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High Pressure Car Salesmen

I came across the term "5 Non-Negotiable Rules" in a job announcement for our local Sportsman's Warehouse. I looked that term up as I never heard of it before. Maybe some of you business and sales folks are familiar with the term??

So....if you ever wondered why some car salesmen/women act the way they do with a high-pressure sales pitch.....read on.

""Five Non-Negotiable For Sales Teams

February 26, 2007 • by George Dans •

What is a non-negotiable? It is something that can’t be negotiated. What about your dealership? Do you have some non-negotiables for your sales team? If you are going to have your best year ever, you must have some rules, guidelines or processes that can’t be sacrificed. Let’s come up with at least five non-negotiables for your dealership.

Non-negotiable 1 – Be on time for work. If people don’t come in on time – and I would imagine most dealerships have a start time – doesn’t that send a signal of lack of respect to management and your team? Why it is some managers won’t hold staff accountable to rules or guidelines? I think it happens because the salesperson (if that is who the perpetrator is) has done a good job of selling management on why they shouldn’t show up on time. If these salespeople could convince customers like they convince management, they would sell a ton of cars.

Non-negotiable 2 – Have a turn-over (TO) policy. Do you have one? If a customer is getting ready to leave without buying, is that customer turned over to management or another salesperson? If not, why? It doesn’t matter what the selling average of the salesperson is. Every customer that isn’t closed should be turned to another person. Think about this, why would we let a below average salesperson determine who can or can’t buy? You’ve got to hammer this one.

As is, there isn’t enough traffic coming in, so let’s gang up on these hard to close customers.

Sometimes you have to understand that half of something is better then all of nothing. Get your management involved earlier in the deal with customers so that the turn isn’t so obvious. This could be worth an extra 10 deals a month. Don’t let your salespeople chase false customer objections. If you don’t close, you lose.

Non-negotiable 3 – Mandatory boot camp for underachievers. Boot camp will do wonders when it comes to selling more cars. Boot camp is for any salesperson or sales manager selling less then average. For salespeople, if they average less then 10 cars a month based on 90 days, they enter boot camp, which is a one-hour training session that is held once a week on the same day and time. What skills do most new salespeople or struggling veterans need? Let’s review what they need:

Organization – An organized desk, a filing system, and a database system that allows for sold customer data input and ensures proper follow-up.

A monthly success guide – A plan, that helps set activity and results goals, needs to be inspected everyday. You can help minimize the number of bad days your staff experiences by making them accountable. Make every salesperson show up with a written plan to sell a car everyday. No plan, no work until a plan is written out and signed off by management.

Mastery of selling basics – To sell more cars right now, get your team to master the basics of selling.

Knowledge on how to bypass price – Your salespeople must be able to bypass price to effectively get through the selling basics. Bypassing price buys time, so salespeople can build value.

Fresh closes – Your team may need to learn more closes to sell more vehicles.

Proficiency at handling objections – Develop confidence through skill training so salespeople won’t be afraid to ask for the sale.

Follow-up skills – Quit messing around here; there is nothing wrong with salespeople being requested to follow up. Teach them how to handle the telephone, and teach them how to ask for referrals. Make it a mandatory requirement that they have to make five to 10 calls a day to customers in their working and sold database.

If after boot camp your salesperson is still selling below 10 a month based on a 90–day period, consider terminating the underachiever. Quit settling for average. Ten is average, and you didn’t get in business to develop a super star team of underachievers. The bottom line is we don’t run a safe house for underachievers.

Non-negotiable 4 – One-on-Ones – This one you can’t sacrifice. Every day before your salespeople start their shift, they must meet with management to review their upcoming day. This is so important and should minimize having to cram your entire month into the last week of the month. You can also have a small group meeting depending on how many salespeople you have. Bottom line is: no game plan, no review, no work.

