What Can You Say?

My buddy DA asked for another car lot story. In the business you occasionally get an older car with very low mileage on trade. We took in a 10 year old Buick with 9,000 original miles, garage kept, with no scratches, dents, stains, etc. Like new.

My prospective customer for that car was an 82 year old retired chiropractor who was driving a monster Chevy Blazer. He and his wife had decided to give up camping, didn't need to pull a trailer, and wanted to downsize. Neat couple. In their case, age was truly just a number. We made an appointment and I buried the Buick in the back of the "bull pen" after putting a pencil eraser inside one of the spark plug boots. This kept the other salesmen from selling it before "my" customer could come in. Losing the keys is for amateurs. The cost of replacing keys is totaled monthly, divided by the number of salespeople, and then deducted from their pay. While you can usually get a locksmith to the lot in thirty minutes, the lazy bones service department will take three days to touch a car even if every service bay is empty.

My customer arrived and we headed to the bullpen. Walking back to the Buick we passed a car with fogged up windows. Figures could be dimly seen moving around in the front seat. As we approached the car, the driver's windowed opened slightly and the male occupant asked, "Uh, Tank, do you want to look at this car"? The female occupant was making wardrobe adjustments. "No, John, we don't want to look at this car", I replied. "Oh, good", was his reply.

As we walked on the customer asked me what that was all about. What to say?
One sales trainer I studied had some advice that seldom failed me. He said, when backed into a verbal corner with nothing to say, let your mind go blank, open your mouth,, and whatever comes out will work. "Mr. Customer", I said, "That was our special finance manager. I think he is working out a down payment." Thankfully, the customer laughed.

The Buick was soon sold for a nice gross profit. The customer was delighted. The Blazer trade I was able to sell a few days later. John made his deal too.

Somehow, the store Owner's wife found out what happened, prompting a rather heated meeting with the General Manager. Got to love the car business. Where else can someone call you "A kinky blankty blank" and it is a compliment?

NEW BLOG

A new blog devoted to buying and selling cars. Several past associates are very unhappy with me. No reason to feel that way as most people don't have the moxie to help themselves.

http://consumercommandocentral.blogspot.com

Quick Quip

"Mo" likes my car lot stories so here is a quick one for him.

The Pritchmeyer (as he is called by his peers) sent a nice young couple on a test drive alone. They returned in a cab. "John", they shouted as they exited the cab, "The car caught on fire!!!!!"

"Oh", he replied, "Other than that how did you like it"?