A New Way Of Selling

Monday, February 13, 2006
by Scot H. Laney

The trouble started when I noticed that all the rigs in the showroom were covered up with drop cloths. Don't get me wrong. These were stylized drop cloths, bearing scenes of happy families enjoying the outdoors, earnest working men and women on jobsites, flashy logos, supple material.

The only real drawback was you couldn't actually see the truck. You could tell there was a truck in there somewhere, but the actual details were unknown. "New way of selling" my earnest sales associate told me. "We're all doing it now."

"Let me peel this thing back a little and show you part of a tire" he said as he tugged a corner of the cloth off the floor. Sure enough, I could see part of a tire under there.

"What model of truck is it?" I asked.

"Don't really know quite yet, but I can show you more of the truck in a few weeks," he replied. "Of course, you need to buy this truck in the next several days to be eligible to actually take the truck with you, if that's what you have in mind."

"Interesting. Can you tell me what engine it has, what color it is, which interior package?"

"Not really, but I can tell you it will have several of the features you have come to expect from us. It's really going to be a lot like the trucks you have bought in the past. But we're fooling around with the title, so I can't tell you yet if you would actually own the thing or not after you buy it. But, again, if you wait just a few more weeks, I can show you the whole truck after you buy it today."

I was getting a little confused, maybe missing something there. "Just so I can compare apples to apples, don't you think I should see the truck, see the specs, have a pretty good idea what it is before I buy it?" I asked.

"Just so I understand, I can buy this truck today, and in a few weeks you will actually show me what it is."

He leaned real close, "But keep in mind that the other guys look like they're playing around with their discount program. Yep, started out in one place but this week seemed to go another direction. They'll show you a little more of their truck today, but you really don't know what the price will be if they keep doing that." He smirked.

"What about accessories?" I asked.

"Well, we have quite a few, but we're not exactly saying what they are just yet, and you should be advised that, if you do buy this truck, we probably will have a list of accessories you can't put on it. Makes it easier that way – allows us to make more money from our suppliers."

"But it's my truck if I buy it, right?"

"Possibly. Remember, we already talked about the title process."

"Just so I understand, I can buy this truck today, and in a few weeks you will actually show me what it is. Or, I can go look down the street and at brand X, they will show me more of the truck – but still not all of the truck – except the rebate program seems to be in flux, so I have no idea if, after buying insurance and gas and all that, I can really afford it or not. The other guys have restrictions on how I can accessorize my truck, and you probably will too, but you don't know right now."

He nodded. "Right, that about sums it up."

"And you think this is a good way to sell a truck to me?"

He replied: "That's the way things are done now. It's a new truck world and you're going to have to get used to that if you want to have a truck."

On my way back to my office I decided that maybe I'm just behind the times. Perhaps I'm not sophisticated enough to buy a new truck because I can't take a simple leap of faith.

I'm glad nothing in bass fishing works that way. Could you imagine how detrimental that would be to our sport?