Stories from the Sales Frontlines

jipster

You're late snake, this battle is just about over and victory has been declared. You mop up the remaining pockets of resistence... I'm going to bed. :sick:

tidester

We could use a good story from the sales frontlines right about now!

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

jmonroe

Also who would take a payoff for $55k? Jeez, if I'm going to take a payoff it better be well over $3M cash

I'd say you have to be very, very good to command that kind of dough. From what i've seen here, if I were you, I'd take the 55K and get out of Dodge.

jmonroe

jmonroe

Heck there is a guy sitting in the Tombs downtown NY right now, being held in contempt of court for insider trading something like 10 years ago, I believe that he has already served more time than if he had been found guilty of the crime!

Geez .... now, that sounds like something unethical !!! :surprise:

jmonroe

jmonroe

I've received more than one private e-mail advising me to calm down.

Welcome to the club.

I've been axed a few times myself and I didn't do nothin .... honest. :mad:

jmonroe

afk_x

This whole thing about the receptionist is very simple. The customers calling in are not hers to give out. They belong to the dealership and as such she should follow whatever protocol they have set up for distribution.

Aside from that - a salesperson would be very wise to market himself to employees because everyone knows people who need cars and of course he should supply incentives to those who do refer him customers. That includes the receptionist.

gasman1

My Toyota salesman tells me that he heads the other direction when he sees late model "brand x" or big suv vehicles pull up. He said that he doesn't want to deal with people when they find out how much their vehicle brand and/or type has depreciated.

Kirstie_H

Hm... perhaps we should have included a free valium sample with those notes?

A story... a story... my kingdom for a story!

jbollt

TRUE story from a buyer.

It was 1993, after deciding what car we wanted, looking to buy a new 1993 Camry, and exhausting the local dealers (2), we saw an ad in the local paper for a new Camry LE at a great price, at a dealer in the bigger city (about 90 miles away). We called to confirm the ad, as we didn't want to drive all the way there and have it be bogus. The salesman was very nice, confirmed the price, and that they had "several at that price" and we set an appointment to drive up the next morning. He fully understood it was almost a 2 hour drive one way for us.

We arrive the next morning, all set to buy car, as we had already driven many 93 Camry's, and were now just shopping price, ready to buy. We ask for the saleman by name, and are told it is his day off! "He NEVER works Wednesdays, as he tales care of his kid on that day." Uh oh! Well, the salesperson who greets us is very nice, so we allow him to show us the cars available on ad.

We walk all over this huge dealership. Every one is marked up several hundred dollars for their "Desert protection package". He agrees that the ad applied to cars available without this extra, "let's see if we can find one that has not had the add-on applied yet", he says. Cool! We again walk the lot, and of course, we never see one that is "un-adorned"....

Ok, what ever...wife's getting annoyed, but we test drive, and go inside to have the trade-in appraised. After awhile of back and forth negotiating, each of us getting somewhat closer to the other, (they agree to not charge us for the "extras",) we can see that we are very far apart on the trade value, we get up to leave, and ask for our trade-in keys. They say sure, we'll go get them.

10 minuts later, another salesman comes in, introduces (himself as the sales manager), and asks what the problem is. We politely explain the we are thankful for their time, but because we aren't able to agree on terms, (we had already been given a better deal in our home town then what we were at here, and they knew that going in) would like to leave. After a few minutes of my wife again asking for our keys, and being denied, she is getting very annoyed, but stays calm! (I have no idea what is on her mind) She asks to use the phone. They of course, oblige. She calls 911, and says she is being held hostage!!!! (took me by surprise, and I had been married over 18 years at the time.)

WELLL! you should have seen the faces on the sales manager and salesman who had now re-appeared!

To shorten the rest of the story, the manager quickly agreed to our original offer, which was far less than one of our more recent offers, 911 was told the situation, and had agreed to come if necessary, but were glad it was resolved, but to call back if we weren't allowed to leave when we wanted.

