The Car Salesman's Four Square Write Up - Trade In

This section is where the commitment process begins. Even though the customer may feel like they are negotiating during the "Four-Square", remember the salesman’s goal is to have the customer commit to buying a car today at any price. 

 

The traditional technique is to present the customer with three “hit-figures” and then take the customers offer.  A “hit-figure” is a value that is artificially high or low and is designed to influence the customers offer. In the case of the trade-in, the “hit figure” will very low because the dealer will want to pay the least possible amount for the customer's vehicle.

 

For example, the customer may believe that their trade-in is worth $10,000. Therefore, the salesmen will use a low “hit-figure” of $6000. This amount will be so low that many times it will upset the customer. This is a desired affect; they want to shock the customer. By using a low trade-in amount the customer may begin to doubt their $10,000 value. Also, it provokes a response from the customer.

 

The customer many respond by saying “That ridiculous, my trade is worth far more than that!”

 

Now the salesman will usually justify their “hit figure” by saying, “well, that’s what we paid for the last vehicle that was the same model, yours may be much nicer.”

 

Then they will write down the second “hit-figure” and salesman might say, “If yours is nicer, maybe we can show as much as $6200”.

 

Because this is such small increase, the customer will still be appalled. However, by changing the value by such a small amount it establishes some validity to the initial $6000. Usually by this time the customer will begin to believe that there will be no way that they will ever be able make a deal and there $10,000 offer will be impossible.

 

Some “stronger” salespeople will even present the customer with a third “hit figure”. 

 

At this Point the salesperson has presented the customer with three low trade values and now they will ask the customer what they would like to get for their trade. The customer will then respond by submitting their value or offer.

 

The system works for the car dealers because it provides a framework for the upcoming negotiations by diminishing the customers offer. In other words, when the customer says that he would like to receive $10,000 for their trade-in, they may feel now like it is an unrealistic expectation.

 

Once the customer has submitted their offer for the trade, the salesman will move to the “Down Payment Square".