Why do so many sellers take offense to offers on their listings?

I just think some of these dealers don’t know sales. Many times I’ve felt deals could have been made had the dealer ‘sold’ me a little better. Don’t be offended when someone offers half of retail on a 3 year old amp. 

I expected many different opinions on this. Well done.

Sometimes people who put up the largest walls only do so because

they know they will fold like a cheap suit if anyone pushes.

i’m the GM of a large Honda Automobile Dealership. over 48 years in the car business i’ve managed the sale of around 150,000 cars......one at a time.

i don’t take low offers personally. OTOH many of my customers take everything personally. so when civilians can’t deal with a low offer when they are selling things, that is normal human nature to me.

buyers simply need to be the adult in the room, give sellers space, and time to react and calm down. games of chicken can develop stopping logical communications. buyers need to find common ground with the seller to somehow move things along. but there does need to be good faith on both sides for progress to happen. sometimes good faith is missing. and so failure to launch.

if a low offer is made that is just a trial balloon that is not in good faith, that is an insult. so the seller will see it as just a ruse to get a lower starting figure. in the car business we just tell that game player that we are close but we ’just can’t quite stretch to it’. the ball is back in the buyer’s court to see if they get ’real’ or go bother someone else.

good faith is good faith. if your offer is not realistic then you are the problem.

@mikelavigne You probably nailed it.  Most audio dealers couldn’t use their ‘sales’ technique in any other vocation. They certainly wouldn’t sell many cars.