A New Car Negotiation Is Not Always Easy. So We Asked Career Coach Claire Wasserman For Tips
You're better at this than you think; Claire's tips will open up your natural talents
Just getting yourself mentally ready to buy a new car is daunting. You’re heading into a complicated purchase and it’s easy to make an expensive mistake. It’s so intimidating that many of us turn to a man—dad, husband, brother, random guy from the coffee shop—to help us with a new car negotiation.
Negotiating for a new car isn’t unlike negotiating for other things in life, so we turned to Claire Wasserman, career coach and founder of Ladies Get Paid, to help us break down the essential elements that will help us better negotiate anything, even a new car.
Listen to our podcast with Claire Wasserman here
This story is 100% human-researched and written based on actual first-person knowledge, extensive experience and expertise on the subject of cars and trucks.
Meet Claire Wasserman
I first met Claire at a Cadillac track driving event in Nevada. That day we all got out of our comfort zones and behind the wheel of sports cars to learn how to drive on a track. That experience was an eye-opener for me, and for Claire, who was early in her Ladies Get Paid journey.
“Almost nine years ago it was my answer to the wage gap,” she said, describing the gap between what women are paid for the same job a man does; the difference can be 30% or more. “So I hosted these big events in New York City for women to talk about their relationship to work and to money. And out of that, I said, we need education. And it can’t just be inspiration. You’ve got to take action. Now I’m very deep into coaching. I got a degree in financial psychology and I’m all about helping women kind of rewrite their money stories.”
And that is the nexus of negotiating: Talking about it. So I asked Claire how she would apply her negotiating skills to a car buying situation: What would she say to a woman who wants to buy a new car but perhaps isn’t financially or mentally ready? How should she prepare herself to go into a negotiation?
“I always like to get very, very clear on the North Star,” Claire said. “So what would ‘ready’ lookand feel like? What would have to happen to be ready? The question I would ask the client is, how would you know that you actually are ready? Because money is so emotional. They may actually end up having enough money, but still feel like they don’t. So that’s why I’d want to better understand their relationship to money, to saving, their other goals.
Then, be prepared for the obstacles that are going to be in your way, beginning with information. With any salary negotiation, my recommendation is to come in with three numbers, and you’re not going to share that information. That’s just for you: The number that you really, really want, the number you’re okay with getting, and then your walk away number.”
Read: 11 Tips for Buying a Used Car
Prepare For a New Car Negotiation As Best As You Can
“My biggest recommendation is to prep. Practice the situation that’s going to be hardest for you. Imagine that’s falling in love with a car that’s out of your budget, right? But let’s say it’s only five or 10 or $15,000 out of your budget. Are you going to be tempted to say yes?”
If so, “be strict with yourself,” Claire said.”You are not allowed to go above this amount. I want you to feel in your body that pull towards purchasing that you’re going to feel. Look at pictures of [the car] online. Like look at things you can’t afford. Practice as much as you can, what those feelings are going to be like on the showroom floor when you’re going to get really tempted to just say, what’s another $5,000 if I’m already spending this much.”
Read: 7 Reasons You Should Go To a Car Dealer Service Department—and What to Know Before Approving Work
What Can You Really Afford?
One of the key factors is understanding what you can really afford in a new car; this is not far off from understanding what you really need to earn in a job.
“This is all budgeting,” Claire said. “It’s what are the ‘must haves’ in your life? So the fixed costs: rent, the cell phone. You might get into a couple of things where you’re like, ooh, is my gym membership necessary? Just say that it is. Let’s talk about you thriving, not just surviving. Thriving. All right, those are your must haves. Please include taxes for all of that.”
“Then you can look at what you have left over. My question is, what are you giving up?”
Read: Why Car Dealers Won’t Take Your New Car Order—And How to Find the Car You Want
The Magic of Shopping: Finding What You Need at the Right Price
Claire reminded me that you don’t actually have to give up what you want if you’re willing to shop for it. Once you figure out what you really need, shop for it. Once you’ve decided these are the features, the style of car I want, all the bells and whistles, but the brand I have in mind is just not in the cards, you can find those things in another brand.
