It was approximately 6:00PM on a Saturday evening in October. The car lot was overrun with customers. It was so busy there were not enough salespeople for customers. All of my colleagues were in the office making sales. Most of them were on their second sale of the day.
It was a sales person’s dream, every sales person on the lot was inside working deals and making sales. I was the only one who was not.
In fact, it was so bad that I was the only one for the rest of that evening on the lot with a sea of customers to choose from, toggling from one customer to the next, yet I still wasn’t selling anything. Every other sales person sold 1 or more cards that day. During my 3 hours of hell, everyone told me they were just looking, or asked me for my business card. They all promised me that they would get back with me on another day. Or stated that they would call me on Monday when it was not as busy. They told me that they had shopped here before and that they always bought from our dealer and that they would most definitely get back with me. “Golden” yeah that is an easy name to remember we will be back in touch with you for sure! All manner of things were told to me that day including the classic “we are just looking” I tried to be enthusiastic. However these were all things that I heard before- yet didn’t make any sales. It got even worse….
My manager waved me to the office from the window that overlooked the lot. I walked up to the office. Instead of encouraging me, he asked me why I hadn’t made any godamn sales. He insisted that I was running all of his customers off as he proceeded to curse me out. I was devastated. Not only was I there working all day and doing my best, I was working on full commission—so essentially working for free. If I didn’t sell anything then I didn’t get paid. Disheartened and full of internal rage I advised that I was doing my best and had a ton of prospects that would result in future sales. He told me to get my ass back out there and that I didn’t have a hair on my ass if I couldn’t make a sale on such a busy day full of opportunities.
Not only did I fail to sell anything for that day– I didn’t sell anything for approximately two and a half weeks. Every single day I got up and drove 15 miles to work from 8:45AM until 9PM at night or later and didn’t sell a damn thing and was verbally abused for not having done so. Downtrodden, I continued to try my best for the next several months, repeating this vicious cycle of punishment.
Fast-forward to February of the next year. It was now my 7th month of not meeting quota at the dealership. During that time period I went for large periods of time without making sales and was barely getting by each month going further and further into debt. One night while closing (which consisted of making sure all 100 or so vehicles were locked and parked correctly I walked around the corner after working about 13 hours with no pay and overheard two of my sales managers talking about my performance and how they were going to go ahead and fire me. I was enraged! I couldn’t believe it. I had worked there for about 7 months and worked a minimum 12 hours per day 6 days per week with no guaranteed pay other than getting paid commission when I sold something and they had the gall to speak about firing me!
All that work and all they had to say was I was “burning ups” which meant I was going out to consult with customers and these encounters were not turning into sales. I couldn’t believe it. I was so angry that I didn’t care anymore. I knew that I was going to get fired and there was nothing I could do about it save become a better salesman. Everything I tried did not work. So- from that point on, I stopped caring and resolved myself to be prepared for the inevitable. I went out and spoke to customers and talked about anything they wanted to talk about or anything I wanted to talk about without speaking about cars. I didn’t care if they bought anything or not. In fact I was just waiting to be fired. At one point I became so brazen that I began asking people a simple question. “Do you wanna go ahead and get it?” Sometimes I would ask this question at the beginning of their arrival on the lot. Sometimes in the middle of our conversations and sometimes I would wait until the end.
In fact I just kept asking if they wanted to go ahead and get it (the vehicle) anytime I wanted. I simply did not care what they said. Strange things began happening and people were actually saying yes! I still didn’t care – I just knew I was going to be fired. There were many times when I did not ask for the sale and just went out and talked to people about anything. To my bewilderment we somehow would wind up in the office to work a deal. Still didn’t care, I simply advised them I was going to give them my best deal up front; no shenanigans as no one had time for that. I said all these things with confidence since I didn’t care anymore and I assumed I was going to be fired. People started buying from me. One time during this period I walked up to a customer that no other salespeople wanted to talk to while he was looking at a car and said Hi do you want to go ahead and get it? Much to my surprise and shock he said yes and I made the sale in approximately 1 hour total.
At the end of the month I had sold 23 cars and made about $7500 dollars. I couldn’t believe it. My bosses never fired me and I ended up working there for a few more years. I learned the importance of building rapport and having confidence from this experience. I also learned that fortune favors the bold.
In answer to your question: Why are car salesmen so pushy?
Many of them are working under full commission meaning they don’t get paid unless they sell something. This is a very stressful and competitive environment and only the best survive.
They know that if someone is looking for a car and has taken the time to drive to a dealership and look at vehicles that the stats say they will purchase a unit within 3 days. Essentially if your car salesman does not make the sale the same day then they probably won’t make it. Chances greatly diminish when you (their customer) leave the dealership. Your salesman talks to dozens of customers a day and needs to make sales to survive and pay the rent. They realize that if they are not assertive to some degree then they likely will not make any money.
I googled this question specifically because I’ve been talking to salesman for the last couple days about a big car purchase I’m going to be making and I absolutely love the brand of car and am super-excited about it, but I literally talked to a salesman who made me not want to buy. I know exactly what did it too. I was telling him all the things I had in mind that I wanted and what I was planning to do with it, and that I had to wait a month or two for the weather to warm up since our state is snowed out. And he zeroed in on that and said, “the prices are always going up, everybody wants these. If you wait a couple months it’s gonna cost you.” It sounded pushy, desperate, and insulting all at the same time. I don’t really know how to tell him to calm down a bit and back off so I guess I should just keep looking for private sellers or other dealers.
It’s too bad you had an uncomfortable experience. Private sellers may be the way to go. I’ve found in my experience that private sellers are usually very honest and answer any questions you have to the best of their ability. They usually take good care of their vehicles as well. Be prepared to have your own financing in advance and make sure you get a clean title. Last thing you want to do is fork over your hard earned funds just to find there is an outstanding lien against the vehicle. What kind of vehicle are you looking at? If you have any questions I can answer please let me know. Also I DO NOT sell cars lol! Just trying to help!!
@admin – Yes I’m buying an RV. I have the cash to get whatever I want (some good investments over the last couple years), but apparently dealers want you to finance everything and will give lower prices for it. Private owners I’m sure just want a check (the last time I bought an RV that was definitely the case).
I’d definitely prefer to work with a dealer who is similar to how you described in the post, friendly and accessible and not giving me the sense that they’re trying to trick me, and DEFINITELY not trying to make veiled threats towards me that seem to assume I’m scared of how much the car will cost.
I see, thanks for the insight. Dealers make money on the back end of the deal. This is why they want you to finance. When I worked in the industry we made a percentage on finance deals with our preferred lenders. Over time this percentage adds profit into “deal” there is profit made beyond the sale of the vehicle with finance and warranties. The dealer and your salesperson want you to finance simply because they make more money. The salesperson will get a higher commission if you finance. Have you considered a “one price” dealer? Also if you wait until the last day of the month right before the dealership closes the chances you can get a better deal are higher. Chances increase exponentially if you can wait for the last day of the last month of the last year. Make sense?
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