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Confessions of a Car Salesman


polksalet
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Excellent Read, thanks..... For the reading impaired rent a Documentary called "Slasher". It's directed by John Landis. It follows a Specialist that gets paid to come into dealerships and unload high inventories

 

Very interesting stuff......

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Our little Ford Ranger died a horrible death at the end of August 2005.....RIP. Had it for 10 hard years and learned some great lessons on what we wanted from a truck next time. Only...."next time" came about a year too soon.

 

Anyway....we got out the Saturday car section over Labor Day weekend.....big sales. We sort of already knew we wanted a Ford F150 and focused on those ads. Two of the 6 Ford dealers had big ads including a free Home Depot package with the purchase of any truck. So I went on the Ford Website.....sure enough....they had collaborated with HD. There were 5 packages (tools, etc.) to choose from OR you could just get a $500 gift card.

 

So off we went to one dealer that had a nice price on the truck we wanted, but hadn't advertised the HD special in the paper. BUT....when we got to the dealership.....all the promotional materials were set up......HUGH display in the flatbed of the truck in the showroom.....posters on sales manager windows.

 

We found the truck we wanted....got a nice deal and a nice finance rate. Salesman was a decent guy...not pushy.....pretty nice. And we kept waiting for him to say something about the giftcard/promo. Nothing. :D We finalized the deal, but we were having the Rhino bed liner sprayed on......so we weren't taking delivery until Thursday.

 

Came back Thursday to pick up the truck......and asked about the HD promo. The salesman stared at me....like I was from Mars. Ran and got the finance guy.....who promptly told me that in order to get the "free $500 giftcard"...we'd have had to finance the truck for $500 more. WHAT?? Was I born yesterday? THEN....he tried to tell me the HUGH cardboard promos were NOT up on Saturday when we came in.....they weren't up until Monday, Labor Day. :D

 

Ummmm....the ONLY day we were here....was Saturday....and I wrote down all the packages to make price comparisons (which package was the best deal...etc.). So....if I wasn't here any other day than Saturday...how did I write down all this info.....while you all kept us waiting for 2 f'n hours? Hmmm???

 

You know....we did get a nice price for the truck.....so I wasn't going to make THAT big of a fuss. But I stewed about it for a couple days and got madder and madder. I know damn well Ford doesn't have to shell out $500 for those giftcards.....Ford and HD had an advertising agreement. So..I emailed Ford with my complaint. Even IF the promo wasn't supposed to start until Labor Day....why did other Ford dealers run the ads in the Saturday edition (not stating anything about 'not good until Monday') and WHY would the dealership we bought the truck from have their displays up 2 days early?

 

It would be ludicrous for a promo like that NOT to start on the Saturday of a 3-day weekend.....the promotion was going to be running for a month. :D

 

Ford's home office sent me a giftcard......LOL. :D

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Ford's home office sent me a giftcard......LOL. :D

 

 

good to see them finally come through for the customer. :D

 

i would not have left that day without mentioning the card and confirming that it was part of the deal. you can't assume anything ...

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good to see them finally come through for the customer. :D

 

i would not have left that day without mentioning the card and confirming that it was part of the deal. you can't assume anything ...

 

You know....I thought about that. But given the "explanation" I got from the finance guy.....I'm sort of glad I DIDN'T mention it. I have a feeling it would have somehow found it's way to being included in the truck price. :D

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Getting a good deal is all a state of mind. That goes with anything of course. SB--you are probably right, you knew what the program was and did the right thing. That particular dealer was probably trying to scoop the extra $500 bones. Not good.

 

On the flip side--I have a gazillion stories of Fokked up customers who could be called leeches and whores. Two sides to all negotiations. It is buyer beware but it is also seller beware. Salespeople learn real quick that "buyers are liars".

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You know....I thought about that. But given the "explanation" I got from the finance guy.....I'm sort of glad I DIDN'T mention it. I have a feeling it would have somehow found it's way to being included in the truck price. :D

 

 

good point. you made out better this way!

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Getting a good deal is all a state of mind. That goes with anything of course. SB--you are probably right, you knew what the program was and did the right thing. That particular dealer was probably trying to scoop the extra $500 bones. Not good.

 

On the flip side--I have a gazillion stories of Fokked up customers who could be called leeches and whores. Two sides to all negotiations. It is buyer beware but it is also seller beware. Salespeople learn real quick that "buyers are liars".

 

im sure all are not bad :D:D

 

how much money do they need to make on a car 300- 3000 what is the number??? thats the problem it changes form place ot place....

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im sure all are not bad :D:D

 

how much money do they need to make on a car 300- 3000 what is the number??? thats the problem it changes form place ot place....

