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Last weekend I went looking for a new car. I had narrowed it down to a Mazda 6 or a Camry after my usual many hours on the net researching all the ins and outs. I packed the kids into our car and headed out to visit the car yards.

Given my initial preference to the Mazda, we started there first.  As we entered the yard we were met by a keen young salesperson, who did a great job of showing us the different models before quickly narrowing down what we were after.  He was selling beautifully till he sat us down. We told him we wanted to buy in the next week, we would be paying cash and wanted his best price so we could make a decision which way to go – Camry or Mazda. He wandered off to see the boss, came back and told us that he wouldn’t give us a price now as we were not serious, but when we were serious next week to come back and see him.  He gave us a rough ballpark figure on the new car with the options we were looking for (after being pressed for the info).

We then moved onto the Toyota dealership. As my kids said, they could hear the crickets chirruping when we went onto the lot. The cars were very untidy – and had not been detailed for a while. New cars were jumbled next to used cars and it was almost impossible to work out which cars were available. We walked into the massive office and stood looking lost at the front desk. The office girl was on the phone and deliberately turned her back to us. We stood and stood. We wandered over to dealers sitting at desks, who studiously avoided our gaze. One kept reading his book while drinking his coffee.

So we then decided to sit in the demonstrator car in front of his desk, and took great joy in adjusting things, opening and closing doors and boots. After 10 minutes someone came over “Are you right”.  “Well actually we want to buy a car”. He was of the “don’t speak until are spoken to” school of sales, so every piece of information was drawn out of him as if he was on the rack. He did share that they had a deal on at present and what the deal included. It sounded good. But he then handed us a brochure and told us to call him when we wanted to buy before ushering us out the door.

OK – by now I was starting to get a complex. I mean I had told each of the salesmen “I want to buy a car. I would be paying cash.” All they needed to do was convince me of their product.

Enter car yard three. We went to a different Toyota dealer as the youngest child wanted to re-check the fabric on the seats. (She has a thing about soft fabric car seats). A very different experience. We were met when we walked onto the lot and seamlessly passed onto the new car salesman, who seamlessly called in his boss (given it was the salesman’s first week on the job this was understandable). In this yard the cars were detailed, even if there was the same jumble of new/used cars.

Both had a beautiful sales process, running through a series of trial closes removing any objections in the process, before moving into a final close. (Occupational hazard – I watch the process more than I listen to the words). It was a slick sales process without being slimy.They clarified the details of the special, double checking the facts as the previous Toyota person had misunderstood what was actually included in the new model car as a standard (and not optional) feature.

The people took the time to sell, listened to our buying clues (by then we had them painted in red 12 foot high letters), made no assumptions on our seriousness or otherwise of purchase, removed objections to buying then and there and as a result we bought the Camry from the third car yard.

As we were driving home, the Mazda salesman rang us to ask what we thought of the Camry and when he could book us in for another visit. I took great delight in letting him know we had bought the Camry and wouldn’t be needing his services.

What are the lessons? Well the most obvious one is how poorly trained most salespeople really are – they need to improve their skills if they really want to sell. Businesses also need to look at the simple things – how are people greeted, tidiness of their properties, and basic amenities.

What has your experience been with car dealers?

Ingrid Cliff

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Heart Harmony – Freelance Writer