Customer Required a Test Drive to Purchase
Your customer came into the dealership looking to purchase their next new vehicle. Unfortunately, they were not able to test drive the vehicle they want to purchase. This can happen if the vehicle is in Freight or Allocation status (See Below.) The customer is sold on the vehicle and has no objections regarding selecting a payment option. The only thing holding this sale back is a test drive. The customer will not select a payment option and agree to buy the vehicle without test driving it first.
“F” Status- Freight status. This means the vehicle has been built and is on its way to the dealership. Check Dealer Daily for approximate delivery dates and current status. Generally the vehicle will be within a month.
“A” Status- Allocation Status- This means the vehicle has been awarded to the dealership, but is still in the process of being built prior to transport. Check Dealer Daily for approximate delivery dates and current status. These vehicles are generally 60-90 days away depending on the plant the vehicle is built in.
Delivery dates in DealerDaily are subject to change. Please check with your manager.
Your initial goal in this process is to contact the customer and thank them for taking the time to visit our dealership. Next we will want to highlight the key points in the showroom visit and confirm you found the right vehicle for the customer we are only waiting on the test drive. The objective here is to keep the customer updated on the vehicle’s arrival or get creative to get the customer back into the dealership for a test drive.
Before making this call please check all available inventory systems to know exactly when the vehicle of choice is going to arrive or similar options.
Thoughts:
There are two types of customers here.
I need to test drive the specific vehicle I am buying.
This customer needs a little more urgency. Please discuss with the customer that these vehicles are typically sold before they get to the dealership. Continue to provide options of similar vehicles they can drive to get a feel of their vehicle. Then ask them to complete the deal and remind them that if the vehicle has something wrong with it or is not as advertise we’re not going to force them to complete the purchase. This sounds like:
“I can certainly keep you up to date on the arrival of that vehicle, but someone could buy it before it gets here, It’s up to you, but if you really want this one, I wouldn’t risk it.”
“We still have the XLE RAV4 Hybrid. I know you want to buy the XSE, but they go real fast and it’s going to be hard to get on the lot, they are going to be the same except yours would just be even nicer."
“You can leave a partial payment on the vehicle, and if its not what we discussed no one is going to force you to buy the car.”
I’ve never seen or driven that car before, but I’m pretty sure it’s what I want.
We’re going to assume you’ve already looked through your inventory and we do not have any other versions of that model available. But this is where we get creative… Did you ask your manager to check the other store? Does one of your teammates have a version of the vehicle? Is there one in service you can show them? Exhaust all options to give the customer a reasonable expectation of the vehicle to help move the process forward. Speak to your managers about your options. This sounds like:
“Hey there’s one in service, I can’t let you drive a customer’s car but we can go see a version of it in person if that will help.”
“My manager actually drives one of these, would you feel comfortable driving his if he’s okay with it?”
Assuming you exhausted these options during the showroom visit. The follow up is simple here are some examples of what a follow up call looks like:
Word Tracks:
“Hey Brian, thanks for coming out yesterday. I know the Crown you’re looking to purchase isn’t arriving at the dealership for two more weeks. Would you be open to driving my managers Crown? It’s going to drive exactly the same and is actually the same trim level. This way you know exactly how the vehicle drives before it even arrives?”
“Hey Jake, thank you for taking the time to sit down with me the other day. Listen, we just took in a low mileage Crown almost identical to the one we were discussing the other day. Would you want to test drive that to help you make a decision?”
“Hey Jake, thank you for coming by on Saturday. I wanted to update you about the RAV4. Its still available, for now, but it’s still about two weeks out. Do you think we’re still going to be good to go in two weeks?”