The Test Drive Conundrum - Has It Changed?

[joe.webb]

Has the DEMO Drive changed?

On your very first day in car sales, a manager (or likely the put-upon salesperson) brought you out onto the lot and showed you how to give a proper vehicle presentation and demo drive. You were shown this once.

Over the years, customers have become far more researched on the vehicles they are interested in and many believe the basics of the product presentation have changed. Their knowledge allows us to be more concentrated on certain aspects of the vehicle than others. However, my question to you is, do you feel the demo drive has changed?

Most customers primarily show up to test drive first and ensure they are indeed interested in the vehicle that is best for them. Like trying on clothes, they want to check the fit, feel, finish, and comfort of the vehicle.

I know I’ve made some comedic videos about test drives gone wrong, but recognize that there are only a few different ways they can be conducted. What style works for some won’t work for others. There are four primary ways a test drive can be handled:

Test Drive #1:

You pull the vehicle up for the customer. The customer sits in the driver’s seat and you sit in the passenger seat, navigating them through the vicious 4-right turn track that you’ve created for yourself.

Conundrum #1: If you have given a proper presentation of the vehicle’s features before (or plan to after), how do you spend your time in the vehicle with them? Do you...
a) Just focus on their 5 senses (How does it feel? How is your field of vision? Are you comfortable? Do you smell that new car smell? Etc)
b) Do you focus on their need for the vehicle? What they are comparing it to and how they will be using it?
c) Do you re-highlight the features?
d) Do you build rapport with them and shoot the breeze?
e) Do you just shut up and let them experience it on their own?

Condundrum #2: If the customer has a spouse with them, do you...
a) Sit in the backseat and navigate from behind?
b) Sit in the front passenger seat so you can be a focal point for the second passenger?

Test Drive #2:

You pull the vehicle up, you drive the vehicle off the lot as your passenger and then perform the Chinese fire drill with a customer at an undisclosed place on the 4 right-turn track.

Conundrum #2: While this is a commonly taught practice, I ask, are you driving it off the lot...
a) For safety reasons?
b) So you can retain control of the experience?
c) Because with your expertise you can show them “what this thing can do” better than they might be willing to?
d) So they can experience the vehicle without having to focus on the traffic in front of them?
e) Because you are a control freak and you want all eyes on you?

Test Drive #3:

This form of test drive is rarely taught and often derided, but commonly executed. Many people feel the most effective form of test drive is to simply throw the customer the keys and let them take the vehicle out on their own. Do you find allowing the customer to test drive alone..
a) Allows them to experience the vehicle on their own without any pressure or anxiety?
b) Takes away your ability to build value or control the customer?
c) Is effective, especially for Internet managers, because it allows them to complete in-store tasks while the customer is away?
d) Makes you, the salesperson, appear more professional that you trust them to test drive it on their own?
e) Makes you, the salesperson, look lazy because you are unwilling to spend the time with the customer?

Those are the different styles of Test Drives and the Conundrums that follow each. This is an imperative step in the road to the sale and I’d love to hear what works for you. At one time or another, I’ve used all of these test drive forms, with differing degrees of success. At DealerKnows Consulting, we have a fairly specific process that works like a charm for Internet shoppers stopping in to test drive that we train our clients on, but we’d like to hear from you. (We hear ourselves talk enough).

We understand that every customer is different so I’m looking for people to take a stand on this rather than just respond with “You’ve gotta get a feel for ‘em” types of answers. We KNOW that 25% of so (random percentage) will only want to do things their way, but that leaves 75% (unproven percentage) willing to follow your instructions. How will you proceed?

How do you let your customers experience a Test Drive?

 

[Alex Schoeneberger]

Great post, Joe. As someone who hasn't sold cars before, I can only comment from a consumer perspective that I greatly prefer #3. On a test drive, I want to see if I can build a relationship with the car I might be spending thousands on later today and driving for the next 5 years, not the salesperson. My relationship with the salesperson, as nice and great as they might be, will likely only last a cumulative 5 hours through the lifetime of the vehicle at most.

I also want my wife sitting next to me in the passenger seat because it's important to me that she's comfortable in the car in the spot that she'd normally sit in.

Is there a legal/insurance reason why option 3 isn't done more often or is it just the sales reasons listed above? Every time I ask to do it that way, the salesperson looks at me like a deer in headlights and has to disappear for 15 minutes to ask permission from the GM.

