Fancy a laugh? trying buying a car......
Discussion
I have worked in the motor industry for the last five years and I have only sold the same brand of vehicle but for two different companies one I worked for about a year and the other I have been working for four years and I’m still there now.
I find it insulting reading the 15 pages of comments where me as an individual have been typecast and branded all the same (uneducated pr**ks) when in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth in my case at least.
I'm fully aware that there are dealerships out there with a bad reputation and poor sales staff I should know the first dealership I worked for was like it and was the main reason for leaving the group I didn’t want to work in that way and I didn’t.
I have never told a single customer that they had to buy the vehicle before they could drive it and I never will as I know if someone told me that I would walk away and quick.
Anyone wanting a test drive needs to give me their driving license and contact details, not so I can badger them with finance but because I don’t know who you are or if you’re even legally allowed to drive you would be surprised the amount for people that question why I want a license to drive a car! You need to show ID to buy alcohol, buy cigarettes or enter a club to prove your age if you look under 21, I need it to prove you’re legally allowed to drive no matter your age.
Would you give your car to someone for a test drive if they knocked on your door to buy a car you had advertised without any identification? (I don’t think you would)
unless you have worked in a dealership in sales don’t presume you know how the dealership should or shouldn’t run its more complicated than you think and if you saw a business plan you wouldn’t invest you would see that the sales department of the dealership very rarely makes a profit at the end of the financial year the profit made by the dealership is made by parts and service but I’m sure you always haggle on price with them don’t you?
As previously mentioned some dealers saying no discounts and other saying how much you want well that’s because each dealership is a franchise of the manufacture and a different company unless you’re buying from a large group each dealership will have been given individual targets.
an offer advertised with £3000 off could be all the margin in the vehicle but it’s highly unlikely, it’s made up usually of a dealer deposit contribution, manufacture contribution, bonus money for hitting target if you get there and some of the margin in the vehicle just so know where offers like that come from if you don’t reach your targets and you gave a % of the bonus money away as well you could end up making a loss on every vehicle sold unless you pre register vehicles to get there.
if you’re buying a used car and the dealer tells you I only have £200 across the vehicle, yes he could be pulling a fast one or telling the truth, I’ve sold vehicles which haven’t got any margin in because they were either bought in at the wrong price or its just one of them cars that don’t sell that easy so after a while the vehicles price must reduce to stay in line with the national average after a while that vehicle will have been written down so many times you will be making a loss on the vehicle just to get it off your stock.
I would honestly love for anyone to come and do my job for a week or two and deal with the time wasters, deal with the company car drivers that waste your time and tell you "your get the servicing" well dealing with people that are not buying isn’t going to pay my mortgage.
As far as I’m concerned lookers to the back buyers to the front I don’t work 60 hours a week and every weekend to give people test drives with no intension of making a purchase this century.
I don’t expect everyone I meet to be buying just this minute, I’m realistic but I will whittle the time wasters out so I maximize my selling opportunities each day.
I have many repeat customers some of which have had four vehicles from me now, I treat a customer how I expect to be treated but be under no illusion if you’re not buying a vehicle the meeting will be short and sweet as whilst your telling me about the lease deal your company has and you want me to tell you all about the vehicle I’m not supplying my colleague has had a customer walk in a buy a car so thank you for that!
when you tarnish everyone with the same brush remember that if that was to be true everyone at some point has trusted an uneducated slimy Tw*t in pointy shoes with the second biggest purchase in most people’s life's and I don’t know about you but a person like that I wouldn’t trust with my money.
There are good sales people and bad were not all the same!
Rant over, come buy your next car from me ill change your opinion.
I find it insulting reading the 15 pages of comments where me as an individual have been typecast and branded all the same (uneducated pr**ks) when in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth in my case at least.
I'm fully aware that there are dealerships out there with a bad reputation and poor sales staff I should know the first dealership I worked for was like it and was the main reason for leaving the group I didn’t want to work in that way and I didn’t.
I have never told a single customer that they had to buy the vehicle before they could drive it and I never will as I know if someone told me that I would walk away and quick.
