Chris Collins and Christian Lafferty debate whether kiosks and AI will replace car salespeople. Lafferty describes buying a Tesla online in minutes with instant credit approval. They argue salespeople survive only if they genuinely improve the experience, otherwise they're just overhead.
Do you think that service advisors are more vulnerable to being replaced by kiosks or salespeople?
I really think salespeople after, again, kind of going through that.
You never hear somebody go through a sales process where they don't hate it. Everybody here who's bought a car hates it. And to the point where, like, I don't know if you feel this way, but I'll have people that'll be like, hey, you know, I need a Toyota, I need a whatever. I won't refer them to a friend's dealership because I know that they're going to hate the process just because the process in and of itself is just a pain in the ass.
Same reason I actually don't ask any of our clients.
Yeah.
Because I just don't want.
You don't want to deal with it.
Right. And then I don't want to think worse of them because I had a crappy experience buying a car, but it's guaranteed.
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting how our, how our industry thinks that's okay.
I don't know. It can and should be so much easier.
Yeah.
A lot more click and choose and they can build their profit into it. And actually if they eliminate some of the layers of employees, they probably could be more profitable. I don't think that my salesperson added any value to the transaction.
Maybe took value away in a sense. Right.
Yeah.
Because here's the thing. Like, I posed this question on a, on a panel I was on with, you know, some industry people a while ago, and I think I told you this. I was like, who would you rather? Well, let me give you a little context. We were talking about manufacturers going direct to consumer. That that's coming. Right. And so I was just making the point, like, if you're fording, who would you rather have selling the cars, Amazon's AI or your sales team?
Amazon's AI.
Yeah. And so, like, I go to a website, it tells me what it cost, when I can get it. Like, and kind of what you're saying is you were less concerned about what it costs. Like, you know that it's going to be a certain amount. Like, yeah, you kind of. Everybody's kind of selling them for the same thing, pretty much.
And I would. And I wasn't going in expecting that. I know I understand supply and demand. I knew that, like, I, I wasn't going to negotiate $10,000 off the price of the car. So I feel like that's part of it Was the easy customer. When I say easy customer, I could have Walked in and pushed my own buttons and well, here's a, here's.
I just thought of this. But here's an interesting idea. When you bought your Tesla, what was that experience? Were you in F and I for four hours or waiting for.
I don't know if you remember me telling that, giving you the analogy. It was like buying an iPad.
Yeah.
I literally, I walked in, a salesperson brought me to a computer screen and said, okay, do you know what model you like? I said, yes, I like the Model 3. Do you know what color you like? Yes. What kind of options do you want on this thing? It's like, if you want the long range, then you have to get the all wheel drive. And he was enough where he explained all the stuff. So I built it on the iPad that they had. And then I hit a button, it said, okay, the price came up and then it said, here's your purchase option, here's your lease option. Which would you want to check? And I checked the box and they're like, okay, then here's a thing. And they run your credit and you sign right there. I got approved for my auto loan, my lease, I got approved for it in 30 seconds. And they're like, okay, enter your credit card information in here for your deposit and then we'll contact you when it arrives. And I actually had my paperwork for the lease before I got to the store. So essentially all I did was kind of get in there. I signed my. Virtually signed my papers. There was no F and I. There was no, nothing like that. And then the car was already parked out. It said Mr. Lafferty's Tesla and it had a little thing in the window and stuff like that. And it was already cleaned up. Beautiful. And then there was a delivery specialist that showed me how to do a couple of things. The whole transaction when I picked it up was roughly 45 minutes. And the whole transaction when I actually purchased it was no more than I promised you. 20 minutes.
Yeah. So to wrap that up, and I think the point here that we're trying to make is that both of those positions are at risk and they only.
Will be saved by understanding that salespeople and service advisors roles are to enhance the experience. And as we sit right now, that's a toss of the coin. You know, I always say if you have your tech, your customers pull right into the shop and talk to the techs. If the experience is better and the advisors aren't communicating, aren't making the experience better, we don't, you know, it's an expense, it's not an asset. And I think it's the same thing with salespeople. It's an expense, it's not an asset. If it isn't really improving the process. If you're a salesperson and you're not enough of a professional to know the inventory, right? If you're in finance and you, you know, you don't have enough finance people and customers have to wait three hours, it's ridiculous.
Unbelievable.
You need more finance people, you gotta, you gotta staff for the, you know, for the peaks as much as the valleys, right? So think about that. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
