Sales or Service.

Toyotafanboi

Say a young man was starting out in the motor industry with a view to making a career out of it and this guy may or may not have the choice of two jobs. one is junior salesman and the other is service advisor, which would be better in terms of long term prospects? i know both are somewhat dead end, but still. the service advisor job starts out better paid than the salesman even when the sales commission is taken into account, but where would they be in 5 years time etc. i know that's kind of how long is a piece of string but i'd like to keep it vague. thanks

listermint

They are 2 completely different Career Paths to be fair.

I would not be looking at prospects, i would be looking at interests..

i.e is this young man interested in what goes on under the car

OR

is will he be interested in hitting monthly targets (which will be an ever present cross to bare)

Drummerboy08

A lot more money to be made in the sales end, and I wouldn't call it a dead end either.

If he does well there he can move into management very quickly or even into the distributor end of things.

Toyotafanboi

different indeed. this guy who 100% isn't me :pac: has worked before as service advisor for a number of years and really liked the semi technical aspect of it, but has never done car sales before. they've also worked in target based sales before though and enjoyed it so certainly would not be opposed to it again.

listermint

Service End can also move into management and distributor or other technical sales industries.

So tbh there is no right answer bar the answer for them personally.

_davidsmith_

My sentiments exactly, are you technical and interested in the workings and don't mind physical tiredness, or are you more of a smooth talker who doesn't mind commission based work.

Both have stresses associated and benefits. I would say would you rather sell me a car or understand enough to explain to me how the car works and make me understand it.

I know from a young age I was always taking things apart and putting them back together so I was technical (current aircraft engineer) but I had loads of sales customer facing roles too.

Not being in the motor trade I couldn't say which role has more stability but I would imagine the technical non target based lower waged job would be more long term stable.

Toyotafanboi

listermint wrote: »

Service End can also move into management and distributor or other technical sales industries.

So tbh there is no right answer bar the answer for them personally.

indeed that's the knub of the issue really.

i'm torn. both seem to be exciting areas (as far as i'm concerned).

i suppose i'm just looking to hear back from people who are in these roles and how they've found them long term. is there reasons to avoid one or the other etc.

ironclaw

Speaking from my experience talking to people on the sales side, when the recession hits they are the first to take it. Their targets are the same but its not possible to shift that level of inventory. Your income could be highly linked to your performance which can make financial planning very difficult. A good few I know were on reduced hours or let go entirely. On the flip side, the service side is pretty much recession proof as people tend to retain their cars longer and those cars always need parts and servicing. These are fairly sweeping generalizations and depend on circumstance and position in a company, but they held true for a number of folks I spoke to.

The job security and ability to pivot to another industry e.g. Service side would have a strong managerial / logistic aspect, would steer me in that direction if it was me.

gofre

Happy New Year everyone.
I hope you don't mind me a slight off topic question.

What kind of qualifications ,experience and knowledge would an employer be looking for from a service adviser candidate?