Test Drive Policy

[bpreston]

Obviously it is imperative that every customer test drives their vehicle of interest. I am of the belief that even if they have driven the car at 3 other dealerships, it is important nonetheless that they drive the vehicle that they are going to purchase so that they take mental ownership. In a perfect world I'd hope my sales people are test driving every customer and that my managers are enforcing every sales person to test drive.

Needless to say our people don't test drive their customers nearly as much as they should. As a result, I would like to incorporate some sort of test drive policy into our company hand book to hold our sales people accountable of test driving their customers. Does anyone have anything to this end? Appreciate the help.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Take a test drive with your customer or you're fired

 

[bpreston]

LOL, that is the point, anything a little more eloquent?

 

[Alex Snyder]

Take a test drive with your customer or I split your commission

 

[Craig]

I agree that salespeople should go on demo drives.....because that's what i was taught when I started selling cars in 1992.

That being said I was taught lots of things that are either ineffective now or were always ineffective because I didn't believe in them. I think the only way to have salespeople learn new behaviors or want to take certain steps in a sale are to show them why it's effective. To often sales managers rely on the "do this or you're fired" technique....only to replace these offenders with people guilty of the same charges, then repeat, hence the revolving door of a typical car dealership.

I have been shown by our salespeople fairly consistently how allowing customers to drive without them when that's what the customer wants is a realistic and profitable way to do business. That being said I still believe great presentations and demo drives sell cars and we do our best to show our salespeople why.

Sorry to laugh on the inside about your "Hold them accountable" remark but I have seen great, productive, revenue producing, don't make a living unless they sell something salespeople be fired or quit over "accountability" for things like test drives or Finance TO's or other items that are indeed important only to leave the hard headed owner or management as the real loser when they have a constant rookie sales team.

If you really want salespeople to go on test drives you need to show them the benefits or trick them into believing your insurance company requires it.

Just the opinion of some kid who leads salespeople who go on less than half the demo rides of the 350 collective deals per month they have.......even though he thinks they should go on all of them.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Nicely said Craig. Top down.

It's too easy to tell the staff "do it or you are fired" and that's why they do it. Getting buy in takes a lot of work but ultimately yields the best overall success.

I did my best to test drive every customer. I was taught early on the reason for the test drive was to get your "receipts" from the customer. Later learning that this was nothing more than building rapport and getting the customer to say yes several times during the test drive.

I sold many cars without the test drive and would say to myself, why do I do this every time if I can SKIP this step and still sell cars. The very reason why sales people start to skip steps. They THINK they've found a short cut. Then I would have a poor performing month, get back on track with the demo/test drive and again be back on top of the sales board.

Most dealers don't train. They hire and throw'm on the floor. Go Sell!! Then wonder why their employee turn is as high as it is. The walk around and test drive is hand down one of the MOST important steps in the sales process. Properly train your sales people ALL the benefits in the test drive.

If you skip 1 step, how many other steps are you skipping?

 

[EChris]

It is part of my presentation. Walk around the outside. Then put everyone in the car, I get in driver seat... and then I kid nap them. I just put the car in gear and go.

Usually, I'll say oh gotta show you how smooth this transmission is or how quite the ride is. I get about a quarter mile away pull into a parking lot and tell someone else to drive. I've only ever once had someone say no.

 

[CliffC]

You can call me "old school" but I can't recall a dealership where test drives were optional. Unless you and the buyer had a good excuse, a test drive was clearly a "condition of employment". For some dealerships, the way Alex put it was the most eloquent.

I remember a dealer group including the "did you test drive the car you bought" during the first after sale satisfaction call. The better satisfaction scores would always correlate to those who drove the actual car they bought. At minimum, the experience seems to strengthen the bond between the customer and the vehicle.

Cliff