DO 1849 1984

1. I'VE ALWAYS TOLD YOU THAT IT'S FAR WISER TO DO YOUR WHEELING & DEALING & NEGOTIATING & BARGAINING ON THE TELEPHONE before you go there & get hooked right in their place or in their office where they know they've got you! They know you wouldn't have come so far if you weren't pretty serious or pretty interested, so the level of your bargaining ability is considerably lower when you're already there. It's much better to do your bargaining on the phone. Get all your prices & your deals & your discounts & all the rest on the telephone before you ever go, because they're going to do their best to bait you on the phone in order to get you down there. So they're going to offer their best buys & bargains & discounts & deals & prices on the telephone first, because they know once they've got you there they've almost got you & it's going to take quite a bit to make you back out.

2. SO DO YOUR BARGAINING ON THE TELEPHONE & ONLY DO YOUR FINAL CLINCHING IN PERSON WHEN YOU FINALLY HAVE TO GO DOWN. Do all the rest on the phone: Price‚ discount, guarantees, everything except the actual demonstration. All you go to the shop or office for is to get a demonstration to make them prove their claims‚ & then if you're convinced, you can close the deal. All the other matters have already been settled on the phone. So that's how important phone calls are, 'cause that's where you've got the advantage to do your best wheeling & dealing & ask for your best prices‚ discounts, guarantees & all. They know they're bidding against the competition!

3. THEN YOU GO FOR A DEMONSTRATION TO SEE IF IT'S ACTUALLY AS GOOD AS THEY SAY & IF IT CAN DO WHAT THEY CLAIM & YOU GIVE IT AN ACTUAL TRIAL IN PERSON. But then you're not on the spot, they are! When you go down then everything is settled to your advantage. When you go down to see it & have'm demonstrate it, they're on the spot to prove it & there's nothing else to settle. You've already agreed on price‚ discount, guarantee, everything else on the telephone except perhaps to study the actual contract to make sure it really says what they're claiming.

4. TO MAKE DEALS YOU HAVE TO BE A SALESMAN, TO SELL YOUR POINT OF VIEW & TO MAKE YOUR BARGAIN! After all, they're trying to sell you, but it's your job to sell them! They're trying to hard-sell it & it's your job to try to be hard-to-sell & you've got to have good sales resistance! That's one problem I think Alf has had sometimes in the past. Sometimes he hasn't done enough wheeling or dealing or bargaining or really getting tough about discounts & things like that‚ although lately he's been doing a little better. But I've time & again asked him prices of things & he didn't know the price & didn't even know how much he paid for it! So how could he know much about it at all if he's not even interested in the price enough to remember it?

5. LET ME TELL YOU, BROTHER, IF I WAS BARGAINING FOR SOMETHING I'D REMEMBER THE PRICE!—What they asked & what I offered & what we settled on etc. But obviously, the fact that he doesn't even remember the price, doesn't know what it cost, that shows the price was not important to him. Therefore‚ that proves that he didn't try to bargain & that's exactly what they'll think.

6. THEIR FIRST ASKING PRICE IS NEVER THE ONE THEY EXPECT TO SETTLE FOR, THAT'S THEIR CUSTOM! They're expecting to bargain, expecting to haggle. They like to bargain & dicker. I think they'd kind of be pleasantly surprised & think you're a real novice & a real sucker if you'd pay their asking price, & I think that's what Alf has done entirely too much of over the years. He's very good at languages, but he hasn't really bargained, he's kind of an easy-going guy & a push-over & almost too congenial. He's more interested in the good PR & the good friendly relations than he is in the price. So he turns out with everybody liking him, & no wonder they all like him, he pays the first price they ask without bargaining!

7. THEY'RE NOT GOING TO PARTICULARLY LOVE YOU FOR HARD BARGAINING, BUT THEY'LL RESPECT YOU MORE & they'll know next time they've got somebody to deal with & not just a sucker who's going to pay the first price they ask! Next time they're probably even going to raise it higher if they figure that you're going to always pay the first price they ask. If you're that much of a sucker that you're never even going to bargain or dicker or deal at all, they figure, "I've really got myself a sucker now, a real push-over! Next time I'm going to charge him more if he's always going to pay the first price!"

8. BUT IF YOU'RE A REAL HARD BARGAINER & A DEALER, THEY'RE GOING TO LEARN TO TRY TO GIVE YOU A LOW PRICE TO BEGIN WITH, knowing that they might as well forget it, that you won't even consider the high price. They might not give it their lowest price, but they're going to be more reasonable as long as they're going to have a tough fight on their hands. You guys have just got to learn! I've talked to you about this time & time again on rentals & all kinds of things:

9. NEVER PAY THE FIRST ASKING PRICE NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE OR WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH! Bargain‚ make deals‚ make offers, try to wheedle them down & get some kind of good deal or agreement, if not on the price, the service, the guarantee, the discount or whatever. But that all should be done on the telephone if possible, because once they've got you there, then they know they've just about got you & you're not going to back out unless it's really offensive. All of your bargaining should be done on the phone if you can, when they're trying to bait you & they know they're bidding, because they know you're shopping & they don't know what the other guy's bid is so they're going to try to under-bid him on the telephone.

