By Richard Read
Looking for a new ride? What car nut isn’t? Like Simon Cowell or Gerard Butler, we’re always looking for the next Best Thing. But just like in any relationship, we have to ditch the old goods before sliding into the new. Thanks to Kelley Blue Book, we now have an easier way to do just that.
Gone are the days of posting notices in the classified section of our local paper. These days, selling a car takes new tactics — ideally, tactics that leverage the many free social media resources at our fingertips. Sometimes you might even find a company that buys cars via this platform – they don’t have to be private buyers. Take left hand drive cars, for example. You might be looking for left hand drive car buyers in UK, so social media can really help to whittle down possible companies or private buyers – who are only looking for that kind of car. KBB’s new “Seller’s Toolkit” does exactly that, offering a one-stop shop to build your vehicle listing and share it across the interwebs. (And, if you must, in real space.)
Curious? Pop over to the Toolkit area of KBB.com. Tell the nice website a little about your vehicle (make, model, condition, trim level, etc.), and hammer out a brief description. The Toolkit taps KBB’s massive database to determine how much your ride is worth and to build an ad suitable for tweeting to followers, posting on Facebook, or placing on Craigslist (or any other site that allows embedding). There’s even QR and smartphone compatibility. It’s amazing how quickly it works, especially as there are hundreds and thousands of cars and prices for their little website machine to work on each time it’s used. They would definitely have had to hire a professional website builder like B12 to make as simple and quick as it is to use. And the end result is worth it as it lets us get great deals on cars.
If you need to change something about the ad then it’s no problem. Just hop back over to KBB, amend the listing, and details are updated around the web. Quick, easy, and very, very efficient.
The Seller’s Toolkit even works for printed fliers. No, the fliers won’t change, but since each features a QR code, anyone with a smartphone can use that to check the latest details
Here’s a video of the process in action. Watch it, then get out there and start selling! And if you want to offer us a wee commission, we probably wouldn’t say no. This option isn’t available for everyone though, as your car might have obtained a few scratches and bumps along the line, so if it really is in that bad of a condition you might want to junk your car instead. If you search for “junk my car” in your local area, lots of places would come up where you’ll be able to carry out this process. However, trying to sell your vehicle with the help of KBB.com first wouldn’t hurt, as you never know you could get some money whether it be damaged or not!
* * * * *
KBB.COM HELPS CONSUMERS SELL THEIR CAR USING SOCIAL MEDIA, OTHER LATEST TECHNOLOGIES WITH ALL-NEW SELLER’S TOOLKIT FEATURING LIVEVALUESM
Kelley Blue Book Catapults Traditional Private-Party Sales Methods into 21st Century
Irvine, Calif., July 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Kelley Blue Book http://www.kbb.com, the leading provider of new and used car information, today announces the official launch of its Seller’s Toolkit, featuring the all-new LiveValue system, helping consumers sell their car online and in social networks. The first of its kind, Seller’s Toolkit is a fully-integrated sales method with the latest online technologies to help consumers sell their vehicles on high-traffic websites, social networks, via e-mail or even a personal blog. With the all-new Seller’s Toolkit, Kelley Blue Book catapults traditional private-party sales methods into the 21st century. To access the Seller’s Toolkit, users can visit any Private Party Pricing Report on kbb.com.
According to a recent study¹, about 1.3 million private-party offers made on vehicles via social networking sites equated to 785,000 sales during 2008. In 2009, the number of offers increased to 1.9 million, resulting in nearly 1.3 million sales. Projecting the full year, that means social networking sales will top two million units on 2.96 million offers, making the need for a free, all-inclusive tool like Kelley Blue Book’s all-new Seller’s Toolkit more valuable than ever before.
With Seller’s Toolkit’s electronic, customizable and printable window stickers from Kelley Blue Book, private-party sellers can print a “For Sale” sign for the window of their vehicle and also create and send a digital window sticker with customized descriptions and photos to high-traffic websites like Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist or personal blogs. Kelley Blue Book’s patent pending LiveValue system also gives potential car buyers’ access to real-time, up-to-the-minute Blue Book® Values as listed on kbb.com.
The Seller’s Toolkit earns its name with its social media sales tools designed to empower car sellers with the ability to personally sell their car like a pro. Included is a digitally connected window sticker, Facebook integration, an embeddable widget, dynamic images and a direct link users can share online, all enhanced with LiveValue information. Users with Facebook profiles can notify their network of their vehicles for sale via the integrated share feature. In addition, the Seller’s Toolkit provides sellers with the option to add a custom tab to their Facebook profile reading “Car for Sale,” and features all of the details provided in the digital window sticker. For a blog, online listing or anywhere a widget can be embedded, this interactive module is designed for easy, one-click sharing to a number of online locations such as Blogger or WordPress. For even more digital portability, a dynamically generated image is available for places that feature image linking such as Craigslist, or save the image and upload it directly to sell-it-yourself sites. For e-mail, IM or Twitter, the Seller’s Toolkit provides the seller with a direct link feature, generating a shortened URL that takes buyers to Kelley Blue Book’s pre-configured Pricing Report on kbb.com. This makes it easy for a potential buyer to reference the vehicle quickly and accurately.
“Before private party sellers spend a dime on online listings (that typically fail to drive interest), they should consider the advantages and capabilities of Kelley Blue Book’s Seller’s Toolkit with LiveValue,” said Justin Yaros, executive vice president of product design and development for Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com. “The easy-to-use intelligent technology and design that supports this product gives sellers the upper hand in online listings. Seller’s Toolkit offers sellers an enhanced social method for listing vehicles for sale, while providing buyers with peace of mind that comes with the availability of the most recent Blue Book® Values.”
By displaying up-to-date, trusted Kelley Blue Book Values in listings through the aforementioned channels, sellers can instill confidence in potential buyers looking for a fair deal from a name they trust. Kelley Blue Book Values are updated weekly and with the LiveValue system, these values are represented in real-time from kbb.com within the offered tools. LiveValue provides real-time Kelley Blue Book Values via three easy methods integrated into the Seller’s Toolkit window sticker: Generated QR Codes, SMS messaging and voice call services.
QR codes (short for Quick Response) are two-dimensional bar codes often used in mobile tagging, and in the case of the Seller’s Toolkit, they contain all of the configured vehicle information. Once scanned via a mobile phone, the QR code takes potential buyers to a pre-configured mobile report page for the selected vehicle, containing more information about the vehicle for sale and links into Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com mobile site.
The SMS feature of the window sticker allows car shoppers using a mobile phone to send the provided LiveValue ID to a specific short code number. Once received, the LiveValue system sends a SMS (text message) to the user with the appropriate up-to-date Kelley Blue Book® Private Party Value and other information, such as year, make, model, mileage and condition.
The final integration to the new window sticker is the voice calling service: using any phone, buyers now have the ability to get the Kelley Blue Book Private Party Value via an automated phone service. A user will call Kelley Blue Book’s toll-free number, and after a short welcome message, they are prompted to input the vehicle-specific LiveValue ID, followed by the # sign. The system then uses an automated voice to read back the most up-to-date Private Party Value and other vehicle information such as year, make, model and condition.
For more information or to access Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com Seller’s Toolkit, visit www.kbb.com/sellers-toolkit or www.facebook.com/kbb.