Whats Being A Car Salesman Like?

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need some insight on being a car salesman. Im a college student (23 years old) still got 2 years left at a 4 year school. I have an on-site interview for carmax tomorrow and was wondering if any NT'ers are car salesman and can list pros and cons of being one. Im already aware that pay is like 100% commission; would it be a good job for a college student? :nerd:
 
Yes if you like sales and have enough money to sustain yourself even if commission is really low for a couple months. I have a few friends in the business and when business is good then they bring in big checks. I seen a check on my friends IG for 9000. But that's just one month out of 12. I'm sure his pay fluctuates with the economy and how hard he works.
 
Been thinking about this too. Is any experience needed/necessary or is confidence and charisma all it takes? I'm thinking it's the latter :lol:
 
i sold cars at a chrysler/jeep dealership a few years ago. if you love money and have no conscience, then it's the perfect job. i once made 3200 in an hour from selling a car and have also went weeks without selling a car. i forgot what the exact term was, but basically you get paid either minimum wage or your commission for the pay period (whichever is greater). those "new" cars are usually abused by salesmen before they're sold. i went offroading in a jeep on a lunch run and came back and just told the porters to wash it. other salesmen take suv's and vans out to meet up with prostitutes. if you're new, be prepared for hazing from the entire sales team
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Cell phone and mattress sales >>>>>>>>>...

You gotta have tons of factors that are out of your control go in your favor to be a dope car dealer.
 
Yes if you like sales and have enough money to sustain yourself even if commission is really low for a couple months. I have a few friends in the business and when business is good then they bring in big checks. I seen a check on my friends IG for 9000. But that's just one month out of 12. I'm sure his pay fluctuates with the economy and how hard he works.
damb looks like i gotta score this job then :lol: well currently I'm still staying with my folks and all I worry about is my own food phone bill and stuff like that. I guess it's ideal for me currently if I got the job. Just wondering though, how would this job look for someone still in school? Would I still have time to focus on school also?
 
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 Just wondering though, how would this job look for someone still in school? Would I still have time to focus on school also?
depends on the managers at the dealership. i was 19 and still in college, so they let me leave for a few hours for class in the middle of the day, but i had to come back to finish the night (i was required to work from 9am-9pm). not all dealerships will be as understanding so you just have to talk to them. full time school + 60 hours of work every week did not end well for me
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depends on the managers at the dealership. i was 19 and still in college, so they let me leave for a few hours for class in the middle of the day, but i had to come back to finish the night (i was required to work from 9am-9pm). not all dealerships will be as understanding so you just have to talk to them. full time school + 60 hours of work every week did not end well for me :lol:
dang. well i asked how it works on the phone interview and told them my situation. it is for a part-time sales position though but im just not quite sure how the schedule would actually be if i was hired. I told them I was pretty flexible though. did you enjoy your job?
 
i loved the money, but hated the job. i worked in a low income area, so i was ripping off single mothers and burying people in debt who had terrible credit. the 3200 i made in an hour was at the expense of a single mother with 2 kids working 2 jobs trying to support a family. we lied to her to put her into a car she couldn't afford. she also came in off some fake sales promotion that the dealership put together to attract more potential customers

being in college with no weekends off (peak times to buy a car) sucked. on my days off, everyone i knew was either working or in school so my social life died off. the dealership did so much shady stuff like doctoring pay stubs, lying to customers, etc. i did cop a lot of my grails in a short period of time tho so that was dope
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carmax is unlike traditional dealerships though. i've shopped at carmax and have seen how they work. definitely a better experience than where i've worked
 
i loved the money, but hated the job. i worked in a low income area, so i was ripping off single mothers and burying people in debt who had terrible credit. the 3200 i made in an hour was at the expense of a single mother with 2 kids working 2 jobs trying to support a family. we lied to her to put her into a car she couldn't afford. she also came in off some fake sales promotion that the dealership put together to attract more potential customers

being in college with no weekends off (peak times to buy a car) sucked. on my days off, everyone i knew was either working or in school so my social life died off. the dealership did so much shady stuff like doctoring pay stubs, lying to customers, etc. i did cop a lot of my grails in a short period of time tho so that was dope :lol:

