Stories from the Sales Frontlines

carhag2000 · October 2007

This is a great story! Very illustrative of the amount of (dis) respect our profession garners. I recently had a family ( Father Mother 24 yrold daughter and son in law) come rolling in about 45 minutes to closing time. First words out of dads mouth were. We willbuy this CRV if you dont steal from us too bad you F*&^6&* thief. In as loud a voice as I could muster I said. get back in the car or I will throw you out. I am too old to take harassment and verbal abuse. All of a sudden it was like the sun came out. Momma started laughing the daughter looked relieved and even dad had to grin. He said now that we know each other I would like to see this car.
45 minutes later the daughter drove away in her new CRV.

It was a nice deal for the dealership also.

joel0622 · October 2007

Most of the time we don't "technically" ask for a commitment. We do assumed selling. We assume that every customer is a sale until they tell you different, and if you listen long enough they will tell you how they want to buy a car because you are continually asking trial closing question.

We try our best not to talk about price or programs until you have selected a car, test drove it and are seated at a sales person desks. How can you justify the price on a product you have not presented yet?

There are certain times when we will ask "Mr Customer, if I am able to get price and finance package put together that meets with your approval will take delivery of the car today"

There are exceptions to everything and there are still some folks out there who truly still want to fender trade and will test drive or come in the building till you get close to there price.

Every sale is different and every customer needs to be handled different. A successfully sales person is one who can figure out how to handle each one.

greanpea68 · October 2007

Every sale is different and every customer needs to be handled different. A successfully sales person is one who can figure out how to handle each one.

You couldn't be more right everyone is different.

As for myself I never talk about incentives when I am showing a car. Even if they ask I'll say " You know incentives change every week and they are different on all on cars. So instead of me quoting the wrong incentive I'll be happy tho get you that information when we gat back inside. Everyone just moves on. Lets face it if they don't like how it drives than price doesn't mean anything.

jipster · October 2007

I sure would like to get ahold of whoever the first caveman was to discount a wheel.

While comparing salesmen to early neanderthals may be appropriate, dinosaurs proceeded cavemen on earth by millions of years. Surprised snake didn't correct you on this first.

jmonroe · October 2007

...then one day some guy at the wheel dealership needed one more wheel to get his 10 wheel bonus and he discounted...

Then with the evolution of man and time, these "wheel salesman" became "car salesman". That's when a whole new meaning was given to: "how can I make my bonus this month so I can still love my job".

I hope this isn't a work Saturday for you, so you can cut the grass, rake some leaves and just do anything else you want to do. LIKE I HAVE TO DO RIGHT NOW !!! It's great being off on Saturdays ain't it.

jmonroe

joel0622 · October 2007

Not according to some old advertising slicks I found.

Here is a pic from the first Hyundai

Here is Fords first Dual Rear Wheel

Here is a pic from the first Haggle

And the first test drive

Have a great morning, I have a few deliveries to take care of

jipster · October 2007

Here is a pic from the first Hyundai

Evolution hasn't been very kind to Hyundai. They still pretty much ride like you're driving on square wheels. :P

cotmc · October 2007

Roadburner: Thanks for the additional info on BMW brakes.

For CPO cars, the dealers are supposed to replace the pads if they are below 5mm. For the X3 we just purchased, apparently they measured exactly at 5mm (on the rear). The dealer decided to replace these pads, but based on your info, they must have also determined the rotors were plenty thick to last the full life of the second set of pads. With only 26.5K miles on that X3, I can see their argument. Nevertheless, I will still have my local dealer inspect the rotors prior to its 4th birthday.

Hope you both continue to enjoy your X3.

jmonroe · October 2007

Here is a pic from the first Hyundai

Evolution hasn't been very kind to Hyundai. They still pretty much ride like you're driving on square wheels. :P

So...this is what I find when I return from some yard work on a great autumn afternoon.

joel, while I'm replying to jipster's post, don't think for a minute I don't know who put him up to this!

Now, both of you are on my S-List. :mad:

jmonroe

joel0622 · October 2007

I posted that with you in mind my friend.

jescue · October 2007

I think they finally got the wheels round. They still make them out of wood, though. :P

dino001 · October 2007

Yes and no. They do factor it into the price but the price is lower than the retail charged by the dealer. It is lower on many levels: first parts come at cost of the manufacturer and the markup on them factored in the car's price is surely lower than the markup that would have been charged at retail (say at mile 70 thousand). I wouldn't be surprised if dealers made very little money on parts they put into the "free" maintenance vehicles. I bet the labor rates that BMW pays to dealers are also lower than those paid by the retail customer.

