What I Learned When I Audited 30 Car Dealerships in the Midwest

In my spare time, I perform marketing, sales, and service audits for companies. I have done thousands of these audits over the course of my career for brands such as Rolex, Extra Space Storage, Texas Roadhouse, David’s Bridal, Home Depot, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citgo, Tempur-pedic, Kia, regional car dealership groups, BMW, Big O Tires, Firestone, universities across the country, medical centers, contractors, and apartment/housing corporations, (to name a few).

In the past month, I have done a total of 30 audits at car dealerships in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. What I found was frankly shocking to me. I know that I have a lot of friends here who work at dealerships. I also know that I have a lot of friends who purchase vehicles (hello, all of us!), so I want to share this information to hopefully help you on your journey working at a dealership or shopping for a car.

1.) Of the 30 dealerships I visited I only had 4 female salespeople assist me. Of those 4 salespeople, only 1 of them appeared to be properly trained. There are a couple of issues here: more women need to be hired to work in these roles, and more time needs to be invested in training and making sure they are comfortable and capable of doing the presentation.

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2.) The 26 other dealerships had men working with me. Of those 26, 18 of them gave me what I would describe as an unacceptable sales overview to sell me a car. Most of the men just focused on prying into my personal life and did not even bother telling me about the car. Or they would focus on inane details such as "look at the cool new logo this car has". (I'm going to spend $40,000 because a car has a new logo? No.)

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3.) I made appointments at 100% of the dealerships. 20 of the locations were completely unaware that I had an appointment made and were not prepared for me. This made me feel undervalued. It was also a waste of my time to have to give information twice.

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4.) Of the 30 dealerships, only five of the salespeople sat down with me and asked me what I was looking for in a new car. They spent the time to understand what features would be important to me and then related that back to the presentation. The other 25 dealerships just put me in a car without having any understanding of if it was the right trim level or vehicle.

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5.) There is a massive variance in how professional dealerships present their information. ?When requesting pricing sheets, I received a hodgepodge of examples. Some were highly professional and gave a full printed breakdown of all fees and payment options. Some were barely legible, scrawled notes on crumpled pieces of paper, written in magic marker. Two dealerships refused to give me pricing information at all.

6.) At over half of the dealerships I felt as though I was being discriminated against based on my gender. I was given the impression that they believed women are not capable of being knowledgeable about purchasing vehicles.

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7.) Over half of the dealerships had some level of sneaky charges added on. One example that I can give you is a "mandatory" charge of $1,900 at a dealership that covers "free service" for a year. Free but it cost $1,900... and it doesn't matter if you live 10 miles away or 1,000 miles away. Half of the dealerships neglected to put this information on their websites. It's a classic example of bait and switch. Some also had "mandatory" protection add-ons that are essentially a clear coat on the car with "guaranteed" protection from weather-related damage or tree sap. That will cost you nearly $4,000 on top of the MSRP.

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8.) Several of the dealerships in the larger cities are doing a markup on MSRP to the tune of 10% or more of the car's value. One dealership was marking the car up 20%! NEVER buy a vehicle with that kind of markup. Wait. Go somewhere else. Buy a different car. Buy a used car. Do your research! In my opinion, no vehicle is worth paying that kind of extra money. And I PROMISE you, there will be another dealership that is offering it at MSRP. How do I know? Because I just did audits at 30 dealerships, 20 of them were for a specific brand. Dealerships will say anything to make the sale. (I know you all know that already!)

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9.) Dealerships will lie to you about the type of financing that they can offer. If they tell you any of the following things, RUN, don't walk, out of that dealership.

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- They tell you they only do in-house financing and won't accept financing from your pre-approved lender. RUN.

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- They tell you that they won't do loans on certain terms, such as a 36-month loan. RUN.

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- They tell you that they need to run your credit to six different lenders. RUN.

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- They tell you that they will not provide pricing information unless you sign off on buying right then. RUN THE FASTEST YOU HAVE EVER RUN!!!

