For people who close deals for a living, it’s unlike a salesperson to immediately hang up on a potential customer, much less to cuss them out — except when it comes to 33-year-old Tomi Mikula, a former car salesman from North Carolina.
Three years ago, he began leveraging his knowledge of the trade to help negotiate better car prices for buyers. Today, he’s turned it into a $200k/month business and become something of a boogeyman to car dealers nationwide, per The Wall Street Journal.
A middleman in the driver’s seat
When Mikula first started offering his services, he closed 50 deals for strangers he met online, completely pro bono. Now, his company, Delivrd, employs five pro negotiators and charges $1k per deal — though, how sweet that deal is depends on factors like timing, local competition, and inventory.
He negotiates by phone to stay focused on the numbers, rather than spending time in showrooms, which can tire buyers into taking suboptimal deals. Plus, it allows him to serve buyers beyond his area code.
Mikula also livestreams some of his negotiations (including several heated exchanges that’ve gone viral), which has earned him:
- Business leads
- 600k subscribers across YouTube and TikTok
- Notoriety among dealers…
… many of whom, he told WSJ, will hang up as soon as they recognize his voice (which is why he’s contemplating investing in a voice changer).
Fast lane to a fair price
Negotiating car prices has always been a stressful and time-consuming task for consumers, and it’s only gotten worse:
- In the US, average new-vehicle prices hit a record high of $50k+ last fall.
- Americans are also being shackled into longer and larger loans.
Informed middlemen like Mikula help level the playing field for inexperienced buyers by negotiating with dealers on equal footing, while also making the process more efficient, saving buyers time and money.
If Delivrd’s pricing is too steep for you, there’s also CarEdge, whose AI negotiator will finagle users better deals for just $40/month, saving an average of $1k+ and five hours per deal, per Fortune.
Rather go the old-fashioned route? Mikula might still be able to help — Payam Amiri told WSJ he studied the pro haggler’s videos for tips and tricks before attempting to broker a deal himself and walked away with a $4k discount on a new ride.
Money And Markets
Money And Markets
