Confessions of a Car Salesman

Edmunds.com Full Story

Part 1: Going Undercover
By Edmunds.com Editors 07-14-2003

I had driven by the dealership a hundred times and never stopped. As I passed I would look over at the row of salesmen standing in front of the showroom windows, white shirts gleaming in the sun. This phalanx of salesmen looked so predatory it always made me think, "Who would ever stop there?"

But today, I knew I would be the one stopping there.

I turned my ancient Dodge Conquest into the dealership parking lot and immediately felt their eyes on me. As soon as I opened my car door a salesman was on me.

"Is that a Mitsubishi? Or a Dodge?" the salesman asked, seeking common ground, a way to relax me before getting down to business.

"It's a Mitsubishi imported by Dodge," I said, and quickly added, "Who do I see about applying for a job?"

His attitude changed in a heartbeat. Not only was I not going to buy a car, but I wanted to be his competition.

"See the receptionist," he muttered, and walked away.

Inside, the receptionist was fortified behind a semi-circular counter.

"I'd like to apply for a job," I told her.

"What department?" she asked, yawning.

"Sales."

"New or used?"

"New."

She whipped out an application form and slapped it on the desk. "Fill out both sides and complete this too." She slammed down another form. It looked like the SAT tests I took in high school.

I took a seat in a nearby sales cubicle. It was in a large room divided into glass-walled sales offices. In the corner was a large glassed-in office with a high counter in front of a raised platform. The salesmen in this room looked older, better dressed and had an air of power and authority. They sat behind computers and also seemed to be eyeing the salesmen out on the lot.

Looking down at the application, it blurred in front of my eyes. Could I really do this? Could I really become a — a car salesman? Me, a law abiding middle-aged American. A — gasp — college graduate (well, barely). A writer. A person sometimes described as soft spoken and reserved? Why was I applying for a job in one of the most loathed professions in our society?

Well, here's how a strange turn of events turned me into a car salesman.

About a month earlier I applied for a job at Edmunds.com, touting my experience as a How-To book writer. One book I ghost-wrote was about buying used cars, the other was about leasing cars. The books were published under the name of a guy who had once been a car salesman. I assumed the books qualified me to work for the fast-growing consumer-based Web site. As I saw it, I would sit in the comfort of an office and, from this lofty perch, dispense advice on how to buy and sell cars.

The Edmunds.com editors had other plans.

After we finished lunch one of the editors suddenly asked, "How would you feel about an undercover assignment?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, even though I suspected where this was going. His question had stirred something I had thought about for a long time.

"We would hire you here at Edmunds.com. Then you would go out and get a job as a car salesman and work for three months."

"Selling cars?" I asked unnecessarily.

"Right."

"Where would I work?"

"Wherever you can get hired. That would be up to you. We were thinking you should work at two dealerships. The first would be a high-volume, high-pressure store. Then you could quit and go to a no-haggle dealership. You could tell them you didn't like the pressure at the first place and you'd probably get a job on the spot."

The editor explained that they wanted me to write a series of articles describing the business from the inside. Of course I would learn the tricks of the trade, and that would better prepare me to write advice for Edmunds.com. But the benefits of the project would be greater than just information. I would live the life of a car salesman for three months. That would give me an insight and perspective that couldn't be gained by reading books or articles or interviewing former car salesmen.

"So what do you think?" the editor asked. "Interested?"

I have a history of acting before I think things through. I jump in with both feet and sometimes live to regret my decision. But here I was, in the middle of my life, long past the adventures of adolescence, past all the lousy summer jobs, past my early newspaper days on the police beat. It was a long time since I'd had a good adventure. But selling cars?

"Sure, I'll do it," I said. A week later, they offered me the job.

It was several weeks before I started at Edmunds.com, and then several more weeks before I was to begin the undercover project. Plenty of time to wonder what the hell I'd gotten myself into. I began clipping newspaper ads for car sales positions. Just the language in the ads made me nervous: "Aggressive sales professionals wanted!" or "Selling hot cars at MSRP. Join the #1 Team. Xlnt pay & benef. App in person." I could almost sense the pressure of the car business coming through the newspaper.

