That's what Jerry does
Yes! The training is over.
We did role-playing today - that's all we did. Of course, you don't get paid for training, but damn the education you get from a guy who grew up in the car business is unreal.
This guy's family owns a Dodge dealership and he had some kind of falling out with them, and he bought into a franchise of dealerships that totals 11 altogether. He grew the business he has now from practically nothing, and now he owns 3 out of the 11 dealerships; I don't think he's 40 yet. He's smart as hell.
He constantly talks about this one thing: "When it comes to a customer looking at cars on the lot, somebody's buying something: they're either buying a car from you, or you're buying their bullshit on how they're just looking. When's the last time you went into a supermarket and just decided to squeeze the produce, but had no intention of buying anything? You think these people are full of shit when they say they're just looking? Sure they are! They're buying a car - with or without you; so you might as well breeze past the b.s. and just get right down to business and get them sold. There's no better time to sell someone than when they're on the lot. Even if they come back, the best you can hope for, is to start from where you left off the last time, and that is the point at which they left. Do you want to make your money selling like that? I don't. I don't want you making your money that way either."
Dealing with common objections:
"I've got to talk this over with my wife. I'll just come back tommorow after we've had time to discuss this. We don't make any major decisions without eachother's input."
The owner's take on that? "It's bullshit."
I said, "Sounds like it makes perfect sens to me. I'm married, and my wife would just crap if I brought home a new vehicle without her input."
The owner: "How many people actually do that, though? Seriously! Think about this: Would you actually go on a car lot and decide to buy something before you talked to your wife? Of course not! This couple has been talking about a new vehicle for the past 5 weeks! They know exactly what they want, and excactly what they're willing to pay for it, before hubby sets foot on the lot. Here's the problem with hubby: he didn't see exactly what he wanted, or he thinks he should be getting a better deal than the numbers presented to him, or both. Trouble is, 9 times out of 10, he will never will see exactly what he wants because he's got a skewed outlook on the value of the vehicle he's looking at. In other words, he wants to buy a $20,000 for only $10,000. He'll never see a good deal - but that won't stop our competition from selling him something that's actually a good deal whether he thinks it is or not, because someone's selling him a truck or he wouldn't be at the dealership. That someone might as well be you!"
"Yeah, but how do you get around that?"
"Set a trap."
"Huh?"
"It's your job to get all chummy-chummy with the customers: remember the Miranda law? 'Anything you say, can, and will be held against you'? Talk to him at first before the sales process officially starts. Ask him if him and his wife have been talking about the truck. He'll tell you, because you both know this is coming up later. Ask him what her opinions about the truck are. While you're just being buddies, he'll tell you. Ask him why she's on board with him looking around. Maybe he's just replacing an old truck. Maybe they need it to haul a camper or boat. Ask. He'll tell you. When the objection finally comes up about wifey's approval, say, 'I can understand, but isn't this truck everything you two have been talking about for a long time now? So when you say you want to talk it over with her, is it the color, equipment, something I said, or do you just want to make sure you're getting the best deal possible?' Then, he'll tell you what the real objection is. It's probably price. Then say, 'If I could get the numbers to line up, you know, in a way that makes sense to you, we could just get this shopping behind you and wrap this up and send you home in it right now, couldn't we?' If he still persists on involving her, ask him where she is right now. Wherever that is, tell him we can just drive over to where she is in the new truck and present it for her approval. If she's at a job where she can't be reached until the end of her shift, you've got insurance forms in your desk that will provide him coverage for 24 hours and less than 50 miles. Make him sign that form, slap some dealer plates on that truck, and send his ass home. The next day, he'll be in to sign the check."
BTW: that's what Jerry does.
We did role-playing today - that's all we did. Of course, you don't get paid for training, but damn the education you get from a guy who grew up in the car business is unreal.
This guy's family owns a Dodge dealership and he had some kind of falling out with them, and he bought into a franchise of dealerships that totals 11 altogether. He grew the business he has now from practically nothing, and now he owns 3 out of the 11 dealerships; I don't think he's 40 yet. He's smart as hell.
He constantly talks about this one thing: "When it comes to a customer looking at cars on the lot, somebody's buying something: they're either buying a car from you, or you're buying their bullshit on how they're just looking. When's the last time you went into a supermarket and just decided to squeeze the produce, but had no intention of buying anything? You think these people are full of shit when they say they're just looking? Sure they are! They're buying a car - with or without you; so you might as well breeze past the b.s. and just get right down to business and get them sold. There's no better time to sell someone than when they're on the lot. Even if they come back, the best you can hope for, is to start from where you left off the last time, and that is the point at which they left. Do you want to make your money selling like that? I don't. I don't want you making your money that way either."
Dealing with common objections:
"I've got to talk this over with my wife. I'll just come back tommorow after we've had time to discuss this. We don't make any major decisions without eachother's input."
The owner's take on that? "It's bullshit."
I said, "Sounds like it makes perfect sens to me. I'm married, and my wife would just crap if I brought home a new vehicle without her input."
The owner: "How many people actually do that, though? Seriously! Think about this: Would you actually go on a car lot and decide to buy something before you talked to your wife? Of course not! This couple has been talking about a new vehicle for the past 5 weeks! They know exactly what they want, and excactly what they're willing to pay for it, before hubby sets foot on the lot. Here's the problem with hubby: he didn't see exactly what he wanted, or he thinks he should be getting a better deal than the numbers presented to him, or both. Trouble is, 9 times out of 10, he will never will see exactly what he wants because he's got a skewed outlook on the value of the vehicle he's looking at. In other words, he wants to buy a $20,000 for only $10,000. He'll never see a good deal - but that won't stop our competition from selling him something that's actually a good deal whether he thinks it is or not, because someone's selling him a truck or he wouldn't be at the dealership. That someone might as well be you!"