Non-negotiable 5 – Ongoing Sales Training – Are you sick and tired of the stop and start sales training programs? Let me ask you a question? If you don’t train them to perform, to sell, to close, to follow-up, who will? Why do people quit or get fired? They weren’t good enough or they weren’t trained to be good enough. Commit to a six-week training program. I have already given you some subjects to train on. I’m sure you can dust off your old videos or recover your “stolen” training DVDs to help get you started.

To have your best year, you also have to have your best plan. The plan is to hit your goals without failure. Stop the insanity now. Create non-negotiables to fit your dealership. Quit allowing salespeople to sell you on why they can’t be the best. You’re the coach. Now, take some time, develop your plan and do what most won’t do. Execute it.""

Non negotiable #6 - plenty of car dealership managers aren’t as good or as smart as the sales team. They are there typically because of tenure, not managerial skills.

I go straight to the owner when I buy, that way it’s always negotiable on my end……;-)

Spot on blood. I’ve walked out of a dealership because of a manager and only got talked into coming back in to buy because of the salesman I had done business with before.

It's no secret that most potential customers despise high-pressure tactics, but a lot of dealers still use them anyway. These are the ones I won't buy from. I'd rather drive 3 hours to shop with a no-pressure dealer.

I'm with Drycreek- I know that a sale manager will be the one to approve or disapprove a deal. Why do I need to deal with a car salesperson- cut through the chase and talk with sales manager to see if a deal can be reached.

“”

I can't stand the process to buy a truck, so I send emails and tell them it's Non-negotiable. I'm buying a truck do you want to sell it, if so give me your one shot price. If not low enough I buy from a dealership out of state. I would rather stick myself in the eye than deal with a car salesman-sorry to the salesman but back off people.

By the way I'm being real PC/nice/reasonable when I say this, in person it is a LOT more direct.

I like to buy after the initial depreciation happens and from a private party. I have bought new and it was fine but the process can be less than fun.

We buy new for work sometimes but thats usually with a fleet guy and it's just like any other business transaction we do.

I just send an email to the sales manager with the EXACT specs for the car/truck I want to order and ask for a quote. I send it to all dealers within a couple hours drive. Notice I said to order, I don't buy off the lot because it's never equipped the way I want and I won't pay for stuff I don't want.

So I spend virtually no time at the dealership and all that salesman BS. And the only dealing I ever do is to email the losing sales manager to let them know I got a better quote. This sometimes leads to a very good second quote. Two of my trucks the sales manager dropped the paperwork at my office so I didn't even need to go to the dealership until the truck was ready to pick up.

Its a really low BS/ low aggravation way to buy.

That is how I bought my last truck Ghost

You want high pressure, try a vacuum cleaner salesman. Years ago my wife invited one into our house. After listening to his spiel we determined that the price was something we could not afford. Thanked him for his time and tried to get him out the door. It was as if we had not said no. He doubled down on his sales pitch. Not wanting to waste any more of our time I told him bluntly that we were not buying. Again more sales pitch. "Excuse me, I have a phone call to make. Hello Police, yes I have a sales man that is refusing to leave unless I buy his product. Will you send someone over? Thanks" As he walked out the door he was still trying to sell. (Faked Call, but if that did not work that was going to be my next real call. Before 911 days.)

Terry

I just buy from an owner. I loath the whole experience of buying a vehicle from a dealership. All the fake smiles, conversation, and the notion that anyone there cares about making a deal good for all involved.

Short story made shorter. If I’ve got to accept all that to make a deal, It is definitely only a good deal for the dealership.

Save you up sone money. Find a guy selling a truck you want. And buy it. A personal loan is much quicker.

While interest rates are worse for them, I use them anyway. It opens up a credit account that I pay on for a year or so to maintain a healthy credit history. Then I pay it off. I do this every year and a half or so. But, the best of it is The relationships I make in these dealings are sincere. I’ll take it.

