Staying Dumb is the Smartest Thing You can Do

While working the desk here recently I handed a proposal (pencil) to one of our senior, veteran, strong salespeople.  It was the first proposal so it reflected a retail price with shorter terms and an average A.P.R. (we hadn’t run credit).  The trusty, crusty veteran looked at the proposal and said, “Here’s what I think we should do…” and proceeded to tell me how we should discount the vehicle, stretch the term and lower the rate.  I told him that we needed to start at retail and take a committed offer from the customer.  He went on to tell me about his 20 plus years of experience in the business and how he “knew” this type of buyer and how we could make the deal.  I said, “Here’s an idea, why don’t you tell me what you told the customer he could pay for the car.”  He stammered and stuttered and took the proposal to the potential buyer.  What he didn’t realized was I had listened intently earlier in the process as he and the customer engaged in an interesting discussion about how much over invoice was acceptable.  I actually heard the sales rep. say to the client, “We don’t have to make a home-run on every deal.”  Wow!  So this guy’s wealth of knowledge and experience tells him to talk price and negotiate before doing a walk-around presentation and to buy the customer’s objection instead of attempting to overcome it.  His experience also tells him to use “sales-lingo” with customers.  If that’s what experience gives you it’s a wonder any dealership can turn a profit.  Please, if time in the business only teaches you to short-cut and puke up gross profit, give me a floor full of green peas that don’t know a “get-me-done” from a “grinder”.  Unfortunately, my veteran salesperson is not the only one in the business with these tendencies.  He is more extreme than most but all salespeople at one time or another have thought ourselves out of gross profit or even a deal all together.  My advice:  Stop using your experience as an excuse for weakness and fear!  Fear is what truly motivates that behavior.

My first manager in auto sales told me, after I made the standard “beginner’s luck, green-pea grosser deal”, “Stay dumb, Brad.”  Good advice and not offensive because I knew what he meant.  He meant to not learn so much that I walk customers, buy their excuses and try to circumvent the selling process.  Easier said than done.  As humans we like to use our experiences, positive and negative, to grow and develop.  The problem with thinking that way in sales is we encounter so much rejection throughout our careers.  The best in the business close 30% of their opportunities.  Most people don’t like rejection and have a tendency to gravitate towards positive experiences.  This is why the wily old veteran doesn’t even “up” the guy that pulls on the lot in a late model full-size pick-up.  The veteran has enough experience to “know” that customer is “buried” in their trade.  I know I’ve given this example before but it bears repeating:

• Picture this:  A veteran salesperson is sitting on the point next to an eager, ambitious green-pea.  The first car pulls on the lot.  The veteran stops the green-pea.  “Stay put kid.  I think that’s a service customer.”  The new hire stays put.  “Oh, thanks for saving my time.”  The next vehicle pulls on the lot; it’s a late model full size SUV.  The kid starts towards it.  “Sit down kid.”  The wily veteran tells him.  “Do you know how buried those people are?  That thing’s too new.  You’ll be wasting your time with them.”  The youngster shrugs his shoulders and sits back down.  “OK.  If you say so.”  Not long after, a customer pulls up and gets out to look at a car.  The green pea springs up, “He’s mine!”  He declares running for the door.  The old car dog just laughs.  “Are you talking about that guy?”  He points to the customer on the lot.  “Look at how he’s dressed!  If a guy can’t afford clothes do you think he can afford a car?!”  Sheepishly the younger sales rep says, “No, I guess not.”  Back to his chair he goes.  The two watch the customer on the lot look for assistance, get back in his vehicle and drive away.  Yet another opportunity arrives.  As the younger peddler begins to rise out of his chair he looks to his mentor for approval.  The veteran simply sticks out his bottom lip and shakes his head “no”. “You don’t ever want to deal with those people.  They are the worst when it comes to negotiating.  You’ll spend hours with them and usually get nothing for it, your best-case scenario is a mini for a 5-hour marathon”.  Time and again the car dog told the kid why he couldn’t sell people cars.  “They all have bad credit.”  “He’s just a kid, probably here in his mom’s car.”  “I’ve dealt with her type before, believe me, you don’t want the hassle.”  “Those people are all the same.  They’ll take up your whole day and never buy anything from you.”  In all, 10 opportunities come and go.  When the manager comes by later in the shift and asks how it’s going.  The two say in unison, “It’s been dead.”

That may seem like a stretch of an example but it’s not so far fetched.

Another type of veteran experience being used to excuse weakness is the “people person.”  We all need people skills to sell; this is first and foremost a people business.  We can use this as our weakness instead of a selling strength.  Tell me if this sounds familiar:  “Hey boss, these folks are really nice.  Do you think we could get them a little more for their trade?”  Or, “These are good people.  Could we show them a little discount to start?”  These seem like sincere, genuine concerns for the customer (sniff, sniff how nice).  My boss used to ask me if I was going “Mother Theresa” when I’d make statements like that.  His point:  This is not a non-profit organization!  The truth is those statements (they’re nice or good people) are other ways to cover our weakness and fear.  Hey!  If they are so nice and good, why do they want to take your money from you?  What we must recognize is these behaviors undermine sales professionals and price integrity (there really is such a thing).  It cheapens your product and you.  After spending a minimum of an hour with a guest building rapport, presenting and demonstrating your product to build value and mental ownership, you come into the showroom and want to vomit gross profit all over the floor for the sake of a quick easy deal.  Mostly so you don’t have to deal with the discomfort of fighting for your money.  Question 1:  Do you believe your vehicles are worth the retail price?  Question 2:  Do you believe you and your time are worth the money?  If you answer “No” to either or both questions you need to step back and do some soul searching on your chosen profession.  You are doing yourself, your customers, your co-workers, your product and your dealership a great disservice if you don’t believe your cars or you are worth the money.  If (and I hope most did) you answered “Yes” to the above questions then you must recognize the danger of the short cutting and not asking for all the money at the time of the sale.

Yet further danger in using experience to justify asking for discounted prices on initial proposals is this:  If you come out with an immediately discounted price most customers are like sharks and they smell blood in the water.  They see how easily you gave up some money so now, they want more!

It goes back to the old saying about anytime a salesperson engages a customer “someone is being sold something.”  Either the customer is being sold the product or the salesperson is buying the customer’s objections.  Bottom line: someone is being sold something.  Given that this is our profession, who should be better at selling?

Stay dumb guys, it’s the smartest thing you can do.

From "The Paint Won't Lick Itself: Simple Truths for Selling Cars" by Brad Alexander