HARDISON’S TIPS – SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 (PT.2)
Step 3: Choosing a Vehicle
The choice of which vehicle to buy is of course the whole point of the customer coming to your dealership.
If the customer is financing and wants to be at two hundred dollars a month, putting them in a thirty thousand dollar car will be a mistake. It will be easy to get a customer to fall in love with a high priced car but when you get inside, you will be disappointed.
If you have your customers drive a car they cannot afford, it will be much harder to get them to like a cheaper car as much as a high-end car.
If the customer does not know what they want to spend or they will not tell you, start showing them the cheapest cars you have until you find something they like.
If they pick out the vehicle, they cannot blame you for the payment being higher then they wanted to pay.
Step 4: Negotiations
You will probably be using the four square system to negotiate the vehicle’s price and payment. The four square is a pretty standard system which psychologically makes it easier to make a profit.
Remember, the salesman’s job is not to sell cars, it is to make a profit on the cars sold. The four squares are:
Price: This is the last thing you want to discuss as any movement in the price means less profit for your store.
Payment: This is your main negotiating tool. The higher the payment, the more profit margin you can hold.
Trade: This can be a manipulative tool as any lowering of price will automatically raise the value of the trade without actually giving the customer more for their vehicle.
Cash Down: Another manipulative tool as more cash down will naturally lower the payment.
Your best two tools in the four square system is the cash down and the payment. Both of these boxes can be recalculated without lowering price at all.
As a salesman, your job is to get a commitment from the customer at any price. Your need to get the customer to take mental ownership by telling you,”If the price is right I will buy the car today.”
Once you receive a commitment, either you or a manager will come in and close the deal. When you first start out, a manager called a T.O. will come in. His job is to bump the customer. The bump is getting more money from the customer.
Leave a Reply