Sales folks just wanna have fun: Bob Rohrman Toyota snags customers with exciting promotions

Israel Hartnell borrowed his grandmother's van, trekked four hours across state lines and lived in a tent for several days to claim the top prize at a 2023 Black Friday event: a $99 Toyota Corolla, for the first customer in line at 9 o'clock that morning.

Bob Rohrman Toyota in Lafayette, Ind., offered the 2012 vehicle, worth thousands of dollars more — no gimmicks, no strings, no bait-and-switch — because Zac Kinch, the store's general manager, believes gamifying sales campaigns not only helps boost sales and increase awareness about the dealership, but provides staff a genuine morale boost.

"I believed that if our team got motivated, then the customers would be motivated," Kinch told Automotive News. "I have this opportunity with the Rohrmans, and we're blessed to be told by them, 'Have at it, spend the money you need, do what you need to do, just get the results from it.' "

Kinch began testing ideas in his prior role as the dealership's general sales manager in 2018. He started at the store in 2014 in sales, then was finance manager from 2015 to 2018 and became general manager in 2019.

"Buying a car shouldn't have to be miserable," Kinch said. "Gamification gets our people's heads in the right place, as well as makes the experience unique and fun for customers."

Since 2018, the store has hosted an array of sales events for people buying cars, including an on-site circus, a wind cash machine and an annual dunk tank where customers receive a $500 discount for dunking their salesperson. Customers who lasted at least eight seconds riding a mechanical bull received $750 off their vehicle in one event. And customers received one chip for every vehicle bought to take a shot on a 25-foot Plinko board, where they could win prizes of $500, $750 or $1,500 off their purchase, or free high-fives.

Kinch credits the exciting events with increasing employee retention. The average sales department employee at Bob Rohrman Toyota has worked there 6.6 years, up from 3.1 years in 2019, he said.

The events have also boosted awareness about the dealership. Video gets taken at each event, then is widely distributed on Bob Rohrman Toyota's social media platforms. The dealership has drummed up more than 13,000 followers on TikTok and its event videos garner eyeballs in the tens of thousands, Kinch said. Last year's Black Friday event and June 22 Plinko day videos each grabbed more than 1 million viewers, Kinch said.

Rohrman Automotive Group, of Lafayette, ranks No. 71 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 15,456 new vehicles in 2023. Kinch said his dealership sells an average of about 75 new and 110 used vehicles per month.

The store operates the games every 45 days or so for sales events, usually on a Saturday, Kinch said, and the games take place independently of the other Rohrman Automotive dealerships. The group includes more than 20 franchised stores in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Kinch said about half of the other Rohrman dealerships in Indiana weave gaming into their sales plans.

Kinch's key to success with the events? He means it. When he started at the dealership, he saw room for improvement. He found that sales promos back then — think enticing a customer to buy a car to receive a $25 gift card — felt gimmicky and inauthentic.

The events that take place now at the dealership are not, he said, as real money, time and effort goes into each promotion. And, Kinch said, he hires humans, not salespeople.

"To be able to say I have a sales staff of 15 individuals, and nine of them have employment history over five years?" he said. "That's almost unheard of."

The events can add up. In June, the dealership gave away $8,200 in discounts to customers who won off the group's towering Plinko board in the lobby, Kinch said, an undertaking that took several days to set up. Then there was the cleanup that followed. But the return on investment, Kinch said, is worth it.

On a typical Friday, the dealership may sell eight vehicles, he said. Sales for the Black Friday event hit 34 vehicles — including the $99 Corolla.

Kinch said all of the vehicles that were heavily discounted for last year's event, like the Corolla, were first come, first serve. He said nearly 30 people were lined up outside that day after Thanksgiving, with Hartnell at the front.

"We did not intend on anyone to miss out on Thanksgiving," Kinch said, referring to Hartnell's camping adventure over the holiday. And he didn't — Kylee Thompson, a salesperson at the dealership, saw to it that Hartnell was taken care of.

Hartnell had contacted Thompson to review some paperwork ahead of his journey. He wanted to make sure the deal wasn't a scam before he set out from his home in southern Illinois for the dealership in west central Indiana.

On that Thursday, Thompson brought him a plate of food. "So I came down here, spent an hour or so with him, made sure that he was taken care of, and brought some home-cooked food," she told Automotive News.

Hartnell had made the trip prepared. He had a lock box with money, knowing that if he lasted, the Corolla with 189,000 miles on it would be his for a total of about $370, including taxes and fees.

He said he'll never forget when the clock finally struck 9 a.m. on Black Friday. After six days and five nights of camping outside Bob Rohrman Toyota, he was indeed the first customer in the door that morning.

"I went immediately to Kylee's desk, I sat down my computer, my lock box that had my money in it, and all my important papers and stuff like that," he said. "I set all that down at her desk, I took a bite of the sandwich thing she brought me, and then I ran straight to the bathroom."

Hartnell still drives the Corolla and now, coming up on its one-year anniversary, he's had some work done to the car, including installing a new alternator. Soon, he'll get new brakes, too.