As a footnote, a friend of mine just told me he recently (Dec 2006) had a similar experience at the same dealer, although he didn't have the creative wife that I have. They are still doing this in 2006/2007! I can't believe they are still in business!

(Kristie, do I get your kingdom?)

kyfdx

A 14-year-old story? Don't we have a statute of limitations on that?

speterson1

14 years old, but that's a good one. Had they thrown your keys on the roof?

paisan

Ok, I'll give a little back

My salesman of my 2000 Isuzu Trooper who happens to be a good friend of mine and I've spent many an evening hanging at his dealership before quitting time waiting for him to finish up before heading out for dinner. One day he calls me up frantic on a Saturday afternoon, asking me if I could come down to the dealer cause he has a couple who is looking at a 2001 Trooper but since the dealer is small they don't have any Troopers in stock. I agree and come down there with my truck which has big bars on the front and sides and is pretty covered in mud.

I take the couple for a test drive, even let them drive it. They were pretty impressed by it and asked how I liked it etc. I explained of all the offroad adventures I've taken with it etc. Even told them about how I was going down a snowmobile trail the previous winter and actually took it airborne about 3ft off the ground and had videos on my website showing it. They drove it and when we got back to the dealer I gave them the web address of the video and said check it out and see how well it still rides despite all the offroading.

Sunday morning 11am when the dealer opens they arrive and sign for a 2001. My buddy calls me and says they watched the video and said that they weren't planning on doing that but if it rides as well as it does after that, theirs will last a long time!

Another time I actually drove my dealer salesman friend out to brooklyn in 2+hrs of traffic to check out a Subaru Outback that his customer who he sold the car to about 2 months before said the clutch pedal was sticking and wouldn't release the clutch. Turned out to be a floor mat wadded up under the clutch pedal! But he actually went out and fixed it for her.

-mike

au1994

A good story. After being held "hostage" once, I've always given the dealer my spare set of keys or the valet key so that I have a set for the escape. Assuming I can find the car and it has not gone to the far reaches of the dealers back lot!

madmanmoo

Wow,

That's an awesome story. I wish I had a customer like you! What a great way to sell a vehicle.

Thanks for sharing that one.

-Moo

oldfarmer50

Several years ago when my Ford pick-up was only 19 years old my wife convinced me to go shopping for a new (used) truck. We noticed a late model Chevy at the local Dodge dealer and paid a visit to look it over.

A nice young woman met us at the door and we told her the truck we were looking at. She said the price was 12K. I told her I was looking to limit myself to 10K but before we could discuss price I'd have to drive it, inspect it etc.

Before she could answer this young guy burst out of a side office and shouted "How about 11K!" He was all shaky and agitated like he was on drugs. He launched into an incoherent sales pitch which left my wife and I looking at each other with puzzlement. It never occurred until later to ask how he heard our conversation from behind a closed door.

Suddenly, as if she had taken a hit of the salesguys' drugs the saleswoman shouted "If you can pay 11K I can sell you a new one for 13K". She ran off to get the keys without waiting for an answer.

Long story short, the new truck was a stripper with manual shift which my wife couldn't drive. By this time she was getting scared and we beat a hasty retreat. As we drove home my wife said "Is that the way all salespeople are today?"

paisan

Yeah I used to do it all the time, since I race Subarus, I'd be hanging out and he'd try to sell a Subaru and I'd go on and on about how they are to race and how my family has had them for years and years (which they did) etc. Really got customers interested and buying the cars when a true enthusiest was there on hand giving some real life experience. I used to have fun and calculate the number of cars I helped sell for a given month. As a result I always got great deals at that dealership

-mike

graphicguy

This will be my last comment regarding my "sales strategy". Nothing I've ever done has been in any way illegal, or even unethical. Creative? Yes! Unethical? No!

I've been fired before (everyone should be fired, at least once in their career). It's never been because of my ethics or my performance, though.

