How To Fail At Car Salesmanship In Eight Easy Steps

Background: My car is older than dirt and repairs are expensive, so my time has FINALLY come to replace it. We went to the dealer in October to get an idea of what we wanted and what kind of timeline we had. Met a very nice saleslady who was helpful, and we decided to go back to her in December. Then the Princess totaled her car. I called the nice saleslady and explained we now needed TWO cars and made an appointment with her. Pretty much guarantee her that we are buying from her (also, we’re terrible at bargaining, so honestly, we’re easy). Saleslady calls back and explains she’s been called away, but her manager has assigned a guy to us who will help us.

 

How-To List

1)   Start with the Princess and show her the car in the showroom, which is a higher model than what we want, but close enough. Sticker price is a little more than the insurance money, but we can bargain.

2)   Discuss with us her needs for a car and the desired amount we want to spend (we are sticking to our insurance money because I’m still not a fan of buying my child a new car for no reason).

3)   Return with a sheet that lays out the car with a price $18,000 more than we want to spend, and $8,000 more than the sticker price on the actual car in the showroom.

4)   Call over manager.

5)   Repeat process with manager. Be so confident that you remove the car from the showroom and start preparing it to go home with us.

6)   Return with a sheet that lays out a barebones version of the car with a price $12,000 more than we want to spend and $6,000 more than the one on the floor that’s a higher model.

7)   We say no thank you and get up to leave.

8)   Ask us, “Do you still want to talk about YOUR car?”

 

Conclusion: Lose an easy sale of two cars at the end of the calendar year, at the end of the month, and tick off the saleslady who was banking on part of the commission. 

 

Moral: Never ask a salesman to do the work of a saleswoman. J