Driving Towards the Perfect Deal: Raina Vann's Tips for Your Next Car Purchase

Hello, my friends, and welcome to another exciting episode of Negotiate Anything. This show is produced by the American Negotiation Institute and with over 5 million downloads and listeners in over 180 countries, listeners just like you have made this the number one negotiation podcast in the world. Hi, my name is Kwame Christian and I am the founder and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute here at A&I. We believe that the best things in life are on the other side of difficult conversations. And we are passionate about providing you with the best content that will help you to make your difficult conversations easier, both at work and at home. Lastly, I want to remind you that we offer consulting and conduct trainings both virtually and in person all around the world. Our focus is in three main first, negotiation and conflict resolution. Second, leadership and and lastly, diversity, equity and inclusion. Check the link in the description below to learn more about how we could work with you and your team. And now, without further ado, let's jump into the interview. So how about you get us started by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

So the most important thing that I take with me wherever I am and whatever I'm doing is I'm a content creator and a project manager. I love projects. I have a background in finance, just working with investment advisors. So my former experience was as a licensed investment advisor and I would train investment advisors how to build their businesses so they would do so face to face. And a big part of that was really understanding what their potential clients would need. So those are some of the things that I just do naturally and I love to connect with people. So it's really important for me to just build that wherever I am. And currently I'm working in an environment where that digital content is really important as well as project management. When I'm not working, I am taking care of smallish humans that somewhat think I'm funny. And I think they're funny too.

That's fantastic. And how many kids do you have?

I have two. My son is 11 and he's five eight. So he's not really small. He's small. Ish. And then my daughter is nine.

Very cool, very cool. Yeah. See, I have a four year old. I could not imagine a 58 version of my son. I think.

Oh yeah, it's coming. Kai. Kai is growing.

He reminds us every morning too.

Yes, yes, I can do this.

Well, Perfect. Well, yeah, we are super excited to have you on the show today and especially because the topic is kind of a nod back to some of our earlier content. Can you tell us about that, yes, definitely.

So we're going to be talking about car buying and taking it a step further. So you had three great episodes where you were focusing on the strategies to help individuals think about that process. And you even had Kyle Risset come on and really help from the perspective of someone who was buying in the moment or had recently purchased a car. And his personal background was that his father owned several dealerships. And then you took it a step further with having a conversation, a recorded call. So what I've done is taken the content that you created in a number of different ways, even beyond those episodes, and listened to a few additional episodes that were really valuable, and then built on my background in finance and being able to understand what it looks like from the sales side. And again, like I said, you know, just that project management and love of research. So I thought it would be really cool to have a conversation about how to do it well, especially because car buying is a really important and financially heavy decision which can cause a lot of stress for a lot of people.

Fantastic. Yeah, I think this is great. And I'll put a link to each of the three episodes in the description of this episode. Just in case the listeners are relatively new and haven't heard those ones. I think that they are three years old now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very cool. So there were three main topics that you wanted to focus on today, and those were research, relationship building, and decision making. So let's get started with research. Tell us a little bit more about that.

So it's important to really understand what your needs are and be focused on that. Because if you get caught up in the desire to have something new and shiny, you can really get taken off course and lose an understanding of what your bottom line is and how much you want to spend. And then you can also lose focus and end up with a vehicle that doesn't fit your family's needs. So one of the things that I did and I spent from December to July not fully researching, but just keeping an eye out because I knew I had an immediate need to buy a new vehicle, or at least I thought so in December. So part of that research is thinking about the most important vehicle need that you have and what that really means to you. And for me, I had a 15 year old truck or close to 15 year old truck and I knew it wasn't going to last much longer. So I had to consider what was most valuable and what would be the best way to spend my money and focus on those two things before I.

Took it any Further, very interesting. Okay. And so as you were going through this process, did you download the. The car buying guide?

