Whenever business was particularly bad for a prolonged period of time, my brother, Danny, would point at the cars streaming up and down Mission Boulevard and say, “They won’t last forever! There going to have to buy something sometime. All we have to do is wait them out.”
And of course he was right. The market would inevitably turn, and the showroom would once again fill with customers. The mooches would resume their ritual of kicking tires and asking stupid questions. The salesmen would start the process of rooting out the buyers from the stokers. The automotive world would return to its rightful order. The only bummer was the trade-ins. They had all been driven into the ground, a veritable sea of $100 dollar cars. But the lesson of it all was that the business always comes back.
Always.
Now I will be the first to admit that I never envisioned a protracted automotive drought such as this one. In my wildest dreams I never imaged the five plus years of agony we have all gone through. And I’ll also admit that I can’t predict when this crap will end, but if I were a betting man I’d put down a hundred that we have another year of misery ahead of us. One more year of buying food off the dollar menu at McDonalds and drinking cheap beer. One more year of sales managers acting like dicks and dealers walking around with long faces.
Here’s a weird angle I bet you’ve never thought of: The quality of today’s cars has prolonged this drought. Forty years ago cars were about done at 80,000 miles, so the ability of The Others to hold out on us was limited. Today, most cars are just broken in at 80K. Even American built cars, dreaded by pipe smokers everywhere, can last well over 100,000 miles. So in a sense we are victims of our own quest for quality.
But I come here today with good news. When the automotive dam finally breaks it’s going to be like Noah’s flood. There is enough pent up demand for new metal in this county to make us all lots and lots of money. All we have to do is hold on--if we can. Young salesmen still have a chance to bail out of the business if things get too rough. Old Car Men like me have no choice but to wait. We were born to this business, and we don’t know how to do anything else.
The promise of tomorrow is that we will sell a helluva lot of cars. We’ll once again be able to throw the crazy people off the lot and concentrate on the buyers. The time will come when we’ll have the luxury of bitching about the low inventory and how upper management is flooding the floor with goof balls.
All well be as it was.
So get prepared. Get out your best rain gear. Because when the dam breaks we’re all going to get very, very wet.
Talk to you later,
David
Deposits
In the beginning of my automotive career the deposit was king. The desk wouldn’t even look at you or your deal if you didn’t have something from the customer other than a piece of paper and a credit app. Money talks, bullshit walks as they say. If your customer was using a trade for his down payment it was easy, a key and the registration or title would suffice. But if he was putting a grand down, the desk wanted to see the grand up front. Getting the customer to write the check or even worse give you the cash before finding out if he had a deal could be difficult, but the penalty for bringing a deal to the desk without it meant you’re deal might be immediately turned.
As a green pea I had a lot of deals turned.
Get something out of the customer, that was the trick. If he wouldn’t give you the full grand, get something out of the mooch! A hundred? Twenty? A $5.00 bill? His watch? His shoe for Christ’s sake? You had to get a deposit!
.The reasons for this were sound. It was part of getting a true commitment from a customer to buy the car. It wasn’t enough that you had the guy sign a line that said, “Customer will buy and take home today for $1000 down and $250 per month.” No, sir, you had to get a piece of him too!
I swear to God I once saw a guy take a baby to the sales office
Is it a good idea today? Maybe, maybe not. In reality a proper written write-up is probably all you need, but I suspect most desk men still want something to hold the customer. Nothing’s worse than a salesman going back to the customer with his freshly-minted pencil only to discover the guy had bolted on him like a spooked horse.
In reality a customer who bolts has probably done you a favor, but the desk usually doesn’t look at it that way, especially if you have a pattern of people running out of the dealership like they’re on fire even before you have a chance to bump them. The desk begins to think you’re weak; that you can’t commit a customer properly and generally don’t have any control. Do that enough times and you’re out the door! But if the desk has faith in your abilities, the more they are not as likely to require you to resort to getting a customer’s shoes before they’ll look at your deal!
