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Smart Shopper Stories from the Sales Frontlines
47909 messages, Last post on Nov 26, 2009 at 9:59 AM
You are in the Smart Shopper Forum. Your Hosts are kirstie_h & tidester
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We've read fascinating tales of how many of you learned to drive. How about some tales related to how you learned to sell cars? How have things changed on the frontlines since then? tidester, host SUVs and Smart Shopper
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Replying to: verdugo (Apr 29, 2009 1:35 pm) One was for a customer friend that was in over a month ago, looked, and test drove, but was undecided at that time. She gave birth and is at home with 2 kids, so she gave me an over the phone deposit on one of our vans, and I delivered it to her home with all the paperwork. My friend who's an insurance agent, did her insurance over the phone too and dropped it off when I was dropping off the van. Second deal was a fleet deal that I dropped off to the co's works yard. And my orange Challenger R/T finally arrived yesterdaqy, and the customer picked that up. So that's 3 deliveries in 2 days. I'm hoping I can score another couple of deals before month end. We'll see. 
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Replying to: richard64 (Apr 29, 2009 2:11 pm) We get blamed for everything else, why not this. We get blamed for all your cold weather and snow storms, which come from the midwest quite often then come up this way. We were recently blamed for letting in terrorist who did 9/11, which is untrue. Now Mexico is saying this flu started in Canada. We'renot going to take it any more 
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Replying to: boomchek (Apr 29, 2009 3:45 pm) Some very good news and it should keep Tidester happy for a little while. 
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Replying to: boomchek (Apr 29, 2009 3:45 pm) Mind if I ask what they're selling for? I'm holding out for employee pricing. Also, do you think the new Mustang and Camaro will affect Challenger sales? 
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Replying to: tidester (Apr 29, 2009 3:14 pm) Some say when you're a greenpea (speaking of Greenpea, where has he been?) you tend to do more deals because you don't pre judge or blow customers off, you talk to anyone and everyone, and you don't have any bad habits yet. My first ever day on the job after I got hired was to learn the inventory and the products (Honda in late 2003). I took nearly every model out for spin and it was such a joy as I love driving different cars all the time. I got frustrated however because I had zero selling expereince, other than a week long course I took that taught me basics of how a dealership runs, and how car selling works, and my manager was busy doing manager stuff and didn't have time to teach me the sales process of the dealership. So after driving every car I went from dept to dept and introduced my self and got to know all the employees. I was going to quit after 2 days cause I still had no idea what to do, as in how to do a write up, or a proper negotiation, and was getting really frustrated. But my manager finally apologized, showed me some basics (I am still in contact with him), and I started taking ups after a couple of days. My first full deal was on an older gentleman who bought a demo off the showroom floor. One of my managers took me through the steps to show me how to do an appraisal, and how to do the write up. What shocked me the most on the first few deals was the wholesale value of some beater trade ins. I mean few hundred bucks for this or that trade in, a thousand for this or that, and why we weren't keeping all of them on the lot. I soon realised that some trade ins were simply unwanted by most buyers, and hence the lousy money they pulled. The other funny thing was is how quicky I learned to read buyers who said they're gonna be back, or come in at a certain time only for them to never show up. A few months of no shows who I waited for after my work hours, and I started to be firm on setting appointments only when I was scheduled to be there. Spending 10-12 hours a day hoping that some of my ups will show up burnt me out. I actually now find that the less time I spend at work the more productive I am. My 4th month at Honda was my best when I sold about 14 cars. The months after that when I couldn't beat that figure were frustrating. Car sales people are sort of like pro athletes in a sense that one very strong month can carry you through many crappy months, because management sees that you are capable of performing, because you did it before. So during the crappy months they won't want to let6 you go in hopes that you'll have another strong month soon. But if you start off slow, and continue doing poorly, you won't last too long.
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Replying to: mikefm58 (Apr 29, 2009 5:51 pm) I had people telling me they're waiting for the Camaro, or that it'll be cheaper, but those are the type of people I had on my follow up list for a year now who say they're going to buy this or that, but never actually commit or come in. So I don't really count them as serious buyers. Talk is cheap. The Camaro might take away some sales but not a huge chunk I dont' think.
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Replying to: driver100 (Apr 29, 2009 4:05 pm)  Had 2 appointments. Both scheduled 4 hours apart. They both show up within 5 minutes of each other.  So I had to split one, so I end up with 1.5 deals. Better than nothing at least. |
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Smart Shopper Stories from the Sales Frontlines
