As we have been discussing in our Sales in the Start Up class, the portrayal of a typical salesperson comes with many negative connotations. A few of those would be pushy, aggressive, smarmy and the list goes on. These words describe the old way of selling more so than what seems to be the more successful selling style of today. Individuals today have more access to information than ever before. The used car sales style is a thing of the past.
A great example of this comes from Pink’s book To Sell Is Human. Pink’s chapter titled “From Caveat Emptor to Caveat Venditor” he shares a story of a tale of two Saturdays. At your typical used car sales lot in Maryland, SK Motors opened for business on a Saturday morning with 50 used automobiles to move. With nothing unique about SK Motors they only had a few visitors throughout the day and sold only two cars. Meanwhile, down the road is a CarMax used car lot. CarMax thrives off being very upfront with each customer. The following are a few ways CarMax has changed the used car sales process. Each car has a set price, therefore, absolutely no haggling for a deal is necessary. The sales force at CarMax are paid entirely through commissions, which is common, but what is rare is that no matter the price of the car they sell the same pay is received. Lastly, as you take a seat at the salesman’s desk you both look over the information of the car right on his computer. There is no need to think you are being talked into a bad deal because you as the buyer have the same influence on the deal as does the seller. 
Individuals do not want to be sold. Be upfront, transparent and provide the buyer the help they need to solve their problem. Agitate, don’t irritate.
BoweryJE22
I loved the way Pink chose to illustrate this concept to us. Talking about the two different car lots (old and new) made the concept so much easier to grasp. It certainly seems true as well. When it came time for me to buy my car, I knew more about the Jaguar X-type than any dealer possibly could have and simply wanted someone to give me a fair price and the keys.
I think that transparency in business is integral to making the sale, and the stereotypes that salespeople are held to are beginning to be broken! From reading your post on CarMax, they seem to be leading the way in this new perspective on making the sale a simple, open and easy process! Hopefully, other businesses will soon start to follow suit, and make this transparency a common occurrence in everyday sales!
This reminds me of the first lesson in class. Sweet asked us what negative stereotypes are associated with sales. A number of words came out, including many of the ones above. Through the course of this class and learning how to genuinely help people through selling. This post wrapped that up really well.