What about the other times when a deposit comes into play? For instance, what about the guy who wants to give you some money to hold a used car? Do you take it? Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that in most cases NOT taking a deposit is more effective than taking one, and I sincerely hope that lightening won’t strike me for saying this.
First, what if you take a deposit on a car and someone else offers more money for it? Take the money and run, I say, but that can get a little sticky legal-wise. Same thing if you tell him a deposit is non-refundable. It’s a good bluff, but good luck getting that past a small claims court judge!
Second, sometimes when a customer has a deposit on a car he thinks it’s safe to spend the rest of they day shopping for a car he might like a little better. What’s the hurry? He can always come back and get yours. “Hell, I’ve got a deposit on it!” he thinks.
I feel the threat of losing a car can be more effective than letting the guy think he’s in control of the situation. If you can create the emotion, you’ve got to make it clear that he’s going to lose that sucker if he doesn’t buy it now!
In my opinion a deposit on a car should be like an aspirin, it should wear out in four hours. And I think that if you decide to take a deposit you should let him know that.
Customers will always ask, “Has anyone else been looking at the car”? “How long do you think it will be here?” Well, how long is a piece of string? The car might be there two months from now; it might be gone in an hour. The point is do you really want to take that chance?
When you get your deposit at the time of the write-up keep the reasons for it a little nebulous. “Its good faith money,” is probably your best bet. Or “I need all the ammunition I can use to get your stupid offer through my boss!” Tell him anything, but DON’T TELL HIM IT WILL HOLD THE CAR!
The only thing that should hold a car is its emergency brake.
Talk to you later,
David
As a green pea I had a lot of deals turned.
Get something out of the customer, that was the trick. If he wouldn’t give you the full grand, get something out of the mooch! A hundred? Twenty? A $5.00 bill? His watch? His shoe for Christ’s sake? You had to get a deposit!
.The reasons for this were sound. It was part of getting a true commitment from a customer to buy the car. It wasn’t enough that you had the guy sign a line that said, “Customer will buy and take home today for $1000 down and $250 per month.” No, sir, you had to get a piece of him too!
I swear to God I once saw a guy take a baby to the sales office
Is it a good idea today? Maybe, maybe not. In reality a proper written write-up is probably all you need, but I suspect most desk men still want something to hold the customer. Nothing’s worse than a salesman going back to the customer with his freshly-minted pencil only to discover the guy had bolted on him like a spooked horse.
In reality a customer who bolts has probably done you a favor, but the desk usually doesn’t look at it that way, especially if you have a pattern of people running out of the dealership like they’re on fire even before you have a chance to bump them. The desk begins to think you’re weak; that you can’t commit a customer properly and generally don’t have any control. Do that enough times and you’re out the door! But if the desk has faith in your abilities, the more they are not as likely to require you to resort to getting a customer’s shoes before they’ll look at your deal!
What about the other times when a deposit comes into play? For instance, what about the guy who wants to give you some money to hold a used car? Do you take it? Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that in most cases NOT taking a deposit is more effective than taking one, and I sincerely hope that lightening won’t strike me for saying this.
First, what if you take a deposit on a car and someone else offers more money for it? Take the money and run, I say, but that can get a little sticky legal-wise. Same thing if you tell him a deposit is non-refundable. It’s a good bluff, but good luck getting that past a small claims court judge!
Second, sometimes when a customer has a deposit on a car he thinks it’s safe to spend the rest of they day shopping for a car he might like a little better. What’s the hurry? He can always come back and get yours. “Hell, I’ve got a deposit on it!” he thinks.
I feel the threat of losing a car can be more effective than letting the guy think he’s in control of the situation. If you can create the emotion, you’ve got to make it clear that he’s going to lose that sucker if he doesn’t buy it now!
In my opinion a deposit on a car should be like an aspirin, it should wear out in four hours. And I think that if you decide to take a deposit you should let him know that.
Customers will always ask, “Has anyone else been looking at the car”? “How long do you think it will be here?” Well, how long is a piece of string? The car might be there two months from now; it might be gone in an hour. The point is do you really want to take that chance?
