Despite everything your read here at Car Sales Professional the life of a car salesman is not all about fun and making big money and a salary. There are some negative aspects of that make car salesman crazy so in order to be fair I thought it was time to talk about them. There is one subject that makes all of us cringe and that’s the things car buyers do to car salesmen.
All careers have their ups and downs, and being a car salesman has a downside too believe it or not.
Something happens to people when it’s time to buy a car. They no longer need to be honest, have ethics, have principles or even treat people with respect. Suddenly its acceptable to lie, cheat steal and do exactly what they accuse car salesmen of doing. They don’t want to go to the car dealership and be deceived, tricked, swindled or conned, but that is exactly what they are trying to do when they start talking to a car salesman (how ironic).
Negative Aspects That Make Car Salesmen Crazy
I talk to car salesmen, sales managers and Internet sales managers everyday. According to sales people here are some of things that car buyers do to car salesmen without giving it a second thought and we’re the bad guys.
Lie to Your Face: I will be back, I have to pickup the kids, I am not buying yet, I can’t afford it, I got a better price, I got more for my trade-in down the street and that’s just to name a few of the countless lies you will hear. There is no shortage of B.S. coming out of the mouths of potential car buyers. I’m not talking about people that are habitual liars; I am talking about people that probably never told a lie in their life except at the car dealership.
Somehow lying about every aspect of shopping and buying a car is acceptable behavior. Face it, if you are going to be a car salesman customers are going to lie to you. The very thing that they don’t want you to do as a car salesman, remember buyers are liars so accept that fact and move on because it’s part of the game.
Call Another Dealer from Your Showroom: I have been seeing this more and more in the last couple years or so, where customers will call other dealers while sitting in your showroom. Doing research and getting price quotes from other dealers is one thing, but talking price to other dealers while they are sitting in my showroom makes me crazy. I personally think this is very rude, offensive and disrespectful and these kinds of customers are real @#*%$#. Don’t even ask and I am not the only one that feels that way. I really want to throw them out physically, but you can’t do that. It’s just another one of the negative aspects of being a car salesman.
Bring A Maven Along: The car buyer that brings along a friend or relative to help them buy a car is usually called a maven. The maven will question everything the car salesman says and does. They are usually very critical and suspicious of everything. If you can sell of them both you’re fine, but typically the maven will destroy your chances of selling them a car or at least make some gross. The maven doesn’t have any financial interest or responsibility of buying the car, but they go out of their way to make things difficult for the car salesman. You can’t always spot a maven at first, but you will soon enough as soon as you start talking trade-ins and numbers. This is simply another one of those things that make car salesmen cringe.
Fabricate Price Quotes: Car buyers love to come into the dealership and talk about the prices that they got from your competitors, but they still came to see you. More and more we are seeing customers walk in to dealerships with email quotes from other dealers, but there is usually something missing.
The quotes they bring are often missing the specific trim level, the M.S.R.P. or other pertinent information that would allows us to qualify these quotes. When you ask them about the details they start playing dumb and then they say never mind just give me your number. Do they really think that car salesmen are really that stupid? Most customers would be outraged if we treated them the way customers treat car salesmen.
Double Negotiation: Customers will call in to the dealership and ask for best price or submit a lead and work you through email and you provide them with a strong quote. Then the customer arrives and they feel it’s now time to start negotiating all over starting at your quoted price, not the list price. Customers would blow a gasket if we sent them a discounted quote and then when they visited the dealership we started at M.S.R.P. and worked them regardless of their quoted price. This is one more negative aspect of being a car salesman.
The Downside of Being a Car Salesman
These are the five most common things that car buyers do that make car salesmen crazy. Crazy is probably not a strong enough word for how they make us feel, but that’s the car business. Today’s car buyer would rip us a new one if we did those kinds of things to them, but for some reason it’s acceptable for them to do it to us. If you can’t deal with customers that treat you that way you might be better off looking for a different field to pursue a career.
There is still plenty of fun to be had and money to make, but the downside for being a car salesmen is that you are going to have to deal with car buyers that are going to make you crazy and cynical from time to time. Feel free to add any of the things that car buyers do that make car salesmen crazy in the comments section below.
Later, Fresh Up on the Lot
KB
2 Comments
David Crader · November 25 at 6:22 pm
All of my yes
John · November 19 at 11:11 pm
Yes very common! Had someone just this week call another dealer from the showroom after we had given their changeover price and they said they were happy with it. After the call `ohh have to think about it, will call you tomorrow’ Ha. I can rise above it. One thing that gets me annoyed are those who, after the deal is signed and waiting for delivery call up `does it come with etc’ `throw that in too’ `can I get this’. Even if they dont want it for free, often it means cancelling a whole job card (and contract) and creating a new one hence disrupting the workshop. There was a time: we agreed to fit some extra accessories for a customer prior to delivery and they demanded the delivery time not change (!) turned up early, and proceeded to give the workshop a mouthful and myself.
The cure? Once a deal is signed, that is it. Extras? after delivery book them in.
Comments are closed.