Anyone wanting a test drive needs to give me their driving license and contact details, not so I can badger them with finance but because I don’t know who you are or if you’re even legally allowed to drive you would be surprised the amount for people that question why I want a license to drive a car! You need to show ID to buy alcohol, buy cigarettes or enter a club to prove your age if you look under 21, I need it to prove you’re legally allowed to drive no matter your age.
Would you give your car to someone for a test drive if they knocked on your door to buy a car you had advertised without any identification? (I don’t think you would)
unless you have worked in a dealership in sales don’t presume you know how the dealership should or shouldn’t run its more complicated than you think and if you saw a business plan you wouldn’t invest you would see that the sales department of the dealership very rarely makes a profit at the end of the financial year the profit made by the dealership is made by parts and service but I’m sure you always haggle on price with them don’t you?
As previously mentioned some dealers saying no discounts and other saying how much you want well that’s because each dealership is a franchise of the manufacture and a different company unless you’re buying from a large group each dealership will have been given individual targets.
an offer advertised with £3000 off could be all the margin in the vehicle but it’s highly unlikely, it’s made up usually of a dealer deposit contribution, manufacture contribution, bonus money for hitting target if you get there and some of the margin in the vehicle just so know where offers like that come from if you don’t reach your targets and you gave a % of the bonus money away as well you could end up making a loss on every vehicle sold unless you pre register vehicles to get there.
if you’re buying a used car and the dealer tells you I only have £200 across the vehicle, yes he could be pulling a fast one or telling the truth, I’ve sold vehicles which haven’t got any margin in because they were either bought in at the wrong price or its just one of them cars that don’t sell that easy so after a while the vehicles price must reduce to stay in line with the national average after a while that vehicle will have been written down so many times you will be making a loss on the vehicle just to get it off your stock.
I would honestly love for anyone to come and do my job for a week or two and deal with the time wasters, deal with the company car drivers that waste your time and tell you "your get the servicing" well dealing with people that are not buying isn’t going to pay my mortgage.
As far as I’m concerned lookers to the back buyers to the front I don’t work 60 hours a week and every weekend to give people test drives with no intension of making a purchase this century.
I don’t expect everyone I meet to be buying just this minute, I’m realistic but I will whittle the time wasters out so I maximize my selling opportunities each day.
I have many repeat customers some of which have had four vehicles from me now, I treat a customer how I expect to be treated but be under no illusion if you’re not buying a vehicle the meeting will be short and sweet as whilst your telling me about the lease deal your company has and you want me to tell you all about the vehicle I’m not supplying my colleague has had a customer walk in a buy a car so thank you for that!
when you tarnish everyone with the same brush remember that if that was to be true everyone at some point has trusted an uneducated slimy Tw*t in pointy shoes with the second biggest purchase in most people’s life's and I don’t know about you but a person like that I wouldn’t trust with my money.
There are good sales people and bad were not all the same!
Rant over, come buy your next car from me ill change your opinion.
Edited by milner993 on Monday 7th July 14:37
HereBeMonsters said:
I want a comfortable, fast rear or 4wd luxury car that's good to drive and holds its value.
That's totally illusory though because the retained value calcs are always based on list prices - and 99.99% of people have to pay well over list with German brands to get the stuff they want fitted. Rickton said:
For someone who has worked in sales for 5 years, you seem quite sensitive!
Sales people are usually universally disliked, irrespective of the industry... don't worry about it
A 60 hour week and pressure of ever increasing targets will do that to a degree, It might sound like I love working in car sales the truth is I don’t but I’m good at it and earn a good living which is better than all of my friends.Sales people are usually universally disliked, irrespective of the industry... don't worry about it
I just thought an insider’s perspective was needed with all the one way traffic on the car buying process.
doogz said:
milner993 said:
A 60 hour week and pressure of ever increasing targets will do that to a degree, It might sound like I love working in car sales the truth is I don’t but I’m good at it and earn a good living which is better than all of my friends.
I just thought an insider’s perspective was needed with all the one way traffic on the car buying process.
I have a few mates that have worked in car sales at some point or another.I just thought an insider’s perspective was needed with all the one way traffic on the car buying process.
None of them earned all that much. Maybe they weren't too good at it, maybe the companies they worked for weren't that good to work for.
But none of them were making 'a good living which is better than all of my friends'
What's the average salary in your place for people with your experience/skills?
