The Car Salesman's Thread

[HTP99]

80quattro said:

skeeterm5 said:

Question for the frachise guys. If you are, say, a ford dealer and you happen to have an Aston Martin on the forecourt are you more likely to do a deal because it is non-franchise?

S

Not 'more likely' if its non-franchise. 'More likely' to sell it, if the price is right.

We sell quite a bit of non franchise, either trade ins or bought from Enterprise, however no Astons yet, we tend to price them below their equivalent that you may find on their respective manufacturers forecourt.

[markmullen]

Butter Face said:

Mark, your stock is mental. I love the 'race cars' section. Brilliant

Thanks mate.

Yes, we've got some cool stuff.

[StealthSteve]

HTP99 said:

We sell quite a bit of non franchise, either trade ins or bought from Enterprise

Slightly curious how you 'find' them on arrival, they usually ok/adequate?

[HTP99]

StealthSteve said:

HTP99 said:

We sell quite a bit of non franchise, either trade ins or bought from Enterprise

Slightly curious how you 'find' them on arrival, they usually ok/adequate?

They swing from being complete sheds, such as the Master that we rejected, to very good, the majority of the cars that we take are ok, maybe a couple of scuffed wheels and a missing sat nav SD card, but that's generally it, vans can be a bit more edgy but then vans are a work horse, also vans won't have A/C.

One thing you have to be aware of is if they have been serviced they will have been done by Enterprise and the book won't have been stamped but you can have a print off as proof, sometimes they haven't been serviced at all and they can be a few thousand miles overdue.

[_Nathan_]

Fox- said:

The more than do the job. Fantastic photos make so much of a difference - they give you far more confidence in the condition of the car as a punter. It always amazes me when people advertise cars as dealers with filthy wheels, paper floormats, parked on pavement..

Does not seem to hinder this guy !

http://www.shaksspecialistcars.co.uk

[missing the VR6]

We pay someone from Manheim to take out pictures for us, we've just gone from 6 pictures to 9. Couldn't really say if it's worked or not as used sales up until this month have been tough for the last 3/4 months. We have to move the cars into position but the guy snaps them.

[HTP99]

missing the VR6 said:

We pay someone from Manheim to take out pictures for us, we've just gone from 6 pictures to 9. Couldn't really say if it's worked or not as used sales up until this month have been tough for the last 3/4 months. We have to move the cars into position but the guy snaps them.

Why would you pay someone to take shots, especially if you have to manouvre the cars in place anyway, it's not as if it's freeing someone up?

A place I used to work at upped a salesmans basic as he took all the photos, maybe that's a better way to go.

[Zwolf]

Monday mornings. Urgh.

Atmosphere of a mortuary in here.

[renmure]

markmullen said:

Butter Face said:

Mark, your stock is mental. I love the 'race cars' section. Brilliant

Thanks mate.

Yes, we've got some cool stuff.

Do you do many deals directly on the back of these events or is it just a "raise the profile" type of thing? (ok, probably maintain the profile in your case)

[missing the VR6]

HTP99 said:

Why would you pay someone to take shots, especially if you have to manouvre the cars in place anyway, it's not as if it's freeing someone up?

A place I used to work at upped a salesmans basic as he took all the photos, maybe that's a better way to go.

Because the photo's are sh!t hot compared to what a salesman might do.

[markmullen]

renmure said:

Do you do many deals directly on the back of these events or is it just a "raise the profile" type of thing? (ok, probably maintain the profile in your case)

We usually do a couple as a direct result of the breakfast meet, as you say the main thing is to raise the profile, and have a good morning.

When I first thought of the idea a few years back I knew that in Porsche circles we were very well known. Outside of Porsche ownership though I thought we could improve our visibility. The way I see it is that the Renaultsport drivers, the BMW M drivers, the Ford RS drivers, the AMG drivers etc etc etc might fancy a Porsche as their next car and now they know where we are and what we do they might come and have a look.

I'm thrilled at how the event has taken off, on the first one back in October 2008 I hoped 100 people came and 300 did. For the second in Easter 2009 I thought that if we'd had 300 then 500 might be possible, around 750 came to that one! We're now running in the thousands!

