I’ll never forget the first time a customer came clean about some work their mechanic said was needed on their trade. I didn’t ask for it - and her husband certainly didn’t like the fact that his wife freely volunteered information about their car - "But," she told him, "he’s been totally honest with us and I just feel we should do the same for him!" To which the husband replied, "I guess you’re right."

Once you’ve transitioned to customer focused processes, the above example becomes the rule rather than the exception. And there is no better place to start then with the Trade Evaluation Process.

The Evaluation Walk Around

Evaluators have been taught for years that the secret to maintaining used car gross profit is to "devalue" the trade. To do this, we were taught to find a flaw somewhere on the vehicle and point to it or touch it. Then subtley, but silently, jot something down while making a painful facial gesture. This would work subconsciously to validate the low ball offer we were about to give the customer - or so we were taught.

With websites like Kelly Blue Book and others that provide easy access to trade values, it doesn’t make sense to try and play the game. You just risk losing a deal for the chance of hitting a home run. Instead, we recommend you discuss any possible repairs with the customer during the Walk Around. For example:

Salesperson: I noticed the dent on the left rear panel. Have you had an estimate provided for the cost to repair that?

Customer: No.

Salesperson: If you did have an estimate done, what do you think it would be?

Customer: $250.00

Salesperson: That sounds about right. I’ll use that number for reconditioning. Fair enough?

Occassionally the customer will be off the mark and you’ll need to explain the real cost. There are good ways to do this, and we discuss additional ideas in our course on Trade Evaluations.

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