This morning (Nov 16th) a true car sales veteran, Christoph Wildemann was officially announced as Phyron’s Senior Account Executive for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He takes on this new role in the midst of massive changes in the automotive industry:
“In recent years car dealers have experienced new challenges in the form of electrification and new forms of competition. During the past year alone, I have personally talked with more than 350 car dealers around Germany. Most of them are fully aware that they are facing a whole new business scenario, but don’t really know what to do about it. Which is one main reason why I took this job, providing a solution to help dealers sell more cars in a digital new world. Another major reason is the company’s open-minded and innovative spirit.”
On the surface, this solution helps dealers to provide every new and used car in stock with more attractive and engaging, and therefore more effective ads online. According to Christoph Wildemann, it also addresses some more fundamental changes:
“German carmakers are second to none when it comes to digital technology applied in the vehicles and technical maintenance. To stay competitive, it is necessary to have a similar mindset when it comes to Sales and Marketing, and to the entire business approach. Therefore, it should also be a major issue for the CEO.”
Virgin territory
Several major car dealerships have already introduced the fully automated Phyron solution in Germany with notable success, but Europe’s largest automotive market is essentially virgin territory.
As Country Manager, Christoph Wildemann is responsible for overall business management and, based near Cologne, sales and customer relations in western and southern Germany plus Switzerland. He says:
“The geographic boundaries are not absolute, It’s a huge market anyway. I love meeting people face to face and I am rather used to spending time on the Autobahn between calls. During (period) I travelled some 250,000 kilometres by car, and I use much of my long hours on the road to keep in touch with customers all over the place. And with Eyyup Kizilkaya who is already in place working with dealers in northern and eastern Germany.”
Solid experience
Christoph Wildemann has many years’ experience in sales as well as training in automotive sales, working with cars as well as trucks and other heavy vehicles. His CV also includes some colourful adventures in the international racing circuit and working with the maintenance of “night liner” buses for international artists and their travelling crews.
“An international artist would need around twenty well-equipped, sometimes rather spectacular buses”, says Christoph Wildemann. “But these are old stories, now I am looking forward to an even more exciting road trip with Phyron. It’s all about presenting all the car dealers’ showrooms in a more attractive and engaging way. To date, buyers have viewed automated video-based ads more than 200 million times. It is quite literary The Greatest Car Show on Earth, and starting today I look forward to bringing that show to old and new dealer friends in Germany.”