-
Lindsberg Pettway Jr. spent the early part of his career in a variety of teaching roles.
-
He now works as a sales manager at a Chevrolet dealership in Michigan.
-
Here’s his advice for navigating the car-buying market, as told to reporter Alexa St. John.
Lindsberg Pettway Jr. is a 50-year-old car salesman at Feldman Chevrolet in Livonia, Michigan, and has created a brand to give customers who buy cars a “4Real Deal.” He runs a website and social media platforms including TikTok with his 4 REAL Automotive team of 7. Pettway Jr. sells an average of 20 cars per month, while his team sells an average of 120 per month. Previously, he spent 18 years in education as a teacher, student counselor, high school principal, and athletics coach. He has also been a personal trainer. In addition to his sales role, Pettway Jr. young men and is currently working on an e-book guide to buying a car.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
March 2017 was my first month in the automotive industry.
That first month I sold 16 cars, which was unheard of in the industry. But I used social media as a platform and had a circle to lean on. I got the word out there, and it turned into an open, honest, transparent, to get you in and out of the dealer as quickly as possible, “4Real Deal.”
We use TikTok and balance entertainment with informational pieces, because sometimes people are intimidated when they enter a car dealership.
It’s a big purchase and if you don’t have the knowledge you can make a mistake. The main thing I’m trying to get across is to give people the knowledge they can use when they sit in front of a salesperson, product specialist, finance manager, or whoever, and trust that they have some sense of what’s going on.
You need to know your credit score
You need to know where you stand so you can understand what’s happening with interest. You must understand the interest rate market. A lot of people now come in with vehicles that they bought two, three years ago and we tell them what the interest rate is now and they’re just blown away.
When you trade in, you receive the value of your vehicle.
Do some shopping. Build the vehicle you are looking for, get some comparative pricing from different dealers and find that middle ground and what the price might be.
We work on a build-to-need basis
We used to have three lots full of cars. Now we only have one plot that is half full. The latest trend is that we sell vehicles before they are there.
That’s one of the biggest questions. Do you have it, is it coming in, when is it coming in? And what is the interest?
If you know what you want, if you have an idea of what your score is, if you start the process early enough, when you get to the dealer, you’re actually test driving and drawing.
More buyers are doing that, not just coming to the dealer to kick tires and walk around. When you go through that process of taking credit, getting the approval, test driving, financing, cleaning the car, that’s a two to three hour process. What I like to do with my clients is collect their information before they get there, get their approval, send them the numbers, so when they come in, they usually just test drive the vehicle and make sure it has the right features.
Today’s pricing and inventory problems seem like the dealer’s fault, but they’re bigger than us
The pandemic changed the entire sales process. So now more people deal with those things before they get there to make the process faster. I think the misconception is the price. We used to be allowed to have a certain amount of dealer money to close deals. But in our industry, in our brand, we don’t have that anymore. Before, there were always $100 leases and we had 60 of the same color Equinox, but now the manufacturer has reduced the number of discounts and incentives.
Whatever brand it is, having the brand discount, the employee discount or the family/friends discount, having a current lease, the rent loyalty or the conquest rent or having that particular brand in the household, and whatever factory discounts come from the manufacturer, that’s what matters.
Today, one of the most challenging things is having a vehicle for the customer
We get calls for different vehicles and if you don’t have the car the person hangs up or leaves and goes to the next dealer. We have eight Chevy stores, so we’re a bigger group. I think the larger groups have an advantage where you can get supplies from other stores. The other challenge is convincing my client, who has been with me for six years and gets great lease rates of $250-$290, that when they come in and sit down for the same car, it’s going to cost them $410. Inflation has changed the game.
As for used cars, at one point we were looking for trade-ins because we had nothing and we paid more than what they were worth.
Now, in the past five to six months, we’ve been needing used vehicles.
If you lease, try to keep your miles low if possible
That will give you the greatest return when you turn in your lease. When you buy, don’t be afraid to make longer installments if you need to, to get the payment you want. Yet few people keep their car for the long term. And make sure you come in with a decent score. I’ve seen a lot of subprime and it pains me to give them that price because of the high interest rates.
People think we’re out to get them, but we don’t want to build a house for a client
My brand is built on word of mouth and I do that so people can trust me and come back. I always try to put people in a position to win. I have to feed my family and my team has to feed their families. At one point certain vehicles had a market fit because they were so far and few and far between, but that has changed quite a bit.
Usually people know what they want and I’m here to walk you through the process.
Read the original article on Business Insider
