denver. Two years ago I won the C-Class Walk-Around Competition for the Southern Region but they didn’t have a national competition. This time I had to compete against every salesperson in the whole country. I won at the dealership, market, and regional levels on my way to the finals in Denver. My 15 minute presentation was tailored to a hypothetical client and highlighted many of the amazing innovations found in the 2010 E-Class Sedan. My 3 competitors and I were judged by the MBUSA Executive Management team and I was declared the National Champion!

I’ll post some pictures and the video once I get them from the training department. Thank you to everyone who helped me prepare!

The competition was part of the National Dealer Meeting, so I was able to see (no cameras allowed) the new E-Class Cabriolet scheduled for release this spring and the SLS AMG! Both were spectacular and will be very successful!

If you want to learn all about the 2010 E-Class from the most knowledgeable salesperson in the whole United States please stop by Atlanta Classic Cars and pay me a visit.

I returned from Germany about a month ago now. Sorry for the delay in posting!

The trip was fantastic! I can’t believe how much we were able to see in such a short period of time. You can see the day by day in the slide show above.

There are no pictures from the Test Track at Unterturkheim, the Mercedes-Benz Engine Production Plant in Cannstatt, or from inside the AMG factory in Affalterbach, which were certainly some of the best parts of the trip. Mercedes closely guards their secrets and we were not allowed to take pictures there. I have included an old stock picture from Unterturkheim because I couldn’t put into words what we got to experience there!

The Engine Plant was striking in how clean and efficient it was. They pride themselves on high standards for the workers, including a 35-hour workweek, over a month of paid vacation, facilities that are non-toxic and empowering the workers to fix things and stop problems. Here the engines start down the production line and both the workers and the robots add parts, adjust tolerances and test the components. I found it very interesting that the engines come down the line mixed together. It isn’t 200 right-hand-drive V-6′s one day and 200 diesel V8′s the next. It is one of each of whatever is needed. They are currently expanding the facility because they also produce engines for some of our competitors and demand has grown.

At AMG, the facilities are just as impressive but the production of the engines is kind of opposite. The block is mounted to a cart and the single technician moves that cart from station to station adding the components and testing as he goes. After the engine is complete all of the V12 engines and a selection of the V8′s go to the test bench and are put through their paces. We saw a V12 race around the track virtually and it shook the room! At this location they also do customization for an elite clientele. We saw elongated G-wagons, an ML with a royal blue and yellow interior and a CL with more security features that an embassy!

The day we were scheduled to go to the Production Plant in Sindelfingen the plant closed for a meeting! (The meeting was to discuss reducing production by 35,000 units for the rest of the year.) We were able to go to the European Delivery Center in Sindelfingen instead and see where our clients would pick up their vehicle. In Germany it is popular to pick up your new vehicle from the factory rather than the local dealership!

I had not been to Germany before and was surprised by the beautiful countryside and vineyards. It reminded me of upstate New York in the fall. The trip was a wonderful mix of the Mercedes production and history I was looking forward to and a tour of Germany that I wasn’t expecting. Thank you to Mercedes-Benz Training and Education for arranging the trip and to Fred Schoeninger, our fantastic guide!

I’ve always told people that once you buy a Mercedes you’ll have trouble driving anything else! These loyalty numbers for the 2nd Quarter of 2008 were just released.

Mercedes 51.02%
BMW 50.65%
Lexus 44.01%
Ferrari 40.29%
Cadillac 38.91%
Audi 34.01%
Lincoln 33.30%
Porsche 32.76%
Acura 31.05%

This means that more than 51% of Mercedes owners who purchased or leased a new vehicle chose another Mercedes! This information comes from reported vehicle registrations.

I’m working on getting some posts up of the photos I took while on the Mercedes Master Guild trip to Germany last week.

Hanging with the boys.
Gottlieb Daimler & Wilhelm Maybach

I’m flying to Stuttgart this afternoon for my Mercedes-Benz Master Guild trip. I’ll be back in a week and I’ll post a bunch of photos.