 

[joe.webb]

Hello Alex,
Great question. I sold cars in the Chicagoland area, which tends to be the wild west of selling cars where anything goes. (At least at the stores I sold in
As far as I know, provided you have a copy of the driver's license and insurance card, you are legally able to let the customer drive.
Thanks, though, for letting us know which one you prefer. Maybe I should have also framed this blog as a means to ask the consumer experience.

 

[TCuzzo]

This is a great post regarding test drives.

The issue regarding test drives that we have discovered in tracking over 5 million UPS is that it is not done. We know on average that the test drive only happens 56% of the time. So almost more important than how this 56% gets handled is what about the other 44%?

In my opinion the test drive is two fold.
1. to build value in the vehicle (which if done properly will build gross)
2. to build rapport and value in the sales person and dealership.

So my question is how much business is being missed when test drives are not done effectively or not done at all?

 

[Alex Schoeneberger]

Interesting then that the entire gate for getting #3 is sales process. I guess my questions now are:
1. Is giving the customer what they want on a test drive more or less important to dealers than controlling the entire sales process?
2. Is there another time during the sales process that you can convey value in the vehicle, the salesperson, and the dealership?

 

[joe.webb]

You have a great question, too. I think, nowadays, we all believe that the best dealerships offer their customers an "experience". The test drive is one important part of that. I obviously tried to be divisive in the article just to see what works for some readers. We all know that it depends on the customer's wants/needs, but some in our industry still go about their duties the same way every time.

Also, handing over the keys to a customer, if done well, could still be controlling the process, just not the test drive. I think there are several times to build value in the salesperson and dealership, but only one time (test drive and product presentation time) to build value in the vehicle.

 

[Charles Gallaer (blog)]

Depending on your particular state and how the law has advanced, you could limit the scope of recovery of damages if the customer decides that option #3 includes a test drive of 1000 miles to another state or a fender bender. The dealership's insurance policy may also preclude covering losses that occur on test drives that fall into option #3. And, by looking at the customer's insurance card, how can the employee know with certainty that the customer has sufficient insurance to cover an accident, or if his or her policy covers accidents in another vehicle altogether?

Around the NYC area, there is a serious problem with staged accidents. Option #3 would increase a dealership's vulnerability to this kind of fraud.

Joe, I wish your article would have expressed the benefits to the salesperson to accompany the customer on the ride. With proper training, sales people will see the test drive as value added and can easily overcome a customer's request for option #3. The internet has strengthened the argument in favor of sales people accompanying a test drive. Contrary to popular belief, just because a customer spends a few hours looking at a computer screen they do not become experts on a product. Take an internet customer and ask them to walk though the operation of SYNC or MYFORD/MYLINCOLN Touch on a Ford vehicle to see what I mean.

The reasons for not using option #3 as a dealership's preferred test drive policy far outweigh the possible benefits.

 

[Gretchen DeWees Kennedy]

Interesting post. From a consumer perspective, I feel most comfortable with #3 because I don't negotiate as well with someone I have any real connection with (if I don't know you, I don't care as much if you make an extra $500). However, it's true... Test Drive #1 makes me feel cared about . There's nothing as intimate as announcing, "Hold on, Joe, I gotta check out her 0 to 60," or "Put down your coffee, Joe, we're gonna find out about her 60 to 0," as I slam on the brakes. After one of my test drives (which I do in several models), I know, deep in my heart, you deserve that extra $500.

 

[Jon]

I think going on the test drive with a customer is one of the most important things you can do. I don't know how many times during a test drive a customer has made a comment about a like or dislike with a vehicle while driving down the road that will make or break the sale.

For example you are driving down the road and the customer makes a comment about the road noise in the vehicle. Now being a professional salesperson you know you are currently driving a a base model and they have less sound deadening, so when you get back you grab the next level up and take them out for another test drive, this time the noise is gone and you are back on the road to the sale.

Now if we had gone with option #3 the customer came back, handed us the keys and all we would know is that the customer has decided this is not the vehicle for them. So I guess my question on #3 would be, how many sales are lost on simple objections that would have been overcome with a salesperson along for the ride?

 

[Charles Gallaer (blog)]

How did you go about tracking these 5 million UPS? Through data entered into a CRM system or though polling of customers?

The answer to that question could put the 56% figure on test drives into a better perspective.