Sales incentive for referrals

I apologize in advance if this has been covered before, but I did not see any references in a quick search of the forum.

To increase sales of the LEAF, Nissan should offer an incentive for current owners to promote the car. The incentive (say, $500) would be credited when a sale is completed as a direct result of a referral by a current LEAF owner.

Nissan could add an additional incentive to the buyer if he/she is new to Nissan (as I suspect many people would be).

Just a couple of thoughts...

sounds good but seems to me, the referral system is used to increase sales when there is a lack of demand.

granted many CA dealers are posting orphans every day, but to my (very limited) knowledge, those orphans are still moving at a pretty good pace.

not quite sure that an incentive is needed right now.

This is something that's usually done on a dealer-by-dealer or salesman basis; mine gave me a "referral" sheet when I bought my Leaf to collect a "finder's fee" if I sent someone to him that bought a Leaf. To be honest, I think Nissan did us enough of a favor conducting the (early) ordering process by website/waitlist. If it wasn't for that, I think many (if not most) of the 2011's would have essentially gone by "auction" to the highest bidder; I feel quite certain that I probably wouldn't have had one.

From where I sit most dealerships and even Nissan itself aren't doing enough to promote this car. My dealership has had a demo model to drive since some time in September yet there is NO mention of it on their web site. I mentioned it three times to them and nothing has been done. The answer they gave me when I picked up my Leaf was, people can't order them if they come to the dealership anyway. Most dealers won't allow ordering except through Nissan web site and then they still have the quota issue. You can tell me over and over that there is no quota but I have seen it first hand a number of times. Nissan needs to get off there ass and get their dealerships in line and on the same page. :roll:

walter said:

From where I sit most dealerships and even Nissan itself aren't doing enough to promote this car.

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I have to agree. Where I live in South Florida, most people are not aware of the LEAF and there is very little in terms of state/cities promoting electric cars. We monitor inventory of LEAFs at the local dealerships and the pool of orders seems to have dried up after the initial wave of enthusiasts. My concern is that the demand will die down. Of course us LEAFers are doing what we can to promote the car, but we have a limited reach.

That's why I thought a company-wide promotion would be a good way to increase LEAF traffic to the dealerships.

BrainDonor said:

To increase sales of the LEAF, Nissan should offer an incentive for current owners to promote the car. The incentive (say, $500) would be credited when a sale is completed as a direct result of a referral by a current LEAF owner.

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How much profit do you think a dealer makes on a Leaf?

Enough to offer $2K off MSRP and still make some money....

Got my first referral check yesterday. 100 bucks for 5 months of ownership. Not bad considering there "were" only 8 Leafs in the area. Maybe I should think about quitting my day job :lol:

Reddy