May I buy it, please?

One of the keys to successful sales is giving the prospect the

permission to buy your product or service. That permission may come

in the form of a lower price, a limited time in which to take

advantage of an offer or a limit on the number of the offers or

products that are available. Look through this newspaper, and you’ll

see many ads giving you the permission to buy.

For a guy, having his wife give him permission to go out and buy a

new car -- any one he wants -- is about as good as it gets. That’s

what I got, and it wasn’t even my birthday.

As you may recall, the transmission on my Ford Windstar bit the

dust on my way to a Little League practice about a month ago. A new

or rebuilt one was going to cost a small fortune, so I had to

determine whether it was worth fixing and selling or just unloading

it “as is.”

While I was thinking about it, I was referred to a mechanic who

proved wrong the old adage that “if it sounds too good to be true, it

probably is.” Three days after I gave him the Windstar, he returned

it in excellent working condition for $1,300. Plus, I got a six-month

guarantee on the parts and labor. It’s running just fine now.

Just after the van was fixed, my wife and daughter went out of

town for the weekend. When I picked them up at the airport, my wife

said, “I thought you might be picking us up in something new.”

I almost did. I went back and forth between buying something new,

something barely used or just keeping the van. During my

deliberations, I visited three dealerships on Harbor Boulevard.

Interestingly, my No. 3 choice of new cars quickly became my No. 1

for one simple reason: The salesperson followed up. Neither of the

other two salespeople showed any desire to sell me a car once I left

the lot. The one who did was about get my business.

After our Little League game last Saturday (which was preceded by

a game I umpired in which no one was ejected), I even made

arrangements with the new No. 1 guy to test drive the car.

It was during our game, however, that I made my final decision

about my transportation needs. During the fourth inning, a batter hit

a ball that turned foul over one of the fences and hit a car parked

on the street. That spot was where my car, new or used, would have

been parked had I been paying more attention to the available spaces

an hour earlier.

At that moment, I decided to keep my Windstar and drive it until

it drops dead. As strange as it may seem, that foul ball gave me the

permission I needed to support my decision. Before that moment, I was

about to spend tens of thousands of dollars on something I wanted,

not something I needed.

The difference in that choice is a trap for many parents and keeps

them working too many hours when they could be at home with their

kids. But buying things we want and not what we need keeps this

nation humming. Let’s face it, if we all bought only what we really

needed, we’d all have only one pair of shoes.

Instead, we have lots of shoes, lots of shirts and lots of lots of

other things -- our garages are packed with them. If you’re a guy who

wears ties every day, you probably have lots of them, even though you

routinely wear only about 20 to 25% of them.

So it is with most other purchases. We don’t really need a jet

ski, boat or recreational vehicle, we want one, and so we justify the

purchase -- we give ourselves permission to buy these things because

we think we can afford them or because we deserve them because we’ve

worked hard enough.

There is irony in our justification. If only one parent worked,

the permission based on the “I deserve it” or “I can afford it” would

disappear for many couples. Not all, but many, for there will always

be those who will spend money they have not yet made.

So, off to work we go, many of us not realizing that the second

income does little more than pay for the things we want, not the

things we need. I’ve done the math for too many couples to know that

this is true.

One of these days, perhaps soon, I’ll be driving a different

vehicle. But right now, I can’t give myself the permission.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.