carmax is unlike traditional dealerships though. i've shopped at carmax and have seen how they work. definitely a better experience than where i've worked
dang fam, :lol: i try to believe that there are some good guy car salesmen out there. eh sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty :rolleyes :smokin i'm kinda worried about losing a social life but not too worried. on my free time all i do is hang with my girl and play ball but right now i'll be more than happy to take any job that comes my way. i guess i'll just try to make a good impression tomorrow and see what happens. last question though, i'm supposed to go through a simulation car sales tomorrow during the interview. ive chosen the toyota camry. how would i actually initiate a sales pitch. i know first of all i'm supposed to get to know the customer and find out their needs but what would be a good route for making a sale? and here's the pdf form that i'm supposed to take a look at and prepare for tomorrow http://files.carmax.com/mykmxhr/AIMS/candidate_prep_form.pdf
 
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I worked at a dealership for a month, It's cutthroat and lowkey grimey. We were encouraged to lie to customers regarding the price of additional accessories in order to put money in our/the dealerships pockets. The best of the best probably have no soul.
 
Watch the fresh prince episode where Will becomes a car salesman , it should shed some light on your situation
 
I worked at a dealership for a month, It's cutthroat and lowkey grimey. We were encouraged to lie to customers regarding the price of additional accessories in order to put money in our/the dealerships pockets. The best of the best probably have no soul.
the white people will trust you more if you let that line up get jacked up...

i know i'm lame for still bringing it up... but i still laugh about it to this day...

:lol:

just joshin..
 
dang fam,
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i try to believe that there are some good guy car salesmen out there. eh sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty
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i'm kinda worried about losing a social life but not too worried. on my free time all i do is hang with my girl and play ball but right now i'll be more than happy to take any job that comes my way. i guess i'll just try to make a good impression tomorrow and see what happens. last question though, i'm supposed to go through a simulation car sales tomorrow during the interview. ive chosen the toyota camry. how would i actually initiate a sales pitch. i know first of all i'm supposed to get to know the customer and find out their needs but what would be a good route for making a sale? and here's the pdf form that i'm supposed to take a look at and prepare for tomorrow http://files.carmax.com/mykmxhr/AIMS/candidate_prep_form.pdf
there's def good sales people out there, but it comes down to $$$. the culture of a traditional dealership is not built from ethics. if you want to see how dealerships are run, go check out the movie "Suckers". i watched it after i sold cars, and it's pretty spot on

like you said, depends on your customer. best thing to do is to ask questions about what they're looking for and find a way to relate to them.

if it's a mom/dad with kids:

- check out this feature that secures your carseat, blah blah blah bs

- passenger window lock so your kids can't mess with it. you know, a lot of kids actually get hurt when they're waving to their friends out the window and the window rolls up because they accidentally press the window up button with their other arm, blah blah blah

- this car was rated x stars on the latest safety test. you won't find a car in its class like it

- there's enough room in the trunk for all of your kids crap and look, it even has hooks for your groceries so they don't roll around! (lmao that actually impressed a lot of people for whatever reason)

- great resell value and practical

tell some bs story like: oh my sister just had her 2nd kid and her scion wasn't gonna work for her anymore. she wanted something bigger, but still with the same type of reliability, etc. we went around and test drove a few cars, and the camry was the best fit for what she was looking for

if it's a college kid:

- great gas mileage = save more money for
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- check out the stock sound system. it really bumps with the right eq settings

- aux input for iphone/ipod = maybe the most important feature to them lol

- aftermarket parts are cheap so you can customize it any way you want (rims, spoiler, etc)

- one of the most reliable cars ever. you can take on roadtrips to meet girls off facebook, blah blah blah

- payments are cheap, so once you pay this off you can build your credit and go cop an m3 and post on NT

you just have to read your customer and make sure you know at least 5 things to sell each type of person on. if they ask you technical questions, just say "hey, i'm still new here. i'm not sure of the answer, but let me find out for you." the more technical you get, the more intimidated the customer gets. if they think you don't know ****, then they're less threatened and more likely to do a deal. even after being there for a year, i still used the "i'm still new here" bs and it always worked
 
Vladimir knows his stuff, i work at BMW ( not sales but im real cool with some sales people ) and a lot of stuff he saying is true. Though BMW customers are different than what he was catering to and with a lot more money, concept is still the same. I will say that if you dont know technical stuff as a salesman where i work, customer will thing you dont know what the **** you doing and leave. But yea a lot of these cats making 100K plus.
 
