A few years ago, my family decided to invest in a truck and camper. We had discussed it for a long time and finally decided the time was right. I happened to stumble upon a used Chevy Silverado 2500 HD with relatively low mileage and wasn’t very old. My parents have never bought a used vehicle in my lifetime and my mom was very uncomfortable with the idea, even though my dad, sister, and I were encouraging her to “just try it out”.
At the dealership, the salesman was very approachable and spent time on bonding and rapport. He introduced us to the manager who started talking to us like we were family and who also gave our dog special treatment. My mom (who had never really driven a vehicle like that) took the truck for a test drive. Once back at the dealership, the salesman sensed that my mom was hesitant and probed to find her pain in a way that was similar to the Sandler rule of “close the sale or close the file”. Eventually he discovered that there wasn’t anything specifically wrong with the truck, it was the fact that she was uncomfortable purchasing a used vehicle, knowing nothing about the previous owner. The salesman then used a third party story by talking about the relationship the dealership had with the previous owner, how great of a guy he is, and how well he took care of the truck. Some of the other salespeople stopped by, knowing nothing about us, confirmed the story of the previous owner after noticing that we were looking at that truck.
By the end of the day, we bought that truck, but the salesman told us afterward that he didn’t think we would based on the conversation we had been having. This seems to me like an example of working harder, not smarter, since the vehicle was at a prime price and condition to roll off the lot. The salesperson spent an entire day with my family and eventually closed the deal. The way that truck was priced, it would not have stayed on the lot long, making it seem like the salesperson may have been wiser if he had closed our file.
BoweryJE22
What a great anecdote! In some ways, he was a good salesman, and in others, he failed. It’s always a good idea to “go for no” at some point in the conversation.
Sounds like he did a great job really digging for the pain and helping you and your family find and settle on the best option for you all. It might have seemed like to you that he made the best decision for himself or the dealership in taking so much time to “close the deal” but maybe the personal reward of knowing he helped you find what you were looking for was enough for him. Also you and your family now have a great experience to share about!
I love how you wrote about a real life experience that you looked back on and realized things about since we have been in this class. It is awesome to be able to take the skills we have learned and apply it to real life. Your salesman seems like he needs to take a sales class or two since he spent all day working with you without the hopes of you ever buying…he must have been pretty happy he stuck with it!