So I did try a couple of times. What was most helpful for me was I'm an audible learner, so it was really helpful for me to have the podcast episodes. And I know people learn in a lot of different ways and you have excellent resources. I listened to several of your podcast episodes and really took notes to the degree that I could remember exactly what was said. And people need to really understand how they function best because I like click information. So that's where YouTube and my research with YouTube really helped, as well as being able to look at articles. So I pulled a variety of different resources and I part of that research was really understanding insurance, taxes, all of the things that will factor in, and then being able to research how I will have that in conversation, that's really smart.

And now I know the insurance part and the taxes part, that's not something that I addressed in my episodes. So what were the most important things that you learned from the process when it relates to those two issues?

So with insurance and taxes, it's going to be different though. We'll take it one step at a time. So insurance, even if you've had a long term relationship with an insurance company, it's important to consider that you can have fluctuation in what insurance companies would be willing to offer you. And the change in rate is really something that you want to make sure you consider. So it's important to look at a variety of different insurance companies and ask what you would be paying for the potential cars that you're considering. I like to create tools that help me keep track of information. So I created charts that would help me be able to pull the information that I needed and look back on it. When it comes to the taxes, the sales tax and property tax are two different things. And when you're selling a vehicle, you want to understand if you know how the taxes will factor in. And then you also want to understand how that's going to impact it. If you trade your vehicle, so selling your vehicle outright to someone else versus trading it in, you'll have a different tax implication. And not every state is the same. So I like, for example, you might get $2,000 off of your vehicle purchase with your trade in, but in the state of Virginia, you're still responsible for the full price of the vehicle, even though you had a trade in that was applied to it. So really understanding that is important.

That's interesting. Okay. And so using your situation As a case study, what were the implications for you when it came to your research regarding insurance and taxes?

So I knew right away that I there, there were a couple of additional things that I folded in. And I knew right away that, like I said, I was, I'm in the state of Virginia, so it wasn't really going to reduce how much I would be paying in taxes, but I wanted to factor that into my bottom line, how much I was actually spending, not per month, but over, you know, the cost of the vehicle, the life of whatever loan I was taking out. So whatever that insurance or that tax looked like, I needed to factor that in. And for my insurance, I actually made a decision to sell my vehicle versus keeping the vehicle because it had been paid off. It was a, like I said, it was a truck. So the insurance cost was still high. It would cost me between insurance and taxes, annually, it would cost me about $1,000. So I didn't think it was a really smart idea to hold onto a vehicle that really wasn't worth more than between $3,500 and $4,000, depending on, you know, how I sold it. It wouldn't make sense for me to keep it. So. And that was how I made the decision to actually get rid of the car.

And so as you were doing the research, one of the things that I thought was really interesting was that you actually researched the specific people at the dealerships. Right. Does your company invest in professional development training? If you believe that your team would benefit from a negotiation workshop, all you need to do is go to our website, fill out the workshop request form, and then we'll set up of time to chat. These workshops are completely customizable and we've done them all around the country. Negotiation and conflict resolution skills are beneficial across all professions, but they're especially useful in procurement, purchasing, sales, sourcing, and contract management. Our calendar is filling up quickly and we even have some workshops scheduled for next year if you think you might want one. I'd suggest reaching out soon so you don't miss out out. Check out the link in the description to learn more and we will be right back after this.

