Liar, liar

What lies do car salespeople hear from clients? If you work in car sales, which of these sound familiar?

"You're the first dealership I've been in contact with" ( then when you appraise the trade-in there are three or four brochures with business card attached sitting in the front seat ).

"We bought another model because they gave us more for our trade-in / better payments etc." then you see the client a month later still driving their old car ( or better still, they visit you again )

“We’ve been given a price of $ XX,XXX ( $ 2K to $ 3K below dealer cost )" and of course: "We'll definitely come back and see you before we make a decision."

Why do customers lie? In most cases, I think it is substantially influenced by fear, especially a fear of the unknown and/or a fear of what might happen if they do tell the salesperson the truth.

To address these situations effectively, it's important not to take the lies too personally. There are specific strategies and skills to use to reduce the number of lies that you are told by customers and to work more effectively with the lies.

Trust Me, I'm a Car Salesperson

On the way to a client meeting this morning, I was listening to the radio and one station had a talkback competition on the question: "Who don't you trust?"

The winning caller was a car salesperson who doesn't trust customers. As funny as this may be, those of you in car sales ( or any sales ) are probably familiar with how many lies you are told every business day by your clients.

Most of the salespeople I have worked with do not lie to their clients and are very aware of the damage that lying can do their business and to their careers. Yet they have to work diplomatically with all the lies that they are told by their clients daily.

In another post, we'll look at some of the reasons why customers lie and what we can do about it.