The First Visit to the Car Dealership
| The First Visit to the Car Dealership |
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Do not buy a car on the first dealer visit. The purpose of the initial dealer visit is to obtain information that is not available the internet.
You have three goals for this first visit to the dealership. The first goal is to answer the question, “is this the car I would like to buy or lease?” Although you can narrow down your selection by researching vehicles on the internet, to truly answer this question, you must test drive the car. Secondly, if you are trading in a vehicle you will have to discover the dealer’s Actual Cash Value (ACV) for your trade-in. Finally, and perhaps the most difficult to obtain, customers must find the dealer’s Buy-Rate for the finance or lease contract.
By now the readers should realize that car salesmen prefer customers to purchase cars on their first visit to the dealership. This is exactly why customers should always plan two visits to the dealer. The first visit is to make sure that the selected vehicle is really what they would like to purchase and obtain valuable information. The second visit should occur only after the customer has prepared themselves with accurate information and have made critical calculations, to conclude the deal.
Although it is tempting to acquire this information from the first visit over the phone, it is recommended that these questions be answered at the dealership. The reason is simple, over the phone, salespeople are taught to “Bubble” the customers. In other words, they will basically tell the customers what they would like to hear in order to get them to visit the showroom. Not to mention, it is a waste of time to gather information on a vehicle that you haven't test drove and later decide isn't the car you would like to buy.
In order for the customer to obtain this information on the first visit, without wasting time, they must make an appointment and install a time-line for the dealer visit.
Keep in mind, salesmen are taught to give the customers compelling reasons to buy today. For instance, they might tell the customer that the sales managers need one more car deal for them to reach their weekly bonus!
Because of these impending dealer strategies, the customer must provide the salesman with a strict agenda before they set foot in the showroom.
To implement a time-line, the customer must first phone the dealer and assess the dealer’s inventory and vehicle availability.
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