Recently I received a letter from the local Toyota dealership with a coupon for a free tool set and the possibility of other prizes. I thought "why not" and decided to go. I realized of course that they'd try to sell me something, but I had no idea the amount of high pressure sales tactics they would use before giving me my gift.
As soon as I stepped out of my car last night, the first question from a salesperson was "Do you want to buy a car?" This is a car dealership after all, so a fair question. I said "No, I'm here to redeem my voucher". I was taken inside, where the salesperson took down a few pieces of info, then again asked "Do you want to buy a car?" and began his spiel. I again firmly said "No". He continued his pitch for a minute or two, then stepped away. When I noticed he was out of view (the showroom is large and open, and even the side offices are floor to ceiling windows), and he was gone longer than it should reasonably take to grab a tool kit, I began to get that feeling. If you ever been around car dealerships, you know the old "disappearing to talk to a manager" routine.
Surely enough, a few minutes later here comes a guy in a suit. At my work we always say that people coming to the door in suits mean people trying to sell you something. The first words out of his mouth were "Hi, I''m X, and I'm one of the sales managers here". Below is a summary of the rest of the conversation.
SM= Sales manager
M= Me
(comments)
M "Do you have my gifts?"
SM "No, we have to register you"
(Then what was the first guy doing?)
M "Ok, let's go"
SM "Why are you in such a hurry to get your gifts?
M "I have things to do"
(I did, and they didn't include wasting my time there)
SM "We can make you a great deal", other random selling buzz phrases, etc.
M "No, my car is paid for, and I plan to drive it for a long time"
(Getting more frustrated by the minute here)
SM "What do you drive now and how many miles does it have?"
M "I drive an X with Y miles"
SM "How much do you think you could get for it"
M "I could sell it for at least Z"
SM "What if I gave you more than Z?"
(This whole process is a shell game. More money for a trade in means they charge you more for the car, DUH!)
M "No, I don't want any car payments"
SM "What if I made your payments for the first year?"
M "I don't want any car payments EVER"
(When I have to buy another car, I'm buying whatever I can purchase with my cash on hand)
SM "You could make a good investment-"
M "Anything that depreciates in value is not an investment"
(You could tell he didn't get that response often, and he had to agree with me. You know that had to hurt)
The conversation seemed to lose steam about then. Shortly thereafter he finally got up and left. I stood up too. It was time to use more forceful body language to show that I was done (should have already been obvious though by my tone) and wanted my stuff now. As I stood by the door (more body language) I saw an older couple who looked to be in the process of buying a car. The lady was on oxygen, and I felt so badly for her if they were being forced to put up with the intolerable high pressure tactics I did. I didn't stand at the door long before the first salesperson finally brought my gifts. I hopped in my car and was out of there.
This was by far the most high pressure, most terrible customer treatment I have ever been subjected to at a car dealership in my life. Instead of using the opportunity to treat me well and make a good impression for later, they made me HATE their dealership and rant about it on my blog. Not smart at all.
Contrast that with my experience at Best Buy a day earlier. I need to buy an IPad for work. The person at the front of the store showed me exactly where to go. After waiting a minute or two for the salesperson to help the customer in front of me, he asked what I needed. I told him, he said "Ok", was gone about a minute, and brought it out to me. He said "Do you have any questions?" I said "no", and I was on my way to check out. No hard sell for accessories, warranty, etc. It was FANTASTIC. The cashier later told me he's their top computer sales person. I see why. He listened to both my questions and what my body language was saying. I just wanted the Ipad, no hard sell. That's how a great salesperson works.
In summary:
Jeff Wyler Toyota- AWFUL
Best Buy- AWESOME
No comments:
Post a Comment