So I started training for a new job as a car slaesman here in Memphis. Cool part is that it is for the group that owns the local Porsche dealership so I could wind up woking there .

My question is this, are there any other sales guys here? Are you making good money? I am not worried about being able to sell but, with all the rebates and other stuff it doesn't seem there is much profit in new cars.

I am looking for real answers since the coolness of working for a Porsche dealer won't put food on the table.

Or course if they had a demo program......

I work at the local Porsche/Audi dealership and for the most part love my job. I have worked there for 9 years in various departments, with my last year and a half in sales. It takes awhile to build up a client base, but if you stick with it and are ambitious you can do quite well. What will you be selling?

One of the most important things in my eyes is not acting like a typical car salesman. The stereotypes are bad enough as it is. Catering to a high line customer is different than others.

Let me know what specific questions you have and I will answer them the best I can.

I dunno. I always thought it would be interesting to sell cars since I am so obsessive about 'em. All my magazines and forums and speed tv and races and concours and always working on my own cars and other evidence of a compulsive personality disorder....
And even saturns have some pretty clever engineering hidden in there, so it would be refreshing to have a car salesmen with some legitimate understanding of their product.
BUT

I dunno if that matters.

I'll bet selling cars is about playing personalities. Stroking.

Hey maybe you can do both!

I will say that I have rejected whole dealers as potential sources when a single salesperson said something showing significant lack of knowledge.... or maybe that honda had some kinda "rear-wheel drive, yeah, its got that!" option.

A really good friend of the family was the Porsche leasing manager at our local dealership.

I always thought he was making a very minimum living.

He got arrested and deported back in '02 and asked us to handle his affairs here in the states.

Jeez, the dude was making 80k a year...

THe main theme of the training we have gotten so far has been to treat people well and build up good relationships with them. If you do that, even if they don't buy a car, they might just tell someone how they were treated and send them your way. They really are fighting the traditional slimy car salesman image.

I am hopeing that I will eventually end up at the Porsche dealer. From what I have been told all the Porsche salesmen have to be certified by Porsche so I will have to wok awhile before they will allow me to begin that process.

What ever you do, "DO NOT" take "Georges how to sell things and drive your customers away course".....

i sold cars whilei was in law school. what a blast. of course, i didn't have to worry about feeding a family at the time, so i think the relaxed approach i took to the career really helped. plus, i was selling VW's and Audi's, which i was passionate about at the time. Test Driving Corrado's and Quattro's all day was tough .

How much you earn will all depend on what kind of dealership you work at. Most volume dealerships pay less per vehicle because most of their revenue is all back loaded from the manufacturers (or at least that's how it was when i was working) all of the money to be made was on the used car lot.

advice: go into a few of the higher end shops and take some test drives in jags, mb's, etc. to get a feel for how to treat your client's (i know, an expensive car does not a good salesman make) find out who the top producing salesmen are, and try and get a test drive with them. we bought two new cars last year, and the experiences were drastically different between Freeway Ford and Murray Imports.
just my .02

national stats:
average 8.5 cars a month
average $300 commision per new car
high end cars have more gross proffit built in
you get paid based on gross profit per unit
usual commision is 20-30% of gross profit
the hours suck
average deal takes 3 hours
1 in 10 contacts will buy
70% divorse rate
above average guy will make 50K
top performers push over 20 units a month to make about 70k
superstars can go into 6 figures

I recomend joe Verde's books

70 % Divorce rate ??? Daaaammmmnnnn , that's as bad as being in an aviation related job .

At least you'll be able to say that you felt like giving up everything you own and just live a simple life , free of all material possesions .

Joe Verde sucks ass, but he is the ultimate salesman, he talks car dealers into buying his stuff. In every dealership you have a hierarchy of ability. You have the guys who struggle and can't make a living, they hang around for a while and get fired or leave before too long. You have the career guys that make a living year in and year out, but little more. Then you have the professional. The professional knows why they are at work, they use their time well, and regardless of the brand, can make well over 100k in any given year.

You won't really know if you are a struggler, a career, or a pro until you try it. Having a good manager is the key to success, and they aren't easy to find. Most salespeople get smart pretty fast and start desking their own deals out on the lot, prequalifying customers, and cherry picking their ups. They make a living if they are lucky. To be truly great, you work every deal the same way, work every deal for all it is worth, and move on the the next one. Most salesmen spend more time trying to work over the manager than the customer, it's easier. Get a good manager, trust each other, and you will make a lot of money and have very happy customers. The happiest customers pay the most, and the one's who steal the car from you are miserable human beings.

