{"id":2388,"date":"2020-12-30T20:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2007\/12\/30\/funny-negotiation-story\/"},"modified":"2023-11-30T11:09:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:09:10","slug":"funny-negotiation-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/funny-negotiation-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Funny Negotiation Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, as I posted a few days ago, I\u2019ve been shopping for a new car.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, my wife and I were looking at property values for a nearby neighborhood with million-dollar houses. We found that two of the most valuable houses were owned by the owners of a couple of the local car dealers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s lots of money in selling cars, I guess!<\/p>\n

I was torn between two similar models from Jeep and Hyundai. Well, I decided that if I could get the price I was looking for, I would go with the Jeep.<\/p>\n

So I went to the dealer \u2013 let\u2019s call it Smith\u2019s<\/strong> Chrysler Jeep to protect the innocent \u2013 to negotiate, backed by all of the Consumer Reports information I gathered.<\/p>\n

The salesperson went back to his manager and improved upon his most recent quote. Of course, I said that I wanted a lower price.<\/p>\n

The salesperson said \u201cWe\u2019re not really making any money on this vehicle at this price point. I mean, it\u2019s not like a Dodge Ram that has thousands of dollars of markup. There\u2019s no markup left.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cC\u2019mon Jim. You know and I know that there\u2019s markup left. I got all of the information from Consumer Reports. True, it might not be enough to pay Mr. Smith\u2019s<\/strong> mortgage, but there\u2019s still some juice there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I hear a voice from over my shoulder saying: \u201cWhat\u2019s this about Mr. Smith\u2019s mortgage?\u201d<\/p>\n

I turn to find Mr. Smith \u2013 the owner of this rather large dealership. Haha!<\/p>\n

So Mr. Smith sat down and got more aggressive with the deal, I challenged a few numbers he wrote down, and he further swung the price my way. We reached a price point I was happy with and bought the car.<\/p>\n

I always teach my students to negotiate directly with the decision-maker and was planning on asking to speak with the sales manager\/finance guy once we got to the appropriate point, but didn\u2019t plan on things happening the way they did \u2013 in such a funny way.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading<\/b><\/p>\n