How much do car sales people earn?
Discussion
caterhamboy said:
wait for your pension if i was you!! sales jobs aren't about how well you know your product but how well you know your margin!
most people are under the misconception that pension is for free!!! i pay 11% of salary for it!and 19.3 yrs of the way its going at the min? could i cope? i dont know?
caterhamboy said:
thats £4730 p.a your not going to get much of a private pension for that. i know the job is tough but private sector work is a lot harder with no security and you will be working till you are 150yrs to save for a similar deal.
yes but after 10yrs in the police i dont feel like i am doing the right thing any more, too many targets and grief and doing silly things to meet government targetsQIn my experience the earnings relates to the pressure/grief applied. I was far happier earning 33K (inc car and bonuses etc) than I was working for an American company earning £45K. I left the 33K job because of a new manager, who applied the american company methodology to the staff, I was the second of 3 to bail out, the remaining 2 are looking hard and the two fools thewy managed to recruit are looking to escape after 3 months!!
What you have to bear in mind with a sales role is that you are only as good as last months sales figure, slaughter your target this year, and next year will be this years sales results plus an increase!!
Also moving away from public sector employment, you may find that the "culture" is very different, e.g. if you have a performance related issue raised at any time, in the public sector you get help and training to over come this, in the private sector you get sacked. Real World!!
What you have to bear in mind with a sales role is that you are only as good as last months sales figure, slaughter your target this year, and next year will be this years sales results plus an increase!!
Also moving away from public sector employment, you may find that the "culture" is very different, e.g. if you have a performance related issue raised at any time, in the public sector you get help and training to over come this, in the private sector you get sacked. Real World!!
ELAN+2 said:
In my experience the earnings relates to the pressure/grief applied. I was far happier earning 33K (inc car and bonuses etc) than I was working for an American company earning £45K. I left the 33K job because of a new manager, who applied the american company methodology to the staff, I was the second of 3 to bail out, the remaining 2 are looking hard and the two fools thewy managed to recruit are looking to escape after 3 months!!
What you have to bear in mind with a sales role is that you are only as good as last months sales figure, slaughter your target this year, and next year will be this years sales results plus an increase!!
Also moving away from public sector employment, you may find that the "culture" is very different, e.g. if you have a performance related issue raised at any time, in the public sector you get help and training to over come this, in the private sector you get sacked. Real World!!
there cannot be anywhere that gets more performance targets than the police. I have to go to a meeting every morning re performance, i have certain targets re crime, for example my vehicle crime target is 0.5 crimes per day!!! so if i get one i get a load of grief about being over target!!!!What you have to bear in mind with a sales role is that you are only as good as last months sales figure, slaughter your target this year, and next year will be this years sales results plus an increase!!
Also moving away from public sector employment, you may find that the "culture" is very different, e.g. if you have a performance related issue raised at any time, in the public sector you get help and training to over come this, in the private sector you get sacked. Real World!!
madness!
i joined to give grief to criminals, this isnt allowed any more, the silly targets are whats most important!
insanojackson said:
I earn 43k a year at min as a cop but i think that i would be good as a salesman, no bulls
te just a car enthusiast. do you recon i would do well?
from my experience of buying cars i know more than the salesmen. The police is cak at the moment so would wrapping kin and selling cars be worth it?
what rank?!te just a car enthusiast. do you recon i would do well?from my experience of buying cars i know more than the salesmen. The police is cak at the moment so would wrapping kin and selling cars be worth it?
insanojackson said:
there cannot be anywhere that gets more performance targets than the police. I have to go to a meeting every morning re performance, i have certain targets re crime, for example my vehicle crime target is 0.5 crimes per day!!! so if i get one i get a load of grief about being over target!!!!
madness!
i joined to give grief to criminals, this isnt allowed any more, the silly targets are whats most important!
I have an idea of what you are facing, a very dear friend of mine is SO14 and the crap he has to deal with is beyond a joke, no wonder police forces want cameras as opposed to police men to enforce road safety, I rekon a days camera results would take a copper 6 months to process the paper work alone!madness!
i joined to give grief to criminals, this isnt allowed any more, the silly targets are whats most important!
The thing with sales is that either you are a sales man or you aren't, a manager can be trained, sales "instinct" can't be taught!
