Over the summer, I went with my parents to a Toyota car lot. The man that owns the car lot lives in our township and knows a few people that work with my mom so we knew it would be a good place to go. We went with the mindset of looking at one car and were nowhere close to the mindset of buying that day.
We arrived and a younger guy came up to us. He was very friendly and charismatic. We told him what car we wanted to see. He showed us the car and somehow convinced my parents that they should buy a new model of the car we wanted to see. They looked at the new models and loved them. My dad asked to take a test drive, but the salesman said the key pads weren’t working today. Apparently they did not have regular keys, so we weren’t able to drive the car.
From that point on, we couldn’t do anything else until we came back. The salesman took us back into his office. He started talking about programs where you pay a monthly fee to drive any car and options that my parents were obviously not interested in. He then called his manager in where he proceeded to introduce us to him. Turns out our salesman was new and this day was his first day.
That experience was rather awkward because his manager was asking us about our salesman in front of him. The whole experience seemed unprofessional, but my parents were still interested in test driving and buying a new model from the salesman once the keypads were working again. We gave the salesman our number and he gave us his card. He said he would call us in a week to set up an appointment.
My parents and I walked away thinking the whole day seemed off, but my parents were willing to go back in a week when the salesman called. A week passed. Two weeks passed. No call. I asked my dad if he was going to go back to that car lot and if he would call the salesman. My dad said no to both. He said that he wasn’t going to call the salesman because it was the salesman’s opportunity and if the salesman doesn’t care to call then he wasn’t going to buy from there.
Not only did the salesman lose a sale but so did the Toyota car lot because my parents would never go back just because of one bad experience. I am sure this is the case for others, as well. Salesmen are representatives for the brand they work for. If someone has a bad experience with one salesperson, they most likely won’t go back to that brand or company.
The biggest takeaway from this experience was that a salesman NEEDS to follow up with potential customers. If they do not, the customers probably won’t go back.
BoweryJE22
I heard many stories like this one. As a salesman how can you let a potential customer slip through your fingertips? Maybe that salesman realized sales wasn’t for him and didn’t make it more than a week. It’s disappointing to hear that one salesman can ruin a relationship with a company and a potential customer.
My parents had an experience very similar to this. They told the saleswoman exactly which type of car they wanted and she said she would be in touch about a price as soon as possible. They couldn’t believe it when she never called them back, especially when they were so close to making a purchase. Follow-up is crucial, especially in today’s competitive sales fields.