Those features will be available in a car that you can afford. So you may need to go back to square one, but with all this other information you know exactly what your needs are and what your monthly budget is.
Still, the feeling of actually negotiating that purchase can be overwhelming.
How To Overcome The Feeling of Being Overwhelmed
“Start with trusted sources,” Claire advised. Make a list of where you can get this information. Know what is most important so that you don’t get swayed.”
“What are your values? What’s important to you? How long are you going to own it? How much time will you be spending in your car? What are you using it for? Maybe you expect to be making a lot more money in two years and hoping to get a new car. Know these things about yourself first before you add on the information piece. And talk to friends. People that you admire.’
You Can Do This: Negotiating With Master Negotiators
It’s a fact that car dealers negotiate with customers dozens of times a day. But you and I? We negotiate a few times maybe a dozen times, in life. Frequent negotiations “have a bag of tricks,” Claire said, and that’s important to understand. You won’t know what those tricks or tactics are, but what you can do is respond and react in a way that shifts the power to your advantage.
“First of all, don’t feel obligated to respond immediately, ever,” Claire said. “You can always take a deep breath and say, ‘I need to think about this.’ Silence is actually a tool to use in negotiation.”
“You could just ask for a few minutes. That you want to think about it. And that silence may make the other person want to fill it and say, ‘you know what? I can lower the price for you.’”
“You can also ask open-ended questions. The goal in the beginning of a negotiation is always to gather more information that you can then repeat back to them to your benefit. Anything that gets them to share with you their rationale, what’s going on behind the scenes, including their priorities,” will help you.
“They obviously have a bottom line. It might be a moving target. Maybe the bottom line for today is different from the bottom line tomorrow,” Claire said.
“I kind of look at any conversation as a negotiation, actually. Remember that this is their job, to optimize for the company. So in the case of the car dealership, they want to make the most money for the car dealership and make the most commission. It makes you realize you’re not alone in this and you don’t need to carry shame if you feel like you’re not good at it or you’re in a spotlight. They’re on a spotlight too. They have to report back to their boss.”
Negotiating the Price Shares a Few Ideas, Too
We all know this dream/nightmare scenario: you’re offered a job by a competitor. You take this offer to your current employer who may, or may not, match or surpass the competitive offer. This idea, though not as risky, can work for negotiating for a new car, too. You’ll need to do a little bit of legwork in sending emails or calling dealers. And the ask is a bit different: do you have this car in your inventory and what is your best price? Do you have a feature list or the window sticker so I can see what I’ll get for the money?
From there, look carefully at the offer: often, there’s a discount and add-ons. Take a beat and research every line item: is the document fee fair? Did the dealer add VIN etching or other theft protection that you don’t need? And then, have a conversation about this with the dealer.
This negotiation can be the toughest because you feel ready to sign and the salesperson believes he’s about to close a sale. This is where people just give up and over pay. But Claire had good advice here, too;
“I’m less nervous when I humanize them,” she said. “We’re trying to find a compromise. Remember, compromise. And guess what? I’m going to make a big generalization about women. Women are great at compromising. We’re too good at accommodating others, but we are wonderful problem solvers and peacemakers.”
“Most likely you are diplomat in your family or on your team. You’re the one who gets all these different viewpoints to listen to each other. That is masterful negotiation.”
“Have fun with this, too. This is a time to like crack a joke to the person, disarm them. Could you go in and instead of this being like pulling teeth, could negotiating be like a fun or funny story?
And Then, How To Read Your Gut Feeling
It comes down to two things, Claire said: “One, abstract. One more mathematical. The mathematical is obviously the number part, right?”
“But I find a lot of women can be disconnected from actuality because we are very much in our heads. We hear other people’s voices telling us that we should or shouldn’t do. And that gets in the way of our gut feeling. But just think back to all the times in your life that you’ve had a gut feeling and it either steered you in the right direction or steered you in the wrong direction. Every single one of us have had this in our lives. That proves you can do this.”
And, yes, you can do this. And a lot more. You’ll find Claire’s coaching here, and you can sign up for her newsletter, which I highly recommend. Go get that big job, that better paycheck and then of course, reward yourself with a masterfully negotiated new car!
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