A good friend of mine, let’s call him Tom, was going to get a car. He took the subway and went to the nearest dealership. “Hello. May I help you?” He realized that he has ended up at BMW. Actually the only car dealership where they talk to you directly. At VW and Mercedes the corporate philosophy says something like: “It’s not well seen to talk directly to the customers. Take a quick look and go back to your work.”
Car dealerships are mostly located in the countryside
Tom gets some Information and went to the next car dealership with a rather expensive financing offer where he has been talked into buying some equipment. He also has to walk a while till the next dealer, because the car dealerships are located often in the countryside, where it’s almost impossible to reach it without a car.
Note to ourselves: You have to get a car to get a car. (It is a vicious circle!)
Tom enters the shop and does a quiet look around. Really quiet. Because now he can be sure that nobody will notice him: VOLKSWAGEN it is. Unfortunately the employees seem very busy. Either they’re just faking around to be busy or they’re mentally on their vacation, or they’re simply understaffed. Well Tom stands his man and starts talking to a salesperson.
Sales made by Dirk Kreuter
After the sales advisor has finished his office work, the conversation starts using the usual phrases from the last sales seminar with Dirk Kreuter. It would be great just to get some simple advices and above all to notice that the sales advisor knows what he is talking about.
“We are actually only here to calculate offers and modify them over and over again. The customer gets his information from the Internet. At the end of the day, the customer ends up running to another retailer with the same and then gets another discount of one percentage point”. – So says a sales advisor. But well, if my own company starts to launch an online shop for cars, I would no longer want the job.
Influencer top, Sale flop
Here we are at Tom’s last visit to a car dealership this day. You need to be well dressed and to be in a certain age to get professional advice: Mercedes Benz. Currently extremely well established on the market, marketing technically via YouTube on the highest influencer level for the young target Group, but the the car shop, leaves something to be desired.