My buddy went through the car sales thing. He loves cars. He thought he could sell cars. He did ok, but it was too man hours for not enough pay.

To be the $100K "pro" you will have to land in the right dealership and it could take many years to get to that level. You'll also work 60 hours a week to get there. If you are a sales pro go into any kind of corporate sales (furniture, pharmaceuticals, whatever). You'll make a lot more and work less.

QUOTE (anthony @ Feb 8 2006, 10:13 PM)

If you are a sales pro go into any kind of corporate sales (furniture, pharmaceuticals, whatever). You'll make a lot more and work less.

I agree that it doesn't really matter what you are selling, but in defense of auto sales, the hours don't have to be bad, there doesn't have to be a lot of BS, and you don't even have to rip people off to do well. Give people what they want, and it's surprisingly easy. I liked being in sales, but as I got into management I didn't get to work with the cars or customers anymore. Eventually I got burnt out and left. If you don't enjoy something, it makes it hard to justify the time you spend doing it. I can't see doing anything just for the money, that road doesn't lead anywhere I want to go.

I sold oldsmobiles and used cars in 83-84.

Yes you can make a good living, but like someone else said, work every deal fro all it's worth.

True story...one hot humid New Orleans afternoon, 3 youg vietnamese guys came walking into the store. All of us "pro's" ran and hid. Jeff, who worked every deal like his life depended on it, went out and grabbed them. He demo'd them. They liked the Cutlass, but did not speak enough English to close the deal. Soooooo, Jeff went wit them to fetch their uncle the butcher off his lunch break, and came back to the store to close the deal. Sold the car, these young shrimp fishermen paid CASH (greenbacks out of their jeans pockets) and drove away. Elapsed time..3 hours.

My best story....air force major, wife and 2 sons come in and want to buy one the last of the big, rear wheel drive 98's. Carreer military fols typicaly get every mile out of ther cars before they trade, and their Cutlass, while clean and amintained was used up. We did not discount these big 98's much because we didn't have to.

Anyway, after working with them for EIGHT hours (both sides sincerely trying to make a deal happen, I sent the wife and kids to the movies in the middle of it), an old Italian wholesaler stepped up to their trade, and made the deal. It was a wonderful experience for all of us beacuse of the sincere effort on both sides.

People asked me, wasn't that awful? Hell no. If I could have worked with one customer, all day, every day and sell them, I would have been a rock star and made a real good living. (and enjoyed the work)

That being said, there are a lot of crazy MF's that show up at dealerships. Be careful.

QUOTE (GTPatrick @ Feb 8 2006, 11:34 PM)

70 % Divorce rate ??? Daaaammmmnnnn , that's as bad as being in an aviation related job . At least you'll be able to say that you felt like giving up everything you own and just live a simple life , free of all material possesions .

I aint so sure about that. Thinking of all the guys here in the hanger I think our rate of A.I.D.S. (Avaition Induced Divorce Syndrome) is higher than that.

and from my experience you can forget about having weekends off. not many folks are tire kicking at 9:30 am on a tuesday, but someone has to man the guns. so, as the "new guy" you might get the "no sales shift".

k

Looks like the car job isn't working out, they came in this morning and asked if we thought the training we were getting was worth anything. We all said, yea, and then they told us that they want us to pay them for the 2 1/2 days of training. Money I just don't have so I had to drop out of the training.

Thanks for all the responces, kind of told me what I already knew.

Needless to say I have had to put my 914 build on hold but once I do get settled in a new job and it warms up a bit I am going to finish up the cosmetic work and have a fun little car. But until then ......

what a scam.

"hey guys come over here and pay to work for us!"

sorry that didn't work out.

QUOTE (johnmhudson111 @ Feb 9 2006, 10:40 AM)

they told us that they want us to pay them for the 2 1/2 days of training. Money I just don't have so I had to drop out of the training.

Wow that sucks, that's a new one to me. He's right, total scam, and someplace you do not want to work! Do your homework, if it seems like something you want to get into, it's not hard to find a place to start off in. Just be sure to do a lot of checking with your local chamber of commerce, Better Business Bureau, state licensing board, etc.

It kills me to say it, but Carmax was rated one of the top US business to work for again. Not a bad way to learn the ropes, but in truth it's not the "real" car business. Some dealerships are down right scary, and others are very low key and soft sell. You'll have to work harder for your money in a soft sell place, but you can sleep much better at night, and they have a much lower turnover rate.

Just remember:

"I'm not here to sell cars, I'm here to make FRIENDS!"

QUOTE (914-8 @ Feb 9 2006, 11:57 AM)

Just remember: "I'm not here to sell cars, I'm here to make FRIENDS!"