6:57 am, December 4, 2022
Car dealers should ‘throw money at problems’ to make them go away as the time wasted is better spent on something else.
That’s the advice from the boss of the winning Used Car Sales Team of the Year, Jamie Caple.
The Car Quay dealership leader appeared on this week’s Car Dealer Podcast and discussed his business style, including how to deal with problem customers.
Discussing the week’s headlines with the Car Dealer team, Caple explains how he set up his business off the back of a failed former business.
He shared the lessons he has learned from that – and running his latest successful empire – on the podcast, including his thoughts on solving problems quickly.
He said: ‘If you have a customer and you’ve got a problem, deal with it, don’t take it away, just deal with it head on.
‘And I don’t like to use the phrase ‘throw money at problems’, but that is our philosophy now. If we’ve got a customer with an issue, throw money at the problem until the problem goes away.
‘Because while you’ve got that problem, it is stopping you moving on, it’s stopping you making money.
‘When you’re arguing with someone over a £200 set of brakes, you might in the next call you take find it’s a customer who’s 50/50. And they need you at your best to tip them.
‘If you’ve been arguing for an hour or half an hour, you ain’t gonna do that next customer, because you’re going to approach it the wrong way.’
In the Podcast, Caple – who was still on a high from his award win at Monday’s Used Car Awards – also revealed his selling style.
He says, because his dad was an entertainer, he’s learned tricks from his dad that help him sell cars.
‘Dad was a musician and a comedian,’ Caple explains. ‘He disappeared on a Friday night to work in men’s clubs in Stoke, or the middle of nowhere, and he could perform.
‘So I think when I get a customer, I would see that I’ve got an hour with him and I’ve got to put a performance on for an hour where I make them laugh.
‘I want them to like me, want to be with me and want to buy off me. I was never the five minute dealer. I worked in dealerships where I’d be wowed by lads who get deposits within minutes. And I’d be like, how have you done that?
‘But that wasn’t my technique. I just love them all, and have fun with them. And I’d make them enjoy themselves and relax. Sometimes even the product becomes secondary.
‘If I’m invested in the person I’m dealing with, then I’ll just deal with him. I try and be the salesperson that I would want to be sold to by.
‘I don’t know everything. I’m not the best salesman in the world. There’s no little techniques, or tricks, or dodgy handshakes, or body language things. I just try and win him over. But then I try and do that across the board.’
Caple and the Car Dealer team discuss the Car Quay business in more detail during the podcast as well as the week’s biggest headlines.
You can listen in the embedded player in this post or find it by searching ‘Car Dealer Podcast’ on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast platform.
If you’d like to appear as a guest on the Car Dealer Podcast, contact the editorial team using the email button below.
