The 18 days that Li Xiang disappeared: sales were panicked, some MEGA stores were withdrawn, and most of the stores were "lively".
As the most active CEO and "Internet celebrity" in the automotive industry, Li Xiang never stopped outputting his views and remarks to the outside world until MEGA was traumatized, Li Xiang, who was active in social media, disappeared, and Weibo stayed on March 2 and was no longer updated.
Until March 21, Li Xiang sent an all-staff letter internally. In this all-staff letter, he reviewed the problems encountered by Ideal in March - the failure of MEGA, which once said that he would "be the sales champion of more than 500,000 models". After self-criticism, Li Xiang pointed out several root causes of the crisis and came up with specific solutions.
After disappearing for 18 days, Li Xiang's internal letter to all employees released a signal that some changes were taking place in both Ideal and Li Xiang.
Text: Wei Bing
Editor: Li Huanhuan
Operation: Potatoes
21 days of panic among salesmen
A netizen posted on the Internet that an ideal store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, quietly withdrew the Ideal MEGA from the exhibition hall that had just been listed, and the sales explained helplessly, "There are too many people who come to see the excitement, and the store will withdraw if it can't be received."
This seems to confirm Li Xiang's reflection in the all-staff letter, the fundamental reason for MEGA's failure is that MEGA's stage from 0 to 1 (commercial verification period) should not be treated as from stage 1 to 10 (high-speed development period). Li Xiang admitted, "This is our misjudgment of the strategic rhythm of pure electric vehicles. ”
Under the miscalculation, Ideal released the annual blockbuster model MEGA and the 2024 L series at the spring conference on March 1. The flagship model and the main sales force were released at the same time, resulting in the inability of the communication side and the first-line sales to take care of each other, and fell into the dilemma of taking care of one and the other.
Cheng Yi, an ideal salesman from the Northwest Region, was deeply touched by this "chaos". According to Cheng Yi's recollection, when MEGA was first listed, the focus of work was on it. MEGA is also very popular, and there are many people who come to the store to see the cars, but "they are all experiential players", and the store's reception capacity is limited, so that the sales staff cannot afford to accept potential users of the L series, so it is almost impossible to arrange a test drive of the L series.
▲ Ideal MEGA. Photo / Li Auto's official Weibo
Li Xiang also admitted in the all-staff letter that the failure to grasp the rhythm of the listing caused the sales team to greatly reduce the time and energy of serving L series users, and the main model Ideal L8 even lost its place in some stores.
On March 21, Renren Auto visited several ideal stores in Beijing and found that the current display in the store has not changed, and some stores do only display the ideal L7, L9 and MEGA. Li Chen, the ideal salesman, told everyone that some stores are relatively small and there is no way to put down all four cars, "L8 and L9 are very similar in appearance and interior, so only L9 is displayed."
▲ An offline store in Beijing only displays the ideal L7, L9 and MEGA. Photo / Auto taken by each person
Li Chen guessed that after the release of the all-staff letter, the adjustment strategy was gradually implemented, and L8 should be squeezed into the store in the future.
Although the number of orders is not as explosive as expected, the popularity of MEGA is undoubted. In the process of each Auto store visit, about 8 groups of customers came into the store to consult MEGA within 15 minutes, Li Chen revealed that 70%-80% of the users who entered the store during this period came to see MEGA, "At least 50 or 60 groups of users came to MEGA every day on weekends."
▲ Ideal offline stores. Photo / Visual China
However, in the surging crowd, there are mostly people who watch the excitement, and there are still a few who actually place orders. The above-mentioned sales said that the small customers in their hands have not yet turned into large ones, and only more than 3,000 MEGA units have been delivered nationwide.
From the perspective of first-line sales, price is the key factor affecting sales, Li Chen believes that "you can buy a car of 500,000 yuan, after all, it is a minority." The MEGA users who have already picked up the car have analyzed that the interior does not bring enough surprises to users, which is the main reason for the failure of MEGA, "The appearance of MEGA is novel enough, but the interior design is really lagging behind, and there is almost nothing new with the L series." In Lin Li's view, for MPV products, the space is about the same, and the details of MEGA's products are well done, but not everyone can notice it.
▲ An internal letter released by Li Xiang. Photo / Li Auto official
Regain your sense of awe in the field of pure electric vehicles
It can be said that it is almost ideal to bring fire to the extended-range model by itself, but when it comes to the field of pure electric vehicles, ideal is still a new player. Ideal takes it for granted that its successful experience in the range extension market can be replicated in the field of pure electric vehicles, but reality has taught Ideal a cruel lesson.
