So I also find myself to generalize telling an experience of life lived (automotive)… sometimes you allow me to “vent”….
The “Case history” I’m going to tell you is dramatically true and is a prime example of what it means to get out of your own safety…. Even if continuing to be cunning!
Not long ago a “friend” dealer, one of those BIG ones who only speaks about MILLION of dollars, called me and not having the courage to request it by phone, he invited me to his bedside. I made it clear that it is time to stop paying consultants 30,000€ a year and then confirm the work freely with me… I would like to capitalize something.
A few days later I get an invitation with the train tickets and the phone of his driver. So we spend a nice morning around his phantasmagoric auto shows full on news, merchandising, acclaiming sellers….. always the same stuff!
At lunch time, right during the coffee, the speech bobs up… “ a cooperative took me a quote for 50 rides, that my direct competitors would sell them to a price less than my best cost… Have you a way out?”… It was just a challenge to find a solution. But in the end, I didn’t want to seem as “just talk and badge”!
We call his director of brand so we could understand the negotiation margins, I give him a suggestion and, among other things, I suggest him to call the Area Manager to check a few things.
Coming back to the office, we received another quotation better than the previous but still far from the competitor’s one… and because of this I would have earned my parcel!
At this point, using a bit of experience, I ask him: “But do you get a sense of how these competitors face to give these cars to this price, if is it true?” Thousands of turns of phrase and then.. HIS TRUTH: “He converts the used cars into new ones and then he sells them to traders”… well, you can make them fools once and then they will never return, I have my doubts!
Then I provide the solution… How much do you spend on advertising for the sails in a year? How much they cost per square meter? Well, How many squares meter are employable on a car? Which are the dead times of your bodywork? Create a bodywork check constraint, every 6 months, so no one will run away from the assistance… without affecting your bills, you have cleared the difference and forced customs to go to your shop every 6 months, not to mention that for 4 years you will have an institutional advertising turning in the city.
Uhm..uhm…uhm.. How do you think the story ended?
So the administration told him that it was a complex thing to manage, they were not ready for these movements.. and immobilizing an investment for 4 years seems too risky… He should ask the district… and then the other could do the same thing resetting the advantage…
He lost 50 cars and I wasted my day…
Call it how do you will, violated Comfort Zone, administrative rigidity, lack of “risk” or simply a “do not touch my Advertising and Communication income”… call it what you like, but you can be sure that next time not only he must send me the ticket but also the fee already paid to make me move.
Translated by Federica Izzo
