Stories from the Sales Frontlines

nthe

anyone else out there use the cardone method, or at least familier with it?

jmonroe

All that FREE expensive food, FREE expensive booze...

Sounds great and I can understand that.

...FREE expensive hotel rooms and heated pools...

I was going to say...nah, I better not say it. :shades:

jmonroe

british_rover

When I was in college I used to wake up early and swin a few laps before the university pool got crowded. The athletes had a seperate pool but the general student population pool got crowded quick.

So last week was the first time I had a chance to swim at around dawn in four years.

And now with what happend yesterday I can never recall good college memories without getting joked up.

oldfarmer50

Is that where you shop for such a long time that you give up and say "stick a fork in me, I'm cardone"?

madmanmoo

And now with what happend yesterday I can never recall good college memories without getting joked up.

I know you meant "choked up", BR. I agree. This sort of thing really hits home hard. So senseless, such a waste.

My thoughts are definitely with those folks today.

-Moo

lrguy44

anyone else out there use the cardone method, or at least familiar with it?

I took the Cardone course years ago when I started in this biz at a Dodge store. Pick up a few good things that I still draw on today

tstorm5

Sitting around one Saturday morning, it was raining and as it turns out, it was the last day of May. Decided to look at Honda Civics (good mileage and reliable). Pulled up all the Edmunds data and compared it to Toyota. After adding all the extra stuff to the toyota it was relatively close to the Honda in price. I sent an email to a Honda dealer and explained what I wanted and asked him to give me your "best offer" as I don't like to waste time. I had decided on my highest number I would pay, with what I thought was a fair profit for him. He emailed me back with an offer that was $300.00 less than my price. Total time researching less than 2 hours. Total time driving to dealership 1.5 hours. Total time at dealership 45 minutes. I wish every car purchase I made went this well. I am considering myself lucky, it was raining, last day of the month, and a Saturday. I guess they really wanted to move some inventory.

bobst

Your buying experience was easy because you made it easy. You knew what you wanted and you knew how much you were willing to pay. When they gave you a good price, you jumped on it.

That's all it takes to buy a car. I hope you have enough sense to keep it for a long time.

venture

Just don't get Kirstie started on apostrophes and commas!

She should set up a page explaining the difference between bring and take. That's probably one of the most abused pair of words; as well as their siblings, the infamous brought and took.

How many times have you seen, "I am going to bring my car to the dealer tomorrow"? Unless they are already at the dealer (which seems unlikely), they are going to take their car to the dealer.

tidester

How many times have you seen ... ?

Would that be "number of times" or "amount of times?" :surprise:

It would definitely be too often! But here's Dr. Grammar to the rescue! Now just don't get the other host started on less and fewer!

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

venture

"Now just don't get the other host started on less and fewer!"

Yeah, that's another good one as is are and our.

This could get out of hand in a hurry!

tayl0rd

Let's not forget the notorious "than" versus "then". It makes my skin crawl every time I see someone write "rather then" or "more then."

jimbres

My pet peeve is the use of "it's" instead of "its", as in "My car is the best in it's class."

"It's" is short for "it is". Do these folks really mean to say, "My car is the best in it is class"?

thenebean

too, to, and two

those have always driven me nuts.

so have lose and loose.

a lot is two words, not one (alot)

now im no grammar queen - but i have pet peeves

-thene

paisan

It's in this case is the possesive form refering to the class. Maybe I'm wrong.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/possessives.htm

-mike

mac24

While we're on an automotive theme, so many people use 'insure' and 'ensure' interchangeably. Many also seem unaware of the difference between 'brake' and 'break', and 'pedal', 'peddle', and 'petal'. I often see questions about "my break peddle"! Or about a "bad break shutter", presumably meaning a shudder.

I'd better stop now or it might look as though these things bother me!

imidazol97

>It's in this case is the possesive form refering to the class. Maybe I'm wrong.

It's is still its even though the its used is referring to the class. That's the way its is.

Must be a slow sales week. All this grammar talk is making my head hurt. Haven't had this much English pain since my thesis prof pointed out all my split infinitives.

oldfarmer50

When I was in graduate school I passed a fellow student who had a tee-shirt which said:

"TOO MUNS AGO I COULDN'T EVEN SPEL STUDINT...NOW I ARE ONE AT STATE UNIVERCITY"

mikefm58

too, to, and two

For me this gets worse as I have a co-worker named Tu. How about, "Hey Tu, Did you sell those two cars to the Smiths? And what about the Jeep too."

jack47

Now ASK your co-worker Tu to write this sentence...(of course, I have to write it out sooooooooo you'll know the correct way to do it.)

There are three tus (to, too, two) in the English language.

Kirstie_H

don't forget to add "assure" to that list as well. (and I tried to "friend" you in CarSpace - thanks for the hot tip on my guide grammar!)

I can assure you that someone will ensure that your vehicle is insured before you drive off the lot.

I have this posted on my office wall:

tidester, I'm a less vs fewer fanatic as well.

