They Ask, You Answer, 2nd Edition

8 The CarMax Effect

To truly understand They Ask, You Answer, you must see that it goes well beyond the scope of “Let’s produce articles and videos on our website to answer customer questions.”

In fact, as previously mentioned, They Ask, You Answer is a business philosophy. It’s the willingness to be so focused on and obsessed with consumer questions, wants, desires, and needs that you’re willing to change and evolve your entire business model around these elements.

To understand this on a deeper level, let’s talk about a subject that, without fail, elicits a unique emotion from consumers: buying a used car.

When you hear the phrase “buy a used car” or “used car salesperson,” what is the emotion you experience? What words come to mind?

Sleazy?

Sales-y?

High pressure?

The list goes on and on.

Consumers all over the world share these same negative thoughts. Having spoken to audiences in multiple continents and across different cultures, I can assure you that no one ever shouts, “Trustworthy!” when I ask this question.

This phenomenon begs the question, how did the used car industry get to this point? What happened to make so many consumers around the world lose trust in an entire industry?

To answer this question, let’s look at the specifics.

If you were going to go out and buy a used car today, what would be some of your (potential) fears?

Across hundreds of global audiences, the answers are almost always the same:

• You don’t want to buy a lemon. (You don’t want a car with a ...