I shopped around the whole state for what I was looking for. You can go to the manufacture website, in my case Ford, and search the country for what you're looking for. Or the sales rep can do it too. Then it was down to what discounts/rebates I can get for that truck, then what the sale price was. My neighbor lady's ex is a Ford employee. The ex's bro was the salesman I used. I was able to get a friend/family discount. He told me there has to be a family/friend number associated with that deal. If the dealership gets audited by Ford, any deals (F&F, Employee discount, etc) must have that number associated with it on the sale paperwork. If there is no number, Ford will charge the dealership the difference between the regular cost and the discount cost if/when the dealership's sales books get audited. I bought a 8 yr / 100K warranty with the truck.

Not a car buying story, but still a funny salesman story. When I was in college an acquaintance of mine did door to door sales of cleaning products. He's doing his pitch to a prospective buyer and pours something onto her carpet to show how wonderful this stuff works. He then proceeds to demonstrate how well it works by smearing it around into a bigger stain while trying to clean it up. I can't remember if he made the sale or how he handled the exit.

I too hate the car buying experience and have no idea why they make it so that you hate them by the end of the ordeal and have nothing prepared even if you do order well beforehand. Seriously, I just want to pay you, grab the keys and get the hell out of there.

The last new vehicle I bought, I told the dealer what I wanted, then gave him my card with the amount I would pay for it written on the back. I told him when he can meet that number to call me, unless he could agree to it right then and there because I was NOT going to sit there while he to "had to talk to the manager".

Ouch. I would not buy any extended warranty. Often dealer will offer the original purchaser a complimentary 100,000 mile warranty in MA. They will try to seek you an “extended warranty” with a deductible that covers what the complimentary warranty covers.

My 2016 Tacoma had the engine pulled and resealed last fall at no cost to me with the free complimentary warranty.

^....I believe Toyota does better warranties out of the gate than Ford. My 2019 F150 only comes with a 3 yr / 36K warranty. I wanted to go beyond that due to the electronics, the turbo's and the 10 speed tranny. When I did the research at that time, those items seemed to be mentioned a bit by current owners.

I run a business, and had for many years, tool salesmen come in and waste my time. They run pretty much like car salesmen. One day though, this guy comes in to let me know of this place he was working at as a salesman, and wanted to just say hi and sell me nothing. We had a short and nice chat for a bit, and that was all. For 18 years now I've been buying from that place , for the only reason that he came to just get to know me and wanted to sell NOTHING at all. I have many times walk out of a dealership because of pressure tactics . I give them the finger and that's the last they hear about me. Sometimes no pressure is the best tactic.

I go to several dealers. I tell them I will be buying a truck. And I give them a list of the specs I want in a truck. I ask them to give me their “best price.” I tell them I’m going to other dealers and I will take the dealer with the best price and I “will buy” the truck. I don’t have the time and zero desire to listen to car salespersons BS. Last time I did this and ordered the truck from the lowest price dealer. Then one of the other dealers called me and said “ Hey, I think we can do a little better on price.” I said, “ you had your chance, I bought a truck.”

Dale.....all of those dealers look at the exact same inventory state/region-wide. They all will find the truck you are looking for and it's the same truck(s). If that is "THE" truck you want, at that point....tell them up front whoever can (1) give you the best out-the-door price and (2) best bennies will get the sale.

I had two salesmen at a dealership try to play the good guy/bad guy routine. One was high pressure and pushy. He acted like he was frustrated over the haggling and walked away. Right behind him, his partner came over and tried schmooze the deal in a different tone. I noticed the first guy was watching what the the second guy and I were doing. At that point I knew it was an act and they were tag teaming. We never could come together on a price so I left that dealership and went somewhere else. I can't remember if that was a Honda dealership or not?? There's no shame in walking away....

If it's the wrong price, I walk out the door. Had to threaten one sales guy with a no contact order after he didn't get the hint and kept calling me. The best salesmen keep their mouths shut and let you drive the vehicle for a day or two. The product sells itself IMO.

JL, thanks. I’m sure you are correct. So it comes down to who is willing to sell it at the lowest price.

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