So - yes it is in the price, but I would not be surprised if it was discounted by as much as 50% or even more.

jmonroe · October 2007

I bet the labor rates that BMW pays to dealers are also lower than those paid by the retail customer.

Good point 'dino'.

You can bet that the manufacture, BMW or Range Rover isn't being charged $1700 for a brake job. ! :surprise:

jmonroe

joel0622 · October 2007

Want to here something crazy? Mr Monroe, you could come in to our service department and get a brake job and oil change cheaper then our Used Car Department can.

greanpea68 · October 2007

Want to here something crazy? Mr Monroe, you could come in to our service department and get a brake job and oil change cheaper then our Used Car Department can.

That is so true!!! About a year ago I go online and look at our part specials. Part special is 15% off list. That is the same discount I get when I go out to parts. Some employee discount Huh?

teresa8 · October 2007

what is the sales tax ona vehicle based on, and how would i know how much the sales tax would be?

tidester · October 2007

Basically, you multiply your region's sales tax rate by the selling price of the vehicle and that's what you pay. Please post your question in the Vehicle Sales Tax Questions discussion for further details.

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

british_rover · October 2007

You are right because Land Rover doesn't include brakes in their pre-paid maintenance program. :P

I am sure the manufacture is charged the warranty labor rate for pre-paid maintenance which is a few dollars less an hour then the customer pay rate.

metmdx · October 2007

I figured you had picked up the van already.

Hey Mack, that's why it's gonna be called an "epic"....
Nothing is this household gets done quickly; I've seen things happen faster in government agencies :sick:

Going to dealer tomorrow to do paperwork and probably pick up either Wed or Thurs.....(I think I can, I think I can....)

Thanks for the info...

later, metmdx

greanpea68 · October 2007

The Pats are now 6-0. They are pacing to go 16-0. Ny the way does anyone have any popcorn left to share? :P

british_rover · October 2007

Dallas had so many penalties last night I thought I was watching an old Raiders game. :mad:

They had over a 100 yards of penalties. :surprise:

Would have been a completely different game otherwise.

greanpea68 · October 2007

Would have been a completely different game otherwise.

I understand they had a lot of penalties. So lets say they they would have been a 100 yards ahead so we'll give them another touchdown for that. In fact i'll give them 2 more touchdowns. Final score of the game with the adjustment is 48 Pats 41 Dallas..... Pats win

british_rover · October 2007

They had several penalties that gave new england first downs on third down situations.

At least three that I remember. They had a couple of penalties that cost them third down conversions and one that cost them a fourth down conversion.

There was that one pass interference penalty in the third quarter I think against dallas that netted New England a 30 something yard gain setting them up for an easy touchdown. That penalty was total BS too since the Dallas player was standing still and the new england player ran into him after he had already staked out that bit of field.

Just way too many penalties. There were a couple of penalties called that I had never even heard of before.

greanpea68 · October 2007

That penalty was total BS too since the Dallas player was standing still and the new england player ran into him after he had already staked out that bit of field.

Yeah i remeber that. But who i am to fight it. The Pats don't always get gifts

joel0622 · October 2007

The Patriots killed the cowboys yesterday. The only reason they scored only 48 points is because thats all they needed.

They are a cocky bunch to. Where most teams would have been taking a knee the last 1:30 they were down there pounding the ball into the end zone scoring a TD with 10 seconds left. That stuff will come back to haunt them one day. Ask the Rams, after the 2000 season when they were doing on side kicks when they were up by 20. Now people run them every chance they get, which is often now days

british_rover · October 2007

Yeah there were several BS calls but that is what happens when you get a ton of legitimate penalties during a game. All those real penalties will sometimes make the refs see bogus penalties that aren't really there.

Oh and to top it all off I just had some fool offer me 11,000 dollars under asking price for a 2006 Certified Pre-Owned Supercharged Range Rover.

