Buyers and Salespeople

lifted from comments, written by reader Jack

Tom said: “Some of the reported sales methods sound like they’re somewhere between ‘bullshit promises’ and mild deception. Then again, it’s car dealers on the other end of the transactions.”

“I probably shouldn’t underestimate Congress’s inclination to protect those undeserving of protection, but remember these are car salesmen, fer goodness sakes.”

Jack replies: Having been on the seller’s side of the table for a while now I have a different perspective. It is good that we have lawyers and Larry Summers to provide us with foils for favorable comparison. And for self-service at the expense of whole populations, car sales staff can’t hold a candle to Uncle Milton and his acolytes at the Chicago School.

But I digress. It is true that sales of expensive property has its pit falls and the buyer should certainy beware. My studies opinion, however, would suggest that the buyers with the able assistance of the manufacturers have laid the ground rules and set the stage for the battle. In the business there is a popular phrase, “Buyers are liars.” Not B.S. promises, but out right lies. The typical buyer takes the bull shit promises of one salesman and cures it to the level of a mountain of crap when looking for the “deal” with another sales man. Think of it this way, in the turbulent seas of the car sales showrooms, only the shark survives.

Buyers like most of all to believe in the biggest lie they may be told. It’s the only time a car salesman’s word is taken as golden. When it is being presented to the next salesman as the price to beat to earn the business. If car dealers did what the customer wants to earn his business they would all be broke. Retail goods typically have a one or two hundred percent mark up. The left over goods may be marked down as much as 50-60%. Cars are in the area of 13% with occassional cash back to the dealer that may be worth another 2 or 3 percent. Buyers like those impossible 20% discounts, but they are impossible.

No, don’t cry for any car dealers or their sales staff. They choose to do what they do and often they can make a decent living doing it. It’s a job that often has long and unfruitful hours. We get used to being lied to and having much of our time wasted while having to never assume that someone isn’t a qualified buyer. We regale each other with the stories of our most difficult or most absurd customers and shoppers. Then we have a whole other chapter of the story about the manufacturers and their so-called partnership with the dealer network. That’s a partner from hell.
_____________________________________
lifted from comments by reader Jack

Rdan…who drives who in that market?