So... anyone sold a vehicle to a customer lately, literate, semi-literate, or otherwise?

tcp2

Don't forget there, their, they're. As in "Because they're twins, they took their toys over there."

kyfdx

Affect and effect is my personal peeve...

oregonboy

Ok, I have to chime in... I hate it when people spell "no one" as one word: "noone"

To me that looks like "NOONEY"... drives me nuts.

oldfarmer50

...who couldn't find jobs became car salespeople?

Kirstie_H

Nope. Some of them are me
(well, English minor)

jmonroe

"TOO MUNS AGO I COULDN'T EVEN SPEL STUDINT...NOW I ARE ONE AT STATE UNIVERCITY"

That was 'snake'!!! :shades:

jmonroe

joel0622

...who couldn't find jobs became car salespeople?

Wow, I will just assume that you just forgot to put a Emotorcon at the end of that, cause I don't even want to get into the subject of all the "smart" people who couldn't last 30 minutes in my seat

jmonroe

Now just don't get the other host started on less and fewer!

I'm not worried. There can't be very much to that.

jmonroe

madmanmoo

Well, funny that you ask! :P

I decided I had neither the patience nor the drive to become a teacher. My brother informed me of some of the highs and lows and I opted out. He has taught at University and high school level.

Although I may not be using my major specifically, I believe that it comes in handy when trying to communicate to someone either in speech or writing.

But who knows!? :confuse:

-Moo

pat

Uhh... "some of them are me"?? :P

::entering glass house as I speak::

madmanmoo

Here's a quick story about one of my customers from last week.

We'll call my customer, "Vinny". Vinny moved down from Long Island about a year ago and his leased Altima is coming to term in 1 month. He wants to keep his payments the same as his 60 month lease and put no money down on a new Versa, BUT he wants to trade in his leased vehicle to avoid payment penalties at the end of his lease.

The Altima is 30k over mileage. The check engine light is on, there is no working A/C in the vehicle (cripples the value of a vehicle here in GA), many bruises and cuts around the outside of the vehicle, and to top it all off he needs 4 new tires.

If he turns in the vehicle, he will owe over $5,500 to Nissan. That's a conservative estimate. If he trades in, he's only $3,800 hooked. Not bad, right?

Vinnie thinks that his car should be worth much more. Vinnie, seriously man, would you pay more than $6k for a vehicle that has all this work needing to be done on the vehicle? He questions me why it's so different than what the residual is...... 30k over mileage Vinny. That's like driving the car for 2 more years than you were supposed to.

So I can get him in the range of his payments with $1,600 out of pocket. Sounds like a great deal on a Versa, huh?

He says he needs to get back to work when presented with the numbers. (As usual, everyone seems to have tons of time until money is talked about.) He says he'll come back after work. I say, great!

He no shows. He won't return phone calls, he won't return e-mails and I'm laughing to myself thinking about what he's going to do with this turdbox that he's driving.

So he finally sends an e-mail over today and says that he'll do the deal, but we have to cut an additional 2k off the price. On a Versa. That has like 1k mark-up. That he was already getting a part of. Oh. Boy. :surprise:

I hate to play hardball, but this guy is screwed. I supposed the only other option is to purchase the lease and take care of all the problems on the vehicle by himself.

Good luck to him! Let's see if he moves on his offer at all. I sure won't.

-Moo

oldfarmer50

"...assume that you just forgot to put a Emotorcon..."

I'm sorry about not using emotorcons to indicate that I was joking . I'll do better next time.

BTW, I think you mean AN Emotorcon, not A Emotorcon. After all, this is grammar class.

thenebean

he's in a tough situation, and he thinks that you still need to reduce the price of the car for him? poor poor vinny. seems like you are doing all you can to help him out in the first place. how did he possibly think a lease was a good idea of him or his type of driving in the first place?

if you lease for the sole purpose of keeping payments down, then you shouldn't be leasing (my opinion)

then again, i drive boatloads of miles. i don't know where i go with those miles though - CT is not a big state! :P

MORE STORIES PLEASE!!!

-thene :P

boomchek

Yeah too bad for Vinny.

I had customers like that too with slightly unrealistic expectations.

Actually I'm trying to get a guy out of his Nissan Altima loan as well, cause he wants to get an Accord. The problem is he bought his Altima used, financed it for 60 months and is upside down on it. We're using whatever little gross we have to try and cover his negative equity.

The funny thing is he came in about a year and a half ago looking at Accords, and my coworker helped him out, spent a lot of time with him, and then he went and bought his used Altima, which he hates right now. He's not the first customer who I got along with fine, and who bought something else only to come back to me and admit he made a mistake buying something else. :surprise: "Well, you should have listened to me, but......."

As to grammar, thank you for bringing some of it up. The incorrect use of the apostrophe bugs me the most. Examples: "I have car's for sale, I have many DVD's, I have six tattoo's" :mad: :mad:
Coorect: I have cars for sale, I have many DVDs, I have six tattoos.

But I've been guilty of using it incorrectly as well form time to time.

