Conversation with a Car Salesman
By Sheronde Glover

Sitting With The Enemy
I was sitting across from the enemy. There he was --- cool, calm and collected. He was soft-spoken, articulate, and well groomed. By any other standards he might be revered, respected, and one in which to reason, but I knew better. He was after all, a car salesman. As a woman, I might easily have been intimidated and cautious, "What tricks does he have up his sleeve? What kind of fool does he think I am? How much money does he think he'll get out of me? Is he taking me for a ride?" If you've ever spent a day at a dealership, sorting through cars, financing, trade-ins, and credit, you can understand the sentiment, but here we were, on neutral ground, in neutral territory, with nothing to lose on my end and less to gain on his. There was no need to fear --- there were no autos, commissions, or credit scores at stake. With my pen and pad ready, I began my quest for understanding; my need for definition; my desire to know who he was and why he was, as I settled in for our conversation.

What I learned was revealing. If you strip us down (people) of our money, titles, positions, and clout, what you have is the simplest of things, a human connection. While many of the myths, stereotypes, and confessions we've heard about the industry and the individuals in it ring with some truth, what I found was a gentleman that was passionate about his job, empathetic towards his customers, honest about his transgressions, and ultimately well meaning.

The Man Behind the Reputation
He had a vast and varied background, dabbling in computer technology, magazine publishing, auto brokering and education before settling in his current position as a sales consultant for one of the largest dealerships in his area. As he spoke, you couldn't help but feel this was a man you could trust. Ironically, what led him into the industry was his own unfortunate experience at a dealership, in which he was taken advantage. Oh how life has a way of twisting our fate. He was ambitious, sharing information on vehicle discounts, requesting referrals, and clearly hoping to make a statement that would lure me in. The opportunity to sit down, share insight, and bring out the human side, I admit was not a bad strategy. "But you're still the enemy" I could have exclaimed. "You do understand that one conversation doesn't compensate for years of mistrust" might have been an acceptable declaration; but I was taught to be polite, and after all this was a time for understanding. I decided to disregard the long held convictions and negative images and see beyond the typecast. What I saw was the same desire and motivation as any other salesperson, business professional, or corporate executive.

Confessions of a Salesman
Be that as it may, I wanted to know more --- about the rumors, the industry, the mistakes, and the confessions. In the article, Confessions of a Car Salesman, author Chandler Phillips recounts his first encounter with a couple looking to purchase a car in his undercover assignment as a car salesman in this excerpt:

What were they afraid of? The short answer is, they were afraid they would buy a car. The long answer is that they were afraid they would fall in love with one of these cars, lose their sense of reason and pay too much for it. They were afraid they would be cheated, ripped-off, pressured, hoodwinked, swindled, jacked around, suckered or fleeced. And, as they saw me approaching, all these fears showed on their faces as they blurted out, "We're only looking!"

As I sat with a real car salesman, I wanted to know if we (consumers) had a reason to be afraid, feel fearful and concerned, especially as women. Were we just being paranoid or was there a reason for concern? With humbling conviction, he shared this story:
"I remember working with a family that was looking for a mini van. They didn't have the best of credit and they fell in love with a Dodge Caravan. We couldn't get them financed through a regular bank. At the time there was a new bank program being offered in which they could be approved. The family was happy with the arrangements and the payments so we went forward. The only problem was there was a balloon payment of maybe $10,000 at the end of the loan and everyone knew the car wouldn't be worth near that amount. A year and a half later the family came in and wanted to trade the car. It was worth about $2,000 and they owed $12,000."

To this day he was haunted by the sale that "unintentionally went wrong". He spoke of another incident of a woman that came into his dealership. She knew what car she wanted and how much she wanted to put down. In her quest to get exactly what she wanted, she paid too much. As a consolation, he made sure she got some "extras". In another instance the dealership made a mistake on a deal. Somehow they released a car to an individual and later found out the buyer's financing wasn't approved. New contracts had to be signed and a different financing source had to be obtained. The dealership took what would have been profit to pay the difference in the interest rate on the loan. "You have to have one every now and then (an overpayment) to balance everything out," he shared.

Speaking of Balance
The problem with balance in this case is it makes a really big difference which side you're on. Would you want to be the woman that got what she wanted but paid too much, the family with the upside down equity, or the car salesman? While many consumers are fearful of the buying experience and those that help facilitate it, salesmen are also mistrustful of consumers. Buyers are liars, they say. Many consumers come in misrepresenting things they've seen. But can you blame them? Is there a counter attack for the consumer that just wants to get a good deal? When I asked about the biggest mistakes consumers make, not being prepared to buy, not building relationships with the sales staff and buying on emotion were at the top of the list.

An Emotional Game
But the truth is when it comes to selling and buying, emotions are always involved and car buying is an emotional business. Like any other industry, manufacturers and dealers seek to make a profit. But how does this industry adequately do that and build consumer trust along the way? In my haste, I didn't stop to ask what it must be like emotionally to be caught between the profession and the image. All things being equal, the car salesman is just one of many pawns in the auto game. How he chooses to move is his own decision and how consumers choose to respond is theirs. The only problem is, when it comes to who's winning and who's losing, it's pretty difficult to call the score.

Author Bio
Sheronde Glover is the founder of Car-Buy-Her, an automotive resource that educates women on car buying and maintenance in addition to consulting with automotive companies and dealerships on marketing effectively to women. Car-Buy-Her also publishes, Female Auto Consumer.. Email Sheronde.