The Dangers of Pre-Qualifying

Do we all pre-qualify customers? I don't know. I'll be honest, though--I do sometimes and it is the wrong thing to do.

I have 2 cellphones. Well, I had 2--my wife accidentally flushed hers down the toilet. I won't even begin to describe how! Mine, I accidentally left in my pants and they got washed and dried. Believe it or not, the phone still works--it just won't shut off and I can't use the camera anymore. I still had an old cellphone that we thought we lost (we reported it as lost or stolen) but we later found it. When I called my cellphone provider, they told me that they couldn't let us use that phone because we reported it as lost or stolen.

What do cellphones have to do with pre-qualifying? I've had the major urge to get a new phone for myself. I still sell cars and our internet is extremely blocked so I can't check my email from work and since I run a business selling software, it makes it hard on myself and my customers because sometimes it may take 10-13 hours to answer an email and I'm sure it bothers my customers when they email and don't hear from me--especially after purchasing my software!

OK--I'm babbling. I've had the urge to get one of the new modern cellphones that would allow me to check email, internet, etc.

I walked into the cell phone store and told them my situation, flushed phone and all. They looked up my record. My contract expires in 9 months so the salesperson said, "If I were you, I would wait." Wow! Was he trying to flush me?

"I really want a new phone," I told him--practically begging him to sell me one.

"It will be very expensive," he told me. "It will cost you $549 but if you wait until July, you can get one for $249"

"Is there not anything you can do?"

"No." I turned to walk out and said, "The bummer is that I have another phone at home but when I called my provider, they told me that I reported it as lost or stolen."

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Do you still have the phone?"

"Yeah."

OK--no more prequalifying. The dude figured out a way to add a 3rd phone (the internet one), change my "lost/stolen" one to my wifes old number and my old, washed one, I would just pay an extra $7 a month until the contract expires. I spent $350 today on a new phone and if I wouldn't have mentioned the old phone, the guy who was instantly wanting to flush me for an easier sale would not have gotten a $350 phone sale and a new 2 year contract.

How does this relate to the car business? Let me tell you.

I sell cars in Michigan. We are a broke state full of people who are losing jobs by the thousands, we have 3 casinos in Detroit that made over $1.4 billion in profit last year and we have the 3rd highest foreclosures in the country. Gas is around $3.00 a gallon and people are trying to get out of their gas guzzler trucks and into something more economical.

It was thursday night, around 7:00pm and I was honestly counting down the last 2 hours of the day. A guy pulled up in a GMC 2500HD Extended Cab truck--just the thing that most people are buried in. I turned to a girl that I sit next to and pre-qualified him like an idiot. I said, "Man--I hope someone else catches them. I've had enough buried people this week." She pre-qualified in agreement.

Needless to say, my manager looked right at me as they walked in so I had to greet them. I did so with a tired smile on my face and they guy said he wanted the red Chevy HHR LT2 that we had--they had been buy during our closing hours and saw it. I said, "Let me go get it so you can drive it."

"I don't want to drive it. She already has one and I want to know what my truck is worth first."

Great,I thought. I know this guy is buried and that he's gonna want too much for it.

I grabbed his keys and got the truck appraised. It was worth $11,000 and I just knew for a fact that they guy probably owed $20,000 on it. I have been selling cars for 12 years and I knew for a fact that I had nothing here.

I came back, told him that his truck was worth $11,000 and you know what? The guy hooked right up and you know what else? He didn't owe a dime on the truck. You know what else? I had him in and out within an hour and made around $800.

What is the moral of this story? You guessed it. NEVER PREQUALIFY!

I once had a guy in Tennessee who told me that he was going to get a settlement check the next day--he dressed like a bum and everyone else ignored him. Guess what--he came in with the check (he negotiated it himself) and I helped him open a bank account with the check for $90K that he had in his pocket (he never had a bank account before.) He bought 3 cars off of me in a 1 year period.

Four years ago, a guy came in with cut-off sleeves and told me that he wanted a price on an Avalanche. Everyone else ignored him but I greeted him and he paid cash, literally, for the truck (he had a bag of $100 bills in his car.)

I have dozens more of these stores.

You read the story--even after all of my years in this business, I still find it hard not to prequalify. I tried to do so 2 days ago and it almost cost me my house payment.

Don't be an idiot like me. You are costing yourself $1000's of dollars by prequalifying if you do so. Selling cars is a number game. The more people you talk to, the more people you demo and the more people you write up, the more people you will sell. Period. Talk to everyone and give them all 100% and you will do what 90% of the other salespeople (myself included sometimes) and you will be successful in this crazy business.