Car Buying Advice

Let's imagine that you are in the new market for a new car. Just like the Car Selling Tips you will notice that these techniques are very similar. In fact, all you need to do is put yourself in the position of the buyer rather than the seller:

A car buying customer walks onto the car lot and inspects a used Ford Mondeo that had only come in last week, priced at 21,000 euro.

After some time the customer requests assistance from the sales person.
They discuss the car together, its upgraded car stereo and alloy wheels, its interior leather trims and so on, and together they take the car for a test drive.

15 minutes later they arrive back on the lot and the customer says to the salesperson, “Thank you very much. I enjoyed the drive, but it isn’t really what I am looking for.”

At this stage the salesperson is probably wondering why the customer had rejected the car - but also they thought the customer really enjoyed the vehicle too, so he probes the customer further. He asks “What is it that you aren’t too happy about with the car?”

The customer responds “The price. I couldn’t possibly pay anything near to what you are asking for.”

What the customer does here is make the salesperson think that he may have a potential sale as the customer has expressed pricing concerns.

But the customer is sharp – he jumps in and says “Thanks for your time. I enjoyed the drive but as I said it’s far too expensive."

He continues, "But just to be fair to you, what with all the time you've spent on me, what is the very lowest price you can let this car go for?”

He now has the salesperson in a position to find out whether he will come down on the sticker price of the car.
The salesperson says, “Well, I guess if I speak with the boss, he may let it go for 19,000 but that would be the lowest we could let it go for”

So now the customer has got the price down. He turns around and says:

“That’s too bad. Based on the year, mileage and colour of the car, I could probably go to somewhere in the region of 15,000 euro.”

The customer has shown interest in that he wants the car, but will only pay around 15,000 euro. The salesperson is now thinking about the bottom line value of the car. It is 16,500 euro. So now the salesperson is committed to the process. He has spent nearly half an hour with the customer on a busy Saturday morning – and the salesperson would love to get a sale from that customer today.
So the salesperson says once again “I will check with the boss to see if I can come down any more for you”

He go away and come back a few minutes later and says “I can let it go for you, only, at 17,000 euro”

So now the customer and salesperson are only 2,000 euro apart. The salesperson is at €17,000 and the customer is at €15,000.

The customer negotiates some more with the salesperson, using decoy gambits such as “Well, you know the colour is horrible.
The customer says “Look, tell you what, I can come up to 16,000 euro if you can let it go for that I will buy it today”.
Now the salesperson is gritting his teeth… He can't let the car go at below his bottom line! So he says “Let’s split the difference, I can’t let it go for less than 16,500 euro, I will lose my job if I do!”

So now the customer has the salesperson at his bottom line and this leaves the salesperson with very little to no commission.

Make sure you use the classic Decoy and Time Pressure gambits.

Did you spot where it was?

The customer new what the value of the second hand car was. He had done his research and discovered the car was in fact worth in and around 16,500 euro. He bracketed his price below the bottom line, indicating to the salesperson he was interested in buying the car, but would have to come way down on the asking price.
He applied time pressure on the salesperson. They had both taken the car for a test drive on what was a very busy Saturday morning – taking up a lot of valuable selling time. Then he knew the salesperson wanted to make the sale as he did in fact drop the price several times. The customer figured the salesperson would just keep dropping.

Remember, people are more flexible during negotiations under these circumstances.