Over the weekend, we went car shopping for Erin. We visited a number of dealers, and eventually 
Erin decided that she really liked the Chevy Cobalt. So we started looking for the best lease price that we could get. It wasn't as easy as it sounds.
Car sales is a high pressure job, I'm sure. And it's clear that car sales people are highly trained in selling techniques. In fact, they seem to be so well trained that they have become robots.
Let me tell you what happened at almost every dealership we visited:
- Introductions and hand shakes
- Salesman (we had no saleswomen help us) makes a point of showing us their customer service awards
- Despite my persistence that we were on a serious budget and ONLY wanted to see cars that fit in our budget, the salesman always led us out to the lot promising to show us only what was in our budget, while the manager "worked out the numbers"
- When the numbers came back, they were always too high. But the salesman was on our side, you know! He always went back to the manager to "see if he could get the manager down some."
- He never could, and when the salesmen saw we were serious, the "but wait, wait!" techniques were thrown at us as we walked out the door. One guy even got angry.
Yawn.
I'm a business woman. I know sales. I know that I'm "supposed" to have a sales pitch. But somehow, it's just not natural for me. I'd rather have all the information about my services on my website, outline the benefits of working with me (as opposed to someone else), let potential clients get to know me, like me, and trust me, and let them choose for themselves. If it comes down to a conversation, I'll always let someone know why they should work with me, but I'll always let someone know if I don't think we're a good coaching match.
I put much more energy into marketing than sales, because marketing allows people to get to know me, like me, and trust me.
Back to the story...
Our last car shopping stop was at a small dealership, just before they were about to close up for the day. Sal, a really nice older man, asked if he could help.
"Look," I blurted out. "We've been shopping all day and we know what we want. We just want to see the numbers that you can give us at this point. We've test driven and been through the whole spiel about why we should buy this car. We Just Want Numbers."
To my surprise, it was no problem. Sal sat us down, took the info, and then went searching in the computer. He explained that they had no Cobalts on the lot, but that if he could located one that we wanted nearby, he could get it for us. And he seemed genuinely willing to work within our budget.
As Sal was looking up cars away from his desk, Erin and I noticed that Sal's desk was postered with pictures of his three dogs. And Erin and I, of course, are serious dog people! When Sal returned to his desk I said, "We were just looking at your dogs."
"Oh yes," he answered. "They're my loves."
At that point, we didn't just like Sal, we really liked him.
Would you rather give your money to a real person, or a sales robot?
Who do you think your clients and customers would rather give their money to?
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