As the most active CEO and "Internet celebrity" in the automotive industry, Li Xiang has never stopped exporting his views and remarks to the outside world. On Weibo, he almost maintains an active frequency of one update a day, sometimes even several times a day. If some netizens question or support his ideals, he will try his best to interact with them. When a major hot event occurs in the car circle, Li Xiang will also express his views as soon as possible. With the continuous efforts of "Internet celebrity" Li Xiang, he has grown into a big V with 2.33 million fans. Until MEGA was damaged, Li Xiang, who was active on social media, disappeared, and Weibo stayed on March 2 and was no longer updated. During the period of disappearance, Li Xiang was reflecting.
The biggest role of reflection is not only to find the crux of the problem, but most importantly, after internal discussions, the ideal came up with a solution. According to Li Xiang's all-staff letter, stepping into the field of pure electric vehicles, the ideal will return to the starting point and operate MEGA according to the rhythm of "from 0 to 1".
One of the core changes is that the strategy previously formulated by Ideal for MEGA is to fully blossom, that is, to roll out a unified sales offensive at all levels of the national market. But Cheng Yi believes that it is difficult to sell a car as expensive as MEGA in a small city, and the focus of sales work is shifting, so the rhythm is chaotic.
After adjusting the strategy, the ideal will focus on the core user group - those with high-end pure electric consumption capacity, after all, the starting price of MEGA is as high as 559,800 yuan, in the field of pure electric MPV, in addition to Volvo EM90, it can almost be regarded as a price ceiling. Specifically, large retail centers in head cities are concentrated for product experience and test drives. When MEGA has solidly completed the stage of 0 to 1, it will be promoted to more cities and a wider user group.
▲ Ideal MEGA. Photo / Li Auto's official Weibo
Judging from the information disclosed so far, Ideal does not plan to lower the price of MEGA, but to "return to the best user value enhancement" to impress those high-net-worth individuals. For example, improve the product experience provided by retail stores for potential customers, and deliver the delivery experience of stores to users.
One of the core selling points of MEGA is that it has 5C fast charging capability, but to achieve such efficient energy replenishment, it needs to be achieved on an ideal self-built 5C supercharging pile. At present, the ideal energy replenishment system is not perfect enough, which is a major reason for potential car owners to choose MEGA.
Therefore, the ideal decision to focus on key sales areas and groups of people will also speed up the construction of supercharging stations. According to a person close to the ideal, at present, the ideal urban supercharging station has begun to land, which is expected to reach 600 in the second quarter of this year and 2000 by the end of 2024, if the highway and the charging station in the city are included, by the end of the year, the number of ideal supercharging stations will reach 2700.
▲ Ideal 5C super charging station. Photo / Li Auto's official Weibo
Li Xiang also mentioned in the all-staff letter that it is necessary to "return to the improvement of operational efficiency that we are best at". The above-mentioned people close to the ideal further interpret this point: previously, in order to challenge the "grand wish" of annual sales of 800,000 vehicles, the ideal store maintained a high-speed and extensive expansion rate, but blindly pursued the number of stores and increased the scale of sales personnel, but failed to really bring about a rapid growth in sales. In the rapid expansion, the previous longboard (single-store efficiency, sales capacity of each product expert) has not been fully utilized.
In the future, Ideal will slow down the speed of store expansion, and re-carefully plan sales personnel and test drive resources according to different regions, different stores, and different audience groups, so as to provide users with sufficient product experience and effectively deliver product value to users.
While serving new users well, Ideal will also maintain the basic disk, take into account more than 700,000 old users, ensure service network coverage, provide high-quality after-sales service, and continue to push OTA upgrades for old car owners.
▲ Ideal OTA upgrade. Photo / Li Auto's official Weibo
After returning to user value, the ideal will no longer blindly pursue sales and competition, but to reduce the expectation and desire for sales, and return to healthy growth.
As the first player in Wei Xiaoli, Ideal has successfully entered the top echelon of new energy with its large-scale single product strategy and family-focused user strategy, which is not easy for a new power car company. With achievements, the mentality will naturally "float", and it is inevitable to fall behind.
First encountered a public opinion turmoil, and then encountered unsatisfactory MEGA orders, Li Xiang, who has always been active in social media, disappeared, and Weibo stayed on March 2 and was no longer updated. In the face of heavy blows, the ideal must have undergone a series of reviews and reflections, and 18 days after the "disappearance", Li Xiang's internal letter to all employees released a signal that some changes are taking place in the ideal and Li Xiang.
(At the request of the interviewee, Li Chen, Lin Li, and Cheng Yi are all pseudonyms)
The article is original by each Auto, and infringement must be investigated.