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Smart Shopper Stories from the Sales Frontlines
48084 messages, Last post on Dec 05, 2009 at 12:58 PM
You are in the Smart Shopper Forum. Your Hosts are kirstie_h & tidester
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Replying to: deltheking (Nov 08, 2009 7:35 pm) |
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 09, 2009 1:22 pm) Come on, Driver. I realize that most people don't like smokers, but this is ridiculous. As a smoker, I can tell you from experience that it takes seven minutes to smoke a cigarette. It would take another salesman longer to drink a soda and eat a pack of crackers. I doubt that your salesman missed seeing any customers. My secretary used to time me. She said that I could drink half of a soda, smoke a cigarette, go to the toilet, and wash my hands in twelve minutes. I didn't believe in keeping clients waiting. Since 22% of the U.S. population smokes, cut us a little slack. Richard |
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Replying to: british_rover (Nov 07, 2009 12:40 pm) They slam doors let their kids jump on the seats and just beat the hell out of the cars. Then they complain because they can't adjust the seats. We have to unhook the batteries. Can you imagine kids blowing horns etc? They dent the cars up and manhandle them to death. Anything that isn't attached will get stolen. We have to remove shift knobs and anything else that is loose. Once someone stold the DIPSTICK out of an Odyssey! |
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Replying to: richard64 (Nov 09, 2009 2:51 pm) I know...easy for me to say.
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 08, 2009 7:04 am) "Driver and GG's Grindless Car Delaership"....... where we value your time and stress levels. Makes buying a car, a hassle free experience!. Nice thought. If I can find a bank to loan me.....oh.....what?....about $15M on my signature, I'm all in. I know Saturn tried the approach. They actually succeeded at it for a good long while. Then, their products became uncompetitive, and GM started tanking. Result? No more Saturn. Fitzmall.com is pretty close to this. They state a price (a very good price) on their stock and incoming stock. They state their policies and fees up front. There's a Toyota dealer fairly close to me that does this, too. They put their prices up front on any vehicle once you walk into their showroom. If it's a model that's pretty plentiful, like a Camry, I think they price them at $400 over invoice. By all accounts, they're the largest Toyota dealer in this area. They're the ones who keep their stock under one roof. I'd expect that they lose some of the "I'll shop you for $50" type of buyers. But, I've always thought why would a dealership want those types of buyers anyway? Have a bunch of "product specialists" who take care of the feature/product presentation/test drives. Post good prices. Market the dealership as "in and out in an hour", and you've got yourself a business plan. Post a policy that every minute it takes to get you into the F&I office after you come to a deal, you rebate them a dollar per minute in cash. Meter starts running at 15 minutes. Still, with the wealth of information we've all posted here that's readily available, with several different sources, I don't know why more people just don't come to a number they're willing to pay, and offer it as a "yes or no" proposition. Both the customers and the dealerships are afraid of leaving an extra nickel on the table. That's an adversarial relationship from the get go. I think it's a great idea. Employ more F&I guys to move the transaction along quickly.
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Since we are talking about negotiations and grinding, I am once again reminded of the movie Psycho. Janet Leigh is on the run after stealing $40,000 from her employer. (Remember that this is 1960's money.) She figures that she had better trade cars in order to throw the police off track. She pulls into a used car lot driving her 1957 Ford Fairlane. She tells the salesman that she is in a big hurry. She quickly selects a 1958 Ford Fairlane in a lighter color. She then asked how much the car would cost her. The salesman thinks for a moment and then says her car plus $700. Janet Leigh hesitates for a second. The salesman then says, "I see it all of the time. You people come in here claiming that you are in a hurry, but then you have time to haggle." Actually, Janet Leigh didn't hesitate because of the price. She had just spotted a police car across the street. At any rate, she pays the full asking price and goes on her way. The lesson here is that many people have different reasons for paying full price. Here is another interesting point about the cars in this movie. I am beginning to wonder if Alfred Hitchcock had any knowledge about automobiles. You would at least think that he would have had some technical advisors for this movie. I had thought all along that Janet Leigh was driving a 1957 Ford, and that she traded for a 1958 Ford. I'm not so sure now. After watching the movie so many times, I believe that she traded in a 1958 Ford for a 1958 Ford. That wouldn't have seemed very smart. Surely, the salesman would have made a comment. You can see the rear ends of both cars clearly at different points in the movie. They both look the same to me. The front grills are a little harder to spot. Alfred Hitchcock was a stickler for details. That is part of what made his movies so great. It is difficult for me to believe that he would allow his character to trade for the exact same year and model car in a different color. If any of you see this movie again, check this out and let me know your thoughts. Richard
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Replying to: isellhondas (Nov 09, 2009 2:55 pm) Richard |
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Replying to: isellhondas (Nov 09, 2009 2:52 pm) That was something that bugged me the last time I was at the Seattle Auto Show. I wasn't sure if people had already stolen them or if they were removed prior. I found out the latter. I totally understand the reasoning and I agree it is justified but it took something away when you sat in one. Of course, the locked cars were even worse because then I had no idea if I could fit. Headroom is the first thing I check on a car. |
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Replying to: driver100 (Nov 09, 2009 1:22 pm) Let's see, when you walk into the dealership I may be with another client, discussing a deal or deals wth the SM or F&I person, checking out a car, talking to a customer of mine who is in service, in the bathroom, at lunch. That is in addition to calling and/or e-mailing my prospects and keeping in touch with my owners on a periodic basis. Oh yes, I may be doing a stock walk to remain current with the lot vehicles or in a training session. I might even be in the bathroom. A good salesman does not just sit around waiting for something to happen - those days are long gone. And I am a non-smoker that may be hard to find at times.
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Replying to: lrguy44 (Nov 09, 2009 4:16 pm) ps I don't remember who wrote this, Capt, but I'll stick it in this post. >> "you don't know how to build value in a product" , but the "build value" into something that's already built. Now I'm confused. How does one build value?
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