A friend of mine used to have an office surrounded by car lots. He would eat lunch with car salesmen and listen to them brag about the tricks they used to move cars. Occasionally, another man would join them, a guy they called "Speedometer Shorty." He would go from one car lot to another winding the odometers back to show fewer miles.

"What do you think they would do to me at the dealership if they found I worked for Edmunds?" I asked my friend.

"They'd kill you," he said without hesitation. Then he began laughing. "What they'd do is put your body in the trunk of a competitor's car."

He was yanking my chain, of course. But the fact that he answered so quickly gave me pause. Still, I told myself nothing like that would happen to me. I wasn't there to hurt the dealership. I wasn't there to steal anything or to hurt their business. We weren't going for dirt. But if dirt was there we would report it. Basically, we just wanted to see what was happening at ground zero in the auto business.

The date finally arrived for me to leave the Edmunds.com offices and begin looking for a job selling cars. As I prepared to leave, my editor offered me this advice: "When you're interviewing, don't tell them you know a lot about cars. They don't care. If they ask why you want to work there, just tell them you want to make a lot of money."

He then flipped open his calendar and counted off the weeks. "You're due back in the office in 10 weeks. We won't expect to see you until then. Let us hear from you every 48 hours or so with a phone call or e-mail. And good luck."

That weekend I went to the store and bought three new white shirts and a pair of black shoes with soft soles. I figured I'd be on my feet a lot. Monday morning I put together a resume. How should I present myself? Why would someone hire me to sell cars? I thought back to what my editor said, "Just tell them you want to make a lot of money." Good advice. But I needed more than that. There would be questions about who I was. Where I had worked. Requests for references maybe.

I decided that I would look over my recent past and select those things that could be viewed as being sales related. In other words, I wanted to avoid lying. For the previous three years I'd written video proposals for training films. A proposal is a form of selling — right? Maybe that would work. I called my friend and asked him to back me up in case the dealership called him. No problem, he said. I had also sold sporting goods at one time. And I had written proposals for grants for another company. I was beginning to see a biography that might work.

Monday morning rolled around and I realized that the time had arrived. It was time to get a job as a car salesman. I drove to an auto mall near my house. Acres of shining cars stretched out in front of me. One dealership had a large banner reading, "We're growing! Now hiring! Apply within."

That was when I pulled in and got the application.

"I understand you want to sell cars." The voice brought me back to the present. I looked up from the application. A man stood there smiling at me. He had carefully cut black hair. He wore a white shirt and a silk tie. As he extended his hand to shake, light flashed off a gold Rolex.

"I'm Dave. When you're done filling that out have me paged and we'll talk."

He smiled again, evaluating me. Then he disappeared.

Nice guy, I thought. Maybe this won't be so bad. I was about to begin work on the application when I looked around. I glanced toward the glassed-in office in the corner of the building. The one with the raised platform and the senior sales guys watching over the car lot. Dave was in there speaking to several of the older men in white shirts and ties. They all turned and looked at me.

It was too late to turn back now. I bent over the application and began writing.

next

Wow. I just spent half an hour reading the whole article. Reaffirms what I knew, use the internet. I used it for my last three cars, including the 914. It's a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

yeah, i just read the whole article as well, and the next car that i am buying will involve the internet.
car buying tips 101 - remove pants, grab ankles , and back up reaaaal slooooowly.

Doesn't it suck that something you enjoy so much as cars can be such a dirty business? Not every one is bad, but there is a bad omen out there about old school car dealers. I will never buy the conventional way again. My last 2 cars have been internet buys.

Good article....interesting reading.

I haven't read the article yet (no time today) but I will. I sold cars for about 4 months in 1986. It was interesting to live on that side of the fence for a while. I gained a lot of insight. I hated it. Afterwords I loved screwin around with dealers when buying cars 'cause I knew their tricks first hand.

I won't even buy a car from a dealer any more.

Read the whole article. Interesting reading.

Packed full of info.

All 9 pages (lol)

Andrew

Yay, something to do at work tomorrow.

