Last month my wife and I bit the bullet and went looking for a new car.
Low expectations
I hate the car buying process. The thought of spending a day (or days) haggling with a car salesperson has always made me cringe. And this is coming from someone in sales. My last car purchase had been nearly a decade ago, and it wasn’t necessarily a great experience. The guy who sold me the car fit neatly into the array of stereotypical negatives that are associated with car salespeople: shifty, pushy, insincere, impatient, deceptive. Looking back, I don’t know why I bought the car from him. I guess I thought that’s just how it’s always worked, so deal with it.
A pleasant surprise
With that in mind I trudged along with my wife to the dealer on a frigid Saturday, expecting a day filled with annoyance and discomfort. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a fairly painless and positive process.
Being in sales, I took away some thoughts from the experience:
- If you take a decade off from doing something it’s probably a safe bet that the game has changed a bit while you were gone.
In researching cars prior to visiting the dealer I noticed more and more dealerships going to a “no haggle” pricing scenario. Basically, they are attempting to remove the negotiation process from the buying experience. It appears to be an effort to eliminate the intimidation factor for those who don’t enjoy the back and forth with a car purchase, and it’s a welcome change for many.
Takeaway: If you are in sales, make sure your website and collateral accurately reflect the way you’re doing business now. - Part of this shift was obviously a result of potential buyers having more access to information than ever before.
Before we set foot on the lot, we had all the information we needed. A quick internet search can tell you exactly what people in your area actually paid for that model of car, a dealership’s reputation for the buying experience, and so on. The unknowns of car buying have been virtually eliminated. Dealerships that had excessive negative buyer reviews or a reputation for over-charging were removed from our list.
Takeaway: Know what your online reputation is, and work to improve it if necessary. If you don’t, you may miss sales before they ever have a chance to happen. - The salesman we bought the car from made some educated assumptions.
These could have been based on our appearance or age or maybe both; I don’t know. He wasn’t pushy at all and instead spent the time going over the positives of the car. It was a good read on his part, as we probably would have gone elsewhere had he turned it into the dog and pony show that car buying can sometimes be.
Takeaway: Tailor your pitch to your audience. If you have a gut feeling about how someone likes to do business or be talked to, go with it. Personalizing a pitch goes a long way toward building trust.
As someone in sales and as a consumer myself, the adage “adapt or die” came to mind after this experience. One thing I try to avoid in my profession is locking into a certain way of thinking and letting that mindset prevail over a long stretch of time.
Things change in every industry. What worked for me five years ago may not work anymore, and it’s probably a good idea to remind yourself of that as often as possible.