Profiling your Salesman

monkey44 wrote:
4x4dodger Quote. "While many people hold your view. It's just not the way business works. For a business man you need to increase your bottom line. You need cash flow. If you can sell the same unit to one customer for $5k more than another... you are achieving your goal."


My post was not about running a business model, it was about why the mistrust occurs. IF there is a negotiable price on a high-ticket item, sometimes as much as 25%-30&% in some cases, the buyers will always assume the dealer is getting as much as possible out of the deal. Therefore, mistrust occurs. It has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the model.

Yes, i understand how business works, built several companies from the ground up. But when the model is based on the potential for mistrust, you have mistrust, whether you have sales is different than how the customer feels about the end result.

Even after a truck dealer closes a deal, down deep inside the customer nearly always believes he/she could have gotten a better price if they stuck it out, even if he/she loves the truck.

I understood your post perfectly, but disagreed with your premise.

As a businessman I find your equating Negotiation and price headroom with Mistrust rather confusing.

The idea that somehow having an elastic price breeds mistrust isnt really supportable. People in our society realize that this is how the game works.

When you go into a dealer you know what to expect. There is no reason to Mistrust him simply on this basis...both of you know the price is elastic. Both of you expect to negotiate.

Mistrust should only arise if he doesn't keep his word, or tries to change the terms of the deal in mid stream or other similar behaviour.

Your post assumes that if there was no negotiation and set prices there would be by default "TRUST". That is also a bad assumption.

I do not enter any negotiation on a basis of TRUST. Trust is earned by both parties over the course of that negotiation. Trust or no trust has nothing to do with elastic pricing or "No Negotiation Prices" but neither do I enter into the deal automatically mistrusting. It's the dealers Behaviour that determines this. Not his pricing policy.

Any one who walks away not knowing whether they got the deal they wanted either didnt negotiate well or has little confidence in his/her negotiation skills. It's not a ZERO SUM game both parties need to WIN. If one loses, in the long run both parties will lose.

If you negotiate from a "Take No Prisoners" mindset you will lose. If you negotiate realizing that both parties need to Win to get what they need from the deal...you both go away Happy.