I worked in marketing for several different dealers, and it's the most accurate account of the real life of a salesman that I've seen. It's like anything else, if someone doesn't take the time to do the research, they generally won't get the best deal out there. They also forget to mention that there are so many people with horrible credit, that shouldn't be allowed to buy a sandwich on credit much less a car. If it wasn't for the high profit potential, no one would take a chance lending them money. Very few people have perfect credit, and that's fine, but to have a 500 credit score and act like you own the place is pretty amusing.

One guy was acting like a big shot in front of his family, being pushy and rude, and rather than deal with him and his lousy credit, the salesman, who had been having a bad day said, "Excuse me sir, you'll have to leave, we don't have any banks that would consider a loan with credit as bad as yours." The salesman looked at the guy and shook his head in disgust, right in front of his kids. I'm not saying it was right, but at least be a little humble if you are a freaking credit criminal.

i thought this was a great article. i work for several years as one of the "porters" for the car dealership, simply because i wanted to learn how the industry worked. i always wanted to know because it is one of only two types of items that sell that way, the other being houses, but that is a very different kind of selling. most of what the guy said was right on...first thing i learned is that if you want to be angry at anyone at the dealership, its the sales managers, not the salesman, they are told non-stop to sell at a high price, and people think its them making the call, i learned that they would sell you the car for their $350 commision if they could, its the managers who make more money if it sell for more.

i loved being a porter at the dealerships, which being a minimum wage job would seem funny, but it was a great job, some of the salesmen are nice in real life, some not...but if you are a porter, you get to see how everything works and they hardly notice you are there. salesmen also never want to leave the lot and risk losing a sale, which means if i went to go get their dinner, they would pay for mine, "you fly, i'll buy" is what they called it... and what did i care, i was getting paid hourly and i got to go drive around for a while. i'll have to say, most of these guys did make pretty good money, and they were always dishing it off to me, to wash their cars, do errands, whatever. the funniest part about being a porter was how no one at the dealership ever knew if i was there or not, as long as someone was around when they needed one, and being that there was usually 2 or 3 around most of the time, that wasnt a problem. i'm not saying i would leave the dealership on the clock(although some did), but i didnt work wednesday's becasue i had a class, but had to one week, so i just left for 2 hours and went to class and came back, not one person even knew i was gone, which came across very fuuny to me.

so i got to learn the system from the inside without actually being on the inside, which is why i tohught it was such a great job, just dont expect to get rich dong it.

since some of you have read the whole thing by now did you all picture an area in your town as where this story took place? I drove through one of the "Auto Rows" today and realized it was where I pictured this action taking place. I believe the actual place, from the author's description, to be Ceritos in LA. Anyone else get that too?

Great story. Now, I have always done my homework researching what the actual costs and factors dealing any new car I bought so the article was no supprise to me.

Last year I worked with a conversion company that modified Ford Trucks and we sold juiced up vehicle packages for that added dealer mark up. The sales guys loved it as they could sell a vehicle at invoice and make their profit target on the conversion. It was interesting working with the dealers, the sales group always had high turnover with newer people who did not have a customer referral base. Once you had your deal with the sales group you got to visit with the finance manager who stroked you more add ons like alarm systems and extended warranty. I attended many of the Friday sales meetings and pitched that fact that they could make more money selling my conversions to customers who wanted the packages and add them to their monthly payment.

It's thue, the people who get stabbed on pricing are the ones with not perfect gredit and/ or wanting that magic monthly payment.

If you want to get a good deal, learn your facts about the car and stop by the fleet office at the dealer. Better yet, first call them on the phone explain what you are looking for and you are looking at an invoice price. The fleet sales people work off a different commission program and if you are qualified with cash or good credit, they will make your purchase a simple one. They don't want to mess with tire kickers.

These days with all of the info on the net and even purchase programs through your local AAA club your a fool not to get a good deal on a purchase.

DH

I can't believe the industry still operates this way and that people are still gullible enough to get ripped off. Last time I bought a new car I made a $200 minus invoice deal after the factory to dealer incentives were knocked off my side. With dealer kick backs I'm sure they still made $500 bucks on the deal and it only took 30 minutes of their time to sell me a car.

I worked at a Ford Dealership for 6 weeks after I was laid off last fall...this is almost identicial to my experience.

It was spookie to read some of this stuff, because some of the stuff was WORD for WORD...one word

SLEAZY

I could not do it any longer so i quit