When you get your deposit at the time of the write-up keep the reasons for it a little nebulous. “Its good faith money,” is probably your best bet. Or “I need all the ammunition I can use to get your stupid offer through my boss!” Tell him anything, but DON’T TELL HIM IT WILL HOLD THE CAR!
The only thing that should hold a car is its emergency brake.
Talk to you later,
David
The Return Of Fix It Again Tony
I remember the last time Chrysler was going tits up back in 1980. A knight on a white horse by the name of Lee Iacocca came to its rescue. His talent? Common sense and the idea for something called a mini-van.
In those days Chrysler products were nightmares. I went to work for a Dodge dealer back in 1978, and the quality of the cars were shocking. They made a car called a Dodge Magnum. The alloy wheels had these pretty clear plastic hub caps. The problem is that they refused to stay on the cars. You could walk through a line of Magnums and see them scattered all over the lot!
I remember opening doors and having the rubber seals detach and stick to the door frames. I remember trim panels not fastened property, gaps in the trunks and hood the size of the Grand Canyon. This being the days of carburetors, just about every car had fouled spark plugs so most of them ran like shit.
I lasted there three weeks.
Fast forward a couple of years. Chrysler was on the ropes, the government co-signed a loan. Lee Iacocca, Fords wonder boy if the ‘60s, took the reigns of the troubled company. He got rid of the junk and stripped down the design of the cars to their basics by creating the K platform. The K Car was a wonder for its time. It was uncomplicated and extremely practical. By keeping it simple the quality of the cars went up and so did sales.
My brother, Danny, bought a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise. I for one thought he was nuts. But as it turned out the cars weren’t bad. The K platform, though not sexy or exciting, was used for a number of cars from the Plymouth Voyager to the Chrysler Laser. We sold the crap out of those cars!
Though housewives hate them today, the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager was just about the most amazing, trailblazing vehicles to come along since the ’65 Mustang. I wish all of you could see them through my eyes at that time. Nothing on the road looked like them nor was as practical. They were the perfect vehicle for the time, a home run on the sales floor.
Then Lee retired and the dark days began again.
No matter how much they try, all car manufactures tend to screw things up for themselves. Unfortunately it’s the American companies that get hurt the worse. The Japanese have a core of practical cars that are guaranteed to sell, so if they get greedy and start building big SUVs and trucks it doesn’t hurt them much when that area of the business goes south. No so the American companies.
Volkswagen built its empire on a practical little car affectionately called the Bug. Instead of building on the legacy of the K Car as VW did with the Bug, Chrysler abandoned its platform and the philosophy behind it to go for a plethora of new models that looked good but were mechanically iffy. Anyone have any experiences with a Chrysler 2.7 liter engine?
Along the way they were acquired by Mercedes, who soon realized they had attached themselves to a nightmare. I guess now Fiat will give it a shot, the return of Fix It Again Tony! Back in the day Fiat’s were probably worse than comparable Chrysler products.
Any Car Man that’s been around for a while can come up with a couple of horrible Fiat stories.
I’ve have a theory that Italian cars didn’t work here because this country is too damn big for them. Their cars were not designed to handle the rigors of L.A. rush hours or thousand mile vacations across America’s hot summer heartland. The broke down faster than any cars I have ever seen!
So I guess it comes down to how far Fiat has come since its hasty retreat form America thirty odd years ago. Can they stand the rigors of American driving? Can they contribute to the rejuvenation of Chrysler or will it just be SSDD: same shit, different day.
Only time will tell.
Talk to you later,
David
In those days Chrysler products were nightmares. I went to work for a Dodge dealer back in 1978, and the quality of the cars were shocking. They made a car called a Dodge Magnum. The alloy wheels had these pretty clear plastic hub caps. The problem is that they refused to stay on the cars. You could walk through a line of Magnums and see them scattered all over the lot!
