Any Car Sales Rep here? (experience with a car rep)

[Tomato]

So, I went to a mazda dealership just wanted to quote out some prices. (which I told him straight up from the beginning).

This dealer gave me the whole fucking tour from the garage, the history of mazda and bloody mazda 3 model and all that crap. I was like look I'm not going to buy just price it out for me. I'm going to buy a civic coupe but wanted to see how off mazdas were.

He proceeded to then bash honda in just about everything ranging from the glove compartment to the how the engine is placed. Trying to bend the stats in his favour.

Finally after going for the obligatory test drive. We got to pricing and was able to offer me a whole $1100 (which is list price discount) for an 09. And proceeded to pressure sales me into signing. I said you want me to buy your car? $20k cash all in. Dealer said oh we can't do this but look I beat Honda's price (I'm like yeah without a sun roof). Then he tried guilting me about the community support that mazda gives. I was like look buddy, your place could burn to the ground as long as I get my car I don't care.

He proceeded to walk away. LOL All the sleezy car dealer stereotypes fit with this guy. I find it quite difficult to understand, how "I want to price it out." can translate too, "You need to buy this car today."

At least I wasted an hour of his prime selling time.

Any car dealers here? Why does everybody try to force you to drive the car? Why don't sales rep listen to what the customers are saying? Like do they train reps in only one way to sell and they stick to it. I'm going to drop at least 20G's on a car, you think I'm going to be pressured to make a decision in less than an hour and 5 min. test drive.

 

[Captain Ice]

Never have been "forced" to test drive any car I've looked at.

They don't listen because frequently they can get the buyer to pay more or buy on a day that they're "just looking".

My advice - this car dealer isn't worth your time. Secondly, when you offer them the $20K all in, tell them that if it's not at that figure, you are leaving. And do it. He comes back at anything more, you get up and head for the door. If you get to your car before he stops you, come back in a few days, make the same offer, and tell him the same thing.

Also, when you go to buy, buy at the end of the month. The sales managers and salesmen have quotas and also get incentives for how many additional units they can move above the quota.

 

[Tomato]

Agreed that the dealer isn't worth my time, it is interesting because there was a great article in edmunds about car reps. And how they just keep on talking and talk about the most pointless things ever. Like the most amount of colours on the market. LOL Everybody just chooses sliver, black, white or red anyways..

Another interest talk I heard was by the CEO of NA for Hyundai who was railing on the auto industry. Everything from having a lack of vision to the experience. He said, "When people would rather go to the dentist than a car dealership, you know your industry in in trouble." LOL

Oh well off to scamper around for more car deals.

 

[Holdfast]

The lower end of the car industry works on low-margin volume driven by high-pressure sales. It's also often a first job for aspiring sales people, so they haven't refined their sales technique yet. So there's often a lot of bad practice and pushy technique that works on enough easily-bullied people to be just about profitable in the short-term, when times are good. They use basic "how to negotiate" techniques from pulpy paperbacks - for instance, the reason they like to get you in the car is because it theoretically ratchets up your sense of commitment to a purchase, and gives them an opportunity to build a rapport with you while driving around with them. It doesn't work if you feel pressured to take the test drive because they've just destroyed the rapport and made you feel uncomfortable. Similarly, the "let me just price it up" tactic is done to make you feel they've done a lot of work for you and to wear you down. The "let me talk to my manager" thing if you offer a lower price is much the same BS. Nasty cheap tactics that only work on the immature & the weak-minded and just annoy anybody else. However, they're still effective enough on those subgroups to be profitable if you can find enough of them (which is why they work best at the lower end of the car sales range).

A good salesperson is a marvel to watch in action though, in any industry. The ones that are brilliant at their job are tremendously educational to watch & listen to, esp. from my professional perspective, because they are FAR better at understanding the human psyche than most of my colleagues. They never convince a person to part with their money; they convince the person that they WANT to part with their money.

I love talking to good sales people - they have an intuitively brilliant understanding of what makes people tick. Same with good negotiators, diplomats, politicians and the better of my own colleagues out there.

 

[John Picard]

I love talking to good sales people - they have an intuitively brilliant understanding of what makes people tick. Same with good negotiators, diplomats, politicians and the better of my own colleagues out there.

This sums up something my dad once told me: "I know I'm going to get taken, I just rather get taken by a nice guy."

 

[Tomato]

A good salesperson is a marvel to watch in action though, in any industry. The ones that are brilliant at their job are tremendously educational to watch & listen to, esp. from my professional perspective, because they are FAR better at understanding the human psyche than most of my colleagues. They never convince a person to part with their money; they convince the person that they WANT to part with their money.

I love talking to good sales people - they have an intuitively brilliant understanding of what makes people tick. Same with good negotiators, diplomats, politicians and the better of my own colleagues out there.

OMG. me too. I went to a high end clothes store in Canada called Harry Rosen, I told the sales rep what I wanted, told him I wanted some clothes to go back to school. Started some small chit chat and asked if I was an engineer? I was like holy shit you can read my mind!!!! He was like no you are very precise in what you want which is what most engineers are.

The even sad thing is the mazda sales rep was like 50 Regardless of how much I'm hating car shopping it has given me brilliant insight into how the industry works and how car dealerships operates.

Part of me feels that the greed of having "add ons" and playing around with interest payments, led to the current state of a miserable car buying experience. When I buy a high end suit, I don't negotiate, the price is the price.

 

[Holdfast]

I love talking to good sales people - they have an intuitively brilliant understanding of what makes people tick. Same with good negotiators, diplomats, politicians and the better of my own colleagues out there.

This sums up something my dad once told me: "I know I'm going to get taken, I just rather get taken by a nice guy."

Exactly. Good sales people, and the other groups I mentioned, have sky-high emotional intelligence, combined with fluency of speech and clarity of purpose. It's a very charming combination.

A good salesperson is a marvel to watch in action though, in any industry. The ones that are brilliant at their job are tremendously educational to watch & listen to, esp. from my professional perspective, because they are FAR better at understanding the human psyche than most of my colleagues. They never convince a person to part with their money; they convince the person that they WANT to part with their money.

I love talking to good sales people - they have an intuitively brilliant understanding of what makes people tick. Same with good negotiators, diplomats, politicians and the better of my own colleagues out there.

OMG. me too. I went to a high end clothes store in Canada called Harry Rosen, I told the sales rep what I wanted, told him I wanted some clothes to go back to school. Started some small chit chat and asked if I was an engineer? I was like holy shit you can read my mind!!!! He was like no you are very precise in what you want which is what most engineers are.

The "guess the profession" thing is a really easy game to play - you pick on a few traits, then pick the most flattering professional group to stereotypically display those traits. Even if you get it wrong, you still almost always flatter the subject by associating them with that profession, so you win in terms of building up the rapport regardless. Straightforward technique, but it often works.

The even sad thing is the mazda sales rep was like 50

Probably about to be laid off, knows he won't get another job at his age, and so he's desperate to fill his quota.

Part of me feels that the greed of having "add ons" and playing around with interest payments, led to the current state of a miserable car buying experience. When I buy a high end suit, I don't negotiate, the price is the price.

Oh, you should still try negotiating anyway. Sales technique and building rapport can work both ways - if you use the build up of good rapport to your advantage, you might be able to persuade the SA to arrange manager's discount or a friends & family discount or something like that. Even in shops like Harry Rosen, it can sometimes work, if you're nice about it and can "sell" the discount to them somehow. Even if it doesn't come off, provided you're nice, there's no hard feelings, and they'll remember you as a good customer so you might get more lucky the next time.