According to Mark Gilbert, car dealerships are not really known for stepping out of their comfort zone when it comes to management. A recent poll reveals that car salespeople rank low when it comes to consumer trust. Clearly, there are a lot of things that could use a bit of tweaking, particularly in terms of customer experience.
If you feel your dealership is not performing to its potential, Mark Gilbert thinks you might be doing any of the three things below.
1. Being too specific. We have access to a lot of data that tracks how many cars of each model and color are sold at any given time. But Mark Gilbert says fewer than 20% of customers end up buying the specific car that they were looking for at first. Instead of closing the door on indecisive customers, the smart thing to do is to offer them something else. If they have second thoughts about their first choice, perhaps the next options will reel them in.
2. Not knowing when to let go of a customer. Mark Gilbert shares that one of his pet peeves when he was buying cars at other dealerships was being shadowed by a salesperson all the time. He understands that salespeople are only doing their jobs, but some people need to figure things out by themselves before deciding on a purchase. This attitude shown by some salespeople only shows that they don’t trust their customers to make the right choice. The best thing to do is to be polite and respect the customer’s time and space.
3. Not investing in employee development. Most car dealerships consider training an expense. However, Mark Gilbert says you cannot afford to not train your people. Whether they are salespeople or mechanics, your employees need to know more about the cars they sell or service, the people who come into the dealership daily, and how to figure out the best car for one’s needs. Failing to figure this out is equivalent to abandoning promising leads.
