Do you give Trade-in figures online?

[ddavis]

The customer is always right?

If you have been around for any length of time, you have seen the emails, "I am getting the best price from several dealers". "I will take that price and ask them to beat it". Seriously? I didn't play games. I didn't have time.

"Shoppers are looking for information". Dealers know that transparency sells cars. "Seize the Opportunity - you only get so many." My internet department was approaching 200 cars per month. When you are cranking, its a numbers game. I didn't spend time with customers that wanted to purchase outside of the box. If a customer insisted on a figure, I would give them a number that nobody would match, including me. Yes, I will "ball" a customer and sell a car.

 

[Howard Polirer]

Having spent over 25 years on the retail side of our business, I know it is difficult for many of us to accept the "transparent" and "innovative" climate the internet has created for both buyers and sellers of automobiles today.

However, I know as you must also from your own shopping experiences, that today's shoppers have all the information they need to make a buying decision at there fingertips. There are even tools that will help them evaluate their trade and receive a guaranteed offer providing the vehicle is as described.

Thinking, "if we give them the information they want, they will have no reason to come to our dealership," is just wrong. Research shows that "receiving a trade-in offer" has one of the highest levels of dissatisfaction among car shoppers. I would recommend giving the customer all the information they need to stay engaged with your during their journey. You may just find that your openness is the reason they choose to do business with you.

 

[Rdpatrick]

I have a simple solution for one someone presses me for a trade-in value: We look at KBB.com together over the phone. I walk them through it and make sure they click "trade-in", enter the mileage, and pick the correct condition. Then after KBB has quoted them a huge trade-in value range, their curiosity is either satisfied or they want a more specific number...which I set an appointment for. It takes me 10 minutes at the most and sets me apart from the local competition who just say "get 'em in".

 

[Bill Simmons]

We just had an interesting case happen in one of our stores over the weekend relevant to this thread. We received a trade-in lead from the websites appraisal tool. Our guys were on top of it and contacted the customer on the phone immediately. The customer happened to be sitting in the showroom of the dealership right next door to ours! They had been waiting 30 minutes while their salesperson at that store was trying to find someone to appraise their trade. The customer was happy with the figure that the appraisal tool provided and he left the competing store and came over for a visit. An hour later he was driving out in his new car. We got the deal and the appointment because 1 - we provided the customer a tool to get the info they wanted 2 - quick response time 3 - assured him the number was going to be good on a final inspection.

The other point I wanted to discuss here is showrooming. We have all heard that term lately. In fact Joe Webb just wrote an excellent article about it: Making Your Dealership Mobile: The Art of Showrooming If you don't care to read the article the suggestion is to invest in tablets with apps for the customer to use during the downtime that the salesperson is away from the desk. This prevents them from using their own mobile device to do what our customer did this weekend while at the other store.

I'm sure if that store was following Joe's advice, the customer would not have had the free time to visit our mobile site while he was waiting for 30 minutes. I'm sure customers have probably shopped our competitors while in our stores also. We were just the lucky ones this time to get the deal. How much time does a customer spend alone between waiting for an appraisal, trying to find keys, going to get numbers at the desk etc where they have the time to shop us? I think this gives me incentive to start shopping tablet prices for our stores soon!

 

[ed.brooks]

We just had an interesting case happen in one of our stores over the weekend relevant to this thread. We received a trade-in lead from the websites appraisal tool. Our guys were on top of it and contacted the customer on the phone immediately. The customer happened to be sitting in the showroom of the dealership right next door to ours! They had been waiting 30 minutes while their salesperson at that store was trying to find someone to appraise their trade. The customer was happy with the figure that the appraisal tool provided and he left the competing store and came over for a visit. An hour later he was driving out in his new car. We got the deal and the appointment because 1 - we provided the customer a tool to get the info they wanted 2 - quick response time 3 - assured him the number was going to be good on a final inspection...

Great story Bill and it just goes to prove what Howard was saying -

...You may just find that your openness is the reason they choose to do business with you.

 

[Michael Blake Powell]

Price and trade are the same thing. They are monetary values that determine whether a transaction will be affordable or approvable to the customer. How many dealers still do not give out prices? Here on refresh, I would hope that number is zero. I think trade offer should be the same. However, I think the ultimate determining factor in most cases is how effective your followup is with the customer. If you sit on your tail after giving an offer you will lose majority of the time. If you sit on your tail after not giving an offer you will lose a larger majority of the time.

 

[Grace Wilkins]

Research shows that "receiving a trade-in offer" has one of the highest levels of dissatisfaction among car shoppers. I would recommend giving the customer all the information they need to stay engaged with your during their journey. You may just find that your openness is the reason they choose to do business with you.

My experience with the kind of shoppers who are going to run you all over town is that being almost brutally honest tends to be what they want. Like most buyers, they are TELLING YOU what you need to do to earn their business. Yes, Mr. Customer! Clearly you know about the business, so I won't give you the whole song and dance number. Let me show you the NADA bookout and/or KBB, explain why I deviate from those values.

Frankly, it's a rare customer who needs to feel like they beat the system like this, but the few of them I've had are usually happy to bring their carmax check for more than we'll put on the car back to me as a down payment. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

 

[ddavis]

Then there are those customers that believe you should give them what they owe. I remember a customer that wanted to trade in a year old Mitsubishi Eclipse. When I gave her the trade appraisal, she went ballistic. "All you dealers are nothing but liars and thieves". She had owned the vehicle for 13 months and had never made a payment. Mitsubishi ran a program, no down payment and no payments for a year. Apparently, she didn't really like this car enough to actually make payments on it. I tried to explain that I could purchase a new one with zero miles for what she owed but that didn't matter. Liars and thieves! Mitsubishi never recovered from that program.

We have all seen the customer that thinks that there is no end to the amount of negative equity you can roll into a deal.

 

[Jlewis74]

Then there are those customers that believe you should give them what they owe. I remember a customer that wanted to trade in a year old Mitsubishi Eclipse. When I gave her the trade appraisal, she went ballistic. "All you dealers are nothing but liars and thieves". She had owned the vehicle for 13 months and had never made a payment. Mitsubishi ran a program, no down payment and no payments for a year. Apparently, she didn't really like this car enough to actually make payments on it. I tried to explain that I could purchase a new one with zero miles for what she owed but that didn't matter. Liars and thieves! Mitsubishi never recovered from that program.

We have all seen the customer that thinks that there is no end to the amount of negative equity you can roll into a deal.

Yup I remember that program. AS for the giving payoff I blame that on dealers as well, I still hear it today on TV and Radio " We will payoff your trade no matter how much you owe" customer perception is "They will give me payoff for my trade" but we all know the real deal.

I have another question, are you haveing to show customers ACV now vs a over allowance? I would guess on a new car you would have to show ACV dont think there is much room to inflate anything anymore where as in the past you could show a pretty good over allowance to make the customer feel better.

 

[Michael Blake Powell]

You should never give an over allowance on a trade. There is a lot of info out there on trades but there is even more on price. Over allowance=higher pricing. Don't focus on the minority of the customers. Play the odds. Fair trade offers + fair pricing + fantastic follow up= more happy customers.