10. ONCE YOU'RE THERE THEY KNOW THAT THEY'VE JUST ABOUT GOT YOU SOLD EXCEPT FOR THE DEMONSTRATION‚ & you wouldn't be there if you didn't like the price & you didn't like the deal & the discount or whatever the terms are. So they know they've got you on that once you're there. All you're there for is just to look it over & see it & get a demonstration‚ you already like the price & the deal or you wouldn't be there. So that's not the time to bargain, it's too late!

11. THAT'S WHAT SOMEONE DID THE OTHER DAY & ALL HE DID WAS MAKE'M MAD TRYING TO BARGAIN WITH'M ON THE DELIVERY AT THE DOOR! He'd already ordered the things & they were being delivered, & then he tried to bargain with them. That's no time to bargain, when you've already ordered, that's not keeping your word. To bargain on delivery is not the time to bargain. If you try to bargain then, you're going back on your word, because if you didn't like the price, you wouldn't have had them deliver.—Or whether you liked the price or not, if you weren't agreeable to the price or you hadn't consented to the price you wouldn't have had them deliver!

12. I HAVE YET TO GET THE EXACT FULL STORY, BUT THAT'S WHAT I GATHER FROM HIS NOTE, that instead of bargaining with them on the telephone before he even agreed to delivery—which is agreeing to buying at that price—he tried then to jew'm down from their price to his price at the door, & of course that just makes them furious! Of course they don't want to do that! They say, "Listen‚ Buddy‚ you ordered them, you pay!"—Or however they say it in the local language. I mean it's not right, it's not fair, you're breaking your word! He'd already agreed to buy. The time to bargain is on the telephone before you order, & certainly before it's delivered! The only thing we do after the delivery is set it down & make'm prove that it works if we haven't already done it in the shop. There's no chance of jewing'm down after they're at the door with the goods in hand, you've already ordered it at their price & that's not fair, it's not right. It's breaking your word, really.

13. WHAT I WAS TRYING TO GET HIM TO DO WAS TO TRY TO DICKER WITH THEM ON HOW MUCH THEY COULD SAVE BY ORDERING IN BULK INSTEAD OF BUYING INDIVIDUAL BOXES. It probably doesn't cost them too much except for the boxes. They've probably already got the helpers & everything there & they're paying them so much & it doesn't matter how much they have to box, but they do have to pay for the boxes. I figured we could save something by not buying the boxes‚ get'm in sacks or bags or something. So then they wanted to make him supply the bags. I said, "Well, all right, count it in the price. We could have'm bring'm without the containers or the bags if it helps bring down the price."

14. BUT APPARENTLY EITHER HE DIDN'T DEAL RIGHT OR THEY DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT THAT WAY OR SOMETHING, so he figured by the time he paid their price & the cost of his taxi & his time to go clear to the factory to get it, it was costing more than buying'm all boxed-up at the retail outlet!

15. ONCE HE'S FOUND THE BEST FOR THE FIRST PRICE HE SHOULD TRY TO BARGAIN & KIND OF GET'M TO COME ON DOWN‚ BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS COME DOWN OFF THEIR FIRST PRICE. They hardly ever expect to get their first price, even if they're the cheapest one in town! I mean it's really sad if your buyer is not a bargainer! The title for this should be: "Buyers Must Be Bargainers!"—And the best bargaining is done on the phone! When they've got you there in person they know it's cost you time & trouble & taxi or bus fare & other things to get there, & in some ways you lose money if you back out. You're already losing money, your time, taxi or bus fare, strength, energy & whatnot!

16. SO IT'S NO TIME TO BARGAIN IN PERSON UNLESS IT'S THE KIND OF SHOPPING THAT YOU CAN'T DO BY PHONE BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT & IT'S JUST LITTLE STUFF ON THE SPOT. But when it comes to big items like equipment & machinery, etc., get'm to do their bidding on the telephone. What you're actually doing is shopping around asking for bids‚ & they know it.—And they don't know what the other guy had to offer or what price he gave. It's secret bidding & you're getting them to bid not knowing what the other guy's price was, & knowing that whatever price they give you it'd better be pretty reasonable or they may be outbid by the other guy even on their first price.

