Car dealers spend lots of money every month to drive car shoppers into their dealership. They advertise on television, radio and the Internet. They send out direct mail pieces, email newsletters, sales flyers and even make phone calls. Today’s car dealerships have entire staffs of highly trained people that answer their phones, answer and send emails and provide car shoppers with information via their car dealer websites. They do this because car dealers want you in their showroom and they will do whatever it takes to get you there, period.
It used to be enough to be the closest car dealership to the customers home, but today car dealers are reaching out to acquire customers outside their area, because they are loosing some local customers to other dealers that are reaching beyond their local area. If you look closely you will find car dealers offering gift cards and gas cards, contests to win any number of different gifts just to go for a test drive at their dealership. It may sound silly to an auto industry outsider, but these promotions work when you crunch the numbers and that’s why car dealers want you in their showroom.
Why Car Dealers Want You in their Showroom
So why do car dealers go above and beyond to get car shoppers into their dealership? They do this because a percentage of car shoppers can be turned into car buyers once they visit the dealership and go for a test drive. That’s right, the amount of dollars spent to drive showroom traffic via advertising, contests, gimmicks and gifts justifies the amount shoppers that become car buyers once they are at the car dealership. The reason is different for everyone, for some it’s the test drive, for some it’s the new car smell, for others it’s the thought of getting a new car that makes them loose their ability to reason and use their emotions to make a car buying decision. Then last, but least the car shopper meets a car salesman, but not your ordinary car salesman they meet a professional salesperson that sells them a car.
Some Dealers Will Get Kinky to Get You to the Dealership
One of the things you need to know about some car dealers is that they will cross the line in order to get car shoppers in to their showroom. One example of such a practice is to provide the lowest price quote and leave out charges like destination fees. Then after the customer decides to buy the car the dealerships will add the destination fee, which can be nearly a thousand dollars. If the customer reads the paperwork and discovers the extra charge they tell them that all dealerships do it that way. More often than not the car buyer will accept the extra charge and buy the car. Some customers will walk out because they were scammed, but not very many buyers walk away. That’s what I call crossing the line, but it happens all the time and that’s why it’s important to know the ins and outs of buying cars.
Now you can see why it’s so critical to success is the car business and why car dealers want you in their showroom. People don’t buy cars over the phone or through email, but car shoppers can be turned into buyers when they are in the showroom. So getting you in the door is the first priority when they can get you on the phone or correspond with you through email. As long as the numbers work out car dealers will continue to spend money to get you into the dealership.