You may not like what I have propositioned. But, I'll guarantee "relationship selling" (whether its a relationship with outside contacts, previous customers, employees, etc) is what seperates the "haves" from the "have nots".

I work for an interntatioonal company. I've done international business. Matter of fact, in some parts of the world, you don't even get a meeting set up unless some sort of "gift" is imparted to the potential customer.

Gov't work is a different animal. "Gifts" aren't supposed to be offered, or taken (but many times they are). The guidelines are very strict.

But, I stand by my strategy. You want business? You find creative ways of getting it. If you aren't? You're an "also ran".

Those who think "outside the box" are always the ones who are most successful. You can wait for business, or you can go out and get it. Your choice. I'll take the creative person who's going to go get the business over the person who waits for it.

izaclown1

I had a "run in" with one of the local Ford dealerships several year ago. They advertised a van for a real low price. Stripped down to the bottom and a manual tranny. Some young greenhorn tried to sell THAT one to us. When I inquired about more options and upgrades, he asked if we were buying that day. I said, "No, just trying to get some figures to see if we can afford what we want." He said "I do not have time for you". My wife and I got the baby car seat out of the van and got in our car to drive off and he ran after us all the way to the end of the drive way. The old bait and switch. :P

Kirstie_H

Kristie, do I get your kingdom?

Sure. I pronounce you ruler of all that I survey... which currently includes an old computer and a very messy desk. Congratulations.

jipster

She's lowballing ya jbollt. I know for a fact she's got the keys to a Infiniti G35 within her survey zone. :surprise:

volvomax

SO how many of my fellow sales professionals have had a customer wreck a car on a test drive?
Happened to me once, with a 93 RX7.
Girl and her dad drive into the store, in an NSX.
Girl was driving the NSX.
We had a used RX7 that she was interested in.
So, I took her for a drive.
Drove the car first and explained it to her.
She takes over, pulls out of the parking lot, makes a left turn.
Right in the middle of the turn, she floors it.
Turbo #2 comes on line and the car spins to the left, she overcorrects, foot still on the gas and the car snaps right, does a 360, slides off the road and hits a tree.
This happened so fast, I was going to say "watch out" when she hit the gas initially, but only got "watch" out of my mouth before we hit the tree.
Luckily, no one else was on the road.
She burst into tears, and I had to call the store.
Did about $3k in damage to the RX7, which her dad paid. :sick:

jmonroe

...we can see that we are very far apart on the trade value, we get up to leave, and ask for our trade-in keys. They say sure, we'll go get them.

I had this old keeping-the-keys trick pulled on me. I told part of this tale a while back somewhere on one of these boards but since you brought it up again, I’ll finish the tale.

I was recently married only about three months (we were engaged for a little over a year) and I decided I was going to trade in my 66’ Bonneville when the new 68’ models came out (I think it was October, 1967). What can I say I was young and foolish and thought I “needed” a new car. Went to the dealer where I bought the 66’, no deals this time so I go to another Pontiac dealer.

We’re way off, worse than my old dealer, so I ask for my keys. I saw the salesman put them in his desk so I knew where they were. He says there is no need for that because he was going to sell me a car. I politely ask him again but I got the same answer. I get up very quickly so quickly that the chair I was sitting in moved clear across the floor hit a piece of carpet and fell over.

The salesman is now wide eyed and pushing himself back from the desk as he is reaching for the keys in his drawer. I have to admit he was pretty good at this because he actually had them out by the time I got to his side of the desk (probably did this before). He then says something like, “you don’t have to be a hot head about this” and I said, “if you weren’t a thief I wouldn’t be. That’s the way we handled thieves in my old neighborhood”. Out to the car we go.

