UmarS2K

Malloric

Also, practice Capitalizing Random Words. This makes you Exciting, and everyone likes Exciting People. They also want to be Best Friends with the Salescreature selling them a New Car. Really, they do. They might give off Subtle Body Language indicating otherwise, but they don't practice Random Capitalization so what do they Know?

CKit

^ This.

I liked our Honda service manager enough that when it was time to buy a new car I bought another Honda (not from the same dealership) instead of a BMW or Porsche.

[DT]

Yes, yes and yes.

The car retail business is so goddam tainted for me, I really don't think any level of sales fondling is a driver for my purchase.

I'm pretty much ambivalent about he salesdrone. They're generally out of the picture post sale, know little to nothing about the product and in that industry, don't seem to stay at one place for very long anyway.

I totally get the concept of stellar custom service. I've practiced it for ~20 years and just recently landed another nice contract from an agency because of the work we did at a previous agency (and it was a result of more than just the delivered product). I just don't think it's very applicable at the sale level in the car retail business.

QUIKAG

Good For You.

dammitjim

...is that many people are stupid.

fishfryer

I like to walk into a dealership, drive a few cars, then get on the phone, I call every dealer within a 3 hour radius. If I don't like what I hear I hang up. I work out a price before I do the final inspection, drive, and pick-up. I invest as little as possible with respect to time with a dealer. I am buying a car, not a saleman or dealer. The only thing that matters to me is their service department for warrentee work.

If I like a salesman, I will make sure I talk to him for my next car purchase, but he doesn't influence what I buy, I just hate dealing with new people.

NFRs2000NYC

While I admire that you actually take care of your customers, I don't want to be the guinea pig, and find out. I am the opposite of you. I am the customer.

I will go to whoever gives me the best price. Then, when I have a problem, you WILL take care of it, because one way or another, I'll get my way. I have way too many lawyers in my family for a dealership to find it worthwhile to fight me.

I once threw a chair across a showroom because the service manager was feeding me BS. Cops were called, yadda yadda yadda, they fixed my cousin's tranny for free.

I've only had ONE truly nice dealer (woman) in my ENTIRE car buying experience, which is pretty large. She was wonderful, and I really did appreciate her. I sent 12 people to her to buy Acuras (she still gave them a better price than any other dealer,) I wrote letters AND had my friends write letters to Acura praising her, sent her a bottle of Champagne (nice champagne) on her birthday, etc. Unfortunately, she retired, and that was the end. The only other person that was solid to deal with is Phil (S2LEGEND) who is on s2ki. He is great, but I don't count him because I knew him as a person before as a dealer.

To me, dealers will tell you whatever you want to hear, lie their way, and kiss your ass to sell you a car. I don't take ANYTHING they say as truth....sorry, just comes with the territory.

One more thing....as others said, you are a sales person, and mean nothing after the sale is done. You are useless to a customer who already bought the car. Now, the strings you pull that will convince whoever to do whatever the customer wants are the same strings the customer can pull if he/she knows how to argue.


P.S. Unfortunately, in the car business, the nice guy sells 30 cars a month, and the dickhead sells 60. However, if a dealer is being a dick to me, I will parade him around and use him...right up until I have to sign, then I call the manager, and tell them that either I walk, or he gets me another dealer.

SpudRacer

Hey Derf,

Don't let the "pirce is all that matters" crowd dampen your spirits. You fit the profile for me. I don't really care about saving the last $500 bucks at time of purchase and I don't care about saving $100 on a brake job. That's lunch money. I'll give that to someone who can make my life easier. What matters more to me is finding a sales guy who knows the product, at a dealership close to my home or office, with an excellent reputation, and a well staffed and trained service department. For the last 10 years, I'd say all our cars have been in the $35K - $50K range. Nothing exotic but not stripped price leaders either. And all bought new. The cars tend to have some pretty complex technology. The dealer gets all my service work whether it's an oil change, a warranty repair, or a brake job.

I have a pretty busy life between work and family. We generally have three cars in the family. I simply will not tolerate anyone or anything wasting my time. If a sales guy can walk me through every feature of the product, gets right to the point on price, follows up after the visit, gets the car ready for delivery on time, and takes care of all the details of getting the car on the road while being polite and honest, I'm his/her customer. I will not tolerate being put into a sales system where the staff passes you back and forth for an afternoon while the used car manager disappears with your trade in. The second I feel that happening I'm gone. I won't tolerate a boob who knows less about the product than I do. If I feel that's the case, I'm gone. Both of those things indicate a stealership rather than a premium retail business relationship. I'm not gonna stick around to experience that mentality from the service department staff.

For me, there is value in a professional sales staff and a competent service staff. I'm willing to pay to keep them around and keep them hungry for my business. On the other hand, a twenty something kid buying a used car or a new Chevy Cobalt probably has different priorities due to different demands on their time, different levels of income, and more willingness to accept compromise.

IMHO, society has lost something intangible but valuable with the present day focus on material possessions and price alone. Get as much stuff as you can whether you can afford it or not. Why not buy what you can comfortably afford and leave a little room to pay for good service? When you push prices to the limit, service suffers. It's pretty simple. If the customer signals the dealer that price is the only thing that matters they will respond accordingly and vice versa. Courtesy and pride in good service are ridiculed undermining the self respect of those in service roles. If you make people feel like crap, what do you think you get in return? Don't give up on your principles Derf! You and I may be anachronisms but, it doesn't mean we're wrong.

rioyellows2k

It's unrealistic to expect that customers will buy based on service or relationships alone. All things being equal, price/overall cost is a big factor. You can throw all the studies and surveys out there that say price was not as important as the service and follow up as you want. I always imagined people were just too ashamed to say that the guy who did an excellent job didn't offer as good a deal as the dealership filled with 90 day pay plan rookie sales people did.

I sold for almost five years and built many relationships. Most positive business relationships, and some of my clients became good friends. Likewise some good friends became good clients.

This may not come out as I pictured but the most significant thing I've learned in the car business is this: "Treat everyone fairly, but they don't have to be treated equally."

Everyone deserves fair service, and the experience the dealership expects. But for me, that "above and beyond" that retailers throw around so loosely and over commit too I reserved for good clients. It's Human nature. This customer just kicked me in the teeth over $50 and he expects the white glove service from this point forth? You gotta be kidding me.

There's good clients that offer you a reasonable profit, treat you like a person and not an adversary, and send you business. Those clients always got the best I had to offer. Everone else, you give them the courtesy they deserve as customers but I'm always going to prioritze my good business from everyone else.

Does this mean I only went the extra step with people whom I made money off of? Of course not, there's just some people you can't make a profit off of, and that's just part of the business. It's just asshole customers that make you always question "Why am I doing this? If I was just a stranger in an elevator, this guy wouldn't have the balls to talk to me like that." People like that are the reason the last guy you bought a car from isn't at that dealership anymore.

I never promised anything that I couldn't do. The benefit of being a salesperson that performs and the benefit of buying from one is that they can get more done since they usually have more people willing to pull for them.

I might get flamed on for that honesty but that's what I experienced in the 4 1/2 years I sold cars. I avereged about 230 new Hondas, and another 15 used a year. I still managed to enjoy it since the there were more highs than lows and I made many friendships along the way.