Monday, July 28, 2008

Earning the Right

The other day, I went to get a hair cut. I walked into a place I had never been at and the girl working at the counter said, "Welcome to hair clips" (or whatever it was called.) So far, so good--great greeting!

OK--I looked around at all the girls and saw that they all had pretty bad hair cuts. Oh oh!

The one started asking me information--phone #, address, full name and all I could think about was, "Great--gonna be stuck on a mailing list."

"Hey--how much do you charge for haircuts?"

"Eleven dollars."

"Cool!"

She sat me down and asked what I wanted and I told her. "Yeah--I usually go to my barber but we were in the neighborhood."

Then she said something that really turned me off. Before the first gray hair on my head was cut (not all gray--bits and pieces) she said, "Looks like we earned a new customer."

Hmmmm--I don't know why that statement put a bad taste in my mouth--maybe it was the fact that she assumed that she had my future business before even cutting my hair. In my opinion, she hadn't earned the right to assume that she had earned a customer until he cut my hair.

Needless to say, she hacked up my hair and chopped into the mole on the back of my neck. "Oops--I nicked your mole!" No shit!

I don't know. Maybe she was saying "We earned a new customer" because of the fact that I had never been there before. One thing for sure is that I will probably not go back in there.

OK--what the hell does this have to do with the car business?

How many times have you done a decent greeting, asked a few questions and went RIGHT TO THE PRICE? Have you earned the right to go for the close or are you jumping the gun?

I don't always follow every step the sale. I sold 2 today and only one of them test drove the car. Guess what? The one who drove nickled and dimed me to death (a nice friendly mini deal) and the other one didn't negotiate at all and actually bought a bed liner and a few back end products (about 8 mini deals-worth of $$$). I am a firm believer that when someone is ready to buy, they are ready to buy. But I always make sure they are there to do business before I jump through hoops and get the price, etc. for them.

Wow--I am rambling today. Hope I have earned the right to gain you as a loyal reader to this blog.

Marv

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