Being a car salesman

The One Doctor

Hi all,

I'm working as a salesman (face to face and phone, selling sheds and garden rooms) and I'm aiming towards selling cars as the commission is better. Does anyone have any tips on with dealers to go for/avoid? I love selling thing and chatting to customers, but most of all I love getting the money off them!

I'm in my early 40s and frankly I used to think sales was below me, but it's more interesting than the office jobs I had before. I was a sales trainer years ago, not sure if that'd stand to me now.

Anyway please let me know your experiences as a car salesman if you think they can help.

Thanks!

kil

The whole salesman - customer relationship is much changed from what it was 10 years ago. Price in the key now - remote purchasing and valuations mens the role of salesman or saleswoman is largely reduntant. How much commission do you expect to earn per car? Its not as much as you think. If a car shows a 1000€ profit you might get 10% - 100€ minus income tax means its not a lot in your pocket at the end of the month.

The One Doctor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117884871#Comment_117884871

€100 per car mounts up. There's commission on warranties, services packages etc.

I'm not interested in making large amounts of money selling cars, but I enjoy selling. The money will be a lot better than what I'm on now tbh.

Toyotafanboi

Still good opportunities to clean up if you are a good salesman with a good brand IMO. Still probably will be for another few years too, did hear a stat recently like the average Irish new car buyer now makes 0.8 showroom visits before they buy a car. Means I suppose some people never visit and everybody else doesn't visit twice, if they are in the building, they are there to buy.

Tricky enough getting a start in a useful position though. You'd need to be getting in with a good brand, in a dealership that doesn't already have too many piranahas in the tank as they say and also somewhere that isn't looking for a junior salesman, that's just someone to organise the key box and straighten up all the cars on the forecourt for minimum wage.

Be looking to get in with VW group, Hyundai or even Renault would be good i'd say. Be prepared to never have a lunch break or Saturday off again. Lot's of timewasters and lots of people will have to get insulted price wise.

If you think you are good at selling though, that's where you'll make money, swlling lifeshine, gap insurance, suervice plans, extended warranties, finance etc. "All the bits".

Was in car sales when I left college 30 years ago. Wasn't for me. I was honest and the dealer principal wasn't.

I ended up making a career in logistics until the crash.

fryup

take tips form the best ARTHUR DALEY 😉

Be aware of current and future technologies that will disrupt the whole sales process- for new cars once you test drive it, there’s a lot you can do online in terms of progressing the sale, without the input of a sales person.

with electric cars going mainstream it will likely require even less “selling” - this disruption applies to other areas too like banking, insurance etc so beware- the world is changing rapidly - I would see a lot fewer sales people required over coming years

R.O.R

Over the next few years, a lot of manufacturers will be changing to follow the Tesla model so it's going to be predominantly online sales, with handover hubs next to service centres. Volvo have already publicly announced this and its rumoured others will be announcing fairly soon, so the need for new car sales people is going to dry up over the next few years. Whether dealerships will then flip to mostly used sales and need sales people, I don't know.

Also - one of my dealer contacts left car sales earlier this year to go and sell sheds! More commission per unit on a shed than a new car, and more units moving.

ba_barabus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117893189#Comment_117893189

How are you supposed to know if you like the car enough to buy it or will the new cars be in the hubs ready for a test drive?

useless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117893686#Comment_117893686

Lots of people don’t actually care what their car is like to drive, only the price of it and what it looks like. That can be expressed easily over the internet.

A few years ago I saw an early version of BMWs virtual reality showroom- and it was good. The teenagers playing games on VR headsets now are going to have no hangups about using them to spec their cars in a few years time.

showrooms in shopping centres may become a thing too- small unit with brand ‘experts’, videos, configuration kiosks etc and a few cars in the underground car park to test drive. SEAT have a setup like this in Westfield in London.

Closer to home, AFAIK one of the premium brand dealers in the southwest will on request send a sales guy with a demo car to your house anywhere from Donegal to Kerry. I imagine this is colossally expensive so I’d expect the customer‘s willingness to buy to be well sounded out first.

Ireland will as usual be well behind the rest of the world in rolling out any new process innovations, so there’s some life left in the car sales job for a few more years yet.

ba_barabus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117894408#Comment_117894408

Thank God for that, if GT2 thought me anything it's that I might like a car until I drive it to use your VR comparison.

R.O.R

Test drives weren't possible for ages during lock down, and cars were still selling by the bucket load. A large proportion of people nowadays don't want/need to test drive a vehicle before buying.

Great margin to the manufacturer selling direct to the public and giving someone a handling charge for vehicle prep and handover. The last 18 months or so has changed thinking in a lot of industries - who needs a fancy physical premises when most of the donkey work can be done from a bedsit in Dublin 9 (or Bangalore).

Just started in car sales in kilkenny. This thread is a great help. Keep the useful info coming.

ba_barabus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117895265#Comment_117895265

It's a pity really but the world changes. I personally miss paper brochures etc. but I'm most likely in a tiny minority like that

Sam Russell

Buying a new car usually means selling or trading in the old one. That trade-in then needs selling on. That is where the salesman shows the skills needed to make a good living. It is the trade-in that will save the jobs for the car salesman.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896355#Comment_117896355

There are already huge online car supermarkets popping up in the UK and its only a matter of time before they catch on more. And loads of used cars were sold online throughout lockdown.

Look at Cinch.co.uk for example.

Sam Russell

The solution to the trade in could be with car super markets, but how do they value the trade in? Do they take the bad with he good, and repair ad service as required?

I think that requires the salesman.

useless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896709#Comment_117896709

Id expect that a same-brand, low mileage, 2-3 yo car could be reasonably valued off a set of photos. The dealer would have more or less the same allowance in their mind to get such a car prepped to 'approved used car' status. For other brands, older cars etc., I expect they'd go straight to the trade as is. The used car dealer makes the call on whether it's worth their while putting money into the car in order to retail it. Dont really think the car supermarket concept has really caught on here yet (Im not aware of any apart from the Charles Hurst one in Baldonnel), but cashoffernow.ie and zucar.ie offer an easy way to offload your car for cash before you get stuck into looking for a new one. Just don't expect a high offer:-)

Deregos.

Some essential car selling advice from Swiss Toni . . .

"I started my carsales positively, treating the customers like customers should be treated. They experienced only the most elegant music through the tannoy, maybe a poem on the windscreen of the car. You see, selling a car is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. The body has to be perfect with no signs of wear and tear before laying her out on the forecourt for everyone to inspect her interior."

"The customer is, obviously, always right. You have to make sure that you supply the right car to their needs, checking to see that the beauty is very much there for all to see. Checking a car over is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. First of all, verify her year of origin. She may look like she rolled off the production line in 1990 but who's to say the fellow before you didn't give her a good spraying?"

JoeA3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117895265#Comment_117895265

The strange irony is, the distributors (particularly the premium ones) have spent the last few years forcing dealers to spend millions on massive glass showrooms - or lose the franchise!

goochy

Yes but there's obviously money to be made and with about 11k new audi bmw and mercs sold this year not to mention used cars and after sales - premium brands are the way to go