I think you’re onto something here.
Most dealership websites are built around one question: “Which vehicle are you looking for?”
But a lot of customers haven’t figured that out yet.
They know they have two kids, a dog, a long commute, need room for road trips, want something good in bad weather, and have a budget they’re trying to stay within.
They may have no idea if that means a Pilot, Telluride, Traverse, Grand Highlander, or something they haven’t even looked at yet.
That’s where I think we make the customer do too much work.
We send them somewhere else to research, compare vehicles, figure out trims, learn the differences, and then hope they come back when they’re finally ready to look at inventory.
Inventory still matters. Price matters. Availability matters. The exact VIN matters.
I just think there’s a step before all of that that dealership websites could be much better at.
Help me figure out what fits my life first.
Then show me the vehicles that make sense.
Then show me the inventory.
If somebody already knows they want a Wrangler Rubicon, great. Get them there fast.
But if they only know what they need the vehicle to do, we should be able to help with that too.
We’ve gotten really good at helping people find cars.
I think the bigger opportunity is getting better at helping people decide which car they should be looking for in the first place.
The reason I made the post was because this past week my wife told me my daughter has been talking about getting her first car to drive back and forth to work. They are looking for a pink VW Beetle because she had seen a pink one and really liked it.
And my first thought was,
“How do I explain to her that's not how you buy a car?”
Then I thought every car has a purpose for which it is better suited for, so I needed to try and understand which car best suits my daughters needs?
You’ve a 5 ton truck that’s great for hauling things but makes a terrible daily driver.
However some are great for towing. Some are great on the highway. Some are inexpensive to maintain. Some are great in snow or bad weather. Some have lots of room but aren't efficient.
But when I’m looking at cars online, all of that gets buried underneath make, model, year, trim, color, wheels, packages, etc.
So I started thinking about how I would build the experience if I were doing it specifically for my daughter.
First,
make every car pink.
If she likes the pink Beetle, that's fine. But let's take color and styling out of the equation for a minute and figure out what the car actually needs to do for her.
Then ask her a series of simple questions about how she drives, what she needs, what matters to her, what she can afford, reliability, space, mileage, and so on.
At the end, instead of giving her 500 cars to look through, give her three vehicles that actually make sense for her.
Then explain
why.
Maybe the Beetle is one of them. Maybe it isn't.
And if she really wants the Beetle, that's fine too. She can keep it in the comparison and see how it stacks up against the other choices.
Once she decides,
then we get into inventory.
Now we're comparing the actual cars available locally with things like trim, mileage, price, accident/history information, maintenance, equipment, and everything else that matters when choosing between two otherwise similar vehicles.
And then the last step, she clicks a button and she has me contact the dealership so I can help her through the actual purchase.
And to be honest I’ve been so out of touch with the car market for so long I haven’t a clue what the best car for her would be and rather than just trust some guy at the dealership to tell me how the car on his lot is the best car for her, I figure I needed to understand what matters most to her, then figure out which car best fits those needs, then compare every car for sale in the area with what really matters (and it isn't price) and in the process I begin to wonder if dealerships websites might have missed the mark?
