"So you want to buy a car?"
So we were looking for a replacement car for my wife. Unfortunately, she hit a deer (Stag) on her way to work, and when it comes to contact between cars and large animals, cars tend to get pretty damaged. The misses, having looked at various dealership websites, picked a Toyota which was being offered by a reasonably well-known organisation with outlets across the UK. This particular vehicle was around a forty to fifty-minutes trip, depending on traffic, from where we live, so I rang them to ask about moving the car closer to us. Now, most places offer this service these days; it's, in fact, a good idea to "Move the mountain to Mohamed." now and again. The closest they could move it was around a twenty-minute trip, which was perfectly acceptable except for the fact it would take seven to ten days and sadly we needed something pretty urgently. There is also the other point in that they would require a £200.00 deposit to move the vehicle from its current location, now I don't have a problem with that, you can, after all, get your money back if you don't want it, and I understand they must have had lots of time wasters, ask them to move cars only for them to either not turn up and view it or say "No" within two seconds of seeing it so I decided that maybe it would be best if we drove down after work. The lady on the phone then hit me with "Would you like to reserve it? The thing is, it could be sold while you are on your way to look at it. Now while I recognise a sales ploy (I should do, I'm in sales after all), I did kind of see the logic. She then softened the deal by explaining that not only was the deposit refundable but that we could look at any car we liked, we weren't tied to just that one. Now dear reader, remember this as it's the key to the post.
We arrived just as it was getting dark, the sales guy greeted us and showed us to the Toyota, but we indicated that we'd like to have a look around first before we took it for a test drive. While we looked at the other cars on offer, the salesman had whipped the Toyota from its slot and parked it outside ready for a quick run around the block when he returned we indicated we'd like to look at a Peugeot they had. The sales guy suddenly became belligerent "We can't talk about the Peugeot because you've reserved the Toyota!" What? Are you Serious? Surely not? But he was! I explained we'd still go for the test drive but we'd just like a look inside the Peugeot. Nope, he was having none of it, citing his Manager as not allowing it. I was stunned I explained that I'd been informed I could look at any car, I mean, the last time I looked this was a free country? Nope, he wasn't budging "The thing is, you've reserved this one, we've taken it off sale." I'm not a punter (As such) I'm not falling for that, so I said, in that case, I didn't want the Toyota, now can we look at the Peugeot!? The bare-faced cheek was astounding: "Well, the thing is, I'm not sure if we can refund your holding deposit tonight and we'd have to do that before we could talk about the Peugeot." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, we were the only customers on the premises, and the place was due to close in the next forty minutes or so.
In an effort to calm things down I suggested we take the Toyota for a test drive even though, by now, I was no longer interested in the damn thing. We gingerly set off around the block and after what seemed like two minutes arrived back at the dealership. "Well?" said the salesman "What do you think?" I think I need a talk in private with my wife tbh. He sloped off inside while the wife and I had a talk, we were still talking when his head popped out the door "Do you need a few minutes more?" not really, I want to look at the Peugeot! I said forcibly. "Well, we'll have to speak to my manager." he said, and so off we trundled into the main building, it was time for me to take control of things.
Probably rudely, I pushed past the sales guy and handed 'The Manager' my hand: "Hi, my name is Peter Cannon and before we start I'd like to point out I am in fact a Sales Manager too so we are both speaking on the same level" (That threw him off balance) we went over the whole reservation/car viewing thing and I finally said. "I don't understand what the problem is? I'm under no obligation to buy the Toyota, and even if I don't buy the car my money is refunded so actually I can't lose, but you lose a sale! Now clearly I'm giving a buying signal in that I'm interested in the Peugeot, I would expect my staff to immediatly drop all mention of the Toyota and fall over themselves to present the Peugeot because, at the end of the day, all we care about is selling [an item] this 'holding deposit' is irrelevent and is fact getting in the way of making that sale. Why don't you just fetch the keys and we'll have a look inside the thing. because it seems to me, we are being railroaded into buying the Toyota and I won't be railroaded." Amazingly he said there wasn't a problem and of course we could have a look and told the sales guy to get the keys.
Now you would have thought that was the end of it but no, the sales guy grudginly unlocked the vehicle then stood back clutching the keys while the wife and I peered inside in the darkness. "I suppose you'd like to turn the lights on?" he said. Seems like an idea I thought. He handed the keys to my wife, GOTCHA! I promptly told the misses to turn the engine on "It's not as if we're going anywhere in it." The wife loves the car, I really like it too, we went inside to start the paperwork, but that's a whole other story!
Epilogue
I'm still kind of annoyed and it's a day later. I'm annoyed at the way in which what was an easy sale appeared to be being made as difficult as possible and for no descernable reason? I'm annoyed that my "Buy" signals were either not being detected or just flatley ignored. The first and last rule of sales is not:
"The customer is always right!"
it's actually:
Both parties need to be happy.
My actual name is Pete, you can find out Here why I use the username dick_turpin.
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