A Chronicle of Insurance Agents, Car Salespeople, and Real Estate Brokers: From a Car-Buying Experience to the Inevitability of Disintermediation and Online Consumption

Not long after entering society, I bought the “first big car” of my life. That moment was extraordinarily meaningful to me, because it was no longer a model car to play with on a table or in my hands, but a real vehicle that could carry ideals and life as it ran.

During that time, I visited the dealerships of several well-known brands and had in-depth conversations with many car salespeople. In order not to be a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered, I even specially did my homework online, asking about many precautions when buying a new car, the menu going rates, and the negotiation tactics for dealing with salespeople.

Gentleness and Goodwill When Buying a Car

When it came to the final haggling and delivery stage, although I knew very well in my heart that the price could actually be pushed down further and more conditions could be demanded, at the time I held the goodwill mindset of “let them earn something too,” and moreover I was in a hurry to get the car so I could take “the girl” out to have fun, so during the negotiation I did not poke the discount hole too deep. The commission and profit the salesperson deserved to earn, let him earn it.

At that time, I felt this was a transaction where both host and guest were pleased. The salesperson got the performance, I got my beloved car, and the trust between people seemed quite beautiful.

Awakening After Social Experience: The Flattery and Deceit of Intermediaries

However, after mingling in society for a while, because I frequently went in and out of the dealership and service center for car maintenance, I gradually became familiar with the technicians, the front desk, and even various salespeople. As my understanding of the internal workings of this industry grew deeper, and as people’s hearts became more sinister (laughs), I sincerely felt that the necessity of the existence of traditional intermediary professions such as insurance agents, car salespeople, and real estate brokers really deserves to be re-examined.

In the traditional sales model, these intermediary professions are often built on “information asymmetry”:

• Emotional manipulation through personal ties: When discussing prices, they are full of “I’m selling you this price at a loss,” “this is a discount I’m privately subsidizing for you,” while actually hiding various insurance kickbacks, accessory markups, and car model bonus calculations.
• Twisting rhetoric: To buy a car or buy insurance, consumers need to probe and attack like psychological warfare with the salesperson for countless rounds, afraid that a moment of carelessness will cost them tens of thousands of dollars.
• The gap in after-sales service: Before signing, they call you brother and are extremely attentive; after signing and delivery, their attitude changes drastically, pushing problems to the service center or the claims adjuster.

Why Do Consumers Increasingly Crave “Disintermediation”?

In fact, if manufacturers or service providers are willing to design an official direct-sales shopping platform with transparent information and a good consumption experience, I believe the vast majority of consumers would rather order directly online.

The direct-to-consumer online car-buying model represented by Tesla is the best proof:

1. Completely transparent pricing: Specifications, equipment, and prices on the official website are clear at a glance, with globally unified pricing, and no salesperson’s hidden deals or persistent haggling process.
2. Reduced unnecessary communication costs: It saves the exhausting experience of running to multiple showrooms, listening to salespeople’s flattery and probing for prices.
3. Leaving resources for products and after-sales: By removing the huge intermediary commission cuts, brands can invest costs into technology R&D and improving the quality of direct-sales after-sales service.

Conclusion: A Chronicle of Intermediary Professions and Thoughts on Transformation

This is not to deny the hard work and value of all frontline salespeople. In the past era when information was underdeveloped, intermediaries did indeed play an important role as an information bridge.

However, after the internet made information extremely widespread, if intermediary professions still remain stuck profiting from “rhetoric tricks” and “information gaps,” then being replaced by disintermediation and automated platforms under the tide of the times will ultimately be an irreversible inevitable trend. One less bit of flattery and deceit, one more bit of transparency and intuition — perhaps that is the most ideal business ecosystem in the minds of the vast number of consumers.