Car Salespeople

Scráib · 07-04-2012 01:05PM #1

Does anyone ever feel pretty p*ssed off after having dealt with car salespeople?

I don't know if it's me or not, but every time I've had occasion to deal with them as a group they always leave me feeling cold. I was out at a dealership a few weeks ago and the guy who dealt with me gave me the impression that I was wasting his time even though I was genuinely interested in a car. As a result I've pretty much decided not to go near that dealership again.

This week I mailled another dealership asking did they have a particular model in stock. They said they did and I asked them were they open today to which they never replied. I drove out this morning to find the gates locked, I'm now here kicking myself for not ringing in advance but I'm also annoyed he never bothered replying to my second mail.

Even in situations where I've bought a car I've come out of it relieved to be finished dealing with the sales guys. Has anyone had a similar experience in the past? Or has anyone had the complete opposite, where the salespeople were genuinely sound?

Anan1 · 07-04-2012 01:16PM

I've met the odd good one, but most are incompetent.

bucketybuck · 07-04-2012 01:24PM

I work in service, and you would not believe the amount of times I have passed onto salesmen details of people interested in buying, only to find out afterwards that they never bothered responding to the potential customers.

The mind boggles. If I was in sales I would be all over a customer who was actually showing serious interest, instead of just window shopping, but these guys never even bothered giving them a call.

I knew a guy up north with a fleet of Mercedes. He went out and bought 15 Volvos. I met him a few months later and when just chatting, asked him why he didnt stick with us in Mercedes. "Sure I left four of five messages for X to call out to me and do a deal, and I never heard a thing from him. So **** him says I".

A man buying mercs for decades, lost to Volvo because the useless twat of a salesman never bothered his hole to respond to a sure thing.

johnos1984 · 07-04-2012 01:25PM

Like every job the idiots stick in mind the most while the good guys get forgotten.

There are good salespeople out there but I completely agree there are more out there with no sales skills who would be better off taking orders in MacDonalds as they don't know how to sell a car

MugMugs · 07-04-2012 01:42PM

Speaking as somebody who is currently having an argument with a sales man I went to the garage I bought my passat off 7 years after doing so.... Parked it across the road and went over. Started chatting to him.... He had my surname and car type in 10th minutes of chat. He then went through his old diaries a few weeks later to get my number after he had the sort of car I was looking for in stock....

That's impressive!

FrontDoor · 07-04-2012 01:52PM

MugMugs wrote: »

Speaking as somebody who is currently having an argument with a sales man I went to the garage I bought my passat off 7 years after doing so.... Parked it across the road and went over. Started chatting to him.... He had my surname and car type in 10th minutes of chat. He then went through his old diaries a few weeks later to get my number after he had the sort of car I was looking for in stock....

That's impressive!

Is that not what you'd expect him to do? Be observant, figure out what you want and then go and get it.

CharlieCroker · 07-04-2012 02:07PM

I was a car salesman for a few years and the amount of lads who didn't know the product, didn't qualify customers properly and failed to follow up with a simple phonecall was outrageous. Most of them were order takers, not salesmen

I thought the recession got rid of of most of them.

Drummerboy08 · 07-04-2012 02:10PM

CharlieCroker wrote: »

I was a car salesman for a few years and the amount of lads who didn't know the product, didn't qualify customers properly and failed to follow up with a simple phonecall was outrageous. Most of them were order takers, not salesmen

I thought the recession got rid of of most of them.

I think the recession has gotten rid of most of them, but to Joe Soap, every car salesman is awful when they dont get the massive discount/trade in that they thought they deserved.

johnos1984 · 07-04-2012 02:13PM

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I think the recession has gotten rid of most of them, but to Joe Soap, every car salesman is awful when they dont get the massive discount/trade in that they thought they deserved.

The numbers generally haven't been an issue for me. It's more a case of the salespeople not knowing the stock, how much it is, the details, not calling abck etc etc

Anan1 · 07-04-2012 02:17PM

CharlieCroker wrote: »

I was a car salesman for a few years and the amount of lads who didn't know the product, didn't qualify customers properly and failed to follow up with a simple phonecall was outrageous. Most of them were order takers, not salesmen

Me too, and you're dead right.

CharlieCroker wrote: »

I thought the recession got rid of of most of them.

One would think, but i've yet to notice an improvement.

On a slight tangent, I could never under the commiserative threads that used to appear here whenever a long-established garage would shut down. 50 jobs lost, sad day for the industry, and all that nonsense. In most cases they were no loss to anyone.

Drummerboy08 · 07-04-2012 03:59PM

Anan1 wrote: »

On a slight tangent, I could never under the commiserative threads that used to appear here whenever a long-established garage would shut down. 50 jobs lost, sad day for the industry, and all that nonsense. In most cases they were no loss to anyone.

No loss to anyone, except the staff's families. Mine included.

