Jared Hamilton, CEO and Founder of DrivingSales, doesn’t beat around the bush.
“Our industry is filled with a lot of crappy insight,” said Hamilton in his keynote presentation at the inaugural Canadian Dealer Forum held on June 22-23 in Calgary, Alta.
As the owner of the Walla Walla Valley Honda dealership, Hamilton also wasn’t afraid to comment on the industry: “I’m going to tell us that our baby is ugly.”
Hamilton talked about the need for evolving the sales process based on insights from a recent DrivingSales Customer Experience Study, the results of which he shared with all of the dealer principals, executives and sales managers in the room.
The $2.5-million study surveyed around 1,400 car North American consumers in the research, purchase and post purchase phases, and had a team of anthropologists conduct interviews during the different phases.
Dealers know that customer buying habits and expectations have transformed, but Hamilton said the industry needs to be better prepared to handle them.
“You will have to let go of your favourite sins,” he said. A big one is the current, linear sales process that dealers love to follow — and customers hate.
In fact, 99.3 per cent of customers expect the process at your dealership to be a hassle, said Hamilton. Customers even went so far to say they, “felt like a hostage in the sales process,” he added.
Like the issue of the test drive. Only four per cent of shoppers expected to test drive a vehicle on their first visit. But Hamilton said this doesn’t mean consumers never wanted a test drive — 90 per cent of them did want to test drive prior to purchasing the vehicle.
So what can dealers take away? Don’t force your customer to test drive a vehicle, said Hamilton. “You don’t know where they [the customers] are on your journey.”
Maybe their neighbour has the same vehicle. Or they might have test driven the vehicle at another dealership. Dealers might not know.
What Hamilton does know is the dealership could lose out on the sale. Based on the survey results, half of the customers will walk out the door if they are forced into a test drive before they learn about the price of the vehicle.
Instead of sticking to a rigid, linear sales process, Hamilton said it’s better to consider the customer’s needs and then progress from there.
“You gain control by giving it up,” said Hamilton.
Being transparent is the only way to breed trust and gain reputation, added Hamilton.
That’s more important than any digital marketing strategy, he said.