We are asking 69,900 for it, which happens to be TMV for a Certified Unit, and he offers me 58,000. :confuse:

mako1a · October 2007

Sports are easier to discuss than sales because it's not the writer playing the game.
When I want stats I go to the NFL site. But that's just me.
I come here so I can hear one more time that a salesperson said "Next". Only this time there was no more "Next" person in line. I guess the Frontlines have been closed due to lack of interest. Customers got tired of being told their reasonable offer was lacking desired profits.
Oh well...you'll have that.
Perhaps the dealerships will let us know when they're ready to sell for real by placing real ads with real prices on every car and not just a hook price and the rest up for negotiation. Negotiations are so last century. If you really want to sell a car, just price every car for real and the customer will tell you if it is worth buying. Or you can hook a few more guppies and endure the long waits between customers. Time to get real!

lrguy44 · October 2007

Negotiations are so last century

If only the customers would believe that. When we put a Sale price on a car, that is a bottom line sale price. Up front we tell the customer that that is the best price. Guess who wants to spend hours trying to negotiate. When asked in a negotiation for my best price, I provide that. That is where the customer's negotiation begins.

Bottom line, don't blame current practices all on dealers, and certainly not on all dealers.

joel0622 · October 2007

Dang, you sound like my owner cracking the whip after a 20 car Saturday. There are close to 1000 pages of stories and then people dogging us for them, can't we have a little break once in awhile?

british_rover · October 2007

Hey Cliff our land Rover auditor is here right now.

I can't believe they are actually making us take them on a on road and off road demo drive now. What a waste of time.

greanpea68 · October 2007

Sports are easier to discuss than sales because it's not the writer playing the game.
When I want stats I go to the NFL site. But that's just me.

I don't know if anyone else thinks this way but a lot of times I'll be dealing with a customer and I don't want to share their stories here incase they put two and two together.

For instance I'll take a chance here

I just had a guy come in looking for a Titan. He explained which one he wanted and I get the stock number from the desk and go to key track. Key track tells me that clean up has the truck. I find the customer tell him that it was sold. now he blows up on me because he was here two days ago. I say hey wait a minute. Are looking for a color or price. He says both and I say as I am chasing him to his car how do you know I can't do both for you. His reply was well the one I wanted is sold I'm not playing games here. The next dealer lists that they have two online. SO what ever price you give me I'll just go buy it there. OK sir have a nice day.

The other stories about if I made a $6000 or $8000 deal front and back most non-biz people don't want to hear that. That would be a front and back deal. Does that happen all the time no. But used cars are nice to sell.

The other thing is when you are talking sports, food, alcohol, movies, vacations, family times. Those are what the guys are on the fornt lines are talking about.

Now here is another twist. If I talk about we did a negative $1500 deal people not in the biz will say " ahh come on you guys always make money who are you kidding" Alright thanks for reading my rant and rave.

I feel better. I think the last guy got to me.

Have a great day.

mikefm58 · October 2007

Yeah that's a good way to put it, even up the penalties and we got a pretty close game. Our Boys just had too many penalties in key situations, but that's a sign of a team trying to get to the next level with the Pats. We'll get there.

lrguy44 · October 2007

We just had one the end of last quarter. It was a guy we have become friends with over the last few years (he knows an old high school coach of mine from Chicago) and he was tougher than ever and yes - had to do the track, road test and all. It took almost an hour with the sales guide.

british_rover · October 2007

Exactly. Dallas was the only team to take the lead in the second half against the patriots.

Kirstie_H · October 2007

Just for fun...
NFL Football topic

mako1a · October 2007

Well, we were back on topic for a few posts anyway. I just threw the rant out there because I got a flyer in the newspaper and it was so tired. 2WD single cab column shift for $15k then the X Cab 4WD with $2k off. Off What? $2k off $50k? Sorry, not going to call or go in just to hear the malarkey. I, like many others here have...Been There, Done That. If you don't want anyone to know the price, keep sending out those old time flyers.

Kirstie_H · October 2007

Not a big deal. Just figured a lot of people didn't realize we've got an NFL discussion going already.

madmanmoo · October 2007

Greenpea talked a little about how his month was going. I'm going to share real quick. Last month was my worst in 4 years. Horrible, I took a week off for vacation and came back ready to sell. Noone seemed to be interested.

This month I have 27 logged ups with 12 cars burning gas. I have 3 more pending. The sales game can be ridiculous with highs and lows, but this month should be a best ever.

I sold 2 cars on Saturday. They were polar opposites as far as customers go. My first customer has bought 2 cars from me before. She's a salesman's dream because you can actually SELL to her. You tell her things about a vehicle and apply them to her life.... she gets excited and wants to buy a car! I worked up a deal for her and she's now enjoying a new Tech package Altima and I'm enjoying a nice paycheck. When she ran her battery into the ground the same day, I drove 30 minutes to jump her off. Yup, that's what you pay for sometimes.

