We constantly see great lease deals on new cars advertised on TV. $299 a month, $1,500 down and you are driving a brand new 2018 car with that fantastic new car smell.  Here’s the problem, the lease is NEVER, never $299 a month.

Never.  At least not in my experience.

There’s always an add-on such as taxes and if you look taken aback you are then admonished with something like “well Ma’am, you should know there are taxes on everything.”

Or some other such rebuttal based on your lack of knowledge.

But here’s the thing, why don’t they just give you the real numbers in the first place?  Is there some magic in any deal that ends in the digits 99?  Instead of jolting the buyer,  wouldn’t it make for a better experience if the advertising was the same as the actual price?  How did we get to the point where the providers always think tricking people is a good strategy?  It reminds me of going to the State Fair when I was in high school. You’ve finally got a date with Nancy and boy do you want to impress her!   So, you stroll with Nancy through the Midway. Then you see your chance!  It’s a baseball throw!  All you should do is knock down some bottles and you can get Nancy a doll!  The dolls are life size lions, tigers, giraffes, and hippos. You knock down three bottles and you think you have hit the jackpot. Then the midway guy reaches down and gives you a doll that is a life size housefly.

The car business, and many many other businesses give the customer the exact same feeling as the midway baseball throw booth when they execute this way.  What an opportunity exists for dealers to tell a little different story about cost and pump-up sales.  All they must do is put the real numbers out. I mean, isn’t that what got the prospective buyer into the showroom to begin with?  And if the real cost, with taxes or whatever is $349 instead of $299, how many buyers are you really going to lose? And if you lose some because they never come into the showroom,  look how much time and efficiency the auto dealer has saved!

Take advantage of this opportunity the market has handed you.

Tell the customer the truth.