My toushy no sooner hits the seat and Mrs. jmonroe starts, rapid fire … I’ve never seen this side of you before….. why would you do something like that?.... why didn’t you just ask to talk to his boss?…. why would you lower yourself to his level?... why?....why?... why? WHOA…. I finally interrupt and say, “let me answer one of those questions already, OK” !!!! The reason you never saw me like this is because you never saw someone try to steal something from me before. She gets one of those looks on her face, slides so close to the door that if she didn’t have her seatbelt on she would have fallen into the crack between the seat and the door, turns her head to the window (I think her nose was actually touching the glass) and stayed in this position (like a statue) for the entire ride back to the apartment. At least I got to listen to the radio without any interruptions.

I no longer trade in cars (sell em myself or ride the wheels off of them) but if I did trade I would take a “sacrificial key” to avoid having this happen again or take the family German Sheppard with you.

jmonroe

user777

I appreciate your response. I'm just trying to sensitize you to the fact that companies with large exposure to international business or government business have to avoid this sort of thing. It's just too risky to do otherwise.

And, I don't think you've adequately considered the position you've placed the receptionist, or for that matter any other employee in when you've established a method of rewarding preferential, creative, agressive, outside the box, unconventional, novel, relationship-oriented, (insert adjective) treatment.

By all means I think recognizing and rewarding the uncommon is warranted, but it should be done so by the employer, not by you.

You can put your money on the hustler / creative person. Go ahead and bet your business on it, but it ain't "all good".

madmanmoo

GG,

I'll quickly throw my opinion in on this. I partly agree with you on this. I like to be creative and find ways to work the system for my betterment.

I think the dealership would look differently at this though. Receptionist would probably be fired if someone found out this was happening. The phone-ups that are coming through are supposed to be paged for "new car sales". Not all of them coming in should be for "Mr. Moo".

It is definitely good to be creative in coming up with leads for yourself though. I like to work lease maturity leads as one of the best sources. I also took over a couple of guys leads that had left after 8 years here. I picked up all their sold leads and let them know that I would be helping them out from now on. I've already received a ton of responses from them and sold about 5. Good stuff.

-Moo

1racefan

"By all means I think recognizing and rewarding the uncommon is warranted, but it should be done so by the employer, not by you."

I agree.

Also, if a salesperson is going to reward another employee (that plays a support role), it is important for the sales person to realize that it is human nature for people to brag about gifts they have received - especially if they work with other people that do the same job as themself.

It would be smart for the person receiving the gift to keep their mouth shut, and realize that if they stay quiet, and keep doing a good job, more gifts may follow. However, my corporate experience has shown me that many people often feel the need to brag to their peers about how great of a job they do, and brag about the "gifts" thy have been given by some of the sales people.

Even if this gift giving doesn't violate any direct rules a company has, companies will often reprimand this kind of behavior because of the problems it causes within the workplace when people do start talking about having received gifts.

P.S. - I have been on both the giving and receving end of such gifts, but was smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

cotmc

volvomax,

With Mazda customers such as that, I can understand why Powell Volvo/Mazda evolved to Powell Volvo! :P

Have you ever had any "interesting" test drive experiences with the S60R?

volvomax

No actually, most R customers are too shy to push the car.
Plus the R is a much more stable platform than the last Rx7 was.

explorerx4

this morning a guy at work told me 'was' supposed to pick up his new car today.
'was? that doesn't sound good, what are you getting?'.
i'm getting another impala, i've got 106k on this one. i changed the oil a few times, but other than that nothing.
i figure he must have replaced the tires along the way, but didn't ask.
he says he stopped at a dealer to get a price on the one he wanted. he knew what options he wanted and had gotten prices at other dealers.
told the sales person, give your best price, it will be yes or no. he liked the price, but they had to locate it for him. he wanted a dark silver color.
so back to the 'was'. the salesperson calls him up and says "i have good news and bad news".
coworker: "ok, what's the bad news?"
salesman: "the car is here but it is light silver".
coworker: "what is the good news?"
salesman: "there is no good news".
co-worker: "i changed my mind, find me a blue one".
it was good for a laugh.

nyccarguy

On the news today. A Pontiac dealer in upsate NY let a guy (early to mid 20's) test drive a new G5 Coupe (by himself I think). The guy took it on the highway and got it up to 105 mph. The car went airborne and crashed. The guy is being charged with wrecless endangerment.

imidazol97

>The guy is being charged with wrecless endangerment.

