The Salesman Dilemma

Last year, I wrote a post titled, I'd Buy a New Car If It Wasn't So Hard. I decided I had waited long enough and thought I would try again. I test drove a few cars. I got great service during this time. The salesman let me take the car home for a few hours and let my wife see... I did this with three different vehicles. I asked for pricing. Finally, after two days, I got pricing that I thought would work for me. This long time period wasn't because of negotiation, it was because the salesman took so long to get me the pricing. Because I had to wait so long to get the pricing, I didn't have time to do the deal. Buying a car takes time... you can't get out of a dealership in 30 minutes. You have to wait until all the docs are drawn up. You have to wait until the car is washed and ready to go... it take time and I ran out of it. The pricing still looked good to me. So, when I had some more time nearly two weeks later, I went in. I sat with the salesman for a few minutes (60 minutes) to get some final pricing worked out. (See, you can't get in and out quickly.) Low and behold, the pricing wasn't the same. The reason it wasn't the same was because things weren't included in the original price. These were things that I had told him I wanted. These were things he repeated back to me that he understood. These were things he simply left out because he was trying to keep the price low. When I did get the price that finally included everything I wanted, the number I saw was for a 72 month purchase and not the 60 month purchase I requested. He just couldn't seem to listen to what I wanted. So, I decided to wait. Just to put all this in perspective, I was ready to trade both of my vehicles in for brand new ones... two cars for one salesman. Had the terms been what I had expected, I probably would have signed that day. Because they weren't, I decided to wait. This was Monday. I told the salesman to wait until Wednesday late afternoon to call me. Monday night, I had a message to call him. I didn't. Tuesday morning, I saw on my caller ID that he tried to call again. I didn't call back. At that point, I decided, if he calls me early one more time, I am not buying because he has no clue how to follow directions. I would have tried to negotiate, but I can't trust he will follow through on the deal we negotiate. Today, Wednesday, early afternoon, I get a call from him and answer this time. "Hello Corey, I was wondering if you had decided what you wanted to buy?" was the question. I responded, "I am not going to buy either." I was ready to tell him that his terms changed and he didn't know how to follow instructions, so that is why I am not buying. I am going somewhere else and will be buying within a week. He said, "Ok, thanks for giving me a shot." I was stunned. For being so pushy and persistent, to just give up like that. I couldn't believe it. What can you take away from this? If you win a sale, ask your customer why you won and what you could have done better. When you lose a sale, ask your customer why you lost and tell them that you want to improve the next time. If you don't use every sales opportunity (both the wins and the losses) as opportunities to improve, you will never reach your potential. So few salespeople ask the questions that will allow them to improve their ability thus allowing them to improve their income.

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Corey Smith is a co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free.