The new book by Daniel Pink, titled, "To Sell is Human," talks about how the asymetrical model of selling is a thing of the past and how 15 to 20 years ago sellers had more information than consumers during market exchanges, thus an asymetrical relationship and advantage.
A new survey from Consumer Reports reinforces that trend but flips it on its ear and shows how the electric vehicle (EV) buyer is the one with more information or knowledge. That's not translating into better deals for consumers due salespeople not providing accurate information to possible buyers, according to the Consumer Reports survey.
Salespeople are not providing less information on purpose, just a lack of sales training the survey shows. The survey was conducted between December 2013 and March 2014 and consisted of 19 secret shoppers, whom went to 85 dealerships in four states making anonymous visits. From the Consumer Reports article:
We found that whether salespeople encourage the sale of an electric car or discourage shoppers from buying one seems to have as much to do with their knowledge about plug-in cars as with the number the dealership has in stock. And some automakers seem to have better-trained sales staff than others.
These findings are consistent with other experiences shared via car sites and discussion groups that salespeople tend to sell what's easy. And EVs are not the easy thing to sell as documented here.
Last fall at elementary electric/hybrid car day, I had a Toyota salesperson look surprised when I told him that a Tesla Model S has a minimum of 200 miles of range and it doesn't need to be charged every day, depending on your commute.
Some of the findings show how sales have said: the Prius plug-in electric battery needs to be replaced "every couple of years," a EV can't be leased, or some would not show an EV car after a request to do so.
Other interesting takeaways include:
1) When it came to answering basic questions, we found that salespeople at Chevrolet, Ford, and Nissan dealerships tended to be better informed than those at Honda and Toyota, with a notable distinction between Chevrolet and Toyota.
2) Overall, our secret shoppers reported that only 13 dealers “discouraged sale of EV,” with seven of them being in New York. Most of those stores had little to no inventory. However, at 35 of the 85 dealerships they visited, our shoppers said salespeople recommended buying a gas-powered car instead.
With the dealers fight against the Tesla direct-to-consumer (DTC) in the news each day, this definitely adds some context to the discussion. Tesla is nowhere close to a 27 percent margin with dealers involved, as reported in its last earnings call.
To me the major automakers should be aligned with Tesla and heap some serious pressure on dealers to allow the manufacturers to sell their electric cars directly to consumers. Opportunity missed.