Yes, yes, I did. So you talked about in the first throwback, you talked about part one. It's important to get to know people as much as you can without being creepy. So for me, before I went into the dealership, I decided to look at the photos of the individuals and I pay close attention to who friendliest. And before I went in, I actually decided that there were two people that I wanted to try to connect with. And I called to see who was present that evening because I was going in at night and that's really important. Choosing when to go in, making sure, like you said, going in at the end of the month is really good or going in during bad weather. And that's what I did. So it was a rainy evening when I went in and there was only one person that was there. So the impact that that had. I called with caller id, particularly with businesses that want to track who's calling. When I walked in, due to the fact that I had a quick conversation with someone on their client relationship side, she knew that it was likely I was who I was. So the. And that wasn't the person that I was looking for. But she greeted me by name and that was really a positive sign for me. So because the individual that I was looking for was already with someone, I decided to go out and start looking. And I was looking at a pre owned vehicle, I was looking initially at a crv and I thought that I had, you know, really gotten to what I needed essentially because he wasn't available. And I spent time out there. It was actually pouring down raining. It went from there's kind of a slight drizzle to pouring down raining. But I did not stop. I wanted that to have an impact. So I didn't stop and come inside. I actually stood out in the rain, continue to take the pictures, you know, the undercarriage and you know, studying the Monroney stickers and studying the sales stickers and just really getting as much information as I could. So when I was coming back in, I was really impressed with the fact that he actually had an umbrella and he was making his way to me when I eventually saw him. So I walked past him when I, when I went inside and he was with two other individuals. And I said, I'll wait for you. I said, hi, I'm Reyna, I'll wait for you. But I did it in a polite way because I didn't want the other individuals to feel like they needed to be rushed. And that had an impact on him as well. So all, all of that said I knew I was looking for someone that, that I will be able to have a good connection because relationships do matter.

Absolutely. I think this is a brilliant example of how the research online transitioned directly into the creation of the relationship. And I think that provides us with a pretty seamless transition into the relationship building side. And one of the things that you mentioned was really important was the fact that based on the research and the Way that you were carrying yourself in the conversations and the things that you said with them when you were in the conversations with them, they realized very quickly that you were an expert in what you were looking for. And so what impact do you think that had on them during the conversation?

I think it was really important for them to understand that I wasn't just a novice buyer. And as a woman, it's really important to recognize that sometimes people. People have biases. Sometimes people will come with preconceived notions, and I didn't. I don't have the personality where it's necessary for me or even works well for me to be hard about a situation. I've tried that in car negotiations, and it goes badly. And so I decided to play into my strengths, so lean into what works for you. And that's relationship building, and that's connecting with people and helping to remove their defenses. So in addition to building the relationship, I also brought the side of I knew exactly what I was looking for, and it reduced the control that existed on the sales side. So I was really able to steer conversations away from things that weren't important when it wasn't going well. And I was also able to use the opportunities that we had to just get to know one another on a personal level to be able to weave that into the conversation. So at the end, when we were driving back, after I had actually switched and decided to get a completely different vehicle, the salesperson asked, you know, how did I know all of this information? And I was able to share with him exactly what I did and how it worked.

This is really fascinating, and this goes perfectly with a study that I read. I forget which book it was. Well, one of those books that I was reading said that they did a study on gender dynamics in negotiations in car sales, and they found that the car salespeople were more likely to negotiate harder when it was a woman or a minority on the other side. And that was in a situation where they had people dress pretty much exactly the same jeans and the same shirt, and say the exact same thing that people were given a script to go and say to the car salesman, and they realized that they were getting different deals. And I think what you did by doing your research and demonstrating your expertise forced them to treat you with a little bit more respect. And I think that's one of the best ways to make sure that people don't take advantage of you. The example that I always give is that if you're on the playground in elementary school, a second grade bully would bully second graders, first graders, kindergarteners, but is unlikely to try to bully an eighth grader. And that's because they don't think they can get away with it. And you demonstrated that they couldn't take advantage of you and they wouldn't be able to get away with it.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. And I think for just the audience in general to understand, you don't have to have a lot of information to be confident. It's really in not allowing your emotions to persuade and it helps you to slow down your focus. So let's say you don't have an opportunity to do a lot of research on a vehicle. And like I said, I switched my vehicle the Saturday morning before the Sunday that I purchased it. I still did research in between, and I took advantage of a lot of different resources, like the Costco auto buying or car buying program, which I highly recommend. Even if you don't have a Costco membership, it's worth just getting a Costco membership because you can save, you know, over $1,000 on a vehicle that's new. But it's. It's about taking the opportunity to just slow yourself down. And you probably understand this and you might think about like, either Kai or like situations where you and Whitney are making purchases and you're thinking about how great it will be when you have this. So you're already envisioning yourself in a position where you want to be. It's important to pause that because I'll give you an example of how I was able to do a great job. I believe in negotiating, but at the very end, I had gotten really excited and high fived myself mentally because I had done such a great job negotiating. You know, it was the cost of the car was $1,000 below MSRP and I was getting a higher trade in than he originally. The sales manager originally wanted to give me. There were all these things that were going my way, but like Kyle said when he was talking about making sure that when it gets down to the financing, you want to pay attention because the numbers can be different. Well, in this situation, I was envisioning myself having done a great job and I didn't take 30 seconds to calculate three numbers that actually caused me to lose $500. So it's, it's okay, lesson learned. And I'm going to speed up my payoff so I can gain that $500 back. But it's just really important not to push yourself too far into the future during the negotiation process because, like, you know, it's not over until it's done. And it's not done until everything signs and it's finished.

