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Selling Autonomous Cars
Now I’ve been reading a lot about this subject lately and feel like I’ve been in the dark for whatever reason. Sure I’ve heard of people talking about it, but never really took the time to understand where things were going.
We recently took in a Tesla on trade and the technology behind this vehicle is mind boggling. Why is it 2017 (2018’s are slowly coming out) and most of all the models coming out don’t even measure up to this 2015 S 90D model we just took in… Since I’ve driven in this vehicle I have become a believer in Autonomous Cars. I think with the new legislation that passed, this is a lot closer than most of us are thinking.
What does this mean for us the dealer? You will still need sales people, but at what capacity?
There are some groups that are moving to hourly sales staff like AutoNation. Technology is still behind with the traditional dealers and/or some are still doing business the old way (wait for natural traffic) and haven’t moved with technology. These dealers will be bought out by the larger groups and converted.
For the Dealer that is not a group or publicly held dealer there will still be opportunities to move forward in this game as it evolves. With one caveat you must be willing to change with the times and make sure your staff has the right tools. The cars we sell today will look a little different, but we’ll still need salespeople. People will still want to change their car out every 2-4 years and if history is some indicator customers will just move to shorter turnaround times in the buying cycle.
Follow these 3 steps and you’ll stay in the game long term:
1. Get your technology up to date as it continues to evolve (embrace the change)
2. Focus on training and developing your staff
3. Stick to the basics.
If you stick to these 3 fundamentals you will be able to stay in the game of cars.
