I once worked with a salesman who saw a young couple walking across the parking lot about fifty yards away, looking at cars, and after warching them for a short time, made the following observation:
“They’re high school sweethearts, no college education, military background, he’s the one with the job and all the money, but she’s the one who’s in charge.”
I looked at him and said “And you know all this just from looking at them?”
My cohort nodded like it was an established fact. He honestly believed he had correctly summed up this couple’s entire relationship after observing them for a grand total of five seconds from fifty yards. The funny thing is, he may have been right… because he sold them a car later that day.
In car sales, you have to be able to size people up quickly and figure out how to communicate with them on their level — i.e., “build rapport”– or you risk losing a sale. So, after you’ve been selling for awhile you start developing bad habits. One of the worst of these is “pre-qualifying,” or stereotyping, people based on their appearance and little else other than a gut feeling. Basically, salesmen break customers down into five different types. These are:
1. The Tire Kicker, or Stroke2. The Laydown, or Flopper3. “Nice People”4. Bogues5. Mooches
I’ll deal with the first three this week, and the last two in our next segment.
The Tire Kicker
The Tire Kicker is normally benign. He could be a retired Air Force Colonel with nothing to do who likes to sit around and shoot the breeze with the salesmen. Or, he may be a woman with a car in service who’s wandering around the lot, coffee in hand, killing time while her oil is changed. Then there are the car enthusiasts, who stop by to drool over the latest Corvette or Shelby GT-500, or whatever. Everyone understands these folks aren’t going to buy a car in the near future, and they never make much demand on your time.
But there’s also a malevolent version of the Tire Kicker, known as The Stroke. A Stroke is a customer who gives every indication of buying, and takes up a great deal of your time and energy making you go through the motions . . . but never actually buys anything. These people have no respect for your time and are universally hated by car salesmen.
A Stroke will ask you to show him a vehicle… and then another vehicle… and then another… and after you’ve spent an hour or two test driving four different cars and appraising his trade-in and presenting numbers, they’ll always find some excuse and leave. There was one notorious Stroke I knew who would show up at my dealership every four or five months, ask for me, and proceed to convince me he was finally, ready to trade in his low mileage, cream puff VW Cabriolet on something new. But no matter what kind of deal we gave him he would never commit. He would always say “You know, that’s a great deal, but I really like my car. I think I’m going to hang onto it just a little bit longer.” I ‘m ashamed to say I allowed this guy to do this to me for nearly three years. Hope springs eternal in the heart of every salesman, I guess. After that, every time I saw him I’d run the other way.
The Laydown
The Laydown is every salesman’s dream. Why? Because they come in, look at a car, and buy it. Simple as that. And they usually pay full sticker — or close to it.
I generally prefer the term “Flopper,” which comes from a salesman friend of mine named Tony, who loves to fish. Tony defines a Flopper as a fish that doesn’t wait for you to bait your hook and drop it in the water. The minute he sees you coming he jumps in the boat and flops around, waiting for you to club him with an oar and put him in the icebox. In fact, at Tony’s dealership we even had a special award for the salesman with the most Floppers that month — The Golden Oar. Try explaining that award to your next customer!
Now, a lot of folks are probably thinking that Floppers aren’t very smart and aren’t respected by salespeople. That’s not the case. Some Laydowns aren’t very savvy, it’s true. But many are extremely intelligent, educated, capable people– doctors, attorneys, business owners, etc. — who see the value in your product, have the means to buy it, and do so. The difference between them and other people is they value their time more than the tiny amount of money they’ll save by spending four hours at a dealership, haggling with a salesman. Which leads me to Category Three:
Nice People
I have one customer who calls me up at least twice a year and says “Mark, I need another truck like the one you got me before, although this time I don’t need the tool racks installed. Have you got one?” And I either say “Yes, Jim, I have one,” or “No, but I can get it.” Then he’ll say “I’ll be in next Tuesday morning to pick it up. Can you have all the paperwork ready?”
And that’s it. Badda bing, we’re done. We always give Jim a good discount — even though he never asks for one — because he’s a repeat customer and he’s easy to deal with. Jim’s not stupid. Far from it. The first vehicle I sold him he beat me up pretty bad. But once I had proven myself, and shown him I could be trusted, he never beat me up again.
The reason? Jim runs a successful heating and air conditioning business. He simply can’t afford to drive around from one dealership to the next, dickering over a few hundred dollars. So he establishes a relationship with a salesman like me, makes it clear how he wants things done, and counts on me to save him time and trouble. I’m quite sure if I ever failed to make Jim happy he’d stop buying from me and go somewhere else. But he’s not the type to sit there and fight me over a six dollar and fifty cent fee that I can’t do anything about. That’s why I consider him, and people like him, nice people. They want a good deal, but more importantly, they want respect. And attention to their needs. If you give them that, they won’t go after the last penny in your pocket.
Next time I’ll be talking about everybody’s favorites, Bogues and Mooches. Stay tuned!
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