A guy walks into a dealership and wants to buy a $30,000 truck for $19,900, according to this blog entry by car salesman, “Bloodraven” (pictured). The mark gets with one salesman but then calls over to a second salesman he’s bought from a few years ago. Now the second salesman has to sell the truck for the first salesman. Read how salesman #2 fends off the seemingly unstoppable customer’s quest for a deal with a good jerk of the patriotic heartstrings…
I took him outside. We lit up a cigarette, and we walked. We talked about a few things, families, cars, football. We got to a truck that was almost exactly what he was wanting, and I leaned against it…
I told him that for every one hundred dollars the takes off the price of that vehicle, he takes five bucks out of our friend’s (the new salesperson) pocket. I told him calmly, “You know, that man is a Gulf war vet, and he fought hard to make sure that I can sit here today and talk to you freely, so I am going to fight hard to protect his interests. If we sell you this car at $4,000 below invoice like you want us to, you are doing him a dis-service. So, here is what we need to do. You need to go in there and apologize to that hard working soldier and come to the realization that what you need to look at less truck, or raise your price.”
A tear literally formed in his eye. He had no idea that the new guy was a war vet. He didn’t know the hell he went through over there. He felt terrible, and while I hate to see a customer feel like that, again, sometimes it is needed. I walked him back inside and showed him the pictures the salesperson had in his office. His unit, pictures of him in the desert, his awards and certificates. Even I didn’t know that this man was wounded in combat.
Three hours later, he left in his new truck smiling. He went up to the new guy and shook his hand, and said thank you. The beautiful part, he said it with pure conviction. I could tell he was saying more than “Thank you for the great deal you guys gave me.” He was saying “Thank you for everything you have done.”
That is my job people. I have been saying it for years. My job is not to sell cars. My job is not to turn a profit for the dealership. My job is to make sure that every person I touch in my day is left with a positive impression. My job is to make sure that every single person that crosses my path is changed. My job is to make friends and change lives. If you happen to buy a car along the way, then my day gets even better.
Was the discount unreasonable to ask for? Perhaps. Did the salesman merely present him with facts? Sure, the other guy was really a vet. Is that material to your sales arrangement? Absolutely not.
It was a calculated maneuver designed to, as “Bloodraven” writes, protect the dealership’s interests. Their interests, not yours. Watch out at the car dealership, they are sneaky mofos (see our post, “Dealerships Rip You Off With The “Four-Square,” Here’s How To Beat It“) and will turn every psychological trick they can to make the most profit. Become steel! Resist…
But hey, at least for the extra money he paid, the customer drove out of the dealership feeling like a really great person. Too bad that’s not going to fund your car payments.
A Day as a Salesman [My Ride] (Thanks to David!)
More From Consumerist
-
Travelers Refuses To Believe Dad Is Dead, Sends Him Check For Mom’s Totaled Car
-
Can A Smartphone App Diagnose Your Ailing Car?
-
FedEx Driver Can’t Be Bothered To Walk Up To My Door So Just Leaves The Package In My Car
-
Man’s Tireless Search For His Stolen Car Pays Off 42 Years Later When He Spots It On eBay
-
Hertz On Demand Doesn’t Work If No Cars Are Available
@160medic: You graduated from college and now you’ve been working at a car dealership for 12 years?
Sorry.
That poor sob story wouldn’t bother me any. So the guy was a soldier. It isn’t much different than being a police officer. They get paid just as any other person. A soldier hasn’t fought to protect the country since World War II.
Here’s a dealership for you: Langan Volkswagen in Meriden and Glastonbury, CT.
I bought my car from the Meriden dealership. Because Glastonbury is the “big lot,” everyone in Meriden has only one goal: keep the customer happy. They don’t have to sell zillions of cars or make zillions of dollars. The Glastonbury location does all that. They just have to keep us all feeling the love for their salespeople, service people, and financing people.
My last salesguy, Matt, was studying to be an elementary teacher. I teach middle school. During the test drive, we talked about teaching, pedagogy, and his college classes. We didn’t even talk about the Jetta. When we got back to the dealership, I said, “If you can give me a new car with more gadgets that costs less than what I’m paying now, I’ll sign on the dotted line in a second.”
He did. I did. And I’m happy to drive an hour for a service appointment.
Now that’s service.
GAMBLE
Sorry for what?Been making over 6 figures for 8 years now.I was going to be a software engineer…Sure glad I didn’t go that route,remember what happened to those guys a while back.A lot of those engineer types ended up in the car business after the bottom fell out of the dot com industry.
Oh boo hoo. Saleman’s a vet and if you don’t pay the full amount then you should feel bad about it. Gimme a friggin break. I’m a vet TOO but I don’t use it as a crutch to manipulate people into getting what I want either personally or on the job.