TBH that attitude of yours stinks.

pburns · 07-04-2012 04:30PM

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

No loss to anyone, except the staff's families. Mine included.

TBH that attitude of yours stinks.

Sad fact is the motor trade was a bubble, inflated by the moolah the banks were dishing out. The SIMI were sucessful in lobbying for the scrappage scheme to 'preserve jobs' but these jobs were as unsustainable as those in other industries such as the building sector. Preserving jobs in sales (and lets face it, we dont have a motor 'industry') to send profits to Germany, Korea, Japan etc. seems self-defeating to me and only delaying the inevitable - with my tax money.

Drummerboy08 · 07-04-2012 04:46PM

pburns wrote: »

Sad fact is the motor trade was a bubble, inflated by the moolah the banks were dishing out. The SIMI were sucessful in lobbying for the scrappage scheme to 'preserve jobs' but these jobs were as unsustainable as those in other industries such as the building sector. Preserving jobs in sales (and lets face it, we dont have a motor 'industry') to send profits to Germany, Korea, Japan etc. seems self-defeating to me and only delaying the inevitable - with my tax money.

The scrappage scheme didnt cost you a penny in taxes. But I'm not getting drawn into another argument about the pro's and con's of the scrappage scheme.

dinneenp · 07-04-2012 04:53PM

If you het bad service I'd always recommend give feedback to the manager/owner.
It's he/she is losing out on the money and they will let the staff in question know and/or give you attention.

I got bad phone service from Currys, stated so on Curys boards.ie thread and got a detailed reply and also asking did I want to contact him and he'd look into my request fully b

TURRICAN · 07-04-2012 04:53PM

Qualified liars who will say anything for a sale.:pac:

Owen · 07-04-2012 04:55PM

TURRICAN wrote: »

Qualified liars who will say anything for a sale.:pac:

Grow up. Not all of us were liars.

07-04-2012 05:27PM

I think for whatever reason quite a few folks ended up working in car sales who had little passion for cars or indeed customer service. It happens in many industries but when it's a customer facing role it's all the more obvious and as John says the poor experiences do stick in ones mind.

No doubt the lads who posted on this thread who worked/are working in car sales were/are very dedicated and professional as they are car enthusiasts and have good work ethics etc.

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

No loss to anyone, except the staff's families. Mine included. ..........

I'd be 100% Anan1 wasn't including the staff and families in his comment.

MugMugs · 07-04-2012 05:44PM

FrontDoor wrote: »

MugMugs wrote: »

Speaking as somebody who is currently having an argument with a sales man I went to the garage I bought my passat off 7 years after doing so.... Parked it across the road and went over. Started chatting to him.... He had my surname and car type in 10th minutes of chat. He then went through his old diaries a few weeks later to get my number after he had the sort of car I was looking for in stock....

That's impressive!

Is that not what you'd expect him to do? Be observant, figure out what you want and then go and get it.

Seven years later remembering my name and car model? No tbh.

Discodog · 07-04-2012 06:04PM

I spent many years in car sales in the UK. I started as a sales exec & ended up as a sales director. One of the reasons why we did so well was because of the standard of our sales staff. We preferred to take on people with no previous motor trade experience - in other words before they had developed bad practises. Some of my most successful salespeople were women. They are more methodical than men & have a better attention to detail.

I was asked to do a mystery shopping exercise in Ireland during the boom. The standards were appalling & attitude of the dealerships was dire. One recent example was when I went to buy parts for a Landrover at a main dealer. My old parts department would always add every parts customer to the sales database whereas this dealer didn't even ask my name.

If someone had phoned my old dealership & asked for a test drive on a Sunday we would of said "no problem what time" as we worked weekends, evenings etc. It was all about serving the customer & because we did it well we all earned really well.

From what I have heard the recession hasn't improved the quality of salespeople. It is very hard for a Leopard to change it's spots.

Anan1 · 07-04-2012 06:47PM

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

No loss to anyone, except the staff's families. Mine included.

TBH that attitude of yours stinks.

I'm sorry for your family, but I stand by my assertion that the majority of sales staff in the Irish motor industry deserve to lose their jobs. Do you really think that someone who can't even be bothered to learn their product/call customers back deserves to keep their job in a dealership? Because, let's face it, that's most of them. Let the business go to the professionals out there who are prepared to do the job well.

TURRICAN · 07-04-2012 06:54PM

Owen wrote: »

Grow up. Not all of us were liars.

ouch,dont take it to heart:)

FGR · 07-04-2012 06:57PM

I was very happy with the service I got for my Octavia back in 2010.

That said, when I bought my Golf in 2007 the after-service from the WV dealership in question was poor, to say the least.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure 99% of the staff in that dealership are excellent, motivated; sincere and knowledgeable people. That one person I dealt with though was a disaster.

