What to do with lying customers

[jmcreavy]

OK Bud!

Gotta keep these civil.

He is very right though that if you are not giving the customer a reason to come in, then they will not show up. The majority of the issues I see is appointments are set out too far.

When an appointment is set out further than 2 days the customer has a less likely chance of coming in. Why? Because we stop following up assuming they will remember they have an appointment and then we call the morning of to confirm and they already made other plans they do not want to skip out on.

Set appointment. Confirm appointment same day you actually set it. Follow-up before appointment to make sure they are all set and have no questions you can answer ahead of time. Send video / text of vehicle desired to show it is there and ready for them. Day of appointment, confirm again and have car up front and ready with a sign on it with their name.

Finally, send picture of the car pulled up and ready with their name on it. Customer will show more often than not. If you do this and customers are still not showing up, then there is more going on than is being mentioned.

 

[Manny Luna]

OK Bud!

Sorry and forgive me if I was out of line, I just have a huge passion for car sales and how to sell cars the right way! It's lots of work and there's no time to make any excuses for failure!

If anybody we hired couldn't handle the job they were hired to do, and get paid nicely we're gonna have to part friends and find someone that will. That's how we picked our team and that's how we rolled.

Handling leads is a privilege. Not everybody can run with the big dawgs and piss on tall trees

All the great new ideas and technology mean nothing without hard working trained talent!

 

[ddavis]

Not a fan of this quote - Customers have been conditioned by Dealers for years and even to this day some Dealers still try to pull smoke and mirror tactics to get people to pay more for a vehicle.

You might not be a fan but it's the truth. Excellent salespeople never lie to customers ...they don't have to. Profit is not a four letter word. I fully expected to make money. For over 40 years, I have told thousands of customers that I need to make a profit and they bought.

On seeing an appraisal, how many customers will tell you the XYZ dealership offered more? Why is it that it is always an even $1000, 2000 or 3000 more? You say, "$15,250" and they say, "they were offered $16,250".

My dealership sold a guy a new small Nissan pickup. The guy brought the pickup in with the roof caved in two inches on one side. It looked like he had run it under a tree limb. I was surprised that it didn't break the windshield. He told me that it was like that when he bought it. It was scraped to the bare metal but hadn't rusted after 5 months.

 

[craigh]

My dealership sold a guy a new small Nissan pickup. The guy brought the pickup in with the roof caved in two inches on one side. It looked like he had run it under a tree limb. I was surprised that it didn't break the windshield. He told me that it was like that when he bought it. It was scraped to the bare metal but hadn't rusted after 5 months.

One example doesn't really make a case.
I also know of countless people who are honest and do business that way.
Stereotyping customers or sales people is useless because you will have some of both on either side.

 

[ddavis]

One example doesn't really make a case.
I also know of countless people who are honest and do business that way.
Stereotyping customers or sales people is useless because you will have some of both on either side.

After 42 years in the car business, I could write a book on shady things customers have tried to pull on me. How many times customers have brought back their trade with the audio system removed or wheels and tires replaced. How many times they told me their car hasn't been wrecked and it shows on a CarFax while they owned it. I noticed that you didn't chose the appraisal portion. How many times have you run into that?

I didn't work for "jicky" dealerships and trained my people to be professional and never lie to a customer. If someone was telling a lie, it wasn't my people. I got a lot of repeat and referral business. I loved those customers. It was always, quick and easy. My stores were always at the top in CSI.

I know some car people that are so crooked, when they die, they will just screw them into the ground. I know some customers that are just like them. Not all good and not all bad.

 

[jmcreavy]

The reason I dislike that quote Doug is because it just sets Sales People up to pre-judge customers.

Customers have been conditioned to lie to us because of the tactics that used to be commonplace back in the day. So now the tables have turned and Dealers do all they can to provide a transparent and fun experience only to be lied to by the customer.

I look at it this way....be honest and up front.... if a customer asks for your best price, give it to them. If they say another Dealer is beating you by xyz.... wish them good luck and thank them for the opportunity and hope they give you a chance next time they are in the market.

If you or your team provided such a great experience the customer would be willing to pay a little more. If not, then I would look at your team before I would call a customer out as a liar.

We cannot control what a customer will tell us, but we can control what our team tells a customer and the kind of experience we wish the customer to have at our store. Let's focus on that and not on the negative aspects of selling vehicles.

