Lessons a Salesman Learned Whilst Buying a Car

First, let me state for the record. I am in sales. Have been my entire career and for the most part I love it! It’s a great career and I’ve been very blessed to work with and for some of the best and brightest in my industry. Second, I need to admit I have a weakness for cars. I could own 20 – I’m like a miniature Jay Leno minus the chin. And the income. And his incredible car collection. Perhaps one day (in pseudo-retirement?) I’ll merge my love of cars with my career and (GASP!!) sell cars.

My daughter is turning 16 – so I’m buying her a car. What a fun rite of passage this has been. I spent multiple weekends taking her to 9-10 different car dealerships with the hope of her narrowing down her choices from 32 to her top 3. The most common hard-hitting automobile review I constantly heard from her was, “Ohh….this one is cute.” Followed by, “Wow, I think this car is so cute.” And then, “this one is soo cute too – they are all so cute.” You see my dilemma.

I decided that I would approach this car buying odyssey differently: As a salesman by trade I would watch my fellow salesmen and saleswomen at their craft as they tried to sell ME/US a car. Now, it’s important to know that I am not an easy sell – in fact, when it comes to car purchases I will hunt, scour, negotiate, and track a deal for months. I show up with facts, spreadsheets, binders, and even my laptop. I walk out multiple times. Heck, I even hired a guy to wear a fox suit with a CAR FAX tee-shirt to go with me. But this time since it was for my daughter, and as an experiment, I rose above my desire to out-negotiate the negotiator and mostly observed. What I learned is relevant to salespeople in all industries and a good reminder to us all:

