let me talk to my sales manager…
27 07 2005Anyone who’s ever done any serious shopping at a car dealership has almost certainly heard the above phrase from their slimeball salesman. The intent is to make you feel like Joe Salesman is looking out for you and your best interests, when in actuality he’s probably back joking around with other salesman about the guy he’s about to bend over on a trade-in.
You won’t hear it solely at car dealerships (I, in fact, have said this a couple times during my employment with a large electronics retailer; however, I was actually talking to the sales manager and actually trying to work on the price with my customers), but I mostly wanted to use it as a means to segue into my post topic.
As you may or may not know, I started taking guitar lessons a couple months ago. It’s really not going all that great since I haven’t spent much time practicing at home, but that’s beside the point. I’ve enjoyed it enough that I’ve started giving thought to getting a different guitar. “Why?” you ask? The guitar I have now is pretty nice, but it’s also not quite a full size model. My guitar teacher has told me that it will be easier for me to play on a full size guitar, and the music store where I take the lessons takes trade-ins, so I talked to the owner last night to find out what he could offer me, and was a bit surprised (I’m not sure why) to feel like I was buying a car.
The first thing he did was to look up the blue book (for guitars!) value of the model I have to see what that said it was worth. When he couldn’t find it, he looked for something similar and told me that since it was probably about $150 new, he could give me about $50 for it.
Cue sales pitch.
I was then told that that number would be dependent on what sort of guitar I was buying. “If you’re looking at something like an Alvarez back there [$700 guitar] I could give you $300 for it. If you’re looking at something like one of those cheaper Fenders [$200] then I can really only offer the fifty bucks.”
I told him I was just thinking about doing something in the next couple months and that I’d think about it. I’m not sure why I was so surprised by that, but I really was. I hate dealing with salespeople. It’s worth mentioning that I hated being a salesperson just as much, but I know what I hate about salespeople, so I made a big effort to not be “that guy.”
No one likes sales people.
Everyone is a salesman in one way or another. I would say that no one likes sh#t#y salesman. It’s pretty shady that they would offer you more if you spent more. What they “can give” for a certain type of guitar should be pretty solid. When I have traded cars in they didn’t suddenly appreciate if I wanted a more expensive vehicle. That’s just a shady shop if they operate like that. Seems like they like to rip people off coming and going. I vote to Bannish them.
I would keep your current guitar and turn it into a gun case. You could be El Mariachi of Indy. Then go back to that shop and settle the score.
Once again, your topic has tied in with a recent venture of my own. As you know I just bought new furniture. I looked around online for awhile (to avoid salepeople) but with no luck because you can’t sit on it or really be sure, so I go to a couple places and at the one place where I ended up buying my furniture.
Of course, I’m trying to faniggle and fanaggle with this guy (while the greaseball hits on me), get around to the pieces I ended up purchasing, and say how much for the set? The reply, OF COURSE, is ‘For you?’ Yes for me, jerk! Like he’s doing me some kind of special favor. Then when I went to pay it off I asked abot bunk bed mattresses for my child, and say ‘What kind of deal can I get on two of them?’ and he says,’For you? $100. That’s $16 off. That’s a tank of gas.’ My first thought was what kind of freakin clown car are you drivin buddy? So I laugh. Hard.
Maybe he didn’t get that I was laughing AT him, because he continued on this ridiculous line. What a loser. I almost said no to everything just cuz I thought he was an ass, but I really liked the furniture.
I completely sympathize with you Chris. I like Trevors idea, El Mariachi, the final banishment:twisted:
I have a friend here in Sacramento whose husband is the manager at a car dealership. Nice guy and pretty remarkable when it comes to dickering with other sales people….I’ve learned many lessons from him!!! Lesson 1, ALWAYS be willing to walk away.
This guy has gotten SO many freakin’ good deals on windows for their house, new carpet, you name it, all because he was willing to say NO and walk away from what the seller makes you think is a “special deal for just you”. I keep telling him he needs to give classes, he’s amazing. Guess it’s because he knows how to speak the language of sales people. I keep telling him that I’m sending him in as my pit bull next time I buy anything where I need to haggle on price….and if I ever buy a car from him, he better be fair!!!
They go to department stores and Dave’s philosophy is that everyone, don’t care what the business is, has room to negotiate. Too many people don’t know that and don’t appreciate the art that negotiation really is! He gets discounts on clothes, you name it….my friend Angela used to be embarrassed but then she’s like hell, he’s saved us so much money over the years, I can’t be upset! It’s a skill I really wish I had. I see something, I want it, I buy it. Simple. And simply stupid at times….:sad: