Discussion
I'm currently throwing job ideas around in my head and car sales is one of them (as well as sales in other fields).
I have done a bit of research but the general feeling on the internet isn't a good one. I know there are salesmen on here so can anyone offer any advice to someone looking at this as a potential career?
Arnold Clark are advertising and I have read allsorts about them! Any advice specific to working for them?
What are day to day tasks, how are you treated etc etc. What are realistic OTE earnings?
I quite fancy the idea of sales to be honest and the potential earnings it can bring...my brother is doing particularly well in it and had a £15k payday for January but that is not an area I would go into
Thanks in advance
I have done a bit of research but the general feeling on the internet isn't a good one. I know there are salesmen on here so can anyone offer any advice to someone looking at this as a potential career?
Arnold Clark are advertising and I have read allsorts about them! Any advice specific to working for them?
What are day to day tasks, how are you treated etc etc. What are realistic OTE earnings?
I quite fancy the idea of sales to be honest and the potential earnings it can bring...my brother is doing particularly well in it and had a £15k payday for January but that is not an area I would go into
Thanks in advance
iacabu said:
I'm currently throwing job ideas around in my head and car sales is one of them (as well as sales in other fields).
I have done a bit of research but the general feeling on the internet isn't a good one. I know there are salesmen on here so can anyone offer any advice to someone looking at this as a potential career?
Arnold Clark are advertising and I have read allsorts about them! Any advice specific to working for them?
What are day to day tasks, how are you treated etc etc. What are realistic OTE earnings?
I quite fancy the idea of sales to be honest and the potential earnings it can bring...my brother is doing particularly well in it and had a £15k payday for January but that is not an area I would go into
Thanks in advance
If you are in a good area, with a good dealer you can make alot of cash, but it's not to be relied on! Car sales are bleak at the moment as no-one has any cash to buy, but then I do know friends who are doing well!I have done a bit of research but the general feeling on the internet isn't a good one. I know there are salesmen on here so can anyone offer any advice to someone looking at this as a potential career?
Arnold Clark are advertising and I have read allsorts about them! Any advice specific to working for them?
What are day to day tasks, how are you treated etc etc. What are realistic OTE earnings?
I quite fancy the idea of sales to be honest and the potential earnings it can bring...my brother is doing particularly well in it and had a £15k payday for January but that is not an area I would go into
Thanks in advance
OTE earnings will vary massively with area, dealer, and the marque you are selling, as well as time of year (march and september are busy with new registrations!) but it's impossible to predict!
Be very selective where you go. I work in car sales and have done for the past 5 months for a well known large retailer.
Day to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
Day to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
Petrolhead_Rich said:
If you are in a good area, with a good dealer you can make alot of cash, but it's not to be relied on!
The problem I have is debt so taking a risk on a career like this is worrying.8potdave said:
Be very selective where you go. I work in car sales and have done for the past 5 months for a well known large retailer.
Day to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
Great reply, thanks. Hopefully some others will post with differing experiences. I still quite fancy the idea but I'm thinking avoid ACDay to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
8potdave said:
Be very selective where you go. I work in car sales and have done for the past 5 months for a well known large retailer.
Day to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
My (short) experience of car sales was exactly this. That was 10yrs ago working for a multi franchise dealership,Day to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
Spotdave summed this all up nicely.
Car sales is not a great profession, in my experience we were treated terribly and your management are usually just good salesman, not managers. This is a problem.
Most places have others working there trained to undermine you and stab you in the back.
Having said that, I had a great laugh, sold nothing and managed to keep my position for 7 months, much to the hilarity of all the entire dealership. Needless to say, I wont be going back to car sales in a rush.
Chris
Car sales is not a great profession, in my experience we were treated terribly and your management are usually just good salesman, not managers. This is a problem.
Most places have others working there trained to undermine you and stab you in the back.
Having said that, I had a great laugh, sold nothing and managed to keep my position for 7 months, much to the hilarity of all the entire dealership. Needless to say, I wont be going back to car sales in a rush.
Chris
I used to sell Mercedes before I started my own used car dealer, I and my ex colleagues made a very good living from it and they continue to do so.
Before that I was at a Fiat dealership selling loads of cars and I don't think I ever made more than £36k despite being there for 5 years and being top salesman.
The weakest salesman at MB would make £35k with his eyes closed, with the top earning around £60k+ some quite a bit more!
Before that I was at a Fiat dealership selling loads of cars and I don't think I ever made more than £36k despite being there for 5 years and being top salesman.
