You've heard of the Trial Close; the Assumptive Close; the No-Close; the Ben Franklin Close; the Takeaway Close. What about the Clunker Close?
I wonder how American dealers plan to sell new cars once the ridiculous Cash-For-Clunkers program ends. 250,000 vehicle sales in just four days is an amazing feat but how much of it is attributable to remarkable product offering combined with effective sales and closing techniques and how much is attributable to The Discount Mentality? How are dealers going to maintain their sales successes when they can no longer use the Clunker Close?
Aren't we becoming a bargain nation when it takes a discount (price apology) to sell goods and services. What about offering a remarkable product with remarkable service and fair market pricing? Will there be a market for that?
The same applies to home sales. What's going to happen when the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit expires in just 4 months? Will your product be strong enough and will your sales strategies be good enough to overcome the discount mentality.
A lot of questions, I know. I suspect we'll revisit this discussion and hopefully before the art of selling becomes the art of discounting.
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Do you think the dealers are actually "selling" the cars or merely "order taking?" My guess is the latter. That is what happens when times are good, and things just appear good right now for the dealers. Both the car and the house stimulus programs have created great urgency, but that should be a lesson for us. Create urgency and the sales will follow. Urgency can be created in tons of ways that are not monetary - location, living life to its fullest, etc. but also in monetary ways that do not cost the builder anything - the buy low, sell high phenomenon, interest rates, etc. Great post - puts things into perspective!
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