Making the Sale

As a junior in college I took a class offered at Valpo through the Dale Carnegie Training.  In the class we read the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.  And throughout the 12-week course we learned about the Golden Rules of dealing with people.  Basically it boiled down to the true golden rule: "Treat people the way that you want to be treated."  Some of the ways of doing that are to make the other person feel important, intelligent and respected.

This weekend I have been making or helping to make decisions on a couple big purchases.  A car for me and a computer for my brother.  During this decision making process I have had some very different experiences with sales personal.

During our computer shopping experience at Best Buy we had two different salesmen.  The first was great, he answered our questions, pointed us in the direction of sales and really helped us find what we were looking for.  The second one, not so much.

This guy only spoke to my brother.  When I asked questions he ignored them or skirted around them.  He would not look me in the eye but was constantly calling my brother "my man" and focused on him.  Yes, my brother was the one looking for the computer, but I did not appreciate being treated that way.  My brother also noticed this rude behavior and made a comment to me about it.  When checkout was complete the salesman shook hands with my brother, but again ignored me.

Beyond being rude, that salesman made me never want to buy anything from that Best Buy again.  If the first salesman had not been so nice and helpful, I don't know that I would return to the store.

Every salesperson should treat every person who comes into their store as a potential customer.  They should be polite, answer questions and if they are speaking with more than one person, they should be sure to focus answers at both rather than at one.

There are some sales professionals who have more of a stereotype of being biased to particular buyers.  Some of the most stereotypical offenders are cars salespeople.  During my car shopping experience I again had some good and some bad.

The worst offend on the car side was the Ford salesman.  My aunt and I were looking at cars on the lot and he came out and the first thing he said to us was, "Is there anything I can help you find, girls?"

Excuse me? Girls?

Ladies would have been fine, but not girls.  Neither of us are teenagers, we are well past the point of being "girls".  I was looking to buy a new car, to drive out on the roads, not a pretty pink one to drive around the tree in the front yard.

This salesman also asked me if I had picked out a color of car that I wanted to test drive.  I told him that no, I hadn't because the color really does not matter when I'm inside.

Unfortunately, the Ford
salesman embodied another
car industry stereotype

I am sure that not all Ford salesmen are this way.  But even if the Ford car was the one I was looking for, I don't think I would have bought from that salesman, or even that dealership.  If this is how I am treated when I am just looking for a vehicle, how will I be treated once I have actually given them my money?

I visited three other dealers this weekend.  The guy at Chevrolet, was not fantastic, but also not bad.  After a quick test drive of his car, I knew it was also not what I was looking for, so we really did not interact for very long.

The other two salesmen who I talked with were great.  These gentlemen were from Toyota and Honda.

The salesman at Toyota actually
 made me want to go places with Toyota

Toyota was the first that I visited, he actually sells my aunt and uncle their cars.  She asked him to talk to me about the process and show me what Toyota had.  He sat down with me for probably about an hour.  Explained the buying process and talked me through some of my misconceptions about cars.  When I asked him why I should buy a Toyota over another car he showed me the results of their customer service, even for vehicles beyond their warranty.

Later in the day I returned to Toyota to get more specific information about a car and I told the salesman that I was considering Toyota and Honda.  He told me that the only problem with me buying a Honda is that I would not be buying it from him.  That says a lot to me about both the quality of the cars and the quality of this salesman, that he would be honest about his competition like that.

The salesman at Honda was also very honest about his competition at Toyota.  He said that he actually had nothing bad to say about Toyota except that it was not Honda. Honestly, I was shocked to hear that kind of honesty from both brands.

The salesman at Honda never really felt like a stereotypical salesman to me.  He was very polite, soft-spoken, and he also took quite a while explaining the car and the car buying process to me.

Over all I had three very good, one mediocre and two bad experiences with salespeople this weekend.  50% pass rate is good, but higher would be better.  Some of these brands are doing great, but some could do a lot better in doing all they can to make customers happy.

After my experiences this weekend, there are brands which I will consider more strongly and earlier in my search processes in the future because of the customer service I have received from them.