As many of you know from a previous post, I am in the market for a few cars. That however, does not make me qualified to write this post, what does qualify me is that I have bought and sold at least 30 cars in the last 10 years or so (realistically there were probably even more that I am unable to remember).

These are in no particular order unless otherwise mentioned:

1. Don’t ever assume anything about the customer’s financial situation

Once you start thinking about the customer’s financial situation you begin to make invalid assumptions. Yea the customer may have shown up in worn jeans and a tank top, but that doesn’t mean he can’t afford a new BMW. In fact it may mean that he’s a high-powered executive who takes advantage of not having to wear a suit 2 days a week. When you treat a customer like they can’t afford something, you’re losing the sale because your customer is headed up the road to the next dealer where he or she will receive the treatment he or she deserves.

2. List the options on the car

When dealers don’t list all the information about the car, there is one of three reasons behind it. First, the car may have just gotten there and the dealer themselves may not have the information sorted (if the car appeared on the site you’re looking at within the last 7 days, this is possible). The second option is that the dealer simply doesn’t have any idea what options are on the car. The third and final reason is my favorite: the dealer did it on purpose. What? Why? Well it’s simple, you don’t have access to the information, so now you have to contact them to find out; it’s a sales tactic. When you contact them they gain valuable information: that John Doe is shopping specifically for a Hyundai Santa Fe in addition to your phone number and/or email address which they can use to harass reach you. The biggest issue with this in my experience is generally when you call the dealer, the guy who answers the phone will have no knowledge of the car you call about. Which leads me to my next two points.

3. Options are Optional

When a customer asks about the options on the car, lets say a MINI Cooper for example, and you respond to them by listing standard equipment (or list only standard equipment in your ad), you’re just wasting everyone’s time. When the ad lists power windows, power door locks, power mirrors, and front airbags you only aggravate the customer because although those may have been options on cars in 1985, or even on some lower priced models now, they’re standard equipment on all MINIs from 2002 onward, and if it’s standard it wasn’t an option! Also, stop listing information about your dealer in the options field in your ads — believe it or not I’m looking to buy the car, not the dealer.

3. When a customer emails you a question about a car you’re selling, respond to that email instead of calling them back; chances are they emailed you for a reason.

The contact email address is generally just as accessible as the phone number; so If a customer chooses to email you there’s a reason behind it. Recently while in the market for a car I emailed several dealers, each of them responded back to me by phone. Why? because it’s easier to sell to someone by phone than by email. Here’s the problem: I emailed 20 dealers specific questions about the car they were selling. When they called me back at 9:00 the next day while I was on my way to the office, or at 11 when I was in a meeting with a client, or at 3 when I was racing to get a hold of my broker before the end of trading for the day; not only did I not have time to talk to them, but I also didn’t have any idea what the questions I asked about their specific vehicle were.

Email makes it easy to keep track of the conversation, but they insisted on calling. The problem is each time they would say hi this is John Doe from John Doe Imports calling in response to your email, please let me know if you have any questions I can answer for you. I ALREADY DID! I also got an average of 4 follow up emails from each dealer; some personalized, others automated. Each of the follow up emails said pretty much verbatim “if you have any other questions or concerns please let me know, I’d love to answer them for you” I already asked my questions, you didn’t answer them any of the 5 times you’ve contacted me, I don’t remember what they were, and you’ve blown the sale.

If you want to use the phone, first respond to my email and answer my questions. Once you’ve responded give it a day then call to follow up. “Hi this is John Doe calling from John Doe Honda, I was calling to follow up on the response I sent to your email. Did  your receive it? Are there any other questions I can answer for you about our 2005 Honda Accord? When can you come by and take it for a test drive?

4. Dealers contact the customer to the extent of annoyance

This should perhaps be 3.5 rather than 4, but I think it’s important enough to stress it as it’s own bullet point. If the customer does not respond within your first few attempts at contacting him or her, the customer doesn’t want to talk to you, likely for one of three reasons: the customer is very busy (in which case you’re annoying them already), they purchased another vehicle, or you’ve already blown the sale (likely because of something on this list).

Also, don’t EVER contact the customer using information they didn’t give you. A friend of mine sent a question to a seller through ebay about a car he was thinking about buying for his wife. The seller decided to call him rather than respond to his email so he looked up my buddy’s ebay account details (which were not provided to him by my friend) and called the listed number, which happened to be his home (as is true in most cases). So his wife got home from the grocery store, played the messages, and heard “Hi Bill, this is John Doe calling from Stupid MINI Dealer about the yellow Cooper you emailed us about on ebay”…so much for the suprise, not to mention the fact that Bill felt like his privacy was violated.

5. You better know more about the car you’re selling than your customer does

In sales, if you don’t know more about the product you’re selling than your customer does you appear to be incompetent. Additionally, you are very likely to aggravate your customer because you won’t know the answer to his or her questions. This leads to a secondary annoyance of one of the following: either the salesperson has to go and ask somebody else then report back to the customer or the salesperson will make stuff up.

In the first situation, the salesperson should cut the knowledgeable person into the conversation (splitting the commission if necessary) rather than continuing as the annoying middle man and losing the sale. The second situation is a no-brainer: we’ve already established in this situation that the customer knows more than you, and unfortunately he already walked in the door assuming the false stereotype that you’re a liar so the last thing you want to do is prove that to be correct.