cars news 10: Car Salesman Confidential: More On Negotiating

What does everybody hate about buying a car? You got it. Negotiating. Last time, I gave you some ideas on how to prepare for negotiating a deal at a car dealership. Now that you’re ready to step into the lion’s den, what do you do? Here are some strategies that will help you get a good deal.

Be There or Be Square

Imagine you’re a waiter at a popular restaurant. You’re covering five tables on a busy Saturday night, and the phone rings. It’s some guy telling you he’s thinking of stopping by sometime in the next six months and he wants to ask you a bunch of questions about the veal picatta. Meanwhile, three of your tables are clamoring for your attention. Who gets the most attention? The guy on the phone, or the people who are already there, spending their hard earned money?

Nothing motivates a salesman more than a living, breathing customer sitting in front of him. I’ll get around to answering your phone call, e-mail, or text message – eventually — but the most important folks to me are the ones directly in front of me. Want a good deal? Your greatest leverage is your physical presence in my dealership.

Make an Appointment and Keep It

Many moons ago, I told you to shop for a salesperson, not just a car. If you’ve found a salesperson you trust and you’re ready to deal, call them up and make an appointment. And be sure to show up when you say you will. This may not seem like a negotiating technique, but it is. As a salesperson, I take my appointments very seriously. I have a much greater chance of selling an appointment than I do standing outside “on the point” all day, looking like a lost puppy waiting for its owner. By setting an appointment you’re putting the dealership on notice: “My business is your’s to earn — or lose — depending on how well you treat me.”

Be Likable

Here’s a little trick salesmen use, and you can use it too. We consciously try to make customers like us. The thinking is, you’re probably not going to buy a car from someone you don’t like. So as salesmen we turn on the charm — to get your money. As a customer you can do the same thing in reverse. Make the salesman like you. Unconsciously, they will start fighting for your money more than their own. It happens all the time.

On the other hand, the less friendly you are, the less inclined I am to help you. As my momma (and Forest Gump’s) used to say “Honey draws more flies than vinegar” — which means you can get a lot further in life by being nice to people than by being rude to them. Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? And yet, there are people out there writing books and doing videos on YouTube, advising people to walk into a dealership and be rude to everyone they meet — as if being a jerk is going to get you a better deal! You’d be surprised how many customers think like this. But being gruff or standoffish will hurt you more than help you.

Control the Information

In car sales as in life, He Who has the Most Information (and Most Accurate Information) Usually Wins. If you’re commanding an army and you know the disposition of the enemy’s troops, you can plan your attack accordingly. If you’re a poker player and you know the other fellow’s hand, you can win. Same with car sales.

I have had customers look up the value of their trade-in on a cell phone while sitting in my office and then turn the phone around to show me that, according to “Car Expertz” website, we were thousands of dollars off in our appraisal value. It’s very hard to dispute this kind of information.

Be careful what you tell your salesperson, though. People need to be more open when it comes to certain things, but less open when it comes to others. For example, if a salesman asks you what kind of payment you’re looking for, don’t evade the question. It’s not a trap. He’s just trying to narrow down the 200 to 300 cars he has in inventory to one or two that will fit your budget. On the other hand, do not tell me your car was wrecked and the insurance company is only paying for a rental car through the weekend. That tells me you have to buy a car right away — which gives me the upper hand. Also, do not tell a salesman that today is your wife’s birthday and that’s why you’re out car shopping. Who’s going to disappoint his wife on her birthday?

Use The Magic Words

Would you like to know the most powerful words you can utter in a car dealership? They are: “I’m ready to buy now . . . if . . . ” — and then fill in the blank with what you want. If you’re a “bottom line” kind of gal, say “I’m ready to buy now . . . if . . . you can get me to $22,000 out the door.” If you’re payment oriented, say “I’m ready to buy now . . . if . . . you can get me to $400 a month.” Whatever your goal is, use it to condition an offer to get what you want.

Why is this so effective? Because the car business is a “now” business. We don’t want the promise of a car deal tomorrow, or later on this afternoon, or even a few minutes from now. Like a crack addict, we want a car deal NOW! A salesperson will bend over backwards to help you if you say you’re ready to “buy now.” But be careful– don’t use this phrase unless you’re actually ready to buy.

By the way, the second most powerful words are “We’re leaving.” But again, don’t use these unless you really mean it, and only as a last resort.

Never Take the First Offer

Car salesmen will hate me for saying this, but . . . I don’t care how good a deal you think it is, never take the first offer. Always counter with a lower offer. It may sound obvious, but car dealers don’t give you our “best deal” on the First Pencil, or the first time you ask. We always go for all the money. It usually takes one or possibly two counteroffers before you get our best price. Believe it or not, some people don’t get the extra $1000 off the price or the extra $500 for their trade-in simply because they didn’t ask for a better deal.

Know When You’ve Won

There is an old saying “Perfect is the enemy of good” — which originally came from the French philosopher Voltaire. (Can you believe it? A car salesman quoting Voltaire?) What it means is, trying to improve something that is already pretty good may actually make it worse. Applying that to car sales, if you’ve achieved 70-80% of the goals you set for yourself when you started out to buy a car . . . take the deal.

One of the most frustrating things in the car business is watching people walk away from an absolutely fantastic deal. . . simply because they don’t realize how good it is. I remember trying to sell a customer a very expensive German SUV that was the oldest unit on our lot. It was the last day of the month and we were desperate to get rid of this particular “white elephant” before the new models arrived, so we gave him a deal that lost $5,000 on the front end — and offered him 0% financing on top of that! And he still walked.

Don’t leave trying to find “The Perfect 10.” You’ll never find it. And by the time you realize how good a deal the first place offered you and come back to the get it, it probably won’t be there anymore.

Have Fun

Finally, what should be apparent from all this advice is , buying a car shouldn’t be like stepping into a ring with Mike Tyson. You don’t have to be a 10th degree black belt or skilled in the art of Monkey Manchu to get a good deal. Just follow these common sense rules, relax, and remember to have fun.

Buying a car should always be fun!

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Car Salesman Confidential: More On Negotiating