 

[joe.pistell]

The laziest sales people I know use price discounts as a lure to keep the customer engaged "...I'm sure I can get $500 off if you..." I find it interesting how old school managers don't take responsibility for this dysfunctional behavior.

 

[ddavis]

The reason I dislike that quote Doug is because it just sets Sales People up to pre-judge customers.

Customers have been conditioned to lie to us because of the tactics that used to be commonplace back in the day. So now the tables have turned and Dealers do all they can to provide a transparent and fun experience only to be lied to by the customer.

I look at it this way....be honest and up front.... if a customer asks for your best price, give it to them. If they say another Dealer is beating you by xyz.... wish them good luck and thank them for the opportunity and hope they give you a chance next time they are in the market.

If you or your team provided such a great experience the customer would be willing to pay a little more. If not, then I would look at your team before I would call a customer out as a liar.

We cannot control what a customer will tell us, but we can control what our team tells a customer and the kind of experience we wish the customer to have at our store. Let's focus on that and not on the negative aspects of selling vehicles.

Jared, Nobody is conditioned to lie. You are either honest or you're not. They don't have to say "XYZ offered me (exactly) $1000 more for my car". They can simply say, "I believe my car is worth $1000 more".

I'm pretty sure that I go back before you were born. I didn't lie to customers back then. Those customers that you are "honest with up front", still think you are a crook.

We had shoppers back then. The only way for a customer to learn about cars (out there) was to visit dealerships ...all of them. We had to convince them that we had the best vehicle, for them, without them leaving our dealership. Our salespeople had to know our products and our competitor's products. Today, dealerships are lucky if their salespeople know their own. We had closers not whores. I don't think that they even teach closing techniques, but that is the difference between being a salesperson and being a clerk.

Today, the average buyer visits 1.3 stores. They have already made up their minds ...not shoppers but buyers. You still need to close them. I have closed plenty of liars in my time.

 

[ddavis]

The laziest sales people I know use price discounts as a lure to keep the customer engaged "...I'm sure I can get $500 off if you..." I find it interesting how old school managers don't take responsibility for this dysfunctional behavior.

They are all lazy ...the salesperson that does it and the manager for letting them. Most Sales Managers spend their day waiting for a salesperson to bring them a deal. All of them, salespeople and managers, waste more than half of the day doing unproductive things. Like hamsters in that circular thing, people confuse motion with productivity. If you want a bunch of clerks, you don't have to train.

Take a T.O. and ask the customer how he liked the way the vehicle drove. About a third of the time, the customer never drove the vehicle.

 

[jmcreavy]

Jared, Nobody is conditioned to lie. You are either honest or you're not. They don't have to say "XYZ offered me (exactly) $1000 more for my car". They can simply say, "I believe my car is worth $1000 more".

I'm pretty sure that I go back before you were born. I didn't lie to customers back then. Those customers that you are "honest with up front", still think you are a crook.

We had shoppers back then. The only way for a customer to learn about cars (out there) was to visit dealerships ...all of them. We had to convince them that we had the best vehicle, for them, without them leaving our dealership. Our salespeople had to know our products and our competitor's products. Today, dealerships are lucky if their salespeople know their own. We had closers not whores. I don't think that they even teach closing techniques, but that is the difference between being a salesperson and being a clerk.

Today, the average buyer visits 1.3 stores. They have already made up their minds ...not shoppers but buyers. You still need to close them. I have closed plenty of liars in my time.

I understand where you are coming from Doug but everything I've ever researched from Consumer Forums to Dealer Forums talk about archaic tactics used to get people in the door to make a killing on one vehicle.... terms used like "clubbing like a baby seal" and the like.

Do / Did all Dealerships and personnel act this way? No... but the perception (perception is reality for the majority) felt that was the case. So now there are thousands of places online to research how to buy a vehicle and a lot of them tell the customers now to use tactics and hold back on giving us information because the less informed we are the less likely we are to take advantage of the customer.

If people are not conditioned, why are we rated sooooooo low that even Lawyers get a better rep than us? It's because they are conditioned to think that we are nothing but crooks based on those old-school tactics and the new-school crooks who think they must deceive customers to make money.

I've been told that I am too honest for this business and I will never be successful in the Auto Industry because of it... I do not follow the "norm" just because "it is the way it is." I work based on providing customers a great experience whether they lie to me or not. I've closed many liars myself because of the experience and my up-front honesty.

All I'm saying is, instead of preaching about buyers being liars, let's preach about process and consistency and being transparent with our co-workers / employees.