Jeanette’s New Car – Cadillac ATS
Author’s Note: I recently purchased a new car, trading in my 2002 Mitsubishi with 275,000 miles on it. Since this was the first car I had purchased in 20 years, I took my time, driving more than a dozen cars at as many dealerships. Along the way, I learned a few marketing lessons.
After visiting more than a dozen car dealerships in 10 days, one of the things I noticed is that they are all working too hard! And most of that is a result of not being organized.
I was appalled at the number of times, they could not find a car. For example, I saw a good-looking Chrysler 200 online, advertised by a particular dealer. I called the number on the ad. The salesman told me he would have to go out to the lot to locate the car – to see if they still had it! When he called me back, the car was not there. It had been loaned to a customer earlier in the day and wouldn’t be back until Monday. He just lost a potential sale.
On one lot after another, the salesman (we did not have one female dealer!) had to walk around looking for keys, looking for cars, looking for a temporary license plate so we could take a test drive. For one car we had to wait for him to go put gas in the car. Even then the low gas light was on throughout the test drive, making me a little nervous.
In one case we were told that the car we were interested in had just been sold. So the salesman went looking for a similar model. As he pulled the car up, it was the model we had asked about originally. Even though the computer “said” it has been sold, it hadn’t.
Understand that I am not a car sales professional. But look at restaurants and how easily they organize their business. Several restaurants we frequent have electronic status boards, showing which tables are occupied, which are clean and waiting for someone, and which tables need to be cleaned. It’s a very efficient, easily used system.
Surely car dealerships can implement systems similar to restaurants. Systems to track which cars are available and where they are parked on the lot. Systems to have temporary license plates readily available for test drives. Systems for having test cars gassed up, cleaned up and ready to drive.
So how do you apply this lesson on organization to your online business?
Visit your site as a stranger. Is it clear what to do? Once they sign up for your list, what do they see? When they buy a product, what happens? Where do they go? What do they get via email? How welcome do they feel?
You want your site visitors and customers to feel like you have prepared for them, not that you just showed up and decided to do business online. You want them to have a sense of safety and calm when doing business with you. It’s a matter of trust. And trust comes from the feeling that you know what you are doing – a sense of calm organization.
Operating your business in chaos, similar to a car dealership?
Are you able to put your hand on what you need when you need it? Do you have set procedures for accomplishing specific tasks? Do you have a marketing calendar telling you what to promote and when?
If you answered no to any of these questions, then you need Organize Your Online Business. It will take you by the hand and lead you to a sense of organization – for your writing, your buying, your marketing – everything you do in your online business. Don’t work harder than you need to. Get organized today!
Jeanette,
You bought the exact car and color I had picked out for you. Great choice. I am sure you will love it. If I ever buy another car, it will be top on my list.
Holly
Great minds think alike! Yes, I think I’ve always wanted this car – I just hadn’t let my conscious mind know. 🙂
Thanks for sharing in the excitement!
Loved the way you brought what happened in your personal life and turned it into a blog post that shows people why they need to be organised.
As someone who has used your Organize Your Online Business product for a while now, I can use this post as inspiration for blog posts I can write to promote your training.
Thank you for the ideas that your post has sparked off in my mind.
Thank you for appreciating that, Moira. I’m finding emails and articles easier to write when I tie them into what I’m doing already. At the same time, it lets me appreciate my everyday lessons more as I turn them into a business focus, as well.
Thanks for all you’ve done to promote Organize Your Online Business. I know it’s helped you and you’re constantly sharing with others. Thank you!
Car dealers often do bait and switches – advertise a super car at a low price (often totally stripped down) and when you go to buy it, they say it’s sold. My daughter got a car like that; would not accept that story, and she ended up buying the stripped down car they advertised after much struggle. I’m so glad you love your final choice. Congrats. I love your analogy with restaurant computer systems.
Like any other buying experience, you have to know what you want and not be swayed by all the bells and whistles you don’t need. That happens online as well. The more dealers I visited the better I got at saying what I wanted. It was great practice and I finished not only with the car I wanted, but with new-found confidence in my ability to stand strong in asking for what I want.
You already know what I think about the car and the fact that it IS you! But I, too, am impressed by how you help us with the parallels between what you teach us and what we experience. I saw something for the first time the other day although it might be common practice – we have a new BBQ place opening down the street and the other day they did a “dry run” – they had people come in and eat and they had dolls go thru the drive thru to see where there might be areas In need of improvement before opening day- I thought that was pretty cool.
As usual you apply everything you do to us – so that should make your car tax deductible – like the “gurus” who put pictures of their kids in their presentation and count them as employees!
Keep on rockin, Jeanette!
Ps sorry about any spelling errors – I’m doing this on my phone
Terrie
Wow! I’m impressed by the testing and systems that the BBQ place is using. Great story, Terrie.
Thanks again for YOUR help in identifying exactly what I wanted and going after it!
I love it!
It is so YOU!
Enjoy it for a long, successful ride!
Thanks! Just heading out for a drive right now. I’ll think of you and YOUR new car, too! Enjoy yourself.
Jeanette, it was a pleasure assisting you with the Cadillac ATS, I am so glad that after all that looking you were able to find the car that fit you perfectly!
I am happy to have you as a customer and want to remind you that I am here for you should you need anything. I read your article with interest and can see how organization of your work day and process can make or break the sale. I will keep the advice to heart.
Happy driving!!
James
Thanks, James, for stopping by the blog and leaving a comment. I thoroughly enjoyed buying a car from you – as you’ll read in an upcoming article on the lessons about customer service. So stay tuned – I have more lessons from buying a car – and how that applies to online business – coming up.
So glad you got the exact car you wanted and deserve – enjoy!
Connie
Thanks, Connie – you KNOW how long it took me to make the decision. Two years ago you were telling me I needed a new car. Really appreciate your support!
There were no female car salespersons?? Hummm. Wonder whether anybody has ever bought a car from a woman dealer.
Actually I bought two Mazdas in the 1990’s from a woman. But haven’t dealt with one in a car dealership since. In fact, come to think of it, I didn’t even see a woman in any of the dealerships – other than the Sales Manager of the Cadillac dealership. So maybe they’ve all been promoted to management? 🙂
I want to to thank you for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it.
I’ve got you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…