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Attn car salesmen

Discussion in 'General' started by Funkm05, Apr 11, 2021.

  1. motion

    motion Nihilistic Member

    Open an independent moto shop. Consign/flip bikes. Do general maintenance. All the bike shops I know are slammed. People don't don't know how to work on stuff any more.
     
    sill'r B sill'd, jksoft and BigBird like this.
  2. inpayne

    inpayne Well-Known Member

    I was in car sales for 3 years. A lot of hours, a lot of bs. I was top guy almost the whole time. Made low 6 figures. It was easy to sell cars. Just know your shit. So many of these car sales people didn’t know anything about cars period. I didn’t have to lie cheat or be a scumbag to be successful. You spend a lot of time sitting around which sucks. I was there like 60-70 hours a week. Not easy with a family. A big Problem was they hired anyone that could fog a mirror that you would have to compete against. My up/sell ratio was something like 30% theirs were 3%. Sales managers always bitching about how i did things instead of learning from someone that dominated. Most of the sales managers hardly sold cars for long. No more than a year for sure. They could have fired or simply never hired a lot of these guys and let me take most of the clients and we all would have made more money. It was so cheap to have these warm bodies sitting around taking random ups they never seen it as losing money even though they would run off customers by being stupid rude or both.

    I sold German cars including porsche. Porsche training was awesome.

    I don’t miss it. Now I’m in finance make more money and work half as much.
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2021
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  3. bigtime

    bigtime Well-Known Member

    yes. We are a blend of ag and manufacturing. We can’t find skilled or unskilled labor. No one is having any fun. I have been here long enough to remember that it used to be fun. In your opinion, is it environment, regs, or the push to do more with less people that has everyone on edge. People are stressed professionally and personally.
     
    BigBird likes this.
  4. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    Wow what kind of finance job? My kid is already making more than me but he is also working 70-90 hour weeks, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind working less for more coin.
     
    BigBird likes this.
  5. Lee#144

    Lee#144 Track Newbie

    Hey John are you still here in SA? I was reminiscing about the ol breakfast club crew ripping up PR37 this past weekend. I’m trying to get the band back together
     
  6. Funkm05

    Funkm05 Dork

    I think it’s more societal than anything. Certainly regs have an impact, but I think the push to do more with less is a necessity since there are no people out there to find, but business/customer demands aren’t falling in line with capacity constraints. But regardless, the outcome is the same ... people are stressed. My $.02.
     
    bigtime likes this.
  7. inpayne

    inpayne Well-Known Member

    I’m a financial consultant at A really big firm. The nice thing is it’s an independent franchise so no corporate quotas or any of that bs. I kind of fell into it. I was going to move to Houston to sell porsches but applied at Scottrade on a whim. Ended up getting the job and getting my licenses and turned out I was really good at it. Great company. Then got bought out by td, which sucked ass to work for. Seriously fuck them. So I walked across the street and got a job st a better place. Nice thing is I get a lot of flexibility to do my side job which is corporate aviation. The downside is it’s deathly boring and you sit in an office all day and the compliance is an absolute nightmare. If I didn’t fly I’m not sure I could handle the monotony of it. Don’t get me wrong it’s a killer job that most people would kill for. I’m just bored. Luckily I’ve worked everything from factory’s to farm to changing oil when I was younger so I know I got it good.

    someday when I have enough hours I may make the move to aviation full time. But I’ll probably have to take a pretty good paycut at first, there is time away from family etc. but damn I love flying.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2021
    Boman Forklift, BigBird and 418 like this.
  8. 418

    418 Expert #59


    I guess you have a degree in finance and you also have a CPL?

    Damn, where do you find the time? For some reason I wanna say you're not that old.
     
  9. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Sales isn't the profit in a dealership, that is service and parts...
     
  10. bored&stroked

    bored&stroked Disclaimer: Can't spell

    They don't pay me, the owner does. You can sell cars without being a douchey sleaze, but 99% of salesmen are. Commission jobs bring out the greed in everyone.
     
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  11. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    Actually you are probably right, but I bet used car sales is a much better profit center vs new and at some dealerships is close to or more profitable versus service. In software, when I was doing it, sales was the biggest money maker.
    I get they don’t pay you, but without them the owner won’t have any money to pay you. This is assuming you work at a higher end car sales place that doesn’t do much in service.

    You are right some salespeople are sleezy and I hate them too.
     
  12. GarrettRick

    GarrettRick Well-Known Member


    My biggest profit cars were from
    Pre owned - get something special and you own the market .
    As I used to say “find another one “
     
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  13. GarrettRick

    GarrettRick Well-Known Member

    Also , profit is not a 4 letter word. If you want something bad enough you’ll pay to get it , some days the customer wins some days the sales guy wins . Nothing wrong or unethical about working for big gross .
     
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  14. USracer900

    USracer900 Well-Known Member

    My car sales story: When I was in college (22 years ago), during the summer with tons of time on our hands my best friend took a job selling cars at a local Lincoln/Mercury dealership. His first month he got "salesman of the month" and made $7,000. So he quit, he had all the money he needed for the rest of the summer. I couldn't pass up that easy money up so applied and started immediately. Saw some of the shadiest "sales techniques" in the industry and learned to hate the "4 Square" song and dance. Our general manager was this huge ass kisser to a customer's face then would screw them left and right.

    One story I remember vividly is I sold this old women a used 1998 Towncar that was supposed to have heated seats. It was written on the advertisement on the window and that's the only option she cared about. She traded in her old Towncar on the deal also. Well, next day she's mad as hell as her car didn't have heated seats like advertised and she was coming back in to get her old car back. (they called these customers "gators") I tell my general manager the situation and he instructs me to take her trade-in and park it in the very back of the parking lot, behind the bodyshop, he would handle everything else. Well, this old lady comes peeling tires into the parking lot almost on 2 wheels Dukes of Hazzard style. He then bold face lied to her and told her, her car had already been taken to auction and sold but we could definitely find her a Towncar with heated seats. Of course we did, and it was like $4,000 more than the car she had picked out. I still remember that guys name and saw him last year in a different dealership. Evidently these guys do a few years in a dealership then make the rounds. Still probably the biggest scumbag I've ever met. Btw, my first month I got runner up on salesman of the month and made $5,000. My second month I made $300 and quit. The hours were hell and allowed very little time to chase girls and drink beer.
     
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  15. Funkm05

    Funkm05 Dork

    Gotta admit fellas, I can’t think of a single other topic that has been this seemingly unified in a response from the bbs crew. :crackup:
     
  16. rd49

    rd49 Well-Known Member

    So you’re saying there still a chance you will go ahead and do it then? :D
     
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  17. motoracer1100

    motoracer1100 Well-Known Member

    Selling cars is so easy ... a Monkey Looking Dude could do it . :crackup::D
     
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  18. Boman Forklift

    Boman Forklift Well-Known Member

    I’ve actually been thinking about getting my wholesale license and buying/selling some cars on the side. My commercial building is automotive based and my LLC has automotive in the name, so I could somewhat easily get a valid license. Just buy going to a class and giving the state some money plus evidently i have to get a bond, and chou i haven’t researched it yet.
     
  19. Funkm05

    Funkm05 Dork

    I got it this time. :crackup:
     
    motoracer1100 likes this.
  20. inpayne

    inpayne Well-Known Member

    i have a degree in journalism actually Lol

    but yeah I have a multi/single cpl/Cfi. Working on cfii right now and have about 900 hours. Really burning the candle from both ends to get there. I got all my ratings before work 5-6am which is when I instruct now as well.

    I’m 30.
     
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