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DaimlerChrysler Sales Tool Connects Dealers, Customers to Factory Info

8 February 1999

New DaimlerChrysler Sales Tool Connects Dealers, Customers to Factory Information

    AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Feb. 5 -- Car buyers who visit select
Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep or Plymouth dealerships this spring can receive up-to
the-minute pricing and product information for the car of their dreams with
the help of a new selling tool developed by DaimlerChrysler Corporation
.
    Called Electronic Sales System, or ESS, the computer tool allows
salespeople at desktop computers to take customer specifications and combine
them with factory information to create detailed price and fact sheets.
    "ESS eliminates the 'back room' in dealerships," said John MacDonald,
Senior Vice President of Sales and Service for DaimlerChrysler Corporation,
"transforming the price negotiation process from one that has in the past been
clouded in mystery to a straightforward, face-to-face transaction designed to
inspire confidence in both the car buyer and the seller.  It's also the latest
in a series of comprehensive technological tools with which we plan to arm our
dealers -- all designed to make car buying that much more enjoyable for
consumers."
    ESS is being piloted in a half-dozen dealerships during the first half of
the year; a national roll-out date has yet to be determined.
    It was developed as part of Customer Connect, the two-year-old initiative
under which DaimlerChrysler is overhauling its entire dealer support
infrastructure, from dealer processes to technological tools -- all changes
aimed at streamlining car buying for both dealers and shoppers.  A three-
pronged program that emphasizes people, processes and technology, Customer
Connect includes Five Star, a customer-focused dealer certification process,
D.I.A.L., a factory-dealer information system, and Get-a-Quote,
DaimlerChrysler's internet price quote program, launched in January.
    ESS complements Customer Connect by clarifying the car buying process for
consumers, allowing salespeople and consumers to tap into some of the same
information already being provided on DaimlerChrysler's internet brand sites.
ESS however, takes the information gathering process one step further, merging
dealer inventory numbers and trade-in values with direct manufacturing
information to give consumers comprehensive, bottom-line sales proposals.
    "With the increasing use of the internet and the proliferation of consumer
information, car buyers are more informed than they've ever been," MacDonald
said.  "ESS gives our sales people the tool to satisfy that hunger for
information and to make every part of the sales transaction efficient and
professional."
    Working with two dealer provider companies -- Houston-based Dealer
Solutions and PBS Financial Systems in Calgary, Canada -- DaimlerChrysler
designed ESS to operate on the business systems widely used by most dealers
today, eliminating administrative costs and duplicative work.