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Matthias Lührs, Mercedes : “"We can provide very complete tailor made offers"”
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The fleet business is an important sales channel for Mercedes-Benz. Last year Mercedes-Benz fleet sales in Europe grew by 17% and the international fleet business by International Framework Agreements even more, up 36% compared to 2009. Matthias Lührs, Vice President Sales Mercedes-Benz Cars, is convinced that B2B sales will grow still further in 2011.
“Although it is only five years since we are professionally organized to manage the fleet business at an international level, we already have a well developed sales and service infrastructure with market centric fleet programs in all major countries catering to fleets of all sizes”, says Matthias Lührs.
“Our vision worldwide starting with Europe is basically to have a threefold way of doing business with our international customers. First of all we have over 200 international framework agreements with multinational companies where the team of Corporate Sales Manager Hans-Georg Lutz directly is in contact with the client. Our vision here is to deal directly with the multinationals and to solve their fleet related issues no matter in which country they are represented. Alongside this we have national fleet departments with a fleet organisation, which deals directly with local fleet accounts on a national basis. And finally we have Mercedes-Benz Fleet Centers, which are selected fleet dealers that fulfill certain KPI’s in the areas of sales, services and processes. They serve for small, medium and sometimes even larger accounts in their regional environment, offering tailor made solutions.
Is there one of the 3 fleet channels that is the most important in sales perspective ?
M. Lührs: “Although there are differences, I don’t want to put one before the other. They are all important and at the end of the day the system has to go hand in hand with the identity and the vision of Mercedes-Benz as a brand. Our claim is ‘The Best or Nothing’, which means that we have the approach to exceed in what we do, whether it is building cars, whether it is retail sales, fleet sales or advertising. Regarding our fleet business product quality and customer satisfaction are the most important points for us. Therefore I’m really proud that we have made a remarkable progress in the recent years especially in customer satisfaction, as many independent studies show. To measure our progress we also have a Customer Satisfaction Index for sales and after sales with our dealers in retail, and this year we’re going to introduce an adapted Customer Satisfaction Index for Fleet.”
Will you extend your fleet presence geographically ?
M. Lührs: “We are commercially represented in almost all countries in the world either with an own company or with an importer. In terms of Fleet it’s a little bit different. We are trying to start and develop activities in more countries every day. Today, we have a fleet activity and dedicated fleet staff in all major markets. As the economy further globalizes we believe there’s still a substantial growth potential especially in overseas markets. But we have to go step by step and look country by country. In 2011 we see opportunities particularly in the emerging markets like the BRIC countries, South Africa and Australia.. But I believe it’s also very important to further increase our business in the countries where we are already represented."
How are you going to do that ?
M. Lührs: “Working hard and ability to meet individual requirements is the only way. For example, we put in practice for one year now, a so called fleet floor. That means we are offering fully integrated solutions from one source. A team of experts covers vehicle sales, financial services, fleet management and spare parts supply, in order to provide our customers with complete tailor made offers."
Where do you see further growth potential for your fleet business ?
M. Lührs: At the moment there’s a strong development especially in the small and medium fleet segment. A lot of smaller and medium-sized companies are setting up fleets right now, mainly overseas. So there’s a potential in terms of company cars for their employees and executives. Today around 20% of our fleet sales are to large and international accounts and 80% are to small and medium sized companies. Furthermore I also see growth potential with our new compact cars coming to the market, such as the new B-Class."
Do you foresee a downsizing attitude with the fleet driver, from C-Class to B-Class for example ?
M. Lührs: “Regarding engine sizes a downsizing trend is already visible and expected to continue. With a wide range of fuel efficient products we are well prepared for this trend. For example the E220 CDI now has 129 g/CO2 per km, therefore it is benchmark in its segment.”
How far can you go in engine downsizing ?
M. Lührs: “Until 2012 we will have less than 140 g CO2/km as our average fleet value for new-vehicles in Europe. By 2016 we aim for 125 g CO2/km. Ambitious targets like this can only be achieved with innovative technologies, also on the powertrain side. In general, we see three directions of engine innovations. There’s the further optimization of the current combustion engines. Secondly there’s the hybridization. In 2012 the E-Class 300 BlueTec Hybrid with a consumption of only 4.1 l/km will have its market launch. Our S-Class Plug-in Hybrid will have a CO2-consumption of 70 g/km and come to market in our next S-Class generation. And finally there are the zero emission vehicles with fuel cell and battery. Today we offer four electric vehicles: the smart fortwo electric drive, the A-Class E-Cell, the B-Class F-Cell, whose practicality we currently demonstrate with the F-Cell World Drive and the Vito E-CELL."
If we look further than just the car, what’s the Mercedes-Benz vision on sustainable mobility ?
M. Lührs: “We strongly believe that there will always be a need for individual mobility. In 2020 there will still be people who buy a car because they want to be independent in their mobility behaviour. But we also believe that the younger generations of people are changing the mindset from owning a car to using a car when it’s needed. This is today translated in our project car2go, a car sharing initiative from Daimler in Ulm and Hamburg in Germany, Austin in the USA and soon in many other cities in the world too, such as Amsterdam and Vancouver. We are convinced that in the future we can take a piece of the mobility cake that is now only available via public transport, taxis or rent a car companies.”
| 06/06/2011 | Steven Schoefs
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