I could barely wait to reveal exactly how I coached my boyfriend in my new car price negotiation secrets. He got a new Subaru at $1000 under dealer invoice in December. But I waited because not long after that I had a stroke of good financial luck and got the chance to buy a new car for myself. And I negotiated a great deal again. But this time I left with a price of more than $1000 under dealer invoice. Different dealership. Different sales guy. Same persuasion tactics. Here’s how the system works:
The basic idea is to get the salesperson to like you. People do favors for people they like. People give good deals to people they like. So make yourself likeable. Chat the salesperson up. Gently match and mirror them with your body language. (If you don’t know how to do that, you’ll want to get my Mastering Magical Persuasion video). Matching and mirroring sends a deep unconscious message that says, ‘we’re just the same’. And people love people they feel are just like them.
When it comes time for the test drive, put on the kind of music you know they’ll like. When we bought my boyfriend’s car I could tell that the sales guy would like gangsta rap so that’s what we listened to. We cranked it up and had lots of fun with it! If you don’t know what they like, then just ask.
Know your numbers. Find out what dealer invoice is. Matt’s offer was about $2000 under. He ended up meeting them half way. I just told my sales guy the price I wanted ($1000 under) and he came back with an even better price! The key is the delivery of your request.
Lean forward onto their desk with your forearms. This gives off distinct body language cues of being a little aggressive.
Tent your fingers. Tented fingers show confident power.
While nodding your head yes, use this phrase,”I’d like for you to notice how easy it is to just agree on $xx,xxxx now.” It’s easy and you don’t need to be a body language expert to pull this off!
It’s that easy. They’ll agree and feel great about it but not know why.
Here’s an optional step. When you get the final price, go home and send a blast fax to every dealer in the area asking if they can beat it. Ask that they fax you back in 24 hours with their response. This takes out any human interaction and lets the numbers speak for themselves. When I did this, I found that nobody would touch the price that I’d gotten. They wouldn’t even match it!
Timing is crucial. Dealers make much of their money through quarterly and year end factory rebates. The end of their fiscal year is the end of January. So towards the end of Jan, April, July and October, you may find that a dealer needs to get rid of 1 more car to meet their quota and they’ll just about give it away. Year end may be the best time to find a deal and that time is NOW!!! So if you’ve been thinking about a new car you better hustle to the dealership.
But above all, remember not to get too attached to the car you want. Always be willing to get up and walk out if you’re not getting the pricing you want. I guarantee the pricing gets lots better once you’ve walked away….
Good luck and let me know how it goes!