But he had a wreck; how could that be "wreckless"? (Couldn't resist a bad joke.)

geo9

NYC..........Yup thats in my neighborhood Fulton NY
(north of Syracuse).

A young nitwit took a new car for a "test ride" from the
local Chev./Pont./Buick/GMC dealer up the highway (481) and crashed it !

Besides numerous traffic citations he also got a endangering
the welfare of a minor charge. He had a minor kid with him
BUT no salesperson !
Thankfully nobody hurt or killed...............

Waiting for the 11 o'clock news for pics and details ! :sick:

Heres the link: http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=04c4c285-b176-4db7-9135-e8- - daba52b4aa

And another: http://www.wtvh.com/Story.aspx?type=ln&NStoryID=4648

oldfarmer50

Another reason not to buy a demo.

tidester

Couldn't resist a bad joke.

Someone was bound to say that. Thanks for not letting anyone else be the one!

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

jmonroe

co-worker: "i changed my mind, find me a blue one".

It's not a done deal till it's off the lot. :surprise:

jmonroe

graphicguy

Man....I've taken a real beating on these boards the last few weeks. Consider me "corrected" by all of you (!@##$#!!!!).

Those twin turbo RX7s were beasts. They rode like bricks, but were scary fast and handled like a super car. If you didn't know what you were doing when the turbos spooled up, you would end up in the weeds.

This was a long while ago, but I was interested in a Mitsubishi Galant with AWD and a turbo. I took one out for a test drive when they were new on the Mitsu lots. I had the sales person in tow. We got on the interstate. I was in the center lane of a 3 lane highway. All of a sudden, a wooden log, about 2 feet long and 2 feet in diameter fell off a truck in front of me. Traffic was on the left, traffic was on the right. I had no place to go but over the log. We hit it. Wood splinters went everywhere. Sales person turned white.

We were able to (wobbly) drive back to the dealership. Sales manager comes out to survey the damage (grill was busted, tie rod and alloy wheel was bent). I told the manager what happened. Sales person coroborated. Sales manager looked at me and says....:"see how well these are built?". I concurred with his assessment. Then he asked me if I was still interested in the car. Ummmm....I said..."thanks, but no thanks". Got into my car and drove away.

I told my insurance agent about the accident and told them to be prepared for a claim to be made. Never heard from the Mitsu dealer again. Neither did my insurance company.

madmanmoo

Man....I've taken a real beating on these boards the last few weeks. Consider me "corrected" by all of you (!##$#!!!!).

Welcome to my world, GG. Which part have you been corrected about though?

-Moo

graphicguy

moo....I've been "corrected" about using "rewards" to have leads sent the sales person's way. I still think it's OK. Few, if any. agree...at least in car sales.

madmanmoo

I tell ya what. I'll take a quick poll of the guys here at the dealership and I'll give you one dealerships feedback.

-Moo

jipster

I still think it's OK.

We're not talking about murder or any criminal offense here. But, I think if you put yourself in the shoes of the salesmen who aren't using "rewards" to have "leads" sent their way... you may feel differently.

user777

If you still feel the same way, then you aren't "corrected". Chastised yes, but we have a good re-education program for you right over here...

Please sit down. :shades:

madmanmoo

Ok, here's the feedback. Almost everyone said, absolutely not. It's not fair.

This discussion reminds me of when Psycho Salesman was running around the dealership with complete joy in his heart. He was able to secure all the phone-ups and walk-ins through brute force. Of course, he was using the arsenal that he had available to him. He hustled and worked hard to make sure he got himself that edge. He's happy, but the rest of the sales staff is pissed and hungry.

