All eyes chez Bird are on Italy’s progress in the football, but we did buy a second-hand car last weekend.
I can’t drive anyhow, but She Who Is Far Better Organised Than I Am had a plan, as usual.
“I (that means we) shall go to the VW and Mercedes dealers and tell them both I am definitely buying a car this weekend and whoever gives me the best deal will get my business.”
Good thinking. The car people must be pretty desperate; we were bound to get a good deal, right?
Not if you go by the man at VW in Bristol.
He gave us some nonsense about only having £2-300 margin to play with, and no deals. His patronising attitude alone lost the sale
Then it started raining and we ended up at the Nissan place. The man there gave us a coffee – and was quite charming. So much so he nearly sold us something we never planned to get.
The best exchange of the day:
“What’s good about this car?”
“Well, for a start it’s not Italian.”
“If it was it’d be better looking.”
He was the right salesmen with the wrong car.
Next day at Mercedes they did everything right. Good coffee, pleasant salesman, no wasted time, a good deal. Sold! And when he delivered the car he brought a bunch of flowers.
People buy from people. But what if there are no people?
My daughter in law here in New York works in high end fashion. She was telling me hardly anyone in the shops knows how to sell.
I remarked that it’s almost impossible to find a sales person in any of the big stores. She says the reason is they’ve fired people to cut costs – the sales figures are actually ghastly.
You can’t build a sound business on cost-cutting. That’s one of the many ways the banks went wrong.
The best store in the U.S. is Nordstrom – famous for their service – and they are finally going to open in New York. Those other bozos had better watch out.
Long ago, I heard a story about a man that couldn't decide whether to buy a top of the range BMW or a Lexus. After test-driving both for a day or so and being waited on hand and foot by both dealers, he decided upon the BMW. When it came to delivery, the BMW salesman was most apologetic but there was a problem with the windscreen wiper that couldn't be fixed before the car would be delivered because the garage was awaiting the part from abroad and there was a back-log in orders from the suppliers of some weeks. When the man told the Lexus dealer he'd opted for the BMW despite the delivery problem, he expected the Lexus salesman to be disappointed but he hadn't prepared for what happened next. That evening the Lexus salesman called at the man's home with a bouquet of flowers for the man's wife and to the man the salesman said please accept this BMW wiper part with our compliments.
I asked an audience of around 120 marketing delegates how many had sales experience. Two hands went up. I was so shocked I had to wait a while before I could continue. As I was talking about increasing revenue, how could they possibly understand a thing I was saying?
We have had a very similar experience with Audi and Mercedes recently. The Audi salesman didn't know his product well enough and wasn't expecting us to buy. The Mercedes man on the other hand was assertive, positive, did a great deal and was prepared to let us have a test drive there and then. Needless to say, we are in the process of buying a Mercedes C Class Estate!
It's the end of the month, financial quarter, half year, so they should be dying to get your sale, not least in these trading conditions. Another Lexus story is that when you trade in your old vehicle, they make a note of your previous radio settings, so they're exactly the same in your new Lexus when you drive it away for the first time.
When I tried to collect my BMW after a service I was told they did not have it. Frantic searches under my name did not locate the car. Finally the twat service manager asked for the registration number and then said ‘ ah, The BMW fianance car’. I asked him if he ever invited people back to Abbey National’s house. Having rubbished one dealer I told a friend of mine who is a director of BMW and asked him for an alternative dealership. After dispatching a V2 to the dreadful dealership he pointed me towards Coopers of Thames Ditton. Never having been there before, I was greeeted by name and given a coffee. They had number plate recognition in the service area parking. Bloody billiant! Saved the day for BMW.