Customers fail to receive the test drives they want....

[umesh 336]

So another survey to see how bad the motor trade is -

Do you think its justified ?

Are customers get a bad deal ?

Are sales staff getting poor at selling ?

 

http://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/customers-fail-to-receive-the-test-drives-they-want/77813?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

Various reasons may be !

We're told customers have done all their research and are just coming in to buy - so the sales staff JUST want to sell, why bother with test drives!

 

'order takers' appears many franchised dealers no longer want the 'professional ' sales person but simply someone who can quote monthly payments and shoot between sales managers office and customer ' A Puppet' ( From what I'm told by Many customers!)

 

"Why bother with test drives the customer won't buy from us only shop around so I'll let 'another' dealer do the work and I'll just give him the best price" is what I've heard before !

 

Are the managers putting pressure on to 'sell' cars - Numbers as opposed to ' satisfying customer needs' 1st ?

 

Are sales staff simply lazy?

Back to basics I think !

any thoughts?

 

 

 

[Guest]

It's a long time since I have sold cars, but our aim was to always get the customer in to a car for a test drive. Granted, this was used cars rather than new. If they hadn't driven the car, how could we expect them to put pen to paper and part with their cash? (feeling 100% satisfied)

 

In a world of targets, it can be tempting to just do the numbers. Who wants to get in to trouble with their sales manager after all?

I doubt many of the "sales people" are thinking of the long term picture. This customer is going to want to buy other cars of course....and so are their friends and family.

[Andy Entwistle 96]

Its very sad that the fact that over 30% of the Dealers who we mystery shopped for the Used car awards didn't reply to our enquiries, never mind get as far as offering a test drive.

 

Having worked in the industry too long, this statistic doesn't surprise me, what does however is that these were dealers who had either nominated themselves or others had seen fit to nominate them, meaning they are supposed to be the best out there....

 

It begs the question, does this statistic get worse if you call those who haven;t been nominated ?

 

However, i haven't heard a dealer say they are struggling to sell cars recently, so is this just a reflection of supply and demand, with some dealers knowing they can be lazy.

 

Incidentally, i moved house in the summer and trying to get builders to commit to a date and turn up is just as bad... and two of these are supposed to be mates ! Been waiting for a plasterer for 8 weeks now !