Working At A Dealership as a Salesman??

[mike_papps]

Anyone have any opinions on this. In my city there are tons of these jobs available. The oil biz is kicking the crap out of everything. Unfortunatly i cant go out of town so oilfeild is out for me. I have a young daughter and a soon to be wife.. Dont wanna live that way.. But i've had offers from 2 local companies and more are looking.. VW was one of the jobs that inquired about me.. Just wondering if anyone has worked this and how hard it is to survive.. A couple places have offered $2500 to start plus littl ecommission then straight comission after 3 months but yeah?? VW is $450 per car plus bonuses.. But no salary.. anyone got advice.. ??? Im assiatant GM at a golf course right now but its not gonna be enough money for me.. $30k a year isnt enough... Anyone worked at a dealership selling cars or have an opinions about it?

[Ben]

welp, you better be a good sales person....


You can do extremely well, or fall flat on your face.

IMO, with a young child, and a soon to be wife, I might look at something with a stable income, as car sales has it's ups and downs. I know the industry inside and out, and it's all about motivation. Some guys only sell 2 cars a whole month, and the top few in the city pull down 20-30.

Usually commisions are based on the profit of the car, not a guaranteed amount, because whats the motivation to sell the high end if it's the same amount payout?

It's all on what you can make of it...your first 6 months will be rough, learning the product, the competition, the techniques, and the customer. It's EXTREMELY competitive, and some people cannot see the value for the vehicle, they just see a dollar amount.

Churn is quite high, it takes extreme patience, LONG hours and a real drive to succeed to become seasoned in the car sales business.

Generally you will work alternating hours, so IE, Monday 8-5, Tuesday 1-9, Wednesday 8-5 etc. And most often it's 6 days a week with a rotating day off every 2-3 weeks.

I could go on, but I hope this gives you an Idea of how the VW dealers operate in this city.

Regards.

[mike_papps]

hmmm.... thats kinda scary... haha.. i know one dealer was offering $2500 lus small comission to start and they also give you benifits and $300 towards the lease of a vehicle per month.. which is nice... but it expect to sell 8-10 vehicles a month... i mean i know its gonna take work and not everyone succeeds... its kinda scary actually. i have bills.. and unless i made a certain amount of money i'd have to quit... or claim bankrupcy and we all know how stupid that is.... hmmm any more opinions?

[RUQUIKR]

It is a excellent job if you have sales ability. Depending on who you work for there is alot of money up for grabs. Very slack enviorment good hours but if your not used to commision it can be very stressfull. Then again where else can you make a average persons yearly income in 2 months.

[QuasarCav]

Check ch 26 right now.

[legendboy]

it can be an unstable source of income. i have had 4 car months and 20+ car months (i sold for 3 years, years ago)

if you don't sell much the dealer still has to pay you minimum wage, but if you draw on that don't expect to be there much longer! ha

15-20+ cars can mean 6-8k+ depending on what your selling, like ben said, commisions purely based on gross profit. or at least what they tell you the gross profit is lol

if you want to make decient money go sell domestic trucks or something, stay away from import dealers. but good spots can be hard to get in....

[frozenrice]

I'm not sure if things have changed in the Hat over the years, but it is a small market compared to the big city. If I remember correctly too, it's full of retired farmers so the market share is even smaller since money is tight for the pensioners. Not only that, you'd be hard pressed to sell many imports to them. When I was a kid living there, it was almost impossible to find any kind of used import. I know it's not much help, but it's my 2cents worth.

[mike_papps]

thats true... we do have a lot of old people.. not nearly the amount of people that calgary has... VW like i said is offering $450 a vehicle sold.. doesnt matter what it is... plus anything over 10 vehicles a month the bonuses start... there are only about 10 dealerships here but only 60,000 people... i dont knwo what the other dealers have to offer and ill be checking that out.. they sell alot of trucks and all.. it might be easier to sell at those companies instead of import dealers.. its a hard choice.. and whatever i do i have to suceed.. if its 450 a car i need to sell 5 a month to survive... anything over that is extra money..

[mike_papps]

I heard that murray's here in mediicine hat is supposed to be within the Top 50 buisnesses to work for in canada.. they are one of the companies that i could go to... maybe i should look for that article on why they would rank so high!

[mike_papps]

http://www.brandonsun.com/pfstory.php?story_id=23313

doesnt say much about why though!!

[HRD2PLZ]

I think the VW dealership in Medicine Hat is in the process of changing hands. One of the girls who works for my dad's Edmonton branch is the family that currently owns the dealership. And I know her parents have been looking at selling out their half to the other partner and buying something in Lethbridge.

Anything on commission sales can be tough... takes a lot of hard work, perseverence and patience. If you put in good, hard, consistent effort, you should see good rewards.

[mike_papps]

Thats what i thought.. unfortunatly i dont know how consistent there customer base is.. In calgary it would be great at a VW dealer... But in medicine hat i dont know.. everyone is stuck on the ford or chevy/gm trucks... old asses...

[mike_papps]

had an interview with a local gm dealer here in town and doesnt look too bad.. Saleman last month made $15k almost sold 30 vehicles himself.. thats crazy... i dont expect those numbers but its nice to see it can be done.. there offering a gaurentee so maybe ill try it for 3 months and see.. if it doesnt work out then i knwo i wasnt meant for it... hopefully the pay turns out to be good...

[Pacman]

Originally posted by mike_papps
Saleman last month made $15k almost sold 30 vehicles himself.. thats crazy... i dont expect those numbers but its nice to see it can be done.. ..

I've been in sales for a very long time have heard all the "glory stories" from managers during interviews. Whenever they tell me "You shouldn't make less than 300k/year here" I ask them to show me the T4 slips of all the sales people and have them blank out the names. I've only ever had one manager actually offer to show T4's of employees to proove the earning potential was there.

[mike_papps]

i hear you.. im not looking to make that much.. just wanna make over my $30k amount.... its either this or delivery driver for purolator...

[frozenrice]

What about Goodyear, IXL, gas plants, fertilizer plants? There's got to be something where you can make more than 30k down there.

[whitevx]

READ ALL THE BOOKS FROM TOM HOPKINGS IF YOU ARE PLANING ON GOING INTO SALES

[mike_papps]

will they help??? and yeah there might be other jobs but i love cars... and not to mention i have a little girl so long night shofts arent good... i need something not oilfeild cuz out of towns arent good...

[RUQUIKR]

Originally posted by Pacman


I've been in sales for a very long time have heard all the "glory stories" from managers during interviews. Whenever they tell me "You shouldn't make less than 300k/year here" I ask them to show me the T4 slips of all the sales people and have them blank out the names. I've only ever had one manager actually offer to show T4's of employees to proove the earning potential was there.

There are 4 guys at my dealer that took home between 150-185K last year so It does happen. I see atleast 3-4 guys making 15k mthly before taxes. Just depends on who you work for.

[mike_papps]

what dealer do you work for.. turns out a local dealer here in town offered me a job and i go in tomorrow to discuss pay and such... its a large dealer with a good reputation... hopefully will work for the market im in.

[Rollin']

hey mike, keep us posted