The Car Salesman Commitment Process

...the salesperson's main job is to get the customer committed to buy a car at any price.

The "commitment" step is a keystone to the negotiation process.  At most dealerships, the salesperson’s main job is to get the customer committed to buy at any price.  Dealers realize that getting the customer committed to buy is more than half the battle.

 

To a car dealers, a valid commitment is when the customer agrees to purchase a car without contingencies.  However, this does not mean they need to agree on the price, a valid commitment is if the price was right the customer would buy the vehicle today.

 

 

Often there will be a trial commitment that must take place before the customer agrees to buy today.  This is used to verify that the customer has “landed” on the right vehicle.  For example, when the customer has arrived back from the test drive and is under the influence of “Ether”, the salesman may say "if the numbers are agreeable, is the vehicle you would like to own?” 

Notice that the salesman has taken the price out of their question by asking "if the numbers are agreeable", this will limit the customer's response to whether or not they like the car.  As long as the customer doesn’t say “no”, the salesperson has their first commitment. 

 

If the customer objects to car, then the salesman has to move to a different vehicle.  Even when the customer replies to salesman by saying “Maybe" or "I'm not buying today" that is still a sufficient commitment and they can move to the next step.

 

Once the customer has committed to the car, then they must commit to buying the car at the right price.  This is the main commitment. This main commitment is attempted during the "Write-Up" process and it occurs right after the salesperson presents the customer with the typical cost of payment, down payment and price. This step is explained in detail in Chapter Four: Closing the deal with the car dealer.

For example, the salesman might say “Normally, with a typical down payment of five thousand dollars your payment will be four hundred dollars".

Then the salesman will go through a series of carefully orchestrated adjustments on the payment, Down-Payment and trade-in value to discover the customer's offer.

Then the "commitment" is attempted.  For example, the salesperson might say “So let me get this straight, if I was able to sell you the car and keep your payments were you requested them with no money down, you would buy the car today...is that right?"

If the customer says "yes", they have successfully committed from the customer.

If they say "no" then the salesman has to go back and try to commit the customer by reducing the price and/or the payment.  

It’s the salesman's job to isolate the objection and then reduce the price until the customer says “yes”.  Furthermore, it doesn't matter how ridiculous those prices become, the key to the sale is having a committed customer that agrees to buy today.

 
You may ask yourself what it’s the purpose of getting a customer to agree on a ridiculously low price that most likely will not be enough to buy the car.  The reason is that even if the deal looks impossible, when the customer commits they have converted themselves from a "shopper" to a "buyer" and they have developed a mental ownership of the new car. Emotionally, this is when the customer buys the car, not in the price negotiations that follow.

 
Once the salesman has this main commitment, all that is left to be done is to negotiate the price and if the customer is not prepared with accurate information, they will be at a huge disadvantage.  Not to mention, the more time that customers spend in the negotiation process, the more likely they will make concessions on the price and payment. Many salespeople are skilled at dragging out the process and slowly wearing the customer down.

 

Keep in mind some of the biggest commissions are made from customers who were “just looking”.  However, they bought a car because the salesman created “ether” and committed them on an offer that seemed too good to be true.  One should try to avoid this all too common scenario. The guide book offers a step by step process on how to maintain control over an automotive purchase.