[renmure]

markmullen said:

I'm thrilled at how the event has taken off, on the first one back in October 2008 I hoped 100 people came and 300 did. For the second in Easter 2009 I thought that if we'd had 300 then 500 might be possible, around 750 came to that one! We're now running in the thousands!

Good stuff. I am up in NE Scotland and know of folk who have gone to your event from up here so imagined it would be well attended. Must be a fair bit of organisation in the background.

[markmullen]

renmure said:

Good stuff. I am up in NE Scotland and know of folk who have gone to your event from up here so imagined it would be well attended. Must be a fair bit of organisation in the background.

It was initially a lot of work, now we've just had the 9th event it has got to the point where everyone knows what they're doing, and what needs doing. This time we had a load of support from the police in running it which was really helpful and made it run a lot smoother.

[Roo]

We get most of our leads either from our website or from ebay.

Selling LHD stuff, and only being 30 minutes from Dover, we sell alot of stuff abroad and they don't really look on AT. I use AT as it conveniently sends my stock to PH so it's one less place to upload it to.

As for photos, I do all of ours. They're taken in the same format and added in the same order to all adverts. I can get 12 images on our website and up to 20 on ebay and AT.

[nagsheadwarrior]

Off to the Giant NEC Motorhome/Caravan show today for a week, tens of thousands of geriatric punters, virtually every vehicle on the market in the same place and hundereds of dozens working on the same manufacturers stands competing against each other.

You drink all night (sometimes literally all night and straight to the show without sleep!) and sell all day with about 100 tyre kickers to every half chance.

Every year I com back a broken man mentally,physically and financially, think I might retire after this one!

[Grenoble]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Off to the Giant NEC Motorhome/Caravan show today for a week, tens of thousands of geriatric punters, virtually every vehicle on the market in the same place and hundereds of dozens working on the same manufacturers stands competing against each other.

You drink all night (sometimes literally all night and straight to the show without sleep!) and sell all day with about 100 tyre kickers to every half chance.

Every year I com back a broken man mentally,physically and financially, think I might retire after this one!

With such high costs, and such a poor conversion rate, can I ask why you bother? Can't see the ROI?

[Roo]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Off to the Giant NEC Motorhome/Caravan show today for a week, tens of thousands of geriatric punters, virtually every vehicle on the market in the same place and hundereds of dozens working on the same manufacturers stands competing against each other.

You drink all night (sometimes literally all night and straight to the show without sleep!) and sell all day with about 100 tyre kickers to every half chance.

Every year I com back a broken man mentally,physically and financially, think I might retire after this one!

I did the motor show for six years back in the nineties and thought I was out of it but then had to do Autosport International this year.

I'm too old for that stuff nowadays.

[mercfunder]

Grenoble said:

nagsheadwarrior said:

Off to the Giant NEC Motorhome/Caravan show today for a week, tens of thousands of geriatric punters, virtually every vehicle on the market in the same place and hundereds of dozens working on the same manufacturers stands competing against each other.

You drink all night (sometimes literally all night and straight to the show without sleep!) and sell all day with about 100 tyre kickers to every half chance.

Every year I com back a broken man mentally,physically and financially, think I might retire after this one!

With such high costs, and such a poor conversion rate, can I ask why you bother? Can't see the ROI?

It's the manufacturers who pay for the stands.

Dealers man the stands and get customers pushed in their direction by the manufacturers staff,with finance guys hanging on to close the deal there and then hardly hard work.

[Fast Bug]

Ugh I used to do that show when I worked for Fiat. After the 100th person telling me about fuel economy figures for a 3.0 6 wheel Ducato beast I lost the will to live!

[DHE]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Off to the Giant NEC Motorhome/Caravan show today for a week, tens of thousands of geriatric punters, virtually every vehicle on the market in the same place and hundereds of dozens working on the same manufacturers stands competing against each other.

You drink all night (sometimes literally all night and straight to the show without sleep!) and sell all day with about 100 tyre kickers to every half chance.

Every year I com back a broken man mentally,physically and financially, think I might retire after this one!

Which stand are you on?