Exactly. And we have to start to look at these agreements with a more critical eye because we're going to be biased towards agreement, especially if we put a lot of effort into it. So we have that sunk cost fallacy working against us. And if we start envisioning this fantastic future with this new crv, then we, we're already envisioning a future where the deal is done and so you stop focusing on the details. So this is a really valuable point in this situation. And just in general, if you start to envision this beautiful future, that's really a salesperson technique. Right. To get you to focus on something else and not so much on the details.

Definitely, definitely.

Well, perfect. So let's move on to decision making. I think this makes sense right now. What were your decision making factors that you considered when you were going to pull the trigger?

Okay, so we're going to tease it out just a little bit because this is where for me, I was really able to listen to professionals. And a lot of people don't take advantage of some easy resources to use like local mechanics. But part of what I did, like I shared, I had researched cars over a period of time and I finally got down to the crv. The Honda CRV had a couple of models, later models that seemed like they held up pretty well in value and lots of different factors. You know, my son, like I said, is 5, 8 and he's his trajectory is 6 6. So I was looking for something where he would be comfortable and my daughter would be comfortable and it had a few newer features. So that was my focus. And I spent some time researching it online, looking at, you know, lots of different car resources and trying to figure out what would be the best deal. So I'm pretty sold on this vehicle and I don't know how it happens, but as soon as you find the one you think that is the one, you begin thinking that's the only one. So I had to pull myself back several times and finally I knew I was going to. When I was looking at a used model, I knew I needed to involve my mechanics and I have a trusted mechanic. So it was easy for me to just say I'll pay for them to look at it. And thankfully they actually offered to look at several for, you know, like $70 or $60 and that was beneficial. And I also listened to what they were saying. So here's where things changed on the decision side. There were a Couple of dealerships that I went to and I looked at the vehicle. I highly recommend that if you have a fall in love tendency not to spend too much time in the car, spend enough time so that you know you like it, but let the mechanics be the one to really be. Help you to be more objective about the situation. And what I mean by that is if they let you take, and they should, if they don't let you take your vehicle, their vehicle to a mechanic, then walk away. If, if they're open to it, don't drive it, have them drop it off. And they will, they will drop it off at the mechanic, and when it doesn't work out, they will pick it up. That way you don't have to spend any time in it because you will talk yourself into, oh, it's not that bad when it actually is. So what happened for me was I chose two vehicles and the mechanic said no to both of them right away and said, here's why, look at the undercarriage. And the Carfax was actually inaccurate. So it's important for people to recognize that sometimes you're focusing on information that you think is quality and it's not always. So when he said no, I said no, no matter how much, how much I liked it, because I was paying for his expertise, it really makes sense to trust someone else to help you in this area. So he said no twice, and I told them to come and pick it up. And the second time I actually asked them to tell, you know, have them come and pick it up. And what helped me with that was I later learned that the salesperson called them back and went off. So definitely not a relationship that I wanted to maintain with that dealership. So I had moved on. And in the end, I moved from the CRV down to the HRV and saw a couple of vehicles. And I used CarMax to be my source for getting into cars and seeing what would work because I needed to physically get in. And CarMax is one of the, you know, largest inventories where you have a lot of different models. So on a lunch break or on several lunch breaks, I would just go, and every door that was open, I would get in and I would look at the vehicle and see if I liked it. And I'm pretty good with making quick decisions, so I was able to eliminate a lot of vehicles. And I actually put a note on someone's car who had an HRV that looked exactly like the one I thought about buying. And she called me back and said, I'm happy to answer Any questions? And her thing was she had a larger sized husband and she said, he can't fit in the car, he doesn't feel comfortable. But took that off my list. And I asked some other individuals who were in parking lots what they thought of their cars, got more information, like white cars are more valuable, they don't get very hot and black interiors aren't that bad. So that helped me get to. On Saturday morning, I saw the fit and interestingly enough, again, connecting with people really matters. There was a gentleman at Costco who was going into Costco and I said, hey, do you like your car? And we literally spent over like 30 minutes talking about how great it was. He let me get in, he turned on the car, he sold the car, he literally stole the car. So I went to the library immediately, went to the library Saturday and I went to the library, started doing some research, called around, got MSRP information, got everything I needed, got the Costco buying program information, which then I was able to. They had contacted. What they'll do is there are a couple of resources that will send out your information if you want to local dealerships. So like Costco will send your information to the dealership so that they can reach out to you with your permission, of course. So the dealerships contacted me, including the one where I had walked away from the CRV that I didn't want. So that's how I ended up with a completely different car.

