The pandemic was a world shaping event. Yes that sounds like something plagiarized from Captain Obvious, but I'm speaking about how we do business. BC(ovid) we didn’t door dash at a moments’ notice. BC we didn’t buy cars online without going through the car buying ordeal. BC we actually went to the office (more for cooler talk) but we did actually go to the office. And now….what a difference a plague makes.
So if everything has changed, and you know it has, we have to look at why. The most striking of all the changes for me is the car buying online. It seems unfathomable that such a significant event, a right of passage almost, has been transitioned from the old (traumatic method) to the new (hassle free), but it has. And if I can be transparent for a moment, I love the new process. But how did this new method even come to be?
Apparently we all were tolerating the way it worked because “that’s how it’s always been done”, but we weren’t honest in how the experience made us feel. Was it a win win? Why did it take so long; 6 hours, really? All I wanted to do was go pick the car, pay for the car and leave with the car. What was with the Dragnet (IYKYK) interrogation? So there was pain that was addressed by this new method. Did I mention that I absolutely love this new method?
This gives us a great case study to consider for continuous improvement. The common denominator in the old method was the Car Salesman. And we have a cliche or stereotype for that avatar. But I want you to look at that avatar and put them in a wooly mammoth or a caveman suit. The times changed and wiped that prototype off the map (Yikes)! Now, what lessons can we learn from this so we too don’t become extinct?
Let’s start with why buy cars online in the first place. We do it for convenience. The pandemic drove us all to our screens and the User Interface or rather the ease of use determines what we do and why. Lesson: be easy to work with.
What else can we learn from the change? Screens don’t wear us down like Sam I Am. The screens listen to our requests, and provide us the answers to our questions. Lesson: don’t talk so much.
What else can we learn? The buyer journey now trumps the sales process. We don’t know who is looking for what, nor do we know where they are in their buyer journey. But when they are ready, they pull the trigger on the deal. During the process though there is a point where they are looking for data to make their decision. This is where we make the impact.. Lesson: we can’t “sell’ anything, we can only provide the information for the buyer to make their decision.
Long story short, if we don’t want to go the way of the wooly mammoth, we cannot rely on the gift of gab to wear down our customers. In this day and age, we need to be easy to work with, we need to talk less, and we need to provide the buyers with the information they need to make their decision. The game has changed. If you want to win, you have to play by the new rules.
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