Inroads for Business

In Roads for Business was developed as a response to a world that seems to be moving away from relationships to automated and AI driven forces. Think of the last thing you purchased, was it a pen or a pair of socks? Did you deal with someone you knew or just hit check out? Yes, Amazon is easy for many things but have we as humanity lost something? Young people are struggling to find friends and yet we have a deep inner desire to connect.

Think about the last time you shopped for a car. Why did you buy THAT one and not the one you looked at at one of the three other dealerships? Had you already decided before you started to shop the car that you wanted or did you experience a shift because someone honed in on EXACTLY what you wanted and needed? Recently, I helped my daughter Destiny buy a car. We looked at three different cars, three different dealerships. We started our day figuring what she wanted, a budget in mind and a timeline.

The first dealership we went to had the highest price points so we looked at a newer used car and took it for a drive. She liked it enough but it wasn’t exactly what she wanted. The salesman was astute and LISTENED to everything she said right down to her actual colour preferences. He spent a couple of hours asking her questions, showing her different vehicles online, seeing what she liked and what she turned her nose up at. The salesman also knew that I was an influence in this decision. We both liked him but still felt we needed to go look at the other options out there.

Car number two, the sales woman asked a few basic questions and decided what car a person in my daughter’s demographic “should” want. After about ten minutes we were out on a test drive with the sales person disinterestedly asking personal questions while playing on her phone. The colour was right but even though we set out believing this was the brand she was going to buy, the sales person utterly failed. She did not show a genuine interest in what Destiny had concerns about and completely dismissed me.

On Monday she decided to go back and ask a couple more questions at the first dealership because she believed she could get the information she needed and trusted her sales person. When she arrived, her sales person said “Come here, I want to show you something that just arrived today.”

It was EVERYTHING she was looking for in a car. It was the right colour, had all of the features she wanted and a few she didn’t know she wanted. He had already prepared a quote for her; with the winter tires on rims factored into the price and the extras that had been discussed on Saturday. It was over budget but she decided it was worth it. This was the car she wanted and felt she needed. I have bought my last four vehicles from the second dealership we visited but will likely buy my next from Destiny’s salesman because of a good relationship that started over a coffee and a chat before him trying to sell a car.

Let’s build relationships together, so we all have a better story to tell and we can move the Kingdom of Christ forward in our community, business dealings and lasting friendships.