17. YOU GUYS HAVE GOT TO LEARN HOW TO BARGAIN ON THE PHONE & GET ALL THE FINANCIAL ANGLE & DEALS & SERVICE & GUARANTEES & EVERYTHING PROMISED & GUARANTEED ON THE PHONE BEFORE YOU GO NEAR THE PLACE! You can somewhat sense their attitude too on the telephone, the kind of people you're dealing with. My Mother used to say she could tell more about a person's character on the phone or the radio by just listening to their voice than being distracted by their personal appearance in a personal meeting. You can tell a lot about a person's character & attitude & just how agreeable or helpful or cooperative they're going to be or how snippy or snotty they're going to be right on the telephone.

18. YOU CAN TELL A LOT ABOUT THE KIND OF SERVICE THEY'RE GOING TO GIVE BY THE FIRST SERVICE THEY GIVE YOU, & THAT'S DICKERING ON THE PHONE!—How much they're willing to talk & respond & answer questions & be helpful & give you all the information you ask for & not get impatient & not try to cut you short & say, "Nah, we don't want to fool with you because you ask too many questions!" Or‚ "You can't speak our language as well as we do." If that's the case, you don't want to fool with them either! Because any outfit that's snotty or afraid to be asked questions, there may be something phoney. So you'd better deal on the phone & learn how to read character & personality & spirit. The Lord can show you even on the telephone whether it's a good company to deal with or not.

19. NOW LATELY ALF HAS BEEN DOING BETTER & HAS COME BACK & SAID‚ "THIS OUTFIT IS MUCH MORE HELPFUL, AGREEABLE‚ COOPERATIVE & ANSWERED MY QUESTIONS & SEEMED LIKE REAL GOOD PEOPLE & I THINK I'D RATHER DEAL WITH THEM." He found that out on the phone before he ever went near'm! So get it on the phone before you go, that's the time to get your info, & the easiest way to get it. You're not obligated‚ all you've done is taken a little bit of their telephone time, whereas personal visits take a lot more time & also more strength, energy & expense for you. If they're not interested in bargaining they'll just sluff you off & let you off the phone real quick & it'll save them time too, but if they're serious about settling, then they're going to try to sell you on the phone.

20. SEE‚ ON THE TELEPHONE IT'S THE BUYER'S MARKET, BUT WHEN YOU'RE THERE IN PERSON IN THE SHOP, THEN IT'S MORE OR LESS A SELLER'S MARKET. Then the financial aspect & all that has already been settled, all they've got to do is demonstrate the machine. They have the advantage when you're there, you have the advantage on the telephone before you go there. That's the time to settle all the aspects of prices & discounts & guarantees & service & all the rest, & you just go there in person to read the contract & make sure that everything they said is true & to make'm prove it—prove both the paper & prove the product.

21. YOU'RE THE BUYER NOW & THE BARGAINER, SO GET ON THE PHONE & MAKE A NEW DEAL & MAKE SURE OF ALL THOSE THINGS IN EXACT TERMS.—The minimum time when they will buy it back & at what depreciation at that time etc. It's early opening hours, a good time to phone'm‚ then you can come back & discuss with me all the new points & everything & get all the exact information. Then if there are still any questionable points, you still have a chance to phone back & find out before you go. You'd better also find out about replacement of parts.

22. PHONING IS THE BEST WAY TO DO YOUR SHOPPING, BOY! LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING & TALKING! Then you have a chance to change your mind without causing them too much trouble & yourself a lot of trouble. I know a lot of these time purchase plans they've got have a one-year minimum. I know on cars & machinery back in the States, that you bought on what they called the lease–purchase plan. They would refuse to take it back under a year. See, they have to make a little money & they make a little more money that way than if they just let you have it for a month & it's a lot of trouble & delivery costs & all that kind of stuff they have to count in. The longer you keep it, the less expensive it is for them & the more it costs you & the more money they make, so you can't blame'm!

23. THE BEST THING TO DO IS DO YOUR DEALING NOW ON THE PHONE. Then if they'll take a morning appointment, go right away, or if they haven't got time till this afternoon‚ well, okay. And you ought to take with you the person who will probably use it the most. Don't you think it'd be a good idea to take her along to see how complicated the machine is & whether she can comprehend it or not & figure it out? It'd be a great help if she can watch with you as it's demonstrated & start learning the ropes right there.

24. IN OTHER WORDS‚ LET THEIR DEMONSTRATOR START TRAINING YOUR OPERATOR! Once you're serious & you've decided to buy it, make a deal too, "Well, can we stay there an hour or two while you train us how to use it?" It's better to do that there rather than have'm start coming into the house to train you. Right? Let that be one of the last things before you close the deal‚ say, "Well, are you willing to show my operator there & train her how to use the thing before we go, before we pay the money, before we take delivery?" If that's the last request about it then they could hardly refuse.

25. BUT WHATEVER YOU DO, DO YOUR BARGAINING ON THE PHONE FIRST!—Settle the price, discount, service, guarantee etc. before you go! When you're there it's too late! God help you all to be good bargainers for the Lord!—In Jesus' name, amen!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family