I remember opening doors and having the rubber seals detach and stick to the door frames. I remember trim panels not fastened property, gaps in the trunks and hood the size of the Grand Canyon. This being the days of carburetors, just about every car had fouled spark plugs so most of them ran like shit.
I lasted there three weeks.
Fast forward a couple of years. Chrysler was on the ropes, the government co-signed a loan. Lee Iacocca, Fords wonder boy if the ‘60s, took the reigns of the troubled company. He got rid of the junk and stripped down the design of the cars to their basics by creating the K platform. The K Car was a wonder for its time. It was uncomplicated and extremely practical. By keeping it simple the quality of the cars went up and so did sales.
My brother, Danny, bought a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise. I for one thought he was nuts. But as it turned out the cars weren’t bad. The K platform, though not sexy or exciting, was used for a number of cars from the Plymouth Voyager to the Chrysler Laser. We sold the crap out of those cars!
Though housewives hate them today, the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager was just about the most amazing, trailblazing vehicles to come along since the ’65 Mustang. I wish all of you could see them through my eyes at that time. Nothing on the road looked like them nor was as practical. They were the perfect vehicle for the time, a home run on the sales floor.
Then Lee retired and the dark days began again.
No matter how much they try, all car manufactures tend to screw things up for themselves. Unfortunately it’s the American companies that get hurt the worse. The Japanese have a core of practical cars that are guaranteed to sell, so if they get greedy and start building big SUVs and trucks it doesn’t hurt them much when that area of the business goes south. No so the American companies.
Volkswagen built its empire on a practical little car affectionately called the Bug. Instead of building on the legacy of the K Car as VW did with the Bug, Chrysler abandoned its platform and the philosophy behind it to go for a plethora of new models that looked good but were mechanically iffy. Anyone have any experiences with a Chrysler 2.7 liter engine?
Along the way they were acquired by Mercedes, who soon realized they had attached themselves to a nightmare. I guess now Fiat will give it a shot, the return of Fix It Again Tony! Back in the day Fiat’s were probably worse than comparable Chrysler products.
Any Car Man that’s been around for a while can come up with a couple of horrible Fiat stories.
I’ve have a theory that Italian cars didn’t work here because this country is too damn big for them. Their cars were not designed to handle the rigors of L.A. rush hours or thousand mile vacations across America’s hot summer heartland. The broke down faster than any cars I have ever seen!
So I guess it comes down to how far Fiat has come since its hasty retreat form America thirty odd years ago. Can they stand the rigors of American driving? Can they contribute to the rejuvenation of Chrysler or will it just be SSDD: same shit, different day.
Only time will tell.
Talk to you later,
David
Leg
Managers call it leg, a more polite way of saying they’re packing the payments. I realize they don’t quite see it this way, but it’s one of the ways car dealership management rip off their salesman. Here’s the way it works: You work your ass off all afternoon to close your customer at a payment $400 per month. After much agony (and maybe even a turn!) you finally make your deal. You think, All right! High five! Another job well done!
But what your sales manager didn’t tell you is the real payment on the car was actually $380 per month. There’s an extra $20 packed in there, $20 THAT YOU WORKED YOUR ASS FOR, that will be used by the finance guy to help him sell an extended warranty, sealants (AKA snake oil) or whatever other bullshit stuff they’re currently hawking in F&I office. AND YOU DON’T GET PAID ON!
Back in the old days, it was the salesmen who sold the extra market stuff. It was a lucrative way to make more money. Sometimes it was more than the commission on the car. But in their heart of hearts most car dealers don’t like it when the salesmen are making a lot of money. (Not talking about you, Tom!) They feel this way because they think that salesmen that are kept hungry will work harder, or they simply have an aversion to signing big paychecks.
So somewhere around twenty years ago selling aftermarket was taken away from us and given to the F&I department. Ironically, this was probably a good idea. When the salesmen did it, the guy who was best at selling the crap sold the most stuff. By having someone with some talent sell the snake oil, the dealer was assured that more items were sold per sale.