If you can gain an edge in sales without disrupting the sales force, then godspeed. However, something like "tipping" the receptionist to secure leads will very quickly upset the rest of the salesforce and make for a lot of unhappy people.

How is that for feedback?

-Moo

joel0622

The only people two people who benefit from it are the guy getting the leads and the receptionist pocketing the cabbage. The other 15-50 guys on the sales floor are getting hosed.

Now with that being said I will tell you of a time when I used to take advantage of a situation and it did not cost me a quarter.

The way are sales floor used to be laid out I had a desk that was about ten feet from the operator. When she would put a call on hold on our old phone system you could look at the phone on your desk and see which line it was because it was flashing.

So I would sit at my desk and listen to the operator answer the phone. When I would here her say "wait one moment I will get you a sales person". When I heard that and saw the line start flashing I was on it quick. I used to score allot of sales calls that way.

verdugo

"Ok, here's the feedback. Almost everyone said, absolutely not. It's not fair. "

Keep an eye out on those who said it was ok. ;-)

jipster

Good job moo. You'll be our number one source for polling information in the future.

Results not surprising. Like I posted before, this issue of "tipping", or bribing as some like to call it, seems pretty cut and dry to me.

Perhaps we need to have some type of "intervention" for GG?

jfknott

After eighteen years in the business I have seen it all in regards to how leads are dealt with in the dealership environment. While many people may feel that it is not fair for a certain, or a couple of salespeople to influence others within the dealership to forward leads to them it is an aspect of the business that has been occurring since the business was begun.
Which one of us has the right to say that it is fair to "bird dog" customers and associates off the street or even stretch that a bit and "bird dog" service writers that see a customer in need of a new vehicle due to the high repair bill they are facing. Is it right for you to pay them for this lead? They work in the dealership. Just as the receptionist does.
Either way you see it, "Fair" or Just how business is done for those agressive enough to pay for the opportunity to sell another car it is doubtful that it will change anytime in the near future.
As for you Joel, I did something very similar with the phone ups. Whenever there was a phone up the receptionist would page "Sales 101" or "Sales 102" depending on the line it was on. I would set my phone on speaker, turn the volume down and hit intercom 10...... and when she announced what line the call was on I only needed to hit the last number. To me this is ingenuity not cheating.

Jeffrey F Knott
President Showroomtoday.com
Author From Zero to Hero, How to Master the Art of Selling Cars

jipster

I can see by the "plug" for your book, you don't care much for playing by the rules. :P

jfknott

Jim,
You have derived alot fo information about me and what I do and don't do just by the fact that I used my standard signature for all of the posts that I create. I happen to be new to this group. But it is good to know that I am welcome here.

Thank You
Jeffrey F Knott

audia8q

Hey graphicguy..now that you have been "corrected" I think you might qualify for some sort of syndrome or better yet a rehab tour.

volvomax

Here is why it is wrong.
The dealership spends its money to provide leads for ALL its salespeople.
The reason you have more than 1 salesperson in a dealership is to be able to take care of ALL the dealerships customers.
1 salesperson cannot effectively follow up all phone leads.
If a salesperson gets too many leads they tend to blow thru all but the best.
The receptionist is there to work on behalf of ALL the employees in the dealership.
Outright favoritism does cause alot of stress in a sales dept.

joel0622

Which one of us has the right to say that it is fair to "bird dog" customers and associates off the street or even stretch that a bit and "bird dog" service writers that see a customer in need of a new vehicle due to the high repair bill they are facing

If I choose to bird dog some one out of my own customer base or a friend that is my business and in no way effects the income of my fellow sales associates. If You Bird Dog a Service Writer it is not that big of a deal as long as the Owner allows it. A service writer is only going to send you a client with a big repair bill as a last resort. They want the job they wrote, thats how they get paid. If you have a good sales person on your staff it never gets to that point any how because he is working the service lane every morning and scooping that business up long before a Service Writer gets the chance to make the referall.