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Psychological Sales Tricks
 
I can give you the shopping tips that will aid you in saving $1000, $2000, maybe even
$3000, on your next new car or truck purchased.
You can forget about buying your dream car or
truck for dealers cost or $50.00 over cost. Knowing dealers cost is not going to make an idiot
out of the dealer. He can't keep that fancy dealership going with $50.00 per vehicle. You
have to get real about that. On the other hand, after you have the all of the facts, $50.00 over
"invoice" may be too much. "Invoice"..."Cost"...as you may suspect, there is stuff going on here.
Selling has always been a relationship game. The good salesman is friendly, sometimes
funny and pleasant to be around. Salesman, for our purpose here, means man or woman.
There are plenty of both who are excellent at selling. As competition grew keener, sales
trainers grew more crafty and introduced some psychology into their training agenda.
Today's refinements of the art of selling are mostly psychological. Even though they
usually hire high school graduates, college drop-outs, and/or retired persons in need of a
supplemental income. Some make good salespersons, some don't. The trainers hone the rough
edges from these men and women by teaching them some psychological tricks to keep you off balance. But, more about that
as we go along.
They begin by teaching the "Seven Steps of A Sale". Some teach ten steps but they are
just breaking one or two down further. The Seven Steps came as a result of Sales Engineers
breaking down what successful salesmen did to sell cars. After they had finished their
analysis, they condensed the salesmen's work to seven steps. They are:
Introduction, Qualification, Presentation, Demonstration, "If I Could, Would
You?", Write-Up and Close.
INTRODUCTION
Introduction was deemed important in order to establish a quick relationship with the
shopper. After all most people will buy from a friend or acquaintance, so the salesman is
urged to establish the relationship quickly. The introduction consists of shaking hands,
(taken from the ancient practice of the showing that the right hand concealed no weapon),
as well as touching (important), demonstrating a firm handshake to denote honesty,
telling his name to the shopper, asking for the name of the shopper, repeating the name of
the shopper (everyone likes to hear his name), and introducing himself to any others in
the shoppers party. Here, he is cautioned to pay equal amount of attention to the spouse.
Make special note here that any other negotiator other than a spouse (referred to in the
car business as "playing third base" or as a "third baseman") is often purposefully insulted quickly and this
can turn the deal adversarial. Of course, if he is a co-signer, that smooths things over a lot.
QUALIFICATION
Qualification is used to bring the shopper to focus on what he is interested in before he
gets out of control by looking at all the models and colors just for the heck of it.
Qualification is the beginning of the questioning process that will proceed until the
shopper has morphed into a prospect and then to a buyer. Questions control a conversation. A
good salesperson has many, many questions. The purpose of the questions is to focus on the
selling and not the prospect's concerns. Questions like, "How much do you want for your
trade-in?","How much would you like your payments to be?" "How much do you owe on your
trade-in?" "How much will you be wanting to pay down?
You can be as forthright as you can and I assure you when they hit you with the first
price they will be "jumping" your trade, (giving nothing or way less than it is
worth), using up all of your down payment in structuring the deal. If you took this deal,
it would be worse than the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. You can surely see that the
information that you give will be used against you. All salesmen should be required to
"mirandize" their prospects.
PRESENTATION
A good salesman will always have a good presentation of the product as well as himself.
He will usually isolate the vehicle. That is, get away from all of the others around it
so that you may focus on the car of your interest. The salesman will perform what is called
a walk-around. That is where he starts at one corner of the car and points out styling,
safety and convenience features. He will sometimes demonstrate the multiple settings of
the seat back, and power seats and windows if applicable. All in all, he lets you learn
about the vehicle before you drive it. This is a good thing and you should soak this up.
Ask questions. Now is the time to discover anything that you may not like.
DEMONSTRATION
Demonstration is certainly needed to reaffirm that this is the vehicle that you really
want to deal on. A good salesperson will go with you so he can keep on top of you and your
spouse's conversations. He wants to answer all objections as they come up, and to keep up
that god awful line of questioning. The thing to do is ask that you be allowed to test
drive the vehicle alone or with your spouse. Offer to let them to make a copy of your drivers
license and assure them that your insurance policy covers you driving another vehicle.
(Most standard insurance policies in all states do.) This will give you and your spouse,
or whomever, a chance to re-group.
Now believe me, you are going to like this guy or gal. That is their job...to be liked.