The problem was they forgot about us, and even though we we’re doing part of their job, i.e. the leg; they decided we weren’t deserving of participating in the profit generated by our efforts. I’ve got nothing against the F&I department selling the stuff—as long as we get a little taste of the action if we’ve helped them. The problem is that Car Men, whether on the line or in a manager’s office, are ultimately a little lazy. So if they can make their lives a little easier by screwing us out of a part of the gross, they will do it. Every time.
I think the F&I department should earn his money just like we do. I think that every dime should be put into the deal, and if the finance man can bump the customer good for him. Or if payments are being packed, a generous spiff should be paid to the salesman.
A year or so ago the state of California came up with a form called “The Optional Products and Services Disclosure”. The form tells the customer what is payment is with all the extra crap on the contract and what it would be without it. It has effectively put an end to the leg. Hallelujah!
Now I know the state of California could give a rat’s ass about car salesmen. This law was designed to protect the consumer. (I won’t go into how I feel about that!) But an unintended result is a little payback for the guy on the line. At least in California we won’t be doing extra work for free anymore!
Got a feeling this will piss some people off. I love it!
Talk to you later,
David
But what your sales manager didn’t tell you is the real payment on the car was actually $380 per month. There’s an extra $20 packed in there, $20 THAT YOU WORKED YOUR ASS FOR, that will be used by the finance guy to help him sell an extended warranty, sealants (AKA snake oil) or whatever other bullshit stuff they’re currently hawking in F&I office. AND YOU DON’T GET PAID ON!
Back in the old days, it was the salesmen who sold the extra market stuff. It was a lucrative way to make more money. Sometimes it was more than the commission on the car. But in their heart of hearts most car dealers don’t like it when the salesmen are making a lot of money. (Not talking about you, Tom!) They feel this way because they think that salesmen that are kept hungry will work harder, or they simply have an aversion to signing big paychecks.
So somewhere around twenty years ago selling aftermarket was taken away from us and given to the F&I department. Ironically, this was probably a good idea. When the salesmen did it, the guy who was best at selling the crap sold the most stuff. By having someone with some talent sell the snake oil, the dealer was assured that more items were sold per sale.
The problem was they forgot about us, and even though we we’re doing part of their job, i.e. the leg; they decided we weren’t deserving of participating in the profit generated by our efforts. I’ve got nothing against the F&I department selling the stuff—as long as we get a little taste of the action if we’ve helped them. The problem is that Car Men, whether on the line or in a manager’s office, are ultimately a little lazy. So if they can make their lives a little easier by screwing us out of a part of the gross, they will do it. Every time.
I think the F&I department should earn his money just like we do. I think that every dime should be put into the deal, and if the finance man can bump the customer good for him. Or if payments are being packed, a generous spiff should be paid to the salesman.
A year or so ago the state of California came up with a form called “The Optional Products and Services Disclosure”. The form tells the customer what is payment is with all the extra crap on the contract and what it would be without it. It has effectively put an end to the leg. Hallelujah!
Now I know the state of California could give a rat’s ass about car salesmen. This law was designed to protect the consumer. (I won’t go into how I feel about that!) But an unintended result is a little payback for the guy on the line. At least in California we won’t be doing extra work for free anymore!
Got a feeling this will piss some people off. I love it!
Talk to you later,
David
My Beast Of Burden
A young man contacted me via email yesterday. He had stumbled upon the blog and was considering a job selling at a local Ford dealership. He told me that he was determined to read the entire contents of “Confessions of a Car Man” before he started his new career.
I was extremely flattered by his email and offered to help him in any way I can. I gave him a little insight into what to expect at his new job and gave a couple of pieces of advice. All well and good. But when I went to bed that night I found myself starring at the ceiling wondering if I had done the right thing.
“Confessions of a Car Man” was conceived as a kind of catharsis for me. It is my way of setting down “on paper” my memories, observations and frustrations. It was not in any way meant to be some sort of training manual for selling cars. To be honest I don’t feel qualified to give advice. The best thing you can say about me is that I have a great power of observation and a wicked sense of humor.