Do well at a proper place and you can earn good money.
doogz said:
markmullen said:
Do badly at a big group and you'd be better off flipping burgers
Do well at a proper place and you can earn good money.
Yeah, I get that. I was looking for a ballpark figure for 'good'Do well at a proper place and you can earn good money.
I will stick my neck out and say I've had £7500 net months in this game. I'll be honest, when I first started out I also had some £1500 net months, but with experience you get better and with commission based roles comes better payslips.
doogz said:
markmullen said:
I think most are loathe to mention specifics on here due to the number of "experts" who immediately try and rubbish any such statements.
I will stick my neck out and say I've had £7500 net months in this game. I'll be honest, when I first started out I also had some £1500 net months, but with experience you get better and with commission based roles comes better payslips.
Aren't you the top dog at a big Porsche outfit though?I will stick my neck out and say I've had £7500 net months in this game. I'll be honest, when I first started out I also had some £1500 net months, but with experience you get better and with commission based roles comes better payslips.
Possibly not representative of my mate Nick at Arnold Clark Renault.
I wasn't looking for specifics, it's a slightly vulgar topic in that when I ask what the 'going rate' it, the question it seems like I'm asking is 'How much do you earn?'
Do you work 6 days weeks, 60 hours+?
Or are you now in a position where you don't need to put in as many hours?
And it goes without saying, if you don't want to answer any of that, I completely understand.
Someone I know works at a local Toyota dealership, and suggested to me that he earned around £50k, depending on the year. He's great with people, has sold cars to people that I know (and who've been very positive about him), and has been at the dealership for at least 5 years. One or two at his place earn more, he says, but he's ahead of the average.
It's unlikely that he'll earn any more, but that's not a bad living, I'd suggest.
It's unlikely that he'll earn any more, but that's not a bad living, I'd suggest.
hora said:
milner993 said:
earned between £35k and £40k
For a 60hour week still? 
Some days you'll go 8 hours without actually 'doing' something. You're only working when you're 'doing' something.
I don't work a 60 hour week or anything close to it, I hit my targets, I get paid (better than a lot of my friends who work 'normal' jobs) and I'm happy.
One of my colleagues was here til 8pm last night working his diary as he'd let it go for too long and was getting hassled for it. Never happens to me.
Butter Face said:
hora said:
milner993 said:
earned between £35k and £40k
For a 60hour week still? Some days you'll go 8 hours without actually 'doing' something. You're only working when you're 'doing' something.
I don't work a 60 hour week or anything close to it, I hit my targets, I get paid (better than a lot of my friends who work 'normal' jobs) and I'm happy.
One of my colleagues was here til 8pm last night working his diary as he'd let it go for too long and was getting hassled for it. Never happens to me.
doogz said:
markmullen said:
I think most are loathe to mention specifics on here due to the number of "experts" who immediately try and rubbish any such statements.
I will stick my neck out and say I've had £7500 net months in this game. I'll be honest, when I first started out I also had some £1500 net months, but with experience you get better and with commission based roles comes better payslips.
Aren't you the top dog at a big Porsche outfit though?I will stick my neck out and say I've had £7500 net months in this game. I'll be honest, when I first started out I also had some £1500 net months, but with experience you get better and with commission based roles comes better payslips.
Possibly not representative of my mate Nick at Arnold Clark Renault.
I wasn't looking for specifics, it's a slightly vulgar topic in that when I ask what the 'going rate' it, the question it seems like I'm asking is 'How much do you earn?'
Do you work 6 days weeks, 60 hours+?
Or are you now in a position where you don't need to put in as many hours?
And it goes without saying, if you don't want to answer any of that, I completely understand.
I now work 5 days a week, 9-6 Monday to Friday with a day in the week off, plus 9-5 Saturday. That said I am on emails 24 hours a day as we have a lot of international customers.
Butter Face said:
I think the whole '60 hour' week thing is massively overplayed by some.
Some days you'll go 8 hours without actually 'doing' something. You're only working when you're 'doing' something.
So you don't count an hour spent at work as part of your working hours unless you're 'doing something'?Some days you'll go 8 hours without actually 'doing' something. You're only working when you're 'doing' something.
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