I have been a "salesman" in various environments, the majority of them I have been very successful in relation to my colleagues/ industry standards. I will only take a role where the target is achievable at a stretch,You need a goal to aim for/to judge your own performance. To give you an example of what happened to me at one company:
target £650K per year, when I joined the area had done £230K in the previous year. after 6 months I realised the current route to market wasn't working (product was tools and garage equipment and engineering solutions.. my market was the automotive side. The "accepted " route to market was via motor factors, for me these weren't selling the product on, the average(not all mind you) factor sales person couldn't cope with a £50 socket set when a spark plug was 69pence, let alone the fact that the Snap on guy was selling a comparable set for £250. I chose(with approval from my sales director) to persue ex snap on guys who were independant as my preferred route to market, in my second full year I achieved just shy of £800K and was sales man of the month, every month and sales man of the year, the company owners (French twots) decided that the UK market was wrong! And we could no loger sell to people who sell tools or go hungry (Guys in vans)but we had to sell them to people who don't want to sell/stock tools(motor factors, again , not all)They decided to drop every ones targets by the amount of business done with the vans, on my area this was over 50% of my business but it only made up 10% of the companys national business, guess what my target was reduced by toreflect the changes?.....5%, from that day onwards, instead of being numero uno on the sales figures, i was languishing near the bottom and had the daily, you aren't performing, we aren't happy with your results, what are you going to do about it? phone calls, faxes([pre email days) and letters!! I left before the disciplinary procedure was invoked!!
Targets and performance revues aren't an issue if you are able to achieve the goals set, or where you can see where you can influence the business in your favour and or you get help,support and guidance from above. Sadly I've found there is little help and support available and it has always been down to me to make the difference, where I can make the difference, it's an environment that i relish and thrive in!
I couldn't do retail car sales, especially second hand cars, how the hell do you get a family man with a tribe in tow to buy an mx5 when he wants a people carrier and you haven't got one in stock? or the other way round?!!! the petrol head that wants a fanny magnet when you've got a car lot full of rep mobiles? I could however do niche sales, where the puners coming in are after the kind of cars you sell!
When I was doing it the most I got was £39K (basic 12, the rest comission.)
My advice at the moment is don't do it!
The pressure nearly killed me (literally.) and although working with cars and getting a new one every three months is nice the novelty soon wears off if you're being taken up the harris on a regular basis.
The main dealer groups & the manufacturers are desperately looking to cut costs and the main place they are doing it at the moment is on the sales staff. Nobody I know in the trade has not had the "Now we're changing the comission structure but if you do your job properly then it will enable you to earn more speech," within the past six months.
My advice would be wait for the recession to bite to clear out some of the more shakey dealer groups & franchises to go to the wall and then think about it again. At the moment its sharks eating sharks.
My advice at the moment is don't do it!
The pressure nearly killed me (literally.) and although working with cars and getting a new one every three months is nice the novelty soon wears off if you're being taken up the harris on a regular basis.
The main dealer groups & the manufacturers are desperately looking to cut costs and the main place they are doing it at the moment is on the sales staff. Nobody I know in the trade has not had the "Now we're changing the comission structure but if you do your job properly then it will enable you to earn more speech," within the past six months.
My advice would be wait for the recession to bite to clear out some of the more shakey dealer groups & franchises to go to the wall and then think about it again. At the moment its sharks eating sharks.
I have been in the trade for 5 years. I was a salesman for 3 of them. If your a good salesman you will earn over 40k. if you earn less than this as a salesman then youre in the wrong job. 60k if you work hard is easily achievable.
Yes its stressfull at times.....but can also be a great laugh (especialy as a lot of motor trade receptionists are pretty game!!)
I think this year may be a difficult one but you never know!
Mike
Yes its stressfull at times.....but can also be a great laugh (especialy as a lot of motor trade receptionists are pretty game!!)
I think this year may be a difficult one but you never know!
Mike
Some interesting replys so far on this thread. Here's my 2p worth.
I have worked for 2 dealers so far, the 1st being a Nissan deale where I eventually became a Sales Manager. Nissan is obviously a pretty high volume dealer and I was suprised how little money there is to be made in selling just the cars alone, with our crap commission structure you could earn as little as £10 per deal sometimes, the extra money to be had was in selling supaguard etc. something which I personally wasn't a fan of; in spite of this I still earn't about £35k a year every year - even when I was a Sales Manager but thats another story!! I then moved to Mercedes and back to a salesman again, this was a completely different kettle of fish, there was a lot less pressurised selling involved, people generally know what they want and my job was pretty much just structuring a deal; the targets are a lot lower I only had to sell on average 8 cars per month and earn't up to £600 per unit plus additional money again for supaguard etc. I would say my average earning was still around £35-40k though, but the pressure was a lot easier as all of the sales people are treated as adults and not nannied by our sales manager all the time. I still work for Mercedes but as a Business Manager now which is a different job again but I just sell finance and insurance now.
