A Day in the Life of Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Business Journal sent each of its reporters out to a local business to observe what happens on a typical day. The result was a special edition covering the goings on at businesses across the city on one average day in the life of Los Angeles.

Car Dealer

By SHELLY GARCIA

Staff Reporter

Aton Setty is sitting quietly in the passenger seat while his customer test drives a Toyota Camry. He speaks only to direct the man to turn right or left, or to answer a question – and then only with the facts. He does not embellish. He makes no small talk. He appears downright aloof.

Can this really be the top-producing salesman at Toyota of North Hollywood?

Setty sold an average of 32 cars a month last year, nearly three times the average for most other salespeople at the dealership and four times the national average, according to the National Automotive Dealer’s Association. Setty’s track record works out to one sale for every three customers he sees.

His strategy? He changes his style for each individual customer.

“You get all types,” Setty says. “You get your very emotional type. You get the 40-year-olds who have to ask their parents. You get people who are stupid or not very logical, and it’s just trying to somehow connect with them.”

A day earlier, Setty chatted up a woman who had come in for an oil change on her leased 1997 Camry and ended up convincing her to trade it in for a brand new model.

“He’s not pushy. He’s very smart,” says the customer, Lee Loring, who has returned to the dealership today to get some options installed on her new car. “He can see how you feel about things, and he just makes a deal.”

Sometimes, making a deal means just hanging back, which is what Setty is doing now as he accompanies his customer on a test drive. With a few questions, Setty found out the customer arrived knowing exactly what model and option package he wanted. He also had a pretty good idea of what the car would cost.

“He’s educated,” Setty says. “If you get too aggressive, he’ll get turned off. You gotta give him the space.”

Setty himself gives off no first impression. Fortyish, he is of medium height and medium build. His clothing is conservative, but not so conservative as to be distinctive. A former appliance repair technician, he started selling cars in 1986. Ask him what attracted him to the car business, and he says only that he hated appliance repair. When his co-workers rib him about a lunchbox he brings to work each day – he’s a vegetarian – and about his habit of not carrying more than $30 in his pocket, he just smiles. Though he answers questions directly and with candor, he tends to get more information than he gives.

The test drive over, Setty is still not saying much when he walks his customer into the showroom. He has learned that the man intends to pay cash for the car, and cash customers are the hardest to sell. If a customer is financing a car, a salesman can find wiggle room in the down payment or the monthly payment, depending on the customer’s needs. But with cash customers, the only bargaining chip is the bottom-line price, and often customers have unrealistic expectations about what a car should cost.

Setty pulls out a ledger with the invoice prices of all the models the dealership has on hand and finds the one his customer test drove. He spreads the ledger out so his customer can see the numbers.

“What you pay for a Camry is only $350 over invoice,” Setty tells him, pointing to the invoice price of $18,518.

His customer is skeptical. He thinks the invoice price listed may not be genuine.

“I’m not a very trusting person,” he tells Setty.

“We are regulated by the DMV, sir,” Setty responds. “We can’t do that.”

“This is what you actually paid for the car?”

Setty nods.

The customer fidgets. Setty leans forward and looks directly into his eyes. Neither man speaks for what seems like several minutes. Finally the customer breaks the silence. He says he will do some more shopping.

“Can we do anything here to save you the headache of looking?” Setty asks him. Unsaid is the salesman’s rule, the first one to speak loses.

Setty suggests that the customer look at some other models at lower prices, but the customer is certain of the model he wants.

“It’s very simple,” Setty tells him. “You know you want that car, right? So the only thing that’s left, basically, is, are you comfortable with the value?”

“The price,” the customer corrects him.

“What can we do to make you comfortable with the price?”

The customer relaxes just a little. He tells Setty that he thinks he’s seen ads for the Camry he wants at lower prices, and though he is uncertain of the exact numbers, he believes another dealership was quoting a lower price, too.

Setty counters the arguments one by one. The ad was a loss leader and the car was not likely to be available at the advertised price; and at $18,500, the other dealership must have been offering a Camry without anti-lock brakes.

“If I got you closer to invoice, would you consider doing something?” Setty asks him.

“How much lower?”

“Why don’t you tell me what you would like me to do.”

The customer wants to pay $18,500. Setty explains that he can’t go under the invoice price. The manufacturer doesn’t offer incentives on Camrys, so the dealership can’t recoup any of the loss.

The customer is paying cash and that means the dealership won’t make any money on financing, either. Still, Setty says, it’s not his decision, and he’ll present the offer to the sales manager.

He returns with a price of $18,618, $100 over invoice. It takes another few minutes to compute the total, including sales tax and license fees, and to review the options included in the car.

“I tell you what. I’ll take the car,” the customer finally says.

Setty leans over to shake his hand. “Congratulations,” he says. It is the first time he has smiled since greeting the customer about an hour earlier.

“It was a nothing deal,” Setty says later.

He will make $50, the minimum commission on a sale, and he passed up another customer to take this one. But Setty is undaunted. He likes the action, no matter how small.

“It’s the ability to make the deal happen,” he says. “Just knowing how to work the customer. Knowing when to stop and when to go.”