Back to the cooler....

'Managing a small and friendly used car sales site has always seemed an attractive sort of job to pursue and, on the surface, quite different from my previous teaching career. Actually, in practice, I don't think the two jobs are as far apart as it may seem. In fact I think many things I learned and developed during my teaching career are paralleled in the selling situation. Firstly you need to quickly relate positively with the client (ie student or customer) and win over their trust. You need to be confident in talking about the product (ie topic or product) and be prepared to listen how each client responds. Keeping control of the situation is imperative but in a way in which the client is carefully lead forward. In a lesson this would be toward the understanding of particular points and in selling it is getting the client to cross the line from 'I'm thinking about' to 'I must have it now'. There are three main groups of people who come on to our sales site. Those who have come to see a specific car, and who we should be able to sell up to, those who say they are 'only browsing' when they mean 'I want to buy a car today', and those who are actually browsing because they are having work done at ATS, the tyre depot next door (these can often be sold cars because often the visit to ATS is just one of a number of bills they are experiencing on their 'old' car, so a change would improve that and be less expensive!) So there we have it, those who want to learn, those who say they don't want to learn but do really and those who are doing something else when they should be paying attention to learning! There are the odd few extremely rude ones who need to learn the hard way and to be sent back to the cooler known locally as Marsh Barton! Once they have grown up a bit for a couple of years they'll come back nice as pie and buy their next car from us!! Sounds very easy but there is quite a responsibility if we want to do the job right. From the client's point of view the 'Act of Purchase' gives them the most buzz (they are about to commit a large chunk of their hard earned cash) and they need to feel good particularly at this point. So attention to detail in the presentation of the product is essential, and to the immediate surroundings to make the client feel good. They need to feel important and receive individual attention with as few distractions as possible (like making every student in a class of thirty feel they have had an individual lesson!). Once the product has been talked up and we are gazing at a miraculously designed vehicle that will fulfill every need the client requires all that is required is a couple of closed questions such as 'So if you're happy with the car, let's go and sort the paperwork out shall we?' and walk into the office. The client then follows you in sits down , hands over the deposit and signs the order form. Of course there are a few who feel it necessary to actually test drive the car before they decide. Most come back and say fantastic because they don't know any better and haven't driven much more than a clapped out Morris Minor anyway, and some try to be technically knowledgeable and talk about strange noises meaning the gearbox is gone or the car is falling to bits. That of course is complete rubbish since all the strange noises you can think of only ever come from the brakes or the tyres!!! Anyway maybe a no test drives allowed policy should be adopted?? Clients who try to be clever like this should be given extra homework to ' Investigate the effect of oxygen on polished untreated metals' - produce a 2000 word essay and hand it into my office in 24 hours!
So, yes, my little car lot may not be very big, it may not even be mine, but it is the source of some amusing events for those who run it and maybe a pretty good place for anyone to purchase a car from. (they may not realise that though!!!)