You will usually have a good time up to this point in your shopping experience. It is at
the end of the demo ride when you have answered his question, "How do you like
it?" that the frustration that most people hate begins to set in. You will be
honest and say you like the vehicle and ask how much it will cost. There won't be any way
under the sun you will get a figure of less, or very little less, than sticker price. If
you don't watch it, they will have an addendum sticker next to the Monroney label ( the
federally authorized sticker) indicating they have added some things. Usually it is
Scotchguard or something like it, Paint Sealant, of some variety, Theft Avert and any
number of accessories that carry a high markup. If they have switched equipment from
another vehicle, wheels and sound systems are a good example, the cost is going to be more
than list because of the shop labor to change it over.
"IF I COULD, WOULD YOU?"
If you tell your salesperson that you want to think it over, he/she will move to step 5,
which is "If I Could, Would You" and goes something on the order of this:
"If I could get my manager to make you the best deal you ever had in your life, would
you buy this car today?" This is the start a commitment that will be used
against you later. After they have run back and forth to a manager, marking down the price
and trying to get you to make an offer, they will remind you that you said you would buy today,
and this is the best deal anyone ever had in their entire life. So, go ahead and tell
him/her, if you want to, that you will buy today if the deal is good enough.
You will then be escorted into the building and ushered into a closing booth where you
will be asked for your keys so the Used Car manager can appraise your trade-in. While they
are test driving your trade-in, they will rifle the glove box, trunk, look under seats, go
through any purse or bag left in the vehicle to determine more information that will aid
them in getting you to buy that day at a nice profit.
You probably won't see the keys to your car for a while, but you will get them back.
They think they have a hold on you by keeping the keys. They do this so that if you bolt and run
they will have time to "T-O" you. That means Turn Over to another salesman or
manager. That won't hurt, because if it is the manager, he has more authority and that
should stop the running back and forth.
You may see a system call the 4-square where the salesman will have a work sheet and in
each corner is a space to record one of your supposed "hot buttons". One corner
for recording your response to "How much did you want to pay for a new vehicle?"
The second corner was to record the amount of "monthly payment" you wish to
make. The third was for "how much for your trade-in". The fourth corner of the form was for "down payment" you wish to pay down.
This is just another ploy to control the sales situation, pick your brain to see which of
the four is your "hot button", and focus on that part of transaction. If you indicated
a primary concern for the amount allowed for your trade-in, they would hold to sticker price,
or close to sticker, so they could keep the allowance for your trade-in higher. As if you
couldn't see through all of that. But, some don't and they get beat up pretty bad.
Now, when you honestly weigh all of the above techniques, is there really anything
wrong with what they do? If so, not much. The thing is, now you know what they do. Why not
do the same thing? Keep them off balance with questions. Turn their questions around. When
asked "How much do you want for your trade-in", ask "How much will you
give?"
When they return from appraising your vehicle, depending on the clues you left in your
trade-in, the salesperson will cozy up to you and talk about fishing or golfing or running. It depends on
what they found after rifling your trade that gives them a chance to strengthen that relationship.
When you get the deal you want, then you move on the Write Up.
THE WRITE UP
The Write Up is pretty simple. The transaction is put down on paper so that it can be read by
nearly anybody. So read it! Double check it. Ask about sales taxes, license fees, safety
inspection sticker fees any charges that you don't understand. There will be some, trust me.
Clear up any abbreviations or "Car Biz jargon" (Carbonics). THE CLOSE
For the Close, you will be escorted to the Business Office which is really another
salesman ready and willing to gouge you good with high interest rates, credit life
insurance, health and accident insurance, a service contract, jams, jellies and hand painted
neckties his momma made. If you have shopped the interest rates, and you should have shopped at
banks, credit unions and other car dealers, you will be able to combat this. The credit life is usually too high, but you
decide on that. The health and accident will really jolt the payment, but again maybe you
need it. It is often cheaper through a regular insurance agent.
The Service Contract can run well over a thousand dollars but can be bought also on the open
market as an insurance policy where it is insurance department regulated by the states. It
usually runs about half price to the factory deals. The Finance Manager will try to tell you that the
service department won't honor it, but that is hooey. They like that profit too well to
cut their own nose off.
Now it is time to start over and read the finance contract or final deal sheet. Again,
ask questions, bring your own calculator and make sure the figures add up. Check the
number and the amount of the payments. If all looks well, you are ready to roll.
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