Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
When negotiations get tense, most consultants do the same thing. They focus on the number. The trade. The payment. They argue about money because that’s what the buyer is talking about.
That’s the trap.
Price is one piece of the deal. The car is the whole reason anyone’s sitting at that desk. Get back to the car.
We don’t sell cars. We sell the lifestyles that cars represent. I’ve taught this for decades because it’s the truth that changes how every negotiation feels — for you and for your buyer. When you follow the sales process in the Dealership Playbook, you’ve spent time learning who this buyer is. Their family. Their commute. What they tow on weekends. What they said about that heads-up display or those heated seats or the sound system. You collected all of that. Now use it.
That information is your redirect — and redirect is Step 3 of the Re-Sell Re-Ask inside the Dealership Playbook. After empathy and logic, you move the buyer’s attention from what they’re worried about to what they came in for. The joy of the car. The features that matched their life. The security of a new warranty. The gas savings. The fact that they won’t be sinking money into repairs on their old vehicle anymore.
You’re not changing the subject. You’re reminding them of the real subject.
The test drive is the most powerful version of this principle. Get in. Let the car do what it does. Stay quiet. A buyer who’s felt what it’s like to sit behind the wheel of the right car — the one that fits their life, their family, their sense of who they are — doesn’t need to be sold. They’ve already bought it emotionally. Your job at that point is to stay out of the way.
Buyers negotiate on price because price is all they can see when the conversation narrows down to numbers. Your job is to widen the frame. Remind them what’s already in the deal: the discount, the rebate, the trade handled, the warranty, the gas savings. Every piece of value you’ve built throughout the process belongs in that redirect.
The more they’re thinking about value, the less they’re thinking about price. Move that pendulum from fear to joy. That’s the craft of the redirect.
Done well, this is the most comfortable close in the business. Nobody feels pressured. Nobody feels like they lost. The buyer’s focused on the car they’re excited to drive home, not the number they’re trying to chip away at. You close more first pencils. You hold more gross. And the buyer leaves satisfied — which means referrals, repeat business, and a relationship that lasts past delivery day.
The Resell Re-Ask inside the Dealership Playbook’s Win-Win Closing and Negotiating course takes this deep. If your team isn’t using the redirect on every deal, that course is the place to start.
Remember: the car is the star. When the negotiation loses its way, bring it back.
If you want a team that closes deals the right way — profitably, comfortably, every time — let’s talk →
Seek Excellence.