There are a lot of complicated places that we’ve got to visit even if sometimes we don’t want to. With a change of perspective, however, those complicated places can become easy, even fun, to visit. It only takes a shift in how you think about it. For example, you might think that an auto dealer or a car dealer wouldn’t be an interesting place to visit. Typically we avoid places like this even when we are forced to visit them. The horror stories of the auto dealer are numerous and wide ranging and everybody has one. But, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that most of these are completely overblown. When you visit a gmc dealer, a Chrysler dealer, any type of car dealer, it’s tempting to see everything as exploitative and just out to make money but this honestly isn’t the typical case. It’s just an example of how what we typically see what we expect to see when we go anywhere or do anything. So what should you know before you visit your gmc dealer, your jaguar dealer, your ford dealer? What follows is a short list of things you might want to think about when visiting these complicated and fascinating places?
- What sort of cars they sell
This might seem like an obvious place to start but it’s not nearly so easy. See, while all car dealerships aim to sell cars, what type of cars they sell exactly is largely dependent on geography, social population and economic need. Let’s start with the idea of geography first. The question of what cars they need to sell and what car you might need to use is largely dependent on where you live. There’s really no way to underestimate just how important this factor is when it comes to how the dealership runs. In mountainous areas, it’s going to be incredibly important for the dealership to try and sell as many trucks as possible. There will be a lot more truck dealerships in the area because of this and a lot more competition overall between all of them. Even among large car companies, your gmc dealer, your Chrysler dealers, all purveyors of family friendly vehicles, there’s going to be intense competition. In beach areas, you are going to want vehicles with specialized steering and turning for sandy and wet areas. In forested areas, you are going to want cars that can go off road into mud and leaves. While car safety is important for all of these different examples, there are different types of car safety and the dealership will always take these into account when they consider their own personal location and geography.
Social population
Geography is incredibly important and both you and your gmc dealer, for example, are going to take it into account but what about the other factors? What about the type of people and the general social population that thrive in the particular area where the dealer is located? Well, this is both more and less complicated than you might think. The social population does rely on geography somewhat but people, unlike mountains and oceans, move around. So, if a dealership wants to survive, they have to think about who is going to move in and out of any area at any given time. They also have to think about the socioeconomic status of those people and how much money or need they are going to have for different sorts of cars. The genre of the population that needs a gmc dealer might not the be the same genre that needs a beach vehicle or vice versa.
Economic need
The last factor is tied into this idea but is, in some ways, distinctly different than it. Economic need is dictated by both people and the other industries that are thriving in the area. A dealer doing well is going to be looser on sales and salesmanship than a dealer who is struggling to stay afloat. The person doing the buying needs to take this into account as well. Empathy is the biggest key, after all.