Is it hard to get an interview for a car dealership? I'm wondering if they will take me serious, I am only 22, do they hire many young guys?
 
Is it hard to get an interview for a car dealership? I'm wondering if they will take me serious, I am only 22, do they hire many young guys?

they might hire you as an internet sales assistant, basically following the internet sales guys around, running thier errands, delivering cars, and learning from them until they feel you are ready to go on the floor by yourself.
I was offered to become a salesperson at BMW SF where i work at, sales manager likes my confidence and how i can talk to people, but i turned it down, i dont know if i can be about that 100% commission life...for now, may change my mind later but i wouldnt want to make it a career. Im 21 btw
 
Is it hard to get an interview for a car dealership? I'm wondering if they will take me serious, I am only 22, do they hire many young guys?
just apply and give it a shot. i applied for honda before and they called when i was only 19-20 but once i told them i was in school still they told me to come back in the future. i applied for carmax because it was listed as a part time position and got a call back within 48 hours. i'm only 23. it doesn't seem that hard.
 
I work in the Service department of a dealership and I know a few of the salesmen. They are ruthless and grimy. If you think of the typical salesman as a horrible person, you've got yourself a salesman.

I remember having just worked there for a few days and I was just checking out the cars. This one guy came up to me and said "I could put you in this car right now! :D

As soon as I told him that I work here, he gave me the :smh: and left.

It's all commission based but where I work at they get 20% of whatever they sold. I think the worst part of it is that they have to shovel out the cars during winter. We had a pretty bad winter and there they were. All the salesman shoveling snow to form a path and shoveling out the cars.
 
Being a car salesman at Carmax is much easier as to being one at a certain dealership that sells mostly of a certain brand (Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, etc).

Carmax sells all makes and models, which makes easier since they have a larger amount of people that would go there since they could find almost anything they want.

I think working there your checks will be quite nice, if you are a good salesmen, of course.

It does come with a lot of stress, I worked at Honda previously and I can tell you the salesmen age horribly, by the stress they have...every day you go into work praying you sell at least 1 car.

If you're a great liar, you'll do great.

Good luck!
 
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Being a car salesman at Carmax is much easier as to being one at a certain dealership that sells mostly of a certain brand (Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, etc).

Carmax sells all makes and models, which makes easier since they have a larger amount of people that would go there since they could find almost anything they want.

I think working there your checks will be quite nice, if you are a good salesmen, of course.

It does come with a lot of stress, I worked at Honda previously and I can tell you the salesmen age horribly, by the stress they have...every day you go into work praying you sell at least 1 car.

If you're a great liar, you'll do great.

Good luck!
Thanks and good lookn out. Eh I hope I don't have that steve francis age effect if i get hired..:rolleyes
 
Only problem I have is if its 100% commission, I mean I don't have a REAL problem since I'm a broke college kid and I'm used to being broke :lol: but say I don't sell a car for a whole month? That means no money for that month? I heard from a friend that works at toyota telling me he still gets paid minimum wage if he doesn't sell for a couple weeks.
 
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I am a Brand Specialist for a smart car dealer here in Indiana, which is a subsidiary/sep. entity of an Authorized Mercedes Benz dealer. In other words, I work for the smart car segment but my checks are signed by the Benz Dealer.

I've interned for the company for a little over a year and a half (currently 21) and I like it a lot! Our dealership is different from most dealers though. I earn a pretty good hourly age and receive no commission on smart cars but 3% of any CPO or New Benz I sell. It's pretty dope but idk about making it a career. I sometimes don't like dealing with customers man, they can be complete ******** or weirdos but as long as you remain professional and practice patience, you'll be alright. I'd much rather work for corporate and behind the scenes business **** for Mercedes than being a salesman basically.

I can't really speak upon the American car dealers (Chevy, Dodge, Ford) but I hear its dog-eat-dog like a MF. Most of the time, these regular dealers have a high turnover rate and for obvious reasons. I'm very blessed to work for a company that treats me fairly like the others. When you're interviewing for CarMax, these are the questions I would ask just based on my experiences:
  • How many days do I work a week? (Stupid as it sounds, some managers want their salesman to work Monday-Saturday)
  • What is my commission rate? And how often do employees receive their commission checks?
  • How long have the current employees been onboard?
That's all I can think of right now. Hopefully I am a help my ninja
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