Many dealers spend millions of dollars in a lieu to capture the maximum number of automotive leads. However, most of them remain unsuccessful to capture enough number of them. According to critics, poor marketing techniques are one of the prime reasons for the fallout. The dealerships need to know and implement the latest promotional methods to gain immediate and long-term success.The area where the dealers fail to create an impression are focused and researched well by the professional lead generation companies. These companies are known for using a host of marketing methods to produce the desired business result. They have a team of professionals who have years of experience in generating highly effective automotive leads in quick time.The lead generation companies develop multiple websites to attract a maximum number of online traffic. The sites are well optimized to easily fetch a top ranking on the various popular search engines – Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. The team does an intense research to find out the relevant keywords for optimization purpose. Appealing content is uploaded on the web pages to attract a greater number of eyeballs plus create repeat visitors to the car lead sites.Apart from the websites, a lead generating firm also develops landing pages and create and manage blogs for maximum online visibility. The landing pages and blog posts are made attractive enough with the correct use of colors and graphics to let interested people take a call to action. A soft-copy inquiry form is uploaded on each landing page for anyone to fill up the same and submit. On the form, sections including name, address, contact numbers, email address plus the query box is given for the inquirer to enter the details.A person who takes the time to fill up an online inquiry form is regarded as a lead. After submission the data gets stored in the lead generating company’s database for access of the same. The task of a lead generator is now to establish a contact with the lead either by personally calling up at his number or emailing him for a quick response at his end. If the concerned person answers or takes the call, he is regarded as an effective lead, if he doesn’t he is held as a bad lead who is not interested anymore to buy a car due to some reason.The hunt for good leads continues through advanced marketing strategies and in this way a long list containing the names and contact numbers of new sale opportunities is prepared by the lead generating company. The list is then sent to the dealer via email or fax for further follow-up purpose. It now becomes the responsibility of the dealer’s sales team to eventually convert the prospects into customers.It is worthy of remembering that automotive leads generation process is time-consuming and requires utmost patience. Only a professional company dedicated to this sphere can successfully generate a number of effective leads per day. It is because of this fact that we are seeing a rising number of car dealers taking the assistance of car leads websites to increase sales over time.
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Safety of Automotive Batteries in a Mechanical Workshop
Automotive Batteries in a mechanical workshop.The common automotive battery posses a number of safety risks that perhaps are not well known or at times not well managed.Let’s go through some of the issues with automotive batteries to see how there associated risks can be managed.The common automotive battery is what is classed as a lead acid battery, meaning that it has plates of lead inside as well as a mixture of sulphuric acid and distilled water.Each time the battery is discharged through either starting the vehicle, using the headlights or radio etc it will need to be recharged.As a battery is charging it gives off a small amount of hydrogen gas and this is potentially dangerous as hydrogen gas is extremely volatile or explosiveWhen this happens in a motor vehicle it is not such a problem as the battery is nearly always in an air flow of some type which disperses the gas thus eliminating the problem.When batteries are charged inside a building and specifically a workshop there can be a lack of ventilation removing this from the area thus causing the potential for an explosion if the gas was to be ignited.What can be done to reduce this risk?Ensure that the battery charging area is well ventilated to the outside air.If this is not possible due to the location within the building install an exhaust fan or another type of ventilation system to remove any build up of gas in the area.The battery charging area should be located away from a general traffic area with correct signage indicating that it is a restricted area.There should be a 1st aid kit including an eye wash module in close proximity and that all staff are trained in there use.Ensure that there is the correct type of fire extinguisher (s) mounted just outside of the area with correct signage and that all staff are trained in their use.Ensure that your battery charging equipment is in good working order and that it has been tested and tagged for electrical compliance, usually every 6 months.Ensure that your staff are correctly trained in how to use the battery charging and load testing equipment.When not in use keep the battery charger leads and clips, clipped onto the bench or work area to reduce the risk of being caught or being tripped over.Remove where possible the small water filler caps on top of the battery so that the water level and the specific gravity can be checked (using a hydrometer), with the caps removed this also eliminates any pressure build up within the battery due to the gas production while charging.The area needs to kept clean and tidy at all times with o storage of metal objects within the area, this eliminates the risk of a metal object falling across a batteries terminals and causing a spark and in some cases an explosion.Always keep you battery