If I ever went to a dealership and got hit with a sob story like this one JUST to be manipulated into paying full price for something, I would just leave and spend my money elsewhere. The world may or may not appreciate that you wore a uniform, but this fact of life does not necessitate being a douche at your civilian job.
I just bought a car last weekend and I would have walked away from this dealership just like I did about 5 others.
One Honda dealer was haggling on my trade, but when the salesman came back the price went up $1k from msrp. This was on a Fit, of which they had 2. They said they were the only 2 in TX even though I’d been to 3 other dealerships that day that had at least two others each. I laughed and said I’d be back in a month when they had as many of them as they have Accords. About 100 of them.
The next dealership I was at I was looking at a used Element. The one in their had sold the week before, but was still on autotrader.com. They had another of the same year with slightly more miles, less options, and in somewhat worse condition for $2k more. When I offered the price of the old one, they laughed at me and asked where I got that price. I pointed at the one that had sold last week (waiting to be picked up by it’s new owner), they tried to argue with me about it’s condition. Fighting me about everything. Trying to show me what KBB said about the retail price (who goes by KBB? not the dealers, I can’t beleive they still try that one). I walked out of there too.
I’d forgotten how shitty the car buying experience can be. I wound up buying one from a small dealership for 85% of retail that was in better condition than anything the large places could come up with.
Hahaha!
While I thank the guy for his service – when I’m buying a car, I’m in the business of saving myself money.
He’s the one who decided to take a job selling cars. If he needs the extra commission I guess he better start selling more.
If someone gave me that sob story at the dealership, I would have turned around and walked right out.
What a fucking joke.
I will give props to Bloodraven for not undercutting the first salesman, vet or not.
A gulf war vet, you say! Thanks for.. waiting in the desert while the iraqis surrendered to you. Really.
Dear lord, consumerist. Really.
So far away from doing good on this one it hurts.
NEWSFLASH – salepeople have a job to do. That job? Sell product for a profit. Good ones make the customer feel good about making the purchase and convince them that it is a good deal.
It isn’t evil. It isn’t wrong. And it happens every day and all the time.
He used a sales technique called overcoming an objection. It works all the time. I use it dozens of times a day. Here’s how it works:
Customer: I want to buy this product.
Sales: Awesome. It is in stock for $49.99.
Customer: I saw it elsewhere for $45.99.
Sales: Great! Do they have it in stock? Is it a reputable company? What happens if something goes wrong? Do you know that sales guy? If you call them, will you get the same guy or some unrelated guy? What is their lead time?
Customer: They don’t have it in stock. I’ve never heard of that company. If something goes wrong, they’ll likely refer me to the manufacturer or allow me to return it for a restocking fee. I don’t know the sales guy there. They have a general number and I don’t think they have a sales force as much as they have people that answer phones. Their lead time is 2 weeks.
Sales: Great. I am your sales rep. Here is my direct line. If anything goes wrong, I can help you fix it. When you call my direct line, you get me every time and I want to make sure you are happy. 2 weeks? A restocking fee? Well, I guess the 4 bucks might not really be worth it.
The objection, in this case, was the customer wanted to buy something for less than the dealership wanted to sell it for. The salesman gave compelling reasons why that wasn’t going to work and sent the customer home feeling good about it.
So what’s the problem?
And Saturn’s ‘no haggle’ pricing is the very reason I didn’t buy a saturn last time. It may seem convenient to dunder heads, but all it means is that they are going to charge you what they want to charge you.
I bought my last car from a great dealership, haggled them down to below invoice, and got a great car for a great price.
It’s called doing business, and if it isn’t for you, ask a friend who is willing to help you. I helped my best friend obtain a lease for an awesome car just under a year ago. I haggled the price, I pushed for extras, and I got them. He’s happy, and I didn’t mind it at all.
Ignore the troll, people…
When I went into a saturn dealership a few years back to buy my first car, I went in asking for a used car. what they did, was to get me a brand new last years model, fully loaded (more than what I was looking for) for lower price than the used car I initally came for.
saturn FTW
@ryan_h:
Any dealer can and does do this.
Not just saturn.
It’s how i got my Lexus LS400 after they put out the LS430 on the cheap.
Standard. Business. Deal.
My brother got a Mustang the year after they put out the new style for thousands less than a new one would have cost.
It didn’t happen because of Saturn – it happened because the dealer was smart and was looking to dump older cars.
I negotiated a deal for a Honda CRV for a friend ($219 a month for 3 years with 12k miles a year) because Honda had just released this years updated model.
Profit is not a dirty word.