ABOUT US
After years of lingering in the back of my mind, I couldn't let go of the idea of improving and professionalizing the test drive process as a car sales advisor, up until now in 2023. From 2015 to early 2023, I was a sales advisor at two car companies. There, I regularly conducted test drives. At the first company, there was actually no registration; sometimes a quick copy of the driver's license was made, with the license plate number, date, and start time handwritten on it.
At the first car dealership in 2015, we sold 90% of cars on consignment for private individuals. These individuals came in for an intake interview, and after negotiating, the car was listed online through that company. It was a nice concept, and it worked well. The customer had no work to do, and we as a car dealership could list a lot of cars for sale without investing in inventory. Every month, the supply grew, and after a year, there were 125 cars online. Of course, there were good sales every month, around 40 per month.
One year later, people were hired who were calling daily on the marketplace to persuade individuals to sell their cars through us, and they were successful. At the peak, there were between 250 and 300 cars online. Of course, some cars remained for sale a bit longer, and owners would call to ask about the status. Questions like "Has there been a test drive with the car yet?" were common, and there wasn't always a direct answer. Due to the long travel distance of an hour's drive (105 km), I looked for something closer and switched to another company near me.
Perfecting an idea
If you can't let go of the idea, then you're constantly busy puzzling. When the puzzle is almost complete, you can't go back anymore and you want to go for it.
In 2019, I started at a large dealership company represented in the North/East of the Netherlands. There, I once traveled to Germany for a factory event, where we were able to get acquainted with the latest models and innovations. There was also an opportunity to drive the newest models. You would drive in a group of 5 cars, with the front car, the "pace car," having a factory employee in it, followed by 4 cars taking a route of about 20 kilometers through the city. Every 5 kilometers, we would stop and the drivers would switch. The factory employee scanned your badge and the car you were going to drive. This was done for all drivers and cars at each switch. In this way, the entire route was tracked, and it was later exactly known who drove what and where.
Podcast 352: Alexander de Jong from PaceX
On Wednesday, September 19, 2024, a beautiful podcast was made withPaul de Vries van DCDWLive on November 22, 2024. Take a look the podcast and take a look behind the scenes at PaceX. Our mission: to simplify the test drive process for automotive companies and enhance the experience for customers.
Back at the office, one thing immediately stood out: you had to use a test drive form for every customer and fill it out completely by hand. Yeah, sorry (ex-manager), I actually never filled in the green plate numbers because I knew them by heart and whether they were available in the safe, and when the customer came back, I was almost waiting for them at the entrance to offer them coffee in the hope that they would say yes, so there was no time for their return noted either... Sound familiar?
I have been walking around for over 3.5 years with a twist in my head, knowing that this could be easier and more professional. During that time, various ideas grew that needed to be included in the app. In the summer of 2022, I thoroughly developed all the ideas and spoke with two companies; for every request I had, they said, no challenge, we can do it, no problem, sure, we can. At that point, a high barrier had immediately dropped a few meters, and I started thinking about a catchy name, layout, etc.
Eventually, you reach a point where you are already making investments and you naturally grow towards ultimately approving a quote with a significant investment for the development of the app. This was in August 2022. We had video meetings every Monday morning, first about the design and later intensively about each feature and also translations. And goodness, many things have changed and been added.
Around December 22, 2022, I received the first test version on my phone. After months of fantasizing, I finally saw how everything looked and how it worked. I immediately noticed about 10 things that weren't quite right, but wow, I was very excited. After a few weeks of further development, it seemed that I was getting more and more enjoyment from this than from my job as a car salesman, and I decided to pursue this full-time.
In early March 2023, the app became public and is available for download in all app stores.
The app has been developed from the ground up, starting as a sales advisor to the manager/owner of a company, featuring a beautiful dashboard with useful insights, and not to forget the customer who took the test drive and left with a good impression. An app 100% developed from practical experience on the shop floor, incorporating all the cool ins and outs that make registrations enjoyable and efficient. Also, check out the now fun collection. reviews from other colleague car and motorcycle companies.
Kind regards,
Team PaceX:
Alexander de Jong (Director)
Hester Pietersma (Marketing/Backoffice)
Patrick (Project manager)
Noa (App developer)
Sven (Developer backend)
Brian (Developer backend)
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"Involved from the start. From technical dots & codes to commercial action. Ready to make a difference together!"
