3 New Tips for Handling Price Objections with Private Sellers [VIDEO]

When a consumer puts their car up for sale, they have at least one or two prices in mind. One would be what they’d like to receive for the vehicle. Another would be the lowest they are willing to go. But how did the seller come up with these prices? What are all the factors they considered? And how much wiggle room is there to negotiate? What are some ways to handle these price objections with private sellers?

“These are the types of questions you want to find answers to,” explains Rickey Bomar in a recent conversation during last month’s VAN University Best Practices Webinar.

Bomar is the lead Buyer at Duvall Motor Company in Clayton, GA. He and his team of three buyers have been partnered with Vehicle Acquisition Network for nearly 5 years now. They purchase an average of 60 used vehicles per month using the VAN platform.

The video in this post provides a glimpse at one of several ideas offered up by Bomar during the webinar. The idea: a simple checklist.

Enjoy the Video

Recon Checklist for Vehicles With Aftermarket Accessories

In the video, Bomar explains how a simple checklist can be useful for helping to identify enhancements made to vehicles with aftermarket products and accessories. These things can (and must) be considered when appraising vehicles with consumers. The costs associated with bringing such vehicles to market must be factored in to the price you will pay.

“Here in the last 30 days we've implemented something into our appraisal process that is working real well for us. Had we done this before, we probably would have closed more deals. It’s a bit old school sounding but it’s very effective."

"What we’ve done is we have a clipboard, and on the back of the clipboard is a list. That list contains various recon items. As we walk around the vehicle with the customer, we look for these things. And as we identify them, we take note of that."

"Every single item has a cost associated with it, and they add up. All of a sudden, guess what? We are magically right at that range that we initially told the customer."

"All of a sudden, guess what? We are magically right at that range that we initially told the customer."

This is actually working real well and is very effective,” proclaims Rickey, “so I would encourage anybody who's having a hard time with the customer objecting to price based on condition, try that.

Rickey states the you can make a consumer understand. They get it. And if you make it easy and transparent they're more apt to do business with you. They don’t want to keep the car on Craigslist for another couple of weeks, listening to all the crazy phone calls from people trying to steal their car from them.

Transparent Appraisal Process

A second tip Rickey touches on at two separate times during the webinar, is about being transparent when appraising the vehicle. “Get out of your seat and go look at the car,” he says. “That makes a big difference. You can’t appraise a car from your seat in the showroom. Get out there with the customer and let them sell it to you. You'll see a big difference.”

Be the Seller’s Advocate

The third great point Rickey emphasized during the webinar was the significance of being fair to the customer. Or as we like to say, being the seller’s advocate.

“You have a lot of dealers out there trying to buy cars from consumers that don't always have the best practices, Rickey says. “They go for the low ball. When that car is worth $10k they say ‘hey I'll give you $7,000 for it.’ That just makes people mad,” he says.” You have to overcome the poor treatment people have received from all these other places."

About VAN University

The video featured in this post includes highlights from this month’s VAN University webinar. For the complete recording, you can sign up for VAN University in the Learning Center. By doing so, we will send you access to this and all other videos in the library. Including future ones.

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