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Nick M.K.

Your easiest sale ever?

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Something lighter after all the doom and gloom with difficult and awkward customers wanting better than new cars for ££££ under the asking price...

What sale has stood out as your easiest?? 

I have a couple from the times I offered free delivery (thinking of doing it again) but the one that really stood out was on a black diesel Focus p/x for £4000, a day after I advertised it a chap rang on my mobile, said that he found our location without making an appointment first and can he "please" buy it? 2 minutes later he knocked on my office door not with his hand but with an envelope full of exactly £3990, he said that he doesn't "check oil" or "do test drives", doesn't haggle and he put the asking price less £10 (for some fuel) in the envelope so do we have a deal? Of course we did. I thought at first that maybe a mate was pranking me but my buyer was as serious as they get.

Edited by Nick M.K.
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People like that make this job worthwhile. Would always give people like that free mats or a full tank of fuel.

Sold a £20k Hilux to a guy lately, bought his last one off me 14 years previously. When it came to closing the deal he didn't haggle on price so I understood I was getting full asking price. When he came to collect, he had the bankers draft made out for 100 more, thinking it was a mistake I told him, but he replied: ''No I am delighted with the jeep, and you can't have made that much profit on it''

 

 

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Well I haven’t been going that long so my experience isn’t exactly extensive but i sold a 2007 A6 avant a week or two ago. The chap rang in the morning, was there in the afternoon, paid in full in readies and gave me a £20 drink on top. 

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It looks like American style tipping culture is finally finding it's way in our industry. Great to hear! Can't wait for the times when 15% becomes the norm :-)

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7 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

It looks like American style tipping culture is finally finding it's way in our industry. Great to hear! Can't wait for the times when 15% becomes the norm :-)

Can we start chasing billy down the road if the tip isnt big enough?? I have heard of that a few times from across the water!! :)

 

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Once someone gave me £20.00 so I bought the lads a takeaway lunch with it.

Never had so much as a gift, thank you card or anything. Probably 3/4 thank you emails and a few positive facebook comments and reviews etc which is worth more to me.

Actually did once have a guy who gave me a gift, thanked me profusely and was very nice at point of sale and then turned into a complete and utter nightmare of a customer within 24 hours when he got his ruler out and measured panel gaps on a used Vauxhall before kicking up a fuss and even Vauxhall telling him it was fine :lol:
He was bloody weird.

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Easiest sale for me went to a workshop customer, came in asked 'what you got for sale', i said, 'a lovely citroen, i know it's nice cause i've been driving it, want to see it?' his reply.... you guessed it ' nope, if it's good enough for you it's good enough for me' - SOLD no haggling, start to finish about 45 seconds...we nick named him "the fastest buyer in town"... 

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13 minutes ago, Area 51 said:

Can we start chasing billy down the road if the tip isnt big enough?? I have heard of that a few times from across the water!! :)

 

That’s happened to us when we only left 10% in LA ,waitress chased us and wanted another 10% because she said she was not paid much.

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About 4 months ago was at Mansfield, won an insignia, really clean, low mileage, 1.8 petrol, went to the cafe for a cuppa and flapjack, had a free slot on trader so got on my portal app on the iPhone and entered coming soon etc! 2 hours later a chap rang said he’d missed out on one over the weekend can he put a deposit down and collect for the weekend, money transferred the next day, collected at the weekend, right chuffed 

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Had a regular in a couple of Saturdays ago. Brought his mother in to buy a Megane.

Whilst he was here another guy was looking at an Insignia. The Insignia guy had a test drive etc and decides to go away and call me on Monday.

My regular then says to me "Is he having that?" 

I explain he's gone away to think about it so he says "Well I have it then" Didn't even look in it. He'd had an Insignia off me last year and traded it in for an S-Max in March but preferred the Vauxhall.

First guy rings up 20 minutes later and I have that lovely feeling of telling him it's sold. You snooze. You lose!

Just this minute sold my regulars brother a Fiesta.

In the last 12 months I have sold the family 2 Insignias, a Megane, a Fiesta, an S-max and an Astra. Of which I've just done the 1 test drive,

Have taken back in the S-Max, the Astra and an Insignia. 

££££££££

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I could go on and on.....circa 1981....Anyway we used to sell a lot of stuff to miners (in the days of coal mines) and they earned good money.This guy walks in and stands next to a Capri and calls me over.He says ‘I’ll have that Bonny lad’ and I say thank you.He said he would just nip over to Barclays which was 200 yds away to get the money.15 minutes later he is back with cash and we do the invoice.He says can you deliver it and having seen that he lived 500 yards away,I say where to.He says ‘my house’ and explains that he does not have a licence.So I ask him why he was buying this car.........he produced a letter from Barclays telling him as a valued customer he qualified for a car loan and he said  his mates where getting the same letter and buying nice cars.We did deliver it.....He was just keeping up with his mates !

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17 minutes ago, trade vet said:

I could go on and on.....circa 1981....Anyway we used to sell a lot of stuff to miners (in the days of coal mines) and they earned good money.This guy walks in and stands next to a Capri and calls me over.He says ‘I’ll have that Bonny lad’ and I say thank you.He said he would just nip over to Barclays which was 200 yds away to get the money.15 minutes later he is back with cash and we do the invoice.He says can you deliver it and having seen that he lived 500 yards away,I say where to.He says ‘my house’ and explains that he does not have a licence.So I ask him why he was buying this car.........he produced a letter from Barclays telling him as a valued customer he qualified for a car loan and he said  his mates where getting the same letter and buying nice cars.We did deliver it.....He was just keeping up with his mates !

