Do Aesthetics Matter to Sell My Car?

Many articles you will read advise different methods of how to sell your car. Not many of them look at the additional minor things that can help make or break a sale. The basics get covered; clean it up, act naturally when talking to a prospective buyer, advertise effectively through the internet. What else helps close a sale? Any sale really? Every year third party companies and major retailers spend millions of dollars studying customer behavior to help maximize and increase sales. Many of those findings can be put to use as you try and sell your car.

There is plenty of advice stated to go ahead and clean your car. Pretty vague advice. "Clean your car" can mean a lot of things. A cursory cleaning is what many people selling their car will be doing. Instead, you want to detail the car and clean it as thoroughly as possible. Regardless of its age or actual appearance, a deep and thorough cleaning will have an impact.

For a moment, think about your local grocery stores. One will often be greeted by the smell of cooking food from the bakery or a deli because it is placed near the door for visitors to smell. Most modern grocery stores will have their fresh vegetable and produce sections right near the entrance.

Their studies have shown that those two associations help with their sales. The smell of food kicks up hunger or an "I haven't had that in awhile!" feeling. Seeing that fresh produce creates an association of freshness and crispness that the customer carries with them through the rest of the store and causes them to spend more.

A clean area where you are showing the vehicle is just as important. Retailers strive for clean bathrooms and orderly parking lots because they know the opposite are instant turn-offs to many people. The same knowledge can work for or against you.

The buyer that pulls up in front of a house with an overgrown yard, dirty siding, an additional dirty vehicle, and toys and garbage in the area is not going to think highly of you. In turn, they are not going to think highly of your vehicle. That association of area and product gets drawn subconsciously. They will assume you have not been taking care of that vehicle even if you have been which will just make your sale harder.

Take the extra effort and spend the extra time. International companies spend millions figuring these little details out. They assuredly can pass on some of that usefulness to you as you sell your car.

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