If you were a salesperson in a Ford showroom...

[hawker]

The problem with many sales people is they have the attitude of going 'you have to buy now, this deal, or this car won't be here next week, we'll get you into finance now.' as soon as you say 'this one looks good and drives ok'

Again you get the good with the bad. When my girlfriends parents went into look at a Lancer, the guy said they should have a look around, and gave them a list of cars that sort of match up to the Lancer, including a Ford Focus or maybe it was a Mondeo, can't for the life of me remember.

I think that sales guy had faith in the car, because they decided on the Lancer - especially for the warranty. Problems so far? None. Not sure how many K's they done. I think they're about 25,000 K's.

When I worked in sales, you could always sense the customer, who they were, if they wanted today, or if they were just looking, or just out on a raining Saturday to kill time.

I personally treat everyone the same, even though a lot of the time, in the back of my head, I sort of said 'This is a time waster, I'll never see this guy again...' I don't think I changed attitude with them, I worked off the theory, they might remember you when they actually need something, or recommend you to friends... Honestly though, I never sold $50,000 cars, I only sold computers, the most I ever brought in was about $13,000... Lots of people came back, so maybe I did something right...

[Zero_PSI]

I'd point em to the closest Hyundai dealer.

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by Grunter

Give tyre kickers the same attention that you would someone coming in to actually purchase. I went to a dealer a while back to look at a 335 GT-P and said up front that I'm not looking to buy right now, but within the next 6 months. He walked away. Needless to say, that dealer will not be getting a call from me, not to mention any more look in for our future fleet purchases.

I understand if they are busy wanting to focus on people looking to buy now, but the dealership was empty. Given his attitude, can guess why it was. Todays tyre kickers could be tomorrows sale.

Bottom line, treat everyone as you would want to be treated and don't provide guessess to questions you don't know. Just tell them that you will find out and get back to them, and then actually do it.

It is your own fault - why say you are not ready to buy - if all you want is a test drive just say i ll buy it if i like it. Then after the drive you could say - i need to think about it. Too easy...
We bought a new car recently and i sold my old car privatly yesterday. If the buyer said i am not Ready to buy he would NOT get a test drive.
Our new car experience was exercise in patience on my side - we ended up buying a car off a sales person who did not say much - in fact he hardly said anything at all - i knew all about the car and my better half has driven 5 cars on the lot and the one we bought twice.
Only discussion we had was price haggle .

[a-total-tool]

Originally Posted by Grunter

Give tyre kickers the same attention that you would someone coming in to actually purchase. I went to a dealer a while back to look at a 335 GT-P and said up front that I'm not looking to buy right now, but within the next 6 months. He walked away. Needless to say, that dealer will not be getting a call from me, not to mention any more look in for our future fleet purchases.

I understand if they are busy wanting to focus on people looking to buy now, but the dealership was empty. Given his attitude, can guess why it was. Todays tyre kickers could be tomorrows sale.

Bottom line, treat everyone as you would want to be treated and don't provide guessess to questions you don't know. Just tell them that you will find out and get back to them, and then actually do it.

I think that part of the attitude is the way that we look/enter the dealership.

I have had a similar experience at a particular local Ford dealer. I just tend to get ignored. I have gone to this dealer 3 times. The first time (about 2 years ago), I walked in there on my own, wearing a hoodie and cargo pants. I was able to look at cars for over half an hour, without a salesman coming near me. When one finally approached me, I had a go at him as nobody came up to assist me and there were NO other customers on the lot at the time (the 3 salesmen were chatting among themselves on the balcony to the used car sales office). He got one sentence from me. "I was interested in this car and willing to pay cash but your attitude and lack of assistance made me not want to deal with you" I showed him the $18k cash that I had in my pocket and left. I spent half the $$$ on a cheaper car (pulsar), and used the rest to kill debts.

The other time, I rocked up with my EL Fairmont (5L, kit and had just been painted). The salesmen seemed more interested in looking at my car then trying to sell me a new one... but I was only there to tyre kick this time.

I also went to this same dealer last weekend...just to sticky beak at the new Focus. I will be looking at a leasing a new car in the next few months and went to a few dealers in my local area. I looked at several LW's for about 20 mins before someone approached me. He wasn't helpful and when I asked for a brochure he told me to download the brochure off the net if I were interested.

Let's put this in comparison. Before arriving at that dealer, I went to 2 other (non-ford) showrooms. The VW dealer approached me as I was walking onto the lot (before I even got to the cars), and the Mazda salesman approached me after about 30 seconds, holding an umbrella for me as it was starting to rain at the time. Why can't Ford dealers show any courtesy to customers?

[allanv6gt]

Hmmm...salespeople need to know their products..Simple things like "Can I get Tango colour in XR5?" ....... was answered after the salesman read the fine print in their own brochure - doh!.
And when I was finally ready to buy and sign on the day, the sales team leader couldn't be bothered loking up stock arrivals on the computer (he said "I can look on Monday", this was at 4pm on a dead quiet Saturday). I repressured him, and he reluctantly looked things up but (again) couldn't be
bothered trying to do a swap with another dealer. Obviously, I'm still p-d off about their treatment of me as a 'real' buyer.

So...I went home, jumped onto Carsales, found a car, rang a dealer interstate, negotiated price and pick up date, and had the deal closed by 5:30pm that day (only delayed due to trade-in discussions).

So what can a salesman do to secure the sale?
1. know your product - I knew more about the car than he did. Be able to compare your brand with another on basic features.
2. yes, tune in to real buyers but also assist 'potential' tomorrow buyers. A $50K sale is not made after 10mins discussion - it's a big commitment.
3. 'bother' to answer questions and look things up on your computer when asked

Other dealers...I would agree with a-total-tool's comments re Mazda (very helpful and not pushy). They suggested I drive a manual diesel 6 (on the lot) even though I had asked about a manual petrol 6 (none in stock) - I might have changed my mind and bought that diesel car.....

And, I'm very happy with my Mondeo XR5 MB.