But there I was lying in bed thinking about the power of words. I was wondering if the young man reads the blog from beginning to end, all 84,000 words of it, will he come away with knowledge that will help him, or will I kill the enthusiasm he will need to make it in this business before he even has a chance?
This all comes at a time when I’ve been mentally coming up with a plan to turn the blog into a book. My angle is simple: you’ve never read a book about being a car salesman like this one! As the blog’s banner says, “The only pro car salesman blog on the planet!” I envision a book that is pro salesman, completely original in concept, completely irreverent in execution--and more than likely completely unsellable!
I like writing this blog. In a time when our business is in great peril, it gives me my own little corner of the world that I can control. I have always considered it as entertainment. I don’t know how I feel about someone actually taking it seriously. And I would feel really bad if my writing damaged or hurt anyone (except for The Others, of course) or caused them to make a wrong decision—like selling Fords for example.
Oh, well. What’s done is done. I can’t change the blog, I couldn’t bear to delete it even if I wanted to, and will continue to write it compulsively until I either run out of words or keel over dead after yelling at an Indian on the lot.
It’s my beast of burden.
Talk to you later,
David
I was extremely flattered by his email and offered to help him in any way I can. I gave him a little insight into what to expect at his new job and gave a couple of pieces of advice. All well and good. But when I went to bed that night I found myself starring at the ceiling wondering if I had done the right thing.
“Confessions of a Car Man” was conceived as a kind of catharsis for me. It is my way of setting down “on paper” my memories, observations and frustrations. It was not in any way meant to be some sort of training manual for selling cars. To be honest I don’t feel qualified to give advice. The best thing you can say about me is that I have a great power of observation and a wicked sense of humor.
But there I was lying in bed thinking about the power of words. I was wondering if the young man reads the blog from beginning to end, all 84,000 words of it, will he come away with knowledge that will help him, or will I kill the enthusiasm he will need to make it in this business before he even has a chance?
This all comes at a time when I’ve been mentally coming up with a plan to turn the blog into a book. My angle is simple: you’ve never read a book about being a car salesman like this one! As the blog’s banner says, “The only pro car salesman blog on the planet!” I envision a book that is pro salesman, completely original in concept, completely irreverent in execution--and more than likely completely unsellable!
I like writing this blog. In a time when our business is in great peril, it gives me my own little corner of the world that I can control. I have always considered it as entertainment. I don’t know how I feel about someone actually taking it seriously. And I would feel really bad if my writing damaged or hurt anyone (except for The Others, of course) or caused them to make a wrong decision—like selling Fords for example.
Oh, well. What’s done is done. I can’t change the blog, I couldn’t bear to delete it even if I wanted to, and will continue to write it compulsively until I either run out of words or keel over dead after yelling at an Indian on the lot.
It’s my beast of burden.
Talk to you later,
David
My First Up Last Saturday
NOTE TO THE OTHERS: If you’re going to be a vampire for Christ’s sake, at least try to be clever about it.
On Saturday my first up was a woman who parked her car and headed over to a ’96 Pathfinder on the lot. I went up to her and asked with a smile, “How are you today?” (My standard opening line.)
The lady looked at me and said, “I’m planning on buying a car from a private party, so I thought I’d go to a couple of lots to see what cars are selling for.”
What? I thought. Am I hearing things?
“So you don’t have any intentions to buy a car from me?” I asked, my voice still friendly.
Her eyes widened. She realized she had blown it. Her evil plot to stroke me had been spoiled by her own words.
“Well, well,” she stammered, “there are plenty of private party cars out there!”
Now at this point I know that a sales trainer would urge you to bring out your arsenal of clever closes to use on this lady. Charm here, woo here, make her your best friend. Make a sale God damn it! But to my jaded mind, the one that has prevented me from being a super star all these years, I just couldn’t do it.
I just starred at her, the same smile on my face. I said nothing.
