Car Dealers Turn to Super-Sellers in Luring Buyers : Automobiles: With the economy in the pits, companies are increasingly hiring hoopla--and expertise--to bring consumers in to shop.

CYPRESS —  “Look out there,” the salesman said, gesturing with a jerk of his head toward the showroom window. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had that many people here at one time.”

That many people was six, each accompanied by a salesman and each looking over the selection of new cars and trucks shining under the lights at the balloon-festooned Nissan of Cypress lot on a recent weeknight.

The potential customers were there because they had received personalized invitations to attend a special sale--letters promising deals on everything in stock.

The mailer was sent by a Huntington Beach sales promotions company called Presidential Group to 5,000 previous Nissan owners. It pulled in 50 shoppers.

Just six cars were sold that evening, but Presidential helped move 12 cars at a similar sale in September. And Nissan of Cypress President Randy Hix said he would have Presidential conduct a third sale next month.

Many dealers these days would jump through hoops to get even 20 shoppers onto their lots on a weekday, Hix said.

The economy is in the pits. Car sales have been declining for two years and in recent weeks have dropped to new lows. Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that its total sales for the second 10 days of October were off 21.8% from a year ago. Total U.S. auto sales since January are down about 15% from last year.

The ailing market means that many auto merchants are losing money--half a dozen dealerships have failed in the county this year--and dealers are looking harder than ever for something--anything--to bring in customers.

Enter the super-sellers: companies that specialize in marketing blitzes that pull people into dealerships. Of the group--and there are several such companies in Southern California--Presidential Group is one of the hottest.

Fletcher Jones Jr. said Presidential tripled daily sales at several of his company’s dealerships in Las Vegas, netting 86 sales in two days. A separate two-day sale recently at his Ted Jones Ford store in Huntington Beach resulted in 17 sales; 25 new cars were sold in two days last month at Jones Chevrolet in Whittier.

“I can’t tell you exactly what it is they do that works better than other companies, but it seems that everything they do they just do a little better,” Jones said.

Presidential, which began with four people in August, 1990, now has 50 full-time employees and expects to post total first-year billings of about $3 million, said James Kennedy, the company’s founder and president.

The company charges a flat fee for its services--generally about $10,000 for a one-day sale--and guarantees to pay dealers the difference if they do not clear enough on the sale to pay its fee.

In recent months, Presidential has conducted sales events for a slew of individual Southern California dealerships, as well as for several major dealership chains, including Fletcher Jones Management Group, Automotive Investment Group in Phoenix and Cush Automotive Group in San Diego.

Robert Ready, major accounts director for the promotions firm, said Presidential has just signed a contract to conduct a sale for a major New Orleans Toyota dealer--the flagship in a 20-dealership chain--and is negotiating to conduct a huge sale involving all of the new-car dealers in Phoenix.

Kennedy learned the trade working for a competitor and said he left to start his own company because he was distressed by some practices he saw in the industry.

One of Presidential’s key rules, he said, is to never use high-pressure sales techniques.

“We tell our people and we tell the dealer’s people that you have to treat customers with respect,” Kennedy said. “They are not just numbers to be processed. We don’t grind them down because we take the attitude that we are not there to sell them a car but to help them buy one.”

Robert Nealey, a Rockwell International executive who came to the Nissan of Cypress sale to look at new Maximas, said during the sale that he found the event to be “a very pleasant experience. There was no high pressure, and I appreciate that.”

He said he intends to look at three other makes before deciding which to buy, “but if I decide to buy a Nissan, I would not come back here if there had been a lot of pressure.”

Several dealers who have retained Presidential for invitational sales said they have seen a lasting difference in their sales forces.

“Kennedy is a magnificent salesman,” said Mark Wheeler, vice president and general manager of Encinitas Ford.

“He told our people that if they would forget everything and just greet the customer with a positive and enthusiastic attitude and do whatever was needed to resolve the customer’s transportation needs, then they wouldn’t have to sell because the customer would want to buy,” Wheeler said.

He said he has seen improvement in customers’ satisfaction with the sales process since the first Presidential sale.

Kennedy said such feedback has persuaded him to try to establish his company as a major sales-training consultant--a role that would remain profitable in good times, when the kinds of special sales the company now promotes lose their attractiveness.

But for its sales, Presidential basically uses much the same formula as its competitors.

Its typical sales event starts with a mailer to 5,000 or 10,000 people, former customers and those who drive the same make the dealer sells, inviting them to attend a special sale and promising them a present whether they buy or not. The gift is a voucher for several nights in a resort-area hotel but is good only if air fare is arranged through the travel company that issues the vouchers.

Those who show up at the dealership are met by uniformed parking valets, are escorted into the showroom by a tuxedoed host and are turned over to a hostess, who signs them in and assigns one of the dealership’s sales representatives to accompany them.

If they buy that night, the sale is broadcast over loudspeakers by Presidential’s on-site manager, whose job is to keep things flowing smoothly and to generate an atmosphere of excitement.

If they don’t buy, their names and comments about the sale and the cars they saw are collected and left behind for the dealership’s sales staff to follow up.

Presidential also prepares follow-up letters that go out under the dealer’s name, thanking buyers for buying and telling browsers that their interest is appreciated and offering to extend the sales prices if they’d care to come back.

Critics say it is all a gimmick and will not build lasting business.

Bob Tuttle, co-managing general partner of the Irvine-based Tuttle-Click Automotive Group, said three of his company’s dealerships have used other private-sale promotions in the last two years, “and I haven’t been terribly thrilled with the results.”

Such sales can generate additional traffic, he said, “but I haven’t seen them result in a lot of extra sales. You just get people in for a short burst, and what you need is a long-term relationship.”

Tuttle said he prefers to use his own sales force to call on previous customers.

But dealers who have used Presidential say the company’s service works, both immediately--with a big boost in revenue on the day of the sale--and in the long run.

“We are finding a lot of value in what they leave behind,” said Dan Syllaba, assistant controller for Automotive Investment Group, a holding company for a group of four Phoenix-area dealerships.