1. Cardinal Sales Rule Number One: Listen. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason – listen twice as much as you talk. This should be nothing new for any of us in sales, yet it’s so often lost when we are obsessed with implementing our “approach” to the customer. Time after time I walked in with my 15 year old (soon to be 16) daughter and started the conversation politely with, “In all honesty, we are not going to buy a car today. We are narrowing down our choices so if you’ll show us this XYZ car, perhaps it will make our top 3. And I make a commitment to you that if we buy a XYZ car, I’ll buy it from you. But not today.” Simple enough, right? But time after time the sales person tried to implement their approach (which, by the way, I saw a mile away). They would sit us down, take down our information, ask us about a trade-in, ask us about budget, talk to us about what it would take to buy a car today, pay cash or finance – and in many instances, we HADN’T EVEN LOOKED AT A CAR YET!!! One man went through a very passionate presentation about the benefits of their dealership before we ever opened a car door and got that intoxicating aroma of new car smell. They missed it. Listen. Answer my questions TODAY. Understand my buying criteria TODAY. And if you do this, perhaps TOMORROW you will sell a car. I said we wouldn’t buy a car today. Too many times I was trapped worse than you are when you take that offer for a free spa on vacation in exchange for listening to a two hour presentation on a timeshare. A salesman asked me what I was looking for in a car. I answered "affordable." He replied, "I've never heard of a Ford Ibble." LISTEN.
2. Know Your Audience and Their Interests: Okay, for this example, it was SOO OBVIOUS. As a salesperson, I know the challenge in the discovery of your customer’s needs and wants. Learn the decision making process. Find the center of power. Use the force Luke. But in this instance, it was so incredibly obvious but was missed 75% of the time. The audience was…..(drumroll)….MY DAUGHTER. How could anyone not pick up on the same scene that unfolded each time we got in a car. “Does this have Bluetooth?” “Can I sync my iPhone?” “Are the seats heated?” “Does it have hand’s free?” “How do I look in the vanity mirror (#letmetakeadriverseatselfie #myhairlooksbad #whatisthissalesdudetalkingabout)?” The only things Dad (me) asked about were: reliability, safety rating, warranty, maintenance, and does it come in black? Opening the hood and showing my daughter the flux capacitor – man, you are killing the sale!!! One gentleman went into a long discourse on the transmission and differential (#whatisadifferential #whyismydadsfaceturningred). It was so obvious: Daddy wanted baby to be happy. Win baby, win Daddy (and his checkbook). Put baby in a corner office and talk about things she doesn’t care about? Do I have to say it….nobody puts baby in a corner!
3. Commodity Negotiating: This last one is a two-part lesson because I observed something and I learned something. First, the observation:
• Engage in the Sale and Stay Engaged – Don’t Quit: I was not going to buy my daughter an expensive car NOR a new car. She’s a straight-A student athlete – an incredible kid. But she also gets lost in her closet. I once thought it was Spring Break because I didn’t see her all week. Turns out she was in the pantry (which also is an indictment on someone’s infrequency of cooking but thankfully I don’t think she’ll read this #perhapsIshoulduseaghostwriter). Buying a cheaper used car means that the margins are lower, the ‘extras’ are fewer and far between, and the competition is stiffer. That said, I love the negotiation. Work with me here. In 90% of the cases I gave a saleperson a ‘low-ball’ offer and they said, “Sorry, we’re not going to be able to meet your price points. Good luck.” Really? Good luck? No counter offer? No, “let me talk to my manager?” No, “I can’t sell you a car at that price but I have a burro named Pico in the back I can sell you for that price”? They quit. Gave up. Listen, I know in the commodities sales its volume. More sales, more frequency, more traffic, more more more. But stay engaged – don’t punt on first down. It’s still a negotiation: always let your customer think they got the best of you – and that they got a good deal. There are only two scenarios where negotiation outcomes are good: when both parties think they got a good deal OR when both parties think they got a bad deal. Any other combination is bad. Why is it that car sales persons always make you think they are talking to you from a position of superiority and power? I AM THE PURCHASER. The good ones give you the impression they are working hard for to get you the best deal, and you are the only customer they are ever going to have. "No" is an acceptable answer in negotiations, but counter. Offer some oil changes. Offer a koozie and a hug for crying out loud. Good negotiations are NEVER about just one thing – price. You lose each time in that scenario. Horse trade – have multiple moving parts and make a deal. But for crying out loud, don’t quit. I was so caught off guard by this.
• Here’s what I learned: There is a Difference When Negotiating a Commodity. I have sold in my career big ticket items. Large and complex projects full of consulting, hardware, software, people, services, hosted, managed sliced and diced. Similarly, as a car enthusiast (nay, car snob) I have had the fortune to drive some great luxury cars. I’ve negotiated $3-7K off prices, extended warranties, added options, and gotten freebies. But when you are dealing with commodities, the margins are not there. You have to approach these differently – and I learned this during the experience. I erroneously walked in with the thinking that the used-lower end car negotiation was going to be just like the luxury car ones I’m used to. It wasn’t. Margins are slim. Dealers also scour the internet and know their prices on the same vehicle against their competition in a 250 mile radius. They are also prepared. There isn’t a lot of room for freebies and such – so the approach is similar but different: you have to know what is possible and probable outcomes. My lesson learned was to adjust the negotiation based upon the product. Yes, I negotiated price and we did the entire “let me go ask my manager” game. True story: at one point the sales manager went down $90. I countered with increasing my offer to him by $52.47. He rejected my offer, but at least put a smiley face next to the rejection. The dealership had to make money. They had boundaries. I should have anticipated this better and changed my expectation and tactics. In the end, I did just that and I got the car my daughter wanted the most.

Despite the internet, no-haggle sales promises, and more Dockers khakis than I’ve ever seen in my life, the car buying experience is still the same as it was for Fred Flintstone a hundred years ago. I got a great car for my daughter and she’s as happy as can be – which makes me happy. The salesman I bought the car from was incredibly friendly, positive, welcoming, attentive, and made me feel we both got a good deal. In fact, want to know an insider trick? I liked the young man so much I actually wanted him to get a sale and make commissions. Think about that my fellow salespeople. The person on the other side of the desk (your customer) can actually have your interests and well-being in mind too – not every customer wants to ‘take advantage of you.’ In this age of consultative selling, trusted advisor, and value-added selling never forget a simple fact: You are here to sell – and your customer is looking for a manager – someone whom they can let take responsibility for a crucial part of their business with the confidence that you will manage it from beginning to end in a satisfactory manner. They want you to help them with their business. Balance your ‘approach’ with listening, knowing your audience, understanding the sale, and taking ownership of the business. Do this and you may be surprised that your customer genuinely wants you to succeed. In the end, I am so grateful I was able to buy my daughter a car – what a blessing – and it was good for me to be reminded of what to do, and not to do, as a sales person. In closing, if you are reading this and you are my customer, get me a Purchase Order dangit!!