“The highest compact we can make with our fellow is,
‘Let there be truth between us two forever more.'”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear Friend,

I’ve got a couple BMWs I’ve been thinking about selling.

For a couple reasons.

Don’t get me wrong. They’re great cars.

Too much maintenance for me.

And they’re perceived as “rich guy” cars. (Frankly, I don’t want that kind of attention.)

So I’ve been thinking about selling them for a while now. I just haven’t been motivated enough to stick a “for sale” sign on ’em or place a classified ad.

Naturally, my ears perked up when I received this e-mail from a local dealership this week:

I usually look at this stuff through a marketer’s eyes.

They put a deadline on the offer. That was good.

Here’s what REALLY caught my attention…

Did you notice this part in all caps and underlined?:

THERE IS NO PURCHASE NECESSARY!

That caught my eye because my initial reaction was that this was a tactic to get people in the door to trade up to a new car.

They mention if you’d like to trade up, they’re happy to make a deal… but they’re offering to buy your used BMW outright.

So I took the time out of my day to see what kind of offer they would make.

Let’s just say this e-mail wasn’t exactly true. It was a bit of “creative writing” or stretching the truth.

Aww heck! Let me callz ’em like I seez ’em. It was…

A Lie!

There was no offer to buy my car. The salesman even admitted they sent out the e-mail to try and get people into the showroom to upgrade to a newer car.

They made me an offer on what they could accept in TRADE for my vehicles… but they were not “buying vehicles” like the e-mail stated.

I didn’t make a big deal out of it. In fact, I didn’t say much of anything.

The sales people I’ve dealt with there have always been nice and helpful.

The service department there has always been top notch. They do great work and complete it on time.

I REALLY want to like these guys and leave the option open for doing business with them in the future… but dog-gone it! They lied to me!

NOT cool.

I was already not crazy about my existing cars… but I COULD have been convinced to buy another one if my concerns were addressed.

Unfortunately after this incident, BMW won’t be an option for me. I’ll probably buy a good, used Japanese car.

“Honesty pays, but it doesn’t seem
to pay enough to suit some people.”

I hope this goes without saying, but lying to your prospects and customers is NOT how you should do business.

You might fool them once and get ONE sale… but they’ll never buy from you again.

I know I’m preaching to the choir today. You would never do something like this.

I guess I just needed to blow off some steam. I was really disappointed with these guys. Especially because tricking people is not necessary.

If they would give me the opportunity, I could create a program that would cause a sales EXPLOSION over the next 30 days. Even in this crappy economy.

It would be pretty easy to do and wouldn’t involve tricking people to get them into the showroom.

In fact, I’m utterly amazed the dealership has never done this.

Wanna know what I’d do to cause a sales explosion?

I promise I’ll tell ya… but I want to hear what YOU would do first.

Write your ideas in the comments box below. After you’ve shared what you would do, I’ll reveal exactly what I would do to cause a BMW sales explosion.

This is gonna be fun.

All the best,

P.S. Other than this incident, everybody there at the dealership has been really great. I think they’re good people. They just made a bad decision.

Do you think I should share my feelings with the owner… or just keep my mouth shut?