With regards to the comments about being a 'natural salesman' I definately wouldn't put myself in this category, the method I have wored on from day one is to show enthusiasm about the product,(bit difficult when selling a 1.0 Micra auto
) have exceptional product knowledge about all cars not just your own brand, and be honest with people. I think if you follow this you can't really go wrong. I would say if your not enjoying your current job then give it a go.
I have worked for 2 dealers so far, the 1st being a Nissan deale where I eventually became a Sales Manager. Nissan is obviously a pretty high volume dealer and I was suprised how little money there is to be made in selling just the cars alone, with our crap commission structure you could earn as little as £10 per deal sometimes, the extra money to be had was in selling supaguard etc. something which I personally wasn't a fan of; in spite of this I still earn't about £35k a year every year - even when I was a Sales Manager but thats another story!! I then moved to Mercedes and back to a salesman again, this was a completely different kettle of fish, there was a lot less pressurised selling involved, people generally know what they want and my job was pretty much just structuring a deal; the targets are a lot lower I only had to sell on average 8 cars per month and earn't up to £600 per unit plus additional money again for supaguard etc. I would say my average earning was still around £35-40k though, but the pressure was a lot easier as all of the sales people are treated as adults and not nannied by our sales manager all the time. I still work for Mercedes but as a Business Manager now which is a different job again but I just sell finance and insurance now.
With regards to the comments about being a 'natural salesman' I definately wouldn't put myself in this category, the method I have wored on from day one is to show enthusiasm about the product,(bit difficult when selling a 1.0 Micra auto
) have exceptional product knowledge about all cars not just your own brand, and be honest with people. I think if you follow this you can't really go wrong. I would say if your not enjoying your current job then give it a go.I sold new Audis for 2 1/2 months and it was generally good fun and a good experience but not a sensible way to earn a living - I'm back in banking. Not only are the commision structures very poor in many cases, but the big brother bureaucracy/client systems and consultants with phone scripts would make police targets/pen pushing seem sensible and the sales manager would scupper an unbelievable number of deals. Support staff also needed constant chasing and you had to check every job they were ever supposed to have done and invariably do it yourself...
I think the business managers gig is the one to go for if you can get in, sales people are sadly treated by customers and managers alike as the lowest of the low. If it must be sales from conversations I had I sense you're best off at the very top end (Porsche/Ferrari) or at a pile em high sell em cheap Ford dealership or car supermarket.
I think the business managers gig is the one to go for if you can get in, sales people are sadly treated by customers and managers alike as the lowest of the low. If it must be sales from conversations I had I sense you're best off at the very top end (Porsche/Ferrari) or at a pile em high sell em cheap Ford dealership or car supermarket.
Lone Granger said:
insanojackson said:
I earn 43k a year at min as a cop but i think that i would be good as a salesman, no bullste just a car enthusiast. do you recon i would do well?
from my experience of buying cars i know more than the salesmen. The police is cak at the moment so would wrapping kin and selling cars be worth it?
what rank?!te just a car enthusiast. do you recon i would do well?from my experience of buying cars i know more than the salesmen. The police is cak at the moment so would wrapping kin and selling cars be worth it?
jcelee said:
I sold new Audis for 2 1/2 months and it was generally good fun and a good experience but not a sensible way to earn a living - I'm back in banking. Not only are the commision structures very poor in many cases, but the big brother bureaucracy/client systems and consultants with phone scripts would make police targets/pen pushing seem sensible and the sales manager would scupper an unbelievable number of deals. Support staff also needed constant chasing and you had to check every job they were ever supposed to have done and invariably do it yourself...
I think the business managers gig is the one to go for if you can get in, sales people are sadly treated by customers and managers alike as the lowest of the low. If it must be sales from conversations I had I sense you're best off at the very top end (Porsche/Ferrari) or at a pile em high sell em cheap Ford dealership or car supermarket.
I,m a BM. Not sure if its the one to go for right now. Customers are getting to clever and knowlegable!!!I think the business managers gig is the one to go for if you can get in, sales people are sadly treated by customers and managers alike as the lowest of the low. If it must be sales from conversations I had I sense you're best off at the very top end (Porsche/Ferrari) or at a pile em high sell em cheap Ford dealership or car supermarket.
Mike
FAO - Insanojackon
I'm in exactly the same position as you. A disolusioned and very frustrated cop who loves cars. I believe I could sell cars for a living no problem. I'm sure the work will be hard but also rewarding. Drop me an email at tt500@btopenworld.com, I would love to compare notes. Cheers
I'm in exactly the same position as you. A disolusioned and very frustrated cop who loves cars. I believe I could sell cars for a living no problem. I'm sure the work will be hard but also rewarding. Drop me an email at tt500@btopenworld.com, I would love to compare notes. Cheers
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