Soon we will be ordering cars ourselves online. Then the car salesmen disappear. Will we miss them? Here are some sellers that we won't miss.
Stone chips!
The salesman brusquely pointed to the white spots on the hood of my black Opel. It had been parked under a tree outside the office that morning. A round white spot surrounded by small dots. I wet a finger with saliva and rubbed the dots on the freshly polished and otherwise spotless hood.
See! It's just bird droppings.
But it didn't help. The salesman loudly declared that "That hood needs repainting!"
He got the last word.
I said my thanks and drove back to the office thinking "Poor guy! He can hardly sell many cars when he tries to deceive the customers". Later I read in Toyota's customer newsletter that "my" salesperson had just been named best Toyota salesperson that year!
Are Toyota customers more gullible than others?
The negotiation card
She called me at work. The day before I had spoken to one of her younger colleagues about a new Passat. "It's me you have to buy a car from", she chirped fondly. After all, we had bought two cars from her previously.
A few weeks later we had another meeting with the same seller. We had decided to order a car number nature of her – a brand new wife's car. But we hadn't had time to value the trade-in car yet – a 4-year-old car with low mileage. "Stupid," you might think. We then renounced an important negotiating card.
As a former customer, I knew that the car company used one appraiser and one appraisal paper. I met him when he came. He is a "Kiwi-Bob" - known in wide circles for finding absolutely everything. The results are sent in clear text to the sellers.
Then the car salesman called to say how much she would give for the trade-in car. After stating the amount, she paused to take in the mood. My wife on the other end remained silent. Then the salesperson started talking her own bid down by pretending she had overlooked something - wait - and using the silence to continue the pun. My wife found the behavior aggressive and strange - and chose to remain silent. It was obvious that the salesman allowed himself to be intoxicated by the fact that the customer had no bargaining chips. Finally, my wife was able to intervene to say that the car had already been sold to a friend at a reasonable price for both parties. Well, the salesperson made a fool of himself and lost a customer and several subsequent sales.
She had good negotiating cards but played them wrong.
What happens when a car salesman quits?
Are the customers then transferred to other sellers? Right? This is included in what is called Customer Relations Management. A sales manager should ensure that this is in place.
We ordered a brand new car model from a dealer in Oslo west. As the model had not yet entered production, the order could not be executed in the factory until after a few weeks. The waiting period of half a year would only start to run when the seller had pressed the button to order. Our seller promised to follow up.
Some days later ended the seller we had signed a contract with. No one notified us. No one followed up. No one pressed the order button. The blunder would cost us an extra six months of waiting. When we contacted the car company to find out if the car would arrive soon, the matter ended up with the sales manager. He did not forward it to one seller, but to the lady at the reception.
When I finally got an email from the lady at reception to pick up the car, there were two single keys - without key rings - on the counter. The lady there had no idea where the car was - or who I was, for that matter. She didn't care. I took the keys, found the expensive SUV with four rings in the grill deep in a nook in the basement and drove out. The sales manager was fuming.
Nice suit and white teeth? The job as sales manager is yours!
It is part of the story that we have also bought cars from very skilled sellers. What these have in common is knowledge, interest and enthusiasm for cars and respect. Do you have any good seller stories? Share them here in the comments section or use them Contact page.
See
Here is Volvo's FAQ regarding car purchases online
