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Purchasing a vehicle is a bit like being trapped in a labyrinth designed by someone who is actively rooting against you. These days, with online shopping tools and advertised prices, dealerships can seem like less shady operations. But even in this brave new age, there are some dirty little secrets lurking behind the car lot sales counter. To truly understand the black box that is the showroom floor, one must hear it from the inside out. YouTuber Dan recently sat down with a number of current and former car salesmen to discuss the trade they work in. You’ll learn sales tactics, fears, and rules that even loyal customers would never suspect, not to mention the things salesmen really don’t want you to know.
They Hate Your Smartphone
For years, dealerships have been built on a model of information asymmetry. Salespeople have had the inventory, the pricing power, and the upper hand. Then smartphones came along, and everything changed. The second a customer is looking through online listings, market pricing, and other dealers’ offers, sales staff are at a huge disadvantage. Price transparency means the markup gets killed. And while many dealerships will advertise that they “meet or beat” online offers, salespeople will quietly acknowledge that they hate comparison shopping.
Car salesmen need tightly controlled environments, where they can gain rapport, write down numbers slowly, and leverage the back-and-forth negotiating process to mentally wear customers down. When you walk in informed, they lose all that control.
The Salesman Isn’t Your Target
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Secret No. 2: The salesman isn’t the one holding all the cards. Every customer that walks into a dealership believes the person sitting across the desk has control over the deal. But the salesman rarely does. The salesman has one job: to keep you calm, talking, and emotionally invested. The manager’s job is to ensure the dealership gets as many dollars as humanly possible. And that’s why, at one point or another, that salesperson is going to disappear “to talk to their manager,” whether the deal is rock solid or a complete mess.
They Might Be Listening In
One of the most shocking things salespeople will tell you as an insider secret is that they don’t always walk you out of the office to “talk numbers.” The truth is, they’ve left their phone or a recording device there to listen in while they’re away.
It’s an old-school trick to learn your real budget, your pain points, or your walk-away point. The second you say something like, “I mean, I guess we could go a little higher,” the game changes in the dealership’s favor. Customers think they’re having private discussions, but many dealerships purposefully set up negotiation rooms this way.
The Big Picture
Car buying has changed in recent years, with consumers walking into showrooms more informed than ever thanks to online research, mobile apps, and competing dealer quotes. Dealerships, on the other hand, have responded by adding ever-increasing price gaps to their financing offers, selling extended warranties, and using the trade-in transaction as the wild card that keeps the profit game strong. Salespeople are still on commission. Managers still watch the numbers. And the whole process is still more psychology than customer convenience.
