The vehicle is nothing TOO crazy, but I am still awaiting delivery. Should be arriving at the dealership this week, and it will take a week for them to make a couple of adjustments to it before I pick it up…
I’ll show you the first picture when I get it in 10-14 days.
I appreciate the continued discussion here on this subject too. I hear what you guys are saying, and I think that’s why the Cayenne is a little over the top. BUT…then again, if I was operating in Beverly Hills, or Vegas, I would more seriously consider the Cayenne as an option. And…perhaps I am dead wrong to believe that it’s over the top in my area, too. Cayenne’s are like mini-vans up here, every well-off family seems to have one, or a comparable Land Rover…
I think that there needs to be a little ‘status’ in every ‘promotional’ vehicle. Otherwise, what is our vehicle promoting? No matter what we drive, it is ‘talking’ to our clients, whether we like to admit it or not. And I think that when we are operating in more affluent markets, the ‘status’ ingredient has to be added into the mix in substantially larger amounts. (and, come to think of it, I think that increasing amounts of ‘status’ can create comfort for clients, and make them feel happier about giving us their money)
Cheap car is communicating that we are doing [I]okay [/I]in business, or poorly.
Nice vehicle, professionally lettered up is saying that we are [I]successful[/I], and can be relied upon to do an excellent job, since obviously a whole whack of other people must have relied on us enough to have been able to afford this vehicle.
Does it end there, though? Does ‘over-the-top’ ride say “we charge too much”, or does it say “[I]we are the best and the most expensive, and only the smartest and most important and successful clients would even dare hiring us[/I]” ?
If this last possibility is rooted in reality, then I would venture to say that almost every one of us has been leaving a lot of money on the table for a long time.
Are there Real Estate agents who drive their clients around in Lamborghini’s? Would a certain kind of prospective client be drawn to that? How many homes would he have to sell to pay for it…? And how many fellow RE agents would call him a fool for driving clients around in it, while he quietly earned 10 times more than they did?
An even better related question: If you were a RE agent, and found out that the Lamborghini guy was making 10 times what you were - in YOUR same market - would you write the cheque for the downpayment, and go get a Lamborghini of your own?
I am thinking that there is a corollary for our industry, too, but as yet, I have no scientific results to prove it.
And taking the Real Estate Agent analogy just one step further - I wonder who the first RE agent was who bit the bullet and spent the big bucks on their vehicle, standing out from their local crowd…
P.S. : The Lincoln Navigator thing is EXACTLY what I was hoping to hear. Very very VERY interesting.