You are currently viewing archive for May 2005
Sometimes when you go to sell your car you are stumped as to how to write your ad. If you've never sold one before you just don't know what gets a response.
This is where a few pointers can put you in the success lane straight away.
Let's cover a few quick basics first. Like any sort of advertising there is a physical response at the other end.
For example, say you are reading a piece of junk mail. The advertiser has only a few seconds to grab your attention before you throw it in the bin.
His mission is to get you to read it.
It works like this. Say he prints 1000000 pieces. 1% read it and out of those 1% 10% buy. He has just sold 1000 units, which is pretty good.
Now if he can get 2% to read it and increase the buying rate by 2 times, he has just sold 4000 units - even better.
When you are advertising your car, you are competeting with other advertisers who are advertising similar vehicles in that price range.
Your mission is to get qualified buyers to call.
Imagine a buyer, he scans down the page and marks off advertisements - say every Toyota in the $10000 range in the model he wants.
Now that is if he is particularly thorough person.
But is everybody like this. No, they are not. People have lazy eyes. We are conditioned to have advertising thrust into our faces.
We are also conditioned sub-consciously to evaluate the quality of advertisements and make some sort of value judgement about the product at the other end.
It is only my opinion, but I believe we all pride ourselves on our ability to 'suss' out whether we want to follow something up or not.
Therefore you advertisements should be of sufficient quality to reflect your vehicle in it's best light.
The Mental Checklist
A buyer usually has a mental checklist in his mind when he is looking for a car.
E.g auto, low kilometers model, color maybe, what the wife wants. Reliable.
It's his checklist. Some of these things he would like to be able to isolate from the ad.
If you've ever looked through advertisements, you would be familiar with that spinning feeling where there are so many things on offer.
It is frankly a relief to settle on something you see and tick it off as something you are interested in.
The Easy Way Out.
Regardless of the better side of life and even with amounts of thousands of dollars, people are basicly still lazy. If you make your advertisement clear and answer as many details as you can you have done work for them. You have saved them time. Now they are ever so slightly in your debt and your rating goes up.
Generally people will take the easy way out.
Saving them time is money in your pocket.
Bigger Ad, Bold Lettering
No,it's not a myth and an attempt to bilk money from you by the newspaper. In my experience it works. It's based on solid principles. First you must get the buyer's attention and only then can he evaluate your ad.
Even when people see the big ad and they think they have worked out your strategy.
'Aha, he's trying to sway me with those bold letters. I'm not going to fall for that"
It doesn't matter. They still come back and the next thought they have is.
"Yeah, but what if that's because it's a great car. I better not miss out on that"
The fact of getting someone to see your ad is half the battle. What they do after that is mostly internal wackiness anyway.
The killer combination is to get your ad seen and write a killer ad, which answer's their mental checklist.
Mistakes advertisers make.
Leaving key information out - like whether it's auto or manual.
Apparently some people do this to encourage people to call.
Look guys, you don't want people to call to ask silly questions, you want the qualified and interested buyers to call - don't you?
This is just plain stupid. You will miss a lot of people just because you have annoyed them.
When they do call, you have a little hump to get over before you can close them to come and see your car.
Use of abbreviations
This is fine, so long as the abbreviation is decipherable. Use other classifieds as a guide to see what others use - don't make up your own language as there is no way anyone can figure it out.
That's the end of part 1. In part 2 of this article series, I'll give you some example advertisements as well as reveal some killer little lines that can prompt people to call.
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Graeme Sprigge is the webmaster of sellmycarforcash.com. He is also the the author of The 90 Minute Car Salesman. You can find more articles on selling your car in a private sale at http://www.sellmycarforcash.com This article may be reprinted provided this resource box is included. Copyright 2005 Graeme Sprigge
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This is where a few pointers can put you in the success lane straight away.
Let's cover a few quick basics first. Like any sort of advertising there is a physical response at the other end.
