Rodney Koop
Contributing Writer
The New Flat Rate
From 1975 to 1990 I personally test drove over 150 automobiles. It wasn’t my fault; after all, how many of you remember Ford Motor Company blanketing the airwaves with their great slogan, “Have you driven a Ford lately”? If I hadn’t I immediately corrected that with a trip to my local Ford dealer. However, Ford Motor Company forgot one small detail; teach the salesperson how to sell a car.
I loved sales and wanted to keep notes on where the best car salesmen worked. What I found was that I did not need a notebook. As a matter of fact, over the last 40 years I can only remember two really good car salesmen. It’s true, think about it. Do you know a great car salesman? How many can you name or remember?
Many of you know that I have a very high respect for a master salesman by the name of Zig Ziglar. Well, one of Zig’s best ever training programs was called “Closing the Sale”. In it, Zig describes his attempt to buy a car for his daughter. He said that one of the great problems with the American economy was the fact that one really good car salesman did not seem to exist. After hearing that program, I began to think of all the test drives I had already taken, and that led me down a road to driving over 150 cars and trucks. I actually bought over 50 of them, but it was in spite of the salesman not because of the salesman.
Zig does describe later how he bought his first Cadillac and how that Cadillac dealership in Dallas, Texas actually had a professional well-trained sales staff. So, Zig knew one true car salesman whereas I have known two.
The first was the president of a Volkswagen dealership in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And the second was working for the Mazda dealership in Grand Forks, N.D.
What I learned from these two men has earned me hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits and commissions as a result of two test drives.
The President of the Winnipeg Volkswagen dealer taught me these words, “Do you know?”
“Do you know why the Volkswagen Rabbit is the safest car in the world?”
“Do you know why the Volkswagen Rabbit is the best car in the world?”
“Do you know what the bottom of a Volkswagen Rabbit looks like?”
“Do you know why the world absolutely had to have the Volkswagen Rabbit?”
I was 19 years old at the time and I knew one thing for sure. I knew that one day, somehow, I would own my very own Volkswagen Rabbit. And in 1978, I became the proud owner of my very own Champagne Edition Volkswagen Rabbit.
So how did this statement earn me so much money in the years to come? Well, take a look at some of the most common statements I used when selling HVAC equipment against local competition.
“Mr. Customer, do you know why no other furnace can do what an Amana gas furnace can do?”
“Mr. Customer, do you know that Coleman actually invented the heat pump?”
“Mr. Customer, do you know what will happen if a new gas furnace is not grounded properly?”
I used the words “Do you know” to give the customer something important to focus on. Since my competitors only focused on the brand and how wonderful their company was, it gave me a powerful edge. It caused the customer to wonder why no one else pointed this out. It caused the customer to wonder what was wrong with my competitors. Why were they not telling them about these kinds of things? That was in the early days of selling HVAC systems in North Georgia and I will admit that most contractors have gotten quite sophisticated at selling now. But back then it only took a little effort to move them out of the way.
The second car salesman that had a major impact on my life was the young man that took me for my first test drive in the all new Mazda RX7. The car with the Amazing Wankel Rotary Engine that seemed to have no limit at all to its high-end speed. I’ll describe the experience.
“Hello my name is Edward and I see you’re looking at the RX7. Do you know that there has never been a more revolutionary sports car ever made?”
I certainly did agree that the rotary engine was a perfect fit for a sports car. It was, after all, much lighter than a typical piston engine and its ability to rev faster and higher than a piston engine made my little heart go pitter-patter. “Well” said the salesman, “let’s take it for a spin shall we?” I was willing and off we went. Edward drove first and this was common back in the day. The car salesman would use his time behind the wheel to warm up the car and make sure it was running good before handing it over to you. But, let me tell you what Edward did. We went west on Gateway Drive straight to Interstate 29. Back in the day the “cloverleaf” intersection was all the rage on interstates and Gateway Drive had the perfect one for test driving a sports car. “Ok” said Edward, “I’m going into this cloverleaf at 40 miles per hour, now hang on because when we come out on the top on the interstate we will be pushing 75 miles per hour.” Edward was true to his word. Not only were we doing an easy 75 when we hit the top but we were sliding just enough to give a slight squeal to the Pirelli high speed radial tires. Edward skillfully rammed that beautiful car into the down ramp side and we gracefully decelerated down around the circle to come out on Gateway Drive at 40 mph. I was hooked. And Edward, bless his soul, drove down about a quarter mile, put the car in park and uttered the four words that literally changed my life. “Now you do it!” And do it I did! Around and around we went on that cloverleaf until I could top out at almost 80 miles per hour. And yes those were the days. I’ll never forget that day because it taught me a great lesson. When a man or woman comes into your dealership and wants to drive a sports car, they do not want to go once around the block. They want to “drive” the car.
During my quest for sales knowledge (and to get out of crawling through attics) I took a job as a car salesman. It was 1979 and I went to work for a Toyota, Saab and Mercedes Benz dealer in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I liked the status of selling Mercedes Benz automobiles but two things were working against my success at selling the great German cars. First of all, I was told that as a new salesman I wasn’t allowed to talk to customers about the Mercedes Benz. They were sure I was so unskilled and so unknowledgeable about this wonderful product that I would waste every opportunity that came in the door. The second thing working against my success was that we only carried one new Mercedes Benz. We weren’t exactly a big European importer, if you know what I mean. Even in North Dakota the best closing line I ever heard from a salesman went something like, “Make me an offer and I’ll see if the manager will take it.”
When it came to selling our Swedish cars (the Saabs), in 1979 in North Dakota, how many people do you think had ever even heard of a Saab? I found out, not many! So that left Toyotas and used cars.
In just two short months I was fired from my first job selling cars. It turns out I didn’t sell enough cars. No surprise there I guess. I was hired the very next day by Bob Sellers Dodge Datsun right down the street and I became a top producer in new car sales using two methods that I had devised from all of those test drives. I also took to the bookstore to study car sales and immediately bought everything I could find by Joe Girard, who was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 5 cars a day for 5 years straight. I even got him to send me an 8 X 10 signed photo that I framed and placed on my desk.
Later when I sold cars for Bob Sellers Dodge Datsun I never showed a Datsun 280Z without first saying to the customer, “Do you know what makes the 280Z the best handling sports car made?” Then I’d explain how the differential along with the customized gearing made handling during a 360-degree spin so controllable. I’d demonstrate by doing a controlled 360, (a donut) in a nearby vacant parking lot. Then I would simply turn to my customer and say, “Now You Do It.”
At one time I planned on writing a book on how to sell a car. The reason was to help salesmen and, of course, the good old US economy. Too late for Detroit it looks like. Shame on me! Well, it may be too late to save Detroit but do you know why you are the most powerful salesperson your customer has ever known?
Now, You Do It.