VIP events: getting the delivery right

It sounded like an interesting invitation. ‘Come to our VIP event’ said the letter from the dealership. This was the same dealership where my friend had bought her car some 18 months earlier. The car still had a low mileage and there was no plan, as yet, to buy a replacement. But it sounded tempting, maybe even enjoyable. It heralded a glass of something fizzy, a canape or two, a chat with a friendly salesperson. And a chance to look around, possibly get some candidates to shortlist for her next purchase.

On the phone, asking me to go, she was enthusiastic. “Do come, you know cars, and it’ll be fun!” Alarm bells rang. This would not be a soft sell, this was a hard-sell event, with targets for how many invitees could be turned into fresh buyers. ‘In a year or two’ would not be considered an acceptable response, this was more ‘sign here, please’. I knew that, but she didn’t believe me. “Oh no, I only bought the car from them last year, they won’t be expecting me to change it yet.” Oh yes they will,

I thought, that’s the very specific focus of a VIP event. The dichotomy between her enthusiasm and the likely scenario in the showroom nagged away. It seemed very clear that there was a looming mismatch between customer expectation and dealer aspiration. A straw poll of friends and colleagues suggested this was not uncommon; many potential buyers regard this type of event as a planning experience, rather than a seal-the-deal one. Online forums seem to confirm it. Invitees had gone along expecting a warm-and-cosy ‘do please come back to us when you’re ready to buy’ scenario only to be less than impressed by the one-to-one pressure to ‘buy here and now’.

As an informative exercise in current VIP eventing, I went along with my friend. Maybe the dealership would be clever, engage in some customer coaxing as the canapes went around, keep a relatively recent buyer warmed up in anticipation of a future sale.

So we arrive at the dealer, my friend and I. A classic edge-of-town new car showroom. With vertical brand banners dotted across the forecourt the place was looking glitzy. Things were a bit more grim inside. Blackout material had been swathed across more than half the showroom windows, leaving overhead lights and a few strategically placed portable spotlights to struggle against the gloom. Robbed of natural light, the sleek hatchbacks and hunky SUVs looked a bit dull, crammed together, leaving meagre space in which to view them.

Climbing aboard to get a feel for cabin quality and comfort brought another issue. Tinted glass and dark roof-linings cut down the available light even further. I observed another ‘VIP guest’ using his mobile phone torch to take a closer look at some of the interior details. None of this felt clever, customer-cosseting or conducive to any kind of buying mood.

Friendly, welcoming chat? Someone to encourage interest, make us feel welcome with a cheery smile? All strangely absent. Instead we were left pretty much on our own, looking at cars we couldn’t easily see. Eventually a smartly-suited salesman appeared. We were invited to sit down at a sales desk and he proceeded to try and qualify my friend for the purchase he clearly expected her to make. No finesse, just the expected hard sell. And a huffy reaction when she made it clear that the purpose of today’s visit was to look, rather than buy. Not today, anyway.

I’ve been to a variety of such events and this was one of the least clever I’ve seen. To spare blushes I won’t identify the franchise.
But they’re not alone in this approach and some of the blame must surely lie with the agency brought in to arrange the event. A look at the company website, one of several offering similar dealership VIP events, would have been enough to put off my friend. The message was all about converting attendance into immediate sales.

Times are tough, sales are down. Eagerness to sell, meet targets, hit profit margins, it’s all totally understandable. Maybe my friend had a bit of a naive expectation of what a VIP event is all about. But she’s by no means alone in that. But what we experienced wasn’t smart, or effective, or successful in achieving customer loyalty. VIP and other selling incentive events can be a valuable tool in the motor trade, but
the delivery needs to be better than this.

Sue Baker is a motoring writer, editor, broadcaster and columnist for Motor Trader