Do customers always know best?

Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse.” What about your customers? Do you call your customers to ask them about their sales experience in your dealership? If so, good for you, since the very act of following-up with customers will sell incremental motorcycles.  

However, don’t make the mistake of taking customer feedback for gospel when it comes to measuring how your salespeople are selling, and then deciding how to improve the sales process used by your dealership. 

The facts show that while customers are very aware of some pieces of a dealership’s sales process, many of the most important sales steps are just not obvious and not important to motorcycle shoppers. Some examples? Customers will be aware of whether your dealership had their desired model in stock, how much it was likely to cost and whether or not the salesperson “was helpful.” On the other hand, will a customer walk out the door noticing that a particular sales behavior was missing if a salesperson forgets to give reasons to buy from your dealership, or forgets to ask for contact information, or forgets to give reasons to buy now?

The most successful dealerships follow-up with customers to turn them into fans of their dealership and hopefully paying customers too, but they don’t ask customers to tell them how to run their dealership.   

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