Except during a short few golden years, it’s never been easy to sell cars. In that one all-too-brief period, after the Second World War, GIs flush with wartime salary savings and a public tired of driving antiquated cars from the 30s all flooded into dealerships at once, trying to buy the few vehicles available. For the most part, though, achieving greatness selling cars is not an easy career path. That’s a shame, because most people actually enjoy getting new cars; they just claim to hate the process – or so we are told.
In reality, over the past 30 years right at 85 percent of all new car buyers have said in surveys that their last car purchase was handled in either a “satisfactory” or “highly satisfactory” manner. Not surprisingly, most car salespeople say that they enjoy dealing with about 85 percent of their customers.
As for the dreaded negotiation, anyone who’s been selling cars for more than six months can tell you it’s typically the customer who usually starts the process. You may not realize it, but you open negotiations the moment you ask, “Is that the best you can do?”