I never really understood why people like to mess around with car salespeople. I guess I’m just one of those “cut to the chase” kind of people.
I was in the automobile business from July 16th 1984 until the end of September 2001.
I worked just about every position available from sales to finance to General Sales Manager. I spent time running the used car department, purchasing cars at auctions, arranging for whatever renovation was necessary. I ran the leasing department for a while. Eventually I worked my way up to become the “manager” everyone had to go to for final deal approval. In those days that “maneuver" was legitimate. I was truly responsible to the owner for the profitability of each and every transaction. It wasn’t just some kind of sales gimmick.
I was fortunate to work for dealership owners that were honest. A couple of the folks they employed were less than honorable, but when it came right down to it, the owners did their best to keep the customer happy and provide a quality product / fair deal to each customer.
There are so many stories I could share about car sales - some hilariously funny, others not so much.
I learned a good many life lessons in the automobile business. One of the most valuable was not to prejudge anyone about anything - particularly regarding their ability to purchase - a very common character flaw of far too many salespeople. Maybe sometime I’ll share how I learned that one, but for now I’ll stick to one recollection that always brings a smile of satisfaction.
First let me provide some context -
As in many transactions that require negotiation, it’s important that the salesperson is prepared to take whatever time necessary to provide a customer with any information that helps them make a good decision.
(Preferably to purchase!)
This meant that quite often, even though the dealership closed at a specific time - an active sales effort / negotiation was never shut down just because the hour was late. I personally found this to be quite irritating as well as very disruptive to my family life, but I always considered it a necessary evil to be grudgingly tolerated. Not only did it rankle me, but my wife was far too many times left sitting waiting for me by herself for a dinner engagement, or even worse, handling outings with the kids - solo. Not a good way to keep a marriage healthy.
It was early June of 1993.
I was at the pinnacle of my career in the auto business. I oversaw the sales departments and was involved in a great many individual transactions. I kept a desk in the front of the showroom rather than cloister away in the corner office - unlike most of my contemporaries. The idea was to be readily available to both the customer and salesperson. This gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with many of our long term and repeat customers personally. More importantly, I was able to observe most everything that was taking place.
My older son BJ was 13 and younger son Brooks, 11.
The movie Jurassic Park was released on Friday evening June 11th. The movie arrived in our area by midweek the following week and I promised my boys that I would get them to the theater to see it right after work on Friday.
Our dealership closed at 6:00 and I knew I would have to leave work immediately, head home grab the boys and hightail it to the theater by about 7:00 to be sure we could get tickets for the evening show.
Generally Friday, late afternoon was a slow time at our dealership as folks were getting off of work, maybe going out for dinner and lining up their weekend plans.
Shouldn’t be a problem.
Right.
Mid afternoon a gent came in and began looking at several new cars. I casually observed he and the salesman off and on. Around 5:00 I could see my salesman was getting exasperated. He’d brought me several ridiculous offers from the man at this point which of course I had no choice but to decline.
It was becoming painfully apparent that this was the type of guy that liked to play games with a salesperson, whittle them down to the barest bones deal possible, then all too often walk away without purchasing. I guess they must consider it some kind of sport.
It was obvious that this fellow knew we were fast approaching closing time, but had no intention of letting up. It was apparent he didn’t care how late he kept us or how many people he was inconveniencing with his antics. He was clearly having fun.
I let this nonsense continue to about 5:50 then I walked over to the salesman's desk, introduced myself to the customer and politely told the man that we were closing at 6:00. He looked at me with a bit of a smirk and replied “so what?” I explained that I have two young sons and I promised to take them to the movie, and that I needed to leave right at 6:00 - closing time. He replied to me in a very sarcastic manner, “you would honestly shut down a serious negotiation so you can take your kids to the movie?” I smiled back at him and said “Nope, but you two will have to continue this ridiculous game outside a locked showroom. As far as I’m concerned you can stay there all night, but either way, the doors are locked at 6:00 and you are on the other side of them.” He looked at me in silence for a while and quietly replied “you’re serious aren’t you?”
I responded “Serious as a heart attack.” He drew a long breath - smiled and said “I’ll take the car. I’ll come back in the morning and complete the transaction.”
He did.
