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Smart Shopper Stories from the Sales Frontlines
47838 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 6:35 AM
You are in the Smart Shopper Forum. Your Hosts are kirstie_h & tidester
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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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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Nov 07, 2009 11:08 am) Thanks, Farmer. I used to tell people that farmers, fishermen & truck drivers depend more on the weather & their own skill than most folks -- it's called risk-taking. Most folks opt out. The red counties are red for a reason. I don't talk about it much anymore -- too depressing. I've enjoyed your posts over the past many months. |
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Replying to: boomchek (Nov 08, 2009 11:22 am) Boom, Just curious, how would you handle somebody like bobst (poster who left the forum) whose approach was "Give me your best price. You only get one chance. If I like it, I'll buy it right now. If not, no hard feelings, thank you for your time." Just wondering. thanks.
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Replying to: jipster (Nov 08, 2009 3:13 pm) You did miss it. There was an episode when they show Hank getting a special price from his favorite salesmen. He thought he was getting a great deal, but it turns out that he had been getting clubbed like a baby seal for the past 15 years. Peggy finally realized it when she went to negotiate and had done her internet research. No word if she used Edmunds or not. 
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 08, 2009 6:07 am) Mine, of course, doesn't count.
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Replying to: dino001 (Nov 08, 2009 4:55 pm) But don't pick on just dealerships. A lot of industries do it. Try buying a computer at Best Buy and you'll get offered service contract, cables, paper, CD's, power strip, installation services, etc. The real money is in the accessories.
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Replying to: dino001 (Nov 08, 2009 4:55 pm) Interesting idea, and very likely correct. A related concept is intermittent reward -- if the subject gets a huge payoff once in awhile, it'll be pursued forever -- think mice pushing buttons. And here we are. |
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Replying to: verdugo (Nov 08, 2009 5:34 pm) I have no problem with add-ons respecfully offered at checkout/F&I office as long as the approach is not too pushy. But courtesy of SET we have here "prepackaged" mop&glo called "Toyoguard" put on Monroney (yes, that's right) sticker by the distributor. That would be like Best Buy putting their extended warranty (priced of course at full retail) into the price on every TV they sell without any opt-out possibility. Then on top of that add $75 "shelf/storage/register fee" added to a $1000+ TV set at the register and voilla - we have Best Buy turning into SE Toyota dealer. No - there is no comparison whatsoever. Everybody knows accessories are where money is. Doesn't mean everybody would use borderline coercive tactics to make their customers to buy those, just because they are profitable and "normal" sale is "not enough".
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