Secrets to best buy a car

In fact, the first thing you must realize-and appreciate--is just how well-trained most salesmen are. They have books, classes, sales meetings, videotapes, training seminars, and marketing and motivation institutes all designed for one purpose: to teach them how to separate you from your money. A salesman is taught to understand his customer and to make him want to buy, not tomorrow, but today.

In addition to book and classroom training, a salesman has day-to-day practical experience that gives him the opportunity to put his knowledge to use and practice on real people. There are also problem-solving clinics (usually sponsored and directed by the factory) in which salesmen from several dealerships get together and compare notes. Similar to group therapy, these discussions aim at solving mutual problems experienced by the participating salesmen regarding their handling of customers and closing of sales. Even though these salesmen are in direct competition with each other, they openly share their secrets and tactics, because the customer, in his quest to best buy a car, is the enemy.

How do you, the customer, stand a chance to best buy a car when you confront the salesman in a bargaining situation? Begin by approaching the entire situation with an open mind. Realize that everything the salesman does, you can do; his tactics and maneuvers become your tactics and maneuvers.

While working with a salesman to best buy a car, you should constantly ask yourself, "Am I being controlled and manipulated? Is the salesman interested only in my money? Do I really want what he is suggesting I take? Am I really going to receive what he says I am getting? Is he telling me a story or telling me the truth?" Take the time and question: "What is happening and why is it happening?"

How to best buy a car : System selling

Salesmen are trained to use a system to sell a car: either a canned presentation or a selling cycle. A canned presentation is nothing more than a memorized speech someone else wrote. The salesman commits it to memory and mouths the words to the customer. An experienced salesman can give a canned sales talk and you would bet money he had never used those exact words on anyone else before. Your impression is that everything he says is spontaneous.

A salesman may subsidize a canned talk with a selling cycle or vice versa. A selling cycle is a step-by-step method of selling that allows the salesman to control his customer from start to finish. He will cover one area--one step of his system--and then move on to the next step. When the cycle is finished, it is extremely difficult to say no to his final request for the sale and the odds to best buy a car are going ... down !.

Salesmen who are fresh to the business are usually nervous about using a canned talk; they feel that you are aware that it is just that, a canned talk. The timing of a novice salesman is generally poor. He may start to say something entirely out of context to what is happening, stop himself in midsentence, and start off in another direction.

This could also happen to you as you read this article and acquire information and tactics foreign to your natural personality. You will then take them to a showroom and attempt to use them on a salesman so you can best buy a car. It is only normal for you to be a little nervous about doing so, and to miscue at times. However, like the salesman, with a little practice you will present your talk naturally and easily. It is important to be relaxed, to act as if you know exactly what you are saying, and to say it with confidence.

How to best buy a car : The question principle

A salesman is trained to control his customer by asking questions. He is trained to answer questions by asking questions, and to seek a commitment to purchase by answering a question with a question that asks for the sale. If you are to control the salesman, you must learn to use the question principle. When you ask, "Can I have the car tomorrow?" the salesman will probably answer you by asking, "Will you buy the car if I can have it ready for you by tomorrow?"

He has not really answered your question but rather set you up. You must control the process to best buy a car. Now you must either answer him or ask another question. If you simply say "yes" or "no," you have not received the answer to your question, but you have answered his question; you either buy or leave the door open to another question from the salesman. A suggested response is, "If I decided to buy the car, yes, I would want delivery within a day. Can you deliver the car within a day if we come to terms?" First, you get yourself off the hook; then you go back to your original question--as yet unanswered-and you have made no commitment.

He who asks the questions, controls the situation. When you ask a question that requires a lengthy response, it gives you a chance to think of your next question and it forces your adversary to stop and think. A question breaks up a salesman's pattern, interrupts his train of thought, and causes him to stop and give you an answer. As long as he is answering, he is not asking. This does not mean you should spend all your time asking questions for the sake of asking, nor does it mean that if a salesman asks you a question, you should refuse to answer him. How you react to a question asked by a salesman depends upon the type of question it is--whether it is a qualifying question or a commitment-seeking question.

There is a fine difference between qualifying you for need, want, and use of what you are looking for, and closing you on a particular car. Qualifying is simply finding out what you want, what is on your mind, and what it will take to make you happy; any good salesman should do this much. Closing is landing you on a particular car and asking purchase commitment questions.

Questions or statements like these are commitment seeking in nature and will help you best buy a car :

"Will you...if I can…?" Will you buy, if I can get the price reduced?

"Would you consider this?" Would you consider the blue car instead of the red?

"Would you like to?" Would you like to take it home today?

"Why don't you ... ?" Why don't you give me a small deposit? Why don't you take it home today?

"Let's do this..." As if a group endeavor; watch this one, it's a fooler.

"Let me do this for you." Let me: write up your figures? take another $100 off the price? talk to my boss?

Questions like these are qualifying in nature: "Do you want ... ?" "Have you seen... ?" "What do you have now?" "Who have you seen thus far? "Do you plan to do this?" "What color, size, style?" "Do you like this?"

To best buy a car, never hesitate to answer qualifying questions. A salesman must ask them if he is to give you the best he has to offer. If you are not ready to make a commitment, be evasive or simply do not answer commitment seeking questions. The best way to avoid answering any question is to pretend that you did not hear it; change the subject or ask the salesman an irrelevant question. If the salesman asks too many personal questions, ask him whether you are there to buy a car or to file application for employment.