"Yeah, but how do you get around that?"
"Set a trap."
"Huh?"
"It's your job to get all chummy-chummy with the customers: remember the Miranda law? 'Anything you say, can, and will be held against you'? Talk to him at first before the sales process officially starts. Ask him if him and his wife have been talking about the truck. He'll tell you, because you both know this is coming up later. Ask him what her opinions about the truck are. While you're just being buddies, he'll tell you. Ask him why she's on board with him looking around. Maybe he's just replacing an old truck. Maybe they need it to haul a camper or boat. Ask. He'll tell you. When the objection finally comes up about wifey's approval, say, 'I can understand, but isn't this truck everything you two have been talking about for a long time now? So when you say you want to talk it over with her, is it the color, equipment, something I said, or do you just want to make sure you're getting the best deal possible?' Then, he'll tell you what the real objection is. It's probably price. Then say, 'If I could get the numbers to line up, you know, in a way that makes sense to you, we could just get this shopping behind you and wrap this up and send you home in it right now, couldn't we?' If he still persists on involving her, ask him where she is right now. Wherever that is, tell him we can just drive over to where she is in the new truck and present it for her approval. If she's at a job where she can't be reached until the end of her shift, you've got insurance forms in your desk that will provide him coverage for 24 hours and less than 50 miles. Make him sign that form, slap some dealer plates on that truck, and send his ass home. The next day, he'll be in to sign the check."
BTW: that's what Jerry does.
posted by Boris Yeltsin @ 11:12 PM
6 Comments:
At 10:36 AM, May 11, 2006,
mrsleep said…
BY.
Your dealer owner does understand human behavior.
I don't buy cars very often. When I buy one, I drive it into the ground, then get another one. This means I buy cars every 5 - 6 years. The same goes for my wife, so as a family we buy a car every 3 years or so.
Every time I buy a car, I go to various car makers dealerships, and test drive cars. Ford, Toyota for sure. Maybe Hyundai, or Nissan.
I end up test driving 5 or 6 cars, and decide which car I like. Then when I know which model I want to buy, I go out and buy it. I have stopped looking at GM, Mitsubishi, Nissan, etc, because the high pressure sales tactics pissed me off, so I just stopped looking at those manufacturers in total.
So, I spend about 1 - 2 weeks test driving, then doing my web based research on features, car ratings, etc, then I'm ready to go.
Maybe I'm not the norm. Still in general, I think your boss has nailed down human behavior, and most people are so driven by dollars that they always don't know exactly what they want. Given that, selling them what you got, isn't a bad plan.
At 2:43 PM, May 11, 2006,
SwallowedAlive said…
Boris,
It's been a while but I've still been dropping in on you. I'm trying to get used to my new routines so it's become a bitch to post. One reason is that between all the acclimation stateside, I've been hunting down a new ride. This is more work than I thought. AND I USED TO BE IN SALES!
Different kind of sales, same mode of thought-you haven't found a way to make the customer say yes, until then, keep probing, keep asking, never let them control the conversation.
The Honda Accord is the beast I decided on after whittling the selections down. This is such an easy sell that I had to be creative to get anyone below invoice. The fastest way I’ve done that was to start with inventory and price in almost the same manner you wrote about in the other post. I faxed about 20+ dealers in my area and specified what I wanted, wrote down the dealer invoice price and the MSRP and made sure they knew I knew about the holdbacks and the factory to dealer cash incentive placed on that model for this month.
I knew I had to fax in order to stay out of the one-to-one back and forths from the salesmen.
Only a handful got back to me but the offers were great. It hasn’t been 24 hours since that fax but these guys are already at 700 below invoice. I know they’re going to try making their money back through the financing and the extras but I got the same amount of creativity for their asses and your posts to remind me that I should remain vigilant and just as psychological in my tactics. I think I will sleep for about a day when this is all said and done.
At 8:13 PM, May 11, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Man, that guy is hard core.
At 9:46 PM, May 11, 2006,
Boris Yeltsin said…
mrsleep: yes, he does. You've got a great method. Be careful of the term: unless monthly payments are your only concern, I wouldn't go more than 4 years out. And whatever you do, get gap insurance. If not through the dealership, then through an insurance agency. Most people don't know what it is, but it's that little detail that will save your ass someday if you have it.
Here's what it is: your car insurance will only pay for the Kelly Blue Book or NADA value of your car. If you owe more than the Blue Book or NADA value, you have to come up with the difference out of your own pocket before they'll issue you a scrap title which is the first step toward getting you your new car. The difference between what it's worth and what you owe is the gap. That can be thousands - which means you better have it with the insurance or in your bank account, or you're screwed!
Swallowed Alive: that's a great way to get a car!
Birdy: yes, he is hard-core! But very smart and very driven and very willing to share what he knows if you won't start blubbering like a baby if he tells you what you don't want to hear. He'll yell and scream, but it's because he's passionate about the business, not because he's pissed off at you, but it's easy to confuse the two. That's why you better be tough as nails to deal with him, or you won't last.
At 9:48 PM, May 11, 2006,
Boris Yeltsin said…
I forgot to say: gap insurance is used in the event you get into an accident and have to total your car. For some reason I thought I wrote that in my previous post, and I didn't. Now that you know that, the rest of the post will make more sense.
At 1:04 PM, May 12, 2006,
mrsleep said…
Boris, not to worry. The majority of the time, I pay cash for the car so I don't get into the payments game, and if I do get into the payments game, it's because there is a zero percent financing deal that is too good to pass up. We did this with my wife's last car, but the term was 3 years, and we just finished paying off her car this month.
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