For example, say you are reading a piece of junk mail. The advertiser has only a few seconds to grab your attention before you throw it in the bin.
His mission is to get you to read it.
It works like this. Say he prints 1000000 pieces. 1% read it and out of those 1% 10% buy. He has just sold 1000 units, which is pretty good.
Now if he can get 2% to read it and increase the buying rate by 2 times, he has just sold 4000 units - even better.
When you are advertising your car, you are competeting with other advertisers who are advertising similar vehicles in that price range.
Your mission is to get qualified buyers to call.
Imagine a buyer, he scans down the page and marks off advertisements - say every Toyota in the $10000 range in the model he wants.
Now that is if he is particularly thorough person.
But is everybody like this. No, they are not. People have lazy eyes. We are conditioned to have advertising thrust into our faces.
We are also conditioned sub-consciously to evaluate the quality of advertisements and make some sort of value judgement about the product at the other end.
It is only my opinion, but I believe we all pride ourselves on our ability to 'suss' out whether we want to follow something up or not.
Therefore you advertisements should be of sufficient quality to reflect your vehicle in it's best light.
The Mental Checklist
A buyer usually has a mental checklist in his mind when he is looking for a car.
E.g auto, low kilometers model, color maybe, what the wife wants. Reliable.
It's his checklist. Some of these things he would like to be able to isolate from the ad.
If you've ever looked through advertisements, you would be familiar with that spinning feeling where there are so many things on offer.
It is frankly a relief to settle on something you see and tick it off as something you are interested in.
The Easy Way Out.
Regardless of the better side of life and even with amounts of thousands of dollars, people are basicly still lazy. If you make your advertisement clear and answer as many details as you can you have done work for them. You have saved them time. Now they are ever so slightly in your debt and your rating goes up.
Generally people will take the easy way out.
Saving them time is money in your pocket.
Bigger Ad, Bold Lettering
No,it's not a myth and an attempt to bilk money from you by the newspaper. In my experience it works. It's based on solid principles. First you must get the buyer's attention and only then can he evaluate your ad.
Even when people see the big ad and they think they have worked out your strategy.
'Aha, he's trying to sway me with those bold letters. I'm not going to fall for that"
It doesn't matter. They still come back and the next thought they have is.
"Yeah, but what if that's because it's a great car. I better not miss out on that"
The fact of getting someone to see your ad is half the battle. What they do after that is mostly internal wackiness anyway.
The killer combination is to get your ad seen and write a killer ad, which answer's their mental checklist.
Mistakes advertisers make.
Leaving key information out - like whether it's auto or manual.
Apparently some people do this to encourage people to call.
Look guys, you don't want people to call to ask silly questions, you want the qualified and interested buyers to call - don't you?
This is just plain stupid. You will miss a lot of people just because you have annoyed them.
When they do call, you have a little hump to get over before you can close them to come and see your car.
Use of abbreviations
This is fine, so long as the abbreviation is decipherable. Use other classifieds as a guide to see what others use - don't make up your own language as there is no way anyone can figure it out.
That's the end of part 1. In part 2 of this article series, I'll give you some example advertisements as well as reveal some killer little lines that can prompt people to call.
-----------------------------------------
Graeme Sprigge is the webmaster of sellmycarforcash.com. He is also the the author of The 90 Minute Car Salesman. You can find more articles on selling your car in a private sale at http://www.sellmycarforcash.com This article may be reprinted provided this resource box is included. Copyright 2005 Graeme Sprigge
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Online car finance is convenient. You can apply over the net and shop around for a good deal from the comfort of your home.
But with the rise of scams on the net there are precautions you should take to make sure you are not being ripped off.
1) If you are in an english speaking country, the website you are dealing with should be in english. If the English is poor it could be a scam site.
2) Only deal with companies that publish full contact details on their site, such as phone numbers, preferably one in your country. Also they should maintain a physical office and also publish that on the web. A reputable company will have an office.
