The Test Drive Conundrum - Has It Changed?

[William Bryant (blog)]

Woah woah woah... not going on the test drive with a customer? YOU'RE FIRED!

I believe 90% of the time option 1 should be executed, in the back seat if there's a spouse (if there's kids you get to play with em ), and you should make the test drive about THE CAR and not about the salesperson/dealership. This is a great time to show off how much better your brakes work than their old ones, how much smoother your suspension is than their older one, and make sure they spend some real time in the car and not just go around the block. Selling Nissans I was all about the test drive! Many customer wouldn't be comfortable doing the things I told them to do on the test drive without me there (like passing cops and honking horns at strangers).

Now, I have the other 10% of the time let customers drive by themselves. You can get a sense of when someone would be better sold if they drove alone, and at times I've insisted they drive alone. Especially if it's a wife/husband.

 

[William Bryant (blog)]

Woah woah woah... not going on the test drive with a customer? YOU'RE FIRED!

I believe 90% of the time option 1 should be executed, in the back seat if there's a spouse (if there's kids you get to play with em ), and you should make the test drive about THE CAR and not about the salesperson/dealership. This is a great time to show off how much better your brakes work than their old ones, how much smoother your suspension is than their older one, and make sure they spend some real time in the car and not just go around the block. Selling Nissans I was all about the test drive! Many customer wouldn't be comfortable doing the things I told them to do on the test drive without me there (like passing cops and honking horns at strangers).

Now, I have the other 10% of the time let customers drive by themselves. You can get a sense of when someone would be better sold if they drove alone, and at times I've insisted they drive alone. Especially if it's a wife/husband.

 

[TCuzzo]

Tracking UPS is what we do. Our system identifies the true number of UPS that come on a dealership lot which is typically much higher than the number input into most CRM's. Once you identify the true UP count and you know how many you sold, the formula is simple.

The over 5 million UPS, I referred to are from over 100 dealerships across the country including highline, imports and domestics.

 

[mbayo]

So, is a test drive the same as a demonstration, or are they different?

I say they’re different.

When salespeople allow themselves to be sold on the belief that they are commodities, they add little or no value to the purchase process. This is what happens when a salesperson allows a customer to drive on their own without any targeted demonstration of the desired features and benefits in action.

Also, even when salespeople do accompany them, many customers leave a dealership without knowing what the vehicle they drove can TRULY do for them. This is largely because in many cases, a customer drives first on the test drive.

If you think about it, the word DEMONSTRATION implies that one party is showing another about something. In the automotive retail world, wouldn’t you agree this should be the salesperson showing the customer something about the vehicle they intend to purchase?

Unless you are MAGICAL at getting your customers to drive a vehicle the way you want them to, the BEST you can hope for is that they will drive the new car like they drive their old one. The worse case is they’ll drive the new car TIMIDLY because they’re not familiar with it. Either way, if they drive first, most customers won’t fully discover the value the vehicle holds before they leave your store.

The successful salesperson differentiates his or herself by providing a remarkable experience, a great part of which is a quality demonstration. The salesperson must first actively discover their customer’s needs and intended usage for the vehicle, then be willing to tailor their demonstration to how each person in their party will be using it.

A quality demonstration is actually more about the customer than it is about the vehicle, salesperson or dealership. Our job is to help our customers clearly picture improved life experience through ownership of our product and an ongoing relationship with us.

Would I allow customers to drive on their own if they ask?

Of course, but only AFTER I've shown them what the car can do and they've signed an assumption of liability.

So drive the car first with them as passengers and show how the vehicle will make their day to day lives better. Then help them try all the things you showed them. Since you know the car better, help your customers round out their intellectual knowledge of it with the visceral understanding a quality demonstration provides.

THAT’S when you’re adding value to the purchase process, when you’re no longer a commodity.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Shopper WANTS Test Drive#3, but sometimes a little product knowledge and a joint Test Drive#1 is what the shopper NEEDS.

In my case, We're a #3 store AND we sell used that are NOT cert'd pre-sale. Hmmm... I smell trouble. Great post Joe W!!!

New opportunity to explore! WEBB RADAR UP AND SCANNING!

As a marketing director that's paid by the number of cars we put over the curb, I have to ask myself, If you send the shopper off alone in an un-cert'd used
car, when they return, what skilled followup questions do we ask?

(grr... will my to-do list EVER get smaller??)

 

[Joe Pistell]

SideBar: Different Test Drive rules for the sales gals!

My wife sells cars and there are creepers out here. My wife had a creeper break her 4 right turns and refused to comply. He went off and took her to show her "his place". She cued up 911 on her cell, gave him one last warning and he turned around. NOT GOOD.

SALES GALS:

Your pic is on the net. Never ever leave on a Test drive until you CYA (Cover Your Ass). Always trust your instincts. Single adult males of any age are to be considered potential trouble. TELL EVERYONE YOUR LEAVING AND BE VOCAL. Get copies of the drivers lic. Get keys of other car to your manager, bring along a lot guy or send them alone, do what ou have to do to keep yourself out of a bad situation.

Managers,

CYA! If they fall into bad hands, lawyers will descend on you like rain in Seattle. Write special test drive rules for your sales gals.

Mr
Charles Gallaer wrote of the costs and risks of 1,000 mile joy rides. I'd take that expense any day over a EMPLOYER ENFORCED test drive that ends in personal tragedy.

 

[Charles Gallaer (blog)]

@twitter-15780597:disqus,

I would caution any dealer from taking your advice without consulting an attorney. What you are in effect creating is a gender biased policy at your dealership that could run afoul of state and federal laws. If not done properly, your business could be vulnerable to gender discrimination suits. You are less vulnerable if you tell these "creepers" to get off your lot than if you create an employee policy as you outlined.

I am sorry that your wife had such an awful experience. Thank you for sharing this story with the rest of us as we are now challenged to come up with a process that protects ALL of our employees (regardless of gender) while also protecting the dealership and other individuals who may be put in harms way by "throwing" the keys to the wrong person.

The author of this post began by asking which of three test drive options is a procedure at our stores. The OP on this thread asked are there legal reasons why a store wouldn't use test drive #3 as its preferred method. I answered this question directly.

@google-45b444e2f8a19db2e548f40663b4aad8:disqus
had the credited response. Is there a place for unaccompanied test drives? Sure. Are there ways you can create an unaccompanied test drive process that reduces your exposure? Sure, as Mel pointed out.

I don't believe that our only choices to protect our employees are either to create a gender-biased process or to "throw" someone the keys and put countless more people in danger.

 

[Alex Schoeneberger]

Charles - you make some great points about the legal/insurance/financial reasons and I also agree that some customers are either not tech savvy enough to understand certain features and/or certain features are sometimes too complex to immediately understand.

 

[Alex Schoeneberger]

All good points, as are Charles' above. I was curious about how consumers aside from me felt about this so I sent this article over to the KBB Market Intelligence team, who posted it as a poll on kbb.com between May 6 and today, May 9.

The results did lean in my favor, but I do understand a little bit better now after reading the responses to this article why it's done the way it's done.

Question: Would you be more likely to test drive a vehicle if you weren't required to ride with a salesperson?

67% Yes, I would prefer to test drive alone
29% No, I don't have any problem test driving with a salesperson
3% Yes, I would rather ride with any dealership staff other than a salesperson

(253 responses)You can see the pie chart posted along with results from some other polls here: http://mediaroom.kbb.com/driver-input