How To Sell The Electric Car
It once started with a sales pitch. A happy greeting and hand-shake, “What can we put you into today?” Now, Electric Car dealers need to be educators, too.
Today, selling electric cars is as much about being a teacher as it is a car dealer. Those on the look out for a brand new Tesla S or Nissan Leaf are not searching for the “tried and true” dealership method.
They want to be impressed the moment their feet touch the dealership carpet. Auto makers like Tesla turned their businesses into something that more resembles an Apple Store and not a car franchise.
Screens and colorful posters, hanging from walls that surround wide sales floors complete with sample vehicles, educate the buyer on what it means to be an EV. Tesla hopes its stores will become places where people “spend time when they’re not looking to buy a car.” At least, that’s the plan from George Blankenship, former Apple and Gap retail chief and now head of Tesla’s retail strategy. “The goal is to provide an enjoyable, educational and low-pressure customer experience, so that when a prospective buyer is ready to buy, ‘“they’ll remember,’” he added.
Other dealers, like Coda (who will sell the Coda Sedan in the US starting next year) are looking towards the internet. Sales for Coda will be set up online, but dealerships are being constructed so those interested can test drive the vehicle. Best of all, there won’t be any sales pressure – Coda wants to staff these locations with “non-commissioned” employees.
Electric Car Dealers hope to turn a major profit. Setting up stores to not only sell cars, but to educate buyers, is an expensive process. In the end, shoppers still need to trust the person shaking their hand and greeting them at the door. That is one companion to car sales that will never change.
Source: The New York Times
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