Life of a Car Salesman - Day 2

Corey White

The Life of a Car Salesman

1/13/18

The Meet and Greet

The meet and greet is the most important part of the car selling process, coincidently it is also the first. Just like meeting your high school girlfriend’s father for the first time, the meet and greet is meant to be strong, confident, and unobtrusive. The old expression goes that you do not get a second chance at making a first impression. This expression is of the upmost importance for a car salesman as a botched meet and greet can immediately unravel a potential car deal. There are times when a meet and greet is doomed from the get go. Car salesmen are trained to overcome the majority of objections you will encounter during the meet and greet, but alas there are times when the potential customer is determined to not give you the time of day. I personally have had situations where customers gave me the iconic stiff arm, the shoo away, or even the downright rude, “Don’t talk to me.” Albeit the latter remains few and far between and generally there are things you can say to overcome stubborn customers.
 When approaching a potential customer, it is important to make eye contact, provide a firm handshake, and exchange names to make everyone comfortable. Each and every time a customer comes on the lot, “Welcome to Arrow Ford, my name is Corey White and you are?” Now car salesmen and women get a bad rap from the onset, but when your paycheck depends on whether or not you can turn a meet and greet into a delivery you must understand why we go to the extent that we do to make an impression. At times it might feel as if we are pushy but a good car salesman knows their limits and will remain within their bounds. That does not necessarily go for all car salesman, but that is how I personally like to conduct business. On the other side of the coin, the customer should have the respect to communicate with said car salesman, even if it is simply to say they are not interested. A car salesman will still pry and attempt to get more than that out of you, because we treat this dealership as a home, spending sixty plus hours a week here makes it feel like one especially. When you approach someone’s home and you come onto their property they are going to proceed to ask you questions as to why you are there, are they not? The point of this information is to educate the customer to treat salesman with respect and dignify them with a response, answer a few questions. If you do not want to go on test drive no one is forcing you, but we do not make any money for our families if we do not at least try. Treat others how you would like to be treated, an age old proverb that still reverberates today, it is as simple as that. I will leave you with this, “A stunning first impression was not the same thing as love at first sight. But surely it was an invitation to consider the matter. 
Lois McMaster Bujold

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