 

 

 

Good question....if it's a higher demand vehicle, obviously it will demand more money. In our world, anything w/a Diesel engine, the new 07 GMC Yukons bring good money. If you want a Pontiac G6, we will go until we make a deal.

 

Used vehicles are different--the customer doesn't know what we purchased that for. It could be $1.00 or $10k for all they know.

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If you want a Pontiac G6, we will go until we make a deal.

 

Used vehicles are different--the customer doesn't know what we purchased that for. It could be $1.00 or $10k for all they know.

 

why not just say .. hay dude we need to make 300 bucks on this g6.....

 

i havnt had to haggle in years because i get x plans from ford but some salesmen would get so pissed when i would get up and walk out... man i dont have time to haggle for 3 hours...

Edited by Yukon Cornelius
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im sure all are not bad :D:D

 

how much money do they need to make on a car 300- 3000 what is the number??? thats the problem it changes form place ot place....

 

How much money does your place of business need to make on a daily business? As I said in a earlier post on this thread a total profit margin of two to five percent on a car deal is not robbery. Those deals of 16 percent are very rare to come across as in the Edmunds post. Another thing that as a car dealership runs across is when we sell a preowned car it is inspected and any items needing repaired are fixed. When we sell the vehicle we stand behind our vehicles so if anything arises we will take care of the customer. When a customer trades a vehicle in as salespeople we have take our customers word that everything in the vehicle works that the customer tells us(we are not mechanics and taking it to our mechanics in back would probably add an extra hour to two, customers are here long enough to afford to do that). I don't even want to count the number of times of AC not working(customers added freon so it would cold long enough for the appraisal) and other things that people will do. People are always after the car saleperson when customers can be even worse. Another little analogy I will use what about the farmers that grow our food and get paid peanuts for their crops, do you think grocery stores only have a 3 to 5 percent mark up on what they are selling? I'm done ranting. :D

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why not just say .. hay dude we need to make 300 bucks on this g6.....

 

i havnt had to haggle in years because i get x plans from ford but some salesmen would get so pissed when i would get up and walk out... man i dont have time to haggle for 3 hours...

 

Yeah right...even if you tell them that's all we want to make, they think they're getting ripped. Again, it's a state of mind. Some of the happiest customers I've sold to were the ones I've made the most $$ on and vice versa. Sell it to them under invoice and they still think they got robbed.

 

You are fortunate w/the X plan, we love those. Quick and easy---we just hope they send us a perfect survey after the delivery. Usually X, D, A plan employees slam us on the survey for some reason. It is our report card.

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Yeah right...even if you tell them that's all we want to make, they think they're getting ripped. Again, it's a state of mind. Some of the happiest customers I've sold to were the ones I've made the most $$ on and vice versa. Sell it to them under invoice and they still think they got robbed.

 

You are fortunate w/the X plan, we love those. Quick and easy---we just hope they send us a perfect survey after the delivery. Usually X, D, A plan employees slam us on the survey for some reason. It is our report card.

 

 

What do you guys get from the survey? Is it a job retention thing or something else? My last salesman was hyper-focused on that thing. He was an o.k. guy so got a 100%.

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You are fortunate w/the X plan, we love those. Quick and easy---we just hope they send us a perfect survey after the delivery. Usually X, D, A plan employees slam us on the survey for some reason. It is our report card.

ive done 3 and all from the same dude.... he has always gotten top marks

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The survey is the report card....helps the salesperson/dealership see where they are doing good and could do better to improve themselves so we can help everyday people just like yourselves, to do better.

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Great read. I hate the car buying experience and feel like I'm getting ripped off every time I buy a new car. Maybe it's me, but I just don't trust the numbers. The one time I leased, that multiplier confused the crap out of me. I still can't figure out where it comes from.

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The survey is the report card....helps the salesperson/dealership see where they are doing good and could do better to improve themselves so we can help everyday people just like yourselves, to do better.

 

 

 

Why have the salesmen I encountered focused so hard on their need for a good score? If it is just a report card, they should have remained silent and waited for an objective response. Me thinks they are incentivized by a good survey.

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Why have the salesmen I encountered focused so hard on their need for a good score? If it is just a report card, they should have remained silent and waited for an objective response. Me thinks they are incentivized by a good survey.

 

I agree, I get a note that they need an "outstanding" for their incentives, with the rest being failing grades. And one even told me to call him if I was to give another grade in what he needed to do to bump um his grade.

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Some manufacturers may have a bonus for them....but a lot of times it's bragging rights. For instance if a dealer wants to open a new franchise, the first thing they go to is past history in various categories. One of them being CSI--(Customer Satisfaction Index). But if the guy is doing a good job selling the vehicle, he should get a good survey..

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