Hudson's Blog

Dec 17, 2007 - My Car Sales Career

My car sales career was quite brief. In that 100 day period, I learned quite a bit; not the least of which was that I'm not cut out for car sales. I also learned that car sales people are a breed unto themselves. A breed which I both envy and hate.

Oh, I know car sales people. And they're personable enough to be friends with. That's hardly the problem. The problem lies with the fringe elements of this group. And, to be honest, they're among the BETTER people in their field. While that's how it works in most types of sales, car people are somehow different.

I worked with Dennis. He was probably twice my age (or so) and seemed to be waning in his car sales career. If you were to meet him, you'd notice that he seemed to be more of an old school used car sales guy than a modern new car guy. A little portly and walking with the slight limp that can come with older age, Dennis was a friendly guy who no longer had that drive needed to turn 10 sales a month. But he could still sell rings around me since I didn't have 10 sales in my career.

My first sale was to a friend. Jimmy walked onto the lot and, since we were friends, I was given the courtesy to sell him a car. He purchased the car I nicknamed the "Alabastard." It was a Mercury Cougar, Alabaster in color, that had been on the lot so long that it needed to be jumpstarted each time. Other than the battery problem, it was a great car and Jimmy gladly traded in his beat up (and I'm not exaggerating there) early Ford Escort wagon. Jimmy was glad to gain three speakers (only one of the Escort's four worked), power everything (versus power NOTHING), and air conditioning.

Late in my career, a woman drove onto the lot with an older Ford Festiva. This car had somewhere above 100,000 miles on it (the speedometer stopped working), no radio (the wires were dangling from the hole in the dashboard), no air conditioning, and a non-overdrive 4-speed manual transmission. She loved this car and drove it about 200 miles every day. But she saw newer versions on our lot and thought it was time to move up.

The newer cars were leftover rental units and we had about 10 of them. They had air, 3-speed automatic transmissions, and cassette stereos. Oh, and they had about 20,000 to 30,000 miles on them along with working speedometers. She was impressed with the little cars and seemed like she wanted to buy, but not that day. My boss informed me that she didn't buy because "her husband wasn't with her."

I was a novice at this and raised in an environment where women didn't buy cars without a man's (husband, boyfriend, father, brother, uncle, some man) approval. But I still didn't see the connection that THIS woman, who had purchased the old car by herself and had a job where she could afford the car by herself, couldn't and wouldn't buy a car on her own. A few days later, she returned to the dealership and purchased one of the former rental Festivas....by herself.

One day, a gentleman and his 30-something son came into the dealership. He was driving something sporty and I steered him to a supercharged Mercury Cougar XR7 that, I felt, was a great deal, This $23,023 car was blazing red with a black leather interior and came with a $5,000 discount! I couldn't understand why it hadn't sold but I found a man who was a perfect match for the car. And he agreed after the test drive.

We negotiated on price for quite some time, but came to an agreed sum. He was about to sign the papers when he asked that the rebate be taken off of the negotiated price. All along, our price discussions had included all rebates and that fact was not hidden, but he still wanted another $500 taken off of an already low price. Nothing would change his mind and this $500 difference broke the deal. I was later told that he had been in this dealership a number of times over the years and the reason why I couldn't sell him a car was that I was male. It seems that sex discrimination works both ways....and from both sides of the desk.

My best sale, however, came late in my career. One Saturday afternoon, an older couple drove onto the lot. They were very nice and I showed them exactly what they asked to see: a Mercury Grand Marquis that had been marked down dramatically. We drove it up and down the road and they liked it, but they also told me that they were retiring and moving to Florida. I told them that I thought everyone should have a really nice car once in their life and that the step up to the even more dramatically marked-down Lincoln Town Car would be a great choice for them.

We took four test drives that afternoon; one each in the Mercury and one each in the Lincoln. We got along famously and they both prefered the Lincoln. They left the lot without buying anything. My boss was steaming!

One of the reasons why I couldn't sell cars was that I'm not all that pushy. They were going to buy a car, but they weren't prepared that day. I knew this, but my boss was still mad that I let them walk. I told them that they'd be back but, with years of experience, he seemed to know better.

Monday the couple returned with TWO trades. They came to purchase the Lincoln and I sold it to them. They left as very happy customers with a brand new Town Car and I came away with the pride that I sold a car, even upgrading the sale, and didn't have to resort to the pushy salesman tactics for which I was being trained.

That little success wasn't enough to save my flagging career and so it ended late that fall. I sold a Mercury Cougar, a Lincoln Town Car, a Ford Econoline, a Ford Tempo, a used Mercury Topaz, and a handful of other cars and trucks before turning or, more to the point, being turned toward other pursuits. I learned quite a bit about sales, car sales, and the automotive business from that job. It didn't discourage me from working in the industry, but I did keep far away from selling cars and trucks.

I'm glad to have that short stint on my resume just for the experience it gave me. To this day, I still enjoy the car sales experience but from the buyer's side of the desk. To all of you salespeople out there, good luck to you! Those of us who couldn't hack the job tip our hats to you. Selling a car is still a face-to-face profession and I don't see the day coming where some personal interaction isn't necessary...atleast for most car buyers. It's a very tough job and one where you're automatically selected to be the "enemy" from your own customers. And yet you still earn a living doing it. Good luck to you!

6:03 am | Categories: car sales, ford, escort, mercury, cougar, xr7, festiva, grand marquis, lincoln, town car, econoline, tempo, topaz Permalink | Alert Administrator

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