Have you sold cars for a dealership?

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Tomorrow, there's a presentation, and then kind of a cattle-call, one-after-another interview. That's fine, I know what I'm getting into it.

Yes, I want your honest feedback, but in particular, if I get the job:

1) how do I find the interesting parts, stay open to appreciating other people (no guarantee this will happen!, but at least stay open to the possibility), and

2) make some real money.

Your experiences please.

My fiancee says that everyone needs a car. Some people don't know exactly what they need. You help them with that! They are there because they want you to help them buy a car.

It's not a job I could do - it would mean dealing with the public, and the one time I tried to buy a car I quickly discovered that I didn't know enough about this world and would get ripped off badly. So I ran away, and kept hold of a company vehicle, even though it would be more tax efficient to own my own car.

So good luck.

I'm sorry they tried to rip you off. That's not the way to treat people at all. And there really is an happy medium between that, and being an active, engaged salesperson. Or, I should say active and engaged (still often low-key) is where you want to be, and there really is a broad middle between ripping people off and being disengaged, passive, disinterested.

You want a salesperson who will talk with you, and most of all you want a salesperson who will listen in a respectful way.

That's assuming the sale! which I generally do believe in. The person is there because they need a car. If it turns out that they truly are 'just looking,' if you're visibly surprised, that's okay, you just let yourself go ahead and be surprised.

I hate it. The customers always try to rip me off & play games, so it's really hard to make money. The whole "negotiation" game completely messed up the possibility of really earning any money. I'm trying to get out of it now since there's too many hours to work & not enough pay for that time.



...and this is coming from somebody who is used to getting $7-$8 an hour.

I read a good article on Edmunds.com about a reporter that went "undercover" as a car dealer and kept a diary about it. I thought the writer did a good job of detailing the good, the bad and, the ugly of car dealerships. I'm not sure if it's still there but, if your interested go check it out.

There were a lot of points that were true, but commission at my dealership doesn't work like that. Salespeople here CAN sell to internet customers. However, internet and newspaper ad prices are non-negotiable. Unfortunately, because those prices are so far below invoice, we make NO commission from those deals. In fact, in this area, most people keep negotiating prices that are below invoice, so we generally don't make any commission.

I imagine it takes a lot of lying and "discounts". It sounds like a horrible job, you're trying to convince people to part with large sums of money after all, they won't buy until they're convinced.

You could probably earn more money and enjoy yourself more by combing the streets for money dropped on the floor. Funnily enough I've often wondered just how much you could make per hour doing that, it would vary greatly of course, but still . . .

Well, this thread is old, but did you get the job?

I knew a guy who tried new dealer sales for trucks; he was pushing fifty at this time. He lasted about a year in it and commented that it will take a while(in fact years) to build a clientele up.

Those power sellers do that when they have repeat customers and word of mouth.....this takes years to do and this requires endurance in this high turnover field.

I knew a black lady who would regularly make 100k or better in a year selling Toyota's, but this was after 20 years of sales on her part. She also loved the product and the job.
Had the volume in a big city too( Chicago land area).

i would love to sell cars that i personally loved, but there is so much baggage that comes with the job. having to go on test-drives with folk of highly variable driving ability, having to negotiate prices, having to troll baking-hot lots in the summer heat, etc. and if the potential customer insists on talking sports of politics, fuggedaboudit.