And then there's the customers who use incorrect terms such as:

Is this car a V4? Ummm, no it's an inline four. They don'[t come in V4, nothing comes in V4.

thenebean

it really bugs me when people spell correct Coorect!!

my sister just called me from hawaii - she's looking to buy a used car for a year until she comes back to CT...one lady they know has a 2002 Volvo S40 with 29k miles that she wants to get rid of because she can't afford the payments...my sister asked her how much she owed...

$17,000!!! for a 5 year old Volvo S40!!!

i think she bought it used, and got COMPLETELY hosed!

either way, i told her to pick up the used maxima someone else is selling (once she gives me the info about it), drive it for a year, and then sell it before coming home...

-thene

cotmc

...nothing comes in V4.

Yamaha and Honda might beg to differ!

(Honda Motorcycles, that is...)

wlbrown9

Hey...I bet the reason Vinny needs so much help on his trade...He probably is getting a lot of pressure on the sub-prime mortgage he took out 2 years ago that he can't afford now either. You know some guys just can't get a break :-).

cotmc

Moo, and other Nissan sales reps:

Have you ever had a wise guy come in looking for a Versa, who says he needs it to "save the cheerleader, save the planet"??

Not only has the new series "Heroes" caught my attention this year, but its merciless product plugging of the Versa has also caught my ear! If memory serves me correctly, most TV shows never call out a specific manufacturer, let alone the specific model of the car. For this series, there have been several episodes where the character named Hiro specifically refers to his "Nissan Versa" rental car. It's almost as shameless as my sense of humor!

cotmc

"it really bugs me when people spell correct Coorect!! "

...and it really bugs me when I can't tell where a sentence ends and another begins...

madmanmoo

No, LOL.

I didn't even realize this was happening. Nissan sure is trying different things.

Has it made you want to purchase a new Versa? :P

-Moo

imidazol97

I'm getting nervous reading all the grammar corrections.

The over-mileage story was great. Keep 'em coming.

tidester

I bet the reason Vinny needs so much help on his trade...

I suppose this is what happens when you don't pay attention in math class.

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

lrguy44

My grammer used to correct me all the time - she was an educated lady

boomchek

I figured there's a V4 motorcycle out there, but the people asking the V4 questions don't look like motorcyclists at all. But I know what you mean.

Sometimes it's easier just to say "yeah, it does" (come in a V4) rather than explaining the differences of engine construction.

Some people are confused enough as it is.

madmanmoo

Vinny, in all seriousness, needs someone to hold his hand throughout these processes.

Obviously, the bank isn't interested in carrying so much negative equity on a 15k car. We have a maximum amount that we are able to carry and he needs to put money down. I sincerely believe that he doesn't have it, but I've been wrong a lot before.

I'm sure most folks are aware of how slow this time of year is. April is notorious for it. First week has spring break. Second week everyone is crunching numbers to finish up with taxes. The beginning of the 3rd (which is now) everyone is breathing a collective sigh of relief that they've made it this far in the year already without self-combusting. The end of the 3rd week and all through the 4th week we'll sell cars. It's just getting through those first couple of weeks that are tough.

Our store has so many green peas running around it's making me nauseous. Here are some of the problems with having too much green on the floor.

They blow ups left and right. That means they are taking money out of my pocket and theirs.
Someone once said that the only stupid question is the one not asked. Well, I can verify that not to be true. The green peas ask way too many stupid questions.
They are just plain annoying to be around. They swear too much. They smoke too much. They bow up around you to show you that they too are tough and excellent salespeople. It's just boring after awhile.

I can't wait to see us get another solid salesforce here.

Any commiserators?

-Moo

dino001

He probably has no penny to his name. If he leased Altima for 60 months at the first place, it's all I need to know. You were often picked on "cherry picking" customers. Well - that one I would not touch with a ten foot pole. Either way you cut it, guys like this are lose-lose.

You either make no money, or you don't sleep at night as you just put the poor slob in a 84-month loan at 20 percent APR and he still had to sell his kidney to pay off the negative equity.

madmanmoo

You were often picked on "cherry picking" customers. Well - that one I would not touch with a ten foot pole.

But remember, Dino. We're SLOOOOOOWWWWW. I helped a woman yesterday who was a 560 beacon, $5,600 buried and wanted to lower her payments. Yes, typically I cherry pick more, but my wife and baby are clamoring for more money. So I improvise. It's all numbers, one of these folks are going to buy.

You either make no money, or you don't sleep at night as you just put the poor slob in a 84-month loan at 20 percent APR and he still had to sell his kidney to pay off the negative equity.

The first one may be true, I don't make any money. The second isn't. I have never lost sleep over a deal like that. Just another crazy customer.

I love them all. :P

-Moo

dino001

Allright - I might (lose the sleep). That's why I'm an engineer and do not anticipate any sales work in any near future.

jack47

My grammer used to correct me all the time - she was an educated lady

LOL.

No doubt she was "intelligent" as well as "educated".

Unfortunately, too many "educated" people are not very "intelligent".