This is so cool. And I think the parallels to just standard business negotiations are really clear here. And so one of the things, like you said, you don't want to fall in love with the deal. That's a big thing. But you also want to check out your alternatives. What else is there in the market that works for you? And you want to have the opportunity to talk to other people in the market who might have had experiences with one of one or two of the options to get their unbiased opinions. And so this is, this really circles back to the research part of it because you're still in the decision making process. You're utilizing the research that you started to gather at the beginning of the process, continuing to gather that resource throughout the research, throughout the process. So you can make a higher level decision at the end. Yeah, yeah, that's very smart. And so I think one of the coolest things is you went to somewhere like carmax who has a massive inventory. But also, you know, carmax doesn't negotiate. They have a hard policy against negotiation. So you said, listen, I'll come and check out your cars. But I'm not buying.

But it's not where. Because. Because you can easily see that their prices are much higher.

That's fascinating. This is a masterclass. And so let's do a bonus number four. It seems as though all of this really made the actual negotiation, the actual conversation with them pretty straightforward.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it. It really went pretty easily all the way down to the very end. And I just asked for what I wanted. I asked for some of the items in the car, like cargo mats and cargo cover and floor mats that I knew would be valuable for me. So that went really well. And like I said, lesson learned. And let the audience learn from my mistake. If I had just slowed down. And that's where I encourage people to just slow down at the end and take a break. I encourage people to eat before they go into a negotiation. Make sure that they don't have any needs that are pressing because, you know, our natural needs are going to take over and we're going to lose concentration. So we get all the way to the end. And I got it down to 17:5, which I was really happy with because the MSRP was 18,960. So I felt like, okay, I'm doing really well. And I had added on, you know, the extra items and had gotten higher trade in. And we get to the point of going back to the finance manager. And that's the closing section. So I brought in my own financing, which I highly recommend people will do as well. It helps you to make a better decision. So on that day, I came in knowing that I was ready to buy a vehicle, but at the same time knowing that I could get this vehicle from anywhere. So if something fell through, I could walk away. But I had the keys to the truck. I had my title, I had my financing, I was good to go. And my loan was for 20,000. I did not want to spend. Or 21. I did not want to spend that much. So when I get to the back of the office, we're, you know, again, having great conversations. I saw his family and, you know, just started talking about that. And of course they're experts too, so they're doing the same. He's doing the same thing, and he begins to tell me or he weaves in. You know, you see how your truck had this faded stripe and all these different details. And so it goes into the extras that they want to sell, and I was having none of it. First of all, my car is white and the interior is black. I don't need Any protection. So I was like, no, that's okay. I'm good. And he was really disturbed. Like, he was really trying to keep it together because that's where they get their money back, especially because they're not getting the financing. But I was good. And so I said, thank you. And when he got the loan, he was like, you have more than enough money. I was like, I know, but I don't have to spend it. It's not my money.

