Selling The Unsellable

Imagine for a moment that the thing you sell is cars.

Now, humour me for a few moments as we take a journey together…

On my dealership walkthrough with the General Manager, I pointed to a dusty Jeep Grand Cherokee and asked, “what’s the deal with that?”
“Oh”, Don said,” just another boat anchor. We haven’t been able to sell that in forever.”
“How long is forever?”, I asked.
723 days in stock.
“Should we bake it a cake?”, I asked.
Once the lot crew pulled the Jeep out from behind 4 other cars, I scraped the decrepit price tag of $42,000 OBO, off the window and had the wash bay give it a good clean and a new battery.
“Where do you want it?” asked the guys, looking to park it.
“First spot beside the front door.”
“Want me to sticker it up again?” he asked.
“Nope. I got this”, I said with a smile as I grabbed my paint marker on the way to see Don.
“How much is that Jeep worth, regular price?”
$57,860
“Thanks”, I said, smiling on my way out the door to the Jeep.
The windscreen read, “$57,860. See Sales Associate for Details. Special Price This Weekend Only”.
“Good luck selling that”, they chuckled. I can only imagine how mental they thought I was.

Over the next two days, I showed EVERY single person that Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had 4 test drives on it and presented 2 offers.

On the afternoon of the second day, it sold for $47,000, a full $5,000 more than their starting price. A tremendous deal for the customer, getting a whopping $11,860 discount to make it happen! And trust me, they had to work for a discount like that. That’s not where we started negotiations.

Don told me after, he was willing to sell it for $38,000 just to see it go. He was losing $4,000 on it at $42,000. It had long been paid off, putting $47,000 cash in the bank.

Are your same old cars still sitting on the lot? Have any of them celebrated a birthday… or two? Or did you punt them out at a loss? Chalking it up to, ‘just another bad buy’.

You know that car I’m talking about already. Curled up old nasty price stickers on the dusty windshield. The battery is as dead as their interest while you sweat over the open bonnet. Gonna have to go into the ditch on this one…oops, nope, they’re gone.

There is rarely a time you have to lose money on your vehicles.

The best way to sell the unsellable is to make it sellable, then introduce it to everybody.

When Claire gave Allison a makeover, you can do the same with your forgettable inventory. Demonstrate value through your pricing strategy by making it look pretty then showing people what it’s really worth.

Give your customer hope, like Claire gave Allison. Show them they can get the price they want (or the boy) with a silent salesperson on the windscreen.

And be ready to put on a dang show when you do spark their interest.

The results, electric!

Now replace “car” with your product or service.

It’s time to get the mascara, Claire.

Good selling.