There was that delicious moment of uncomfortableness. On her part, not mine. What followed only lasted a few seconds, but to her, I’m guessing it seemed like an eternity. What was she thinking? “This guy got me,” maybe. Or, “Damn salesman! This is exactly why I want to buy from a private party!”
She was like a deer caught in the proverbial headlights, unable to move. At about five seconds in real time (one hour in stress time) she stammered, “Well, thank you very much!”
“Your welcome,” I replied, still smiling.
I turned and watched as she scurried back to the safety of her car. She hurried out of the lot avoiding my friendly gaze and headed to the lot across the street from us to give it another shot. She was only there for about five minutes. Did she get the information she wanted so she could properly try to screw a private party?
I’ll never know.
Talk to you later,
David
On Saturday my first up was a woman who parked her car and headed over to a ’96 Pathfinder on the lot. I went up to her and asked with a smile, “How are you today?” (My standard opening line.)
The lady looked at me and said, “I’m planning on buying a car from a private party, so I thought I’d go to a couple of lots to see what cars are selling for.”
What? I thought. Am I hearing things?
“So you don’t have any intentions to buy a car from me?” I asked, my voice still friendly.
Her eyes widened. She realized she had blown it. Her evil plot to stroke me had been spoiled by her own words.
“Well, well,” she stammered, “there are plenty of private party cars out there!”
Now at this point I know that a sales trainer would urge you to bring out your arsenal of clever closes to use on this lady. Charm here, woo here, make her your best friend. Make a sale God damn it! But to my jaded mind, the one that has prevented me from being a super star all these years, I just couldn’t do it.
I just starred at her, the same smile on my face. I said nothing.
There was that delicious moment of uncomfortableness. On her part, not mine. What followed only lasted a few seconds, but to her, I’m guessing it seemed like an eternity. What was she thinking? “This guy got me,” maybe. Or, “Damn salesman! This is exactly why I want to buy from a private party!”
She was like a deer caught in the proverbial headlights, unable to move. At about five seconds in real time (one hour in stress time) she stammered, “Well, thank you very much!”
“Your welcome,” I replied, still smiling.
I turned and watched as she scurried back to the safety of her car. She hurried out of the lot avoiding my friendly gaze and headed to the lot across the street from us to give it another shot. She was only there for about five minutes. Did she get the information she wanted so she could properly try to screw a private party?
I’ll never know.
Talk to you later,
David
The Laws Of Motion
My older brother, Danny, is now retired and living in North Carolina. We were talking on the phone the other day when the conversation turned to the car business. Danny explained his time-test formula for penciling a deal when it’s first brought to the desk.
“Send the salesman back at full list including the pack, and use a 12 chart (for determining the payment). Tell the salesman to present the pencil as written and then shut up, because sometimes the customer will say yes.”
Now I realize this is really old school, but it’s still correct, even though I don’t think formula quite works for today’s customers. First of all does anyone use a pack sticker anymore? Second, I always think it’s a good idea to discount the car at least a little on the first pencil. Even a token amount works wonders to soften a customer’s attitude.
As for as using a “12 chart” (12% add-on, which is roughly a 21.00% APR) that payment, given today’s car prices, is going to be crazy high and might cause a customer to launch. But packing the payment by using an elevated APR on the first pencil is still a good idea. Let’s them know who’s boss!
The most important part of his statement was to shut up. I’ve mentioned before that the “silent close” is the most important and effective close you can use with a customer. All too often a salesman will talk over his chance to hear his customer say yes to a pencil. So do as Danny advises; present the pencil and shut the hell up!
A car deal is a little like two kids on a teeter-totter. The balance of power goes back and forth between you and your customer. Many times a salesman takes too much responsibility for what’s going on in a deal. Remember, you’re not buying the car, the customer is. Let him feel the heat of the desk, not you, and let the desk take the heat from the customer. Your role is to be a very clever deliverer of messages, so don’t say anything that takes that power away from you!
In the old days, these powerful first pencils were a matter of course, and the beginning of a battle that could literally last for hours. These days, working under the specter of the dreaded CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index), we have all become wimps. Don’t want to piss anyone off! No, no! Don’t want to try and make a decent deal on that new car! Someone might complain.
