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Smart Shopper Stories from the Sales Frontlines
48058 messages, Last post on Dec 04, 2009 at 2:34 PM
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Nov 08, 2009 7:26 am) The house across the street from us sold for $10K more than the asking price.  My van sold for $50 less than I offered. (that should have told me something). 
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Replying to: murphydog (Nov 08, 2009 11:02 am) Exactly, I don't have the gtime or patience for the dance. Give me your MSRP or a more realistic price...I don't care. You will get more respect from me if you start out lower, because you are giving me credit for not being a bumpkin who thinks people would actually pay full Retail. If you want to give me full retail price (and have your fingers crossed under the desk hoping I'll take it at that price), I might buy from you, but you'll have to get real very fast. Murph, I think people expect to haggle with craiglist. I think someone who knows how the car game works knows you don't pay full retail very often.` Driver is talking about grinding on price as compared to straight forward negotiation. That's a good point. I negotiate all day long on many issues, and that is part of the process. Grinding I don't have the time or patience, let's get down to business. Don't wear me out so I don't have the energy to get to your competitor...I think that is another sales tactic that is used. We spend maybe $100000 on trucking every year. Am I going to change carriers for 5% discount, or even 10%....no, I'd be changing every week. If someone can save me half then we are talking. That has actually happened....and that is why I'll listen to any pitch, but it better be good for me to change.
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Nov 08, 2009 2:04 pm) My van sold for $50 less than I offered. (that should have told me something). You never know. Once we put our house up for 20% over the recommended price. Didn't sell so we dropped to market price plus a bit to negotiate. Still no sale. To get it moving we listed at the price we needed....and I told the realtor we are doing that to get people to look, but there is no negotiationg. It sold, the understanding was we went in with a low price to draw people in......but we weren't going to reduce the price further. I think the seller gave you a friendly $50 off the van because he felt guilty. He probably had breakdowns every week, and kinda felt sorry for you. |
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Replying to: boomchek (Nov 08, 2009 11:22 am) That's not bad, I can work with that. But, I would expect 12 to 15% off a D3 car. So, if the car is $30,000 my offer is going to be $25,000 hoping to pay $26500. I am not sure what the discounts are these days, but that would be fair to me. You would have gained more points in my book if you took 8 or 10% off to start and came up with $27000. I might just go for that. If you want me to start I am going to go low...probably 25k, and you will have to work hard to get me to $27k. I am seldom desparate for a new car as well, generally I trade while I can still walk away and drive my present car....that can be a big advantage. |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Nov 07, 2009 2:51 pm) Hank Hill, of "King of the Hill", would never pay full boat on a car. Unless I missed an episode where "Bizzaro World" Hank Hill ruled. 
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 08, 2009 2:39 pm) On the other hand I don't think most sales people can turn down a grinder right off the bat - so they get stuck with the unpleasant prolonged nasty negotiation over every nickle and dime - not fun if you as me. |
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 08, 2009 2:39 pm) The one time I sold a car using the Trading Post (long before Craigs List), the caller said, "I'll take it. Have you sold it yet." He really wanted a Pace Car Mustang (79). I should have charged him a document fee!!!! Made me wish I'd asked a little more in the ad; but it had been advertise for 3-4 weeks with only one earlier call. My other sales experiences were selling baseball tickets. One called offered a lowball price about 1/4 or 1/5 because he wanted to give them to the employees of his school bus company. He said that he was in business therefore he should get a lower price. I can't give my retort-censored. Later an attorney called offering slightly less than I asked. Didn't complain that 10 games had been picked by the person who had helped me win the contest for him and his son to attend. I'd hesitate today selling anything online. |
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It's interesting that a company that made a mission of passing almost everything to a consumer and living on less than 3% on average has become a biggest retailer in the world, isn't it? A retail model of maximizing volume and minimizing price rather than that maximizing unit profit proved superior - but it seems that memo still hasn't reached the dealers yet. The pricing practices in dealerships are what I call "jackpot" approach. The salespeople are conditioned to think it's paramount to maximize a chance of a big payout on every single "up". The pay structure is clearly reflecting that philosophy. All the salesmen (and their managers and the owners) can see is the payouts that worked out - what they cannot see of course, are the lost ups. Why is that? The profits from jackpot are easy to count than those lost sales. Just like in a casino - we always hear ding ding somewhere in a background, meaning somebody gets paid - just not us. We don't know how much money the person has put in a slot prior the payout. All to make us put money in in hope that next time it's us. I noticed one more thing over the years - no matter how much it is, it is never enough. Buyer agrees to MSRP, they just get hit with bunch of add-ons, regardless - actually they see it as an actual license to roll out every single "valuable" product they could think of. I was once scouting a Matrix/Corolla (not recently, but I'm sure it still holds). Nice, small cars, generally liked by their owners. They have small spread between the invoice and retail price - one could even say under normal market conditions (not now, obviously), when supply meets demand, it would be reasonable to pay full sticker rather than argue over a few hundred bucks. Nice quick transaction, no big loss. A few hundred bucks not workd arguing and dealer's got to eat, too right? But wait the minute - I forgot - great Toyoguard package was preinstalled by the distributor on the car (and of course on all other ones, too) - ding, ding, ding - $599. Oh, we also need to add our service dealer/whatever fee, $699 for you know, washing the car and stuff. So now instead of being a few hundred over invoice, we are now $1200 above "what's on the sticker" FOR EXACTLY THE SAME PRODUCT with no value added whatsoever (yeah, yeah - paint sealant and scotch guard were added). That's why in Florida we pay "below invoice" for those Toyotas or Hondas, of course after all add-ons the totals are still well above invoice, but who would notice that? Ultimately, the forced add-ons and rampant fees are the reason why MSRP is not a legitimate price anymore - even on those cars in decent demand or small spread.
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Replying to: isellhondas (Nov 07, 2009 8:31 am) Works for me. Name the place & time & I'll be there. |
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