Lessons From Buying a Car

I love the car buying experience. Yeah, I’m sick like that. Being a sales trainer, I am 100% in my element as I observe the hits and misses of salespeople and management. My wife’s frequently troubled 2018 BMW had one too many costly repairs and even this Yankee could no longer substantiate the inconvenience of yet another issue. So, armed with the latest Consumer Reports and a frustratingly vague “I’ll know it when I see it” target car, we set out on a weeks-long hunt, picking up interesting and important sales lessons along the way. I’ll try to list them in an order that follows the timeline of our journey:

›If a client asks for something, give it to them — The first dealership we walked into was Hyundai. We told the sales rep we were there to drive two specific vehicles — the Santa Fe and the Palisade. Lia led us to her desk, took down some basic information, and then began asking a list of questions that were part of the protocol she was taught to follow. While I approve of the effort to uncover needs — something I teach and believe in — if a customer is that specific, the first move is to go grab two sets of car keys. There will be time to ask questions later. When I firmly asked her for a test drive, she got the hint and gave us our next insight ...

›Management can prevent a sale — It took Lia an inordinate amount of time to recover the keys from the guy behind the front desk. We would later learn her manager, Justin, chided her for not getting the required information from us. He is the primary reason we drove out of the Hyundai dealership and crossed those two vehicles off the list. My friend Mike Philie would call it the “Sales Prevention Department.” Sometimes management is smarter than sales, but when a client says, “That one,” fulfill the request. Interestingly, when we swung by a Ford dealership to drive the Mustang EV, the six-week-new sales rep, Tyler, did not hesitate and did not ask questions. He took Allison’s license and handed over the keys. I guess management hasn’t ruined him yet.

›Product knowledge is paramount — The experience we had at the Kia dealer was unique. We were greeted at the door by Daniel. We told him we were there to drive the Telluride and then quickly added we’d already driven its cousin vehicle, the Palisade (Kia and Hyundai are owned by the same parent company and share platforms). Daniel rattled off some key differences between vehicles and as we kicked the tires of the Telluride, it was clear he had a very deep knowledge base of his product and his competition’s. Impressive. This would go on to be a key factor in our final purchase decision. It’s also a major differentiator, which brings me to my next point …

›Your competition sucks at sales. Be better — Buyers routinely report their No. 1 reason for choosing one sales rep over another as being raw sales ability. This critical factor is 100% within your control to change. Become a student of sales. Observe and learn from those around you, both professionally and personally. Read books on selling skills (“Never Split the Difference” by Christopher Voss) and human nature (“The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman) and never stop learning. You might not have the lowest price, but your superior selling skills can still win you the order. And speaking of the competition …

›Never badmouth a competitor — If there’s one commonality across all salespeople we encountered, it was a complete respect for the other vehicles we were considering. Each rep was given ample opportunity to provide disparaging comments, but not one of them took the bait. Badmouthing is unprofessional. It’s right up there with gossiping. There is no faster way to take yourself out of consideration.

›A delay in the process gives the client time to check out other deals — It’s important to mention, none of this search experience would have happened had the team at the local Volkswagen dealership done their job. I have bought somewhere north of seven vehicles from them, and you’d think it would matter. You’d think loyalty would be rewarded in prompt response and preferred pricing. I won’t even allow the possibility our business was taken for granted because I don’t think it was even given that much consideration. I asked for a quote on a vehicle and seven days later — only because my daughter happened to be there and said to the sales rep, “You know my dad’s waiting to hear from you, right?” — did they finally respond. It was that delay and their ultimate response that gave us the time to look elsewhere. When they did get back to me with pricing, it uncovered another lesson ...

›Proposals are more than just numbers. Presentation matters, too — The email from Volkswagen finally arrived. The proposal was a scanned document, delivered upside down. Worse, the paper had been crumpled up into a ball and then flattened out. This was the final straw. I didn’t need them to say, “We don’t value your business” any louder than that. It’s only because my Volkswagen ID.4 sits in their service bay awaiting parts (a mouse did $4,300 in damage) that I don’t go deeper into my disappointment.

›Make the second sale at the same time you make the first sale — That ID.4 has one more year left on the lease. I made sure to mention that during every encounter with a salesperson in the hopes that they would take that into consideration while giving us a price. My message was, “Do a good job on this transaction and you’ll get first dibs on the next sale a year from now.” To my surprise, no one got the hint ... yet. Perhaps my phone will ring six months from now, but the point is you should be thinking about and working toward the second and third sales immediately upon receipt of the first. A very smart Minuteman Press owner in San Antonio, Texas, Ignacio “Primo” Duran believes, it’s still transactional until the third sale. That’s when they truly become a customer for life.

›Follow up that brings additional value — Daniel, the sales rep from Kia, followed up on his proposal with an email and a voicemail. Both were more than the usual “Just checking in.” Both included additional reasons why we should buy from him.

In the end, we ended up going with a Kia Sorrento, buying not only the vehicle (technically, we leased), but a relationship with the Marshfield, Massachusetts, dealership as well. It was never about price. I wanted to buy more than a vehicle. I wanted a relationship and I got one. Sadly, I have to wait a whole year before my unique love of buying a car happens again.

P.S. — My favorite part of the entire process is not when the deal is inked. It’s when an overly gregarious salesperson asks mandatory car salesman question No. 5 in an attempt at genuine interest: “And what do you do for work, Bill?” When I reply, “sales trainer,” their faked smile turns into sheer terror and now the interest in the answer to the next question is completely genuine: “How am I doing so far?” Insert evil laugh here.