by Elizabeth S. Craig @elizabethscraig
I’ve had a crazy last week. That’s because, in addition to the regular craziness, I had a car kick the bucket on me.
My husband, fortunately, jumped into full car-shopping gear while I tried really hard to stay out of it. My demands of a car are pretty minor: I want it to run and I want it to be safe. Low gas mileage would be nice. That’s about it. :)
Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t completely stay out of the car shopping. “Elizabeth, you’ve got to test drive the two cars I’ve narrowed it down to,” said my husband. “This is going to be the car you drive every day. I can’t just buy you a car without your ever even driving it!”
“Can’t you?” I felt very wistful.
No, he really couldn’t. So I ended up at two car dealerships on Monday. My husband told me he’d asked the salesmen not to try to sell me on the cars at all…just to let me drive them.
For salesmen, of course, that’s a pretty tall order. And they’re just so extroverted. I believe they tried their very hardest not to give me a sales pitch. But I could tell they were gently trying to show the car in the best light possible.
Writers do a lot more selling than most of us would like. Not only are we literally selling our books (promoting them), but we’re also trying to keep our readers flipping pages and giving them a great read so we can have them buy our next book.
After listening to the expert salesmen at the dealerships, I realized that some of their techniques could be adapted for our own use, too:
Have a pithy pitch: The salesmen both dropped something casual about what they loved about the car they were showing me. It’s good to be prepared for people to ask us, in person, about our book. I used to get a deer-in-the-headlights look when an acquaintance would ask me what my latest book was about. I’ve tried to hone this skill, because it’s important. What’s your favorite part of your story? The characters? The life or death conflict? It should be something you can be enthusiastic about.
Be friendly and accessible: After I left the dealership (probably before I’d even gotten off the lot, actually), I’d gotten emails from the dealers telling me how much they’d enjoyed meeting me and giving me all their contact info. Writers should have a welcoming home base of some kind online for readers to find them. Readers can visit your blog, website, or Facebook page to find out more about you and what you’re working on next.
Give something for readers to identify with: The dealers quickly realized that cars were not going to be a good common denominator for me to relate with them. One salesman started talking about how much he enjoyed reading thrillers and asked me about the mystery market and the other salesman quickly started talking to me about family life and children. Naturally, this made them very likeable to me. Making our protagonists likeable or at least someone that readers can identify with. Even the Grinch had likeable traits…and quickly changed.
The car salesmen’s soft selling did work…I’ve already gotten my new car. And I think I walked away with some good tips for selling. How do you sell your story to your readers?
Hopefully, without them feeling ‘sold to’. If that makes sense :)
Elizabeth – Oh, I know just what you mean about the car thing. I’m sorry to hear that your car needed to be replaced, too!
I think another thing writers can learn from car dealers is: Know your market! The sales rep was specifically told not to “sell” you. And at least he really tried not to do that. I’m sure you’d have turned right around if he’d pushed the sales thing.
Years ago I was in the market for a car at one point. I went onto one particular dealer lot, and a salesman immediately came forward to greet me. Then he asked me what sort of car I was looking for. I said a word or two about the size I wanted and instead of asking me what features I wanted, etc., he immediately said, “Now, what color would you like?” Really? Um, no thanks. He took absolutely no time to find out about his market.
Hang in there! Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.
I let Hubster narrow our choices to 3 cars he thought would be suitable. Since everything else, he assured me, was equal, I picked the Honda because it came in orange (a new color at the time.) We ordered the car through cars.com, and knowing we had the best price, I went to a local dealer to test drive one, just to be sure I’d like it. The sales pitch he gave me was pure car salesman. I’d told him if he had the right price, I would buy (knowing there was only one orange Fit, and it was on a boat from the factory and was reserved for me.) I was still stuck with him for over 2 hours, and when he finally came back with a price, I got up to leave. Seems he didn’t believe me when I told him he had ONE chance to make me the best possible offer, and since his was about 5K higher than my already locked in price, I walked.
Before that, I had a Saturn because they didn’t negotiate. Sticker price was real, and that was that. Saved a lot of hassle.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
The pitch! That’s a key thing I tell writers in my seminar. If someone put a gun to your head and asked what’s your book about, could you tell them? (Sounds extreme, but we must work well under pressure.)
And wow, I am very picky about my vehicle. I’ll test drive several and know the right one the moment I get behind the wheel.
Great advice to writers and promoter of books — having a way to identify with your target other than the direct sales approach (high pressure never seems to work these days) is so important.
I keep telling a friend of mine, just be yourself and pretend you are talking to one of your closest friends that would never judge you.
Becky
You’d let your husband buy you a car? My wife would kill me!
Jon–A very good point! They just need to feel like they’re transported to this wonderful place.
Diane–It really is important, isn’t it? If someone is *asking* about our book, we really should be ready with something to say.
You know, I’m really not picky about most things. When I shop for clothes I usually buy the first thing I see. My husband even scouted out our house for us (I was out of state and really didn’t have too many specifications for it, either.)
Margot–Yes, I’m sure my husband probably mentioned that I was easily spooked by sales pitches. I’d have bolted, for sure.
Oh no! Now that’s crazy. Talking about making assumptions!
The Tame Lion–And now things are looking up! A good thing. :)
Terry–And the thing about that is that he wasn’t even *responsive* to you at all! You were sending out signs that you weren’t enjoying your experience and didn’t like the price and he wasn’t backing off. I’d hate to think that someone would be sending hints that way to me and I wouldn’t pick up on it. And I’m pretty oblivious, but still.
I’m like you–I’m not a negotiator. Now, in *email*, I would do fine. But I’m horrible on the phone and don’t like to negotiate in person. And I was just glad to stay out of it.
Alex–Ha! Yes, and I wouldn’t have even gone to the dealerships if I didn’t have to. But I really trust my husband’s opinion with things like cars…and I don’t really have an opinion about cars, myself. So he was all engulfed in Consumer Reports and Blue Book and Edmunds and wheeling and dealing–and I just stayed out of it as much as possible.
Becky – Mystery Writers Unite–I think most people have an automatic pushing-back that happens when we encounter high pressure sales. I know I hate to hear it and I’d for sure hate to do it!
I think it’s kindof like talking about my kids. Each is different, and may have driven us crazy at times, but there is something about each of them is just so endearing.
Such a funny post because this summer my husband narrowed it down to three cars for me. Afterwards HE duly tested them all three first and came back to tell me I wouldn´t like the Spark because it was too slow on the uptake for me. That left two cars for me to try. I tried the first one (the cheapest model), and when I had heard its lovely snare when I accelerate, there was no need to try anything else, was there?
And yes, the salesman, tried all kinds of tricks even though he didn´t have to. I try to learn it, but still I have this problem that often I only leave home for work, and when I teach, I can´t walk around selling books too.
Besides, it is much easier in the virtual world where people can´t see me while I struggle to remember what that book was all about. It really is confusing now that I have one book out in English and one in Danish, and even though they are ever so different, I tend to confuse them in my mind ;(
You’re right, in order to convince your customers to buy your products, you need to be very friendly and approachable. Also, you need to conquer the heart of your target audience in order to get them excited about your next product. Looks like selling cars and books can be related after all.