Real Life Sales Experience

Over the break, I encountered a sales experience with my Dad. My Dad buys salvage cars and does collision work to fix them. While at home he started talking to me about getting a new car. My car was about to reach 100,000 miles and since it was a 2004, my Dad thought it would be a good idea to get a new car. My Dad found the same vehicle on craigslist with half the miles. The only damage that the car had was hail damage.

Thus, my Dad and I went on adventure together leaving at 8 am for Bath, NY. I was asking my dad what his plan was for negotiating with the buyer. My Dad is very experienced with cars and knows more than almost everybody. We can be driving on the highway and he can say what car it is, what the make is, and what year it is in no time flat. Also my Dad has had experience fixing the 2004 Sebring Convertible before since I have had it now since I had my license. He knows the inherent problems the car will have in a few years and that will be a negotiating chip for the negotiation. For example, at around 85,000 miles my fuel pump stopped working so I didn’t know how much gas I had in the tank. I discovered this when my car was on a half of tank but while driving all of sudden stopped. It ran out of gas… His idea was to lowball him from the get go because he was asking for $2500 and he thought he could get it to $1500,

Once there, we took a look at the car and besides the hail damage it looked great. The only problem was that the seller was not there. His brother was there to show us the car but he kept on saying “I’m not the one selling it.” My Dad was disappointed because he was looking to make the offer and the brother said he would have to come back another time. My Dad didn’t want to do that so he suggested that he talk to him over the phone. We waited a good 10 minutes but eventually the other brother picked up the phone. Before the time my Dad got on the phone he was connecting with the brother. My Dad has fixed hundreds of cars so they just started talking about it like it was no problem. Apparently, the other brother sells salvage cars as his income. He goes to auctions and turns them over for profit. So anyways, my Dad made an instant rapport with the one brother. My Dad got on the phone and told him about the inherent problems with the car and how he could get a tow truck to take the car. They went back and forth on the numbers and they end up settling for $1750. My Dad was thrilled with the deal and thought that after I sell my current car we might break even. After selling the car we had to go over the one brother’s house to get some papers. When we got there, my Dad continued to connect about cars and showed the brother some pictures about what he has done. The one brother was very impressed.

In the end, we got the car for a price we wanted. After seeing my Dad’s negotiation, I took away three key things that he did that I thought made the sale successful.

1. My Dad was the expert among the three of them. My Dad knew so much about the car and cars in general that the seller could not pull a fast one. He was very convincing.

2. My Dad was very persistent. At first, we couldn’t even make a deal because the seller wasn’t there. It took him asking the brother to call him in order for it to work out. At one point, while we were waiting for the seller to call back, my Dad offered that we go into town for breakfast and when the seller calls back will drive back. He wasn’t leaving Bath, NY until he could make an offer.

3. My Dad made a connection with both brothers. They all had one thing in common: they all love cars. He could have talked to the one brother for hours about stories and projects he has been involved with. It is much easier to make a sale when you genuinely get a long with the person and do not want to rip them off. My Dad and the seller were participating in relationship selling.