4. Foster Community in Real Life
O’Gara’s team hosts meet-ups every Sunday on Sunset Boulevard. More than 350 supercars of all varieties attend, with owners parking them on display in California’s morning sunshine. The time is one for selfies, glad-handing, and bro-ing out with like-minded car lovers.
“Showing that [event] on Instagram is how people like to shop—that’s way better than people getting a picture of a car in the mail,” O’Gara said. “Instead, it’s like, here’s a fun thing to go do and see. That really brings people out. They can look at the cars in real life and get to talk to owners.”
In Miami, David has been known to source and help sell such assets as rare vintage mechanical watches for prized clients, as a favor of sorts. He hosts extravagant dinners with Armand de Brignac champagne and partners with private yacht and jet companies to allow guests full “land, air, and sea” service. He throws an annual Halloween group drive in which participants wear full costumes while they rally through Miami. Last year David and his friends dressed like the characters from the fantastical action film Suicide Squad; the party lasted deep into the night.
(David, who took over the family business at age 19 after the untimely death of his father, is the leading Lamborghini dealer in the U.S.)
5. Be Fast and Easy—and Let the Customer Lead the Conversation
These days, most of the people who come into dealerships have already done hours of research online and on social media and talked with friends who share their tax bracket about exactly what brand, model, and color scheme of car they want.
Any good dealer knows he won’t be able to surprise the customer who already owns 10 supercars. Many clients know more about the car they want than the salesman at the shop does—and that’s OK. The job here is to deliver.
“It's not about the guy who wants to do a zero-to-60-mph time,” David said. “We have guys who have the cars for four months, five months, then want something else. It's not that they need the latest and greatest. It's that they now want something they didn't previously know existed.”
What’s more, while many high-end buyers actually do drive their cars on a daily basis, at least down the driveway—after all, they’ve got to get their Instagram shot for the day—others barely touch them. In this day and age, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is speed: Dealers must be able to source the chosen car quickly, even offering to wrap it in a new color if the existing one isn’t right. If they can’t get an exact match, they’d better have something close.