charging area free from other chemicals, oils, greases and any other flammable material, including oily work shop rags.Always wash dirty batteries before charging as some acid residue and scum can cause voltage leakage.Always wash hands after handling batteries as some residual acid may contact the skin causing irritation or discomfort.Always keep a pair of gloves and safety glasses in the area for use by any staff member.Always keep terminal cleaning equipment in the charging area (wire brush & specific terminal cleaners).If you ever carry out battery terminal repairs using the carbon arch method use extreme caution. To find out more about this send a question to the email, address at the bottom of this article.When moving or lifting batteries always use correct posture and manual handling methods: E.G. use trolleys to move around, use two people to lift the bigger batteries, use benches that are at the correct height so there is no excessive bending or reaching up.If your battery charging area is somewhat hidden away out of clear site you can set up a warning light on top of the area to signal that there is a battery on charge. This can reduce the incidents of staff leaving work for the day and leaving a battery charging over night, as this is not recommended. The warning light is generally a 12 volt low power draw light (LED is best) connected to the battery that is being charged.Have clear signage on the outside of the battery charging area indicating what the battery area is and a set of clear guidelines or instructions on what and what not to do in this area..Any old batteries should be discarded as soon as practical using your local battery re cycling company to collect them from your premises.27/06/2011
Future Trends in Chinese Automotive Market
Talking about automotive in China is completely different from other countries, in most of the world you imagine automotive as a fierce market with no margins based only on volumes and sales strategy to keep the current volume and survive at least. In China automotive market is an emerging market with big growth ratio every year. Last year chinese passenger cars and commercial vehicles market grow about 40% and currently China is the biggest market for automotive worldwide. Predicting trends for the future is not easy but there’re some trends that surely will go on strongly in the near future:1. Growth: the growth rate will be quite surely always double digit. It’s easy to understand why. Only 1 over 7 Chinese has a car, so the internal market is huge and moreover China is growing double digit as country so more and more Chinese will afford to buy a car, especially in the rural province where the rate is much less than in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, where on the opposite the market will slow down also because cars needs first roads and infrastructure and big cities are becoming already overloaded in these years.2. Consolidation: there’re still more than 100 car manufacturers in China and a lot of local small suppliers. Like in Europe and US it is expected a consolidation in the market. Probably automaker with volumes around 10.000-100.000 cars/year will disappear but it’s a slow moving consolidation, since Chinese internal market needs low prices for cars and so a lot of small automakers with only internal production of the whole car with a few technologies can give low prices, even though this means also low quality because the assembly lines of these automakers are still completely manual. Labour cost increase and general welfare will lead to an higher end demand and to the dissolving of most of these small automakers. As well as the same will happen for the small low quality suppliers.3. EV: EV stands for electric vehicles. Since China has a lot of problems connected with pollution, EV is surely a trend that will grow. Remember that the biggest electric batteries suppliers worldwide are located in China and most of EV vehicles are being developed in China starting from these suppliers. Remember that the biggest electric batteries supplier, BYD is also a car manufacturer and someone like a certain Warren Buffet is a shareholder of the company.4. Quality: the quality level of Chinese cars is becoming higher every year, especially foreign automakers wants really that the same standard of quality in Europe and US is applied also in China. Moreover the Chinese consumer is becoming every year more and more aware of quality standard and in the future will also be able to pay for that. As well as suppliers from all over the world and also local are trying hardly to have same technologies and quality as in Europe and US as a consequence of the customer requirement improvement.5. Export: Surely there’s a big internal market, but the aim of most local automakers is to become a worldwide automaker. Geely is trying to do that through Volvo Cars, others are trying to start up facilities in other markets like Middle East or Africa or Eastern Europe. It’s a preparation for the arrival also in US and Europe, but first quality issue must be understood and digested by the local automakers. EU and US are always nearer also because of the flourishing of foreign suppliers in China, that are helping the market to become aware of technologies that before are not available.6. Luxury Brand: the luxury EU and US car makers like Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, Rolls Royce will flourish and China will become their first market. For some of them, it is already. It’s easier to find very rich people in a country with 1.4 billion inhabitants and that is growing double digit every year. Moreover Chinese see cars still as a status symbol.7. Financing: surely financing companies for car loans will have a good time in the next years, given that more and more Chinese wants a car and the car is seen as a status symbol, but currently the ways of financing the purchase of cars in China are poor compared with other markets.