Self confidence and a stack of porn
I had only been selling cars for a few months or so, so I was still pretty green at the time. I have sold other products before but automobiles are another animal. It’s a game of chess and everyone plays it differently. Salesmen and customers alike.
Anyway, this one time early in my car selling career I saw a rusty green pickup truck pull in the lot — cliche much?
I took the UP (UP stands for “unidentified prospect” in car sales) and walked on over. The truck parked near some Camaros on the lot and a 50 something year old man stepped out and began walking over towards a silver one. He had shaggy grey hair, jeans and a white wife beater on. Leathery skin like he worked outside his whole life. I didn’t get a look at his face because his back was to me.
I approached him with my hand out. Here we go Austin, let’s do this. In my most upbeat and jovial voice I had I hit him with my greeting, “Hi, welcome to Hendrick Chevrolet. I’m Austin and you are…”
“I’m just lookin”
He didn’t even turn around. Didn’t stop his stride. Just kept on walking around and looking at this silver Camaro. He even dragged his boots on the concrete after he said it for emphasis. As if his name was actually Just lookin’.
I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t shook. I mean I literally paused. This man had the high ground now. This was the first time a customer told me to go fuck myself without actually saying it. And I word it that way because that is what he meant. I could tell.
So I nodded and took a step back. “Okay sir, well if you need any help just wave and I’ll be right over.”
Then do you know what he did?
He grunted some form of acknowledgement and then he spit on the ground. Loudly.
And that moment changed my life.
I will always be grateful to that man for that. I’m a polite guy — especially on the clock — but if you tell me to go fuck myself and then spit on the ground as I’m leaving…I’m going to play go fuck yourself too.
“So what you looking for man? You digging Camaros?” I walked towards him. He brushed me off with some objection about how he came here for a new truck but our trucks were over priced so he was, as he stated, “just lookin”. Well I wasn’t just showin’.
“Cool man, I’ll be right back,” I said as I ran inside the show room. I got the key to the silver Camaro and started it up with the key fab as I walked over to him.
“Oh, I’m not buying a Camaro today,” he said, holding his hands up with his palms out.
“Oh, I’m not selling Camaros today,” I replied, “just wanted you to get a better look at it.” I could see the look in his eye as I backed the car out into the open and hopped out of the drivers seat. “Hop in,” I told him. He gave me a disapproving look. “Tell me you don’t want to drive this around the parking lot? At least while your here,” I said.
Two hours later I was standing in his double wide trailer looking at his gigantic stack of DVD porn. He was in his bedroom looking for the title to his rusty green truck that he just traded in. I had driven his truck there (which was now the dealership’s) and he drove the silver Camaro he just bought.
After a few minutes he came back out with the title to his truck. That was the last piece of the puzzle. We shook hands and I was out of there, driving the rusty old truck back to the dealership. Victorious.
He was actually a pretty nice guy. Like a lot of people he lived a hard working class life and believed that car salesmen were snakes that were out to bite you. So he put on his defense mechanism which was pretty strong. No one had ever talked to me like that and I wasn’t ready for it. Not to say I’ve never been blown off before but the way he did it was so authoritative. So powerful. He immediately controlled the situation. In hindsight it was pretty impressive.
And I will always be grateful for that. Because in that moment I had a choice to make: tuck my tail between my legs and go get a manager to help me or handle this man’s objections by myself.
The only way to learn how to swim is to get into the deep water.
That’s where you catch the big fish.
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