The weakest salesman at MB would make £35k with his eyes closed, with the top earning around £60k+ some quite a bit more!
long hours, expected to work late nights prospecting with no overtime once in a while, low basic salary can be a problem getting a mortgage, work every Saturday and every other Sunday, limited holiday availability due to new plate registrations March and September, average take home in volume dealers £28k £40k+
If you don’t like hearing No allot of the time stay away
If you don’t like hearing No allot of the time stay away
8potdave said:
Be very selective where you go. I work in car sales and have done for the past 5 months for a well known large retailer.
Day to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
I agree with 8potdaveDay to day activities include what is called 'gridding' where a car comes in part exchange or is bought in we have to write the spec of it on a window, on a spec board, price it up, put stickers in the boot etc. On average we have about 5 of these to do a day and when the weather is bad it's a real PITA and strangely seems to take preference over everything else!
Pitch moves, price changes, etc are a common daily task. Again it can be quite time consuming and at first is strangely fun hopping in and out of different cars but it soon becomes tiresome. A lot of dealerships have people to do this aside from the sales team, but ours doesn't.
Delivering / Collecting cars from all over the place is common. Some customers ask for their car to be delivered to their house / place of work for the handover. I quite enjoy this to be honest.
Selling - the main aim of your job but quite often only consuming a small part of the day if any! Picking out people on the pitch to talk to, test drives, appraising their vehicle and eventually closing the deal. This is probably the only part of the job I enjoy in all honesty!
After sales - this starts with the handover, organising admin, bodywork, mechanical issues, valeting is part of the process at our place. Our dealership is massively unorganised so you may find this not to be the case somewhere else! Plate changes, trips to the DVLA / post office to tax cars also occurs very regularly.
Prospecting - This involves calling potential customers attempting to get them into the showroom. We are terrible at it, getting the information on customers is always a complete ballache and therefore is often bypassed.
I work 8:30am - 7pm with a day off in the week and every other Sunday off. We also have an early finish day at 4pm. The pay is crap if I'm honest, but again this is down to our commission structure. I am not the top salesman but usually come 2nd or 3rd out of 9. I am regretting my move and certainly won't be there much longer, but having spoken to other car salesmen in other dealerships this isn't the case so don't be put off. Just do your research, find out what people are earning, what their expectations are and how involved you have to be in all the processes.
I'm in the same position I've worked in the Motor trade for 17 years 11 of that in car sales and to be honest it's good when you are selling the cars but it's all the other stuff that goes with it especially with a large plc and as I have gone through the years in car sales my money has got worse and worse but seem to work longer hours and seeing my family less, personally I think it is good if someone is new into the game but once you have done it so long it slowly grates on you, so thats why I have took the step to go it alone but just be prepared for additional leg work as it's just not selling the cars it's all the other things which put the dampener on things
I was given a job at a well respected used car garage. You literally get treated like a slave. It might have just been this place but managers expecting coffees in their hands first thing in the morning, expected to never take your days off, if you do you are not 'committed' dont hit your target for 2 months threatened with the sack. id never ever go back in the motor trade. Its that job that inspired me to start my own business!
I was once told that if i didn't take the big boss somewhere after work (7pm) in my own time with my own car and fuel, not to come back to work tomorrow. So i didn't.
I was once told that if i didn't take the big boss somewhere after work (7pm) in my own time with my own car and fuel, not to come back to work tomorrow. So i didn't.
The main issue is the 'peaks and troughs'
You can have 3 massive months, everything is going fantastically, then you can have a completely dire quarter and be scraping your belly month to month.
I work with a couple of exceptional salespeople who perform every single month, but they devote their entire lives to the job. In at 7, out at 7, 7 days a week. No holiday etc.
I like to have some kind of balance in my life, so I work when I need to to earn what I want to earn.
You can have 3 massive months, everything is going fantastically, then you can have a completely dire quarter and be scraping your belly month to month.
I work with a couple of exceptional salespeople who perform every single month, but they devote their entire lives to the job. In at 7, out at 7, 7 days a week. No holiday etc.
I like to have some kind of balance in my life, so I work when I need to to earn what I want to earn.
Hi,
Sorry to revive an old thread, but does anyone who's worked in car (or other sales based role) know how difficult it is to get into without sales based experience?
I'm a Project Manager for a construction company, so just wonder how difficult it would be to get into a main dealer role coming from another industry.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Sorry to revive an old thread, but does anyone who's worked in car (or other sales based role) know how difficult it is to get into without sales based experience?
I'm a Project Manager for a construction company, so just wonder how difficult it would be to get into a main dealer role coming from another industry.
Any advice would be appreciated.
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