Anan1 · 07-04-2012 06:58PM

Owen wrote: »

Grow up. Not all of us were liars.

Actually, i've met very few who were dishonest. I think laziness and disinterest were the real problems. 90%+ of the dishonesty I ever saw was coming from the customers.

bladespin · 07-04-2012 06:59PM

Anan1 wrote: »

I'm sorry for your family, but I stand by my assertion that the majority of sales staff in the Irish motor industry deserve to lose their jobs. Do you really think that someone who can't even be bothered to learn their product/call customers back deserves to keep their job in a dealership? Because, let's face it, that's most of them. Let the business go to the professionals out there who are prepared to do the job well.

Have to agree, have both good and bad experiences with car sales people, unfortunately the bad outnumber the good by quite a way, tha majority just didn't seem bothered at all (even when it came to a fleet sale of landcruisers), pretty much 'yeah, whatever' attitude, amazed I have to say, in the UK I'd have been pestered but guess that'd be a pain too lol.

Drummerboy08 · 07-04-2012 07:26PM

Anan1 wrote: »

I'm sorry for your family, but I stand by my assertion that the majority of sales staff in the Irish motor industry deserve to lose their jobs. Do you really think that someone who can't even be bothered to learn their product/call customers back deserves to keep their job in a dealership? Because, let's face it, that's most of them. Let the business go to the professionals out there who are prepared to do the job well.

And how many sales staff have you dealt with, say in the last 10 years?

As a percentage, what would that figure be of the number of sales staff in Ireland?

You seem to have a massive amount of tar on that brush of yours.

Discodog · 07-04-2012 07:27PM

Anan1 wrote: »

90%+ of the dishonesty I ever saw was coming from the customers.

When I first started our MD would say that they (the customers) don't trust us & you should never trust them

.

The funniest were the fairground lads. You would value their Merc as a PX but when they bought it in to collect their new car you would realise that everything that could be changed had been changed. What you had seen as a nice PX now had 4 bald tyres, holes in the exhaust, tears in the seats etc. They all drove the same model so that they could swap parts over.

Anan1 wrote: »

Let the business go to the professionals out there who are prepared to do the job well.

That might not happen as the problem goes right back to the owners of the dealerships & in some cases to whoever holds the Irish agency. Ireland wasn't seen as a big market so it was easy to "buy" the manufacturer's franchise. Many years ago, in the UK, the manufacturers took back the wholesalers & concessions. BMW, Mercedes etc all opened head offices in the UK.

I suspect that the owners & concessions have no idea of how to run proper sales operations. In their day it was all about who you knew & where you played golf :rolleyes:

Discodog · 07-04-2012 07:29PM

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

And how many sales staff have you dealt with, say in the last 10 years?

As a percentage, what would that figure be of the number of sales staff in Ireland?

You seem to have a massive amount of tar on that brush of yours.

I surveyed over 30 dealerships & they were all bad. Their wasn't one shining light.

By the way the poor service isn't just restricted to the motor trade. It is endemic in most businesses.

thebman · 07-04-2012 07:54PM

I had my first good experience with a car dealer when I bought recently and TBH I was shocked because I once worked with one god awful previous car sales man who told me his stories with pride.

Drummerboy08 · 07-04-2012 08:21PM

Discodog wrote: »

I surveyed over 30 dealerships & they were all bad. Their wasn't one shining light.

By the way the poor service isn't just restricted to the motor trade. It is endemic in most businesses.

But my problem isnt with you. My problem is with someone has an opinion of something that he hasn't really researched or experienced fully (like you for example).

Being told that you, a member of your family and your work colleagues probably deserve to lose their jobs by someone who hasnt a clue is really rather annoying, and pretty hurtful too.

Declan Lander · 07-04-2012 08:36PM

Discodog wrote: »

I spent many years in car sales in the UK. I started as a sales exec & ended up as a sales director. One of the reasons why we did so well was because of the standard of our sales staff. We preferred to take on people with no previous motor trade experience - in other words before they had developed bad practises. Some of my most successful salespeople were women. They are more methodical than men & have a better attention to detail.

I was asked to do a mystery shopping exercise in Ireland during the boom. The standards were appalling & attitude of the dealerships was dire. One recent example was when I went to buy parts for a Landrover at a main dealer. My old parts department would always add every parts customer to the sales database whereas this dealer didn't even ask my name.

If someone had phoned my old dealership & asked for a test drive on a Sunday we would of said "no problem what time" as we worked weekends, evenings etc. It was all about serving the customer & because we did it well we all earned really well.

From what I have heard the recession hasn't improved the quality of salespeople. It is very hard for a Leopard to change it's spots.

Sounds like you worked for a decent outfit. Who were they ?

john reilly · 07-04-2012 08:50PM

bill cullen the most annoying car salesman ever

Car Salespeople

Comments