Nearly a month into car sales; what have I learned?

"Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras" (jegoingout)
09/24/2016 at 18:19 • Filed to: None

1) Trust no one in my job. We may like each other but we all want to eat.

2) Too much drama. I keep my head down and avoid bullshit

3) People have no concept of money or credit.

4) Up selling is easy.

5) I don’t plan to be in this business for the rest of my life

Anyway, how was your Saturday? I spent 3.5 hrs today closing a deal for a GL350 BlueTec

DISCUSSION (34)

C62030 > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 18:23

When do they give you free cars

Or was that just a dream I had

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > C62030
09/24/2016 at 18:24

I technically get to drive anything that needs to be taken to or from our warehouse...OR moved out of the showroom.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 18:28

Do you feel weird selling things you can’t really afford? I can afford stuff I sell for work -- just not comfortably or responsibly.

S65 > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 18:28

Is ok. I guess

Sam > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 18:39

When do they give you a dealer plate? The more senior salesmen at the Land Rover/Jaguar/Volvo dealer could borrow pretty much any used car they wanted to for a few days at a time.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Sam
09/24/2016 at 18:41

I can borrow any car, according to my boss as long as i pay for insurance. I’d love to hear my agents reaction to “yeah i (a 22 yr old male) want to add a R8 to my insurance plan”

Birddog > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 18:41

“3) People have no concept of money or credit”

This is a constant in the industry. Whenever I got an Up that just laid down for me I knew it was going to be a hard deal to finance.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
09/24/2016 at 18:43

Not really, but i get where youre coming from

Sam > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 18:55

They might get a laugh, though. You should seriously try it sometime and see what happens.

valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 19:01

How’d you get into it?

Sometimes I’ll be daydreaming at my 9-5, wondering what it’d be like to sell cars. I’m not a salesperson by any means but if ever I lose my shit and stab someone and have to leave the tech industry I am curious if I’d be able to hold my own at a dealership.

jimz > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 19:14

I find “trust no one” to be a wise approach to life in general. Not in a “assume everyone is about to screw you over” way, but more in a “don’t assume that just because someone is a friend/family they won’t try to take advantage of you.”

wiffleballtony > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 19:21

Most of those guidelines apply to all jobs and life in general.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option
09/24/2016 at 19:22

Dumb luck

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 20:10

6) Specifics like model names or other important identifying info are irrelevant. Only numbers matter. Example: customer calls asking if we have any “350's”.

Sorry Sir/Madam/sentient Gold-Fish cracker, I require more information than that to be of help to you. No, I am not a Betazoid, I have no idea what you’re thinking, not that I would be impressed given the first 10 seconds of this interaction thus far.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
09/24/2016 at 20:22

I don’t think I’ve dealt with someone who didn’t know what they wanted, or at least they had a general idea

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 20:27

You will.

Svend > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 20:39

Three and a half hours to close a deal.

I bet you’d love me.

Last year went into my dealership, got a coffee, sat down with a sales woman, told her what we wanted, got a discount without knowing and got a further discount on asking, signed the new car order form, paid a deposit and was out of the dealership in 30 minutes.

Bish, bash, bosh.

But ye’, I’ve seen it too many times in the past, the customer who doesn’t know anything and a good sales person to informed customer with an a-hole sales person. Getting that sweet spot of informed customer who knows what they want and how much they can afford and a good sales person is a lot harder than people think.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Svend
09/24/2016 at 20:52

please come to my job and buy at least 3 cars from me, thank you.

This 3.5 hours was a matter of them not liking the first car, getting into a second one, finding out their financial stance, working more numbers of BOTH of their trade ins, a final test drive, insurance, signing off on papers, THEN transferring all their personal shit from both cars to their new GL.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
09/24/2016 at 20:53

I’ll just guide them to the really nice and expensive toys

Svend > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 21:10

If you sell Skodas, sure.

Some people are so indecisive. They really should of emptied (and cleaned) their cars before coming in and also getting their finances in order.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Svend
09/24/2016 at 21:17

We dont have Skodas.

Their finances were fine for the first car that they didnt like...bumping them up 17k to car B was what threw us for a whirl. Plus they didnt know how much they owed on their 2 cars

Svend > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 21:34

No Skodas, argh, no worries.

17k is quite a bump.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Svend
09/24/2016 at 21:41

We have other things!

Yeah...i didnt think they’d do it but they took the “fuck money” approach

Svend > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
09/24/2016 at 21:46

Do you do SEATs, Renaults, Peugeots or Citroens?

As long as they are mindful of the repayments. Some people go “fuck money” and then a few months down the line the lack of money fucks them.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Svend
09/24/2016 at 22:01

Nope nope nope and nope

I hope it doesnt bite them in the ass, they seemed like nice people