My second customer no showed for two of his appointments over the last couple of days and showed up 3 hours late for his Saturday appointment. When he started complaining about the wait for the finance department, I gave him an earful. You, sir, kept me waiting for 3 hours today (which ended up being a good thing because I sold my previous customer from service) and you can wait a little bit to get your final paperwork done. Some people have no respect.

Show up for your appointments or call and say you're not going to make it or aren't interested anymore. Really simple.

Anyhow, good and bad, but this month appears to be a good one.

-Moo

michaellno · October 2007

For you salesman .. how do you budget your finances (mortgage, etc.) when you have no idea how much money you are going to make each month?

I've never been on a commissioned sales plan, so I truly don't understand this ... I get the "harder you work, the more you make" mentality, but sometimes things are beyond your control.

I'm looking for general explanations; certainly don't want to stick my nose in where it doesn't belong.

british_rover · October 2007

You are on fire.

Want to lend me a little bit of that?

Ok so back to our audit. They have added so much junk to this now that it takes a whole day to do. In the past this was a 45-90 minute process for the sales department plus another 45 minutes for service.

She has been here for about four hours now and they still aren't done. It just makes it worse that the grassroots meeting is today so we have people missing at that. You would think they would set up a quarterly audit not to fall on the same day as a nationwide Land Rover Dealer meeting.

madmanmoo · October 2007

I know how much money on average I make each year. I base my car payments, mortgage and other bills on that idea. I have a liquid savings account that is padded enough to get me through 2 horrible months. That's how I get by, but the horrible months are very rare.

That's one salesman's take. And it really is true, if you're not making money, then you need to meet more people. This is strictly a numbers game. Even terrible salespeople get lucky and sell cars.

-Moo

joel0622 · October 2007

You make sure your wife has a good job

lrguy44 · October 2007

how do you budget your finances

I keep a lot of money in my checking account, my wife works and I have a military pension. Commission sales can be and has been extremely rewarding - more so than a salary job - but you need to put away for the tough months.

jipster · October 2007

Oxmoor Toyota will be building a 7,500 square foot facility, believing it can retail 1,000 vehicles a month. I guess that's pretty big?

The future GM says they will be doubling their work force, i.e technicians, service writers, sales professionals, managers, and give locals an opportunity to earn six figure incomes.

I could use a couple extra bucks, thinking of applying for a part time GM or SM position. Any of you guys in the biz looking for a change of scenery, give me a holler.

joel0622 · October 2007

Oxmoor Toyota will be building a 7,500 square foot facility, believing it can retail 1,000 vehicles a month. I guess that's pretty big?

Our service department is 36,000 square foot and it is not considered big. That 7500 must not include the service facility.

Think about how many SF your house is in relation to 7500 SF. If you are like Mr Monroe then it is about the same

kyfdx · October 2007

I'm guessing it is 75,000 sq.feet..

jipster · October 2007

hmmm, maybe a misprint? Don't see how you can be the biggest with that kind of square footage. The words "big" and "giant" were used frequently in the column... five "important" guys with shovels in the newspaper pic. :confuse:

chikoo · October 2007

With all due respect, it sounds like this car has had a HARD driver! It takes a LOT of heat to warp a rotor.

Or just bad timing such as getting into a car wash right after coming off the exit of I-95, braking to a stop from 75-0 in 120 feet.

chikoo · October 2007

Most of the time we don't "technically" ask for a commitment. We do assumed selling. We assume that every customer is a sale until they tell you different, and if you listen long enough they will tell you how they want to buy a car because you are continually asking trial closing question.

i love this guy......we think alike so much!

greanpea68 · October 2007

This month I have 27 logged ups with 12 cars burning gas. I have 3 more pending. The sales game can be ridiculous with highs and lows, but this month should be a best ever.

Nice job Moo!!! Your at 50% closing ratio

This is a crazy business!?

Altima tech pkg: sounds like a sticker deal there.

Moo,

Have you sold any rogue's? all we getting are Sl premium pkg's. We have sold 4 but i haven's been on of the guys who sold one yet. Of course all of them were at sticker!

Any way keep up the good work. You are on pace to 30 plus cars this month.

Moo,

One more question. Are you guys doing the tent event this month also?

GP

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