Negotiating Strategies: What Works And What Doesn’t

Negotiating a vehicle purchase appears to have become part of America’s DNA. It seems almost instinctive to thumb one’s nose at any offer put on the table by a dealer, no matter what the price is. And strangely enough, while consumers may feel they have a unique and bulletproof approach set in their minds, sales personnel on the other end of the equation find themselves listening to the same excuses and objections over and over, to the point that it becomes almost comical. Experienced salespeople often know what a customer is going to say before he or she says it, simply due to the fact that they’ve heard the same strategy dozens of times in the past year.

But regardless of where consumers are finding this magical bin of negotiating scripts, the question still stands: do they work? Let’s take a look at some of the more popular angles and hear the car salesperson’s take on it.

“Just give me your best price.” When I was selling, this was the approach I hated most. Not because it was hard to get around, but simply because it was a downright pathetic statement. Because really, it’s a euphamism for “tell me, what’s the most money you’re willing to lose to sell me a car?” Not only does that statement reek of someone who knows nothing about the purchase they’re discussing, but it blatantly points you out as someone who wants to avoid establishing a relationship with the salesperson… and rule#1 of selling is that if you haven’t established a relationship with the customer, you’re not going to sell the car. Because of that, all you’ll get from me is a preposterous number that no dealer would honor, because I can tell by the lack of time you were willing to put into this discussion that you’re just going to take my offer to my competitor.

“I’m ready to buy today. I’m a serious buyer. You just have to make the right offer.” Nine times out of ten, someone who makes this statement is about as far from being serious as you can get. It’s a popular statement among older people (a.k.a. newspaper ad readers), which explains the problem: what this typical customer is saying is that they’re ready to buy right now, as long as the offer is $79 per month with no money down. In other words, the customer wants to have a car payment equal to their phone bill. You’re not a serious buyer; you’re a joke and a waste of the dealership’s time. If you’re lucky, the salesperson will simply tell you to take a hike.

“That offer’s too high - my friend only paid (whatever)”. Yet another tactic that proves you know nothing about the investment you’re about to make… your whole grasp of the expense is based on the advice of a friend who just gave you a generic monthly payment figure. Well, I don’t know your friend, but I can tell you from experience that one of three things is happening here: 1) your friend lied to you, 2) your friend neglected to mention the rest of the stipulations of the deal, 3) you conveniently forgot the other stipulations your friend told you about. This also happens when people turn in their lease, and wonder why they have to pay $400/mo with zero down when their last lease was $300/mo with zero down. It’s because their last lease was actually $3,000 down, and they’ve conveniently forgotten about that. Fact is, you have no clue what kind of deal someone got on a car unless you have the buyer’s order sitting in front of you. Monthly payment means nothing. A salesperson will patronize you at best, and the offer might even get more attractive… but in the end, the fact that you’ve shown such a lack of knowledge will stop you from getting the best deal.

“I need to be at (whatever monthly payment)”, or, “I’m approved for (whatever amount)”. I never really understood this one, and it often resulted in me giving a vacant stare as the customer sat across from me attempting to purchase a car well out of the price range they’ve just mentioned. Do you really think that by saying “I can only afford (X)” that the dealer will bend over backwards to make that happen? It seems buyers think that once they state the car they want and the price they can afford, they’ve put the ball in the dealer’s court to make it happen. What customers don’t realize is that a salesperson couldn’t care less about the car you picked out. If you can only afford $300/mo, and you’re on a $500/mo car, then you’re on the wrong car. This approach does not work if your goal is to buy the car you came in on, but it will waste plenty of your time as the salesperson tries to sell you on a much cheaper car.

Threatening to walk out on the negotiation. This strategy actually does prove successful because of a general rule of thumb in sales, which states that a Sales Manager should always get to speak with the customer before they leave. It’s definitely a good way to go over your saleperson’s head to the Manager who is creating the deal. It will often result in your lowest offer as well, though if your demands are unreasonable, the low offer will be a fictitious figure that no dealer would honor. This is done to ensure that you come back after leaving the store, because you won’t have any success shopping such a crazy number.

I know what you’re thinking: it seems like most of these strategies are examples of what doesn’t work. So then, what does? It’s simple, and if you look at the aforementioned strategies you’ll realize that most of them falter because they expose your lack of knowledge. If you’re not bringing any knowledge to the table, then you’re just trying to match wits with people who have these kinds of discussions three times a day… and that means you’ll lose.

The way to get a foothold on the negotiation is to acquire knowledge. Use the Internet to gather every possible piece of data you can, and you’ll control the discussion. Plus, ironically, car salespeople rarely acclimate themselves to the wealth of information on the web; that means it’s fairly easy to gather information that your salesperson won’t even know. And that’s how you school a salesperson.