That’s hilarious. ‘Nowt queerer than folk’ and all that. 

My easiest sale is my mate Ben (no, not him). He hates cars, and knows nothing about them. Every four years or so he tells me his budget and nothing else. 

I buy the car and he comes and collects it -nothing else is said. 

The same happens with his wife, although she gives me some guidelines about size of car. 

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30 minutes ago, iJCS1 said:

Yesterday is most recent.

2001 Mercedes E430 Estate. Advertised yesterday got 3 calls in 20 mins. First guy got a taxi from derby to Buckinghamshire must of Cost him £130. 

Paid full asking price in cash & drove off into the sunset... & absolutely happy leaving 5 star review! 

 Must have been too cheap. ;o)

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/\ /\ /\ +1 W210 is one of the best E Classes ever, then w211, Wagons are a great tool, as long as you can find one without spaceship mileage, they'll sell all day long.

The very latest E Class has too much "big brother" for my liking, we bought an ex MD Demonstrator last year off the Dealer i have account with, an "AMG line" 220 CDI, with OM651 motor and 9 speed Auto, I only kept it 8 months then sold it for a profit :)

What i didn't like was all the info and data the Car was uploading to "the cloud", all and sundry can get hold of that info !!

If it wasn't for that we'd still have it ;) very accomplished and sorted Car, but we now have a W211 Wagon, which is great for general Family use.

E55 AMG is the one to have if you don't have SCameras on long roads where you live :D

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44 minutes ago, iJCS1 said:

2001 Mercedes E430 Estate

I thought I was brave with some of my stock choices but I am not THAT brave :-)

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LOL, it's more of  "Trade sale" that age 

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2005 and a bloke walks into the Land Rover showroom in shorts and flip flops, points towards a Range Rover Sport and says how much is that, I say £58500, he asks whether you can get it with a sunroof and I say you can but its £900 extra and you'd have to order one, it will take about 10 weeks. 

OK then, he says, I'll have this one! 

Came back next day and paid full balance on his debit card, it didn't even refer! 

Certainly one of the easiest I'll ever make. 

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1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

I thought I was brave with some of my stock choices but I am not THAT brave :-)

Too true! Years ago I had a C32amg & funnily enough the gearbox started acting up within a week. Another German gem I was glad to see the back off.

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Easiest sale we've made...

Decided to have an afternoon nap - sometimes you just gotta.

Phone rings (try not to sound like I've just woken up)

Hello, is the X3 still for sale - Yes, it is. - Is it as nice as it looks in the pictures - Yes, it is. - Ok, email me your bank details and I'll transfer the money, if you could deliver it me later on that would be great. - Sure, we can do that. See you soon!

DONE! - Made a fantastic mark up on that one too! - Why can't they all be that easy?

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A number of years ago I worked with a salesman that only dealt with customers that surrendered.....

I lost count of the times he had taxi operators rock up and buy between 5 and 10 cars. (Ex ADT bobby basic escort/focus/Astra estates)

He never wanted to sell to many cars as it spoilt his benefits!

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11 hours ago, NOACROSS said:

That’s hilarious. ‘Nowt queerer than folk’ and all that. 

My easiest sale is my mate Ben (no, not him). He hates cars, and knows nothing about them. Every four years or so he tells me his budget and nothing else. 

I buy the car and he comes and collects it -nothing else is said. 

The same happens with his wife, although she gives me some guidelines about size of car. 

That’s amazing, does he get your longest days in stock car? What have you ended up sourcing for him given it’s your choice? Something reliable so you don’t hear from him for 4 years?!

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The gems like that do deserve 40 quid of fuel or a free service or next mot done at cost price, they never come back and give u grief when they pay asking price and dont check vehicle.

 

I had a cracking sale through Ebay last week sold a C5 Exclusive estate 2011 1.6 hdi and personally delivered to Kirkbymoorside between Helmsley and Pickering got £200 less my asking price cash and a lovely last of old shape 57 Laguna 2.0 dci estate with only 62k (newer engine) to get me home in comfort and smoke around in until it sells.

Edited by Ek cars

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7 hours ago, justlooking said:

That’s amazing, does he get your longest days in stock car? What have you ended up sourcing for him given it’s your choice? Something reliable so you don’t hear from him for 4 years?!

Ha. No, actually I’ve never sold him a car that’s in stock. Like you say, I’m paranoid about getting them a lemon, plus they never remember to service them without repeated prompting, so I now sort that each time they’re up our way.  

Ones I can remember (over about 20 years now) for them both are -all petrol):

MK2 Golf C, MK3 Golf 1.6 SE, 1.4 Polo CL, Suzuki Baleno Estate, 1.9Tdi Passat, Suzuki Jimny, Suzuki Swift 1.5, Toyota Corolla Estate  

She had the Polo for about 8 years before the engine expired due to lack of servicing.      

Ben (still not that one) is now doing about 30k a year with his job, so I’m waiting for that call as the Corolla has done nearly 150k.  

I’m already trying to figure out what to get him next, and he’s mentioned in passing how much he’s spending in fuel so a diesel might be wise- but what’s reliable enough and will take the punishment? Although he does get a mileage allowance.

Needs to be a small to medium estate as he goes out foraging for wood for their wood burner and they have a dog. Ideas appreciated.

 

Edited by NOACROSS
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My last four campers have been easy. All sold before I started them!

 

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