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- In my opinion (disagree with me if you want) always get preapproved from a private lender before going to a dealership. Avoid the game playing and dings to your credit of a dealership running your credit through to multiple lenders. I have a credit score of 825 and one of the dealerships told me that they would be running my credit through to at least six lenders! Insane. The only exception to this is if there is a manufacturer special, which will be a very low rate on specific vehicles. Rare these days but there are a few cars out there that are offering them! I was given rate ranges (without actually running credit) of 2.9% up to 8% depending on the brand and vehicle.

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10.) Many dealerships and salespeople will feed you a line about why you have to purchase right then. Please keep in mind, this is a $40,000+ investment. You have every right in the world to take your time, do your due diligence, and change your mind. Do not allow them to bully or threaten you, even if it is in a "soft" way. The minute a dealership does that, the conversation is over. There are salespeople who will respect you and let you take your time. Find them. Buy from them. They will likely be the most successful at their dealership because they are actually concerned with helping the customer.

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11.) 75% of the dealerships would not let me leave until their manager came in to further "bully" me into buying that day. Classic sales technique. It means nothing.

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12.) 25% of the salespeople blatantly badmouthed competitors. It was distasteful and if I were an actual customer it would have caused me to stop the sales process.

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And here are just a few tips in case you are inexperienced at buying a car.

- ALWAYS read the Carfax. They are 100% public and available. Any reputable dealership will have them on the vehicle's listing. If a dealership ever tells you that they don't have the Carfax.... RUN!

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- Be wary of purchasing a used vehicle that has been totaled out and rebuilt. No matter what the salesperson tells you, you will have issues with the following: financing from most lenders (certainly financing at the best rate will not be an option), getting the lowest insurance, and ever reselling that car. I personally will never purchase a vehicle that has been in any kind of accident. You will likely regret it immediately.

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- Understand the difference in trim levels and features before going to the dealership. It is unlikely that they will take the time to explain the value or difference in the levels, and they will take advantage of your lack of knowledge. For example, knowing the difference between an AWD and FWD car is extremely important. Don't let them sell you whatever they think is important. This is your investment.

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- You do not need to be making a purchase to go test drive cars. You do not owe the dealership anything. Do your research. Test drive 15 cars if you want to. You don't need to apologize or allow them to harass you into purchasing. I can't stress enough how massive of an investment this is. You should be calling the shots, not them.?Do, however, remain respectful of their time as well. Show up for appointments and communicate honestly if you will not be purchasing from them.

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My tips for those of you that work at dealerships:

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- Please stop underestimating the buying power of women.

- Please stop underestimating the vehicular knowledge base of women.

- Please stop bullying and harassing people to get the sale. Respect and courtesy will go so much further in getting the deal signed.

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- Please don't send 7 emails, 4 text messages, and 2 phone calls in a 24-hour period. This is bordering on harassment, and nobody needs that kind of attention.

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- Properly train your salespeople on the vehicles they are selling and have them do roleplaying exercises until they fully get it. Have it be a mandatory experience to provide vehicle information to everyone that comes in. If a customer already knows all about the car, they will interrupt the salesperson and tell them! Don't assume every customer has all of the information.

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- Sit down with every customer and get a strong understanding of what they are looking for. Don't just push them into a vehicle and have them dissatisfied because they were never told about different trim levels or upgrades.

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- Be prepared for appointments. Be aware and be waiting for the customer. Don't make them start from scratch giving information that was already provided at the time the appointment was made.

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- Stop providing sloppy materials. Pricing proposals should not be scribbled in dry-erase marker on the back of a crumpled piece of paper. Have some respect for the very large decision people are making.

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- Don't lie. Don't makeup information if you don't know it. Customers will respect you if you say that you aren't sure, but that you will find out. Then actually follow up!

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There is work to be done. Careless customer service has pushed people further away from making transactions directly with salespeople. Going back to the basics and reviewing fundamentals on how to properly treat a customer would be beneficial for all brands. Customers have more options than ever on where and how they purchase something, don't lose them over the preventable mistakes listed above.