New Wheels For A Day

Building on the idea in the last post (reduction of customer's perceived barriers) here's an example of an old dog learning new tricks.

If you didn't shop for a new car in the past few years, you may have missed General Motors' program called the "24 Hour Test Drive". True to its name, this multi-year campaign allowed prospective buyers to free themselves of the salesperson watching their every move and take the vehicle home to see it in there driveway. Just as important, of course, was that the prospective buyer's family and neighbors see the set of new wheels, engage them in conversation, etc.

The national industry average for dealers selling a vehicle to people walking into showrooms is 19%. So what kind of results would you expect from this program?

One hint is that GM extended the program, twice. The second time it was extended, the company reported that 700,000 of the 24-hour test drives had been taken, resulting in more than 240,000 sales -- or 34%. And according to the AIADA (American International Automobile Dealers Association) one dealer in New York drew 150 of the "test drivers" and closed 75 to 80 percent!

In fact, upon the second extension, GM had such confidence that it upped the ante -- offering $250 to test drivers if they bought a competitor's car afterward.

Sure, there are pieces of this analysis that can be quibbled about -- for example, how many leads and sales were driven by the publicity of the program itself.

In my book, however, the bottom line remains: these results indicate that every business can help its prospects to become customers by reducing perceived barriers.