Exactly.

I'm not going to spend it. So at the very end, which I thought was really interesting, I'm back at the table with my salesperson, and I had already signed everything. And the finance manager comes back over to the table, and he was like, I think there's a little matter of an extra thousand dollars that we didn't include in your final price. And I was like, no, I think we're good. And he said, okay, let me talk to the sales manager. So he went over to the sales manager and he was like, yeah, I guess we're gonna have to eat that one. So I don't know where that thousand dollars was supposed to go, but I wasn't trying to pay for anything extra. No handling, no destination fee, no processing fees. I'm pretty sure that $500 that I didn't calculate was added back in. But again, I can make that up on my own. And it's a lesson learned. But the point of that is to stay focused. I knew that. That I didn't need to have protection or anything else. I needed a car that was going to drive, and I got that. And so once you know what you need, you can easily walk away. There are cars everywhere, always being sold.

Exactly. And again, the parallels are fantastic because there are deals everywhere. Right. And we don't need to get fall in love with that one too soon. And then the other example that you gave, when it comes to decision making, sometimes we run into decision making fatigue. And so for you, at the end of the process, it would have been really easy, especially considering it's the fact of it's a loan. It's not immediately coming out of your pocket. Right. A lot of people would have just said, oh, you made a mistake. Okay. I mean, that makes sense. All right, just give me the car, Let me get out of here. I've been here for six hours, and they just want to get out, whatever. And so that's a lot of times that's where people make mistakes. There's a negotiation technique called nibbling, where the deal is essentially done. Everybody's Agreed. And then the one, one of the parties says, actually, hold on, there's one other thing. Okay, actually, what about one more thing? And you just. They keep on asking, but you need to stay strong and have a firm barrier and say, well, if you need that other thing, then we can either walk away or renegotiate the whole deal. But I'm most likely going to walk away because that is a red flag for me, especially if it's a situation where you're going to have to deal with this person down the road.

Right.

Yeah. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for this. We really appreciate it.

Thank you for all of the awesome content. I mean, you do a phenomenal job. So thank you so much for everything that you put out.

My pleasure. And hey, listeners, Raina made a free guide for all of you, which is incredible. Thank you for that. We really appreciate that. I will put a link to that in the description of this episode and you'll be able to get access to it. So, yeah. Reina, anything else you want to say to the listeners before you go?

Just keep listening to all the episodes because it's not just the car negotiation episodes and everything is relevant. So you can get really great content and great advice from a number of episodes that don't seem to be related directly to what your topic is. But just keep listening.

Fantastic. Thank you for that endorsement. I appreciate it. And we will catch you in the next one. Congratulations. You've just joined an elite club by listening to a full episode. You're now officially on the Negotiate Anything team. So welcome aboard. What most team members do is they subscribe to the podcast because that that allows them to automatically get the latest episodes of the show. The best things in life lie on the other side of difficult conversations. Keep learning, keep practicing, and keep getting better. Your relationships will improve, your career will soar, and you'll have the confidence you need to get the most out of these crucial conversations. Again, thank you for joining the team. We're excited to have you, and I will see you in the next episode. I'll catch you later.

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