No, these sales reps have not been trained to sell plugins at all, or what they were given, they have forgotten or blown-off (don't use). Let me qualify that, when I do come across a rep that is knowledgeable, it is because they have learned on their own, they made the effort to know. I find that my local dealerships seem to have a hands-off (laissez faire) approach to selling plugins my area. Its like the dealerships really, really do not care if they sell them, or not.
Of all the dealerships within my realm, the one I reported on was actually better than most. At other dealerships, the sales types think they know it all. I play along and ask a few questions to find, they do not. They are of-course hot-n-ready to sell (Oh boy, make that commission!), but know or care-to-know even-less about plugins. Note, that each dealership 'is' different, there is no consistent informed sales person a plugin wannabe customer can expect at a dealership selling plugins (except perhaps at a Tesla showroom - and even those I found vary too). It is my impression, that to be hired at any of these dealerships, they ask about ice selling experience, and do not really care about any other type of vehicle selling experience (they will show the new hire how they wing-it/fake-it). That sounds rather sad that U.S. sale reps are not formally/uniformly trained about and how to sell plugins. And it is not limited to Nissan. At the Ford and GM dealerships I talked to, each rep varies as to what each knows, and it also varies as to how interested the reps are in giving you their time (when they can be making easy money selling ice). I haven't been to the Capitol Mitsubishi Dealership deep in east San Jose (a portion of Silicon Valley's bedroom community), but I got yakking with a few of their sales reps at last year's Silicon Valley Rally http://brucedp12.20m.com/eaasvr2012/ This was about the time of the Pike's Peak races, and they were quite proud of how well their racing iMiev did. [Sidebar, IMO I only wish Mitsubishi had not put a lighter ~60mi pack in the U.S. model and sold the same full capacity pack model that they do in Canada.] When I see a rep at a plugin dealership, I first read their body language as to how much time they are going to give me, and to be fair (as I am not there to buy anything and they are on the clock, being measured) I am up-front about why I am there ("Hi ... I am not here to buy a vehicle, but to talk about your EV ...). How each rep's responses varies from the one I reported on that was more than willing to learn how to sell EVs during their quiet sales hours/days for them, when the suckers/fish are not biting, to one sales rep that faked an incoming call so they could walk away and have someone else handle me (dump their no-sale on some other rep). And this emphasizes my original post's point that noobs (or anyone wanting to be a plugin newbie) should be using the plugin vehicle forums as their pre-purchase tool, to bone up on what local dealership will give the best deal when buying, and which has the best service after the purchase (not always the same dealer). ... Not all the reps are bump capable, a paper business card would be more the norm. The cards idea is a more permanent way for the sales reps to carry some crib notes I could provide for them. I'll think on that. As far as trying to get credit for my work, I have found if I allow others learn and then take credit for the knowledge, much more gets done to achieve the EV-cause goal. And since my self esteem is well centered, I do not need to take credit for it. On the evdl, I pull out my horn and show it once in a while, and that is enough for me. You would think that my (big & tall) physical presence would be hard for people to not remember me. But as I said, since dealerships have staff turn-over, each time I go to a dealership I see new a face. ... I have been asking the recargo staff to allow for UK, Australian, Asian, and other coupler types. Currently on a recargo search page, the coupler types are: J-1772 CHAdeMO (DC Quick) Tesla Roadster Tesla Supercharger Avcon Large Paddle Small Paddle NEMA 14-30 NEMA 14-50 NEMA L6-30 Other Conductive Which is different when adding a listing, there are many more choices: Avcon Large Paddle (LPI) Small Paddle (SPI) Tesla Other Conductive J-1772 CHAdeMO NEMA 5-15 NEMA 5-20R NEMA 14-30 NEMA 14-50 NEMA L6-30 Mennekes Type-G Type-I Europlug Other Conductive Type F (Schuko) Tesla Supercharger Tesla Model S SAE Combo I have found recargo users have out grown the recargo staff's abilities to keep up (or recargo management does not want to make a change at that time). There are many non-U.S. users on recargo, as they have learned it is in their best interest to list what public EVSE available in their area of the world. To see what has been added outside the U.S., I do not use the search dialog box using the words (i.e.: U.K. or England) that only show a small snapshot of public EVSE. To get the whole enchilada (a view of all the recargo listings worldwide), click on the search link at the top nav bar or use http://www.recargo.com/search then use the scale on the left of the screen to back/zoom-out (- negative button) to see the whole world, then move and center the area you are interested in (i.e. the U.K.) on the screen, and incrementally zoom-in (+ positive button) to see all the public EVSE listed for that area/country. Some your U.K. countrymen are using recargo to document as much public EVSE as they find. I am seeing a few Aussies using recargo to their advantage. Each day I find more and more listings showing up around the world. You may also want to try out the website interface as I am finding that it functions and displays differently than either app. {brucedp.150m.com} ... http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bone%20up - On Fri, Feb 8, 2013, at 01:23 AM, Martin WINLOW wrote: ... > Do you get the impression that these salespeople haven't been trained > very well? Is this an indication of how serious Nissan is about the > Leaf? It's not like being able to charge your shiny new Leaf isn't > important, is it? > > Perhaps its time to get some 'business' cards printed with some basic > info or a link to a web site with all your pearls of EV wisdom on it? > That way you can re-inforce your efforts with something tangible for your > victi... er, I mean, contacts to take away with them and, hopefully, use > later to remind them of all that you told them and more? > > If you are an iPhone user (I expect android has something similar) I > suppose you could use an app like Bump to do the same (you tap two > iPhones together to swap basic contact details via bluetooth). This > might be deemed a bit too personal, though. I don't know how the typical > American would take this...?! > > Interestingly, I have just downloaded ReCargo onto my (UK) iPhone - I'm > sure I tried a few weeks ago after a previous post by you on the subject > and the AppStore wouldn't let me download it because I was in the UK. I > have asked them to add the Renault ZE range of EVs and that of Vectrix to > the configuration options on the app as well as a standard UK mains > socket to the 'charger' options. - -- http://www.fastmail.fm - A no graphics, no pop-ups email service _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