Supposedly, CSI was introduced to tame the Wild Wild West that was once the car business. But who made the old school Car Men (and women) the people they were? If customers had approached buying a car in the same way they’d buy a new couch, our jobs would have been easier, and the various exotic ways we concocted to get the job done would never had been deployed. In other words: IT WAS THEIR FAULT, NOT OURS!”
Not that I’m prejudiced or anything like that.
That’s not to say that the business hasn’t seen its share of scoundrels, but what business hasn’t? I’m sure there are plenty of kinky heating and air conditioner salesmen out there!
A car deal is nothing more than a series of actions and reactions strung together. It’s like Newton’s third law of motion: “For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” Car Men react to a customer’s attitude. If they give us a chance to make a fair profit, we treat them with all the respect that’s due them. But if we’re presented with a car thief who wants nothing more than to screw us, we act accordingly.
And remember this: a good Car Man always wins, even if a deal ends badly. We will do what we can to make a deal, but sometimes the joy you feel when booting a particularly nasty customer off the lot is even better than the mini-commission you would have had to work an entire day to earn!
Now how’s that for old school!
Talk to you later,
David
“Send the salesman back at full list including the pack, and use a 12 chart (for determining the payment). Tell the salesman to present the pencil as written and then shut up, because sometimes the customer will say yes.”
Now I realize this is really old school, but it’s still correct, even though I don’t think formula quite works for today’s customers. First of all does anyone use a pack sticker anymore? Second, I always think it’s a good idea to discount the car at least a little on the first pencil. Even a token amount works wonders to soften a customer’s attitude.
As for as using a “12 chart” (12% add-on, which is roughly a 21.00% APR) that payment, given today’s car prices, is going to be crazy high and might cause a customer to launch. But packing the payment by using an elevated APR on the first pencil is still a good idea. Let’s them know who’s boss!
The most important part of his statement was to shut up. I’ve mentioned before that the “silent close” is the most important and effective close you can use with a customer. All too often a salesman will talk over his chance to hear his customer say yes to a pencil. So do as Danny advises; present the pencil and shut the hell up!
A car deal is a little like two kids on a teeter-totter. The balance of power goes back and forth between you and your customer. Many times a salesman takes too much responsibility for what’s going on in a deal. Remember, you’re not buying the car, the customer is. Let him feel the heat of the desk, not you, and let the desk take the heat from the customer. Your role is to be a very clever deliverer of messages, so don’t say anything that takes that power away from you!
In the old days, these powerful first pencils were a matter of course, and the beginning of a battle that could literally last for hours. These days, working under the specter of the dreaded CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index), we have all become wimps. Don’t want to piss anyone off! No, no! Don’t want to try and make a decent deal on that new car! Someone might complain.
Supposedly, CSI was introduced to tame the Wild Wild West that was once the car business. But who made the old school Car Men (and women) the people they were? If customers had approached buying a car in the same way they’d buy a new couch, our jobs would have been easier, and the various exotic ways we concocted to get the job done would never had been deployed. In other words: IT WAS THEIR FAULT, NOT OURS!”
Not that I’m prejudiced or anything like that.
That’s not to say that the business hasn’t seen its share of scoundrels, but what business hasn’t? I’m sure there are plenty of kinky heating and air conditioner salesmen out there!
A car deal is nothing more than a series of actions and reactions strung together. It’s like Newton’s third law of motion: “For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” Car Men react to a customer’s attitude. If they give us a chance to make a fair profit, we treat them with all the respect that’s due them. But if we’re presented with a car thief who wants nothing more than to screw us, we act accordingly.
And remember this: a good Car Man always wins, even if a deal ends badly. We will do what we can to make a deal, but sometimes the joy you feel when booting a particularly nasty customer off the lot is even better than the mini-commission you would have had to work an entire day to earn!
Now how’s that for old school!
Talk to you later,
David
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