Posts Tagged ‘Commissions’
I have been a sales person & sales manager in the Manufactured Home business since I was 18. Now I am 24 and looking to get in the car sales business. I don’t know a lot about cars, but when I started in Manufactured Home I didn’t know anything either. I won lots of awards & trips in the Manu. Home business and I consider myself a pretty good sales person. I sold the homes, secured the financing for the home as well, and helped with any service issues with the home. I was wondering from someone that has been in the car business how hard is it? Is securing financing hard for the loan hard? What are commissions like? What is base salary like? What is the more popular dealer(Ford, Chevy, Dodge, etc) to work for? Is it extremely stressful?
Thanks for any help!
Salespersons are trained to handle buyers. Most of them know how to deal with customers, but you would like to be in the hands of an expert salesperson. As you enter the showroom, go straight to the service department and ask for their best salesperson. Armed with the information, you can ask for that particular salesperson. If he is busy attending to some other customer, wait until he is free. It will be worth the wait, ultimately.
Salespersons can be pushy at times. That is understandable because it is their job to make a sale. With them chasing sales targets, they may even tend to get on your nerves. It is better if you go prepared with the kind of treatment you can expect. That only helps you understand the sales environment in the dealership better. Be firm not to be taken in by their persistence and sales talk.
Be informed that salespersons work on commissions. So, their first job is to size up the buyer. They are on the look out of uneducated and eager buyers, who do not negotiate on the prices. The higher the price they extract from the buyer, higher is their commission. They are quick enough to qualify the buyer and prefer one that makes a quick sale. For that reason, a salesperson will prefer a buyer who is a poor negotiator. Against this backdrop, if you are an educated and smart buyer, you can expect to face a not so enthusiastic salesperson, since your interests clash with that of the salesperson. They are out to sell at the maximum possible price, whereas you are looking to negotiate a deal at the lowest possible price.
All salespersons are trained to focus all their energies to make a deal with a prospect the same day. A deal postponed to the next day, is a potential nightmare for the salesperson. A deal that does not close the same day, will never ever close, according to dealership conviction. They fear that the prospect may go to another dealer and buy from them.
Salespersons are always looking from some kind of commitment from the buyer, even if the deal is postponed. Sit back and appreciate every effort on the part of the salesperson to close the deal with you the same day. However, in your interest, you should stick to your guns, get all possible information and negotiate on the best possible minimum price that you can extract. Once the salesperson agrees on principle to the negotiated price, you can excuse yourself for sometime on some pretext, visit another dealership and try to negotiate for an even lower price. After all, negotiation is the name of the game, and one who is smart, wins.