3) They should be listed in the phone directory as well, either the yellow or white pages.
4) No bank or finance company will ever send you an email asking for your passwords or account details.
5) Check a number of companies out before you make your decision. Compare the rates. Read all the terms and conditions.
6) E-loan and Capital One are two safe online finance companies and have passed all these checks from my research.
7) I recently reviewed an offer from a finance company that looked like it was from Russia, who didn't even have a phone number. They had all manner of explanations but it is simply not good enough. So go with professional companies. Remember, there is no such thing as something for nothing
Remember to seek competent advice from a professional such as accountant before making financial decisions.
For more articles see http://www.sellmycarforcash.com
Info about refinancing there is an article at http://www.sellmycarforcash.com/car-loan-refinance.html
You could save hundreds of dollars per year.
Copyright 2005 Graeme Sprigge
07/05: How to sell my car quickly?
Sometimes financial circumstances push us to to ask, "How do I sell my car quickly?"
The first thing I recommend is that you stop.
Selling your car quickly is possible. I will buy your BMW for $50 but I don't think you would be happy.
Now you may want to sell your car fast:
1) To raise cash for another venture
2) To quickly buy another car that you want
3) To pay debts
So the first thing you should do is stop and assess the situation.
Why? Because the desire to sell your car fast is the sure road to getting a crap price. Desperation is the killer of your price. Sometimes you won't even be able to give your car away if someone senses you are desperate.
Do this exercise. Go for a walk. Walk around the block and look at the trees, the birds and a few people. This will help to calm you down.
Then come back and look at the situation again.
Is there another way I can handle the debt, such as getting a part-time job etc.?
Do I really need this other car or whatever right now?
Can I raise funds some other way?
If the answer is no and you definitely still need to sell your car fast, then you have to act as if you are not desperate to sell it, in order to sell it. It kind of works in reverse.
I cover this in a fair bit of detail in my book - The 90 Minute Car Salesman.
There is no real way to sell it fast for a great price other than doing the standard actions properly. There is no such thing as a quick fix.
Take a look at your situation honestly and see what it is about it that you are not facing and you will soon see a solution.
I hope this helps. Yes sometimes life is tough. But sell your car like you have all the time in the world and you will sell it faster and get a good price.
The first thing I recommend is that you stop.
Selling your car quickly is possible. I will buy your BMW for $50 but I don't think you would be happy.
Now you may want to sell your car fast:
1) To raise cash for another venture
2) To quickly buy another car that you want
3) To pay debts
So the first thing you should do is stop and assess the situation.
Why? Because the desire to sell your car fast is the sure road to getting a crap price. Desperation is the killer of your price. Sometimes you won't even be able to give your car away if someone senses you are desperate.
Do this exercise. Go for a walk. Walk around the block and look at the trees, the birds and a few people. This will help to calm you down.
Then come back and look at the situation again.
Is there another way I can handle the debt, such as getting a part-time job etc.?
Do I really need this other car or whatever right now?
Can I raise funds some other way?
If the answer is no and you definitely still need to sell your car fast, then you have to act as if you are not desperate to sell it, in order to sell it. It kind of works in reverse.
I cover this in a fair bit of detail in my book - The 90 Minute Car Salesman.
There is no real way to sell it fast for a great price other than doing the standard actions properly. There is no such thing as a quick fix.
Take a look at your situation honestly and see what it is about it that you are not facing and you will soon see a solution.
I hope this helps. Yes sometimes life is tough. But sell your car like you have all the time in the world and you will sell it faster and get a good price.
Tip 1 - Pick your time.
If you can possibly help it, don't sell your car after Christmas, when no one has any money.
Tip 2 - First Impressions are everything
Just like you are going on a date - first impressions are everything. Get all the rubbish and junk out of it. Deodorize it. Wash it, clean it.
Tip 3 - As the good boy scout says. Be prepared.
Get your paperwork in order. Find the spare keys etc.